The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck
by Scyphi
Summary: After being missing for seven years, Darkwing Duck is back! The adventures continue as our hero meets both old and new friends and enemies. A series of one-shots taking place after "Darkwing Duck Returns". Please R&R!
1. Helping Hand

Due to the success of my fanfic "Darkwing Duck Returns", I promised I would write a sequel as soon as I finish a fanfic for another fandom. Well, I did, and here's that sequel. In a sense. During that time, that "sequel" got a huge overhaul. See, I had so many idea, and naturally wanted to use them all, so I decided, why not? So I'm starting a little series of episodic one-shots. Every chapter is a new adventure. Length will vary for each one (although this starting chpt is as probably as short it'll get) Dunno how well it'll work, but I'm confident. Overall rating is teen (cause that's as high as it will ever go), but the rating will vary per chapter. I will state what it is at the start of every chapter, as well as a quick summary. This takes place right from where "Darkwing Duck Returns" left off. It will summarize "Darkwing Duck Returns" breifly wherever necessary, but feel free to refer to it whenever necessary. There will be both old and new characters in this. Don't know how long this will go, and how often i will update, but with summer coming up, things look hopeful. :)

Now, without further ado, I proudly present...

The New Adventures of

Darkwing Duck

1.

Helping Hand

Summary: Drake has begun training Gosalyn for hero work, and get right to it. Meanwhile, a new situation unfolds nearby.

Rating for this adventure: K

* * *

As would usually happen whenever the St. Canard High School ended the school day, students poured out of the school to head to their various locations, most of them the mall, others to some other place to hang out with friends, and it was common practice for sixteen-year-old Gosalyn Mallard to do one of these things.

However, despite receiving several offers from friends, she turned them all down, and pressed onward for St. Canard's suburban outskirts. She was heading home, and once she was there, then the real fun would begin...

Honker Muddlefoot, Gosalyn's closest friend and neighbor, caught sight of her, and struggled to match Gosalyn's quick pace.

"You're certainly in a hurry today." Honker noted, panting as he hurried to keep up. "Today's the day then?"

"Today's the day." Gosalyn confirmed, grinning proudly. "And hopefully Dad won't disappoint me."

"He won't." Honker said confidently. "It's only because of you that he's even around and he knows it. There is no way he can deny that."

"But it's been a very hectic past couple of weeks since Dad got back." Gosalyn pointed out. "You never know. Something might have come up."

"Only one way to find out." Honker stated.

They walked onward in silence until they reached their respective houses and went their separate ways. Gosalyn rushed to the door of her home and flung open the door.

"I'm home!" she called, slamming the door behind her and chucking her backpack aside dismissively.

Drake Mallard, Gosalyn's adopted father, stood waiting for her in the living room, his arms folded and wearing a confident grin.

"You ready then?" he asked.

"Is that a trick question?" Gosalyn asked, and looked around. "Where's Launchpad?"

"Already at the tower, setting up." Drake replied. "All we have to do is join him." he turned and motioned to the seemingly insignificant two recliners placed against the far wall of the room. "Care to have a seat?"

Gosalyn, almost entirely unable to control her excitement, sat down in one of the two chairs while Drake sat in the other.

"Care to do the honors?" Drake asked, motioning to the little figurine sitting on a little table in-between the two chairs.

"Would I ever!" Gosalyn exclaimed, and slapped her fist down on the head of the figurine.

A secret switch was thrown, and suddenly the two chairs started to spin rapidly. Once they had stopped, it was clear to the outside observer that the two occupants of the chairs had vanished. Where did they go? About a half mile away to one of the support towers on the Audubon Bay Bridge. There, another set of chairs spun rapidly, and once they stopped, Drake and Gosalyn both sat in them calmly.

Gosalyn looked around at Darkwing Duck's hideout. Several varying versions of obstacle courses had been laid out by Launchpad, who stood to one side waiting for them.

Gosalyn stood up and stared at it in awe. "Oh, yes!" she said with much excitement.

Drake threw Gosalyn her new superhero costume while picking up his own. "Get ready for your training Gosalyn." he commanded with a sly voice, "Or should I say, Crimson Avenger?"

* * *

A surprisingly short distance away in Audubon bay itself, some action was going on. Deep in the water, Neptunia watched the bottom half of the support tower grow larger as she swam closer to it. She paused before it, looking it up and down, before seeing what she wanted to see. A hairline crack, not very big, but a potentially serious thing for the bridge if left unattended.

She turned to the group of sea creatures who had followed her. "Alright, listen up!" she said. "Here's what we're here for." she pointed at the crack. "We need to patch this up before it gets much worse."

"What?" a bewildered voice rang out from within the group. "We came all this way for _that _little thing?"

Neptunia sighed, knowing exactly who was talking. "Rowe!" she exclaimed, "I am _not _in the mood for this!"

A sea otter broke from the rest of the group of water creatures and swam up to confront Neptunia. "Tough!" he exclaimed. "Because I fail to see how this little crack has anything to do with us!"

"If this crack worsens, the bridge could collapse! Several could die because of it!" Neptunia argued, although she knew there was more to this tower than that. But that little secret was to be kept between her and Darkwing Duck.

"Who cares?" Rowe asked. "The land dwellers cause nothing but trouble for us in the sea! A little disaster like that would serve them right!"

"Need I remind you yourself could be considered a land dweller?" Neptunia pointed out, annoyed.

"I am not!" Rowe objected.

"You are too, because you need to breathe _air _like the land dwellers." Neptunia stated.

"I do n..." Rowe began to object again, but trailed off, motioned for Neptunia to wait for a moment, and swam up to the surface to get a fresh breath of air before returning. "That's beside the point!" he pressed. "The point is that _both _of our kinds are in danger from the stupid things the land dwellers do, so why don't we try and _stop _them rather than _support _them?"

"If you want to do that, then go join the bad guys!" Neptunia said. "Because I will not tolerate that in _my _waters!"

Rowe opened and closed his mouth several times as if to say something in that regard. "Well, one thing is clear." he finally announced. "I'm not welcome here. I'm leaving."

And with that, he swam off.

"Good riddance!" Neptunia called after him, but was shaking her head. She was probably going to live to regret this.

* * *

"Now, the first thing we're going to cover is how to change into costume." Drake began, leading Gosalyn over to one of those collapsible walls people change clothes behind. "When the aide is require of a superhero, speed is of the essence. Now, I'm going to demonstrate. Launchpad will time me, and that'll give you an idea of how quick you need to be."

Gosalyn nodded, and understood. Drake took a few steps back, then, waving to Launchpad to start timing, raced behind the wall. Some rustling sounds were heard, then Drake leapt out from the other side of the wall entirely dressed as Darkwing Duck.

Launchpad stopped the stopwatch in his hand. "Five point seven seconds, DW." he announced.

"A good one!" Darkwing remarked, pleased with himself. "Now you try, Gos. Don't worry if you don't get it first try."

Gosalyn gave her father a sly look, then zipped behind the wall herself. Darkwing then blinked, and Gosalyn zipped out the other side dressed fully in her new black and red costume, designed similarly to Darkwing's.

"Two point two seconds!" Launchpad announced as she stopped his watch, awestruck.

Darkwing's jaw hung loosely in shock.

The Crimson Avenger simply shrugged. "Beginner's luck, I guess." she said.

* * *

Further up the shore of the bay, Quackerjack was dipping something into the water. Megavolt, who stood nearby, eyed the water leerily.

"Hurry up, Quackerjack." he complained. "I don't like water, and you know it."

"Not my fault the substance shorts circuits you every time you touch it." Quackerjack mumbled, withdrawing the little vile from the bay and peering into it. "There, that should be sample enough." he said, corking the vile and pocketing it.

"Remind why we're here again?" Megavolt asked.

"Boss wants a sample, to see if the bay's water has the right chemical structure for his next evil plan." Quackerjack answered.

"Which means...?" Megavolt prompted.

"I have no idea." Quackerjack said. "I'm just the demented toymaker-gone-supervillain, not the ex-scientist mutant-plant-duck."

"Well, I guess that's that then." Megavolt said, and turned to leave.

But he was stopped when a head suddenly poked out of water in the bay.

"Hello mates!" the sea otter announced brightly.

Megavolt and Quackerjack both jumped back in surprise.

"Who are you?" Megavolt asked, nervous. "You aren't with the police are you?"

"Do I _look _like a police officer?" the otter asked, wriggling a claw in his ear to get some water out. "Name's Rowe P. W. Lutra. Lookin' for some bad guys. Know any?"

"You're in luck!" Quackerjack said. "_We're _bad guys, me and Megs here. In fact, we're supervillains!"

"Why do you ask?" Megavolt asked, still suspicious about Rowe.

"I want to join some." Rowe explained. "Can I join you guys?"

"Well..." Quackerjack said thoughtfully. "That's not really our call. See, we're part of a supervillain group called the Fearsome Five."

"We just made a comeback, by the way." Megavolt added, proudly.

"Our boss is Negaduck, and you need to talk with him." Quackerjack continued. "Ever heard of Negs?"

"No." Rowe admitted, "But nobody tells me anything down there." he pointed down at the depths of the bay. "So how do I contact this Negaduck guy?"

"Well, here's our business card." Quackerjack said, pulling out a small, white, card. "Just call the number."

Rowe looked at the card for a moment. "Okay then." he said, pocketing the card. "Thanks!"

He did a back flip, and then dove deep down into the bay.

Megavolt turned to Quackerjack. "You sure it was a good idea to give him that card?" he asked.

"No." Quackerjack admitted. "But that phone number goes straight to Negaduck himself. And you know the boss. If he doesn't like the guy..."

"...he'll deal with it." Megavolt concluded, as they turned and walked off. "Usually quite messily, too."

* * *

"Okay, now before we do anything else, we need a catch phrase for you." Darkwing said, leading Crimson aside. "Something dark, something scarey, something that will drive fear into the very souls of every supervillain in town!" he flapped his cape, getting into the spirit of things. "An example. I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the lightbulb that burns out in your basement! I am Darkwing Duck!" he wrapped his cape around him for added effect.

"I know your catch phrases, Darkwing." Crimson stated, sounding bored.

"Well, then, let's see you top that, then!" Darkwing remarked, annoyed.

"Fine." Crimson said, and fluttered her red and black cape like Darkwing had. "I am the heir to the cape! I am the "no signal" on your cell phone! I am the Crimson Avenger!" she ended it by wrapping her cape around her, again like Darkwing had.

Darkwing rubbed the end of his beak. "Good, but I worry if it'll be too much like my own catchphrase." Darkwing mumbled. "I was actually think of something like 'I am the Crimson Avenger.'"

"And?" Crimson prompted.

"And that's it." Darkwing replied. "You're going to _help_ me fight crime, not go out on your own, remember?"

"Well, in that case, I'll just say this." Crimson remarked defiantly and cleared her throat. "I am the girl that kills everything everything ruthlessly! I am the girl who drinks blood! I am the girl who wears a bikini to the store! I am the girl who hates Darkwing's..."

"Alright, alright, I get the idea!" Darkwing said, frustrated. "We'll stick with your version. Your _first _version."

Crimson grinned triumphantly.

* * *

The first thing Rowe did after talking with Megavolt and Quackerjack was track down a payphone. Inserting a few coins into the slot, he dialed the number on the card and waited for an answer.

"Yes?" a voice asked darkly, sounding annoyed.

"Hi." Rowe said, feeling slightly nervous. "Um, who is this?"

"Who do you think?" the voice asked, and hung up.

Rowe tried again, using a different approach.

"Hey, is this Negaduck?" Rowe said once someone answered.

"Who wants to know?"

"Rowe P. W. Lutra at your service."

"P. W. huh? And pray tell me, what does P. W. stand for?"

"Padra Weylan."

"Ha! What a stupid name." and then the voice hung up again.

Rowe tried once more.

"Now what?"

"Rowe again, sir. I wanted to ask..."

"Sir? _Sir? _SIR?" the voice repeated, and then hung up one more.

Rowe persisted though.

"Would you stop?"

"Sorry, but I know you're Negaduck, and you know who I am, so let's cut to the chase. I want to join the group."

"What do you mean, 'join'?"

"Join the Fearsome Five, of course."

"Are kidding me? If I let _anybody _join, we'd have six members, and that would totally ruin our perfectly evil name!"

"Well, maybe you could change it to the Sinister Six, or something."

"NO! I LIKE the name Fearsome Five! And I ain't changing it!" and then the line went dead again.

Rowe decided to wait for a moment after that one before calling back.

"Sheesh, you're worse than a telemarketer looking for a raise."

"Tough. You're going to hear me through though. See, the last group I was with I left because there was this crack in the Audubon Bay Bridge, and they wanted to..."

"Crack? Whoa, whoa, wait, there's a crack in Audubon Bay Bridge?"

"Yeah. A little hairline crack in one of the support towers. I was told that it could cause the bridge to collapse if left unattended."

"Interesting." the voice said darkly. "Stay there. I'm coming over."

And then he hung up. Rowe hoped this was a good thing.

* * *

"Now, one of the secrets to my success is the ability to appear out of nowhere." Darkwing said, pulling out his gas gun and loading a canister of smoke. "Observe."

He pointed the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger. A cloud of blue smoke blossomed forth. When it cleared, Darkwing had vanished. He reappeared in another cloud of smoke a few feet away, next to Launchpad, surprising Launchpad.

"It's quite simple, really." Darkwing said, holstering the gas gun. "All you do is..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it Darkwing." Crimson said, and pulled out her own gas gun, built specially for her.

Like Darkwing, she fired it at her feet and vanished in the resulting cloud of crimson smoke.

Darkwing looked around. "Where did she go?" he asked, puzzled.

Then, suddenly, Crimson dropped down from above, landing on all fours like a cat right next, scaring Darkwing half to death.

"You forget that I mastered this skill back when I was ten." Crimson said with pride.

Darkwing poked his head out from where he had hidden himself behind Launchpad. "Show off." he muttered.

* * *

Rowe stood waiting at the street corner, ignoring the odd stares he would get from the occasional passerby, waiting for Negaduck to show, wondering how Negaduck knew where Rowe was. But he somehow knew, and what he looked like too, for the villain leader appeared suddenly, pulling up in a van, grabbing Rowe by the front and hauling the otter into the passenger seat.

The van then roared off to the Audubon Bay, stopping at an abandoned dock. Pushing Rowe out of the van, Negaduck donned a yellow and red diving suit and pulled out some scuba gear, putting it on.

"Show me this crack." Negaduck ordered, checking the air pressure on his tank.

Rowe stared apprehensively at Negaduck for a moment, then dove into the water, Negaduck jumping in after him. Rowe then swam to the bridge and found the crack, thankful that it was still there, and that Neptunia and her gang was nowhere in sight. Rowe tapped the crack with one claw. Negaduck shoved him aside and examined the crack. Grinning, he pulled out a chisel and started hacking at the crack...

* * *

"_Another_ two minutes faster!" Launchpad exclaimed, staring at his stopwatch in amazement as Crimson completed the obstacle course for the third time. "That's a whole five minutes faster than your fastest time ever, DW!"

"I know, LP." Darkwing muttered, annoyed that he was being upstaged by his own daughter.

"I don't know why you didn't let her do hero work sooner!" Launchpad added, as Crimson walked off to award herself with a glass of water in result of her victory. "She can clearly handle herself."

"Yes, as evidenced by the fact that it was she that rescued me from the Negaverse and helped stop Negaduck's plot to take over our universe." Darkwing said, allowing a moment of pride to show for his daughter. "Still, she needs the training."

"I don't know, DW." Launchpad said. "You sure she needs it?"

"I'm going to do it anyway, LP." Darkwing stated.

It was at that moment that the tower suddenly lurched to one side, and a loud crumbling rang out. All three of them slid to one side of the room.

"What's going on?" Crimson asked.

"Something has compromised the structural integrity of the tower!" Darkwing said, alarmed, and without hesitating, jumped out of the window.

As he fell, the superhero pulled out his gas gun and fired a special cartridge. A rubber raft popped out of the gun, and instantly inflated. It landed first on the bay, and Darkwing landed on top of it, ready for action.

Darkwing's landing caused several ripples, and grabbed the attention of the divers below. Rowe was first to reach the surface and investigate.

Darkwing looked at the round head of the otter. "Who are you?" he asked.

"No one of consequence." Rowe replied.

"I really must know." Darkwing said.

"Get used to disappointment, then." Rowe answered.

Crimson suddenly dropped out of the tower and landed next to Darkwing. "Isn't that from a movie or something?" she asked, surveying the situation.

"I dunno." Negaduck said, suddenly surfacing on the other side of the raft. "But I don't care."

"Negs." Darkwing said. "I should've known it would be you."

"Hey, Dipwing." Negaduck teased, and caught sight of Crimson. "And it's miss goody-goody-two-shoes. Like the new costume, by the way."

"Yeah, right." Crimson muttered doubtfully as she adjusted her hat.

"Okay Negs, we can do this either the easy way or the hard way." Darkwing said.

"Of course you know I want the hard way." Negaduck said. "Rowe, attack!"

Rowe went to obey, but then suddenly slipped back under the water.

"Gotcha!" Neptunia said, as she and some other sea creatures dragged the otter down.

Some more had grabbed a hold of Negaduck and dragged him under as well. Negaduck naturally fought, so some kind of fish with a lot of teeth, which Negaduck would later swear did not originate in those waters, bit off the end of Negaduck's air tank. The resulting explosion of air rocketed Negaduck out of the fins of the various water creatures and clean out of the water, yelling loudly before crashing down somewhere onshore.

Darkwing grinned. "Well, that'll put Negs out of commission for the rest of the day." he said. Crimson giggled.

Neptunia surfaced suddenly. "If not, we'll make sure he stays away." she promised. "We'll take care of Rowe too, and don't worry about the damage. We're fixing it right now. Should be good as new shortly."

"Thanks Neptunia." Darkwing said.

"You're welcome." Neptunia replied, starting to swim away. "Oh, and welcome back!"

Darkwing and Crimson waved goodbye, before Darkwing turned to his daughter.

"Now," he said, "Back to your training."

* * *

Rowe felt himself thrown onto shore, and ended up with a snout full of dirt.

"And stay out!" one of the fishes that had thrown him shouted before swimming off.

Rowe shook water off of his fur, and started to stand up. But then a hand grabbed the scruff of his neck and held him up. Rowe looked at the angry face of Negaduck and grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry mate?" the otter said hesitantly.

Negaduck simply growled, and dragged Rowe back to the van, and threw him in.

"You wanted in the club, right?" Negaduck asked.

"Well, yes, but..." Rowe began.

"Well, you got your wish." Negaduck said, and slammed the door angrily.

Rowe was left to wonder if that was good or bad thing as they drove off for the Fearsome Five hideout...

* * *

Darkwing and Crimson were still training by the time night had fallen.

"Now, was we conclude for tonight, I just want to address the matter of transportation. You get the Ratcatcher, while me and Launchpad get the Thunderquack. That is unless we're all going someplace far, and can only get there by jet. But you don't get to fly the jet. _Ever._ Launchpad flying it is bad enough."

"What about the Ratcather's sidecar, Darkwing?"

"What about it?"

"Can I put it to use?"

"Why would you want the sidecar?"

"To put a sidekick in it!"

"But you don't _get _a sidekick!"

"And why not? You get Launchpad! Why can't I have Honker as _my _sidekick?"

"Oh, so it's _Honker _you want for your sidekick. Well, that changes everything. _NO._"

"Dad!"

"Gosalyn, we're supposed to be using our superhero names here!"

"I don't care! I'll call you dad if I want to! Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad..."

"Alright, alright! Honker can be you're _part-time_ sidekick_ if _he agrees to it!"

"Yay! You won't regret it Dad!"

"Ugh, I think I already do. Let a guy get some air, will you?"


	2. Robotics

Summary: An accident with a nanite has left Darwing in a situation that only the Fearsome Five can resolve. And his problems don't end there...

Rating for this adventure: K+

2.

Robotics

"Sir, you're making a mistake." Officer Lewis Jakeway said as he marched into the office.

"Sheesh, right to the point, aren't you?" Police Chief Hugo asked, annoyed, as he looked up from his paperwork at his fellow officer.

"I just got word about what you plan to do about that Darkwing character." Lewis pressed.

"It's not like it's any big secret." Chief Hugo replied, leaning back in his seat.

"Word is that you're going to let this guy roam free." Lewis said.

"Certainly am. Why wouldn't I?" Hugo asked.

"Because the idiot is a threat to St. Canard, that's why!" Lewis exclaimed.

"Lewis, that duck has saved this city more than once." Hugo said. "I fail to see how he's a threat."

"Haven't you seen the paperwork on the damages he inflicts on this city in a single _year_?" Lewis asked.

"Yes." Hugo replied. "Now have _you _seen the paperwork on the damages _we _inflict on this city while doing our job in a single _month_?"

"Well, no," Lewis admitted, "But Darkwing Duck shouldn't be allowed to roam free in the streets. He is incompetent at what he does. He's been fighting some of these criminals for years now, and has yet to defeat them."

"So have we."

"He's been gone for seven years to who knows where."

"That's a government secret, but the word is that it's not someplace nice, and it was against his will."

"And the moment he comes back, all of the Fearsome Five criminals we've caught are out in the streets again!"

"It was Darkwing that put them there in the first place though." Hugo pointed out, and sighed. "Lewis, I'm only going to say this once. Darkwing may have an interesting way of doing things, but it's been proven that he can and will help this city, and is clearly capable. We, as a police force, could use the help, so I'm not going to stop him and neither are you. And if you have a problem with that, you can just resign now."

Lewis muttered something for a moment, but nodded.

"Now, if that's everything..." Hugo began, but was cut off when his phone rang. "St. Canard Police Department." he said into the receiver. "Really? You're right, we should investigate. I'll send someone over. Stay put, Matthew, until then." he hung up and looked back at Lewis. "Lewis, that was Officer Matthew. You know, that new guy? He was on patrol and said he saw something going on at that greenhouse out on the outskirts. The one Dr. Reginald Bushroot used to hang out in. He thinks Bushroot could be there right now. Want to go check it out?"

"Yes sir!" Lewis exclaimed, brightening. "I'll leave immediately."

"Very good." Hugo said, "but remember Lewis, no funny business."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Megavolt watched Bushroot peer into a microscope. "What are we working on again?" he asked.

"The nanites, Megs, the nanites!" Bushroot exclaimed, straightening. "Now quick interrupting me, this isn't easy!"

Megavolt peered at the little nanobot Bushroot was carefully poking at with a thin tool. The nanite was no bigger than a pinhead.

"Hard to believe this little thing could pull off the boss's plan." he muttered. "What's it supposed to do again?"

"It's a control nanite." Bushroot explained with a sigh. Clearly this was not the first time he had explained this to the forgetful supervillain. "It will be released into the necessary environment, and then begin to make even smaller service nanites. Together, they will all make a large control structure to house themselves in, and await further orders. The boss wants to use these guys to gain control of St. Canard's water supply. That was why we examined the water earlier this week, to see if the water had enough raw material dissolved into it for the nanites to use."

"Right, the nanites will use the materials to build whatever is asked of them." Megavolt said. "I remember that part. And I'm here to provide the power that will initialize it."

"Right." Bushroot said, poking at the control nanite with his tool. "But first I have to finishing programming the source code into this nanite. Then, after you power them up, I'll finalize the programming, telling what the nanites are supposed to do exactly."

Megavolt nodded, and began looking around at the various plants housed in the greenhouse they were staying in. "I didn't think you knew anything about this kind of stuff." he remarked.

"Actually, programming and electronics was my favorite subject, next to botany, of course." Bushroot replied. "In fact, back in the days in which my experiments were to try to spark photosynthesis in animal cells, I came up with the idea of using nanites to make it work. Only nanotechnology was virtually impossible back then, so it never happened. We can do it today, though, thanks to the scientific breakthroughs that have been made since then." he made an almost decisive motion at the nanite he was working on, then straightening, flattening his leaves. "There. Now we can power up the nanite, Megs."

But before they could do a thing more, red lights started to flash outside.

"This is the SCPD!" a voice echoed out via a megaphone, "We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!"

"The police!" Bushroot muttered, and instinctively stuck his hands into the air.

"Quick!" Megavolt said, rushing forward. "Tell me what to do to activate the nanite!"

* * *

Lewis looked at the greenhouse expectantly, Matthew standing next to him. All around the greenhouse where police cars, their lights flashing. Nothing happened.

"Maybe they're not in there after all." Matthew reasoned.

"They're in there." Lewis pressed, pointing. "You can see their shadows against the glass of the greenhouse. Now tell me who has hair like that?"

Matthew looked at the silhouette in question. "Albert Einstein?" he hazarded to guess.

"No, stupid, Bushroot!" Lewis replied. "Which means all we have to do is sit here and let them sweat. Sooner or later, they'll give in."

"That could take awhile." Matthew noted.

"Right." Lewis agreed. "So in the meantime, hope that Darkwing doesn't..."

"We'll take it from here." a voice announced from behind him.

Lewis turned and saw Darkwing pull up in the Ratcatcher. Sitting in the sidecar beside him was the Crimson Avenger, Darkwing's newest assistant apparently. Lewis didn't particularly approve of her either.

"What do you mean, we've got this under control." Lewis objected.

"Uh-huh." Darkwing said, removing his helmet and swapping it for his usual purple hat. "I heard your plan. There's a better way, and I..."

"We." Crimson corrected suddenly, climbing out of the sidecar.

"Right, I keep forgetting you're here too." Darkwing muttered, then continued, "...we can do it."

"I assure you, that's not necessary." Lewis insisted.

Matthew, who up until now had been silent, suddenly blurted out, "You're Darkwing Duck!" he exclaimed. "Why, you're famous! If there's anything you can do to help, then by all means do it!"

However, Darkwing only heard the word 'famous.' "Famous huh?" Darkwing asked, reaching into his jacket pocket. "Maybe you'd like an autograph? I've got a couple dozen glossies in here somewhere..."

"Darkwing..." Crimson interrupted, brushing at one of her two red piggytails with one hand.

"Oh, right." Darkwing said. "Time for that later. Anyway, like I said, we'll handle it from here. You guys stay put and stand guard. C'mon Crimson. You've been training all week, let's see how you handle real action now."

"Training?" Lewis repeated, not liking the sound of that, but the two caped crusaders had already vanished around to the other side of the greenhouse. "Oh brother."

He thought for a moment. "Okay, Matthew, when I give the signal, we're all going to raid the greenhouse." he said, making his decision.

"But Darkwing told us to stay put." Matthew objected. "Don't you think we should?"

"You kidding me?" Lewis asked. "That purple twirp is a disaster waiting to happen, and now we've got two of them. Trust me, this is the better idea."

"If you say so." Matthew said, but personally had his doubts.

* * *

Megavolt carefully attached the last mini jumper cable to the nanite, then attached the other ends to his fingertip. "Like this?" he asked Bushroot.

"Yeah." Bushroot replied, who still had his hands up. "Now hurry!"

Megavolt nodded, and carefully sent a low-level current through his finger, through the cables, and into the nanite. The little device shuddered, then fell silent. Removing the cables, Megavolt placed the cover over the nanite's little tray, and picked it up.

"Okay, let's get out of here." Megavolt said, and began to turn away, before a voice rang out.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the seeds in your slice of watermelon! I am DARKWING DUCK!" the voice said, and then a cloud of blue smoke appeared to one side of the room, which Darkwing stepped out of.

"Oh no!" Bushroot exclaimed, sensing things just took a turn for the worse.

But then a new voice rang out. "I am the heir to the cape! I am that message that pops up on your computer when your anti-virus software is outdated! I am THE CRIMSON AVENGER!"

Then a crimson cloud of smoke appeared to the opposite side of the room. Crimson stepped out of the smoke in her attire of black and red. Megavolt and Bushroot stared at her, for this was the first time they had seen her in the Crimson alias.

"Oh no, not _both_ of you!" Bushroot exclaimed.

"Alright, Bushy, whatcha up to?" Darkwing asked, as he and Crimson surrounded the two frightened supervillains.

"It only concerns Negaduck, Dipwing!" Megavolt exclaimed, and hurtled a bolt of electricity at Darkwing.

Darkwing ducked it, and in the process noticed the little petri-dish sized tray Megavolt grasped in his hand. "What's that?" he asked.

"That's mine!" Bushroot said, taking the dish from Megavolt. "And you can't have it, so there!"

"We can change that." Darkwing said. "Crimson!"

Crimson pulled out her gas gun and fired a rope and hook at the two supervillains. They easily dodged it, but that wasn't what was important, for Darkwing soon after first a similar rope and hook from his gas gun. Not seeing it coming, the two villains were quickly ensnared by the rope.

"Gotcha!" Darkwing said. "Now, some answers!"

"Now!"

And then chaos broke loose. Police stormed into the greenhouse from all angles, pointing their guns at Bushroot and Megavolt.

"Oh no, I told you guys to stay put!" Darkwing exclaimed.

A sudden zapping sound rang out as Megavolt used a bolt of energy to cut through the rope, thus freeing him and Bushroot. "Nah-nah!" Megavolt taunted.

"Ack! Get them!" Darkwing cried out, rushing forward, but was stopped by Lewis, who had failed to note what had happened. "Crimson!"

Crimson rushed forward, just as Bushroot and Megavolt both reacted. The plants in the greenhouse suddenly wrapped themselves around whatever they could, grabbing most of the police officers. Shots were fired, but they hit nothing. Megavolt released a maelstrom of electric energy, causing more chaos. Crimson tried to tackle him, but was forced to back off to avoid the deadly energy bolts Megavolt was firing. He escaped out the door.

Darkwing threw off Lewis, and charged Bushroot, who was also making a break for it. Darkwing tackled him. Startled, Bushroot let go of the petri-dish. It sailed across the room and smashed to the floor breaking. Darkwing tried to hold Bushroot down, but Bushroot commanded a nearby plant to grab Darkwing's legs. It did, and dragged Darkwing off of Bushroot, across the floor, through the wreckage of the petri-dish, the pulled him up into the air to dangle upside down.

Bushroot then escaped as well. It was easy, considering that there was no one to stop him. Lewis and Crimson had also been ensnared by the plants.

"Dang it!" Darkwing exclaimed to Lewis. "I told you to _stay put_! But did you? Oh, no! I had things under control until you all barged in here! Thanks to you, they got away! HAPPY!?"

Lewis tried to stutter out an answer, but Darkwing ignored him, rubbing painfully at the arm that had been dragged through the shards of perti-dish earlier...

* * *

It was an hour or so before another police force arrived to free them all from the plants. By that time, both Darkwing and Crimson were ready to call it a night and headed home. They returned to the tower and put things away for the night.

"What blunder tonight was." Crimson muttered, pulling off her mask and hat as she turned off Darkwing's computers. "But, I did good tonight, didn't I Dad?"

"You certainly did, Gos." Darkwing replied, heading towards a sink to wash the cuts on his arm. "If those police hadn't gotten in the way..."

He muttered something for a few moments, running some water over a washcloth, and dabbing it at his bloody wounds.

Gosalyn, now dressed in her usually attire, approached her adopted dad from behind, glancing at the wounds. "How bad is it?" she asked, concerned.

"Not as bad as it looks, I think." Darkwing replied, washing away the blood. "It stopped hurting awhile ago, so I think the wounds aren't serious."

Almost to prove his point, it was soon clear there _was _no wounds as the blood was cleared away.

"That's weird." Darkwing muttered, examining his arm. "I could have sworn that there was some kind of wound."

Gosalyn ran her hand over her dad's arm. "Yes there is, actually." she said, and pointed at a little pinprick of a wound right in the middle of Darkwing's arm.

Darkwing glanced at it. "A little wound like that produced that much blood?" he asked.

"It could if it was over a major blood vein or something." Gosalyn reasoned.

"Hm." Darkwing muttered. "Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter now. Let's call it a night."

* * *

"What the heck do you call what happened tonight?!" Hugo raged back at the police department.

Lewis flinched. "What seemed like a good idea at the time?" he asked.

"How do you define a good idea, Lewis?" Hugo asked. "Because your "idea" was a really bad one! And besides, you didn't need to come up with one at all! Darkwing told you to stay put!"

"Darkwing would've only blundered the whole thing! I HAD to intervene!" Lewis exclaimed.

"No, you didn't!" Hugo pressed. "Accounts state that Darkwing had everything under control until _you _showed up! Lewis, because you don't like Darkwing allowed us to miss a chance to nab two very dangerous supervillains! What have you got to say to that?"

Lewis stuttered for a moment, tapping the tip of his bill. "Sorry?" he asked.

"Doesn't cut it." Hugo pressed, then calmly stretched out his hand. "Your badge please."

"What?" Lewis asked, stunned. "You're _firing _me?"

"It's very generous, trust me." Hugo snapped. "Now, give me your badge."

Lewis hesitated a moment, then took off his badge and threw it onto the desk between them and left.

"That stupid Darkwing." he muttered as he stepped out onto the dark street. "If he hadn't shown up, this wouldn't have happened. I should get revenge on him. In fact, I think I will. I mean, what do I have left to loose?"

* * *

The following morning, Drake Mallard awoke feeling funny. Shrugging it off as due to the late night he had, he got out of bed, dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast. Gosalyn and Launchpad were there already.

"Well, good morning, sleepyhead." Gosalyn said, grinning tauntingly at her father. "And you're always telling me to be the early bird and get up in the mornings."

"That's on school days." Drake pointed out, scratching at the arm he injured the night previous. "The only day of the week you'll actually willing get up early in the mornings are Saturdays. Which must be what today is."

"You betcha." Gosalyn said, gobbling down her breakfast. "There's lots of cartoons on this morning that I need to watch."

"Something wrong with your arm, DW?" Launchpad asked, watching Drake scratch at his arm.

"I dunno, LP." Drake replied, pulling up his sleeve to look at it closely. "I think maybe I...what the hey?"

Drake, Launchpad, and Gosalyn stared at the patch of grey that had developed on Drake's arm.

"What's that?" Gosalyn asked, jabbing at the grey patch with her spoon.

"I wish I knew, Gos." Drake said, tapping at the patch, making another surprising discovery. "Why, it's metal!"

"I'm calling Honker." Gosalyn said, standing up and grabbing the phone. "Maybe he'll know what's going on."

Launchpad stared at the patch of metal that seemed to have just grown out of Drake's arm, covering his flesh. "What could've caused that?" he asked.

Drake had an idea. "That petri dish." he muttered aloud.

* * *

Honker peered into his microscope with interest. "Okay, you guys aren't going to believe this." he announced.

"Let me see, Honk." Gosalyn said, pushing Honker out of the way and peering into the microscope. "Whoa! How _weird!_"

"I want to see!" Launchpad said, and was given the chance. "Ick!" he exclaimed once he peered into the microscope.

Drake, who had his arm under the microscope and was thus unable to see through the microscope himself, impatiently tapped his fingers on the table. "Well?" he asked, annoyed.

"Mr. Mallard, there are nanites on your arm." Honker explained.

"Nanites?" Drake repeated, confused.

"Y'know dad, microscopic robots." Gosalyn explained further.

"And they're living on my _arm_?" Drake asked, bewildered.

"And eating your feathers too!" Launchpad added.

"_What_?" Drake asked, and desperately tried to position himself so he could look through the microscope too, but failed. "Why are they doing that?"

"I think they're using the materials in your feathers, your blood, and probably your flesh too, to convert all of it into some kind of metal." Honker theorized. "In a matter of days, they could turn your entire body into metal."

"Which means?" Drake prompted.

"That you'll be a kind of robot, I guess." Honker summarized.

A moment of silence fell.

"That's bad thing, right?" Gosalyn asked.

"Yes Gosalyn, that's a _very _bad thing!" Drake said, glaring at his adopted daughter. "I don't want to be a robot!"

"Well, I don't know DW, maybe there's some kind of advantage in that for Darkwing." Launchpad reasoned.

"I don't care!" Drake exclaimed. "It's not natural! I want it stopped!"

"Any ideas, Honkman?" Gosalyn asked, patting her friend on the back.

"None whatsoever." Honker replied. "I don't even know where the nanites came from in the first place."

"I do." Drake said, pulling his arm out from under the microscope and pulling his sleeve down. "Last night, me and Gos found Bushroot and Megavolt working on something, something that involved a petri dish. During the ensuing battle, the dish was broken, and I cut myself on the shards. There must have been a nanite in that dish, and when I cut myself, it got inside of me."

"Just one nanite?" Gosalyn asked, finding it hard to believe.

"Actually, it makes sense." Honker said. "That one nanite could be like the control nanite, making more nanites and giving them orders on what they should do."

"Which is to turn people into robots?" Drake asked, also finding it hard to believe.

"Maybe the nanite wasn't finished yet." Honker reasoned. "Or maybe it wasn't supposed to be used in this manner."

"Well, whatever the case, nothing's gonna hurt you anymore, DW. You'll be too metallic for that." Launchpad joked.

Drake glared at him.

"If we can pinpoint the exact location of that control nanite and remove it, we could, theoretically, stop the process." Honker said.

"But that one little nanite is mixed in with thousands more." Gosalyn pointed out.

"Millions." Honker corrected, "and that number is growing by the second."

"It'd be like finding a needle in a paycheck." Launchpad remarked.

"The phrase is "finding a needle in a haystack," LP." Drake corrected hotly, standing. "And I think I know who can help us reverse this. C'mon Gos. Criminals always return to the scene of the crime."

* * *

Bushroot was on all fours and crawling around on the floor of the greenhouse. "It's got to be here somewhere!" he exclaimed.

"It's a little, itty-bitty, robot smaller than a centimeter!" Megavolt exclaimed from where he stood guard at the door. "Just face it, we've lost the darn thing!"

"Let's not give up hope yet, mate." said Rowe, who was present this time around and was helping Bushroot search for the lost nanite. "It's doubtful the cops could've found it, 'cause they couldn't have known it was here."

"Or it was just too little." Megavolt muttered.

"Couldn't the nanite have begun doing it's thing by now?" Rowe asked Bushroot as they crawled past each other in their search.

"That's what I'm worried about!" Bushroot said. "And it's not ready, nor is it in the right environment! Who _knows _what it'll do!"

"Ooh, that's just what I wanted to know." a voice rang out.

Bushroot and Rowe turned in time to see Darkwing finish tying Megavolt up with a rope.

"Ah!" Bushroot exclaimed, surprised. "Where did you come from?"

He started to back up towards the back of the greenhouse, but then the Crimson Avenger dropped down from nowhere and cut off that path as well.

"Good grief mate!" Rowe exclaimed. "We're surrounded!"

Darkwing pushed Megavolt over and turned to Bushroot.

"You're looking for a nanite right?" he said.

"Um, yes..." Bushroot replied, suspicious. "Why? Have you seen it?"

"Technically, no." Darkwing replied. "But I know where it is." And with that, he rolled up his sleeve and showed the two villains the ever-growing patch of metal developing on his arm. It had swelled so that it covered most of his arm now, and was visibly growing in size.

Bushroot squinted at it for a moment, then his eyes widened as the solution donned on him. "You mean to say that it's..."

Darkwing nodded. "Can you get it out?" he asked.

"What's in it for us, mate?" Rowe asked. "Can we go free?"

"We'll see." Darkwing replied. "But can you get it out?"

"Well..." Bushroot said out loud, thinking. "Normally I wouldn't help you, but considering that Negaduck will fry me alive if I don't get that nanite back..."

"He hasn't promised us anything in return though." Rowe pointed out.

"Don't jump to conclusions, mate." Crimson said, mimicking Rowe's mannerisms in a taunting manner.

"I ain't your mate." Rowe grumbled in response.

"Tell you what, we'll let you all go, including Megavolt, for helping us." Darkwing reasoned. "But just this once. We won't do that next time we meet."

And then things had to go wrong when a gunshot suddenly rang out from behind them, quickly followed by the sound of smashing glass as the bullet struck the roof of the greenhouse.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Darkwing." a voice said from the front of the greenhouse.

Darkwing turned and saw who was standing there. "You again!" he exclaimed.

"Officer Lewis?" Crimson said, looking the officer over.

"That's me." he said as he pointed his 9mm pistol at Darkwing's head.

Darkwing looked him over as well, and sensed something had gone wrong with the officer, for he was out of uniform. Instead, he wore a casual sky blue polo shirt with brown cargo pants. He wore a brown leather jacket over the shirt. He looked like he was out of a job, and considering what had happened the night previous, this did not surprise Darkwing.

Lewis confirmed this theorization. "I lost my job because of you." he said. "Now I'm going to take my revenge before you cause any more damage to this city."

"So your going to kill me." Darkwing summarized slowly, looking unconcerned.

"Yes." Lewis said.

"Didn't you ever stop to think that it's your _own _fault that you lost your job?" Crimson asked.

Lewis pointed the gun at her. "You be quiet, 'cause you'll be next." he stated plainly.

Darkwing chose to react then, when the gun wasn't pointed at him, and ran to one side of the greenhouse. Lewis saw the movement out of the corner of his eye and swung back and fired his weapon. He missed completely, the bullet whizzing through Bushroot's flower-like hair. It was then that the supervillains reacted to stop Lewis.

Megavolt, tied up as he was, had one hand free enough to shoot a bolt of electricity at Lewis's weapon, knocking it across the greenhouse. Rowe then rushed forward and tackled Lewis.

"You can't kill Darkwing, that's _our _job!" Rowe was exclaiming as he wrestled with Lewis.

Bushroot, startled by the gunshot that nearly hit him, fled. Crimson chased after him. Darkwing saw Megavolt work back to his feet and did a kind of hop-skip out of the greenhouse, also attempting to flee. But then Lewis threw Rowe off of him and hopped back onto his feet. Instead of going back after Rowe, he went after Darkwing.

With Lewis being inexperienced at criminal work, Darkwing was easily able to sidestep Lewis's reckless charge. As a result, Lewis instead slammed into the thin glass wall of the greenhouse. The wall shattered immediately, and Lewis tumbled outside, rolling down the grassy hill beyond.

Darkwing turned back around and surveyed the greenhouse. Rowe was gone. Crimson stepped back inside and shook her head, indicating that Bushroot escaped as well, and Darkwing didn't need to look to know that Megavolt had plenty of time to escape as well, even if he was tied up still. Peering back out the hole in the greenhouse wall, he saw Lewis also fleeing. He ex-cop wasn't using any stealth in his escape at all, and would be an easy grab, but Darkwing didn't feel like it.

Darkwing sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "If only things were to work to my advantage for once." he mumbled.

* * *

"Okay, run this by me one more time?" Negaduck asked, genuinely confused as he paced back and forth his makeshift office.

Standing before him was Bushroot, Megavolt, and Rowe, none the worse from the events at the greenhouse, but were looking nervous, fearing Negaduck's wrath should he not approve of the situation.

And he probably shouldn't, but Negaduck was admittedly a little lost in the story.

"Well?" he asked when none of the three spoke up.

"It's like this Negs." Bushroot finally said. "Sometime the night previous, when we lost the nanite, it ended up in Darkwing. Now that nanites are doing weird things to him. I think they could be perceiving Darkwing as the control structure they're programmed to make, and are adjusting him to match their specifications. In short, they're turning him metallic."

"Which is a bad thing." Negaduck stated.

"Right." Bushroot said. "Darkwing, even though he doesn't know where in him it is, still has the control nanite. And Darkwing's indestructible enough as it is. A metal one won't help any on that matter."

"So what happened then?" Negaduck asked.

"Well, he figured out where the nanite came from, and came back to greenhouse, probably to investigate." Megavolt said, picking up the story. "As you know, we were already there, looking for the nanite. Well, Darkwing and Crimson got the drop on us, and had us cornered. He told us what he knew about the nanite...er, well, he showed what the nanite what was doing to him, and Bushroot figured out the rest on his own."

"And we were working on figuring out an agreement." Rowe continued with the story. "Looked like we were about to agree on removing the nanite for him in trade of letting us all go free just this once."

Negaduck frowned at this, but said nothing.

"Then this random guy showed up..." Rowe continued, but Bushroot cut him short.

"It wasn't a random guy, it was cop." Bushroot said. "I've seen him before, and I think he was there last night when the greenhouse got raided and we lost the nanite in the first place. He said stuff, and I didn't understand what he meant by all of it."

"But he said he lost his job as a cop." Megavolt said.

"And that he was going kill Darkwing." Rowe added. "Naturally, we stopped him."

"You did?" Negaduck asked, not sounding pleased.

"Well, if anybody is going to kill Darkwing, it has to be us, right?" the otter reasoned.

"True, but I will accept help in that matter, and that matter only." Negaduck said, sitting. "It would make things a whole lot easier for me." he sighed and shook his head. "What happened then?"

"Well, Darkwing cheated death, and everybody escaped." Bushroot summarized. "And no, we don't have the control nanite yet."

"That little thing is causing more trouble than it's worth." Negaduck muttered. "Still, there is some good out of this. This ex-cop character could keep Darkwing busy and out of my feathers for awhile."

"But he still has the control nanite." Megavolt reasoned.

"Which is where you three come in." Negaduck said. "Track Darkwing down again. You might have to wait until tonight when he's on patrol again, unless you three have a means of luring him to you. Anyway, once you have him, see if he'll do that agreement still. I don't like it, but if it means I get the nanite _and _all of you, then I'm willing to do it."

"But what if Darkwing's unwilling now?" Bushroot asked.

"Then take the nanite by force." Negaduck stated simply.

* * *

As night fell outside the tower, Darkwing paced relentlessly. He flexed his arm as he did so, the one infected with nanites. Every time he did so, a metallic whirring sound was heard. The nanites had spread significantly during the day, going on to cover all of Darkwing's arm except for his fingertips, and going up his arm to his shoulder and on up his neck. It was starting to spread across his chest too.

They also had evidence that the conversion the nanites were doing wasn't all visible too, for Darkwing's voice had deepened a tone or two, and one of his eyes suddenly started turning robotic, glowing blood red with some kind of optical sensor. Darkwing stated he was also having difficulty concentrating, indicating that the nanites had reached his brain. A fact that worried them all, since they had no idea what the nanites would do to the fragile organ.

Crimson watched Darkwing pace impatiently for a moment, and turned to where Honker sat at Darkwing's computer, working at the controls.

"Anything, Honk?" she asked hopefully.

Honker shook his head. "Nothing." he said, stabbing frustrated at the controls. "It'd help _greatly _if Darkwing would update his systems to modern day technology."

"Later, Honker, later!" Darkwing said annoyed. "I'll even let you do it! Just find _some _member of the Fearsome Five! As much as I hate to admit it, they're the only ones who can help now."

"But they could be anywhere!" Crimson reasoned. "St. Canard is a big city! And it's not like they're just going to come out into the open and announce their presence!"

"Actually, you might want to think twice about that, Crimson." Honker said, as a message suddenly popped up onto the screen.

"Find something?" Darkwing asked, grabbing the back of Honker's chair.

"Miraculously, yes." Honker said, surprised. "I've found all three of them, Megavolt, Bushroot, and Rowe."

"What are they doing?" Darkwing asked.

"Exactly what Crimson said they wouldn't do." Honker said. "Coming out in the open and announcing their presence. They're at the old headquarters of the Fearsome Five. They're surrounded by police, but are refusing to vacate the warehouse and get arrested. They say they'll only talk with you, Mr. Darkwing, sir."

"And I know why." Darkwing said. "They still want to do the trade."

"Do we?" Crimson asked, standing up and putting on her black hat.

"Do you have any better ideas?" Darkwing said. "There are a lot of things I don't like about any of this, but right now it's the best chance we've got." he walked off, heading for the Ratcatcher. "C'mon Crimson. Let's get over there before they change their mind."

* * *

"Here he comes." Rowe said, who was standing guard at the warehouse doorway. "Yikes, does he look different."

Sure enough, Darkwing arrived at the scene via Ratcatcher, the police that gathered around the building parting to let him through. Darkwing looked almost scary, with one arm completely robotic now, and an eye that was glowing like a little red stop light. It made the supehero look almost evil.

Silently, Darkwing parking the motorbike and walked almost carelessly into the warehouse. Crimson trailed in his wake, her gas gun drawn and at the ready.

Darkwing walked right up to Bushroot. "Trade?" he asked simply.

"Uh, yes..." Bushroot said, surprised at Darkwing's bluntness.

"Same terms?" Darkwing asked next.

"Yes." Bushroot replied, this time with more confidence.

"Then do it." Darkwing said, holding out his arm, exasperated. "Please."

Bushroot looked Darkwing's metallic arm up and down, looking for something in particular. Finally, he found it, and pointed at it with one leafy hand. "There." he said. "I think."

He grabbed Darkwing's arm, and dragged him over to a nearby table which Megavolt had been setting up a wide variety of tools upon for Bushroot to use. Bushroot pulled Darkwing's arm under a microscope, and examined the spot in question.

"Yes, there it is!" Bushroot exclaimed excited. "The control nanite!"

Quickly, he picked up a tool and started to work, talking as he went. "Y'know, it's a good thing this nanite didn't end up near a more vital spot in your body, like your heart."

"Why is that?" Crimson asked.

"Because then the conversion process could have taken mere minutes instead of a whole day." Bushroot explained, biting his lip as he worked.

"We're still going to be let free for this, right?" Megavolt asked.

"Yes." Darkwing said. "An agreement is an agreement no matter who it's with."

"What about the police?" Rowe asked, still guarding the door.

"I'll think of something." Darkwing promised. "But first, get this darn nanite out of me!"

"There!" Bushroot said, and pulled a little robot the size of a pinhead from Darkwing and held it up victoriously.

Everyone looked at it.

"Hard to believe that little thing could've caused all of that." Crimson remarked.

"That's what I said." Megavolt agreed.

Bushroot set it down on the table and looked at it. Darkwing looked his metallic arm up and down.

"So, will I have to live with a metal arm for the rest of my life?" he asked.

"No, without the control nanite, the other nanites won't know what to do." Bushroot explained. "As such, your body's natural defenses will start attacking them and destroying them. Eventually, all of the damage the nanites have done will be reversed."

"That's a relief." Darkwing said, pulling his sleeve down. "Now, getting you all out of here..."

"It's not going to happen, Darkwing." a voice rang out.

Everyone turned, and saw Lewis standing in the doorway, gun drawn.

"Oh..." Darkwing moaned, "Can't you leave a guy alone? I've got enough to worry about as is!"

"Then here." Lewis said, raising his weapon to point at Darkwing. "Let me end it for you."

Then Rowe, who had been standing to one side of the door and had remained unseen by Lewis, raced forward and wrapped his arms around Lewis's locking them in place.

"Rule number one about being a villain!" Rowe said to Lewis. "_Never _leave your back unguarded!"

Lewis struggled against Rowe's grip. "Let me go!" he exclaimed.

He fired his pistol blindly. One shot struck the leg of the table, and the table started to tip over. Darkwing, getting an idea, aided in the process by shooting his gas gun under the table. The canister of gas released it's contents explosively, flinging the table across the room to crash at Lewis's feet.

By that point, all vision was lost as Darkwing's blue smoke started to fill the room.

"Crimson!" he shouted, "Cover fire!"

"Where?" Crimson asked, clearly not understanding how that would help.

"Anywhere!" Darkwing replied.

Soon crimson smoke began to mix in with the blue, and all of it began to spill outside and gather like a fog. The police waiting outside soon became disoriented, and completely missed Megavolt, Bushroot, and Rowe sneaking away. All they saw was Darkwing and Crimson walk out of the warehouse once the smoke had cleared.

One of the officers approached Darkwing. "What happened?" he asked.

Darkwing turned to hide his metallic parts. "Ambushed. They all got away." he lied. Partly, anyway. "But we'll get them next time."

He and Crimson then climbed onto the Ratcatcher and drove away.

"You know, you didn't have to do that." Crimson said as they drove. "We still could've caught them."

"I know." Darkwing replied. "And don't think the idea didn't cross my mind. In fact, it crossed it several times, going both ways. But I'm supposed to be a superohero, and part of what comes with that job is keeping your word. I have to set a good example, even to the supervillains. And who knows, maybe it'll help get it through their thick skulls one day that they can repent of their wicked doing and be good."

"But you doubt it." Crimson said with a grin.

"Completely." Darkwing agreed, and added more throttle to the Ratcatcher's engine.

* * *

Lewis picked himself up and looked around at the still smoky warehouse. Everyone was gone, including Darkwing. He had failed again. Standing up, he looked around for his fallen gun, wincing as he felt a sharp pain ins his chest. Looking down, though, he only saw a small pinprick of a wound, and thus ignored it, recovering his pistol and leaving.

What he didn't know was that his wound was just the right size for a control nanite to fit through...


	3. Nanite

Summary: Something odd is happening, that has even Negaduck intimidated. Can Darkwing figure it out, and will he live to tell the tale...?

Rating for this adventure: T (cause someone dies in this)

3.

Nanite

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Darkwing Duck shouldn't be allowed to roam free in the streets. He is incompetent at what he does. He's been fighting some of these criminals for years now, and has yet to defeat them."_

_--_

"_It's a control nanite. It will be released into the necessary environment, and then begin to make even smaller service nanites. Together, they will all make a large control structure to house themselves in, and await further orders."_

_--_

"_I told you to stay put! But did you? Oh, no! I had things under control until you all barged in here! Thanks to you, they got away! HAPPY!?"_

_--_

"_That's weird." Darkwing muttered, examining his arm. "I could have sworn that there was some kind of wound."_

_Gosalyn ran her hand over her dad's arm. "Yes there is, actually." she said, and pointed at a little pinprick of a wound right in the middle of Darkwing's arm._

_--_

"_Darkwing would've only blundered the whole thing! I HAD to intervene!"_

"_Doesn't cut it. Your badge please."_

_--_

"_That stupid Darkwing. If he hadn't shown up, this wouldn't have happened. I should get revenge on him. In fact, I think I will. I mean, what do I have left to loose?"_

_--_

"_Mr. Mallard, there are nanites on your arm. I think they're using the materials in your feathers, your blood, and probably your flesh too, to convert all of it into some kind of metal. In a matter of days, they could turn your entire body into metal."_

"_Which means?"_

"_That you'll be a kind of robot, I guess."_

_--_

"_You're looking for a nanite right?"_

"_Um, yes...Why? Have you seen it?"_

"_Technically, no. But I know where it is."_

_--_

"_I lost my job because of you. Now I'm going to take my revenge before you cause any more damage to this city."_

"_So your going to kill me."_

"_Yes."_

_--_

"_Y'know, it's a good thing this nanite didn't end up near a more vital spot in your body, like your heart. Because then the conversion process could have taken mere minutes instead of a whole day."_

_--_

"_There!" Bushroot said, and pulled a little robot the size of a pinhead from Darkwing and held it up victoriously._

_--_

_Standing up, Lewis looked around for his fallen gun, wincing as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down, though, he only saw a small pinprick of a wound, and thus ignored it, recovering his pistol and leaving._

_What he didn't know was that his wound was just the right size for a control nanite to fit through..._

_--_

Negaduck sat at his desk in his makeshift office doing, oddly enough, paperwork. It's exact origins varied. Some of it was even from another universe. Normally, Negaduck hated paperwork, preferring to introduce the papers to an open flame, but this paperwork was different because it concerned his various evil schemes.

Therefore, this was fun.

It was quiet at the warehouse, which both pleased and annoyed Negaduck. It pleased him, because it meant that his "employees" were all out looking for potential evil schemes, since their last one fell through the floor. Last he heard, Liquidator had come across something involving the Audubon Bay, and Quackerjack had a potential lead on obtaining some materials for future evil schemes. Illegally, of course.

It annoyed, Negaduck, though, because he enjoyed noise. It caused annoyance and frustration, and potentially anger, all three of which were some of Negaduck's favorite emotions. Without noise, he only got annoyance, which annoyed him further. A productive supervillain like him should be feeling a whole lot emotions that he savored.

So when he heard someone enter the hideout, he felt a spike of excitement, and prepared himself, making plans to award himself with a bonus, and chewing out whomever it was for no good reason. A knocking rang out against his door.

"Come in." he grumbled.

It turned out that it was Quackerjack, who calmly stepped into the room.

"I suppose you arranged to get those materials, then?" Negaduck asked, "'Cause you had better."

Quackerjack didn't immediately reply, however. He first walked straight up to Negaduck's desk and planted both of his hands upon the top, leaning forward to stare at Negaduck.

"There's been a change in plans." Quackerjack stated.

Negaduck looked blank for a moment, slightly surprised at Quackerjack's attitude. "About the materials?" he asked.

"No." Quackerjack replied bluntly. "Something else entirely."

Negaduck gave Quackerjack an odd look. "Are you feeling alright?" he asked. "Not that I care or anything."

"I'm fine." Quackerjack said. "But you won't be, if you don't obey what I'm about to tell you."

Negaduck stared at Quackerjack for a moment, before it donned on him. "You're not Quackerjack!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, very good, Negs!" the pseudo-Quackerjack praised sarcastically. "Huh, I would've thought that a supervillain like you would've figured it out sooner."

"Where's my Quackerjack?" Negaduck demanded, standing.

"Wherever you sent him off to, I guess." the pseudo-Quackerjack replied. "I haven't touched him. He'll probably wander in here sometime later, and he'll be unaware of this meeting altogether, so don't bother asking him."

"What if I do anyway?" Negaduck threatened.

"It'll be your time that you're wasting." the imposter said. "Anyway, why I'm here..."

"It had better be a good reason." Negaduck muttered, slowly reaching for his desk drawer, where he kept a pistol.

"It is." the pseudo-Quackerjack said. "You need to leave Darkwing alone. No more trying to hunt him down, and _do NOT _kill him."

"What?" Negaduck exclaimed, "Killing Darkwing is very, _very, _high on my list of things to do!"

"Not anymore." the pseudo-Quackerjack said. "You'll leave him alone, Negs, if you know what's best for you. Darkwing's mine."

"Fat chance." Negaduck said. "What can you do to me?"

"Never you mind." the imposter said. "But I assure you, that if you don't obey, you and your little pack of thieves here don't stand a chance against my wrath."

Negaduck glared at the imposter. He didn't like to be threatened. "The Fearsome Five can handle whatever you throw against us." he said confidently.

However, the pseudo-Quackerjack merely grinned. "You have no idea who you're dealing with." he said.

Negaduck's glare strengthened. "Who are you, anyway?" he asked.

"A figment of your imagination." the pseudo-Quackerjack replied.

And then he suddenly moved like lightning, jumping upward with near impossible speeds, and latching onto the roof of the room. Almost like a spider, the imposter then began to crawl away on all fours, again at deceptively fast speeds.

Negaduck whipped open his drawer and pulled out his pistol, but in the time he had taken his eyes off of the imposter he was gone. Negaduck looked around and found he was standing in an empty room now. It was like it never happened.

Sitting back down in his chair dejectedly, he pondered upon the event. Whatever was going on, he was going to get to the bottom of it.

* * *

Police Chief Hugo returned to his apartment home after a very long and dreary day at the station. It was all the usual. The usual criminals still at large. The usual minor things the police department took care of on a regular basis. And so forth. Nothing interesting to speak of at all.

Still, Hugo was confident that if nothing interesting happened today, it would tomorrow.

Unlocking his apartment door, he stepped inside, flipping on the hall light in the process. Taking off his jacket and hanging it on a hook, he stepped in the next room, and went to flip the light on there as well.

Only the light did not turn on.

"I wouldn't bother." a voice from within the dark room suddenly said. "You won't be needing it anyway."

Hugo turned in the direction of the voice, and could dimly make out a figure there. "Who are you?" he asked, reaching for the sidearm he still carried. "Do I know you?"

"Very well, actually." the figure replied, and stepped out into the light.

Hugo gasped, and drew his pistol.

But the figure was faster.

* * *

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the bullet in your pistol! I am Darkwing Duck!"

"And I am the heir to the cape! I am the blue error screen your operating system displays! I am the Crimson Avenger!"

Two clouds of smoke appeared in the open doorway of the apartment, one blue, the other crimson. From both stepped out the aforementioned Darkwing Duck and Crimson Avenger.

The sight that greeted them was not a pretty one. Police swarmed around the apartment, while one officer looked down at the body of Police Chief Hugo, shot in the heart and very much dead. Forensics teams studied the body.

Darkwing gulped, and glanced at Crimson, who had stopped in her tracks. Darkwing decided to take charge.

"All, right, what happened?" he asked in a loud voice.

The officer looking at the body, Officer Matthew, looked up. "Oh, Darkwing!" he exclaimed, surprised. "I didn't hear you come in."

"You what?" Darkwing asked. "You mean I wasted a cartridge of smoke and a catch phrase on..." he trailed off, forcing himself to get back on subject. "What happened?"

"Shot in the heart at close range." one of the forensics team members replied. "Looks like a 9mm pistol. Semi-automatic."

"Not unlike the pistols you all carry." Darkwing noted, spying such a pistol strapped to Matthew's waist. "Anyone we know of who'd have a grudge against poor Hugo here?"

"Just one." Matthew said, looking even more upset.

"Oh, don't tell me..." Darkwing said with a moan.

Matthew did anyway. "Ex-Officer Lewis Jakeway." he replied.

Darkwing grumbled something unintelligently for a moment. "The jerk." he finally said. "First messes _my _attempts to capture the enemy, _then _he goes about trying to kill me, _further _messing up my attempts to capture the enemy, _then _he goes missing without a trace for a few days, and now _this!_" he sighed, taking off his hat as he looked down at the still form of Hugo. "Y'know, this guy was one of the few who ever really supported me in what I did." he said softly. "The SCPD has lost a great asset tonight."

Matthew nodded in agreement. "This is going to throw a real wrench in the gears too, as we try and figure out how this happened and get Hugo replaced." he pointed out.

"Speaking of which, any ideas how the killer got in here?" Darkwing asked.

"None." Matthew replied.

"No breaking an entering, nothing?" Darkwing asked.

"Nothing." Matthew confirmed.

"That's weird." Darkwing said, rubbing his chin. "Last time I ran into Lewis, he blundered his way through things. It would take skill to get in here and out without a trace, skill he doesn't have."

"So he could be anywhere." Matthew summarized.

"Even more important, could not even be Lewis." Darkwing admitted. "Maybe the Fearsome Five are up to something, or we've got an entirely new villain out there." he sighed again, replacing his hat on his head. "It's something to investigate. Keep me posted, and I'll keep all of you posted."

He turned to leave. "C'mon Crimson." he said.

But Crimson still hadn't moved. Darkwing looked at her, and then followed her gaze to Hugo's body. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was wrong. Gently, Darkwing approached his adopted daughter, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Crimson." he repeated softly, "time to go."

Crimson blinked, and glanced at her father. "Oh." she muttered, "Right." and followed him outside the room.

Once outside, Darkwing asked, "Crimson, you sure you want to do this case?" he asked. "Murder is never a pretty thing, and this could only get worse from here."

"I'm sure." Crimson replied, brushing her cape aside. "If I intend on becoming a full time crime fighter, this is something I'll have to adjust to."

"True." Darkwing admitted, taking pride in the fact that Crimson was willing to deal with something even though it bothered her. "But you are still young, and there's no rush."

"I'm sure." Crimson repeated, but didn't sound sure of herself as they reached the Ratcatcher and she climbed into the sidecar.

"No, wait, Gos..." Darkwing stuttered, stopped Crimson with one hand.

Crimson looked up, surprised Darkwing called her by her real name while they were _both _in costume.

"Look." Darkwing said. "I have been crime fighting for a long time now. But I always hate the murder cases. They have always bugged me, and I've seen some that are more gruesome than the one you just saw. Thankfully, St. Canard, even though it is riddled with crime, doesn't see such murders often. But my point is that it takes strength to face them and work murder cases. And if you ever feel you can't handle it, I hope you have strength enough to tell me. I won't make you help with this case if you don't want to."

Crimson was silent for a moment, then gently placed her hand on Darkwing's. "Thanks." she said. "I'll consider it."

Darkwing grinned, then switched gears. "Right." he said, climbing onto the Ratcatcher himself. "Now back to Darkwing Tower to analyze all of this."

* * *

The following morning at Bushroot's greenhouse, the mutant plant-duck was trying to salvage as much as he could from the failed nanite evil scheme by building another control nanite.

"Good, good, good." he said, peering into the magnifying glass as it worked with the pinhead-sized nanite. "With a little luck, I can finish this, and then Negaduck won't be mad with..._as _mad with me."

He continued working, humming to himself as he went.

"Hey, Bushroot!" a voice suddenly exclaimed.

Bushroot jumped, shedding several leaves, and flinging his tool across the room. "Who? What? Where? When? Why?" he yelled rapidly as he recovered from the fright. Finally he saw who was standing in the doorway. "Oh, Rowe, it's just you."

Bushroot heaved a sigh, and picked up his fallen tool to continue working. Rowe stepped up to Bushroot's worktable.

"Hey." he greeted, and then peered down at the little petri dish that contained the new control nanite. The otter paled slightly. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah, it's a new control nanite." Bushroot replied, not looking up from his work. "Even though Negaduck trashed the project, I want to finish it anyway, just to prove that I–ow!"

Rowe had suddenly and unexpectedly slapped Bushroot's hand away, again sending the tool within it hurtling away. Bushroot stared at Rowe, unsure what was happening.

"You should have obeyed Negs, Bushroot." Rowe said with a glare.

He then grabbed the petri dish, and with one hand, crushed it and the half-finished nanite within it into pieces. Throwing the shards away, he then grabbed the worktable, and, again with one hand, flung it aside, a feat that required more strength than Bushroot knew Rowe to have.

Bushroot, frightened, began backing up, but Rowe stepped closer. Without warning, he suddenly grabbed Bushroot around the throat and brought him closer to his face.

"Do _not _work on that nanite again." Rowe said with a growl. "As Negaduck told you, the project is finished."

And with that, he flung Bushroot aside and into a row of potted plants, then turned to leave.

"Grab him!" Bushroot commanded the various plants in the room. He sensed something was very wrong about all of this.

And this suspicion was proven true as Rowe began to dodge around the grasps of the various plants that went out to nab the otter. Ducking, rolling, flipping, Rowe soon had crossed the room and was at the door again.

There he stopped, and turned to look back at Bushroot. "Tell Negaduck I was here." he said. "He'll be interested to hear about it."

And with that, he left, leaving Bushroot to wonder what in the world was going on...

* * *

At home, Drake Mallard was working on baking cookies, following a recipe he found recently in a library book. And since he figured he wasn't going to have much to do today with Gosalyn at school and Launchpad at the tower working on the Thunderquack, he decided to give it a try.

Stirring a mixture in a bowl, he glanced at the recipe briefly, looked out the nearby window quickly to note that it was a nice day and that there was a Flashquack waiting to come in, before returning to the mixture in the bowl.

Wait a minute.

Startled, Drake looked back out the window, and indeed saw the remote controlled mini-version of the Thunderquack that he used to communicate with others, particularly top-secret organization called SHUSH, patiently waiting to come inside.

Setting aside the bowl, he opened the window to permit the Flashquack to enter, and pulled out a spare hat and mask that he kept on hand for these kind of situations, putting them on. He pressed the activate button on the Flashquack, and it's top flipped open to reveal a video screen. The screen erupted into static for a moment, before a face materialized upon it.

"Darkwing, ol' boy!" J. Gander Hooter, head of SHUSH, greeted cheerfully. "Good day to you!"

"Hey, J. Gander." Darkwing greeted, continuing to stir his batter out of Hooter's sight. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, just calling to make sure you received the materials you asked for." Hooter replied.

Darkwing paused for a moment. "What materials?" he asked.

"The materials you requested for yesterday." Hooter replied, frowning. "You asked for, I believe, steel and wire, and lots of it."

"I don't remember making such a request." Darkwing thought out loud, thinking back. "When did I make this order, again?"

"Yesterday, around four-thirty." Hooter replied, now looking to be puzzled. "You requested it be sent to a certain address so you could pick it up discreetly."

"I was picking up Gos from soccer practice at four-thirty." Darkwing muttered softly to himself, so Hooter wouldn't hear. "You sure it was me, because it couldn't have been me."

"SHUSH's records check out, Darkwing." Hooter replied. "You called me using your security code. We even had a brief video conference. I reminded you of our chess match we have scheduled for Wednesday."

Darkwing was silent for a moment, batter forgotten. "J. Gander," he began slowly. "I am positive that I didn't make such an order at the time stated, and that I didn't talk with you. I never even received this shipment of steel and wire, as you say."

"Then, Darwking, we have a situation on our hands." Hooter remarked.

* * *

"Thanks for coming along for this LP." Darkwing said as he and Launchpad rode the Ratcatcher through the streets of St. Canard. "Even though it could be nothing, I want to have somebody on hand, just in case."

"No problem-o, DW." Launchpad replied. "Crimson Avenger or not, I'm still your sidekick, right?"

"That you are, LP." Darkwing answered, as he pulled the motorbike to a stop at their destination.

They looked around at the empty lot they found themselves at.

"Well, that shipment of stuff SHUSH supposedly sent you ain't here either." Launchpad remarked. "This was the address they told you they sent the stuff to, right?"

"This is really weird." Darkwing muttered. "SHUSH just doesn't make mistakes like this. And by the sound of things, it _wasn't_ a mistake."

"You think there's somebody behind this?" Launchpad asked.

Darkwing nodded. "Someone who's trying to impersonate me and exploit my contacts with SHUSH." he said.

"Negaduck?" Launchpad guessed immediately.

"That was my first thought, too, but Negs shouldn't know my SHUSH security code and IDC." Darkwing replied. "And if he does, then we're in trouble. Fortunately, Director Hooter agreed to change the codes as quickly as possible. They were seven years out-of-date anyway."

"So, where to now?" Launchpad asked, climbing back into the Ratcatcher.

"I have a hunch." Darkwing said, as they drove off again. "And it might provide some answers..."

* * *

Darkwing personally hated this abandoned office building, as it was here that he was captured by Negaduck and taken to the Negaverse to spend the next seven years of his life. As such, he had never returned to this building, feeling a little leery about it.

Still, this was as most likely place to find Negaduck than any. He already knew that this wasn't the Fearsome Five's new hideout, but he had determined that it was here that Negaduck kept in contact with the Negaverse via some kind of portal. And last he knew, Negaduck was still doing that. Here. So Darkwing hoped he would find his double here and get some answers.

Motioning for Launchpad to be quiet, the two inched towards the abandoned building. Reaching a wall, Darkwing motioned Launchpad to wait a moment, and inched towards a window. Listening, he heard something shuffling around within the room.

"He's here!" he whispered to Launchpad.

And then a pair of hands reached out the window and latched themselves around Darkwing's neck, dragging him up and into the room.

"Well, well, lookee who's here." Negaduck muttered, releasing Darkwing.

"Negs!" Darkwing gasped. "Who knew you'd be here?"

"Oh, don't give me that, you were trying to spy on me, and you know it." Negaduck said, shutting the window, to prevent Launchpad from following.

"All right, we were." Darkwing admitted, rubbing at his sore neck. "But for different reasons. I wanted to find out if _you_ had been the one impersonating me."

"It's an idea I've toyed with every now and then, but it..." Negaduck suddenly stopped. "Wait. Someone has been impersonating you?"

"Yes..." Darkwing replied cautiously, thinking Negaduck was up to something.

"Who?" Negaduck asked, seeming to be genuinely curious.

"I don't know, that's why I was spying on you!" Darkwing exclaimed, annoyed. "You seemed to be the most likely candidate!"

"Well, it wasn't me!" Negaduck said. "But you're not the only person who's been impersonated. I've been having my own members of the Fearsome Five getting impersonated!"

"Say what?" Darkwing asked, surprised. "Who'd want to do _that_?"

"To give me warnings, haunt me, I don't really know." Negaduck replied. "But he, whoever he is, impersonated Quackerjack to tell me to leave _you, _of all people, alone, and then impersonated Rowe and attacked Bushroot!"

"All just to have you leave _me _alone?" Darkwing repeated.

"That's right!" Negaduck replied hotly. "And it's only because of that you're still alive, and will remain so! This guy is fast and powerful! No one knows how he knew where to go to find us, and how he pulls it all off! He's threatened to attack me if I so much as lay a finger on you, and he's already proven he's capable! I'm trying to get to the bottom of it all!"

"So am I!" Darkwing said. "This guy's gotten into my contacts with SHUSH! He has my codes and everything!"

"Lucky!" Negaduck muttered, "I've been trying to get those codes for years now!"

"Well, they're getting changed again, so don't bother." Darkwing said, then shook his head. "Negs, you're actually going to let me live, just because another person told you to leave me alone?"

"He can carry out his threats, and I don't want to risk it." Negaduck said, heading for the door. "But _next _time we meet..." he slashed one finger across his neck, and then, on that final note, left.

Darkwing placed his hands on his hips, more puzzled than ever. He got some answers, but they only opened up more questions...

* * *

Arriving back at the tower, Darkwing paced the floor relentlessly. "There has got to be a connection here somewhere." he muttered as he thought. He stopped to glance at the clock. "Gosalyn should be home by now, maybe she can help."

"I don't think so, DW, check this out." Launchpad said, finding a note and reading it before handing it to Darkwing.

"Let's see here..." Darkwing muttered, grabbing the note, "'Dear Dad. You weren't home so I'm leaving this note just to remind you where I am. I'm at the Darkwing Duck Fan club, where the Crimson Avenger is scheduled to make her first appearance there. Should be home in time for dinner. Honker's coming with. With love, Gosalyn.' Hmpf, I had forgotten that."

"Guess she can't help, after all, DW." Launchpad said.

"Which is a pity, because this impersonation thing is right up her alley." Darkwing said. "Sounds like the sort of thing she would do...wait. If this guy could get enough information about me to know my SHUSH codes, he could find out about this event at the fan club, easily!"

"Well, sure, it's been advertised in the paper all week!" Launchpad remarked without thinking.

Darkwing gasped. "Gosalyn!" he said, rushing back to the Ratcatcher. "C'mon, we've got to go to that event and make sure Gos is alright!"

* * *

"Gos, why must I be Arrow Kid?" Honker asked from backstage, adjusting his costume slightly.

"Because, you haven't come up with a better alias yet." Gosalyn replied, already dressed as the Crimson Avenger. "And besides, all of these guys at the fan club have figured out I used to be Quiverwing Quack, and you are one of the many things they associate that with. They'd like to know that my sidekick is still around."

"I haven't agreed to be your sidekick yet." Honker pointed out. "I'm still thinking about it."

"Oh, of course you will, Honk." Gosalyn said, twirling her black cape. "You just need to warm up to the idea still."

A noise suddenly rang out from within a room of props.

"What was that?" Honker asked suddenly.

"I don't know." Gosalyn replied, switching into Crimson mode. "We've got a few minutes still before we go onstage, so I'll go check it out."

Moving cautiously, she inched her way into the props room, flipping on the single yellow light in the room in the process. She hadn't taken five steps into the room when the door suddenly swung shut behind her. Gosalyn turned around to see who had done it...

...and was very startled to see herself standing there.

"Well, I guess you beat me here." the double remarked.

Gosalyn only saw trouble, and lunged forward to attack without even needing to think about it. But her lunge was blocked by her double, who threw her arms up at the speed of lightning. Gosalyn threw a left hook at her double, but it was blocked as well. So was the right hook she threw next. Her double was simply moving too quickly.

Then, out of nowhere, the double gave Gosalyn a swift uppercut to Gosalyn's chin, making Gosalyn stagger back a few paces stunned. Then the double launched herself into the air, twirling around into what Gosalyn recognized as Darkwing's trademark triple-flip web-kick. But while the double was in midair, the image it bore of Gosalyn suddenly melted away...

...to form the very metallic and rigid form of some kind of robot.

Gosalyn was beyond stunned now. "Keen g-" she began, but was cut off at the robot's right foot landed the kick into Gosalyn's stomach with great strength, throwing Gosalyn backwards into a pile of props, unconscious.

The robot's metallic beak twisted into a grin. A grin which broadened when he heard someone pounding on the door.

"Gos? What happened?" Honker was heard calling into the room. "Are you all right?"

"Two, for the price of one." the robot said in a gleeful, unnatural, voice, going to open the door and show Honker a little 'surprise'...

* * *

It took all of Darkwing's willpower not to drive the Ratcatcher right into the auditorium the Darkwing Duck Fan Club had booked for this event, just so he wouldn't have to take the time to stop, get out of the Ratcatcher, and _then _enter the building.

Parking at the curb, ignoring the fact that the curb was in fact painted yellow and thus meant he couldn't park there, Darkwing leapt off the bike and was already heading for the door before Launchpad had a chance to even undo his seatbelt.

"Hey, DW!" Launchpad called after his friend, as he struggled to hurry up and follow. "Wait for me!"

The moment Darkwing entered the auditorium, he sensed something was wrong. It was five minutes after six. The event was to start directly on the hour. The small group sitting in the seats, looking expectantly towards the stage, were beginning to mumble about when the show would begin. Darkwing worried. It wasn't like Gosalyn to be late for something like this.

Launchpad then came stumbling into the room, falling over as he tripped on the edge of the door in an attempt to step around Darkwing. His fall was loud and noisy, and caused heads to turn towards the pair.

"Hey everybody, it's Darkwing Duck!" one of the fans yelled, and suddenly people were getting out of their seats to approach the hero, surrounding him.

But for once, not even fame could distract Darkwing, as he started to press through the crowd and reach the stage. "Excuse me!" he said again and again. "Excuse me! _Excuse me!_"

Then Darkwing was the curtain on the stage part, and the robot step through. He glanced once at Darkwing, grinned, then raised what looked like a weapon attached to hand and fired straight up, into the ceiling. The bang grabbed everyone's attention.

"Attention everybody!" the robot called out. "All of you fans have exactly two minutes to leave this building before I start shooting!"

All the fans needed as a signal to go was the robot taking aim with his weapon. Half a minute later, they were all gone, and it was only Darkwing and Launchpad left in the audience.

The robot grinned again. "Good evening, Darkwing." it greeted.

Darkwing cautiously stepped towards the robot from where it still stood on the stage. "Who are you?" he asked.

"What, you mean you don't recognize me?" the robot asked, pretending to be offended. Then his form changed from robot to a living being, taking on the form of a person who seemed all too familiar. "How about now?"

Darkwing blinked, surprised. "Officer Lewis?" he asked hesitantly.

Lewis moved like lightning and was suddenly before Darkwing. He slapped Darkwing harshly across the face, with enough force that Darkwing was knocked over. "That's _ex_-officer, no thanks to you!" he growled.

"Hey!" Launchpad exclaimed, and moved towards Lewis.

Lewis grabbed the pilot by the front of his shirt and lifted him into the air. "You know, you're both far too predicable." he said, looking Launchpad over. "Start a scene and you're both right here. That's how I got you here. Isn't that right, Darkwing?" he glanced over at the fallen hero as he picked himself up, rubbing at his sore beak. "Put someone life on the line, and you come running. You can't let that happen, now can you? Especially when it's the life of your adopted _daughter_!"

Darkwing stared at Lewis, and opened his mouth to speak, but then the curtains suddenly swung open, revealing both Honker and Crimson onstage, tied up, gagged, and dangling upside from a rafter in the roof. Both were conscious, but showed signs of being in a scuffle. They both gave Darkwing a wide-eyed and panicked look, completely helpless.

Darkwing stared at Lewis again. "How did you..."

"Know?" Lewis asked, throwing Launchpad further up the aisle. "Same thing that lets me do this." his form suddenly melted away and back to the robotic form.

"How did you get like that, anyway?" Darkwing asked, now starting to backup as Lewis approached.

Lewis didn't reply, but instead grabbed Darkwing's arm, and pulled up Darkwing's sleeve. Upon Darkwing's arm was a small patch of grey, all that remained from an incident earlier that same week. Lewis grinned and tapped a finger on this patch.

Darkwing paled as he understood. "The control nanite." he said.

Lewis nodded his head, looking victorious. "When you flipped that worktable at me last time me met, you unwittingly sent that control nanite at me with enough force it penetrated my skin. The transformation only took about an hour before it was complete. It was then that I started remember stuff. Memories that weren't mine."

He suddenly grabbed Darkwing by the front of the shirt and pulled him closer, pushing Launchpad aside as the pilot tried to intervene. "You see, Darkwing, when the nanite ended up in me, I inherited some of your memories. Not many, mind you, and mostly just from the time you had the nanite within yourself. Didn't learn much from most of it. But I did learn some thing. Let's how much of this rings a bell to you. The triple-flip web-kick. S0915A, your SHUSH security code. 3016300346, your SHUSH identification code, better known as an IDC. That the equipment in your hideout is seven years out of date. That you secretly admire Gizmoduck for succeeding where you haven't. That the Crimson Avenger is your adopted daughter." he lifted Darkwing over his head. "Heard any bells ring yet?"

"Several, actually." Darkwing replied wittily.

"You might think that I'm totally insane to like this...enhancement, with the control nanite." Lewis went on. "But I'm totally lovin' it. I'm better, stronger, smarter, and these nanites in me give me such an advantage. As you've already seen, I can command them to create the forms of others. And that is only the very beginning of what they can do. I don't think even Bushroot knew their full potential." he lifted Darkwing even higher into the air. "The only thing I have to complain about is that the most vital fact I could have learned from these nanites is your secret identity. That's right, I don't know who you _really _are, and neither do I know Crimson's. And if these nanites have that knowledge locked in them somewhere, I have yet to find them." he suddenly tossed Darkwing aside where the hero landed at the foot of the stage. "But at this point, I don't think it'll matter anymore."

"Now, wait, there's one thing I still don't get." Darkwing said. "You ordered that shipment of steel and wire from SHUSH. But what for?"

"Used it to make a few enhancements to myself." Lewis replied with a shrug. "Like this."

And with that, his hand suddenly turned into some kind of weapon, and fired a bolt of energy at Darkwing. Darkwing was only just barely able to miss it, leaping to one side. He picked himself up only to have Lewis fire again and force him to jump to one side. Darkwing pulled out his gas gun and tried to line up a clear shot at Lewis, but Lewis's constant firing kept throwing off Darkwing's aim.

Meanwhile, Launchpad had used this distraction to sneak on stage, and began to untie Crimson, so she could help. But the moment he un-gagged her, Crimson yelled, "Launchpad, look out!"

Launchpad turned in time to see Lewis suddenly shift his aim towards him and fire. With a yell, Launchpad leapt aside as two shots came hurtling on stage. One impacted the floor of the stage and blasted a large hole. Another sliced through the rope that suspended Crimson into the air, allowing Crimson to fall flat onto her back, still just as helpless.

Launchpad then ran for cover, Lewis constantly firing at him. But then Darkwing grabbed onto Lewis's arm, and thus throwing off Lewis's aim for what would've been a fatal shot. The shot instead hit the open curtain, setting it aflame.

Lewis and Darkwing struggled for a moment, before, with a mighty swing, Lewis threw Darkwing off of him, throwing the masked mallard up into the air. Darkwing turned around in midair as he started to fall, and saw a row of seats coming up to greet him. Quickly, he pulled out his gas gun and fired the grappling hook and rope up at a row of spotlights directly over him. the rope went taunt, and swung Darkwing over to the far aisle in the auditorium.

Lewis fired at the spot the rope and hook had latched onto the row of lights, severing not only the rope, causing Darkwing's landing to be rough, but also sent the row of lights tumbling down onto the center group of seats with a crash.

"You _missed _Lewis!" Darkwing called out.

"Argh!" Lewis cried out as he let out a random string of shots all across the room, starting to fill with smoke. "Don't you get it? I'm not Lewis anymore! I've changed!" he paused, regaining his composure. "The name is Nanite."

Meanwhile, on stage, Crimson struggled with the ropes that bound her, but wasn't getting any leeway. Honker, on the other hand, was making more progress, for some passing shrapnel from one of Nanite's stray shots had cut Honker's rope slightly. With a little work, the rope came free, and Honker landed onto the stage, free from his bounds. Quickly, he looked around for a way to help, when his eyes fell on Crimson's gas gun.

Back off stage, Nanite had tracked Darkwing down again, and quickly grabbed the hero by the neck in the smokey haze filling the room.

"Gotcha!" Nanite cried out victoriously, slapping Darkwing's gas gun away.

But then something struck Nanite from behind, making the demented robot drop Darkwing. Enraged, he turned in time to see Honker fire two more shots from Crimson's gas gun. Both shots hit home, releasing flame retardant. The foamy substance got into Nanite's joints, and quickly brought the robot to halt.

Darkwing used the moment to slap some handcuffs on the stiff-jointed robot. "Nanite, you're under arrest." he announced.

"On what charges?" Nanite asked.

"For the murder of Police Chief Hugo, for one." Darkwing said. "Also for attempted murder, disruption of the peace, carrying illegal weapons within city boundaries, willful destruction of public property..." he paused, tilting his head as he smirked at Nanite. "I've got more." he added.

Nanite simply frowned.

* * *

When everyone returned to the tower some hours later, it was done so with much relief.

"I'm glad _that's _over." Crimson said, rubbing at her various aches and pains.

Darkwing was doing likewise. "Don't I know it." he said. "Dibs on the shower." he added, as he changed out of his costume.

Launchpad brushed soot from his shirt. "At least we're all safe, and Nanite's being put in the St. Canard Supervillain Prison even as we speak." he remarked.

"By the way, good work with the flame retardant, Honk." Gosalyn said, as she stepped out from the changing area in her normal attire.

"Yeah, smart thinkin' little buddy." Launchpad added.

"I must admit, that was a good idea, Honker." Drake added, as he too came out of the changing area in his usual attire. "Takes skill to decide what to use that quickly."

"Er, thank you." Honker said, looking slightly embarrassed. "But, uh, I just fired the first attachment my hand hit and hoped for the best."

Drake and Gosalyn exchanged glances. "That works too." Gosalyn admitted.

"Hey, how about we celebrate with some ice cream?" Launchpad suggested, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"Good idea, LP, but after my shower." Drake said, heading for the seats that would take them to the Mallard residence.

Gosalyn started to follow, but Honker stopped her. "Hey Gos?" he said. "Y'know, after tonight, I think I can manage being you sidekick."

Gosalyn grinned. "Told yah all you needed to do was warm up to the idea." she remarked.

"Hey, are we coming or not?" Drake asked as he impatiently waited at the chairs.

"Coming Dad!" Gosalyn called, taking Honker's hand. "C'mon Honk, I've got some triple-ripple fudge mint ice cream stashed away that Dad doesn't know about that we can share."


	4. Broken Hearts

Summary: Darkwing decides it's time to get back together with Morgana, but he quickly discovers that seven years is longer than he thought. And trouble is about to start for Gosalyn as well...

Rating For this adventure: K+

Author's Note: I hope I satisfactory explain why I wrote this chapter. If not, say so, and I'll try to explain further. Hope no one will be too disappointed once they read this.

4.

Broken Hearts

"Well, Gos, Launchpad, I have an announcement to make." Drake Mallard announced as he stepped into the living room late one Sunday afternoon.

Gosalyn and Launchpad tore their eyes away from the TV, and looked at Drake expectantly.

"What is it, DW?" Launchpad asked. "A new mission for Darkwing?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that." Drake said dismissively. "I gave myself the day off."

Gosalyn blinked in surprise, not expecting her Dad to do that. "May I ask why?" she asked.

"Well, you see, it's been a really long month..." Drake began.

"I'll say it has." Gosalyn muttered, looking back at the TV. "First, there was you coming back after being missing for seven years, that fight with Negaduck over the SHUSH super suit, Audubon Bay Bridge almost collapsing with us in it, you nearly turning into a robot, and that run in with Nanite. I can't believe it's still the same month."

"Like I said, it's been a really long month." Drake repeated, giving Gosalyn an annoyed look for interrupting. "I've been really busy settling back in, and fighting supervillains, so I thought it was time to treat myself to some quality time with one of my favorite persons on this planet."

Gosalyn glanced at her adopted dad, her face going neutral. "Me or Launchpad?" she asked.

"Close, but not quite." Drake said. "I'm going to go see Morgana again."

The reaction he got wasn't the one he expected. Gosalyn frowned, and Launchpad paled.

"What?" Drake asked.

Launchpad opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. So after a few moments, he finally gave up and closed it.

"See Morgana?" Gosalyn said, worry bleeding through in her voice. "You mean just to see her, say hi, and stuff like that, or are you..."

"I going to go over there, say hi, then pick up right from where we left off." Drake summarized, heading for the chairs that led to Darkwing Tower.

Gosalyn followed, looking nervous. "Dad, are you sure?" she asked.

"Gos, I haven't seen Morgana in _years_." Drake said, sitting down in one of the chairs. "I've missed her as much as I've missed you, only it's been a whole month longer since I last seen her. It's high time we saw each other again."

He punched the activation control on the chairs, but not before Gosalyn quickly sat herself in the second chair and came with. Arriving at the tower, she followed Drake around as he changed into his Darkwing costume.

"Coming with, Gos?" Darkwing asked, as he changed.

"I think I'd better, yes." Gosalyn said, also changing into her costume.

She looked nervous, and like she knew something that she wasn't saying. Darkwing noted it, but otherwise ignored it for the moment.

"You know, I'm actually surprised Morgana hasn't called or something." Darkwing said, hopping onto the Ratcatcher, and revving the engine into life. "She must have heard I was back."

"Oh, she has, that I can guarantee you." Crimson promised, sitting down into the Ratcatcher's sidecar. "But, Dad, ever think there could be a reason why she hasn't contacted you?"

Darkwing thought about it as they drove off for Morgana's mansion. He really did. "No." he finally admitted, missing Crimson's tone.

They fell silent for most the journey that followed. Crimson seemed to only get more nervous as they went, fiddling with the rim of her black hat in anxiety. Again, Darkwing got the impression there was something Crimson wasn't telling him, stronger this time, and couldn't ignore it this time.

"Crimson, is there something you want to tell me?" he asked finally.

Crimson hesitated for a moment. "Yes." she finally admitted. "But I'm not sure if I'm the right person to do it."

Darkwing gave her an odd look, wondering what that meant, and was about to try and pry more information out of Crimson, when he realized he was just about to drive past Morgana's mansion. Quickly he stopped, and parked at the curb. Forgetting Crimson's anxiety in anticipation of seeing Morgana again, he hopped out of the motorbike and walked confidently up to the front door.

Crimson quickly followed. "Don't you think you should call first?" she asked.

"I want to surprise her." Darkwing replied, and pressed the doorbell, quickly pulling his hand back as the doorbell nipped at it in response.

Several moments went by as they waited, which Crimson spent most of it silently sweating. Finally, the door opened, and revealed a puzzled looking Morgana Macawber. Darkwing grinned at the sight of her, surprised to see that she had remained completely unchanged except for her hairstyle, which the wizardess now wore in a ponytail.

Morgana's face brightened slightly when she saw Crimson, which she saw first. But then she frowned when Crimson pointed at Darkwing, and her eyes widened in surprise when she actually saw Darkwing standing there, grinning.

"W-why...D-D-Dark!" Morgana stuttered, shocked, then shot a look at Crimson.

Crimson shifted nervously under the stare.

Darkwing noticed. "What, is this the welcome I get after being gone for seven years?" he asked, annoyed.

"Oh... no...of course not, Dark... it's just that..." Morgana bit her lip, frowning. "You'd better come in."

She held the door open wide to permit the two crime fighters to enter. Darkwing sniffed the air.

"You cooking something, Morg?" he asked, trying to make small chat.

"Never mind that, Dark." she said, looking Darkwing up and down. "I must admit, I'm...well...shocked, to see you here." she paused, and regarded Darkwing curiously. "Why are you here?"

"Well, to see you, of course!" Darkwing said, puzzled.

"That's what I thought." Morgana said, frown broadening as she turned to Crimson. "You didn't tell him?" she asked.

"Tell me what?" Darkwing asked.

"Well, no!" Crimson replied, ignoring Darkwing. "I mean, how could I? I didn't really know how, and besides, was it really something I should tell him?"

"_Tell me what?_" Darkwing repeated, this time with more force.

"Well, no, I suppose not." Morgana admitted. "But still...him coming to me like this will only make it worse and..."

"Will _somebody _please tell me what in the world it is that I don't know?" Darkwing exclaimed, annoyed he was being ignored like this.

Crimson and Morgana both turned to look at him. Morgana avoided eye contact, suddenly looked sad, and Crimson sighed.

"I'm married, Dark." Morgana finally said, and held out her hand so Darkwing could see the ring.

Darkwing stared at it in a numbed state of shock, looking like he wasn't sure this was really happening. "What?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, I know should've told you much sooner than this." Morgana said quickly. "Right when you got back, even. But, well, I knew it'd be a blow to you no matter what, and...oh Dark, I didn't want that, so..."

"I'm sorry too, I should've said something before now too." Crimson added, staring down at her feet. "But, like I said, I didn't really know how, and...was it really my place to be the one to tell you?"

Darkwing still didn't look like he understood. "You married?" he repeated, staring at Morgana. "When? And to who?"

"Five years ago." Morgana replied glumly. "To a warlock."

"A war..." Darkwing began to repeat, bewildered, then shook his head. "That long? And to a _warlock_?"

"A warlock _psychiatrist._" Crimson corrected.

"Psychiatrist?" Darkwing repeated.

"Well, you see, when you vanished, I was pretty distraught. He helped me through it, and one thing led to another, and, well..." Morgana tried to explain.

Darkwing still looked like he was just told the world didn't really exist. "I don't even know what a warlock _is_." he said, frustrated.

"Just a male magician, Dad." Crimson explained. "Really just another word for a wizard. He's really a nice guy, actually. You'd never think he's of magical blood."

"How would you know?" Darkwing asked, pointing at Crimson.

Morgana hung her head, and answered for Crimson. "She was at the wedding." she said simply.

"Flower girl." Crimson explained further.

Darkwing made several unintelligible noises, walking aimlessly in a jagged circle. "You've been married for five years to a warlock _psychiatrist_?" he said. "I mean, when I arrived here, I guess I knew there was a chance something had changed between you and me, Morg, but..." he trailed off, suddenly looking around. "Where is that warlock psychiatrist anyway?" he asked.

"Bob's not here, he won't come home from work for another hour." Morgana explained.

"Bob?" Darkwing repeated angrily. "His name is _Bob_?"

"Dad, calm down." Crimson quickly intervened, going to Darkwing's side.

Darkwing stepped away from his daughter, leaning against a nearby wall, as the news finally started to sink in fully. He sighed, opened his mouth as if to say something, only nothing came out.

"Oh, Dark, I know this must be hard on you." Morgana said. "I know you were hoping we could get back together again, but...we can't."

Darkwing sighed. "I'm sorry Morg." he apologized. "I probably should've realized this happened. It was ignorant of me to think we could just get back together like nothing happened."

"It was ignorant of me to not tell you it had happened sooner, Dark." Morgana said. "But, you see, when you disappeared, everyone started to think you were dead, and not coming back. And, well, seven years is a very long time to wait for someone you think is never coming back. So I moved on."

Darkwing turned to look at Morgana and forced a grin. "Yes, seven years is a very long time." he said, hugging her. "It was stupid of me to think you hadn't moved on."

Morgana returned the hug. "And, of course we'll still be friends, Darkwing." she promised. "If you ever need anything, I'll try to be right there."

"Same here." Darkwing said, then turned for the door. "Well, I guess this is goodbye, then." he said.

Morgana nodded, but otherwise said nothing more.

"C'mon Crimson." Darkwing said, stepping out the door. "Let's go home."

* * *

"Dad, time for dinner!" Gosalyn said, rapping on the door of Drake's study. "C'mon, don't think I won't come in there and drag you out! You know I'm capable!"

"Gos, I'm not hungry!" Drake called back from the other side of the door.

"Dad, you're always telling me not to skip meals, and eat what's put in front of me!" Gosalyn called back. "If you don't come out soon, next time I refuse to eat a meal, I'm going to use this in my defense!"

"Gos, I'm not in the mood!" Drake pressed.

"Look, Dad!" Gosalyn pressed. "You can't stay in there and mope about Morgana forever! You'll have to move on eventually, too, you know!"

"I know Gos!" Drake called back. "But not today! Do you really expect me to do all that in one day?"

"If it means you'll come out for dinner, then yes!" Gosalyn said.

"I'll come eat when I'm hungry!" Drake promised.

But that wasn't good enough for Gosalyn, who pulled a hairpin out of her hair and started to pick the lock.

"I swear, this is the only real reason for wearing these things." she muttered as he worked.

"What's that?" Drake called, hearing Gosalyn speak. "Wait, Gos, you aren't picking the lock, are you? Well, are you?"

The lock suddenly clicked, and Gosalyn twisted the doorknob and attempted to open the study door, only to find that the door had been chained shut as well.

"You are trying to pick the lock!" Drake exclaimed from within the room, seeing his daughter stare at the little gold chain keeping the door shut.

"Open the door, Dad." Gosalyn said with a sigh.

"No, I'm staying here!" Drake pressed.

"Well, fine then!" Gosalyn said, and the door suddenly closed.

A moment later, Gosalyn kicked it open, ripping the chain out of it's socket in the doorframe, allowing the door to swing open loosely.

"Gosalyn!" Drake exclaimed, backing into a corner as his daughter approached him. "You wouldn't!"

"Try me!" Gosalyn challenged, and without warning, zipped forward and grabbed her Dad around the middle, lifting him clear off the floor, and started to walk out of the room, carrying her protesting father as she went.

Several crashes, bangs, scraping sounds, and shouting from both Gosalyn and Drake later, the two arrived in the kitchen, where Launchpad waited at the dinner table.

"Launchpad, help me here!" Gosalyn called to the pilot.

Launchpad rushed over, and together they forced the protesting Drake into his chair. Gosalyn set a plate of food down before him.

"Eat!" Gosalyn ordered.

Grumbling, Drake ate, scowling at Gosalyn and Launchpad alternately as they ate too.

"So, who's going on patrol tonight?" Gosalyn asked.

"Not me." Drake muttered. "I took the day off, remember? Might as well stick to it."

Gosalyn rolled her eyes, but did not press the issue. "Fine, then." she said. "Then me and Honker will just do it ourselves."

Seeing that neither her or Honker had been permitted to go on patrol alone before, Gosalyn thought Drake would be quick to object, saying that they couldn't, for whatever obscure reason, thus allowing Gosalyn to press her hand, and eventually talk Drake into coming with. But surprisingly, Drake did not argue this point, seeming to fully content with the idea Gosalyn and Honker going on patrol by themselves. So Gosalyn quickly dropped the subject, wondering if she would actually get away with that.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence. The moment Drake finished eating, he got out of his chair and stomped back to his study, slamming the door behind him. Gosalyn let him, but grudgingly.

"Poor guy, he's really torn up over Morgana." Launchpad remarked. "Think he'll ever get over it?"

"He had better, I'm not willing to have to drag him to the table for every meal." Gosalyn muttered. She set aside her dishes and headed over to the chairs. "Well, it looks like it really will be me and Honker doing the patrol tonight. Launchpad, you keep an eye on Dad, make sure he doesn't kill himself, or anything."

"I don't think DW's quite that distraught, but I'll keep a eye on him." Launchpad promised, sitting down on the couch and turning on the TV. "Besides, there's this _Jumpgate _marathon going on tonight that I want to watch."

"Ooh, a _Jumpgate _marathon, you say?" Gosalyn said, looking genuinely interested. "Record it so I can watch it later, please. 'Bye."

And with a whirl of the armchairs, Gosalyn left for Darkwing Tower.

* * *

"I can't believe you dad is letting us get away with this." Honker remarked from the sidecar of the Ratcatcher as they zipped down the dark streets of St. Canard.

"Neither can I." Crimson admitted. "Still, if he's going to actually let us, I'm going to jump on that chance. We're _never _allowed to do patrol without Darkwing tagging along."

"It's actually kind of exciting to do this all on our own." Honker added, keeping on a lookout for any crimes. "Think we can handle it?"

"Considering everything we've been through, it shouldn't come as surprise." Crimson remarked. "Really, we should've become full-time crime fighters years ago, with all the experience we've got."

"Actually, I'd want a new alias first, before we doing anything like that." Honker said, looking down at his Arrow Kid costume. "Why do I have to be Arrow Kid, still?"

"I've told you, because you haven't come up with a better alias yet." Crimson said. "I'm leaving that up entirely to you. I would've thought that when you agreed to become my sidekick that you had one in mind, anyway."

"Hey, deciding to be your sidekick is one thing. Deciding on the alias you want to have while being your sidekick is an entirely different issue." Honker said in his defense. "There are a whole lot more variables to consider and to calculate."

"You and your variables, Honk." Crimson muttered.

They drove on, heading towards a more abandoned part of town.

"Hey, I recognize that building." Honker suddenly said, pointing at one in particular.

Crimson glanced in the direction of the abandoned office building. "Ah, yes, the supposed location Negaduck visits when he contacts the Negaverse." she remarked. "No one has been able to prove it yet, however.

Honker frowned, staring at the looming, empty, building as they came closer to it. "I actually remember it as the place where Negaduck attacked us, stole a super suit from us, and we were apprehended by SHUSH at." he said, shuddering at the memory. "Let's avoid it."

"Good idea." Crimson agreed, and turned to avoid the building.

Honker watched it still, regardless, and it turned out to be a good thing that he was, for he suddenly saw a light flash in one of the building's lower windows.

"Whoa, wait!" Honker suddenly said. "Look, a light!"

Crimson stopped the Ratcatcher and squinted at the light. "That's a flashlight." she deduced. "Someone's in there."

Suddenly, she turned the Ratcatcher around, and headed for the building.

"Hey, I thought we agreed to avoid that building!" Honker objected.

"Change in plans, Honk." Crimson said, slowly the Ratcatcher as they arrived at the building. "I'll bet you a million dollars, that's Negaduck in there."

Parking the Ratcatcher, and climbing off of it, they quietly snuck up to the window in question, and looked inside. Sure enough, Negaduck stood there, grasping a flashlight in one hand, as he rooted through his jacket pocket with the other.

"That's..." Honker began to say, but Crimson quickly clapped a hand over his mouth, indicating for him to be silent.

Fortunately, Negaduck heard nothing. After a moment longer of digging through his pocket, the villain finally pulled a little remote from his pocket, and held it out, pressing buttons upon it. Crimson squinted at it, wondering what it was.

Then she didn't need to wonder, for a second later, a large, swirling portal of energy appeared before Negaduck, lighting the room.

Honker gasped, and quietly whispered in Crimson's ear, "That's a portal leading to the Negaverse!" he said.

"I know." Crimson replied grimly.

"How can Negaduck create such a portal so easily?" Honker thought out loud. "When SHUSH does it, they have to use this big machine that fills the entire room."

"I know." Crimson repeated. "That's why they've taken such an interest in this little remote Negaduck has."

Negaduck returned the remote to his pocket, and pulled out a walkie-talkie in it's place.

"You there?" he asked, speaking into the device.

"Yep." came the reply, loud and clear enough for it to be heard. Crimson paled when she heard that voice, recognizing it.

"Anything to report?" Negaduck asked.

"Just more of the usual." came the reply. It's source was most likely somewhere on the other end of the portal. "Death, destruction, usual chaos."

"And I'm missing it." Negaduck muttered, annoyed.

"I take it things aren't going so well on your end, huh?" the voice asked.

"No, Darkwing is going more grief than usual, it seems." Negaduck admitted. "I can barely get an evil plan off the ground before he intervenes. Things were easier when we had him trapped there, in the Negaverse. That left me free to do whatever here."

"Unfortunately, it's not likely Darkwing will fall such a trap again." the voice said.

"I know, which means I have to deal with him here, and now." Negaduck said. "And I'm trying, but getting nowhere."

"Can't the Fearsome Five help?" asked the voice.

"Of course they can't, those dunderheads." Negaduck said. "They can't so much as _breath_ without me telling them what to do. Furthermore, none of their strategies have changed any. Dipwing Dork has defeating them down to a science."

"What about that new guy...er...Rowe?" the voice asked. "He helping?"

"Maybe." Negaduck said. "But he's a real dunderhead too. Plus, he's still on probation."

"_Still?_" the voice asked. "C'mon, can't you forgive him for that one mistake?"

"No!" Negaduck replied, starting to pace now. "And besides, if I let Rowe become a full-time member of the group, that'll ruin a perfectly good name!"

"So you'll have six members, instead of the original five." the voice said. "Big whoop."

"Six just doesn't fit with the word, 'fearsome!'" Negaduck persisted.

"Then change it!" the voice suggested.

"To what?" Negaduck asked, annoyed.

"I don't know, the Sinister Six?" came the reply.

"_I am not changing the name 'Fearsome Five_'!" Negaduck roared. "I LIKE the name as IS!"

"Fine!" the voice exclaimed. "You figure it out then, but I don't see how you expect Rowe to be of any help to you, if you don't let him into the group fully!"

"I haven't decided if he's really all that useful to the Fearsome Five yet." Negaduck said, then frowned. "Now, the Friendly Four, on the other hand..."

"Don't worry, we're still looking for him." the voice assured Negaduck. "We'll track him down before the Friendly Four even knows he _exists_."

"Good, because if they find out that they have another potential ally there in the Negaverse, I'm in worse trouble than I already am." Negaduck said, rubbing at his masked forehead. "If only I could get rid of Darkwing, then I could get a handle on things again. Doesn't help any that he's got that goody-goody two-shoes helping him now, the Crimson Avenger."

"Is that who I think it is?" the voice asked.

"Absolutely, unfortunately." Negaduck said.

"Keen gear, she's getting in the way..." the voice said, then suddenly became thoughtful. "You know, I _do _have a score to settle with her..."

"Oh, no you don't!" Negaduck said. "I need you there, to keep an eye on things!"

"Everything here is under control!" the voice promised. "I'm not needed here! I could turn things over to my second in command right now! He can handle it!"

Negaduck sighed, considering it.

"Besides, it sounds like you need the help." the voice added.

"All right, fine!" Negaduck said in resignation. "Get over here, then."

The portal suddenly stepped through the portal, and stood before Negaduck. Crimson resisted the urge to gasp as she saw who it was.

"Here I am, to save the day!" NegaGosalyn said to Negaduck in a singsong voice.

* * *

Drake was sleeping fairly peacefully in bed, dreaming of times past with Morgana. He was just about to lead Morgana into a field of daises when Gosalyn's head suddenly appeared over the horizon, and opened her mouth to yell...

"_**DAD! WAKE UP!**_"

Drake leapt upwards in fright, instantly getting entangled in his sheets, as he tried to calm his beating heart and turned to face his adopted daughter standing next to the side of his bed. Frowning, he squinted at his alarm clock.

"Gosalyn!" Drake moaned, and rolled over. "It's late at night! Go find something else to do!"

"But this is important!" Gosalyn persisted, rolling Drake back over to face her.

"Not as important as me getting some time to sleep!" Drake persisted, and rolled back over.

"But the Crimson Avenger caught Negaduck communicating with the Negaverse tonight while on patrol!" Gosalyn persisted, rolling Drake over again.

"Patrol?" Drake repeated. "Patrol? You went out on patrol? _Alone_?"

"You pretty much gave me permission to, tonight!" Gosalyn said in her defense. "Remember, at dinner, I said I was going to do it, and you didn't object!"

"I...you...well..." Drake stuttered for a moment, then sighed in relief. "Fine. Whatever. Now let me sleep."

He went to roll back over on his bed, but Gosalyn stopped him. "No, stay with me Dad, this is important!" she insisted.

"Wait to tell me in the morning, when I'm awake!" Drake commanded, trying to ignore Gosalyn.

"But I'm here!" Gosalyn said.

"I know you are, and I want you to go away!" Drake said.

"No, I mean I'm here in this universe, with me!" Gosalyn persisted.

"What?" Drake asked, only getting puzzled.

"I mean," Gosalyn said, trying over again, "My _double_ is here in this universe!"

Drake froze. "Wait." he said. "You mean your double, as in NegaGosalyn, in this universe? _She's in the Posiverse_?"

"Yes!" Gosalyn said, glad Drake was catching on. "I saw her walk through the portal herself! She's here to help Negaduck fight us, specifically me!"

"Then what does that have to do with me?" Drake asked.

"I'm your daughter, for starters!" Gosalyn said. "You like to stay on top of these kind of things!"

"So I do." Drake said, lying back down on his bed and pulling the covers closer to him. "Now let me sleep. We'll worry about it later."

Gosalyn muttered something unintelligibly for a moment. "Dad, this is serious!" she pressed, "I could use your help!"

"But do you really need it tonight, Gos?" Drake asked. "I'm dead tired, and in no mood to be worrying over stuff like this. Let's wait until morning."

Gosalyn looked as if she was going to object, but forced herself to calm down. Sighing, she obeyed, turning and leaving the room, so Drake could sleep in peace.

* * *

In the morning, when Gosalyn went downstairs for breakfast, she found that Drake was not there, waiting to chew her out for being late to get up and get ready for school. She looked around for him, and couldn't find him. she glanced at Launchpad, who was already there, eating breakfast.

"Where's Dad?" she asked.

"Still in bed, I guess." Launchpad replied dryly. "I suppose you're going to drag him down here to eat?"

"Oh, you bet I am." Gosalyn replied with a determined and annoyed look.

And a few moments later, Drake was sitting grudgingly at the table, half-awake, and slowly eating food he didn't want to eat. Across the table, Gosalyn was giving her father a death glare. Launchpad was wisely choosing to stay out of this, hiding behind the morning paper.

"So," Gosalyn began, eating her cereal. "About last night..."

"What about last night?" Drake asked.

"About what I told you last night." Gosalyn explained.

"What about you told me last night?" Drake asked.

"Remember? NegaGosalyn being in the Posiverse?" Gosalyn asked.

"What about her?"

"_What about her_?" Gosalyn repeated. "Dad, she's a serious threat! We need to figure out how we're going to handle her before she comes looking for us and start causing trouble!"

"What's to worry about?" Drake asked, swirling his cereal around in his bowl. "You've beaten her before.

"Only out of sheer dumb luck!" Gosalyn said. "We won't be so lucky in beating her next time!"

"Who's we?" Drake asked. "You and Honker?"

"No, me and _you_!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"No, not me." Drake said. "I'm staying out this. This doesn't concern me."

A loud bang rang out as Gosalyn pounded her fist on the table. "Dad, listen to me!" she exclaimed. "I am sick and tired of this attitude of yours! I know, you've lost Morgana, and your heart is broken, and you're trying to gather the pieces, perhaps unsuccessfully! But the rest of the world isn't going to stop, just so you can sit around and mope!"

"Gosalyn, the only thing in this world that means more to me than Morgana is _you!_" Drake exclaimed, standing. "And I've just lost that! How do you expect me to react?"

"Better than this!" Gosalyn said, also standing. "Not like the Darkwing Duck I know!"

"Well, then, you don't know me as well as you thought you did!" Drake retorted.

Gosalyn pounded the table determinedly, and picked up her backpack. "Fine!" she said. "I don't need to listen to this!"

She started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Drake asked, angry.

"To school, since it seems to be pointless to get this one fact through your thick skull!" Gosalyn said, stopping at the door to look back at her father. "I thought you were smarter than that!"

And with that, she walked out, slamming the door behind her. Drake fumed for a few moments, muttering that Gosalyn couldn't understand what he was going through, before stomping off for his bedroom again. It was only then that Launchpad looked out from behind the newspaper.

"Gee, and I thought I had seen some pretty fiery arguments before in my life." he muttered, picking up Gosalyn's toast and eating it.

* * *

School was uneventful, as it typically was on a Monday. Gosalyn spent most of it grumbling, telling Honker that Drake hadn't agreed to help fight NegaGosalyn yet, as he had hoped. Gosalyn had told him about the breakup with Morgana. Honker didn't really mind, since he knew very little about the relationship. But he figured it must have been quite a blow for Drake, in order for him to be acting in such a way.

And to get Gosalyn so mad. So much so, it was hard to talk with Gosalyn, and to keep it going on a topic _other _than her dad at the moment. So Honker was left being the one trying to come up with a solution to the problem NegaGosalyn presented. How to combat her.

Honker knew lots about Gosalyn's fighting style already, and presumed NegaGosalyn's style would be similar. Using that as a reference point, he began to consider and plan out possible attacks and counterattacks on Gosalyn's double. He also wondered a bit more about NegaGosalyn herself.

Honker knew fairly little about the Negaverse, though he had learned lots about it in the past month or so. What he did understand about it was that everything there was the opposite to everything here, in the Posiverse. Most often, it was on the good/bad factor that this opposition occurred. However, as he understood it, NegaGosalyn was different, in the fact that she was, while still be opposite of Gosalyn, was still good.

But now she was bad. Honker theorized that if he could perhaps figure out what had happened to make NegaGosalyn turn bad, he could possible undo it and resolve the issue with NegaGosalyn once and for all. But he needed to learn more about the citizens of the Negaverse, and what made them so opposite from the citizens of the Posiverse.

He was still thinking it over when school ended for the day, and he started walking home, alone. Gosalyn had stayed after at school for baseball practice, and wasn't walking home with Honker. Honker didn't mind, since it happened often. So he walked by himself, still thinking.

As such, he never noticed that he was being followed until too late, when a pair of hands grabbed him from behind, and pulled him into a nearby alley.

"Gotcha, my little friend!" a voice whispered in his ear.

Honker recognized the voice immediately. "Gosalyn?" he asked hopefully.

"Not quite."

* * *

When Gosalyn came home from baseball practice, she was feeling better. She had imagined that the balls she was practicing with was her dad, and took pleasure hitting them as hard as she could with a baseball bat. Coming home, she found the house quiet. Launchpad was asleep in an armchair, and Drake had locked himself into his study again. Ignoring both, Gosalyn gathered a few snacks together, and turned the TV on, ignoring the homework she needed to do.

Putting on the _Jumpgate _marathon Launchpad had recorded for her the night previous, she sat down to watch it, not really focusing on it, though. She wondered what she was going to do about Drake's depressed mood, and if there was any way to get him to snap out of it faster so they could focus on the problem at hand. Before it was too late.

The phone suddenly rang. Sighing, Gosalyn got up to answer it.

"Hello?" she said, her voice sounding tired.

"Guess who?" a voice answered.

Gosalyn's eyes widened. "You!" she exclaimed in a whisper.

"Hey, you remember me!" NegaGosalyn said in glee. "I, of course, remember you. Last time we saw each other face to face, you left me tied up to a lamppost in my underwear, while you made off with my clothes."

"You were asking for it." Gosalyn said angrily. "I don't regret it."

"That's why I'm here, to get you to change your mind in that regard." her double said. "That's right, I'm here in the Posiverse now, paying a little visit. You don't mind, do you?"

"Really want me to answer that?" Gosalyn asked, then changed the subject. "What is it you want?"

"Who said I wanted anything?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"You must want something, otherwise, why would you be calling me, and ruining the advantage you had of me not knowing you where here, in the Posiverse?" Gosalyn asked.

Gosalyn suddenly had the impression her evil twin was grinning, even though she couldn't see it. "You really are my double, aren't you?" NegaGosalyn asked slyly. "Well, as it happens, you're right. I happen to have someone here that you know. Maybe you'd like to talk with him."

A shuffling noise was heard on the other end, then someone speaking in the background, just soft enough that Gosalyn couldn't make it out.

"Gosalyn?" a frightened voice asked suddenly, one that Gosalyn also recognized.

"Honker?" Gosalyn asked, grabbing the phone cord tightly in sudden panic. "What happened? Are you all right? Where are-"

"Don't come and get me!" Honker interrupted suddenly. "It's a trap! Gos, It's a..."

But Honker's voice was suddenly cut short.

"Honker?" Gosalyn cried anxiously.

"Oh, don't worry about him." NegaGosalyn said. "He's fine under my loving care."

"Loving! Ha!" Gosalyn mocked. "I'll stop worrying about him once he's safely away from _you!_ What do I have to do to do that?"

"Simply really, just come down to the t-shirt manufacturing plant on the corner of Farland Drive." NegaGosalyn replied. "Come alone, and no funny business. Or else."

"If I do that, you'll let Honker go?" Gosalyn asked.

"Free as a bird." NegaGosalyn replied. "But not before you get down here."

"Fine, I'll do it." Gosalyn said. "But only if _you _are alone, and _you _don't try any funny buisness."

"You agree to my terms, or not at all, double." NegaGosalyn said darkly. "Now, are we agreed?"

Gosalyn hesitated for a long moment, then sighed. "Yes. Agreed. I'll be right there." she said.

"Good." NegaGosalyn said. "See you soon."

And then the line went dead. Gosalyn stood there for a long moment, listening to the dial tone buzzing in her ear, wondering what to do now.

Launchpad suddenly walked in, stretching and yawning, indicating he just woke up. "Everything alright Gos?" he asked. "Heard you talkin' in here. Didn't like the tone you were taking."

Gosalyn turned to face Launchpad. "I've got Honker." she said grimly.

"Well, hey! Good for you!" Launchpad remarked, not understanding.

"No, I mean my _double _has Honker!" Gosalyn clarified, frowning in annoyance.

"Oh." Launchpad said, smile fading. "That's not good."

"No, it isn't!" Gosalyn said, sinking into a nearby chair. "Launchpad, what am I going to do?"

"Go save him?" Launchpad asked, like the answer was obvious.

"Easier said than done." Gosalyn remarked. "She'll be waiting for me, and Honker said it was a trap. She means to capture me, Launchpad, if not worse! I need help!"

"I'll help you, you know I will!" Launchpad offered, grabbing Gosalyn's hand and pulling her up onto her feet.

"Thanks, Launchpad, but I don't know how well you can help with this." Gosalyn said, looking in a different direction, at the door of Drake's study. "What I need, is Darkwing..."

* * *

"Dad, NegaGosalyn has Honker prisoner!" Gosalyn said, getting right to the point as she flung the door of Drake's study open and stepped inside.

Drake looked up from the book he was reading on his desk. "What?" he asked. "Who has Honker?"

"My double, Dad!" Gosalyn said, coming to his side. "She's using Honker as bait to lure me into a trap! I need Darkwing's help!"

Drake stared at his daughter for a long moment, looking sad. "Sorry Gosalyn, but I can't do that." he finally said. "I...I just don't have the will anymore."

"Dad! Now's not the time for this!" Gosalyn persisted. "There's only one person who can help me, and that's _you!_"

"No, there's not!" Drake exploded suddenly. "I'm not the only superhero in this town! There are others! Like the Justice Ducks! Call _them, _why don't you?"

"The Justice Ducks _disbanded _years ago, Dad!" Gosalyn said. "Morgana left when she married, and Neptunia went with her, since she was never a very strong member to _begin _with! Gizmoduck and Steggmutt tried to keep it together themselves, but Gizmoduck's too busy over in Duckburg, and, well, Steggmutt isn't exactly the brightest guy on the block, now is he?"

Drake remained silent.

"Dad, I _need_ you!" Gosalyn continued. "I need you to snap out of this depressed mood you've thrown yourself into and get you back to doing your job as Darkwing Duck again! I _know _you're upset over Morgana, but you need to set aside those feelings, and _help me_ rescue Honker!"

Drake was silent for a moment, then glared at Gosalyn. "No." he stated plainly. "No, you _don't _know what I'm going through! You simply _can NOT_ understand what I'm feeling, how difficult it is for me to find the will to still _live_! You've fought and beaten NegaGosalyn before, now go do it again! _You don't need my help!_"

And with that, he pounded the desktop harshly and turned his back to Gosalyn for a long moment. Gosalyn stared at Drake's back for a long moment, looking both hurt and angry. Then, her foot suddenly lashed out and kicked Drake in the back.

"Fine!" she screamed. "You're right! I don't need you! I can handle fighting myself, my exact mirror image! She'll never know what's coming! It'll be like eating cake! No possible chance of NegaGosalyn winning and killing me, and you never being able to forgive yourself, because you _weren't there to save me!_"

She then turned and stomped out of the room, pushing Launchpad aside as she did so, who had been standing in the doorway, watching the argument going on. A moment later, the sound of the armchairs spinning announced that Gosalyn had left for Darkwing Tower. Launchpad stared off in the direction Gosalyn had taken to leave, then glanced back into Drake's study.

Drake still sat at his desk, looking unfazed.

Launchpad scratched the back of head for a moment. "DW," he began, "I know this might not be the right time for this, but..."

"Oh, just say it, LP." Drake said. "Might as well join the 'Pick-on-Drake Club.'"

"Well, I just wanted to know what you were thinking when you said all of that to Gosalyn." Launchpad said. "'Cause you're wrong, she does know what you're feeling. Better, even."

"Oh?" Drake asked, sounding half-interested.

"Yeah. She's lost her parents, and her grandfather, and nearly _you _more than once."

Drake stared off into the distance in thought.

"Personally, DW, I think you've been acting kinda childish." Launchpad said. "Now, I don't know much about relationships, since I've never really had ones like you've had before. But personally I think it's...ludicrous...that you're letting your grief stand in the way of the things that are _really _important. Like your life, your job...and your daughter."

Very slowly, Drake turned to face Launchpad. Launchpad waited patiently for a response.

"LP..." Drake began slowly, "Where did you come up with such a statement?"

"Er..." Launchpad said, unsure how to take the question.

"Because I've never heard you use 'ludicrous' properly in a sentence, and furthermore use it so well in such a powerful statement." Drake continued.

"Well, okay, I'll admit I got part of that from that soap opera show, _As The Continents Shift_." Launchpad admitted. "And the word 'ludicrous' from _Wheel of Fortune. _But the point is still the same."

Drake stared at Launchpad for a long moment. Then, for the first time since Sunday afternoon, smiled...

* * *

The manufacturing plant looked to be closed for the day. No one was around as Crimson pulled up to the plant on the Ratcatcher. But she didn't let that fool her, knowing that NegaGosalyn would be inside at the very least. Honker she couldn't be so sure of, but she certainly hoped he would be there. That was the bargain NegaGosalyn had agreed to.

Of course, she couldn't count on her evil twin to fulfill that deal, so NegaGosalyn had better not be counting on Crimson to follow out the deal exactly to the letter as well.

As Crimson entered, a security camera turned around and zoomed in on her.

"Well, there you are!" a voice echoed throughout the factory. Crimson recognized it as her own. "I was starting to wonder if you weren't going to show up after all." the camera looked Crimson over. "Well, so far you're keeping to the terms of our agreement. You really are alone."

"You had better uphold your end!" Crimson demanded. "If you have done anything otherwise..."

"Relax, your little friend is fine." NegaGosalyn's voice echoed out. "At least for the moment."

Crimson took a few steps forward and looked around, not seeing anyone. "Where are you?"

"Over here!" NegaGosalyn's voice echoed out from around a corner. "Come this way! Ooh, you're getting warmer! Warmer, warmer, warmer, ooh, you're red hot!"

And NegaGosalyn wasn't kidding, for as soon as Crimson turned the corner, a wave of heat washed over her. She was quick to see why. In the middle of the massive three-story room she now found herself in was a very large, and very hot, boiler. It's top had been opened, letting out a massive cloud of steam into the room. The bubbling of boiling water was heard. And dangling from a rope above the open boiler was...

"Honker!" Crimson cried out in dismay.

"And here she is to save the day!" NegaGosalyn cried out from a platform hanging not far from the boiler. She turned a large spotlight around to shine on Crimson. "Glad you could make it. Like the new costume, by the way."

"I hate yours." Crimson remarked. "What's with the yellow, anyway?"

"Makes one stand out." NegaGosalyn remarked idly, flattening a wrinkle in her Negaduck-like garb. "But we're not here to discuss fashion, now are we?"

"I did what you wanted, NegaGos." Crimson said. "I'm here, alone, and not trying any funny business, just like you asked! Now let Honker go!"

"Crimson, don't!" Honker cried out in warning.

"Oh, but one thing at a time, here, _Crimson Avenger_." NegaGosalyn said in a taunting tone, ignoring Honker. "First, I want you to see you get out of _this_."

She pulled a lever on a nearby control panel, and the floor suddenly opened up from underneath Crimson. With a yelp, Crimson pulled out her gas gun and fired off the grappling hook and rope up at the rafters, and swinging to solid ground. Meanwhile, in the space that had opened up underneath Crimson, a large mechanism crushed everything within the space, which was just that; empty space.

Crimson took a few cautious steps back from the opening, then whirled around to look up at her double.

"Is that the best you can do, NegaGos?" Crimson asked. "Heh, if it is, then maybe I did overestimate you after-yikes!"

Very suddenly, two metal claws extracted themselves from openings in the floor and wrapped themselves around Crimson, grabbing her tightly. She reached for her gas gun, but to no avail, for the claws had knocked it out of her reach. It now lay on the floor just before Crimson, seeming to be so close, it was almost as if it was mocking her.

"One of the most important rules about being a supervillain." NegaGosalyn said with a victorious tone. "_Always _have a back-up plan ready."

Crimson struggled for a few moments, then relaxed, knowing that she had been beaten. "Alright fine!" she cried out. "You've got me, NegaGos! That's what you wanted, wasn't it? You've got me! Now let Honker go, as you promised!"

NegaGosalyn shrugged dismissively. "Okay." she said plainly, and pulled another lever.

The rope holding Honker suddenly went slack, and with a yell, Honker started to fall towards the bubbling interior of the boiler. Just when Crimson thought there was no hope for either of them, and was about to look away as Honker fell into the boiler, something purple suddenly swung down from a balcony on the upper level, grabbed Honker, and pulled him to safety by swinging back up to another balcony on the other side of the upper level.

Depositing Honker there, the figure then turned and swung off the balcony once again, this time heading for where NegaGosalyn stood.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing cried as he rushed towards NegaGosalyn, pulling out his gas gun and firing twice, not at NegaGosalyn, but at the control panel.

The shots, whatever they were, slammed into the panel and overloaded it. The claws holding Crimson went slack, and Crimson was able to free herself and retrieve her own gas gun.

"I am the cloud that hides the moon from sight, the moment you need it's light the most!" Darkwing continued as he swung on past NegaGosalyn, causing NegaGosalyn to duck.

He landed on the same platform he had started from, whirled around, and brought his gas gun to bear on NegaGosalyn.

"I am...Darkwing Duck!" Darkwing concluded.

"Surrender, NegaGos!" Crimson called up from where she stood, also bringing her gas gun to bear on her double.

NegaGosalyn only grinned slyly, pulling something from her pocket. "Now you see me..." she said, throwing the object down to the ground, "...now you don't!"

The object exploded and released a cloud of smoke. When it had cleared, NegaGosalyn was gone from sight. Crimson looked around for her double.

"Forget it Crimson, she's gone!" Darkwing said, climbing down from the balcony to stand on the floor with his daughter.

"Yes." Crimson agreed, holstering her gas gun. "But she'll be back, you can count on that." she turned to Darkwing, and without warning, embraced him in a hug. "So, you decided to come after all, huh?" she asked.

Darkwing patted Crimson on the back. "Launchpad talked some sense into me, and I saw you were right." he said with a grin. "Just because I was grieving didn't mean I had to bring everyone else down with it."

"You're still upset about Morgana, though, aren't you?" Crimson asked.

"Yes." Darkwing admitted. "And I think I will be for awhile longer. But I won't let it interfere with what I do any longer. It's the least I can do to make up for earlier."

Crimson grinned. "It's a good start, Darkwing." she said.

A pitter-pattering sound of feet announced Honker's arrival. "Hey, thanks for saving me, Mr. Darkwing, sir!" Honker said, then turned to Crimson. "You okay?" he asked.

Crimson glanced at Darkwing, who returned the glance. "Yes." Crimson said. "I am now."

* * *

"Thanks for inviting us to dinner, Morgana." Darkwing said a few days later. "You really didn't have to."

"It's the least I could do, Dark." Morgana said, placing the final dish on the table before them. "I felt bad about breaking the news to you like that the other day, and I wanted to make it up to you."

"Well, you're off to a great start!" Crimson remarked, looking in anticipation at the meal set before her. "I can't wait to eat this meal!"

"Hmpf, I beg to differ." Launchpad muttered, quickly catching his meal before it ran away.

"What LP? You mean to say that for the first time, ever, you aren't hungry?" Darkwing said, taunting.

"I like my food to stay put, DW." Launchpad said, again grabbing his meal as it once again attempted to flee.

Morgana simply grinned as she sat down. "We just have to wait for Bob to come home." she said, motioning to the empty seat beside her. "I think you'll all like him. He's been excited for this dinner all day."

At that moment, the door opened.

"I'm home!" a male voice suddenly called out, and Bob walked into the dinning room.

Darkwing's beak hung loosely as he saw Bob for the first time. The warlock psychiatrist was startling handsome, looking like he had just stepped out of some celebrity magazine. Fro Darkwing, who had expected some elderly geezer of a wizard, like you heard about in fairly tales, this was a surprise.

Kissing Morgana quickly on the cheek in greeting, he turned to his guests. "Ah!" he said politely. "Darkwing Duck, I presume!" he said, shaking Darkwing's hand. "I've heard so much about you! And this must be your sidekick, Launchpad, and your daughter, the Crimson Avenger!"

Crimson blushed. "In the flesh." she said with a giggle.

"Well!" he said, surveying the food. "This meal looks delicious, let's get to eating it!"

As the meal progressed, Bob continued to prove himself quite a guy. He had a great personality, that Darkwing admired. He told great jokes that had Crimson laughing. He gave Launchpad some great advice on a self-confidence issue. And after the meal, Bob entertained his guests with a bit of magic. _Real _magic.

Later, as Launchpad and Crimson got ready to leave, they engaged in a conversation with Bob in the other room, and it sounded like they were enjoying themselves. However, Darkwing had one last thing to do before he left, and went to seek out Morgana in the kitchen. She was washing the dishes, but looked up as Darkwing stepped in.

"Dark, about to leave?" she asked.

"Yes." Darkwing said. "But before we go, there's one more thing I want to say."

"What's that?" Morgana asked, looking curious.

"I think you ended up with the right guy." Darkwing said, honestly. "And I hope you two have a great life together."

Morgana grinned. "Thank you Dark." she then bowed her head. "I'm sorry it didn't work out between us, though." she said. "When I heard you were back in the news, I wanted to tell you right there and then what had happened, but I held off, knowing it would only hurt you. And...I didn't say this earlier, but, Dark, while I had a great time with you during our relationship, it's just that, looking back now, I don't think it would've worked out in the end anyway."

Darkwing didn't reply right away.

"You're not upset, are you?" she asked, worried.

Darkwing shook his head. "No." he said, with a half grin. "Because you're right. It's time for us to go our separate ways."

Morgana grinned. "Thank you, Darkwing, for everything you did for me." she said.

"And the same from me to you." Darkwing said with a bow, and turned to leave. "Until we meet again, then. Goodbye, Morgana."

"Goodbye, Dark." Morgana replied softly.


	5. Honker's Game

Summary: When Honker tries out a new SHUSH gizmo, he ends up in a bit of a pickle. Now Gosalyn has to figure out what's going on and help Honker figure out how to resolve everything.

Rating for this adventure: K+ (just in case)

5.

Honker's Game

Spanning the largest body of water near the city of St. Canard was the Audubon Bay Bridge. From the outside, it seemed pretty insignificant. It was simply a small suspension bridge that contained four lanes of traffic and two pedestrian sidewalks to a passerby. Most sped past or across it too quickly to really take much note about it.

However, there was something special about the bridge nonetheless. Particularly the support tower on the right hand side of the bridge, one of two such structures that helped keep the bridge up. For in the very top of this tower was the very secret hideout of the masked mallard, Darkwing Duck. As it was currently the late afternoon, however, just after school, Darkwing, also known as Drake Mallard, was not within the tower.

However, Gosalyn Mallard and Honker Muddlefoot were.

"Gosalyn, do you really think we should be up here?" Honker asked as the chairs stopped spinning, and he dizzily stood up.

"Honk, I'm up here all the time now that I'm the Crimson Avenger." Gosalyn replied, jumping out of her seat with a bounce. "Besides, Dad got a whole bunch of new stuff from SHUSH today, and I'm curious as to what it all is."

Rubbing her hands together in anticipation, she ran off for the nearest open crate of new SHUSH equipment. Honker hesitantly followed.

"Ooh, here's something that would interest you, Honk." Gosalyn remarked, fishing a nice flat screen computer monitor from the crate. "New computer equipment. Looks like Dad's finally getting around to getting his gadgets caught up with the modern world."

Honker ran his finger across the impressive screen, in awe, but quickly pulled back. "We shouldn't be messing with this stuff. We could break something."

"Honker, how likely am I to break something like this?" Gosalyn asked, pulling a wireless modem from another crate.

"A funny thing for you to say." Honker remarked, remembering all the things Gosalyn had broken in the past. Hesitantly, he looked around at some of the other crates that had been haphazardly left around the room. "Think any of this might be for us?" he asked curiously, despite himself.

Gosalyn leaned on a crate for a moment in thought. "Hard to tell." she admitted. "Most of this seems to be for fixing up the hideout, and not new gadgets for aspiring teenage superheroes like us."

Honker peered into a nearby crate. "Looks like you're right." he said. "This just has more computer equipment. And this one has gadgetry that looks to be modified for the Thunderquack. And this one has...well, I'm not sure what that is, but it's not for us, I can tell you that much."

Suddenly, his eyes fell upon a gadget sitting on a nearby table, an instruction manual left discarded next to it. Honker stepped closer to it, intrigued.

"Gos, come check these out!" Honker said excitedly, picking up the gadget.

Gosalyn stepped over and looked at it. She seemed uninterested. "So what?" she asked. "It looks like a cross between sunglasses and Geordi's VISOR on _Star Trek_, that's all."

"There's more to it than that." Honker said, examining the visor closely. "It has circuitry."

"Let me see that, Honk." Gosalyn said, taking the visor and looking it over again. "Hmm, maybe it's some kind of specialized device designed to protect your eyes from intense UV radiation."

"Or maybe it's a wearable HUD by using holographic graphics and a see-through LED display, complete with instant Internet connections via a state-of-the-art compressed wireless modem." Honker said out of the blue.

Gosalyn gave him a look. "Where'd you get _that _idea?" she asked.

Honker held up the instruction manual he had been flipping through.

"Oh." Gosalyn said, then shrugged and dropped the visor onto the table again, making Honker flinch. "Well, that solves that mystery. Onto the next gadget!"

She walked off. Honker stopped to study the visor a moment longer.

"C'mon Honk!" Gosalyn called, pulling a tangled mess of cables from a nearby crate. "Check this out, an optical mouse! You know, one of those computer mice that uses the little laser sensor instead of the round ball?"

"Coming!" Honker said, a little distracted, and walked over to Gosalyn.

A moment later, however, he was back at the table looking at the visor. "After I try out this gadget." he finally announced, picking up the visor.

"Honker, no!" Gosalyn said, rushing over. "We're not supposed to do that!"

"Look who's talking!" Honker said. "You're the one who always got _me _into trouble because you couldn't leave your dad's SHUSH equipment alone!"

"I got in trouble for all of that too!" Gosalyn objected. "And I learned something from it! You can look, you can touch to a certain extent, but _never _use it without Dad's okay!"

"Gosalyn, this is a heads-up display you can wear." Honker said, slipping it onto his face, over his glasses. "What could go wrong?"

"I think you've been hanging around me for one year too many, Honk." Gosalyn said, trying to take the visor from Honker.

Honker dodged out of her grasp. "Look, I know what I'm doing here!" he said. "I'm the computer whiz, right?" he fumbled around with the visor for a moment. "Now where's the on switch?"

"Know what you're doing, right." Gosalyn muttered, and grabbed the instruction manual. "Wanna look at this, or have you started to think like me and think it's too sissy too?"

Honker snatched it from Gosalyn, giving her an annoyed look. He flipped through it for a moment, before he found what he was looking for, and jabbed at it with one finger thoughtfully.

"There's more to it." he muttered, looking around the room. "More than just the visor. There's a kind of remote, or something..." he fished around in a crate for a moment. "Like this!" he finally announced, pulling out a bracelet-like device with a touch screen on it.

Honker snapped it onto his wrist, scanned it for a moment for an on switch, and then pressed it. A warm green glow was cast onto the tinted lenses of the visor, clear enough to see, but did not obscure Honker's view of things beyond that. Curious still, he glanced down at the now active touch screen on his wrist and pressed a control on the screen.

Instantly, graphics, designs, and text began flashing on the lenses of the visor.

"Whoa!" Honker exclaimed.

"What? What?" Gosalyn asked. "Was that an 'oh cool' whoa, or an 'uh-oh' whoa?"

"This is totally awesome!" Honker said, ignoring Gosalyn as he pressed control after control on the touch screen. "It's like a computer you can wear, only _way _more high-tech, and can do oh-so-much more than your typical computer. I have total access to things like the SHUSH database and my dad's bank account to thing like going to read my blog!"

"Who'd want to read their own blog?" Gosalyn asked, annoyed.

"Oh hush, you know what I mean." Honker said, wandering around the room aimlessly as he tinkered around with the visor. "I wonder if it'll play games..."

Distractedly, he began to enter in a search parameter on the touch screen on his wrist as Gosalyn walked after him.

"Okay, you've tried it out, Honk, time to put it away now!" Gosalyn ordered.

"Just a few more minutes, Gos." Honker said. "Let me finish this search."

"Next you'll be begging me to finish tinkering with the next trinket that thing has, and so forth until there are none left." Gosalyn said.

"Please, Gos?" Honker asked. "This won't take long, I'm already seeing the results. Let me scroll through them real quick..."

"No, Honker!" Gosalyn persisted. "Honk, you're _my_ sidekick! _I _get to tell you what to do, not the other way around!"

"Hey, there is a game on this thing!" Honker said, ignoring Gosalyn again. "'Training?' Not much of a name, but it's worth checking out."

"Honker, don't!" Gosalyn warned, going to grab Honker's hand before he could press the activate control.

But she was too late, Honker's finger touched the control before her hand grabbed Honker's. The moment the control activated, Honker's face went slack, a vacant expression appearing on his face. Gosalyn studied the face of her friend for a moment, trying to see what Honker was seeing on the visor, but it's tinted lenses hid the graphics Honker was seeing from view to an outsider.

"Honker?" Gosalyn asked.

"Huh!" Honker said after a momentary pause. Gosalyn was under the impression he still wasn't listening. "This is odd."

"What's odd?" Gosalyn asked, puzzled. "Honk, keep me in the loop here!"

"Ah!" Honker said, placing a hand over his ear, and whirled around to look at an empty corner of the room. "Oh. Shoot."

"Shoot?" Gosalyn asked, looking around and seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "Shoot what? Honk, tell me! What are you seeing?"

It was then that she realized that the visor covered Honker's ears with built-in earphones. The answer suddenly donned on Gosalyn. The earphones had activated when Honker had pressed the control, and was no doubt playing some sound loud enough that it drowned out Gosalyn's voice.

"All right, that's it, then!" she said decisively, and reached for the visor. "Time for you to stop, Honk!"

She went to pull the visor off of Honker's head, but Honker suddenly pushed Gosalyn out of the way.

"Move, Gos, I'm busy." he muttered.

"Oh, so I'm still here, then?" Gosalyn asked sarcastically. "Well, then, Honker, maybe you'd like to tell me what's going on?"

But then Honker suddenly leapt to one side and pushed Gosalyn aside as he went.

"Look out, Gos!" he exclaimed. "Watch out for Megavolt!"

"Megavolt?" Gosalyn repeated, bewildered, and looked around again only to one again find the room empty except for themselves. "Honker, what are you talking about?"

"Ah!" Honker exclaimed, suddenly leaping back several paces, as if the floor under him had just turned red hot. "They're all here!"

"Who's here?" Gosalyn asked, wondering if Honker was seeing something on the visor that wasn't there, and he didn't know it was false.

"They've found out where Darkwing's hideout is!" Honker went on, apparently not thinking he needed to elaborate. "Or maybe Negaduck finally revealed where it was..."

"Now it's Negaduck!" Gosalyn exclaimed, getting exasperated. She sighed. "Honker, just keep talking. Maybe I can piece this together a bit at a time."

"Whoa! There's NegaGosalyn!" Honker suddenly exclaimed, backing into a corner.

"What! Where?" Gosalyn exclaimed, panicking at the mention of her double, and raced over to where her costume hung on a hook as Honker pressed himself against a wall, shouting threats to his non-existent enemies.

Gosalyn pulled out her gas gun from her costume and brought it up at the ready. "Where's NegaGosalyn, Honker?" she asked, deciding to just play it safe, since she didn't fully understand what was going on here.

"There! Watch out!" Honker suddenly exclaimed, pointing.

Gosalyn whirled around, half expecting the entirety of the Fearsome Five ready to pounce on her. But she saw nothing but an empty room. Puzzled, Gosalyn glanced back at Honker, wondering what it was Honker was seeing that she wasn't, and how it fit in with the visor.

Only Honker seemed to know, as he ran in circles around the room, hands wrapped over his head, as if he was afraid of getting hit by something.

"They're everywhere!" he exclaimed, turning around suddenly and running in an opposite direction.

Gosalyn tried to follow her friend, knowing that these seemingly random exclamations was all she had to go on to figure this out.

"I need to get out of here!" Honker suddenly announced, and ran for the emergency exit chute and jumped into it.

"Honker!" Gosalyn exclaimed, and followed.

They exited the tower and landed all sprawled out on a little platform that ran along the outer edge of the bridge, just below the railing for the pedestrian sidewalk above it. Gosalyn peered over the edge of this platform, and saw nothing separating her and the long drop into Audubon Bay.

She gulped. "Honker..." she muttered, annoyed, as she picked herself up and turned to stare at her friend. "Look what you've gotten me into."

Honker, as usual, seemed to be ignoring her. He was instead peering upward at the tower. "They haven't followed." he remarked. "Yet."

"Well, thank goodness for small favors." Gosalyn muttered, rolling her eyes.

"We need to get out of here." Honker said decisively, and ran down the platform to where it connected with land.

"Honker..." Gosalyn moaned, and followed, taking note that Honker had said "we." Perhaps he was still somewhat aware that Gosalyn was still there. "Wait up." she called grudingly.

She needed to get to the bottom of this. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the only way to do it. She followed Honker for awhile, talking to herself, since it seemed Honker preferred to be a brick wall and ignore her. After awhile, they arrived at a Jacques Street in downtown St. Canard. Here, Honker stopped, as if to decide what to do now.

Gosalyn glanced at her watch. "Honker, if Dad and Launchpad get home before we do and find we're not there, we're _both _in for it." she said.

Honker ignored her. "They could be following us." he muttered. "Gos, I need advice."

"Here's some advice, then. Take off that stupid visor!" Gosalyn suggested, and reached to grab the visor on Honker's head.

Again, Honker merely brushed her off. "Gos, you're not helping me any!" he exclaimed.

"Well, you're not helping me!" Gosalyn argued back, but the retort fell upon deaf ears.

Honker looked up and down the street, and started walking again. Since she couldn't leave Honker all alone in this state, Gosalyn followed.

"Honker, I wish I knew what was going on so I can help you." she muttered.

Honker, meanwhile, was tapping at the touch screen controls on his wrist. "Why won't this work anymore?" he muttered.

"Won't work?" Gosalyn asked, suddenly grabbing Honker's wrist and peering at the screen.

"Hey!" Honker said, and jerked his wrist away.

But Gosalyn noticed something interesting flashing on the touch screen. In bold letters were the words, "Training game in progress, standing by" flashing brightly. Suddenly it all started to come together. Gosalyn remembered that Honker had mentioned that there was some sort of game on the visor, and that was the last thing he had activated. Apparently, that was what was causing Honker to see things through the visor that wasn't there. It was part of some sort of training game.

The only problem was that Honker didn't seem to realize it was merely a game.

"We need to find your dad." Honker suddenly announced to Gosalyn. "I know you haven't really been very talkative during all of this, but what do you think?"

"I think we need to get this game to shut down, Honk." Gosalyn said.

As always, the advice didn't seem to reach Honker, who eventually shrugged, and kept walking. He was starting to get nervous, like he was expecting someone to leap out and attack them. Gosalyn presumed that was part of the game, hence why Honker had named various supervillains earlier.

"Must be some game, in order to fool someone as smart as Honker into thinking it's real." Gosalyn muttered, pondering her choices.

She wasn't an expert in computers, but she knew enough about them to work around problems like this. Usually, if she was stuck in a program on a computer and couldn't get out of it, she'd turn off the computer, and then power it back on. And since the visor was _like _a computer, the same principal should apply to it.

Grabbing Honker's wrist, Gosalyn pressed the power button on the touch screen bracelet. Only nothing happened. She was able to press it a few more times before Honker pulled his wrist away again.

"Stop! It's already off!" Honker exclaimed.

Gosalyn simply shrugged, telling her another thing about this game. Apparently it locked itself down when running the game, and as such, Honker no longer had access to it's controls. What's worse was that an outsider like Gosalyn apparently couldn't gain control of it either, seeing she couldn't get the device to power off.

So now what? She couldn't let Honker go on like this forever until he figured out that it was game and found his own way out of it. It was then that she spotted the little slot on the visor itself for a cable to plug in. An input/output cable, to be exact. Gosalyn suddenly saw that if she could plug in a device to the visor, she could possibly see what Honker was seeing, and maybe help Honker resolve the matter.

The only problem was that Honker perceived every attempt made by Gosalyn to get that close to the visor as an attempt to interfere. How could she get Honker to let her to plug in an input/output cable and leave it plugged in? Furthermore, the best place to do that was back at the tower, a place Honker had just fled from. He wouldn't be willing to go back without a good explanation, an explanation Gosalyn couldn't give him.

She looked down at the gas gun she still carried in her hand. She had some sleeping gas cartridges in there. Maybe she could use them to knock Honker out cold, so she could take him back to the tower and plug in the input/output cable. Or, better yet, just take off the stupid visor, and end the problem right there and then!

Nodding to herself, liking this idea, she allowed herself to fall back a few paces, so that she was behind Honker. Then, picking up a pebble, she chucked it at Honker, hoping he would notice. He did, and turned around to investigate. The moment he did, Gosalyn fired off a cartridge of sleeping gas at his feet, which should have shrouded Honker in a cloud of the stuff.

However, Honker was a step faster than Gosalyn expected, and leapt backwards as she fired, so that the cartridge went off a pace or two ahead of Honker, keeping Honker safe from the effects of the gas. Honker panicked then, racing down the street, and turning into a nearby alleyway, saying something about NegaGosalyn in disguise.

"Oh keen gear, why can't things go right for once?" Gosalyn asked herself as she went back the way she came, going around the corner in an attempt to cut Honker off.

Honker's escape route took him straight through the alley to exit on the other side. There he stopped, and looked both ways for the enemies only he could see. When he turned to look to his right, he looked in time for Gosalyn to fire another canister of sleeping gas at the nearby wall. The blast of the canister striking the wall blew the gas the canister released into Honker's face. Honker grimaced as the gas blew past, then his features grew slack. A moment later, he sank to his knees, then toppled over onto his side, in a deep sleep.

Gosalyn came over a grabbed the visor, and pulled it off of Honker's head. Or at least tried to. The visor wouldn't budge for some reason. Grabbing it with both hands, she yanked harder, but the visor still wouldn't budge, and she feared that if she pulled any harder, she'd hurt Honker. Puzzled, she examined the visor for an explanation, and soon found one. The visor wrapped completely around Honker's head. In the back, all there was holding the visor in place, was a kind of strap. It had somehow tightened itself at one point so that the visor was nearly impossible to remove without loosening it. And she couldn't figure out how to do that.

Gosalyn sighed, and picked Honker up, lifting her sleeping friend into a standing position. "I guess we're doing plan B, then." she muttered, and walked back towards Darkwing Tower.

* * *

When Honker awoke again, he found himself in Darkwing Tower. Remembering what had happened here last, he panicked, and tried to stand up and run, only he found that his wrists were strapped to the chair he was sitting in.

"Ack!" he exclaimed, fighting at the straps.

"Oh good, you're awake!" a voice suddenly said. "You _can _hear me, right Honker?"

Honker identified the voice as Gosalyn's, and looked around for the source. He couldn't find his friend, however. "Gos, is that you?" he asked. "Where are you?"

"Right in front of you." came the reply.

Honker looked, but saw nothing but a computer console and another chair, this one empty. "I can't see you." he said.

"I know." Gosalyn replied. "The visor apparently decided to start hiding me."

"The visor?" Honker asked. "It's on now?"

He glanced at the touch screen on his wrist, but saw that it's screen was still off.

Gosalyn said otherwise, though. "It never turned off." she explained. "It's altering whatever you see through that visor to show something else."

"Why would it do that?" Honker asked.

"It's a _game _Honker." Gosalyn said. "Remember? You activated it just before this mess happened. Everything you're seeing is part of some kind of training scenario SHUSH programmed into that thing."

"A game?" Honker asked. "But it seems to real..."

"I noticed." Gosalyn said.

"Wait, so you can see what I'm seeing?" Honker asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I plugged in an input/output cable into the visor and one of Dad's computers." Gosalyn explained. "Not only can I see what you're seeing, but I can also hear what you're seeing, and I even managed to get it to let me talk to you too. Before, it was blocking the sound of my voice, which was really frustrating, 'cause it made it hard to get the answers I needed."

"Yeah, I noticed you were suddenly and oddly silent after the attack on the tower." Honker mumbled.

"What _were _you seeing earlier, anyway?" Gosalyn asked.

Honker looked around the tower, seeing it was empty, as he answered. "The Fearsome Five." he explained. "They were leading an attack on the tower, tried to catch both me and you, but mainly me. So I ran, fleeing some ways before NegaGosalyn appeared and attacked me. I'm presuming that was really you, though."

"Yeah it was." came the sound of Gosalyn's disembodied voice. "I needed you to be more cooperative so I could figure out what was going on, and putting you to sleep seemed to be the best way."

Honker nodded, understanding. "So if it's just a game," Honker reasoned, "Then all I have to do to get out of it is to turn it off, right?"

"That's what I thought, but apparently that's not the case." Gosalyn said. "Because it won't turn off."

"The controls are all blocked off on my end." Honker offered unhelpfully, glancing back at the seemingly dark touch screen again.

"I can't get it to turn off on my end either." Gosalyn admitted. "It's refusing every command I try to give it, and all of the visor's systems have locked down and are unresponsive. I suppose one could hack around all of that and override it, but I don't have that kind of skill."

"I would, but I would need to see a real screen, and not what the visor's showing me." Honker said.

"Dad could theoretically do it too, but he and Launchpad aren't home yet from grocery shopping." Gosalyn said in dismay. "I tried calling Launchpad on his cell phone, but there's no answer. I think he let the battery die again. And since Dad doesn't have a cell phone..."

"What about SHUSH?" Honker asked.

"We'd need to go to them, or them to us, and neither is a very good idea at the moment." Gosalyn said. "However, I have flipped through the instruction manual for that thing, and found out that the visor resumes normal operations once the game is won."

"So, if I beat the game, then the game turns off, and everything goes back to normal." Honker said.

"Yeah." Gosalyn said. "Only problem is that the game is only a prototype, and filled with bugs. The manual said to use at your own risk, meaning that SHUSH had probably had a suspicion something like this would happen."

"Joy." Honker muttered, then and idea came to mind. "Can't I just take the visor off?" he asked.

"I tried that already while you were asleep." Gosalyn said, "But the visor has a strap thing that tightened when the game began. According to the manual, this is done to keep the visor from falling off while the game is going. Apparently game play can get pretty intense."

"So the only way I'm going to get out of this..." Honker began.

"...is to play the game, yes." Gosalyn finished. "Don't worry, I'll see if I can help whenever possible, and whatever the visor produces that is false can't hurt you, so don't worry about that."

"I'll need to know the objective to the game, then." Honker asked with a sigh. He didn't want to have to do this, but right now it was his only choice.

"As far as I can figure out, the game is a training exercise, designed with Darkwing in mind." Gosalyn explained, as the straps holding Honker to the chair suddenly released Honker and vanished. "Apparently, you're supposed to do what Darkwing does, and beat all of the supervillains. Hence why you've been seeing supervillains in that visor. So I think all you have to do is defeat all of the villains the game brings up, and you should eventually win."

"Easier said than done, Gos." Honker said, standing up and walking over to the edge of the platform he, and supposedly Gosalyn, was on. He gulped when he saw all of the Fearsome Five plus Rowe and NegaGosalyn waiting for him at the bottom.

"I see them!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "Best thing to do is to take them one at a time! And remember, they can't hurt you!"

"I'm going to act like they can, though, just in case the game has a hidden hit count or something, and will do something bad if I get 'hit' too many times." Honker said, taking a deep breath and starting to climb down to the ladder to stand on the same level as the Fearsome Five.

However, the Fearsome Five did not wait. Megavolt lashed out with a bolt of energy that narrowly missed Honker's beak. Honker gasped, and let go of the ladder, falling the rest of the way down to the floor. Groaning, he picked himself up and looked up in time to see the seven villains surround him.

"Attack the weakest, take him out first." Gosalyn suggested quickly.

Honker looked around quickly, trying to decide just who _was _the weakest in the group, when Quackerquack let loose some kind of wound up toy that approached Honker and then exploded. Honker yelped and backed up, surprised, into Megavolt.

"Why you..." Megavolt exclaimed, and fired a bolt of energy at Honker.

Honker ducked it, sitting down and kicking his legs at Megavolt's knees. Megavolt gasped in pain, and doubled over. Honker then pushed him over with a shove. Megavolt hit the floor, then suddenly vanished.

"Good work Honker." Gosalyn cheered. "That's one down, six left!"

But Honker wasn't listening, as he found himself staring down the barrels of Negaduck's 9mm pistol and NegaGosalyn's P90. Subconsciously he became aware that someone was behind him, and ducked again at the last possible moment. A moment later, the duo from the Negaverse fired their weapons, not realizing fully that their target was no longer there, and the bullets meant for Honker whizzed past the ducking teenager, and hit Bushroot instead, who had snuck up behind Honker to cut off any escape routes Honker had. Bushroot didn't have a chance to make a sound as the game made him disappear too.

"That's two down, Honk!" Gosalyn said as Honker quickly ducked under Negaduck's legs and ran across the hideout.

Moments later, gunfire rang out in Honker's ears, and bullets ricocheted off the metal walls of the hideout. Looking behind him, he saw Negaduck chasing after him. Yelping, he ran for he nearest escape route, a ladder, and climbed up it. Negaduck stopped at the bottom, and fired his pistol up at Honker.

The bullets missed, so Honker kept going until he reached the top, standing on a long platform running along one wall of the hideout. Honker first looked down at Negaduck, who didn't seem inclined to follow Honker, and looked up to see NegaGosalyn stepping towards him.

"Gos?" Honker asked, backing up.

"C'mon Honk, you can take her!" Gosalyn remarked. "NegaGos is a pushover!"

"A _deadly _pushover!" Honker said, as NegaGosalyn pulled out her P90.

"Bye-bye, lover boy!" NegaGosalyn said, and started to squeeze the trigger.

Honker panicked again, and charged NegaGosalyn, thinking that since she didn't really exist, he'd just zoom through her like she was, well, not there. However, the game compensated for the charge, and made NegaGosalyn react as though Honker had head butted her in the chest. She doubled over, her P90 firing blindly. Honker slapped it away. He noted that he didn't feel his hand connect with it, but he saw his hand hit the weapon, and see it spiral away.

NegaGosalyn wasn't done yet, however, and pulled out an Uzi. Honker tried to slap it away too, but NegaGosalyn's grip held true. Half-grinning, she brought it around to point at Honker's chest. Honker gasped, and desperately sought a way out. Again he slapped the Uzi, throwing off NegaGosalyn's aim. Honker then charged the double again, the game again thinking he had just head butted NegaGosalyn.

This time the blow seemed to hit NegaGosalyn harder, for when she doubled over, she didn't straighten again as quickly.

"Whack her over the head with something!" Gosalyn suggested in his ear.

Honker nodded, and slapped the Uzi still in NegaGosalyn's hand into the double's head. NegaGosalyn went cross eyed, then fell over in a heap before the game eliminated her and made her vanish.

"See, you can do it, Honker!" Gosalyn cheered.

"Yeah, I guess I can, can't I?" Honker agreed, allowing himself a moment of pride.

It was quickly interrupted when Negaduck fired his pistol at Honker, the bullet ricocheting off the platform's railing. With a yelp, Honker ran on, keeping himself a moving target as Negaduck continued to fire, trying to get a shot to hit home. None of them did, and eventually the pistol ran out of ammo and needed to be reloaded.

Honker ran on until he reached the end of the platform, jumping off and landing with a thud on the nose of the Thunderquack. Groaning at the pain that shot up his legs due to the awkward landing, Honker straightened in time to see Rowe and Quackerjack head his way. Stepping down and off the jet plane's nose, he waited until Rowe was almost on top of him, before quickly sidestepping the charging otter.

Rowe didn't notice quickly enough and began to run past Honker. But as he did, Honker stomped down on Rowe's tail. With a yowl, the otter leapt into the air in pain, and turned around to swing a punch at Honker. Honker only ducked it, and the punch instead struck Quackerjack, who was just arriving at the scene.

Quackerjack was instantly knocked out and eliminated from the game, and with a quick kick from honker at his rear end, Rowe was quick to follow.

"Five down, two left!" Gosalyn said in Honker's ear.

"Two?" Honker repeated, forgetting who other than Negaduck was here. "Who's the second then?"

As if in reply, a wave of water suddenly crashed down on Honker, and washed around him. Since the nature of the game couldn't permit Honker to be swept away in the water's current, he simply stood their, bracing himself against the water unnecessarily.

"The Liquidator." Honker said, answering his own question. "How do you fight living water?"

"You don't." Gosalyn admitted, sounding as if she was in thought. "Dad's stopped him for a time by freezing him or something..."

"The freezer!" Honker said, and ran for the refrigerator at the other end of the hideout with ease, despite there being a large amount of water surrounding him up to his knees.

Liki simply followed silently, until Honker reached the refrigerator. It was then that the Liquidator reformed his usual form of a dog, looking down at Honker, before backing up a few feet before charging forward. As he did so, he turned into a ball of swirling water, rising off the ground, aiming for Honker's head.

Honker waited until the last moment, then quickly sidestepped the ball of water, throwing open the door to the refrigerator's freezer as he did so. Liki didn't have time to change his course, and landed into the freezer head on. Honker shut the door behind him, and wiped his hands against each other.

"Almost there, Honker, just one more!" Gosalyn said. "This just leaves..."

At that moment, Honker heard the clicking sound of a pistol loading his ear.

"Don't move." Negaduck said, holding his pistol to Honker's ear.

Silence fell for a moment.

"Gos, I can't do this!" Honker exclaimed.

"Honker, if you could beat those other six, surely you can..." Gosalyn began, but Honker cut her off.

"Negaduck is different!" Honker said. "He's public enemy number one! There isn't a villain on the face of the planet that is more evil than he is!"

"Flattery won't get you anywhere!" Negaduck interrupted. "Now move to the center of the room!"

Honker obeyed, rasing his hands over his head to signify defeat.

"Honker, you can do this!" Gosalyn said. "You are my sidekick! You _have _to be able to do this kind of thing, or else you would've never gotten this far!"

"I just can't, Gos!" Honker persisted. "It's over, I lost!"

"Honker, don't quit on me now!" Gosalyn persisted.

"Well, I am!" Honker exclaimed. "How do I get out of this situation, anyway?"

"Honker, you're my sidekick in crime fighting!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "I wanted you to be that, because I was confident you could handle this kind of situation! But if you can't...then maybe I don't want you after all!"

"Well, fine then!" Honker exclaimed, as Negaduck rolled his eyes in boredom. "That's it then, game over!" Honker suddenly froze. "Game over...hey Negs!"

"Yeah? What?" Negaduck asked, annoyed.

"You are the stupidest supervillain I know!" Honker said. "You could've _easily _taken out Darkwing Duck, but you cut around the corners, missing the best chances, and everything! Heck, you know who he really is, but you never take that to your advantage!"

"WHAT!?" Negaduck yelled, scowling at the insult.

"Honk, what are you trying to do, get yourself killed?" Gosalyn asked.

"Yes!" Honker said, then continued, "Negaduck, you know the supervillain I've seen actually threaten Darkwing more than you?"

"Who? WHO?" Negaduck demanded angrily.

"You won't like it..." Honker said tauntingly.

"TELL ME!" Negaduck roared.

"Megavolt!" Honker replied.

Negaduck let out a roar of fury. "THAT little piece of...of..." he pressed the barrel of his pistol closer to Honker's ear. "Give me one good reason to shoot you now..." he said darkly.

"Okay then." Honker said, and kicked Negaduck in the shin.

Negaduck yelped, winced, and then fired. All Honker heard was the bang, before Negaduck suddenly disappeared. Then the words "game over" flashed once on the lenses of the visor, before the game deactivated and the visor resumed normal operations. Honker felt the strap keeping the visor on his head loosen, and immediately pulled the visor off his head and waved it in the air victoriously.

Gosalyn stood up from where she had been sitting at a computer console, her expression a mixture of shock and joy. "Honker," she said, "You are a _genius!_"

Cheering, they raced towards each other and embraced each other in a hug.

"What's all the celebrating about?"

Honker and Gosalyn froze, and turned to see Drake Mallard climbing out of one of the chairs. Quickly they broke apart and avoided eye contact, feeling embarrassed.

"We were just checking out the new SHUSH stuff, Dad." Gosalyn said quickly.

"Yes, I can see that." Drake said, eyeing the visor still in Honker's hands. "Figures you two couldn't wait to see it all."

"Well, you and Launchpad were gone, and there was nothing else to do..." Gosalyn said, forcing a grin.

"We didn't damage anything, Mr. Mallard, promise." Honker assured Drake.

"I can see that too." Drake said with a good humored sigh. "And since you're both been getting into the crime fighting biz, I really shouldn't be making such a big deal about you guys experimenting with this stuff anymore." he eyed the visor Honker held again. "You figured out how to work that think?" he asked.

"Uh, yes sir." Honker said, glancing at the visor real quick.

"Huh, I couldn't even figure out how to turn it on." Drake muttered. He shrugged. "I thought it would be distracting anyway, with all those flashing graphics in my face. If you like it, Honk, you can keep it."

"Really?" Honker asked, surprised at this generous offer.

"Honk, are you sure?" Gosalyn asked. "I mean, uh, think about what just happened."

"We know how it works now, Gos, and besides, I doubt I'd be stupid enough to let that happen to me again." Honker said, slipping the visor back over his head. "And anyway, this thing is pretty useful, and it's just the kind of thing I'd want when crime fighting." he paused, and gave Gosalyn a curious look. "And furthermore," he continued, "I think I have an idea of what I want my new alias to be."

"No more Arrow Kid?" Gosalyn asked hopefully.

"No more Arrow Kid." Honker confirmed with a wink.

"Ah, forget it." Drake mumbled, who had been trying to move the new equipment around. "It's too late at night anyway. How about we all get pizza instead?"

"Ooh! I do, Dad! With extra pepperoni!"

"I want canadian bacon on mine!"

"Honker, who wants canadian bacon on pizza?"

"Me."

"I don't mind canadian bacon myself, Gos, let the boy have what he wants."

"Okay Dad. But you're going to have some of that pepperoni pizza too, Honker."

"Whatever you say, Gos."


	6. Gizmos and Gadgets

Summary: Honker tires out his new, improved, alias. Meanwhile, an experimental formula intended to cure cancer fails to work properly, and produces some interesting results...

Rating for this Adventure: K (very much so, most of it's just comedy)

Author's note: I was going to save the villain in this adventure for a later one, but when coming up empty on a different villain that would work, I decided to to go ahead and use this new villain for this adventure, and just kind of introduce him. Furthermore, the names Crimson and Darkwing suggest for Honker's new alias were all ones I had actually considered (some of which obviously were quickly shot down). Officer Matthew also reappears in this.

6.

Gizmos and Gadgets

"Honker, are you done yet?" Crimson's voice rang out from the other side of the changing partition at Darkwing Tower.

"Almost!" Honker called back, struggling to pull a boot over his webbed foot. "We sure about some of this stuff?"

"Honker, this business is very dangerous." came back the reply from Darkwing. "And since you aren't exactly the fighting type, I want you to be adequately prepared. Besides, Crimson insisted on some of these things."

"Well, all right, then." Honker said reluctantly, fastening the oddly shaped boot and standing up. "Here I come." he stepped out from behind the partition and held out his arms. "How do I look?"

Darkwing and Crimson, both in costume, looked him over for a moment.

"He looks like something out of a sci-fi movie." Darkwing remarked, looking unsure about this himself.

"You kidding?" Crimson said, clearly having an opposite opinion. "He looks great! _Definitely _something that will drive terror into the hearts of evildoers!"

"And fashion critics." Darkwing quipped, which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Crimson.

Honker looked his new costume over again. "I think Mr. Darkwing's right, Gos." he said in dismay. "I think it is a bit much."

"Nonsense." Crimson said, stepping up to Honker. "You said you wanted to be the kind of sidekick who had all of the gadgets, and that's what you got!"

"But I didn't think to this degree!" Honker said. "I was just thinking that it'd be the SHUSH visor, a helmet with a headpiece in it, and the visor's wristband controller with a few added gadgets mixed in."

"And that's what you got!" Crimson said.

"But what about this other stuff?" Honker asked, pointing at the various other gizmos and gadgets he wore.

"Just stuff every good sidekick of mine should have." Crimson said. "Like you said, you've got the SHUSH visor and controller, so you have that holographic HUD thing and access to a whole boatload of information. That visor will also do rudimentary scanning and targeting. Now the wristband controller..."

"I have two." Honker pointed out, holding up both of his wrists, now decorated with wristbands. "I only needed one."

"But we couldn't fit all the bonus gadgets on the one wristband." Crimson pointed out. "The touch screen controller for the visor takes up a lot of room. We could only fit the grappling hook, tow rope, and the sprayer of sleeping gas on it."

"That's all I requested for, Gos." Honker persisted.

"I know, but I figured you wouldn't object to some more." Crimson said, and grabbed the other wristband Honker wore. "_This _wrist band has another grappling hook and tow rope, as well as a little detachable probe and tracker you can remote control with the visor, and a small supply of bombs!"

"_Bombs?_" Honker repeated, alarmed.

"Uh-huh." Crimson said, opening a little compartment on the wristband to reveal three pebble-sized football-shaped devices. "Don't worry, they're chemical bombs, and are completely inert until you activate them. Then you have about five seconds before they go off."

Honker still seemed a little leery about them.

"Your helmet has a few bonuses, too." Crimson went on, tapping the blue-grey helmet Honker wore. "It has more padding than you requested, and the headset has a jamming capability that the visor will be able to control." she tapped the SHUSH visor Honker wore over his eyes. "By the way, Dad added and removed a thing or two from that visor, as he saw fit, including that little game thing that gave us so much grief last week."

"Thank goodness for small favors." Honker muttered.

"And then, the cream of the crop is your boots!" Crimson said, pointing at the boots with metallic bottoms.

"I figured you put something in them." Honker said, staring down at his boots. "Dare I ask what?"

"Rockets!" Crimson answered.

"Rockets!" Honker repeated. "Gos, I most _definitely _did not ask for rocket boots!"

"I didn't like the idea either, Honker, but Crimson insisted." Darkwing said in Honker's defense. "Seeing that you're a sensible boy, though, I ultimately decided they'd be much safer in your cautious hands, than Crimson's reckless ones."

Crimson shot her dad a look, but then focused her attention on Honker again. "You control them by pressing this button." she explained, pressing a concealed button on Honker's left wristband. Two controllers popped out of either wristband and into Honker's hands, allowing him to grip them. "They help steer, but steering will mostly be done by moving your feet." Crimson continued. "The button on top of the right controller increases your throttle with each press, while the button on the top of the left controller decreases your throttle with each press. The trigger-like button on the right one turns the rockets on and off." Honker quickly let go of that button. "The trigger-like button on the left one activates the turbo, which allows you to go super fast for a period of time."

"How long?" Honker asked, releasing that button as well.

"Depends on how long the turbo's fuel lasts." Crimson said. "Dad wouldn't let me try them out, so we weren't really able to find out. The visor will give you a read out, though. And to retract the controllers, just press the same button you pressed to extend them." she pressed the concealed button, and the rocket boots controllers popped back into their original places. "Got all of that?"

"No." Honker replied bluntly, looking his costume over one more time. "I'd like to have an instruction manual or something on hand just in case."

"Already got that." Darkwing said, taking control of the conversation. "It's in the visor. When I built all of this, I made sure to include all of this information."

"So you built all of these...these...add-ons?" Honker asked. "I was under impression Gos did, seeing the way she was going on like that."

"Well, she came up with the ideas, I made them a reality." Darkwing explained. He looked Honker over again. "Well, what do you think?"

Honker looked himself over one more time. "Well, I doubt if I'll actually ever use all of these gadgets, but the costume _is _pretty comfortable." he admitted, tugging at the bluish jumpsuit he wore with one gloved hand.

"That's because the jumpsuit has a built in heating and cooling system." Darkwing explained. "It adjusts the temperature within the jumpsuit accordingly to the temperature as it senses it outside. It's a gift from SHUSH, and me and Crimson got a pair apiece too. I just haven't figured out how to apply them to our existing costumes. Maybe if I turn them into thermal underwear..."

"But other than that, that's pretty much it, Honker." Crimson said. "I guess all you need now is a new name to replace Arrow Kid alias."

Honker looked himself over again. "Well, I'm drawing a blank." he admitted.

"Too bad the name Gizmoduck is taken, otherwise I'd suggest that." Crimson remarked.

"Ick." Darkwing shuddered at the mention of his long-time rival. "Actually, I was thinking something like the Gadgeteer."

"Maybe." Crimson admitted. "How about Gadgetduck?"

"Too close to Gizmoduck, I think."

"Robo-duck?"

"How about the Contraption Duck?"

"The Gadget Avenger, maybe? He _is _my sidekick, after all."

"I'd suggest Rocketduck in reference to the rocket boots, but Honk indicated he wasn't inclined to use them much."

"Ooh! Ooh! I know! Inspector Gadget!"

Darkwing and Crimson laughed, while Honker sighed, exasperated.

"All right, enough of that." Honker said. "Let's get serious, here."

"Okay." Crimson said with a grin.

"Honk, do you have any ideas?" Darkwing asked. "I mean, this will be _your _superhero alias."

"Well, I don't know." Honker said. "Maybe...Techno? I don't know."

"Techno could work." Crimson said.

"Yeah, it reflects Honker's personality well." Darkwing added. "I mean, he _is _into that kind of thing."

"Actually, I wasn't seriously suggesting that." Honker said, and sighed. "But since we're lacking better ideas..."

"Well good, then." Darkwing said, and glanced at his watch. "It's past time to start patrol. Ready for your first night out in that get-up Honk-I mean Techno?"

"As I'll ever be, I guess." Honker admitted, stepping across the hideout. "Let's get going then."

* * *

Across St. Canard, famous superstar Keith Gideon paced a laboratory anxiously.

"Is it ready yet?" he hissed at the project's head scientist, Dr. Connie Lovell.

"Mr. Gideon, as you very well known, the formula hasn't been tested yet." Lovell pressed, ignoring the pacing celebrity. "Titan Laboratories needs another week to experiment further in order to make sure it _is _safe for use."

"No." Keith insisted. "You told me that the formula would be ready for use _yesterday_. I gave you an extra day to get ready, and now you tell me it can't be done."

"Mr. Gideon, you fail to see the problem." Lovell pressed. "Our tests show that the formula has very adverse affects to it's subjects, and possibly doesn't even work as intended at all. We need to test and modify it further, a process that will take time..."

"Time you don't have!" Keith declared. "If you cannot give me that formula tonight, I will be taking my business elsewhere, and Titan Laboratories will loose credit for the formula's invention!"

"Mr. Gideon, if this formula isn't working right, then it could _kill _you!" Lovell exclaimed. "Do you want that?"

"I'd be as good as dead anyway if you _don't _give me that formula!" Keith persisted. "As you, and only you, very well know, I have cancer, cancer that can't be treated! This formula, a potential cure to the disease, is my last hope of survival!"

"Your cancer is not very advanced yet." Lovell said. "There is still time to perfect the formula before your health is _really _put into jeopardy."

"But I won't be able to keep it secret by that point!" Keith said. "It's a miracle I've been able to keep the press from finding out about it for this long! But if and when they ever _do _find out, there goes my image and status as a sports celebrity!"

"Your pride and status should be the very last thing you're worrying about, Mr. Gideon." Lovell persisted.

"I don't care. Give me the formula now, or not all." Keith said.

Lovell sighed, knowing that the business with the multi-millionaire would do Titan Laboratories great good. And if Keith carried out the threat and turned to another organization to finish the formula and force Titan Laboratories to give up their rights to it, then Lovell would have some pretty unhappy superiors after her.

Lovell shook her head, knowing that Keith had a point too. He didn't have all the time in the world, having a case of cancer so rare, there was no known treatment for it, except this experimental formula, which 40 of it's test subjects had adverse side-effects to. Lovell didn't want to give the formula to Keith because of that risk, but the risks for these kind of things changed slightly in humans, and while Keith would be the first human test subject, the odds could go in Keith's favor.

Lovell sighed again, knowing that she wouldn't like what she was about to do. "If anything happens that will make me live to regret this..." she began.

"Titan Laboratories will be adequately compensated, that I promise." Keith assured her. "Just give me the formula."

Lovell sighed one final time. "All right." she said, turning to pick up a small vile of the yellowish formula. "Have a seat."

Keith sat, rolling up the sleeve of his shirt. Lovell prepared the injection, and turned to face Keith.

"Any last words in case this goes terribly wrong and I get all the blame?" Lovell asked.

"That it's worth it." Keith responded.

"In your eyes, maybe." Lovell said, and jabbed the needle into one of Keith's veins.

Keith grimaced for a moment, then asked weakly, "Is it working?"

"Hard to say, we have to wait for a moment." Lovell said.

Keith nodded, and then passed out. Lovell panicked for a moment, then called in a medical doctor to assist. Several tense hours later, Keith had been strapped to a cot in case he had a seizure, and was still out cold. Waiting in the other room was Lovell, cursing herself for letting herself break down like that and giving Keith a formula that was no where near ready.

Another doctor arrived with a clipboard of information.

"Well?" Lovell asked anxiously.

"Well, the formula technically worked, for the cancer is technically gone." the doctor replied.

"Technically?" Lovell repeated. "What's the catch?"

"His cells appear to still be mutating, but in a much more controlled and organized manner." the doctor replied. "It's not cancer, but something is definitely happening that shouldn't."

Lovell took the clipboard and skimmed through the readouts of data. "How is this possible?" she asked. "This looks like the formula altered Keith's DNA directly."

"That would account for these events, yes." the doctor replied. "I'm worried about the fact of how fast it's happening and how extensive it is. In a matter of a few more hours, he won't be Keith Gideon as we know him anymore."

"Then, what will he be?" Lovell asked, puzzled.

At that moment, a loud crash rang out from within Keith's room. Lovell quickly raced to the door and whipped it open.

"Oh, great." Lovell muttered as she saw the mess.

The cot had been tipped over, and the braces that should have held Keith in place had been broken, snapped cleanly in half. Above the fallen cot was a window, which had been shattered, allowing the curtains to flutter weakly in the night breeze. No one was in the room.

"Where'd he go?" the doctor asked, looking over Lovell's shoulder.

"He escaped." Lovell replied, noting that the broken window made a gap just big enough for a person to slip through...

* * *

"Well, this certainly a slow night." Crimson remarked as she and Honker, now newly dubbed as Techno, cruised around the silent streets of St. Canard in the Ratcatcher. "The Fearsome Five must be taking a day off or something."

"It's been a little while since they did anything." Techno noted from the sidecar. "Perhaps Negaduck is working on something big."

"I sure hope not." Crimson said, thinking. "Maybe we should do some spying, and go check out the places the Fearsome Five are usually sighted at."

"Maybe." Techno said, looking at the silent police scanner before him. "But even the police are having it easy tonight. No chatter at all on any of the channels."

"Maybe SHUSH will have a new mission for us when we get back to the tower." Crimson proposed hopefully.

"Actually, I think this is just as well, I was hoping we wouldn't see any action tonight." Techno remarked, as he experimented with the new features that had been added to his visor. "I'm still getting used to this new costume and new alias and stuff."

"You'll adjust." Crimson assured him.

"Actually, I'm just getting second thoughts." Techno admitted. "Thinking about all these gadgets you added and expect me to use, I'm wondering if I'm really cut for crime fighting after all."

"Honk-I mean Techno, you can do this, I know you can!" Crimson said. "Just, give yourself a chance to prove it!"

"All right." Techno admitted, and went back to thinking. "Hey, Crimson, I was wondering. What should I have as a catchphrase?"

"Techno, you don't get a catchphrase when you're a sidekick!" Crimson objected. "You just..."

At that moment, the police scanner suddenly found an active channel and focused in on it.

"This is Dispatch to SCPD team three, we have a report of an accident with an experiment at Titan Laboratories." the radio crackled. "Details are sketchy, location is 123 Rowling Road, in the southern part of town."

"Well, some things go bump in the night no matter what in this town." Crimson remarked, turning the Ratcatcher at a corner to head to the address. "Techno, contact Darkwing and Launchpad in the Thunderquack and tell them what's going on and where we're heading. I think we're in for a good case, here."

"I wish I shared your enthusiasm." Techno muttered, as he went to carry out Crimson's request.

* * *

"I am the heir to the cape! I am the power bump that deletes your unsaved documents! I am the Crimson Avenger!"

Officer Matthew turned and saw Crimson step out of the red cloud of smoke. "Hi, Crimson." he remarked. "Figured you'd turn up here." he saw Techno standing behind Crimson. "Who's this?"

"This is Techno." Crimson said, pulling Techno out from behind her so Matthew could see him clearly. "You knew him as Arrow Kid."

Matthew looked Techno up and down. "Going for a new look, huh?"

Techno nodded, and extended his hand. "Pleased to meet you, sir." he greeted cordially.

"Same." Matthew said, taking the hand and shaking it.

"What's happened, Mattie?" Crimson asked.

"The queerest thing I've ever heard of, next to the incident with Nanite, of course." Matthew replied, leading the way down the hallway of Titan Laboratories, crowded with police and laboratory officials alike. "According the scientist in charge of the experiment, Dr. Connie Lovell, they were doing an unprecedented test with a formula that could theoretically cure all forms of cancer, when their test subject, celebrity Keith Gideon, broke out and escaped."

"Whoa, wait, Keith Gideon? _The _Keith Gideon?" Crimson asked, her eyes glimmering at the thought of the celebrity. "The sports star, known for participating hugely in sports such as soccer and baseball? _That _Keith Gideon?"

"You know him?" Techno asked, who had never heard of the person.

"Do I ever!" Crimson asked. "_Anyone _who has anything to do with sports knows him! He's famous!"

"The what is he doing being part of an experiment like this?" Techno asked.

"Again, according to Lovell, he had a rare form of cancer and saw the formula as a chance to save himself." Matthew answered, as he lead them to the scene of the incident itself.

"Cancer?" Crimson said. "First I've heard of that, he must have been keeping it secret."

"He was." said a one of the doctors standing at the doorway. "He was afraid that it would ruin his image if the press found out about it."

"Dr. Lovell, I presume?" Techno guessed.

Lovell nodded. "I know a great deal about the experiment." she said. "Any questions you have, you best ask me."

"Okay, any idea what happened?" Crimson asked, as Techno went to take notes.

"I know _exactly _what happened." Lovell said. "The formula didn't work. I told Mr. Gideon that it wasn't ready for use like this, but he insisted. So I gave him the formula. Few minutes later, he passed out. Quickly we ran some tests, and discovered something peculiar."

"Such as?" Crimson asked.

"The formula cured Mr. Gideon's cancer, but caused some kind of other cellular mutation that I have never seen before." Lovell replied. "We've theorized that the formula somehow changed Mr. Gideon's DNA directly, and had sparked the mutation."

"What kind of mutation?" Crimson asked, excited that they could have a runaway mutant on the loose.

"Hard to say, but it was extensive, and it was happening very quickly." Lovell replied. "By now, Mr. Gideon's DNA has no doubt been completely revamped. He probably is nothing like what he was before."

"Yikes." Techno muttered.

"Totally cool!" Crimson remarked, finding it neat as usual.

"Revamped into _what_?" was Matthew's question.

"Could be anything." Lovell replied. "There's really no way to tell without studying it further."

"Any idea why he'd want to escape?" Crimson asked, stepping into the ruined room and looking it over.

"Not one." Lovell said. "But it's a safe guess he knew that the formula hadn't worked right."

"Any idea where he would go from here, then?" Techno asked.

"Home, I guess." Lovell said.

"That's that big mansion just outside city boundaries." Matthew noted. "I can arrange for a team of officers to go over an investigate, see if he's still there."

"Good, me and Techno will come with." Crimson said.

"Darkwing's not here yet." Techno noted. "Maybe, since he's in the Thunderquack, we can contact him and he can go and get there before any of us do."

"Good thinking." Crimson said. "We have a better chance of catching him that way. Techno, could you contact him please?"

"What am I, your personal radio?" Techno asked, but obliged to Crimson's request.

* * *

A little while later, the Thunderquack landed in the front yard of the Gideon Mansion. The ground was uneven, so one side of the craft touched ground sooner than the other side, causing the whole craft to jerk to one side once it landed.

"As usual, another perfect crash landing, LP." Darkwing noted sarcastically, climbing out of his seat and walking across the titled cockpit.

"Sorry DW, I had trouble seeing how level the ground was." Launchpad apologized, opening the cockpit and climbing out.

"Next time, use the spotlight." Darkwing said, also climbing out and pulling out his gas gun.

"But I thought you wanted to use the sneak-up approach." Launchpad objected, as they headed towards the darkened mansion's front door. "You can't do that with a big spotlight shining down on everything, can you?"

Darkwing ignored his sidekick, as he cautiously opened the door and peaked inside. "All clear." he said, slipping inside. "Now remember, LP. We don't know what condition this Keith guy is in. I'd like to get the jump on him, and not have him get the jump on us. So it's absolutely imperative that you stay quiet..."

**CRASH!**

"Launchpad..."

"Sorry DW, that lamp jumped out of nowhere at me."

"Sure. Whatever. Just...avoiding anything else that jumps out in front of you."

"Okey-dokey, DW."

"Now shush, we should be entering the main room now."

Reaching into his jacket and pulling out a flashlight, Darkwing clicked it on and shined it around the room. They saw a very large, oval, room that towered up above them for three stories. Two spiral staircases stood off-center of each other in the middle of the room, and lead up to a balcony that ran around the edge of the second floor, then again on the third floor. Both balconies where lined with double doors. A stained glass sunroof made up three-fourths of the ceiling.

Launchpad whistled. "Quite a room DW." he remarked. "How are we going to find one guy in all of this? I mean, this place looks huge!"

"By looking for clues, LP!" Darkwing replied, scanning the room with the flashlight. "Look for anything out of the ordinary, anything that might indicate where our runaway friend might be..."

"Look, up there, DW!" Launchpad suddenly exclaimed, and pointed up to the second floor balcony. There, one of the double doors had been left ajar, and a faint glow of light shone through the gap.

"Good work, Launchpad!" Darkwing said, quickly heading for the closest spiral staircase and running up it. "I bet you my hat that Mr. Gideon is in there!"

"I'll take you up on that bet, DW, I've always liked your hat." Launchpad remarked, jogging to keep up with his friend.

"No, I didn't mean..." Darkwing began, but trailed off with a sigh. "Just forget it LP. Now quiet, we're almost there."

Pressing himself against the wall and putting away the flashlight, Darkwing slowly pushed one of the partly open double doors open all the way and peered inside. It seemed to be a finely decorated bedroom, complete with a four-poster canopy bed with velvet curtains. But Darkwing's eyes fell on a shadowy figure standing at the opposite end of the room at a desk, his outline cast in shadow in the illumination of a lamp.

Pressing a finger to his beak in Launchpad's direction, he slowly crept into the room. Launchpad started to follow, but suddenly getting second thoughts to that idea, Darkwing quickly motioned for him to stay there and guard the door. Launchpad saluted, and stood like a solider at attention in the doorway. Rolling his eyes, Darkwing continued on. Halfway there, just when it looked like he'd catch this guy before he even noticed Darkwing was there, a floorboard under the hero's webbed foot squeaked.

The figure at the desk suddenly froze and whirled around. Darkwing pointed his gas gun at the figure quickly, ready to fire, but then figure suddenly jumped, very, very, high, going clear over Darkwing and landing in front of Launchpad. The pilot yelped, and quickly stepped aside, letting the figure exit the room with another massive bound.

"Launchpad, you weren't supposed to let him go!" Darkwing exclaimed, rushing to the door.

"But you told me to avoid anything else that jumps out in front of..." Launchpad started to object.

"Oh, for the love of..." Darkwing exclaimed angrily, and rushed out of the room and onto the balcony, pulling out the flashlight again. "I can't see him, we'll have to split up. LP, you go that way, I'll go this way!"

Launchpad nodded, and broke off in a run in his designated direction. Darkwing went the other way, going more carefully and using more stealth. It put Darkwing into the mood of things, and it wasn't long before he was giving himself a running commentary.

"Our hero rushes down the dreadfully darkened hallways of the massive mansion." he said dramatically. "Using his superior skills and inquisitive intellect, he senses that his perilous prey has meandered down this hazardous hallway. But no one can out think the masked mallard, he's more than willing to get dangerous, anyway! No doubt he will soon meet up with the fearful..."

At that moment, Darkwing heard a noise from a hallway that branched off the balcony, and whirled around to point his flashlight at it.

"...frog?"

And so it was. But it was the biggest frog Darkwing had ever seen, and still wore an expensive outfit. And the frog had duck's bill. Darkwing suddenly realized this was Keith Gideon he was looking at. Or, what was of Keith Gideon there was left in the frog.

The frog wasn't going to wait to find out, pushing past Darkwing in a mighty leap. "'cuse me." he said as he slipped past and went back the way Darkwing had come.

"Hey!" Darkwing exclaimed, moving to chase the runway frog.

"Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh Frogduck!" the fleeing amphibian sang gleefully.

"Say _what_?" Darkwing muttered as he chased after the frog, loading a canister of sleeping gas into his gas gun.

But the mutant frog-duck proved to be too quick, grabbing a column as he ran past it, swinging around, and launching himself at the wall, limbs stuck out in a spreadeagle manner. With a splat, he slammed into it, and stuck to it. Then, like a spider, started climbing up the wall towards the stained glass sunroof.

Darkwing tried to line up a shot, but upon failing, ran to the nearest spiral staircase and raced up to it, heading for the top. Keith the Frog didn't seemed concerned by this, taking his dear sweet time to climb up the wall, and was waiting just out of Darkwing's reach as the hero finally caught up with the frog.

"You...(gasp)...wait right...(pant-pant)...there you...(gasp)...annoying amphibian." Darkwing challenged lamely, breathing heavily from his run up the staircase.

The frog stopped to consider Darkwing's challenge. "Nah." he finally announced dismissively.

With a leap, he leapt from the wall and planted himself upside down on the sunroof itself. Not one to be outdone by a frog, Darkwing fired his gas gun. He missed, and the canister instead smashed through the stained glass of the sunroof, allowing the rampant frog to squeeze through the hole.

Slapping himself on the forehead, Darkwing fired his grappling hook and rope at the opening and climbed up to it and continued the chase. He found Keith the Frog prancing around in lazy hops on the roof, gradually heading towards the rear of the mansion.

"Hey, stop!" Darkwing called out, trying to line up another shot at the frog.

Keith glanced back at Darkwing for a moment, then increased his pace.

"I'll shoot!" Darkwing warned, thinking he finally had his target perfectly in his sights.

Keith ignored the warning, and upon reaching the edge of the roof, jumped off the three-story building and dove into the Olympic-sized swimming pool that sat below. Once Darkwing had raced to the edge of the roof and looked down into the pool, the mutant frog-duck was gone...

* * *

"He turned into a giant frog?" Crimson asked later once she, Techno, and the police had arrived at the scene. It was clear she was having a hard time believing it.

"I kid you not." Darkwing assured her. "He still had a duck bill, and the last outfit the Keith was wearing.

"Well, I guess now we know what was wrong with Lovell's formula." Matthew said. "It turns people into overgrown frogs."

"That's not all, I think Keith's lost it, at least somewhat." Darkwing added.

"Lost it?" Crimson repeated, not liking the idea of her favorite sports superstar being insane.

"Yeah, he seemed to see the whole chase as a game, and was singing his own theme song." Darkwing said. "Which I think he ripped off of a TV show or something, because I swear I've heard it before. Called himself Frogduck."

"Frogduck?" Techno repeated, who was taking notes on Darkwing's story. "Not one for original names, huh?"

"Well, it describes him well." Crimson pointed out.

"So now SCPD needs to be on the lookout for a runaway, demented, frog-duck mutant." Matthew summarized skeptically. "Dispatch will love this one."

"Can't be worse that being on the lookout for a mutant plant-duck." Darkwing pointed out.

"Where was Launchpad during all of this?" Crimson asked.

"To sum it up in short," Darkwing said, looking behind him where his sidekick was eating a large submarine sandwich, "He found the kitchen."

Techno shook his head. "How does one catch a mutant frog-duck?" he asked.

"Much less _find _one." Crimson added, rolling her eyes in annoyance at the whole situation.

"Actually that's the easy part." Techno said. "He's part frog now, right? Then most likely, he'll go someplace a frog would enjoy. Particularly since that's all he seems to be looking for. A place to have fun."

"Like where?" Crimson asked.

"Hamburger Hippo?" Launchpad asked hopefully, joining them as he finished his sandwich and found he was still hungry for more.

"At least someplace with water." Techno stated.

"Audubon Bay?" Matthew suggested.

"Too loud and crowded." Darkwing said. "He seems to still want to keep out of sight, and the bay would be too public for that."

"Not mention, it's really polluted, even with Neptunia stopping by occasionally to clean." Crimson added. "I wouldn't want to swim in there if I could help it."

"The St. Canard Public Swimming Pool?" Launchpad suggested.

"Again, too public." Darkwing added. "What we need is a place where it would be concealed, but filled with plenty of water, and yet is clean."

The group thought for a moment.

"Has anyone stopped to consider the waterworks?" Techno asked suddenly.

* * *

"Okay, Darkwing, we have the facility surrounded, and all the workers have already left for the night." Matthew said over the radio. "If Frogduck, if that's really his name now, tries to flee again, we'll catch him."

"Good, if we can't nab him, we'll try and lure him your way." Darkwing said, speaking into the walkie-talkie he carried. "It'll be like catching fish in a net." Putting the walkie-talkie away, he turned to Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno. "All right guys, here's the game plan. First we want to track him down, without alerting him of our presence. Doing otherwise would only make him flee again. Then, we want to try and find a way to catch him quietly, maybe with him coming willingly. Remember, he's just not thinking straight. Only use force if all else fails. Everybody got that? Any questions?"

Launchpad raised his hand.

"Yes, LP?" Darkwing asked.

"Can we go get something to eat after this is all over?" the pilot asked, rubbing his stomach. "I'm hungry."

"We'll see." Darkwing replied, annoyed. "Let's worry about this first."

"Well, I'm ready for this." Crimson said, lifting up her gas gun, loaded with as many canisters of sleeping gas as she could fit into it. "Where do you think Frogduck most likely will be?"

"Where the water is calm, not really being disturbed, and is already clean." Techno provided.

"Maybe those storage towers over there?" Darkwing asked, pointing.

"Worth a look." Techno offered.

"All right, let's go then." Darkwing said, and started walking in the direction of the tall towers storing cleaned water ready to go back into St. Canard's water supply at the edge of the St. Canard Waterworks facility.

Darkwing led the progression for a little while, but then fell back to walk alongside Techno for a moment.

"Hey Techno." he said. "Just wanted to tell you now, before I forget, that you're doing good for the first night back on the job."

"Actually, this isn't..." Techno began to correct.

"Well, technically first night back." Darkwing amended. "But I also wanted to say that you've been a big help."

"I have?" Techno asked, who thought he had been of very little help, except for acting as a relay for messages.

"Yep." Darkwing said. "Y'know, whenever Crimson goes out on patrol, I worry about her immensely. I'm her father, that's what I do. But I feel much better about her going out on patrol when you're out there with her."

"Really?" Techno asked, blushing at the compliment.

"Oh yes." Darkwing pressed. "Techno, you'll make a great sidekick for Crimson."

"Huh, I was kinda wondering if I really had what it took to be anyone's sidekick." Techno admitted.

"I'll admit that seven years ago I thought the same." Darkwing admitted. "You were much more shy and less outgoing back then. But seeing you now...well...you've changed. You're still a little shy and withdrawn from the world, but nowhere near as much as before. And that's one of the first steps to being a superhero."

Techno grinned sheepishly. "Thanks, Mr. Darkwing." he said.

"You're welcome." Darkwing said, giving Techno a pat on the back before going back to lead the group again.

Not long thereafter, they arrived at the water towers. Crimson looked the four towers over.

"Frogduck could be in any of these." she remarked. "How do we know which, if he's in any of them?"

"It's that one." Techno said, pointing at the fourth and nearest tower. "I can see a patch of heat in that one with my visor's infrared sensor. Apparently Mr. Gideon is still hot-blooded."

"You can see that from here?" Crimson asked, surprised.

"Uh-huh." Techno said, nodding. "That, and the fact that the access hatch in that tower is open."

"So it is." Darkwing noted, and surveyed his little party of crime-fighters. "Somebody feeling brave enough to go all the way up there?" he asked.

"You're not scared to go up there, are you dad?" Crimson teased.

"I'm just wanting to give everybody a chance, here." Darkwing assured her. "Besides, me going up there might not be a good idea, seeing that I've tried to catch him already."

"Well, count me out, then." Techno said, analyzing the height. "Not only am I afraid of heights, but considering all of the gadgets I've got at the moment, falling into water is probably the last thing I'll want to do."

"Count me out, too." Launchpad added.

"And why is that, LP?" Darkwing asked hotly.

"I just ate." Launchpad explained. "You should wait two hours after eating before going swimming."

"But who said there would be swimming involved?" Darkwing objected.

"Relax, dad, I'll go." Crimson said, grabbing the first rung on the ladder leading up. "Since you're all a bunch of 'fraidy cats."

Ignoring her dad's retort to that remark, Crimson climbed up to the top of the tower and peered into the open hatch. Sure enough, floating on his back in the tank half-full of water, was Keith the Frog. He glanced at Crimson as she looked inside, but otherwise ignored her.

"Mr. Gideon!" Crimson said, getting an idea. "Hi!"

Frogduck glanced at her, rolling over onto his belly. "Do I know you?" he asked finally.

"No, but I'm you're biggest fan!" Crimson said, sitting down in the open hatch and extended her hand.

Frogduck took it and shook it with one of his webbed hands. "A fan, huh?" he asked. "Huh, I could use one of those. It's a little hot in here."

It was then that Crimson decided that Darkwing was right. Frogduck _was_ a little off his rocker.

Frogduck meanwhile pushed off into the water again, floating on his back. "Like my new home?" he asked.

"Home?" Crimson asked, looking around at the tank.

"Yeah." Frogduck said. "I remember that I had one before, but upon visiting it again, I thought it was too big, and not wet enough. No flies to eat, either. So I moved here."

Crimson grimaced at the thought of anyone eating flies before realizing what Frogduck had just implied. Apparently, his memory as Keith Gideon was sketchy at best. Perhaps that was why he was acting in such a way. He couldn't really remember who he was before the formula made him what he was. It didn't seem that he cared, though. He looked like he was perfectly happy to spend the rest of his days like this.

"So..." Crimson said, picking up the conversation again. "You like flies, huh?"

"Love 'em." Frogduck replied.

"Maybe I can help you find some." Crimson offered. "I think there's a place here in town that serves them."

But before Frogduck could reply, the walkie-talkie Crimson carried suddenly crackled, and the voice that spoke, to Crimson's dismay, was Darkwing's.

"Crimson, what's going on?" Darkwing asked, via radio. "Is everything okay up there?"

Crimson didn't reply, but instead turned to look at Frogduck, who had submerged and swam at the hatch rapidly. Ramming the side of the tank, Crimson yelped as the tower shook, and she tumbled into the water. Frogduck pushed her away from the hatch, and hopped into it, looking back at Crimson with a silly grin, as if this was all a game.

Crimson, working to stay afloat, whipped out her gas gun. "Stop!" she ordered.

But when she pulled the trigger, water simply dribbled out. Crimson glanced at the drenched gas gun and grinned sheepishly.

"Bye!" Frogduck called, and with a mighty bound, leapt out of the tower and landed unharmed on the ground below.

There, Darkwing and Launchpad charged Frogduck. Frogduck, unalarmed, opened his mouth, and his tongue shot out, stretching out to insane lengths like a normal frog's would. It smacked into Launchpad, knocking him over, who crashed into Darkwing. Darkwing, being smaller than Launchpad, was knocked over as well.

Techno then charged Frogduck, but upon seeing an open crate of new equipment for the waterworks sitting nearby, Frogduck grabbed the wooden lid and tossed it into a nearby pool of water. He then hopped onto the lid, using it as a boat, just as Techno reached him. Using his webbed feet as paddles for a moment to get his makeshift raft going, Frogduck looked back at his pursuers and made a comical face at them.

"Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm Frogduck!" he exclaimed in a sing-song voice.

"Frogduck!" Crimson suddenly called out as she climbed, sopping wet, out of the water tower, "Look out behind you!"

Frogduck turned and saw he was floating straight for a whirling machine that was actively stirring the water in the pool. He went to jump to safety, but for once wasn't fast enough before the machine caught his raft and pulled both it and Frogduck under. The heroes gathered at the spot, searching the water for any trace of the former celebrity, and found none.

"I guess he croaked." Darkwing remarked.

* * *

"Well, we've searched the entirely facility." Matthew reported later as the police and some workers that had been called to the scene scanned the facility. "We're still searching some of the pools, but we're not finding any trace of Frogduck or any bodies."

"So you think he escaped?" Crimson asked.

"If so, maybe now he has the sense to stay out of trouble." Darkwing said, not worried about the news. "Or better yet, go where he could get some help."

"Whatever the case, I think he's pretty much harmless." Techno said. "Going from what Crimson said, it sounds like he just needs to settle back into life, adjusting for his new form. Once he does that, he'll probably won't be a problem anymore."

"I've talked to some people, Dr. Lovell included, and they all agree, thinking something similar to that." Matthew said.

"Well, I personally think it's time to call it a night." Darkwing said, turning to leave. "I'm tired of this game of chase, and it's almost dawn anyway."

"Ooh, those that mean we can get something to eat, DW?"

"Yeah, LP, we can all go home and get an early breakfast."

"Good, I'm ready to get out of this wet costume."

"Should've thought to add a hair blower gadget to my costume, Crimson."

"Yeah, but when would _you _use it? You hardly _have _hair."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"Shush, you two, it's too early. Let's just go home."


	7. Escaped Convict Part I

Summary: A weird object from outer space is staring to wreak havoc with the world. Already responsible for the destruction of a space shuttle, it's now up to Darkwing and the gang to figure out what this object is, and how to stop it. But there's more to this object than meets the eye...

Rating for this Adventure: T

Author's note: A two-parter adventure, since I don't feel like writing out the whole thing to one chapter. Plus, it just fit. Some scenes in this chapter are inspired upon the "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" movie, but that'll end starting part 2. And yeah, I know it should be DASA, but I wanted to use NASA, so there. :p

7.

Escaped Convict Part I

"Houston, we are in position, requesting go ahead with satellite deployment."

"Flight, this is Houston, you have a go. Proceed with deployment."

SHUSH Director J. Gander Hooter watched the monitor displaying the space shuttle's relative position to Earth eagerly. "This is it." he remarked.

The mission commander, Mark Fox, nodded. "Don't worry Director." he said confidently. "These guys have been trained well. They won't hurt your satellite."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm perfectly confident this mission will go successfully." Hooter replied. "NASA has been more than capable to launch SHUSH's satellites into space in the past. I see no reason for that tradition to change now."

Mark grinned, and turned back to look at the monitor.

"Flight, we are opening the cargo doors, beginning deployment procedures." the radio crackled as the astronauts in the space shuttle high above them reported their progress.

"I understand this satellite can position itself." Mark remarked to Hooter suddenly. "That all we have to do is let it go, and it'll do the rest itself."

"Yes, that is part of the reason we are so anxious to see it go up." Hooter replied. "It sports a self-guidance technology and artificial intelligence no satellite of it's type has had before. It will conduct most of it's missions on it's own, presuming it does not malfunction or anything."

"Launching satellite, stand by, Houston." the radio spoke again.

On the monitor, a new dot detached itself from the wireframe drawing of the space shuttle, and moved away from it.

"Houston, satellite is away, and moving." the radio announced.

The room broke out into a smattering of applause.

Hooter pulled out a walkie-talkie and spoke into it. "Dr. Bellum, can you confirm?" he asked.

Back in headquarters in St. Canard, Dr. Sarah Bellum checked her own displays. "Yes, director." she reported. "We're already getting reports back from the satellite. It's positioning itself to the proper coordinates already, and we're seeing no errors."

Hooter grinned. "Good." he said. "That's how I like it."

* * *

From within the space shuttle, the astronauts watched the satellite drift away, maneuvering on it's own accord.

"Impressive little bugger." one astronaut remarked. "Must take quite a computer for it maneuver around like that on it's own."

"Too bad we can't tell anybody about it." another astronaut remarked. "The mission is top secret, you know."

"Some mission, all we had to do was let the satellite go, and it did the rest." a third astronaut grumbled.

"Personally, I like the easy missions." a fourth astronaut stated. "It's nice to know we can do a mission with a single hitch."

"You might have spoken too soon." the fifth astronaut said, and was the only one not watching the satellite. Instead, he was in the pilot's seat looking the other way. "There's something coming towards us."

"What?" the first astronaut asked, who was the mission commander, and worked his way towards the front in the lack of gravity. "You sure? Our path should be clear except for the SHUSH satellite."

"Oh yeah?" the fifth astronaut asked. "Then tell me what the heck that thing is."

He pointed at a glowing object that was coming towards them. Fast.

The other astronauts gathered around to see. "What the heck is that?" one of them asked.

The mission commander dove for the radio. "Houston, we have a problem. Wait, did I really just say that? Never mind, look, we've got something coming towards us. No idea what it is, but it's bright, and it's coming towards us, _fast_!"

* * *

"Can we confirm this?" Mark barked quickly to one of the people sitting at a control station.

"Yes, but..." the person replied, working with his controls desperately, "But I can't tell you much. It's not a man-made satellite, and it _is _moving very fast."

"_Very _fast!" another suddenly spoke up. "We just got a report in from Deep Space Telemetry. They've been tracking this thing all week. It _was _heading away from Earth, but five minutes ago it suddenly changed paths to intercept with the space shuttle and _accelerated!_ It just went from lunar orbit to the space shuttle's position in less than five minutes!"

"Director Hooter!" Hooter's walkie-talkie suddenly crackled. "Our satellite sees the object, and is getting a reading. The object, whatever it is, is producing some kind of energy that even _I've _never seen, and considering all that I've seen in my lifetime..."

"Get them out of there!" Hooter ordered, getting a bad feeling about this.

"Can they?" Mark asked quickly.

"We're calculating now, shuttle is already moving." one person replied.

"It's not working, the object it only changing it's path to match!" another shouted.

"What?" Hooter asked standing.

"Sir, the object is on a collision course with the shuttle!" yet another person shouted.

"Get them out of there!" Mark ordered loudly.

"Can't, communications just went down!"

"Object now on the display!"

"Impact in three...two...one...zero!"

The monitor suddenly went blank.

"What happened?" Mark demanded.

"We're finding out, hang on!" came the reply.

Finally, the first person turned to look at Mark and Hooter, very solemnly. "I'm sorry sirs." he said. "We have a confirmed hit. The shuttle was destroyed."

* * *

"Gosalyn, for the last time, _no _you may not open _any _presents early!" Drake Mallard told his soon-to-be seventeen-year-old adopted daughter.

"C'mon dad, my birthday's just tomorrow!" Gosalyn begged. "Will it really matter if I just open one present a day early?"

"Yes, it does!" Drake persisted, walking into the kitchen. "Because the moment you open the one, you'll start begging to open all of them!"

"Dang, he's on to me." Gosalyn muttered, then hurried up to catch up with her adopted father. "Can't I at least take a peak?" she begged.

"No, Gosalyn." Drake said, continuing to work on the punch he was making. "Look, you're having your party with all of your friends tonight, and you'll be getting presents from them then. That should tide you over until tomorrow afternoon when you, me, and Launchpad celebrate your birthday and give you our presents _then_."

"C'mon dad..." Gosalyn begged.

"No, and that is final, young lady!" Drake persisted, dropping a ladle into the bowl of punch a little harsher than he intended. "If you keep this up, I will say no to the party, too."

"No?" Gosalyn repeated shocked. "You wouldn't!"

"Just try me, Gos." Drake said, picking up the bowl and placing it in the fridge until tonight.

"But it's been tradition for the past three years, Dad!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "Everybody in the neighborhood expects me to have the party! And I've already sent out invitations and everything!"

"Then just forget about opening presents early, then." Drake said, stepping out of the kitchen again.

"You know, Launchpad always let me do what I wanted for my birthdays." Gosalyn remarked, following.

"Yes, well, that was before I came back from my seven years of being gone." Drake pointed out, heading into his study, and going to close the door.

Gosalyn held it open with one hand. "You never let me do what I want." she pointed out.

"I let you start crime fighting." Drake pointed out, trying to force the door closed. "Or do you want me to take that away, too?"

Gosalyn frowned, but let the subject drop. However, she still kept the door propped open. "By the way Dad, this party is just for me and my friends." she said.

"I know." Drake said.

"I have to keep up my cool image." Gosalyn continued.

"I know." Drake said, giving up on the door and going to sit down at his desk.

"So, I don't want you or Launchpad to be at the party." Gosalyn concluded.

Drake was up again in a flash. "What?" he asked. "Gos, I can understand why you'd want that, but really, if me and LP aren't there, then who will make sure this party stays under control?"

"Don't worry, Honker will be there." Gosalyn assured him.

"Somehow I'm not comforted by that, Gos." Drake replied, hands on his hips.

"Then you don't know Honker." Gosalyn said, remembering the time Honker denied everybody attending Gosalyn's fifteen birthday party to play music at loud levels, so to not wake the neighbors.

Drake sighed. "Well, I suppose that if I hide out in the tower and monitor the house from there with the video feeds of the major rooms in the house..." he muttered in resignation.

Gosalyn grinned. "Thanks dad!" she said, and quickly stepped out of the room before Drake could so much as suggest he was going to change his mind.

Drake moaned, putting his head down on his desk. He had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

So did J. Gander Hooter, but for different reasons. Back in St. Canard now, he was currently pacing his office in anticipation.

First Agent Grizzlikof stood nearby, flipping through a report. "Are we sure?" he asked skeptically. "Perhaps report is wrong."

"No, everything has been double checked and triple checked, Agent Grizzlikof." Hooter said, continuing to pace. "There can be no denying it. The object, whatever it is, is much more than random space junk."

"A UFO, then?" Grizzlikof suggested.

"For the moment, yes." Hooter said. "But I intend on changing it to IFO, an _identified _flying object."

"But this theory of yours..." Grizzlikof. "The mysterious events occurring all over world must be unrelated."

"That is what I'd wish to think, which is why I have Dr. Bellum on it." Hooter replied. "But I'm afraid the events are too coincidental, and they only started to happen after the shuttle was destroyed. Think about it. First a windstorm starts for no reason in the middle of the Pacific. Radio transmissions go out in the Europe area for nearly a full hour with no explanation. There was a black out in New York, again with no cause. Bad weather all over the planet has increased by five percent. And currently, with all the information we know, only one thing can be the cause."

At that moment, Dr. Bellum stepped into the room, without bothering to knock or be asked in. "Director Hooter, it's just as we feared." she reported, holding up a file of information. "Remember the odd energy signature the satellite picked up from the object just before it destroyed the satellite? Well, it's found it again, and just like you thought, it's all over Earth. That object is still here, on this planet..."

* * *

"Gos, is there any chance of that music getting turned down?" Honker loudly asked as the late-night party roared on in the Mallard house.

"Isn't it a great tune?" Gosalyn asked, ignoring most of Honker's question. "Hey Daniel!" she called over to the person at the stereo. "Turn it up!" she motioned upward with her thumb.

"No, don't..." Honker began to interrupt, but it was too late. The volume went up several more notches, and now the music was rattling the foundation of the house. Honker pressed his hand onto his face. "You're dad is going to barge in here at any moment, I know it!" he moaned. "Then we'll all be in trouble!"

"Don't worry, there's no sound on the video feeds." Gosalyn assured him. "I made sure that were conveniently 'disconnected' a week ago when we were installing some of Dad's new equipment."

"Still, it's not like your dad can't figure out what's going on..." Honker said, looking around leerily, knowing he was being watched.

"How about we get a snack, Honker." Gosalyn said, taking her friend's hand and leading him through the crowd of dancing teenagers to the kitchen.

Inside, set neatly on the kitchen table, was a wide variety of snacks Drake had prepared, and were surprisingly very popular. Gosalyn approached the table and began gathering snacks and placing them on a plate. Honker nervously waited nearby, and jumped when a girl suddenly entered.

"Hey, Gos, you hungry too?" the girl asked.

"Hey Jax." Gosalyn greeted, turning around. "What's up?"

Jax, Gosalyn's friend, looked over the snacks, before her eyes fell on the silent and nervous Honker. "Hey, who's your friend?"

"This is Honker Muddlefoot." Gosalyn said, pulling Honker closer. "He lives next door."

Jax looked Honker over, and grinned slyly. "I don't suppose you and I could..." she began, but before she could finish, the already nervous Honker grew more nervous and interrupted.

"You're not my species." he suddenly announced.

Jax stared at Honker blankly, while Gosalyn slapped her face.

"Excuse me?" Jax asked.

"Well, presuming that this one chance encounter evolves into a more serious relationship..." Honker said, getting very technical in his nervousness, "...problems would arise, because our genetics vary so much, that, again theoretically presuming that a serious relationship would arise, any offspring..."

"Never mind." Jax quickly said, and left even quicker.

Honker simply just stared after her.

"Honker!" Gosalyn exclaimed, slapping her friend on the back of the head. "You didn't let her finish! She was only going to ask you to a dance!"

"How do you know?" Honker asked, rubbing the spot where Gosalyn had hit him. "Since we never heard the conclusion of her question, the odds that it is as you say are..."

"Honk, everybody likes you better when you're _not _all technical." Gosalyn said with a groan, pulling Honker back out into the living room.

"But I was being truthful..." Honker objected.

* * *

From within the tower, Drake watched the various inputs from the concealed video feeds back home, studying the multitude of teenagers party.

"I _really _don't like the looks of this." he muttered, not for the first time. "I think this party is getting _way _too out of hand."

"Aw, let Gos and her friends have fun, DW." Launchpad said, strolling up with a yogurt. "They aren't doing anything wrong as far as I can tell."

"That's because you can't see what's going on at all!" Drake exclaimed. "If this keeps up, it might be up to Darkwing Duck to get things back in order before the police show up, and _I _get the blame for it!" he squinted at one screen in particular. "I think they have that stereo turned up _way _too loud, as well. Wish I knew how the sound on these video feeds got disconnected."

"Dunno DW, but according to the remote decibel sensor at the house, it's pretty high up." Launchpad said.

"Is it in the red zone?" Drake asked, alarmed.

"No, just yellow." Launchpad replied, eating a spoonful of his yogurt.

Drake groaned. "So, Gos will only be deaf for the next two days then." he muttered sarcastically. "I must admit LP, I'm having real big second thoughts about this whole party. I probably should have never allowed Gos to..."

But he was cut off suddenly when a loud beeping noise rang out in the hideout.

Launchpad looked around. "What's that?" he asked.

"It's the call-waiting alarm!" Drake said, quickly rushing up a ladder and to the large video screen he used for communicating. "It's from SHUSH!" he announced, upon reading the details of the message. "Priority call!"

"Priority call?" Launchpad said. "That means Director Hooter wants to talk with all of us!"

"LP, you stay here!" Drake ordered, leaping down from the platform and racing across the hideout. "I'll head home through the secondary entrance and get Gosalyn and Honker!"

* * *

Outside the Mallard home in the backyard, Drake popped out of a nearby bush, dusting leaves from himself. Taking on the attitude of the normal household parent of a seventeen-year-old adopted daughter, he strode purposefully across the yard, and entered his house through the back door. Inside, he found the kitchen mostly empty, save a pair of skinny, teenage girls, leaning against a nearby wall, eating candy.

They looked at Drake when he entered. "Dude," one of them said, "What happened to your hair? Did someone attack it with a weed eater?" she laughed at her pun about Drake's balding hair.

Drake wisely ignored the quip, but eyed the candy. "Why are you eating that stuff, when there's a whole bunch of healthy snacks over there?" he asked, annoyed as he pointed at the snacks he had prepared earlier.

"They're bland." the other girl replied. "Besides, what's wrong with candy?"

"What's wrong?" Drake repeated. "Do you know how many fatty calories and other junk is in that stuff? Why, you both could be gaining weight even as we speak!"

The two girls stared at Drake for a moment, then at each other. Silently, giving Drake one last odd look, they left the room. Drake simply rolled his eyes, and remembered why he was here to begin with. Stepping through the double doors leading out of the kitchen, he stepped into the rowdy living room, trying to see over the many bouncing heads of teenagers. He wondered how he was going to find Gosalyn in all of this, but Gosalyn ultimately found him.

"Dad!" Gosalyn said, annoyed. "I asked you not to be here, and I thought you agreed!"

"I _did_." Drake said.

"Then why are you here?" Gosalyn demanded, folding her arms.

"SHUSH." Drake replied cryptically.

Gosalyn didn't catch on right away, but Drake saw when she did once her eyes started to widen. "Shush?" she repeated. "As in SHUSH shush?" she asked.

Drake nodded, and added quietly, "Priority call."

Gosalyn's eyes widened even more, but she frowned. "But..." she said. "What about opening the presents?" she asked. "We haven't even had the cake yet!"

"Miraculously." Drake muttered, but shrugged to his daughter. "Sorry Gos, I didn't plan this." he said. "But once whatever it is that's up with J. Gander, you can come back and open the presents."

Gosalyn sighed, but nodded. "All right then." she said. Quickly, she pressed her way through the partying teenagers and went over to the stereo, turning it off. "Can I have your attention please?" she asked, and then waited until she did. "I'm sorry everyone, but something's come up, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to end the party early."

A long groan rang out from the group.

"I know, I'm sorry too, I don't want it to end." Gosalyn assured them. "But's important. Please, leave calmly though the way you came in, and leave your presents on the couch. I'll find a way to make it up to you all, I promise!"

Grudgingly, the teenagers started to leave as instructed. Gosalyn quickly searched through the group until she found Honker. "It's SHUSH." she explained quickly, and pulled him over to where Drake stood waiting.

At this moment, Launchpad arrived. "Hooter's still calling." he said. "I think if he waits much longer, he's going to send a Flashquack. It must be really important."

"We'll be right there." Drake said, making sure Honker and Gosalyn where ready to leave. "LP, could you stay here and make sure everyone leaves okay?"

"Okey-doke." Launchpad replied, and took up a post next to the front door.

Secretly, the other three snuck out the back door, and went to the tower through the secondary entrance. Once there, Drake quickly changed into costume.

"I'll answer Hooter's call." he said. "You two hurry and get ready."

Gosalyn and Honker nodded, and set off to do as asked. Darkwing, now fully costumed, went to the video screen, and accepted Hooter's call. The SHUSH logo appeared once, then it was replaced by Director Hooter himself.

"Ah, there you are Darkwing!" Hooter said, clearly relieved. "Finally! I was afraid you were on patrol or something."

"No, I wasn't, J. Gander." Darkwing assured him, sitting down in his chair. "But you did catch me at a bad time."

"I apologize, Darkwing, but it's very important." Hooter said. He looked around the screen. "Where is the Crimson Avenger?" he asked.

"Rrrright here, J. Gander!" Crimson said, suddenly appearing at Darkwing's side, closely followed by Techno. "Sorry to keep you waiting!"

"Understandable." Hooter said. "Darkwing said I was catching you all at a bad time, and judging from the condition your hideout is in, I can see why for the delay."

Darkwing looked around at the mess sheepishly. "Yes, ahem, we're in the middle of remodeling." He explained.

"Ah yes, I remember now." Hooter said. "Anyway, sorry again if I'm interrupting anything, but this is very important, and I need all of your help."

"Really." Darkwing said, rubbing his bill. "So what's up?"

"Funny you should say that, Darkwing." Hooter said. "Because we are dealing with something from outer space."

"Keen gear..." Crimson murmured. "Like what?"

"We're not sure." Hooter admitted. "But earlier today, NASA's space shuttle, the _Odyssey_, was destroyed by an UFO while on a top-secret mission to launch an experimental satellite of ours. The object is known to be very fast, difficult to track, and emits a great deal of a peculiar energy not even Dr. Bellum can identify."

"Whoa." Techno said, in awe.

"Wow." Darkwing agreed. "Even though Dr. Bellum is a little...weird...she usually knows everything about this kind of thing."

"Which is part of what has me worried." Hooter said. "That, and the fact that our new satellite has confirmed that the object _is _still on Earth, and responsible for a wide variety of phenomenon."

"You mean stuff like the extreme wave-making windstorm over in the Pacific that I heard on the news?" Darkwing asked.

"That among other things." Hooter said. "Whatever this thing is, it's causing a great deal of trouble."

"So how do we fit in?" Crimson asked. "Want us to track it down and stop it?"

"Not yet." Hooter said. "Dr. Bellum is still trying to find an effective way in tracking it. But she is close, close enough to discover that the object is heading in our direction."

"What?" Techno asked.

"If it keeps going along the path it was last seen taking, it should reach St. Canard sometime tomorrow night." Hooter went on to say.

"But, tomorrow night is the night of the St. Canard Town Square Celebration!" Darkwing exclaimed, worried. "That's the reason that the...thing we were caught in the middle of when you called J. Gander was happening tonight and not tomorrow night!"

"Exactly!" Hooter said. "Most of the city will be at that celebration, and I'm worried that if the object shows up at that time that someone will get hurt. I want all of you to be at the celebration just in case that does happen. Just to be safe."

"But we weren't planning on going to that celebration." Crimson said, gesturing to her costume. "Not in costume, anyway."

"I'm already arranging with the mayor to give you all special invitations to the celebration." Hooter said. "You'll be special guests there, honored for your help in protecting St. Canard."

Darkwing's eyes glistened at the idea of the fame that would give him. "Sounds good, J. Gander!" he said, agreeing to the plan immediately. "We'll be there, and ready for whatever this object thing is!"

"Very good, Darkwing." Hooter said. "I will be at the celebration myself, under cover, of course, so I'll see you there. Good luck in the meantime."

And with that, the message ended.

* * *

The next night, Darkwing and Crimson stood in the middle of town square, dressed with their hats and masks, but otherwise wore fancy dress clothing in place of their usual costumes, sipping a fruit punch a store was giving out free at a nearby table.

Darkwing surveyed the crowd of St. Canard citizens grouped around him as he sipped his drink. "You know, tonight would be a good chance for some villain to cause a ruckus." he noted.

"Yes, that thought crossed my mind as well." Crimson admitted. "We had better hope that doesn't happen tonight, though. Hooter's counting on us to here if that object shows up and causes a problem."

"Judging from the speeds he spoke of it taking yesterday, I'm more willing to bet it'll just zip by and nothing will happen." Darkwing said. "'course, better safe than sorry."

"Exactly." Crimson said, and sipped at her drink. "Where did Launchpad park the Thunderquack again?"

"Over there, by the games booth." Darkwing said, pointing. "LP's showing it off to passerbys so that it'll look like it's just here for show. But he assures me it can take off and be airborne at a moment's notice."

"Good, because that's all we might get." Crimson said. She glanced at her watch. "Time to get a report from Techno. Be right back."

She walked off to look for Techno. He stood not far from the punch table, near an inflatable slide for children, looking around like he was searching for something. Crimson walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Anything?" she asked.

"Nope, no sign of the object." Techno admitted, cupping his hands around his SHUSH visor as it searched for the obscure energy signature the object released. "Anything on your end?"

"Nothing but this yummy punch." Crimson replied, sipping her drink.

"Did your dad get that speech he wanted?" Techno asked, still searching.

"Nope." Crimson replied. "The mayor said Darkwing was only invited here because Hooter said so, and as such, Darkwing is only here as an honored guest, and nothing more."

"Ooh, I bet he didn't like that." Techno said.

"No, he didn't." Crimson said. "He fumed for quite awhile afterwards, but I think he's over the worse of it now."

"Oh, looky who I found." Techno suddenly announced, and stepped aside to allow J. Gander Hooter into the group.

"Hello, you two, enjoying the celebration?" he asked politely.

"Trying to, anyway." Crimson admitted.

"Well, thank you both anyway for being here." Hooter said. "I feel much better knowing you two and Darkwing are here, watching over things. I just hope we won't need your help."

"At the rate things are going, we won't need to do anything." Techno remarked. "No sign of _anything _out of the ordinary."

"Well, it might not stay that way." Hooter admitted. "I just got a call from Dr. Bellum. She's found a way to track the object, and it _is _still on route to here. Exactly when it'll get here is unknown, it's speed it very inconsistent, Bellum tells me. One moment it'll be speeding along, and then it'll drop to a snail's pace."

"Weird." Techno muttered.

"Well, don't worry Director, sir." Crimson said. "We aren't going anywhere soon."

Hooter grinned. "Good." he said, and with a nod, left again.

* * *

Darkwing was still standing idly at the punch table when he heard someone call to him.

"Dark!" the voice exclaimed.

Darkwing turned, instantly recognizing the voice. "Morgana?" he asked, surprised.

"Oh, Dark!" Morgana said, as she squeezed her way to Darkwing. Her husband, Bob, followed, grinning broadly. "I thought I'd see you here!" she embraced the surprised Darkwing in a hug.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to see you here, Morg!" he said, surprised, but happy to see his ex-girlfriend. "I thought you hated Normal parties."

"I do, but Bob is loves them." she explained, gesturing to the warlock psychiatrist, who waved. "He's fascinated by Normals, and their lives."

"So I talked Morg into coming tonight." Bob went on, taking Darkwing's hand and shaking it. "Good to see you again."

"Same." Darkwing said, having grown slightly fond of the cheerful magician. "So you're here to satisfy curiosity?"

"Yes, it started when I met up with a witch who gotten into an ordeal with a Normal and didn't fare well." Bob explained. "Since I didn't know much about the Normal world at the time, usually staying away from it, I did some research, and saw the cute and quaint side of your simple lives."

"Cute?" Darkwing repeated, suddenly unsure of the direction this conversation was going. "Quaint? _Simple_?"

Bob nodded, missing Darkwing's apprehension. He instead spied Darkwing's watch. "Hey, can I see that for a moment? I happen to collect Normal watches."

"Um, sure." Darkwing said, removing his watch and handing it to Bob.

As Bob studied the analog watch, Darkwing pulled Morgana aside.

"While he's doing that, want to go get some punch?" he asked.

Morgana grinned. "Of course I would, Dark." she said.

* * *

Dr. Sarah Bellum leaned back in her chair, snacking on crackers, studying the screen showing the SHUSH satellite's point of view of Earth. Right in the middle of the screen, designated by a box and whiskers, was a blur of light, slowly moving it's way towards St. Canard. Pressing a few keys, the system grabbed a screenshot of the object, and moved in on it greatly.

Squinting at the object while munching on a cracker, she could just barely make out some kind of shape.

She frowned at it. "What are you?" she asked herself out loud, puzzled by the peculiar UFO.

Then, suddenly, without warning, the object accelerated greatly, cutting it's travel time to St. Canard first into half, then into thirds, then into quarters, and then into eights.

"Uh-oh." Dr. Bellum said, and quickly fumbled for her phone...

* * *

As Morgana and Darkwing got themselves some punch, a whirring noise grabbed his attention. Looking upward, he saw a helicopter fly over one building, and come to hover above town square. Looking the aircraft over, he grinned when he saw a certain logo on it's side.

"Look's like the news decided to cover the celebration tonight." he remarked idly to Morgana.

Morgana giggled, and sipped her punch. "Maybe it's you being here that drew them here." she said.

Darkwing forced a grin. "I wish." he muttered.

Not far from there, Crimson was still with Techno, talking while Techno listened.

"So she said she wanted a new pair of shoes." Crimson said, pacing as she talked. "So we went to the mall, so she could get some. We spent over two hours there, but we never stepped into the shoes section _once!_ And when we left, I asked why we didn't get her shoes, she says, 'what shoes?' Can you believe that?"

"Uh-huh." Techno said, scanning the horizon, and not really listening anymore.

"I mean, who goes into the mall to buy shoes, and leaves without buying the shoes they went in there for?" Crimson went on. "I mean, when me and Dad go to the mall, that's all we're there to do, 'cause dad says..."

"Whoa!" Techno said, as the sensor on his visor suddenly spiked with the detection of the unknown energy. "Um, Crimson? One UFO coming our way!"

And at that moment, power all over St. Canard went out. Morgana gasped as the lights went out, and Darkwing quickly looked skyward for the object he knew had to be close by. They did not need to wait for very long, for the object quickly revealed itself, zooming over the dark town square very fast, looking almost like a shooting star that had ventured too low into Earth's atmosphere.

The crowd oohed and ahhed at the sight, naturally thinking by this point that it was just part of the celebration. The object zoomed on by, undeterred, then suddenly doubled back, arching back over town square. It homed in on the news copter still in the air, and whizzed around it for a moment. Then without warning, the object released a wave of energy that quickly engulfed the helicopter.

"Ahh!" Techno exclaimed as his visor's sensors suddenly flared and overloaded, shutting off before they short circuited.

The helicopter's engine sputtered, then died, and started to fall like a rock. The crowd below started to scream as they realized this wasn't planned after all, and went to run away from the falling helicopter. Halfway down, the helicopter's engine started back up, and the copter's pilot was able to level it out, but by that point it was too late. Landing hard on it's runners, the helicopter skidded along the square, heading towards Darkwing and Morgana.

"Look out!" Darkwing exclaimed, and quickly shoved Morgana out of the way was the helicopter plowed past and ran into the punch table.

"What in the world..." Morgana began to exclaim, looking for the object as it started to zoom off again, but Darkwing had a new mission now.

"LP, get airborne, NOW!" he called across the panicking square of people to his sidekick.

Getting the message, Launchpad quickly jumped into the Thunderquack and readied for takeoff. Across the square, Crimson had grabbed Techno.

"Techno, rocket boots, now!" she ordered.

"What?" Techno asked. "But Crimson, I've only used these _once_ to fly three inches off the ground back at the tower! I can't do this!"

"I don't care!" Crimson said, grabbing her friend and sidekick and activating a switch on Honker's wristband. Two controllers popped into Techno's hands. "We need to figure out what that object is, and in order to do that is to chase after it! So GO!"

She pressed the activated button on the controllers. Techno yelled as he felt the rocket boots flare up under him and he sailed upward into the sky in uncontrolled flight. Yelling, he struggled to regain control, until he hovered about three stories over town square. Breathing heavily, he worked to go forward again, and after a few false starts, believed he got the hang of it, and gave chase after the mysterious object.

A few moments later, Launchpad joined him in the Thunderquack. Together, they started to accelerate to try and keep up with the much faster object. And no matter how fast they seemed to go, the object seemed to be faster. The object, whatever it was, also seemed to know it was being chased, for it began to weave in and around buildings, going up and down and all around. Techno began to suspect something intelligent was controlling it.

Still chasing it, Techno and the Thunderquack rose to fly over the skyscrapers of St. Canard as the object did, heading straight for the St. Canard Tower in the center of the city. The nearer they drew to the building, the more Techno began to wonder if they were going to collide with it. Quickly, Techno veered off to avoid that, and so did the Thunderquack. However, the object continued on, slowing only slightly, before it hit the building right on.

And flew straight through it like it didn't exist.

Techno gasped, but found that he was currently flying along side the object and took the opportunity to get a good look at it. It was flat, fairly narrow, and about six-feet long. It was releasing some kind of energy that gave it its meteor look. But before he could get a better look, the object suddenly veered off towards Audubon Bay.

Racing to keep up, Techno flew along the Thunderquack, as the object cruised over the bay, sinking low in altitude so to skim along the water's surface. Almost as if it was desperate to escape it's pursuers, it flew under the Audubon Bay Bridge, then doubled back to fly in-between the steel cables that suspended the bridge and continued onward. Techno just barely was able to keep on the objects tail, while the Thunderquack fell back some as it was forced to fly over the bridge altogether.

The object then veered to fly over the suburb area of St. Canard on the other side of the bridge. It flew dangerously close to the ground, as it followed the streets in it's high speed flight. Techno followed a little behind and above the object, while the Thunderquack brought up the rear flying above Techno.

Apparently getting an idea, Launchpad flew the Thunderquack forward, managing to outrun the object and get ahead of it, and then dropping down to hover in an intersection, cutting off the object's path. But the object simply shot upward and avoided the Thunderquack at the last possible moment, nearly causing Techno to run into the Thunderquack. Quickly the two reoriented themselves and resumed the chase.

Apparently seeing it wasn't getting anywhere, the object lead it's two chasers back into the metropolis city of St. Canard, weaving around the skyscrapers again. Techno chased it still, seeing that they weren't getting anywhere with this, and needed a new plan. But before he could come up with one, the object suddenly released a ball of energy and hurled it at the Thunderquack.

The Thunderquack suddenly stopped dead in it's tracks, and it's engines died. Techno saw that the object had just done the same thing to the Thunderquack as it did to the helicopter back at town square. But now it meant he was on his own. He continued chasing the object, realizing he was never going to catch it without more speed.

Then it donned on him. Glancing down at the trigger-like switch on his left controller, Techno sighed.

"Crimson, you owe me for this." he muttered, then pressed it.

The turbo kicked in instantly, forcing Techno forward very, very, quickly. According to his visor, which was giving him a fuel readout, he wouldn't be able to maintain this speed for long. But that didn't matter because it worked; he was finally catching up with the object, getting so close he could almost touch it.

Then the object suddenly turned around to face Techno.

He had been right to guess that there was an intelligent being controlling the flight path of the object, but he hadn't counted upon the fact that the object _was _an intelligent being. Beakless, snoutless, and hairless save for a small patch on the top of his head, the pink-skinned being, most likely alien, grabbed Techno by the neck and stopped his flight. Swinging Techno around, the alien then threw Techno at the nearest building.

Yelling, Techno tried to stop his crash course with his rocket boots, and slowed somewhat, but not enough and slammed into the glass window of the towering skyscraper. He didn't hit it hard enough for it to break the window, or even crack it, but it still hurt. Techno winced, but then his rocket boots sputtered and died, and he started to fall.

Quickly, he retracted the rocket boots controllers and fired off a grappling hook and rope from one of his wristbands at the roof of the building and stopped his fall. Slamming into the side building first, he dangled there until the Thunderquack returned, unscathed from it's encounter with the alien, and saved him.

Techno pondered how he was going to tell all of this to Crimson and Darkwing. It would definitely be a very interesting conversation...

* * *

Back at town square, Crimson and Darkwing scanned the sky as the celebration was concluded early and everyone packed up, and workers worked to clean up the wreaked helicopter. Fortunately, no one had been hurt, but everyone was very spooked now. Furthermore, the object was still out there, and there was no telling if it would come back.

"See them yet?" Crimson asked.

"Not yet, but I'm still looking." Darkwing replied.

"Darkwing, if I may have a word." a voice suddenly said.

"J. Gander." Darkwing said, turning to look at the director of SHUSH. "More bad news, I take it?"

Hooter nodded. "I just got word from Dr. Bellum. The object just destroyed our satellite, the one we have been using to track it." he announced. "Apparently, it doesn't want us to know where it is."

"Wait, it knew it was being tracked?" Darkwing asked, surprised.

"And traced it straight to the source." Hooter added, nodding. "It gets worse, too. Apparently that isn't the only satellite, because we have reports of other satellites, most of them spy or military satellites being destroyed. And some kind of interfere is obscuring the transmissions of all the others. Communications all over the world are being affected. Within a matter of hours, all wireless communication will be out of commission."

"There." Crimson suddenly said, pointing at the dark shape of the approaching Thunderquack. "They're coming."

"Good." Darkwing said, turning to watch. "Maybe they can tell us something about how to beat this object."

"Because it certainly seems clear that it's not here for the good of this world." Hooter added...

**To Be Continued...**


	8. Escaped Convict Part II

Summary: A weird object from outer space is staring to wreak havoc with the world. Already responsible for the destruction of a space shuttle, it's now up to Darkwing and the gang to figure out what this object is, and how to stop it. But there's more to this object than meets the eye...

Rating for this Adventure: T

Author's note: Here's part 2. Except for a few spots, this part is more original, and isn't really based on anything. A familar face pops up.

8.

Escaped Convict Part II

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Don't worry Director. These guys have been trained well. They won't hurt your satellite."_

"_Oh, don't worry, I'm perfectly confident this mission will go successfully. NASA has been more than capable to launch SHUSH's satellites into space in the past. I see no reason for that tradition to change now."_

_--_

"_Houston, we have a problem. Wait, did I really just say that? Never mind, look, we've got something coming towards us. No idea what it is, but it's bright, and it's coming towards us, __**fast**__!"_

_--_

"_Impact in three...two...one...zero!"_

"_I'm sorry sirs. We have a confirmed hit. The shuttle was destroyed."_

_--_

"_Think about it. First a windstorm starts for no reason in the middle of the Pacific. Radio transmissions go out in the Europe area for nearly a full hour with no explanation. There was a black out in New York, again with no cause. Bad weather all over the planet has increased by five percent. And currently, with all the information we know, only one thing can be the cause."_

_--_

"_Remember the odd energy signature the satellite picked up from the object just before it destroyed the shuttle? Well, it's found it again, and just like you thought, it's all over Earth. That object is still here, on this planet..."_

_--_

"_So what's up?"_

"_Funny you should say that, Darkwing. Because we are dealing with something from outer space."_

"_Keen gear...Like what?"_

"_We're not sure. But earlier today, NASA's space shuttle, the Odyssey, was destroyed by a UFO while on a top-secret mission to launch an experimental satellite of ours. The object is known to be very fast, difficult to track, and emits a great deal of a peculiar energy not even Dr. Bellum can identify."_

_--_

"_But, tomorrow night is the night of the St. Canard Town Square Celebration!"_

"_Exactly! Most of the city will be at that celebration, and I'm worried that if the object shows up at that time that someone will get hurt. I want all of you to be at the celebration just in case that does happen. Just to be safe."_

_--_

_Then, suddenly, without warning, the object accelerated greatly, cutting it's travel time to St. Canard first into half, then into thirds, then into quarters, and then into eights._

"_Uh-oh." Dr. Bellum said, and quickly fumbled for her phone..._

_--_

"_Um, Crimson? One UFO coming our way!"_

_--_

"_We need to figure out what that object is, and in order to do that is to chase after it! So GO!"_

_--_

_He had been right to guess that there was an intelligent being controlling the flight path of the object, but he hadn't counted upon the fact that the object __**was**__ an intelligent being. Beakless, snoutless, and hairless save for a small patch on the top of his head, the pink-skinned being, most likely alien, grabbed Techno by the neck and stopped his flight._

_--_

"_There. They're coming."_

"_Good. Maybe they can tell us something about how to beat this object."_

"_Because it certainly seems clear that it's not here for the good of this world."_

* * *

"What do you mean it was a living being?" Darkwing asked, annoyed.

"I mean just that!" Techno persisted. "It didn't look like anything _I've _seen on this planet. It had no fur, no feathers..."

"So you're saying it's an alien?" Hooter asked patiently.

"Keen gear!" Crimson exclaimed. "It's been awhile since we've run into one of those!"

"So it has." Darkwing agreed. "But that doesn't mean I'm inclined to meet up with one now."

"I am forced to agree with you, Darkwing." Hooter said, walking across the now-abandoned town square. "We already have more than enough proof to indicate that this object is very powerful. Now we have proof that it is an intelligent being as well."

"Super intelligent." Techno added. "It knew _exactly _what it was doing."

"And it's a threat to our world." Hooter said, looking up at the starry sky. He shook his head. "I must leave and notify the president and inform him of the situation, and I must be quick before the interference the alien is producing completely cuts off all long range communication."

"Right." Darkwing said, heading for the parked Thunderquack. "We'll be at the hideout, trying to come up with a game plan. If you need us, contact us, anyway you can, Director."

"I will, Darkwing." Hooter said, as he watched the crime fighter and his compatriots climb into the jet plane and fly off. "I will."

* * *

"The town is certainly busy for everyone being at that celebration." Bushroot said as the Fearsome Five returned to their hideout after an unsuccessful robbery attempt.

"You knob, it's because the party got canceled for some reason!" Negaduck said, slapping Bushroot upside the head. "And I want to know why!"

"Maybe Darkwing's behind this..." Megavolt suggested.

"No, that's not like Darkwing." Rowe said. "He wouldn't end a huge celebration like that just to stop us from robbing a few jewels."

"Yeah, he would've sent us to bed without staying up late to play his own way." Quackerjack remarked, looking at the situation with a childish demeanor, as always. "I mean, he's like the ultimate parent!"

"Ooh, there's more truth to that than you know..." Negaduck muttered.

"Just think of the stuff we could've gotten with some of those jewels." The Liquidator bubbled, sloshing along as he brought up the end of the group. "It was a limited time offer, and something cut us off."

"Right, and by golly, I'm going to find out what!" Negaduck said, marching around a stack of crates and into the large open area of the room.

He froze, as did the rest of the group, when they saw who was standing there.

"I can tell you if you'd like." the mysterious alien said, leaning idly against a table, wearing a half-grin.

"Who are you?" Negaduck demanded.

"_What _are you?" Bushroot asked, looking the alien up and down.

"Well, long story short, I'm a villain not unlike you guys." he said, straightening and heading towards the group. "Only better."

Negaduck whipped out his pistol to stop the pink-skinned alien from coming closer. The alien didn't even blink, and suddenly the pistol whipped out of Negaduck's grasp, coming to hover just before the alien.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty." the alien scolded, grabbing the floating weapon with one hand. "But that's exactly why I am here." the weapon suddenly melted in his grasp, dripping down to form a puddle of liquid metal at his feet.

This did not faze Negaduck. "If you're here looking to join the club, _forget it!_" he exclaimed. "I've got enough problems with that as is!"

"Oh no, that's not it at all." the alien said idly, continuing to approach the nervous six, who started to back up. "I'm here to warn you."

"Warn us of what?" Negaduck asked, annoyed.

"Well, I've heard a little bit about you guys." the alien said. "And lets just say you all cause a few problems in my plans."

"Plans, huh?" Negaduck said, still unfazed.

"Yes, my plans." the alien continued. "And I'm here to tell you six that if you don't stay out of my way...there will be consequences."

Everyone but Negaduck gulped.

"And if we refuse?" Negaduck asked.

"You won't like it." the alien said.

"Try me." Negaduck said. "I've seen quite a few things in my day."

"If you insist." The alien said, finally stopping before the group.

Then, suddenly, all six members of the Fearsome Five rose from the floor, to hover in the air.

Negaduck laughed hollowly. "Is that the best you can do?" he asked. "You know, I don't like it when people threaten me. And if you aren't careful, there won't be anyplace on this world you can hide from my wrath."

"But you don't understand." the alien said with an evil grin. "Everything on this world is at an end."

Then chaos broke loose. The Fearsome Five was suddenly thrown all across the room, landing haphazardly in various corners. Negaduck was up first, racing to his nearby desk and pulling out an extra pistol. He did not hesitate it to fire it at his target. But the bullets simply whizzed through the alien like he wasn't even there.

The Negaduck rose into the air and was thrown through the back wall of the warehouse with a crunch. Outraged to see his boss treated like that, Liki rushed forward to attack the alien. But the alien simply turned and unleashed a wave of powerful microwave energy, that evaporated The Liquidator on contact in a big cloud of steam.

Megavolt had landed close to the door, and thought that escaping would be a good idea. He raced for the door, but then the alien suddenly appeared before him, cutting off his route. Out of desperation, Megavolt unleashed a storm of electrical energy at the alien. But the alien simply raised one hand, and the energy was channeled back to Megavolt, backfiring onto the unsuspecting rat. He was thrown backwards into a stack of crates which promptly fell down onto him.

Bushroot, Quackerjack, and Rowe all joined up to try and take of the alien at the same time. Circling him, Quackerjack threw a large amount of exploding bouncy balls at the alien to distract him. But the alien merely fired some kind of energy at them, and the balls were rendered inert. They wouldn't even bounce anymore.

Rowe dove to tackle the alien's unguarded back, but the otter merely slipped straight through the alien like he would a ghost, and crashed to the floor. Then before either Quackerjack or Rowe could recover, the ground suddenly shattered under them, dropping them haphazardly into a small crevasse.

Bushroot then telepathically ordered some of the plants he kept nearby to attack the alien. Growing to immense sizes, they waddled towards the alien. But they never even got close. The alien suddenly started to generate some kind of wind, and blew it at Bushroot and his plants at great velocities. They struggled to keep their ground, but the wind reached hurricane speeds, and simply blew them away, sending them through the side wall of the warehouse as it crumpled under the extreme wind as well.

Laughing insanely, the alien then shot a wave of energy upwards that blew a huge hole into the roof of the warehouse and took flight, cruising over the unsuspecting world below him...

* * *

Darkwing paced Darkwing Tower impatiently. "How do you fight an alien like this?" he asked finally.

"Beats me." Crimson replied from the window, not helping.

Techno was currently sitting at one of the few computers left in the tower that hadn't been removed in Darkwing's attempts to update his technology, attempting to create a graphical picture of the alien from memory. "There must be an easier way to do this." he muttered as he worked. "The image in my head is crystal clear, but making an exact copy of it on this computer is an entirely different story."

"Sorry, if I had all this new equipment installed, things would go much quicker." Darkwing said, kicking a crate of equipment as he paced past it. "It's just that I don't have the time for it anymore."

"Well, maybe Techno could help." Crimson proposed. "He knows a great deal more about this equipment than you do, dad."

"True, I'm still playing catch up for the seven years I missed in this universe." Darkwing admitted. "But that's up to Techno."

"I can help, Mr. Darkwing, easily." Techno said, typing commands into the computer as he finished the final touches. "I could probably work on it after school. But first things first, this alien." he finished the last touch on his image. "There, it's done." he announced.

"Good." Darkwing said, stepping over. "Maybe if I have a better idea of what this thing looks like, I can find a better way to combat it."

He looked at the picture for a moment, frowning. Curious, Launchpad stepped over and joined him. Crimson turned from where she stood at the window and looked at the image.

"Keen gear, he actually doesn't look half bad." Crimson remarked. "If he just, maybe, had some fur..."

Launchpad scratched his head for a moment. "Is it just me," he began, "Or does that guy look vaguely familiar?"

"He does." Darkwing said, rubbing his beak. "He looks very much like a Mertzian..."

"Mertzian?" Crimson repeated. "Can't say I've heard of that one."

"Wait, wait, wait." Launchpad said quickly, scratching his head harder now. "Isn't that the planet that one superhero guy was from?"

Darkwing nodded. "The whole planet was superheroes minus one." he explained. "Wackiest bunch you'll ever meet."

"So, wait." Techno said. "You met up with an alien superhero once that looked like this?" he gestured to the alien portrayed on the screen.

"Why don't I remember this?" Crimson asked.

"You weren't there, either time." Darkwing said.

"So you've met up with him more than once?" Techno stated.

"Yes, and I'm glad to say that the last time I saw him was a good eight years ago." Darkwing said. "He was an idiot, got in the way of everything, had the universe's most stupid weakness, and he had a real lame-o name! He called himself..."

"Comet!" Crimson suddenly exclaimed, pointing out the window.

"Where?" Techno asked, coming over to see. Darkwing and Launchpad followed.

"There, see?" Crimson said, pointing at the yellow streak that was sailing over St. Canard at the moment.

Launchpad squinted at it. "Could that be the alien?" he asked.

"No, this doesn't match up with our alien friend's style." Darkwing said deductively.

"I wouldn't know about that." Techno said. "It's turning, and heading in our direction."

"What?" Darkwing said, taking another close look.

Sure enough, the supposed "comet" was coming towards the tower, and rapidly coming closer.

Suddenly, Honker's eyes widened. "It's on a collision course!" he exclaimed urgently.

"DUCK!" Crimson yelled.

They ducked, and the "comet" smash through the window over their heads and slammed into the floor with a loud bang, scattering debris everywhere, and leaving a fairly large sized crater in the floor. As the smoke cleared, the four picked themselves up and looked around.

"You know, _War of the Worlds _is suddenly coming to my mind, for some strange reason." Crimson remarked sarcastically.

Darkwing peered into the crater. "Oh no." he said as he installed recognized the small object sitting at the bottom of the crater. "Not him! I _knew _it would be too much to hope that he wouldn't show up! I probably even jinxed it all by even bringing him up in the first place!"

Techno stared at the little yellow object. "What is it?" he asked.

But before Darkwing could answer, the top of the object popped open. A head squeezed out, quickly followed by a large and muscular body dressed in a blue jumpsuit and a red cape. Like the alien Techno saw, he was featherless, hairless save a patch on top of his head, snoutless, and beakless, and looking similar to the pink-skinned alien they had already encountered tonight.

With a pop, he pulled his whole body out of the object, which was clearly far too small to fit anything the person's size. Taking the object and placing it on his head to wear like a hat, he looked around, and immediately grinned when he saw Darkwing.

"Mr. Darkwing!" he exclaimed in a loud, jolly, and almost comical voice. "So good to see you again!" he grabbed Darkwing's arm in one o his massive hands and shook it violently, jerking Darkwing up and down.

"Ack, hi Comet Guy." Darkwing wheezed, wincing in pain when the person grabbed his arm.

"Comet Guy?" Techno asked, frowning at the peculiar name.

Crimson, however, was in awe. "Whoa!" she said. "How did you fit in that little thing?" she asked, pointing at Comet Guy's hat.

"Uh..." Comet Guy replied, looking up at his hat and releasing Darkwing's arm. "I don't really know." he looked Crimson up and down. "Who are you?"

"I am the Crimson Avenger!" Crimson replied dramatically, flapping her black and red cape for added effect. "I'm helping Darkwing with his cases now."

"Well, hi, I'm Comet Guy, from the planet Mertz." the alien superhero said, standing proudly. "I'm a friend of Darkwing's. We go _way _back."

"A little _too _far back in my opinion." Darkwing muttered under his breath and faced Comet Guy. "Alright, I bite, Comet Guy. Why are you here?"

"I got sent here to help you!" Comet Guy replied enthusiastically.

"I don't _need _help!" Darkwing said. "I've _already_ got enough help!"

"Whoa, wait." Techno interrupted, and turned to Comet Guy. "You're from planet Mertz? As in the planet Mertz we were just talking about moments earlier?"

"Hey, yeah!" Crimson said. "We were just talking about you, Comet Guy!"

"You were?" Comet Guy asked, surprised. He beamed with delight.

"Boy, talk about a coincidence." Launchpad remarked.

"Talk about a complete cliche." Techno muttered.

"Talk about timing." Crimson added.

"Talk about there's something more to this than we know!" Darkwing concluded. He pointed an accusing finger at Comet Guy. "Alright, start talking!" he demanded. "How does your oh-so-timely arrival fit in with the alien who looks remarkably like a Mertzian wandering around our planet?"

Comet Guy looked blank for a moment. "You mean Bad Guy is already here?" he asked, surprised.

"'Bad Guy'?" Techno repeated skeptically.

"That's our name for him." Comet Guy explained. "He used to be known as Awesome Guy, because of his awesome powers, but that changed when he turned bad."

"So, why did he turn bad?" Crimson asked, curious.

"That's what I'd like to know." Darkwing said. "I thought you Mertzians didn't _have _bad guys on your planet."

"Well, we didn't, until that incident with Ordinary Guy." Comet Guy said. "Then we Mertzians began to rethink how we did things on Mertz. Some of us had decided that Ordinary Guy had a point, that we spent too much time trying to protect the one person. So, to shake things up a bit, some of us went bad, or at least tried to. We weren't very good. Actually, we probably just made a mess of things. Then Mertz joined the Galactic Federation..."

"The Galactic Federation?" Crimson asked. "Keen gear, that sounds cool!"

"Continuing with the story..." Darkwing said, giving Crimson a glare, then nodded at Comet Guy to continue.

"Well, Mertz joined the Galactic Federation," Comet Guy continued, "and that kept us busy for awhile, 'cause there's lots of bad guys out in the universe. For awhile, we thought the problem was solved. But then the rate of bad guys doing bad things suddenly dropped, and we were back at square one.

"Well, Awesome Guy's secret identity was a scientist, and he thought that we were on the right track when we decided some of us should become bad. He realized that what was stopping us from doing it, though, was that the fact that we were all super_heroes, _and not super_villains_. So he experimented and eventually came up with a device thingy that turned good guys into bad guys. He tested it on himself and _BOOM!_" he slapped his hand loudly, making the others jump, "Bad Guy was born. He quickly tried to take over the universe with his awesome superpowers, destroying whole worlds, but we eventually stopped him, and locked him up, where he belonged."

"Then why is he here, on Earth, causing problems?" Darkwing asked.

"He escaped." Comet Guy replied simply, shrugging.

"So he's a kind of, superhero escaped convict?" Techno asked.

Comet Guy thought that through for a long moment. "I think so." he replied.

"Okay, so why are _you _here?" Darkwing asked.

"Like I said, to help you, Darkwing, capture him again and take him back to prison." Comet Guy replied. "Oh, and we need to do it before he destroys your whole planet."

"What?" Darkwing exclaimed. "The _whole _planet? Comet Guy, you should've said that at the _start_!"

"Well, I would've, but you kept asking me questions and stuff so..." Comet Guy grumbled.

"How can he destroy a whole planet?" Techno asked. "I mean, granted, he does have some powerful abilities, but they aren't powerful enough to destroy a whole world."

"Clearly, you haven't seen his most awesome power in action yet." Comet Guy said, like the answer was obvious. "He can control weather. He uses this power to create catastrophic storms and stuff that destroys everything."

"Yikes." Launchpad said.

"This explains the anomalous weather Hooter alluded to." Darkwing said. "It's the alien's doing."

"Just as we thought." Crimson said. "But if he really can do this, then why hasn't he done it already?"

"He can't just go and destroy a world just like tha-at!" Comet Guy said huffily. "He's gotta make sure no one on the world will stop him, and then he has to generate enough power in order to do it."

"That explains the communications blackout then." Techno remarked. "Bad Guy's making sure we don't try and call for help."

"And why he attack us." Crimson said. "He was afraid we could stop him."

"Not likely." Techno said. "If what Comet Guy says is true, then there isn't a thing we can do to stop him."

"That's where I come in!" Comet Guy said proudly. "I have a way to stop him!"

"How?" Darkwing asked.

"With these!" Comet Guy responded and pulled his hat off again and reached inside it and pulled out a large collection of futuristic pistols.

Darkwing stared at them. "What, do these ring like a bell, and give Bad Guy the uncontrollable urge to dance?" he asked skeptically.

"No, that's _my _weakness silly." Comet Guy replied, missing the skepticism. "No, these spray a kind of gel thing that sticks to superheroes and blocks their powers from wherever it's touching."

"Is that all." Techno said, also looking skeptic about the devices.

"Yeah, since Bad Guy is so powerful, we need to spray a lot on him." Comet Guy said. "That's why I brought extras."

"Comet Guy, how are we _possibly _going to get Bad Guy to let us to do _that_?" Darkwing asked. "If he really is so smart, there's no way he's going to let us get even _near _him with these things!"

"That's where _you _come in Darkwing!" Comet Guy, clearly thinking this was a very good idea.

"Oh sure, leave the hard stuff for _me _to do." Darkwing grumbled, taking the pistols and handing them to Launchpad to hold. "Alright, fine, you can help us Comet Guy, but if you really must, stay away from all the bells, _please_?"

"And whatever we do, we need to do it quickly." Crimson said, looking back at the window. "Because it looks like Bad Guy is almost ready to destroy the world."

And sure enough, big dark clouds had started to roll over St. Canard, a precursor to the superstorm Bad Guy was no doubt generating...

* * *

Shortly thereafter, they were cruising through St. Canard on the Ratcatcher, Darkwing and Crimson riding on the motorbike, and Launchpad and Techno riding in the sidecar. Darkwing looked upward as Comet Guy followed along above them, flying almost haphazardly. He winced when he saw the alien superhero nearly run into a building. Again.

"I really don't like the idea of having him around in this." Darkwing grumbled. "He may have superpowers, but he's no hero. He's more like a super_klutz_."

"I like him." Crimson remarked from where she sat behind Darkwing. "He's jolly and innocent. Granted, he's not very bright, but he tries his hardest, and that's what counts."

"I just wish he would try his hardest on his _own _planet, where there's no risk of him causing trouble on _our _planet." Darkwing grumbled.

"So, what's the plan, DW?" Launchpad asked, changing the subject.

"Well, first we find Bad Guy." Darkwing said.

"Okay, then what?" Crimson asked.

"And then we just make it up as we go, and hope for the best." Darkwing replied somewhat reluctantly.

"_That's _your plan?" Crimson asked doubtfully.

"Look, I can't do everything!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"Um, Mr. Darkwing?" Techno suddenly interrupted. "Did you contact Director Hooter about what we plan to do?"

"No, communications are already out, why?" Darkwing asked.

"Because I think he's taken matters into his own hands." Techno replied, pointing ahead of them.

Darkwing looked ahead of them. "Holy...!" he exclaimed, and slammed on the Ratcatcher's breaks, bringing them to an abrupt halt.

Directly ahead of them stood what appeared to be the entire army, filing into the city, armed with weapons, missile launchers, and big, massive, tanks. And that wasn't all, for shortly there after, the screaming roar of jets rang out as a formation of fighter jets zoomed overhead. And standing nearby, watching it all, was Director Hooter, Grizzlikof, and some sort of army general.

Looking at one another, the four quickly hopped off the Ratcatcher and ran over to the three.

"J. Gander!" Darkwing exclaimed, running up to Hooter.

Hooter turned. "Darkwing!" he exclaimed, looking relieved. "There you are! I've been trying to reach you, but even the Flashquacks don't seem to be getting through."

"What's going on?" Crimson asked, watching the militias of weapons march by.

"We're going to take action against the alien, that's what!" the army general said. "Anyway we can!"

"The alien seems to be focusing it's attention here on St. Canard." Hooter continued. "So it was agreed to take military action against the alien. It must be stopped. It's actions are interfering with the operations of this world!"

"It goes deeper than that, Mr. Director, sir." Techno said. "The alien intends to destroy the whole world."

"Even more reason to give this alien everything we've got!" the general persisted.

"Agreed!" Grizzlikof added. "And it's not like you have any ideas, do you Darkwing?"

"Actually, we might." Darkwing said. "And it would prevent St. Canard from getting turned into a populated battle zone!"

"Don't worry Darkwing, the city is being evacuated as we speak." Hooter said. "No lives will be unnecessarily risked."

"That's not the point!" Techno said. "And anyway, using force like this won't work! I've _seen _this alien in action up close! He can take care of stuff like this with a blink of the eye!" he motioned to the army that was passing by steadily. "He'll cause more damage to you, than you to him!"

"We must still try!" Hooter persisted. "We have no other choice!"

"Yes we do!" Darkwing said, then raised his voice. "COMET GUY!" he exclaimed. "FRONT AND CENTER, NOW!"

Comet Guy dropped down from wherever he was above them with a thud, surprising Hooter, Grizzlikof, and the general.

"Hi." Comet Guy greeted sheepishly, then turned to Darkwing. "Um, Darkwing, I accidently tipped over one of those stoplight things back there, I hope you don't mind."

Hooter gaped at Comet Guy for a long moment. "Astounding!" he exclaimed, circling Comet Guy. "He looks as if to be the same species as the attacking alien!"

"He is." Darkwing said. "Hooter, meet Comet Guy, a superpowered alien from the planet Mertz. The alien is also from Mertz, and Comet Guy's here to help us capture him so he can take him back to his planet."

"How?" Grizzlikof asked, looking skeptical about Comet Guy.

"With these that Comet Guy has provided." Crimson said, pulling one of the special pistol-like devices. "They spray a kind of material that will block the alien's powers. All we have to do is encase him in it, and he'll be stopped."

"Easier said than done." the general remarked.

"I know." Darkwing agreed. "But we're working on a way to pull it off."

"There isn't time!" Grizzlikof exclaimed. "Director, I recommend we continue with procedure to attack alien, as already planned."

"You're making a mistake!" Techno insisted. "You'll only be wasting materials and potentially _lives!_"

Hooter considered it all for a moment. "We must do something, Darkwing." he said. "And right now, attacking the alien is the best plan we got. But you keep working on that plan of yours, and the moment you've got something, tell me, and we'll do everything we can to help!"

"Good enough." Darkwing said, although he wasn't entirely satisfied with idea, and he could see the others weren't either minus the general and Grizzlikof.

"Attention troops," the general said, grinning, into a walkie-talkie, "Continue with Operation Blast ET!"

* * *

The troops gathered in town square, since it was the most open area in St. Canard for a battle like this. Fighter jets and military helicopters circled area, on the lookout for their alien prey. Darkwing and gang watched the proceedings with dread, knowing that this plan wasn't going to work out very well, as they tried to come up with their own plan.

"I think our best bet is to try and lure Bad Guy into a trap, and quickly spray as much of the powerblock stuff as possible." Crimson suggested.

"Okay, but how?" Darkwing said. "What could possibly lure Bad Guy away from destroying the world?"

"Something that will threaten his attempts to do so." Techno reasoned calmly, watching the military work.

"But what?" Launchpad asked. "Comet Guy?"

"Oh no, I'd need help." Comet Guy quickly said.

"All of us, then?" Crimson suggested. "If we work together..."

"The odds still wouldn't be in our favor." Darkwing said. "I'd prefer it if we had more to work with us."

"Consider it done, Dipwing." a voice suddenly rang out from a nearby alley.

They turned, and saw Negaduck standing in the alley's entrance, looking slightly tattered, but otherwise his same usual self. Behind him stood the rest of the Fearsome Five.

"Negaduck!" Darkwing exclaimed. "What're you doing here?"

"What do you think, you twit?" Negaduck asked, stepping towards his twin. "We're here, heaven forbid, to help you."

"Say _what _now?" Crimson exclaimed. "You, Negaduck, our arch nemesis, helping _us_?"

"This alien is a threat to us, too, I'll have you know." Negaduck growled, folding his arms. "He's gonna destroy a world _I_ want to take over. Naturally, can't let him do that."

"Yeah, he attacked us once already too." Bushroot said, joining Negaduck.

"Whipped us real good." Rowe added.

"Kinda want revenge for that, you know." Megavolt added.

"So we decided it was playtime, and went looking for the playmates!" Quackerjack concluded.

"So you're actually going to help us?" Darkwing said, still unable to believe it.

"Just this _once_." Negaduck said with great emphasis. "Tomorrow after we beat this knob of an alien, we'll go back to trying to kill each other, just like old times."

"Alright, that confirms that you're truly Negaduck..." Darkwing mumbled.

"Darkwing..." Crimson warned.

"I just want you to promise, Negs, that there will be no backstabbing, no double-crossing, and that you follow _my _lead." Darkwing said.

"Figured you'd say that." Negaduck said. "And as much as I'd hate to do it, I will."

"This is just too weird." Techno muttered.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, mate." Rowe remarked with a shrug, thinking it wasn't such a big deal. "Now, where do we start?"

"Finalizing our plans, and then tracking down Bad Guy." Darkwing said.

"And not necessarily in that order." Techno suddenly announced as his visor suddenly went on the fritz. "Bad Guy's coming."

And sure enough, the now familiar streak of white whizzed across the stormy sky. A breeze picked up as he flew over the town square and doubled back to fly over again.

"Fire!" the order suddenly came out from within the army. "Everyone fire!"

* * *

There was no hesitation. Soon the night sky came alight with weapons fire, all directed towards Bad Guy as he slowed to a stop above the square. Most of the shots simply whizzed through him like he was merely smoke, but some of the bigger shots, such as missiles, he counterattacked with his powers, releasing surges of energy that made the missiles detonate prematurely, or knocked them off course to slam into surrounding buildings.

"Keep firing!" someone shouted within the group. "Backup's coming!"

And shortly after this was said, the formation of jets came swinging around St. Canard Tower and unleashed their payload at Bad Guy. Again, most of the shots simply whizzed through Bad Guy, smashing into the gathered militia below, but Bad Guy turned to face this new threat, and swung one arm. The motion released a massive wave of energy that rushed towards the oncoming jets. The wave destroyed most of the launched missiles, and even took out a whole jet. The others veered off course slightly.

Bad Guy reacted quickly, zipping forward, bouncing off the first three planes at super speeds like a pinball, destroying them, then zapping the other jets with some kind of energy that made them power down, and crash land somewhere in the city. Racing forward for a moment, he turned around and zipped back towards town square, where he unleashed another wave of energy.

Whatever it did was unclear, but it smashed into the gathered forces and caused chaos. Some of the un-launched weapons detonated without warning, destroying everything around it. A wind picked up that swept people off their feet, even flipping tanks over, and a force slammed into some and acted like a wall, smashing whatever it came in contact with.

Within moments, town square was in ruins.

* * *

Darkwing picked himself up from the ruins, and helped Crimson up as well, who was nearby. "Everyone all right?" he called.

The murmured replies indicated they all were, and looking over the mess, Darkwing saw that most of the militia had survived as well. He sighed with relief that the damage wasn't worse than that.

Comet Guy pushed the overturned jeep that was pinning him down aside with one hand. "Where's Bad Guy?" he asked.

"There!" Bushroot replied, pointing.

Sure enough, Bad Guy was slowly moving away from town square and heading towards the top of St. Canard Tower.

"What's he doing?" Techno asked, puzzled.

Bad Guy landed nimbly on the top the Tower's lightning rod, and held his arms out. Suddenly, the storm that had gathered over them started to intensify, starting in the spot directly above Bad Guy and spreading outward. Lightning started to flash, and strike nearby objects with loud claps of sound. The wind blew harder, and it started to drizzle.

"It's starting." Comet Guy said, sounding afraid. "Bad Guy found the best place to create the superstorm, and is focusing his attention on creating it."

"_There_?" Negaduck asked skeptically. "Talk about a coincidence that it happens to be at the same spot we're at!"

"It makes sense, though." Launchpad remarked. "Hooter did say that Bad Guy had been sticking around here lately."

"St. Canard Tower is also one of the tallest buildings in the world." Rowe added. "That probably helps, too."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever." Negaduck said dismissively. "So, how are we going to stop him?"

Darkwing was rubbing his beak. "Comet Guy," he said softly, "Could you repeat what you just said a moment ago?"

"Um, sure." Comet Guy said, puzzled. "I said that Bad Guy's found the best place to create the superstorm and is focusing his attention on creating..."

"That's it!" Darkwing interrupted.

"What's it?" Negaduck asked, annoyed. "How does that sentence help us stop..." but suddenly trailed off, understanding. "Wait, if he's focusing his attention on creating the superstorm..."

"...then he might be ignoring everything around him..." Darkwing continued.

"...giving us the chance to attack, of course!" Crimson concluded, catching on as well.

"LP, to the Thunderquack, quick!" Darkwing ordered his sidekick. "Attack Bad Guy from his back side! Do whatever you think necessary to slow his work on the superstorm!"

"Right-o, DW!" Launchpad said, and ran off for the Ratcatcher.

"The rest of you, follow us to the Tower!" Darkwing ordered, waving his hand in the direction of the building. "When we get there, be ready to fire the powerblock!"

The others nodded, and Crimson and Comet Guy distributed the weapons out to everybody.

"There's just one problem, Dipwing." Negaduck said as he ran alongside Darkwing as the rain pounded down on them. "That alien guy isn't gonna come down from the top of the building just because your doofus sidekick fired a missile at him."

"I know." Darkwing agreed. "That's where we come in."

* * *

The storm started to spread, engulfing the entire planet, blocking sunlight, moonlight, and starlight alike. Power all over the world flickered, then went out, starting with St. Canard, then spreading outward. It wasn't long before the pretty greens and blues of Earth were drowned out in the inky black of the superstorm...

* * *

Bad Guy had his entire attention focused on building the storm. He could feel the power of the lightning strikes, the roar of the thunder, the speed of the whipping winds, the cold chill of the sleeting rain, and enjoyed it all immensely. Gathering his power, he prepared to form a tornado right over the building he stood upon, the first among the great many he planned to create.

But before he could, some sixth sense told him there was trouble, and turned, breaking his concentration, just in time to see the Thunderquack, shaking due the wild weather, fire a missile off at the base of the lightning rod Bad Guy was perched upon. The missile struck home, creating a brief and fiery explosion that blew away the lightning rod's foundation. It tipped over, taking Bad Guy with it. Slamming into the roof of the building, Bad Guy was thrown from the rod, and crashed to the roof. Unfazed, however, he quickly jumped back up, ready to take on the Thunderquack, which was fleeing.

But then Darkwing and Negaduck arrived, tackling the alien from behind, knocking him from the top of the Tower and out into open space. They tumbled for awhile, Darkwing and Negaduck gripping Bad Guy tightly. Then Bad Guy simply grinned, phased out of existence, allowing Negaduck and Darkwing to tumble through him and continue falling. Bad Guy stopped his fall, at first thinking of going back to work on the superstorm, which was essentially had paused in it's growth, but then decided he had better stop these two that had managed to get the drop on him first.

Darkwing feel for a little while, then finally managed to pull out his gas gun and fire off the grappling hook and rope. It latched onto something and stopped his fall, just before he hit the ground outside some kind of store. He was just about to let out a sigh of relief when Bad Guy zipped down and knocked him through the store's front door.

Negaduck, on the other hand, struggled a moment longer than Darkwing before finally pulling out his own grappling hook and rope, and firing it off to stop his fall. And even then, he still smashed through the sunroof of another building, and touched ground before his fall finally slowed to a complete stop. Sighing with relief, he stepped down to solid ground and tried to determine where Darkwing and the alien went.

He saw Bad Guy attack Darkwing, and got an evil glare in his eye. If there was one thing he hate, it was someone trying to kill Darkwing without _his _okay...

* * *

Darkwing carefully picking himself off of the titled floor of the store and looked himself over. Except for a few cuts, bruises, and a pounding headache, he was generally okay. Satisfied with that, he looked towards the front of the store for Bad Guy. Stepping through the opening Darkwing had made when he slammed through the glass sliding doors of the store, Bad Guy entered the store with his arms out stretched.

A wild and powerful wind slammed into the front of the store, breaking open it's front windows, and showering the rest of the store with a sideways rain of glass. Darkwing struggled towards Bad Guy, but the wind kept him back. Finally, he lost his grip with the floor and was blown backwards, just as everything else in the store started to be blown backwards as well.

Panicking, Darkwing reached out and grabbed a support column and hung on tightly as everything else in the store was blown to the back.

Bad Guy frowned. "Stop resisting!" he yelled, and unleashed a wave of energy at the column.

It cracked, and bent partly into two, but still held, and Darkwing still clung tightly to it.

"You're only denying the inevitable!" Bad Guy persisted, and tried the same tactic again. The column crumbled more, but miraculously still withstood the strain.

"No," Darkwing said, pulling out the powerblock sprayer from his jacket and pointing it at Bad Guy. "You are."

But before he could fire, the wind suddenly reversed directions, blowing Darkwing back the way he came. Unprepared for the sudden change, Darkwing lost his grip and was blown towards the front of the store, where Bad Guy stood. Simply sliding through Bad Guy like he wasn't there, Darkwing flew across the store, and back outside again, crashing to the rain-soaked ground with a thump.

A crash rang out, and the roof of the store exploded as Bad Guy shot through it. Rising up into the air for a moment, he gracefully hovered there for a moment among all the chaos among him, then landed a few feet before Darkwing.

"We finish this now!" Bad Guy said, and raised one hand to fire off another bolt of energy that would've no doubt finished Darkwing off.

Then Bad Guy suddenly yelled out as something grey and sticky slammed into his back.

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Negaduck said, standing behind Bad Guy, his powerblock sprayer raised.

Bad Guy let out a yell, and turned his attention to Negaduck, but by that point, Darkwing had recovered, retrieved his own sprayer, and fired at Bad Guy himself, again stopping the supervillain's attack. Letting out a roar, Bad Guy sought for an escape rout as Darkwing and Negaduck fired continuously at him.

Then the others arrived, all armed with their own sprayers, and while encircling Bad Guy, they fired their sprayers at him, quickly covering Bad Guy with the powerblock gel. Bad Guy roared loudly, and tried to fly away, rising a few feet off the ground, but the gel continued to cover him until he was completely covered under several layers of the gel, forming a roughly spherical shape.

There the ball of gel hovered for a moment, then with a loud crash, fell back to the earth, leaving a huge crater in the pavement. A moment passed, and then the rain suddenly decreased, until it was gone altogether. Thunder rumbled, but it sounded distant. The power returned. Then a bright glow appeared on the eastern horizon as the cloud covered cleared just in time for the sun to begin to rise, indicating a new day.

"We did it." Techno said, wiping rainwater from his visor.

Crimson tapped the ball, surprised to find it had hardened instantly. "Can he still breathe in there?" she asked, concerned.

"Oh, don't worry about him, he's just in suspended animation." Comet Guy said, taking off, and picking up the ball of hardened powerblock gel with one hand and started to turn. "Hey, thanks for helping trap him again. I'll take him back to Mertz where he won't cause anymore trouble for you guys."

"And thank you, Comet Guy, for your help." Darkwing said honestly. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"You're welcome, Darkwing." Comet Guy replied, blushing slightly under all the praise. "Now I must be off! Comet Guy, away! Hee, hee, I always wanted to say that!"

With one final wave, Comet Guy flew off into the air, and was soon gone from sight. Darkwing looked around, and wasn't too surprised to see that Negaduck and the rest of the Fearsome Five had fled.

"Guess they left when we weren't looking, huh DW?" Launchpad remarked, noticing this as well.

"I'm not surprised." Crimson said. "They probably didn't trust us to keep our word."

"And it's probably for the better this way, anyway." Techno added. "Now we don't have to wonder whether or not they'll keep _their _word."

"You know, Negaduck saved my life." Darkwing announced out of the blue. "Granted, he did it so he could still kill me personally, but still, it's the thought that counts."

"Makes me wonder if there is a bit of good in Negaduck after." Crimson added. "A significantly small amount that even an electron microscope could see, but still a bit of good."

"We can only wonder." Darkwing said, and then turned to walk towards the glowing sunrise. "C'mon, let's go home. I think it's going to be a beautiful day..."


	9. As Told In Five Minutes

Summary: Drake is asked to reenact events in "Darkwing Duck Returns" for a news station, and enlists the help of Launchpad and Gosalyn to write a script. But here's the catch, they'll only have five minutes to tell the whole tale...

Rating for this adventure: 100 percent K. Pretty much just sheer comedy.

Author's Note: I was in the mood for some just-for-fun writing, and came up with this. Some things to note: I introduce some modern day counterparts of pop culture (such as shows, technology, so forth) for the DW universe. Gosalyn's script I wrote completely from memory. DW's incorporates actual quotes from "Darkwing Duck Returns", and Launchpad's (the one I had the most fun with, and probably got a bit carried away with) was inspired from the "fivers" on FiveMinute. net . If ya've never heard of it, look it up and check it out. You'll laugh. I promise. ;)

9.

As Told In Five Minutes

"Okay, I have an announcement!" Drake Mallard said, stepping into the living room.

"Can it wait, dad?" Gosalyn asked, from where she sat next to Launchpad on the couch. "We're watching TV."

"It's important, Gos." Drake persisted. "And, consequently, it _does _involve TV."

"But not the newest episode of _Jumpgate: Avalon._" Gosalyn pointed out.

"Can't we finish this episode first, DW?" Launchpad asked. "It's a really good one."

"Oh c'mon, LP, you know it'll end the same way." Drake pointed out. "They beat the aliens, save the city, and end the episode with some silly joke."

"It's more complicated than that." Gosalyn assured him.

"No it's not, it's just like _Pelican's Island_!" Drake exclaimed. "No matter what they did, they _never _got off that island!" he paused, then added. "By the way, whatever did happen to _Pelican's Island_?"

"It went off the air three years ago, dad." Gosalyn said. "Just as _Jumpgate: Avalon _was wrapping up it's second season, and as _Jumpgate _itself was wrapping up it's ninth. _Jumpgate_ had a great season finale that season, remember Launchpad?"

"Oh yeah." Launchpad agreed. "You had no idea if the team survived that alien attack. Really left things hanging."

"Special effects were awesome, too." Gosalyn added.

"Look guys, this is really important." Drake said. "Important for me anyway."

"Shush, this is an important scene." Gosalyn hushed, leaning closer to the TV.

"Important for Darkwing!" Drake added, hoping to lure their attention towards him.

It somewhat worked. They glanced at him for a full two seconds before they turned back to the TV.

"There!" Drake exclaimed as the screen changed. "It's a commercial break! _Now _will you listen to my announcement?"

"Hold on dad, this commercial is advertising that new Wiffle Boy game, _Wiffle Boy Unleashed, _for the Gameplay DX." Gosalyn said, still watching the TV. "Gee, I wish I had one of those Gameplay DXs. Next commercial, I promise."

Drake waited impatiently.

"Okay, maybe the commercial after that." Gosalyn said. "This one is advertising the new G-Max computer."

"We have a whole bunch of those in the lair, replacing the old Maximilian computers we used to have." Drake pointed out. "Though I think the original Max computer was better."

"This is different dad." Gosalyn said. "This is a completely new version."

"But SHUSH assured me we had the top of the line stuff!" Drake objected.

"We did." Gosalyn said. "A month ago, anyway. They upgraded everything since then."

"Already?"

"The technology world moves quickly, dad."

"Hey look, it's even got a convenient slot for plugging in a G-Pod to directly download your songs and stuff!" Launchpad remarked, pointing at the screen.

Drake just barely refrained for yelling incoherently. "Alright, that's it!" he said, slipping behind the TV and pulling the plug.

"Hey!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "We didn't get to finish that episode!"

"You'll live, and I'm sure it'll be on again!" Drake said, stepping in front of the now darkened TV. "Now listen to me for a moment! Darkwing Duck has just been asked by Channel Three News to _reenact_ his return to crime fighting, and his battle with the Fearsome Five over the SHUSH super suit!"

Launchpad and Gosalyn stared at him. "Well, why didn't you say so?" Gosalyn finally exclaimed.

"You were watching the TV!" Drake exclaimed, frustrated.

"Gee, DW, this is a big break for you, isn't it?" Launchpad asked.

"You bet it is, LP." Drake said, changing gears to look excited. "Which is why I don't want to blow it. I want your guys's help on writing a script, and of course, you'll have to help me reenact it for the show."

"Of course." Gosalyn said, thinking this through. "But, clearly, we're going to have to cut a few things out."

"Clearly." Drake admitted. "Channel Three News says they can only spare so much time for this."

"About how much time are we talking, here?" Gosalyn asked.

Drake hesitated. "Five minutes." he finally admitted.

"_Five minutes_?" Gosalyn repeated, outraged. "They expect us to tell the quick microwave dinner version of the story?"

"That's why I want your guys's help!" Drake said. "I know that working together, we can figure out a way to do it!"

"How long do we have to put it together, DW?" Launchpad asked.

"Well, the segment is to air the day after tomorrow, so..."

"Day after tomorrow?" Gosalyn repeated. "They aren't making this very easy for us!"

"I know." Drake admitted. "But it's what we've got, and this _is _a big break for me, so I jumped on it. So please, please, please, _please _help me?"

"Oh all right." Gosalyn said. "I'll work on a version, Launchpad can work on his own version, and maybe you, dad, can right your own. Maybe if we mix them together, we'll have what we're looking for. When do you want them?"

"I would like a rough draft tomorrow morning, so we can have a final version completed with enough time to rehearse." Drake replied.

"Then that's when you'll have it." Gosalyn said. "_Now _can we finish watching our show?"

* * *

The next morning, they all met in the tower to present their own variation of the tale they were to reenact.

"I think you'll like mine, DW." Launchpad said, gripping the script he wrote tightly in his hands.

"I'll be the judge of that, LP." Drake said. "And besides, I'll probably edit whoever's script we agree to go with and add bits from my own script." he held it up. "Personally, I think I did a good job with it. I was up all night writing it."

"For a five minute script?" Gosalyn asked. "You probably put too much effort into it, Dad. Mine is _perfect _for a five minute segment on the news."

"So who's going to read their script first?" Launchpad asked.

"Me." Gosalyn said, then added, "Ladies first."

Drake rolled his eyes, but motioned for Gosalyn to go ahead.

Gosalyn cleared her throat. "Okay, I've titled my script, 'The Heir to the Cape'..."

* * *

"**Gos (V/O): **It was a dark and stormy night when I found the letter. A letter addressed to me, but I never received. Upon opening it, I found that it was a message from Darkwing Duck which he had apparently written after the night he had allegedly disappeared on seven years ago and never returned. The letter was simple, saying that he was indeed alive and well, but he was being chased by an unidentified enemy. He also implored for my help in the matter.

But I had given up on crime fighting years ago, and hadn't planned on returning to it. I was left contemplating whether or not I wished to follow through on Darkwing's request. It must have showed, because others began to question if there was something bothering me.

**Launchpad (at dinner): **Something bothering you?

**Gos: **No, it's nothing.

**Gos (V/O):** But it wasn't nothing. Because I was slowly convincing myself to take on the position Darkwing had vacated and track him down. Returning to his secret hideout for the first time in years, I donned his costume and began fighting crime in St. Canard, while also searching for clues indicating what had happened to Darkwing.

**Gos (flapping cape): **I am the terror that flaps in the night!

**Gos (V/O):** But it wasn't easy. I started running into numerous problems, such as SHUSH, a supervillain breakout, and my best friend figuring out what I was up to.

**Gos (surprised): **What are you doing here?

**Honk (holding up newspaper): **We need to talk.

**Gos (V/O):** It wasn't long before I figured out who was behind everything. Negaduck. He was back himself, with a deadly plot to take over the world, and it was him who took Darkwing away.

**Gos (angry): **Where is he?!

**Negs (menacingly): **Where else? The Negaverse...

**Gos (V/O):** Now the adventure took an entirely new turn, as I was forced to move my search for Darkwing into a deadly parallel universe called the Negaverse, where everything is evil. And I had to find Darkwing quickly, before Negaduck enacted his plan. With the help of SHUSH, I was able to enter the Negaverse and continue the search. Things went well, until she came.

**NegaGos: **Hello, double.

**Gos (angry): **You!

**Gos (V/O):** The battle was intense, and after destroying nearly everything around us, I finally emerged victorious. Then I had more good luck, and tracked down Darkwing finally, and freed him. With the help of some unlikely allies in the Negaverse, we were both able to flee that terrible alternate reality and arrive back in our own. But there things weren't going well.

**Gos (shocked): **What's happening?

**Hooter (grim): **It's chaos out there, Crimson. Negaduck is unstoppable.

**Gos (determined): **Not if I have anything to say about it.

**Gos (V/O):** I confronted Negaduck head on, and we battled fiercely. Darkwing helped, but it was me that save the day, by causing Negaduck's key device to his plans, the SHUSH super suit, to overload and explode. Negaduck escaped, but now St. Canard had it's rightful crime fighter back again. And now he has the help of me..."

* * *

Gosalyn looked up from her script to see the expressions of Launchpad and Drake, hoping they would give her great praise. But their reactions weren't what she had hoped.

"You weren't the Crimson Avenger until after these events." Launchpad pointed out.

"I know, I only said that to protect our secret identities." Gosalyn explained.

"Gos, this script focuses on you the entire time. You even have most of the lines!" Drake objected. "And not only that, you cut out all the best parts!"

"I couldn't include it all!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"I know, but there's one part that you cut out that irks me the most!" Drake said.

"And that is...?" Gosalyn asked openly.

"Me!" Drake said. "You only mention me in your dialogue, I have no lines, and you tell it in such a way that it seems like I didn't do a thing to save the day!"

"Well, you didn't." Gosalyn pointed out. "Remember, it was _me _that came to _your _rescue."

"I think mine is the better script to pick." Drake said, holding up his own script. "It has all the necessary parts to tell the story, and tells it accurately." he cleared his throat in preparation to read. "It's entitled, 'The Terror that Flaps In The Night'..."

* * *

"**DW (V/O):** I cradled my head, wishing many things. First, I was wishing that I could get out of this cell. Then I wished I could get out of the Negaverse. Then I wished he could stop Negaduck's to take over the Posiverse, or at least the Posiverse's St. Canard. Which only lead me back to my wish that I could get out of this prison cell, which currently was the foremost of my problems.

I missed Gosalyn, and the Negaverse I've had made my home for the past seven or so years lacked that, and everything else I like as well. The place didn't even have rocky road ice-cream, which is my personal favorite. Apparently, it wasn't Negaduck's, however, because the villain had banned the substance years ago.

At least I didn't meet up with Negaduck very often. Having been the duck responsible for trapping me here, Negs knew that I would be out to get him, and made sure that the distance between him and his double were great, just to be safe. Still, he rubbed it in every chance he got that I was stuck here, and worst of all was the fact that he let me roam free in the Negaverse up until now, knowing that I couldn't find a way home to the Posiverse.

There had to be a way, though, because Negaduck traveled from one universe to the other fairly regularly. The problem was that I didn't know what it was, and whatever it was, it was very portable and easily hidden. I had never even come close to seeing the gizmo responsible for the inter-dimensional portals needed to access either universe. All I had ever seen were the portals themselves, which apparently Negaduck could control by remote. But that was what had gotten me into this mess in the first place.

It was really a pretty weird coincidence, actually. When I fell into the St. Canard river that faithful night seven years ago, it swept me straight to Negaduck's current base of operations. An old abandoned office building. It was perfect for Negs, however, because he could hideout in there and avoid the attention of outsiders. In fact the only reason I even managed to find out about it was because Negaduck had a portal open at the time, using it communicate with his home universe, and the portal's light was showing through a window.

It wasn't long before I figured out what Negaduck was up to, and even managed to find out what the villain's plans were as he explained them in brief to an unknown source in the Negaverse.I didn't want to pass up the chance to stop Negaduck, and attacked. But from the start, the battle went badly for me. Negaduck finally caught up with me and was knocked unconscious.

When I awoke, I was in the Negaverse, left abandoned in an empty field. I waited to see who was entering.

**CA (in Nega attire):** Good evening, Darkwing.

**DW (agitated): **Hello NegaGosalyn. Here to gloat?

**CA (grinning):** Maybe if I was NegaGosalyn. _(Removes key parts of Nega attire, changing into Crimson costume_) Hi!

**DW (surprised): **You're here!

**CA: **Yes, and I'm going to rescue you! But we must hurry! Negaduck is going to take over the world!

**DW (now free): **Then it's up to Darkwing Duck to save the day! Let's go!

**DW (V/O):** We raced back to the Posiverse, encountering trouble along the way, but nothing I couldn't handle. After a quick interview with Director J. Gander Hooter from SHUSH, I was off to stop Negaduck!

**DW (appearing in traditional manner): **I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am seven years behind in the happenings that have occurred in this city! But I'm Darkwing Duck! And I'm back!

**ND (agitated): **You! How did you get here?

**DW: **With the help of some friends! Not that it concerns you, however! Your plans for world domination are ending here, Negs!

**ND (approaching, ready to fight): **That's what you think...

_(Fighting commences)_

**DW: **Give up!

**ND: **Never!

_(Fighting Continues)_

**ND: **I...will...not...be...defeated!

_(Super Suit Explodes)_

**DW:** Ha! You've lost!

**ND: **But you won't capture me! _(Escapes)_

**LP (hurrying up): **Wow, DW, that was great!

**CA (amazed): **You saved the world!

**DW (pleased): **Yep, yep, yep, all in a day's work for Darkwing Duck! _(Winks)"_

* * *

Gosalyn stared at Drake. "Where was me?" she asked in a complaining voice.

"Where were you?" Drake asked, not understanding, looking at his script. "Well, you're here, and here, and here..."

"No, I mean during the fight with Negaduck!" Gosalyn clarified.

"What about it?" Drake asked. "I told it like it was!"

"No, you _purposely _excluded me!" Gosalyn corrected. "You know that it was _me _that did most of the fighting in that battle, because I was the only other one who could seize control of the super suit from Negaduck!"

"Not as I remember it." Drake said haughtily, and before Gosalyn could object, turned to Launchpad. "So, LP. What do you think?"

Launchpad took the script from Drake and skimmed through it. "I dunno DW." he finally admitted, handing it back. "Isn't it kinda wordy at the beginning, and don't you think you should include some of the other stuff in the beginning too?"

"What other stuff?" Drake asked.

"Like the stuff _we _were doing here in the Posiverse while you were locked up in the Negaverse!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "_Your _script includes the tale only told from _your _point of view. You completely ignore everyone else's!"

"Mine is the only one that matters, Gos!" Drake persisted. "It was _me _that was asked to do this little re-enactment, and not you."

"I'm not participating in a five minute segment that uses _your _script, Dad!" Gosalyn vowed, folding her arms.

"Well, fine then!" Drake said, and turned to his sidekick. "What do you have, LP?"

"Oh, well..." Launchpad muttered, clutching his script tightly. "Nothing much really. It'll pale in comparison to your guys's scripts."

"Tell us anyway, Launchpad." Gosalyn pleaded. "I'm curious what you came up with."

"Okay then." Launchpad said, clearing his throat. "For lack of a better name, I called my script, 'Darkwing Duck Returns As Told in Five Minutes'..."

* * *

"**Darkwing:**Bored, bored, bored, that's what I am. We need some crime to stop.

**Launchpad: **We need more snacks while we're at it, too.

_(Power goes out)_

**Launchpad: **Maybe we should investigate this blackout.

**Darkwing:** I know! We should investigate this blackout!

**Launchpad:** But I just...never mind.

ooo

**Megavolt: **I hope Darkwing doesn't show up and mess up my plans.

**Darkwing: **Ta da!

**Megavolt: **Me and my big mouth.

ooo

_(Fighting ensues for a few moments)_

**Darkwing: **Ah ha! I've got you know, Sparky! Now I just need something to tie you up with.

**Megavolt: **There's a power cord lying over there.

**Darkwing:** Ah, that'll work! Thanks Megs!

**Megavolt:** Now just hope that my battery pack doesn't discharge, shock you, knock you through that open window to fall into the river to be swept away, and go missing for the next seven years.

**Darkwing:** What was that...(zap) ACK! (trip) WHOA! (Splash)

**Megavolt: **I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

ooo

_Seven Years Later..._

**Gosalyn: **I'm in no mood to talk about my missing dad, so no one had better bring it up.

**Honker: **Oh look. Everybody's talking about your missing dad.

ooo

**Launchpad:** I'm going to the fan club meeting. Wanna come?

**Gosalyn: **Nah. But I don't know what to do instead.

**Launchpad: **Maybe you could work on cleaning the attic that we've been putting off.

**Gosalyn: **I know! I'll go work on cleaning the attic!

**Launchpad: **But I thought...never mind.

ooo

_(Crash)_

**Gosalyn: **Dumb pile of boxes that tip over without warning...hey what's this? A letter?

**Letter:** Dear Gosalyn. Help! I'm trapped in the Negaverse! Get me out before Negaduck takes over the world with a top secret super suit from SHUSH! Sincerely, Darkwing.

**Gosalyn: **Hmm. This could be a clue.

ooo

**Launchpad: **So, anything interesting happen today?

**Gosalyn: **Yeah, I found a letter from Dad indicating that he's alive an well, but in extreme danger, so I've decided to secretly go don Dad's old costume and look for him and not tell you anything about it.

**Launchpad: **So in short, a typical day.

**Gosalyn: **Pretty much, yeah.

ooo

**Cop #1: **Megavolt, you've got a visitor.

**Negaduck: **Hello Megavolt. Remember me?

**Megavolt: **Hey yeah! You're Darkwing Duck!

**Negaduck: **What? No! I'm your old boss, Negaduck!

**Megavolt: **Sure you are. Hey listen, buddy. Think you could get me out of jail? I mean, you have ties with the cops, being a crime fighter and all, right?

**Negaduck: **Actually, I'm having second thoughts about this.

ooo

**Honker: **Hey Gos. The papers say you're dad's back, but it really looks like it's you wearing his costume. Are you hiding something?

**Gosalyn: **No, nothing that concerns you.

**Honker: **I really must know.

**Gosalyn: **Get used to disappointment.

ooo

**Gosalyn: **Now, after a night of crime fighting, I'm going to enjoy class like a good little girl and pretend nothing happened.

**Flashquack: **Hey! Let me in! Include me! Include me!

**Gosalyn: **Except SHUSH has to mess it up, as usual.

ooo

**Negaduck: **Ready to break out of jail, Megavolt?

**Megavolt: **But why can't you just unlock the door, Darkwing? Don't you have a key or something?

**Negaduck: **I'm not Darkwing!

**Megavolt:** Whatever. Just know that I'll follow your every command like a mindless slave.

**Negaduck: **I suppose that's better than nothing.

ooo

**Gosalyn: **Well, that meeting with SHUSH went so bad, we're not going to bother to include it. Just know that it happened.

**Computer: **Bank robbery has been conducted by escaped convict, Megavolt, and Negaduck, who kidnaped your dad and imprisoned him in the Negaverse so he could take over the world.

**Gosalyn: **Hmm. This could be another clue.

ooo

**Honker: **Hey, you were in the papers again, and I figured out what you're doing, so I'm going to help you on your quest to find your dad.

**Gosalyn:** I guess that works.

ooo

**Negaduck: **Alright, we've got the Negacopter ready so we can go steal that super suit from SHUSH! Oh, it's going to be an interesting night.

**Gosalyn (watching Negaduck in secret): **Oh, yes it will be.

**Hooter (watching Gosalyn in secret): **Oh, yes it will be.

ooo

**Hooter: **Okay, I'm going to make this simple. I'm going to be the big meany here and force you to do what I want you to do, making you have to disobey so you can save everybody's tail feathers.

**Gosalyn: **You federal people, always gotta do it the hard way...

ooo

**Negaduck: **Okay, we've broken into SHUSH HQ successfully! No one seems to be around, so the only thing that's stopping me from getting that super suit now is...

**Gosalyn: **Me!

**Negaduck: **Drat!

**Gosalyn: **And I'm going to activate this suit by accident and run away with it so that you can't have it. So there!

**Negaduck: **Double drat! I should've know there'd be a catch!

ooo

**Gosalyn:**...So now I've got this neat-o super suit that I don't know what to do with and can barely control anyway.

**Honker: **How about we use it to go investigate some random old building 'cause we'll have a run in with Negaduck there?

**Gosalyn: **How do you know that?

**Honker: **I read ahead, like you obviously didn't.

ooo

**Megavolt: **Hey Darkwing, since we don't have anything else to do at the moment, how about we go break the rest of the gang out of jail?

**Negaduck: **For the last time, I'm not Darkwing! But you could have a point here...

ooo

**Cop #2: **Boy, I'm bored.

**Cop #3:** Me too. We need something to do.

_(Forcefield suddenly lowers, freeing Liquidator and co.)_

**Liquidator:** Maybe I can help, gentlemen.

ooo

**Gosalyn: **This is the way we search for clues, search for clues, search for clues...

**Negaduck: **Fancy meeting you here. Now I think I'll steal that super suit now, and make a dramatic escape!

_(Steals super suit and makes a dramatic escape)_

**Gosalyn: **Hey! Did you know that was going to happen, too?

**Honker: **Yeah, but I felt it was better I didn't tell you.

**Gosalyn: **How about the SHUSH agents surrounding the building?

**Honker: **Didn't read _that _far ahead.

ooo

**Gosalyn:**...So now Negaduck is loose with the super suit, ready to take over the world and I still haven't found dad. That pretty much sums everything up. So now what do we do?

**Launchpad: **How about you go into the Negaverse and rescue Darkwing, and together you can go stop Negaduck?

**Gosalyn: **I know! I'll go into the Negaverse and rescue Dad, and together we can go stop Negaduck!

**Launchpad: **But I suggested...never mind.

ooo

**Gosalyn: **Wow, the Negaverse is creepier than I thought it would be. But hey, at least I don't have to worry about running into my evil twin here, 'cause she doesn't exist.

**NegaGosalyn: **You were saying?

**Gosalyn: **ACK! My evil twin that isn't supposed to exist!

**NegaGosalyn: **How about we settle this with a long and dramatic fight?

**Gosalyn: **Or how about we could just cut to the chase, where I've beaten you, tied you up, stolen your clothes, so I can go free my dad while impersonating you?

**NegaGosalyn: **That works too.

ooo

**Darkwing: **Sheesh, being chained up like this is the pits. My back itches and I can't scratch it.

**Gosalyn: **Here, let me help you with that then.

**Darkwing: **Ahh, thank you very much...wait a minute.

ooo

**Darkwing: **Well, I'm back! What's happening?

**Hooter: **Pretty much what you would expect from your evil twin running loose around the city with a super suit in his possession.

**Darkwing: **Sheesh, I leave for seven years, and look at the mess you guys get yourselves in.

ooo

**Negaduck: **ACK! Darkwing! How did you get here?

**Darkwing: **Just with a little bit of help from my friends.

**Negaduck: **Well, it doesn't matter. I'll just defeat you now.

**Darkwing: **GAH!

**Negaduck: **Mwahahaha! Now nothing can stop me!

**Gosalyn: **Don't count on it, Negs.

**Negaduck: **Not you too!

**Honker: **Don't forget me!

**Launchpad: **Or me!

**Negaduck: **What is this, a comic book convention?

ooo

**Liquidator: **GAK!

**Quackerjack: **GAK!

**Megavolt: **GAK!

**Bushroot: **GAK!

**Super Suit: **BOOM!

**Negaduck: **Now I think would be a very good time to run away. _(Flees)_

ooo

**Darkwing: **You know, Gosalyn did a good job helping save the day. I should reward her somehow.

**Launchpad: **Maybe you should let her start helping you fight crime, so she can become the Crimson Avenger!

**Darkwing:** I know! I'll let her start helping me fight crime, so she can become the Crimson Avenger!

**Launchpad: **Uh...you know what, I quit.

_Darkwing and Gang Stop Crime at Ludicrous Speeds..._"

* * *

The first thing that happened after Launchpad had finished reading was Gosalyn bursting out loud with laughter. Drake, however, didn't look so thrilled.

"That's your script?" Drake asked.

Launchpad nodded. "I got the idea online." he explained. "Did you like it?"

"I dunno, it seems a little long, and a little idiotic, and I get the impression there's an underlying message in there." Drake replied.

"I personally think it's closer to the truth than we're willing to admit!" Gosalyn laughed. "Launchpad, that was the single, most funny thing, I've ever heard! Please, we've _got_ to use that for the script!"

"I don't know, Gos, I think we really should..." Drake began, but he got no further, when the Darkwing Tower public phone line suddenly rang. Drake, being closest, picked it up. "Hello? Darkwing Duck speaking." he greeted. "Oh!...yeah, we're working on it right...what?...oh. Oh, well okay then...no, I understand completely, bye."

Drake slammed the phone down angrily.

"Not good news, I presume?" Gosalyn asked. "Who was it?"

"Channel Three News." Drake grumbled. "They're canceling the segment."

"What? Why?" Gosalyn asked, surprised.

"Apparently this Nathaniel Bean Ganderson super star is coming to town, and agreed to have an interview with Channel Three News, so they canceled Darkwing's segment to make room for it. Can you believe that?"

"I can!" Gosalyn exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Nathaniel Bean Ganderson? Here, in St. Canard? Keen gear, I'll have to get the air time for that interview!"

"Why, who is this Ganderson guy?" Drake asked.

"He was only the star for _Jumpgate _for eight years!" Gosalyn explained excitedly. "Launchpad, remember to program the VCR to record that!"

Launchpad nodded. " I will." he promised.

"But, then what are we going to do with these?" Drake asked, gathering up the scripts and holding them up.

They thought for a moment.

"I think I have an idea." Gosalyn finally announced.

* * *

"Honk-er!" Binkie Muddlefoot called from the kitchen in a sing-song voice. "Five minutes until dinner!"

"Okay Mom! I'm just checking my e-mail!" Honker called back.

The computer chimed. "You have mail." it spoke.

"Only one mail message." Honker noted. "From Gosalyn too. Huh, 'Darkwing Duck Returns as Told in Five Minutes?' Ooh-kay, now what is that Mallard family up to? Still, might as well read it and find out..."


	10. Origin

Summary: So just how much of the tale told in "The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck" was true? Maybe more than you think... ;)

Rating for this adventure: K+

Author's note: This is one of those really odd ideas that is odd enough it might just work. So I'm giving it a shot. This loosely refers to the episode from the TV show "The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck". Not all of the details are accurate, but I figured, given the nature of this adventure, it didn't matter. This adventure also marks the completion of the tower's remodeling, which started as early in this series as "Honker's Game." Anyway, enjoy. :)

10.

Origin

"Can't I see it yet?" Drake asked anxiously.

"Not yet, Dad, Honker's gotta finish one more thing first." Gosalyn said, and lifted the walkie-talkie in her hand back to her ear. "Sorry Honk, say again?"

Drake paced the living room anxiously. "It's my hideout." he mumbled. "You'd think I could go see it whenever I wanted to."

"But DW, you were the one who said Honker could finish updating the computer systems in the Tower." Launchpad said, from where he stood nearby. "You said he could do whatever he wished. And he wanted to surprise you."

"But it's forced me to go on superhero hiatus for two days, now!" Drake argued. "In that time, the Fearsome Five have robbed two jewelry stores, and the police, as always, can't handle it! They need Darkwing Duck, but Darkwing can't come to their rescue because he can't get into his own secret hideout because his neighbor is busy updating a computer system!"

Launchpad was thinking of other things now. "Aren't the papers calling the Fearsome Five the Sinister Seven now, since Rowe and NegaGos joined the group?" he asked.

"Not according Negaduck." Drake mumbled. "He's made it clear that he's going to keep the name the same, no matter what. Besides, NegaGos is only a part-time addition. Most of the time, she's not around. Probably out visiting the Negaverse."

"And besides, Dad." Gosalyn added. "Honker's doing a lot more than upgrade the operating system on the computers and replacing them all with newer, more advanced models. And he wants to surprise you with what he's come up with. And furthermore, those jewelry robberies are minor, nothing too big to be concerned about. Negaduck probably only arranged the robberies to keep the group busy. They probably won't even sell the stolen jewels for money. You'll get them back."

"Not at this rate!" Drake exclaimed. "If I don't get into my hideout in the next five minutes, I'll..."

"Honker's ready." Gosalyn suddenly announced, putting away the walkie-talkie. "You can go in now."

"Wow." Launchpad remarked, as Drake quickly sat himself in one of the two armchairs that would lead into Darkwing Tower. "Talk about timing."

He sat in the other armchair, and Gosalyn squeezed in beside him.

"Hit it, Dad!" Gosalyn said.

Drake nodded, rubbed his hands together in anticipation, and slapped his hand on the head of the little figurine that sat between the two chairs. With a spin, they were on their way.

They arrived to darkness. Disoriented from the ride, and having little to regain his bearings with, Drake looked around dizzily for an explanation. But then, without warning, the lights flashed on, illuminating the new changes and improvements that had finally been completed. Most of it had been fairly minor stuff, which Drake had usually done himself, occasionally with the help of another.

But his eyes were drawn straight to the round platform where most of Darkwing's computing stuff had sat, and nearly gasped in awe. The first change he saw was that the ladder that had been traditionally used to reach the platform had been torn out and replaced with a staircase, providing easy access to the equipment up on said platform. Drake could see the usefulness in emergencies.

The old, bulky, nineteen eighties to nineteen nineties vintage computer equipment had all been torn out and replaced with the sleeker, faster, smaller, technology of modern day. Thin flat-screen monitors where position on either side of the platform, totaling three on each side to make six total. Each monitor had it's on keyboard, mouse, and processing unit. But the crowning achievement was at the platform's end, where the big screen TV Darkwing typically used to communicate with SHUSH sat.

The old screen had been torn out, and replaced with a sleeker plasma screen that was thinner, bigger, and more widescreen in shape. Sitting in the wall next to it were two rectangular shapes, which had speakers placed on the top and bottom. And in the middle, it was adorned with three narrow lights, looking almost like strips. The overall effect made it look futuristic. Sitting below the screen was the largest and most complex and comprehending control panel ever, featuring items Drake could already tell he had never thought of.

But of course, the thing that sold it all for Drake was the fact that the entire system's screensaver featured a fancy "D" encompassed by an orange circle, spinning lazily on the screen. Clearly, a logo for Darkwing Duck himself.

Standing next to the seat sitting in front of the big screen's control panel, was Honker, looking quite pleased with himself. "Like it?" he asked.

"Very much so!" Drake replied, working hard to suppress his giddiness at the sight of it all. All of his previous hard feelings had been forgotten. "I can't believe you put all of this together in only two days!"

"Well, I got started on it several weeks ago, but the finalizing stuff did indeed take only two days." Honker explained.

Drake clapped his hands together like a kid on Christmas day, and literally jumped into the chair in front of the master control panel, and snuggled into it. "Ooh, you even re-cushioned my chair." he remarked, pleased.

"That's not all." Honker said, and pointed to some controls placed on the chair's two armrests. "All of the major, but basic, controls for the hideout are here. Like this one will sound the alarm, this one put the hideout into stealth mode to avoid detection, this will adjust the lighting, the sound, etcetera."

"Kind of like the command chair on _Star Trek_." Gosalyn remarked, sitting herself in one of the smaller chairs positioned at the small computers that ringed the platform.

"I like that." Drake said, grinning at the idea. "This is my command chair." he grinned, snuggling himself further into the chair. "What else have you got to show me?"

"Well, I did a major overhaul on the database that runs everything." Honker said, taking the system out of screensaver, and began typing in commands. Various windows and programs popped up on the big screen. "All of the usual stuff is here, but tweaked a little for improved performance. There's also various new stuff, like a DNA scanner, Internet access, Doogle Earth for maps and such, various graphics art stuff for simulations and stuff like that, and more RAM than is in the SHUSH mainframe computer. Plays DVDs too."

"Honker, I am loving this thing!" Drake exclaimed, taking control of things and playing around with the system's new features. "Hey, you've even copied all of the hard copy mission files onto here!"

"Appropriately named, the 'Darkwing Files'." Gosalyn noted with a smirk, which she shared with Launchpad, who was silently watching from the other side of the platform.

"Oh, and I almost forgot!" Honker said, seizing control again. "The thing I'm most proud of, the long range communications system!"

"For contacting SHUSH, right?" Drake guessed.

"There's that, but when I say long range, I mean it!" Honker said. "I've managed to tie in our systems with not only the communications satellite network in orbit, but even further! I managed to find satellites located beyond our solar system, that apparently belong to the Galactic Federation itself."

"That's right, that unknown organization Comet Guy mentioned when he was here last." Drake noted. "So what's special about it?"

"I've tapped into that network as well." Honker said proudly. "Now we can contact whomever we want out in space almost instantly! In high-def and surround sound too!"

"Cool!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"But, why would I need that?" Drake asked, puzzled.

"Well, here, an example." Honker said, typing in commands again. "Let's say you want to contact Comet Guy on planet Mertz..."

"Okay, I get it, you don't need to show me!" Drake quickly interrupted, not wanting to talk with Comet Guy at the moment, especially for the sake of a test.

But it was too late, Honker had already pressed the command key. A new window popped up that said, "connecting" with a status bar slowly filling up below it.

"Oh boy." Drake said. "Honk, I don't want to talk with _anyone _on planet Mertz at the moment! I get the idea, so turn it off!"

"Um, I kinda can't." Honker said apologetically. "See, I can only abort the transmission until after it's connected. I guess that's something I should fix."

"Yeah, you should." Drake muttered, annoyed.

The status bar on the screen had filled up, and now the screen said, "waiting for reply, please stand by."

Drake moaned. "Oh, I absolutely do not want to talk to..."

"Darkwing?" a voice asked as Comet Guy's familiar face appeared on the screen.

Drake yelped, seeing he wasn't in costume, and ducked behind the chair. Honker and Gosalyn also positioned themselves off screen to quickly slip on their costumes. This just left Launchpad in Comet Guy's view.

He looked in the pilot's direction. "Hi Lunchpail!" he greeted happily.

"Launchpad."

"Right. You called?"

"By accident." Darkwing said, coming back out from behind his chair. "Just testing out a few new gizmos and accidently slipped on the controls. But it won't happen again, won't it?" he gave Techno a glare as he stepped into view of the screen as well.

"Oh." Comet Guy said, looking disappointed. "I was kinda hoping you were calling for help."

"No, we're fine and dandy here on planet Earth." Darkwing quickly assured him.

"But you can help keep it that way." Crimson volunteered helpfully. "Bad Guy's still locked up, right?"

"Yeah, still trapped in the power block gel." Comet Guy replied distractedly. He still looked upset, but was trying to not let it get to him. "Oh well, I guess it's for the better. Mertz has a special visitor visiting, and it's my turn to guard him. He's a refugee, see. Historian too, one of the Galactic Federation's finest."

"That's great Comet Guy." Darkwing said, reaching for the disconnect control. "Really. But we need to get back to our tests and stuff, so we'll be seeing you..."

"Ekard?" a voice suddenly rang out off screen. Comet Guy was gently pushed aside, and an elderly, hooded, duck stepped into view. "Excuse me young sir, but are you Ekard?"

Darkwing frowned. "No, I'm Darkwing Duck, crime fighter extraordinaire! Uh, why?"

"You are from Earth, correct?" the duck asked.

"Yes..."

"Have you met Ekard?"

"I've never heard of Ekard. What's Ekard?"

"Not what, who. He's a refugee from the planet Pinnatel, like me." the duck tapped himself with one finger.

"Planet Pinnatel?" Crimson repeated.

"It was a planet that was destroyed in it's own civil war several years ago." Comet Guy explained. "Zekekal here is among the few survivors who escaped. He's a wanderer, see. Travels in space, heading in aimless directions."

"That was before." the elderly duck, Zekekal said. "I have since given up that life, to find a more settled one, like Ekard."

"Who is Ekard?" Darkwing asked.

"An acquaintance." Zekekal explained. "He lives on Earth."

This was news for Darkwing and the others.

"You mean to say that there's an alien here somewhere on this planet?" Techno asked in disbelief.

"Keen gear!" Crimson said. "We've had aliens _visit _Earth, but I've never heard of any that actually _stayed _here!"

"You sure he's here?" Darkwing asked.

"He was last time I knew." Zekekal said. "But that was many years ago. I suppose it is quite possible he has since passed on. Not many Pinnatelians live as long as I do."

"Then why did you ask if he was here?" Darkwing asked.

"There are two reason Darkwing." Zekekal said. "One, was that I thought you might be him."

"Me?" Darkwing asked in disbelief.

"The resemblance is uncanny." Zekekal stated.

"Darkwing's not an alien." Crimson said confidently, then glanced at her adopted father. "Are you?"

"So far as I know, I'm not." Darkwing replied.

"What was the other reason?" Techno asked, curious.

"The fact that I knew that Ekard had family there on Earth." Zekekal explained. "I thought that perhaps that you might know them."

"Maybe we do, but they must be keeping it secret." Techno pointed out. "Because we don't know anything about it."

"That is possible as well." Zekekal admitted. "Ekard did say he had changed his name, taking on an Earth-born identity so to lead a private life. He had become well known on Earth, and on Pinnatel."

"He was famous?" Crimson asked. "How?"

"For Earth, it was because he saved the planet." Zekekal explained. "For Pinnatel, he was the son of a hero. Clearly, he lived up to his late father's name."

"He saved the planet?" Launchpad asked. "Wow, how did he do that?"

"To do that, I must tell the tale from the beginning." Zekekal explained. "Starting with that dreadful civil war that brought about my planet's downfall..."

* * *

They had been fighting for years on end. No one really knew what had started the war any more, other than it was a family feud gone wrong. On one side was the Ekard family line, who ruled one hemisphere of the planet. Ekard's father, who was also named Ekard, was the peaceful ruler here, well know for being a kind leader, and a magnificent hero, often times singlehandedly saving the world.

On the other hemisphere, however, ruled Ekard's cousin, Karde. Being the complete opposite of Ekard, the evil and unfair ruler controlled his side of the planet with an iron fist. He main goal in life was to take control of the whole planet for himself, by whatever means possible. He invented many deadly schemes and weapons, but he had always been defeated by Ekard, who always stood in his way.

But then Karde went too far, building a weapon so powerful that it would annihilate the entire planet. Karde was desperate, however, and threatened to use the doomsday weapon if he did not get what he wanted. As always, Ekard rushed to the scene to stop his evil cousin, but this time there was little he could do.

They fought, but Ekard was eventually overpowered, and Karde activated the weapon. There was a two minute wait before it fired, during which Karde used the time to flee the area by teleporter, while Ekard quickly tried to deactivate the weapon, but upon failing, fled in his transport craft, going as far as he could from the weapon.

The weapon fired, creating an explosion that destroyed it and the thirty thousand miles of land that surrounded it. The shockwave ripped across the surface of the planet, killing many right there. Debris was thrown up into the atmosphere that would've eventually caused an ice age, but it would never have the chance. The explosion had set off a chain reaction from within the planet. It was slowly tearing itself apart.

The call to evacuate arose quickly. All who had survived the initial blast rushed towards the closest space port to try and escape. In the chaos and panic, only a few hundred made it, among them was Zekekal, still unborn within his mother's womb. Both managed to flee the planet.

Ekard the elder, knowing that time was short, returned home, where his wife and son, Ekard the younger, awaited. He knew there was little chance they could escape death this time, even being royalty, but Ekard already had a plan.

"Prepare the escape rocket." he requested of his wife when he returned. "Don't bother setting the coordinates. Anywhere will do, so long as it isn't here."

"Is it true, Ekard?" his wife asked. "Are we really all going to die?"

Ekard hesitated to reply. "All but one, if we can manage it." he said, looking down into the arms of his wife, where a sleeping babe rested. "The Ekard family line will live on. Now hurry! There is very little time!"

Quickly, the rocket was prepared, and Ekard the younger was placed safely within it. As the tremors shaking the planet intensified, Ekard the elder placed a few items for his son to remember his homeworld by, sealed the rocket, and launched it, racing away into deep space, away from the doomed planet.

But elsewhere on Pinnatel, a similar situation was occurring. When Karde teleported away from his weapon, he teleported back home, which was far enough away it was saved from the initial blast of the weapon. Here, he approached his own wife and son.

"Prepare the escape rocket." he ordered. "I'm leaving."

"Leaving?" his wife repeated, stunned. "But what about me? What about him?" she raised their son into the air for her husband to see. "Don't we get to escape?"

"Maybe if you're quick enough and catch the last spaceship leaving the space port." Karde said, going to prep the rocket himself since his wife made no motion to do it for him.

"It already left!" his wife exclaimed. "I was waiting for you to come back!"

"Then you're out of luck!" Karde said, popping open the rocket and beginning to climb inside. "There's only room for one!"

"Then in that case, it should be our son who leaves!" his wife persisted. "So your legacy can live on!"

"It has to be me, otherwise this war won't continue on as it should!" Karde said, stopping at the rocket's entrance.

"You and your stupid war!" his wife exclaimed, wobbling as another tremor hit. "Would you forget the war for a moment, and think about what's truly important?"

"Yeah, Ekard's probably escaping as we speak!" Karde exclaimed. "_That's _what's important!"

"No, what's important is that he's letting his own son escape, if I know Ekard!" his wife pressed. "He'll want to get his son away to some place safe, where he doesn't have to worry about any stupid war!"

Karde froze, and realized his wife, for once, had a point. Right then he made a decision. He didn't like it, but it was what he had to do.

"Not if I can help it." he stated, climbing down from the rocket. "Hand me the kid."

Somewhat pleased, his wife surrendered him. Karde took his child and placed him in the rocket. He also placed a data card containing the war's history into the rocket.

"Now, be a bad little boy, and be sure to continue this war for daddy, alright?" Karde said to his son.

His son didn't know what was going on, and simply grinned wickedly.

Karde had to grin. "Good old little Negarian." he said with a chuckle. "You'll make me proud."

And with that, he sealed the rocket, and launched it. Shortly after both rockets had left, the planet exploded brilliantly, sending out a massive shockwave throughout the star system. It grabbed the two rockets and hurled them forward, further into space. They rode the shockwave for awhile, then continued onward into space on their own power, heading in opposite directions.

Little did the occupants within both rockets know that they would meet up again.

* * *

"Negarian?" Techno repeated. "Why does that name ring a bell?"

"It's probably just your imagination, Techno, ignore it." Crimson said. "But that's such a sad tale. It's almost like something from the comic books."

"It's far from over yet." Zekekal said from on screen. "We're just beginning."

"Well, by all means, keep telling us the story." Darkwing said. "I must admit, this is a very interesting tale."

"A hero like you would find it interesting, Darkwing." Comet Guy remarked. "It's got a lot of hero stuff that a hero likes."

"Yes, and we're getting to that part." Zekekal said. "But first..."

* * *

Ekard's rocket traveled for sometime in deep space. Unable to keep it's conscious and alive at the same time for so long, it put it's little occupant into suspended animation. Then it put the power it gained from the reduced need for life support into flying. On it's long journey, it missed several possible planets it could've landed on, most of which would eventually become a part of the Galactic Federation. But it didn't, landing on a small and more primitive planet instead.

This was Earth.

Located in some mountains was an oriental monastery. Two happened to be stargazing one night when a shooting star fell from the sky. Intrigued, they watch it fall and hit the ground some distance from the mountain monastery in the desert below. Curious, they wandered down to investigate. There, they found the crashed rocket, and Ekard coming out of suspended animation, alive and well.

Surprised, they took the young child, not truly understanding his significance, back to the monastery, where he was eventually raised. Not knowing his background, or his true name, he was simply called Unideni, which was short for unidentified. Here, he grew and learned the ways of the monastery, and learned, among other things, martial arts.

And he did this all under the watchful eye of Master Quing Lee, who was one of the two who had found Unideni on that faithful night. Perhaps seeing there was something important about his young mentor, he did not tell Unideni where he came from, until the day Quing Lee decided it was time for Unideni to leave, and pursue a life beyond the monastery.

"Unideni." he said wisely on this day. "There is something about you that shines like the sun in the sky. You were meant for great things. What they are, I know not. But they are not meant to happen here. You must go, and find the place where they will occur."

"Okay." Unideni said. "But where?"

"That is for you to decide." Quing Lee said. "But there is one place I wish for you to visit first. Not far from here, in the desert, you will find your origins, in the form of some ruins metal machine. Perhaps you will find some answers here."

And then, upon bidding farewell to the monastery he had grown up in, Unideni left, going down the mountain and into the desert. It was very hot and inhospitable here, but Unideni pressed on. Finally, some days after he had left, he found the ruins of the rocket, rusting and crumbling, but still intact enough that Unideni recognized it as it was.

Seeing it was a rocket ship of some kind, he approached it and began digging through the ruins for clues. He found a piece of the ship's hull that said in odd lettering that Unideni could only understand, that said "Ekard." He instantly knew this was his name. He also found an purple outfit, and a kind of wide-barreled sidearm, that was loaded with some kind of cartridge.

Ekard gathered these items and carried them with him, knowing this was all he had left of wherever he had come from...

* * *

"Okay, now why do those things he found sound familiar?" Techno asked, frowning.

"Because it does." Crimson remarked, and went over to Darkwing and pulled out his gas gun, and held it up.

"Wait, you think I'm the alien?" Darkwing asked, bewildered.

Crimson hesitated. "It's a possibility." she finally admitted.

"But that can't be, because I _built _that gas gun!" Darkwing objected, standing. "More than once, too!"

"But then explain the purple outfit." Techno asked, pointing at Darkwing's purple tinged costume.

"And the martial arts training!" Launchpad added.

"Yeah, you said you learned it at a monastery before!" Crimson agreed.

"Not all of it!" Darkwing said. "Only parts! And it wasn't even anywhere near a mountain, _or _a desert!"

"But if you didn't learn all of it there, then where did you learn the rest?" Techno asked.

"From my father, I'll have you know!" Darkwing said. "He learned it all in the orient! I've seen pictures! The mountains that were nearby are really...quite...beautiful...uh-oh."

They were all silent for a moment.

"Maybe this Ekard isn't you after all, Mr. Darkwing." Techno said, slightly stunned. "Maybe it was your father."

Darkwing gulped.

"This would explain a great many things." Zekekal admitted from on screen.

"But how can we know for sure?" Darkwing asked. "It's not like we can just ask him! He's dead, after all! Died from a heart attack when I was eighteen, just after I graduated from high school!"

"There really is only one way to find out." Crimson said. "Listen to the rest of the story. Please continue Zekekal."

* * *

Ekard continued walking through the desert. He didn't really have anywhere else to go, and this way seemed just as good as any. But the desert was very large, too large to cross on foot as ill-prepared Ekard was.

Still, he kept at it, ever hopeful he would reach the end eventually. And just when it seemed it would be too much for him to handle, he heard a dull roar coming his way. Turning, he was an airplane sailing low over the desert.

"Hey!" Ekard called out to it, waving his arms in the air. "Help! Land here!"

The airplane zipped past overhead, and continued onward. Ekard sighed, thinking that he had failed. But then the plane suddenly turned around, coming in lower to land. Kicking up a cloud of sand in the process, it came to a stop. The pilot, a she, hopped out.

"What in blue blazes are you doing all the way out here?" she asked, pulling off her flight helmet. Ekard found she was quite pretty. "You're miles from anything out here!"

"I come from a monastery, they told me to go and essentially find my destiny." Ekard explained.

"Killing yourself won't help you find it!" the pilot exclaimed, grabbing Ekard's hand and pulling him towards the plane. "C'mon, let's get you out of this sun. Who are you, anyway?"

"Ekard."

"That's a funny name." the pilot remarked. "Still, it's got a nice ring to it. What's that you got there?"

Ekard hid the possessions he had found in the rocket with his body. "Um, it's kinda private." he explained. "And complicated. I'm not entirely sure I understand it myself."

"Whatever." the pilot remarked. She sighed. "C'mon, get in the plane, and I'll fly you back to civilization. Where do you come from?"

"I'm not sure." Ekard admitted, climbing into the passenger seat and strapping himself in. "I guess wherever you're going is good enough for me."

"Just a little place called St. Canard." the pilot remarked as she sat herself behind the controls of her plane. "Infested with crime, but it's still home. If you really want to go there..."

"I do." Ekard assured her.

"Alright then, if you insist." the pilot said starting the engine and taking off again.

"By the way, who are you?" Ekard asked.

"I'm Shannon." the pilot responded. "Adventuress and pilot. I fly all over the world doing random things. You wouldn't be the first hitchhiker I've picked up, so to speak. Although, you certainly the oddest. Found you in the middle of nowhere, on some stupid monastery mission. You have a weird name, don't care _where _you end up, and very secretive."

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you." Ekard said.

"Try me." Shannon said.

"Alright, if you insist..." Ekard said, and explained what he knew about himself to her.

Shannon was very quiet for a long moment when he finished. "Well, I must admit, it does explain a bit. Though that's another thing to add to the list of weird things about you. You're the first hitchhiker I've gotten who's from outer space."

Ekard grinned somewhat. They got to talking, and by the time they finally arrived at St. Canard, they had fast become good friends...

* * *

"It can't be a mere coincidence that they ended up in St. Canard, is it?" Darkwing remarked. He shook his head. "This is just too weird. Who would think this could happen?"

"Was your mother's name Shannon, DW?" Launchpad asked.

"I don't know." Darkwing admitted. "She died when I was three. Don't even remember what she looked like. Dad took it hard, never spoke of her much. So that's another dead end in this little mystery."

"So what happened to the other baby?" Crimson asked suddenly.

"What other baby?" Darkwing asked, having forgotten.

"You know, Karde's kid, Negarian." Techno explained. "I swear, there's something important about him too."

"Negarian's rocket never reached a planet." Zekekal explained. "It was picked up and captured by space pirates. He grew up with them."

"So that takes him out of the picture, huh?" Crimson asked.

"Not at all." Zekekal disagreed. "You forget what Karde had put in the rocket with his son..."

* * *

The data card contained massive amounts of information. As Negarian found out when studying the information on it for the first time years after he had been picked up by the space pirates and eventually rose to the position of leader, the data card spoke mostly of the war that had taken place on the doomed planet of Pinnatel. But it also talked of Karde, explaining Negarian's background. And it also talked of Ekard, and his own son of the same name.

There was also proof that Ekard the younger was still alive. Deciding he had to live up to his father's name, Negarian commanded the space pirates to started journeying to all the world's the path of Ekard's rocket, searching for him. As it turned out, Pinnatelians have a very significant gene in their DNA that makes them stand out from other lifeforms. Negarian used to scan planets for Ekard. Upon not finding it, he would move on to the next world.

Finally, after years of searching, he found Earth.

And on Earth, he found Ekard's DNA signature.

Down on Earth, in St. Canard, Ekard happened to be on his way to visit Shannon when the attack began. Descending down from the sky, Negarian's ship immediately opened fire upon Ekard, not caring what stood in his way. Unable to do anything else, Ekard was forced to flee, racing through St. Canard, desperate to escape his pursuer alive.

The chase continued on for some time, neither side succeeding in their goals. Finally, Negarian tired of this tactic and left, to have a chance to come up with something new. St. Canard was left damaged and in a panic. Ekard saw all this and somehow knew it was because of him that this came about. Therefore, it would be up to him to stop it.

He continued on to Shannon's to make sure she was safe. Upon learning the full story of what had happened, she agreed to help. Going back to Ekard's apartment, Ekard pulled out of a secret compartment the purple outfit and sidearm, and going to stop Negarian.

Negarian's ship had stopped to hover over Audubon Bay while he thought up a new plan. But then he didn't need to when his sensors detected Ekard was coming to him, riding in Shannon's plane while Shannon herself piloted. They were looking for a place to drop Ekard off on, but Negarian decided to save them the trouble. He teleported them off the plane, and then destroyed the plane.

The next thing Shannon and Ekard knew, they were on Negarian's ship, before the duck himself.

"Hello cousin." Negarian greeted, turning in his chair to face his foe.

Ekard moved to protect Shannon with his body, sidearm drawn to point at Negarian. "Cousin?" he asked.

"But of course." Negarian said, standing and approaching Ekard. "Distant cousins, but the relation is still there. But regardless of that, I hope you know I'm here to kill you."

"Why?" Ekard demanded.

"Because of the war left unfinished on our homeworld." Negarian explained. "Planet Pinnatel, remember?"

Ekard racked his mind, and realized, now that he knew what to refer to, he vaguely did. "It was because of you that the world exploded." he realized.

"Wrong." Negarian corrected. "It was because of my dad. Your dad tried to stop him, but failed. They're both dead, now, though, so it doesn't matter. What _does _matter is that you're about to join them."

He lunged and tackled Ekard. The battle was on. Shannon tried to intervene, but was merely pushed aside. Nothing was held back, and the two fought as viciously as they needed to. Soon, both very tattered, their fight had backed them into the next room, where the ship's hyperdrive sat. By this time, Negarian had obtained a metal bar and was using it as his own weapon. Forcing Ekard to back up, he swung it menacingly. Ekard, in self-defense, fired his sidearm. Negarian swung the bar, and knocked the cartridge away. It struck the hyperdrive instead, damaging it and causing an overload.

It released a blast of energy, and some kind of portal formed. The blast knocked the two over, and the suction from the portal tore the metal bridge they stood upon down towards it. Losing both of their weapon to the portal's suction, Negarian grabbed Ekard's foot to keep from falling.

"You fool!" he exclaimed. "You're cartridge caused a rift in the hyperdrive's energy flow! It's caused a chaotic overload that has created a kind of bridge with this universe and another!"

Ekard suddenly had an idea. "Then let's hope wherever it takes you will accept you for who you are!" he exclaimed to his foe, and kicked Negarian in the face.

Negarian yelped, lost his grip, and tumbled into the portal, and was gone from sight. Ekard managed to climb to safety, track down Shannon, and together, they escaped in a space pod before the ship exploded...

* * *

"That's it!" Techno exclaimed without warning. "That's what was bugging me about Negarian!"

"What?" Crimson asked, annoyed for the interruption.

"Take that name and cut out the 'rian'." Techno explained. "What do you have left?"

It was Launchpad who said it. "Nega." he said simply, failing to see the importance.

"Of course!" Darkwing exclaimed. "The Negaverse! Negarian must have arrived there and named it after himself, not just because the universe has a high count of negatrons!"

"Negaduck must be somehow related to Negarian!" Crimson reasoned. "It would explain a great deal about him!"

They fell silent for a moment, savoring the moment.

"But what about Ekard?" Zekekal asked, curious. "Have you figured out how he fits in?"

The group frowned.

"Not exactly." Darkwing admitted, sitting down with a thump. "All we've got are more questions."

"Why, what happens next?" Crimson asked Zekekal.

"The fact that Ekard became a hero." Zekekal replied.

* * *

He became known the world around for stopping Negarian and possibly saving them all. Wherever where they went, they would follow. They hailed him as a hero. All of the world's focus was on him. And Ekard hated it.

All he wanted was a peaceful life to start over on Earth. Voicing his wishes to the public, the government finally stepped in. A secret agency known only as "The Agency" said they could help Ekard go undercover, to live his identity of Ekard to become someone else. They even agreed to help cover up what had happened to help in that regard.

All Ekard had to do was change his name. Something he was not willing to do.

"It's really all I have left to remember my father by." Ekard said to Shannon while discussing the idea with her.

"Look, it's not that hard." Shannon persisted. "It doesn't have to be anything fancy. In fact, just use your name and shuffle the letters around. In fact, just spelling it backwards gives you the name 'Drake.' That's a much more common name. No one will suspect anything."

* * *

Techno gasped. "Why, that's..." he began.

"I know, Techno." Darkwing interrupted calmly.

Zekekal figured out what Techno had been about to say anyway. "Whose name is it?" he asked, curious.

Darkwing sighed, and finally admitted it. "My father's name was Drake."

This was news for Crimson. "It was?" she asked surprised. "Really?"

"Really." Darkwing replied. And Crimson could tell he wasn't lying either.

"Wow." Launchpad said, stunned.

"So what happened next?" Techno asked.

"Ekard went through with the procedure, and found the life he wanted." Zekekal concluded. "He also married Shannon in the process."

"Wait, how do you know all of this?" Darkwing asked suddenly. "How do you even know this all took place on Earth?"

"By finding him the same way Negarian did." Zekekal said. "Back in my wandering days, I came across Earth, and detected the same DNA signature that lead Negarian here. In secret, I tracked down Ekard and quietly inquired about it. And he told me his story, but asked me to keep it secret, at least while I was on Earth. He also said he had a son now. and while I wasn't told his name, it is pretty safe to assume that Ekard carried on the family tradition and named his son after him."

"But he couldn't use the name 'Ekard', could he?" Techno asked.

Zekekal shook his head in reply.

"Then he probably used his new name this secret agency gave him." Crimson said, looking at Darkwing. "Drake."

They all stared at Darkwing, awaiting his response. Finally he shook his head.

"It can't be true." he said. "It could be a sheer coincidence. Drake _is _a very common name here." he sighed. "Zekekal, thank you for telling me all this, but I think I'm unrelated to all of this. I'm sorry for wasting your time."

"Think nothing of it, Darkwing." Zekekal said. "I was a good experience for me. It helped fit a few things together for me. But I understand. There is room for doubt, isn't there?"

"There is." Darkwing said. "Oh, and Comet Guy, next time I call you, it'll be for an actually reason, got it?"

"Got it Darkwing." Comet Guy said, speaking for the first time in a long time.

And with that, Darkwing cut the transmission. He yawned. "It's getting late." he said. "I think I can hold off going on patrol for another night. Tonight, I'm just going to go to bed."

He walked off, leaving Launchpad, Techno, and Crimson standing where they are.

"Gos?" Techno finally asked. "What do you think about all of this?"

"I'm not sure." Crimson finally admitted. "I'm not sure if I should be excited or weirded out by the fact Dad could be half-alien."

"We could check for this gene Zekekal spoke of." Techno suggested.

"But what if he didn't inherit it?" Crimson asked.

"And what about 'The Agency'?" Launchpad asked. "Do you think that was SHUSH?"

"Can't be SHUSH." Techno said. "It was already going by that name at the time in question and was well known for it already. It must be some other organization, one we don't know about."

"They would be the only ones who would have the answers." Crimson said. "Too bad we can't find them and ask them. Clearly, they're more secret that SHUSH is, and that's saying something."

"And then there's Negaduck." Techno pointed out. "I'm not sure I like the idea he could be more than a mere evil twin to Darkwing."

Crimson shook her head, pulling off her hat. "This is just too weird." she said.

"Maybe so." Techno admitted. "But, alien or not, the one thing we have to keep in mind is that Darkwing is still Darkwing, the hero we know and love. And no matter what, that's all that matters..."


	11. This Thing Called Love

Summary: After morning his break-up with Morgana, Drake feels his ready to try again at love. Will he succeed?

Rating for this Adventure: K+

Author's Note: So yeah, this chapter introduces a new girl in DW's life. I realize she's no Morgana, but I hope she's an adequate replacement. Also, this adventure could be the longest one to date, although I have not confirmed this. Some fun facts about this adventure are included at the end. One more thing, in this chapter I take a stab at guessing Drake's age. This is only a ball park number that sounded right to me. I fully expect it to be not entirely accruate.

11.

This Thing Called Love

"So, if I take the numerator and divide it by the opposite reciprocal, that should give me the answer, right?"

"No."

"All right, then, the solution is simple. _I give up Honker._"

"Gosalyn, you need to keep this math grade up, or your Dad's going to revoke your crime fighting privileges."

"I know, I know. But what good will algebra be to me in _my _future anyway?"

"Lot's of things, Gos. That's why you need to know it."

"Honk, this is _your _kind of thing, not mine. I'll leave all the math stuff up to you."

"But what if I've got a cold or something and can't be there?"

"Then...um..."

"Look, Gos, you've almost got it. Just try again."

"Oh all right."

She worked with the paper for a long moment. As she worked, Honker snacked on the grapes sitting on the kitchen table with them.

"There." Gosalyn finally announced, slowly leaning back in her seat. "I think I did it."

Honker looked at the paper. Then he had to do a double take. "Gos, this formula you wrote is totally wrong." he said, surprised. "Yet, whatever you did, you did get the right answer."

"Huh, maybe I'm better at this than I thought." Gosalyn said pridefully.

"I call it luck." Honker said, handing back the paper. "You probably can't do the same thing on the next problem."

Gosalyn tried it to find out. After she was confident she had the answer, she slid the paper across the table to Honker. Honker took it and stared at it.

"I stand corrected." he stated, staring at Gosalyn's nonsensical formula in bewilderment. "I have no clue how you're getting the right answers."

"I don't care, just so long as it'll let me pass this stupid math class." Gosalyn grumbled. "Can we go watch TV now? Launchpad finally got around to buying _Jumpgate: The Box of Verity_ today."

"No, you should finish this assignment first, Gos." Honker said, handing back the paper.

"Oh, c'mon Honker..."

"How's it going guys?" Drake Mallard asked, walking into the room. "Got that homework done?"

"Yes!" Gosalyn said.

"No." Honker corrected.

"No...not yet, Dad." Gosalyn admitted with a sigh, getting back to work. "Almost, though."

"Think you could pause for a moment, then?" Drake asked, sitting down at the table with them. "I want to ask you two something."

"Actually, Mr. Mallard," Honker began, "I think it would be better if..."

"Sure Dad!" Gosalyn said, anxious to get away from the homework. "What do you want to ask?"

Drake hesitated for a moment. "Um...you see, after what happened with...with...Morgana..." he began, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Uh oh." Gosalyn said, suddenly apprehensive. "You're not going to fall into another state of depression over that, are you?"

"No, no, I'm fine." Drake quickly assured her. "I'm still torn over it, but I'm adjusting nicely."

"Okay, then what's this about?" Honker asked.

"Well, you see, I think I'm ready to move on." Drake finally said. "You know, find someone else, to...to..."

"Replace Morgana." Gosalyn concluded.

Drake flinched. "Only not so cruel sounding." he said. "I still have feelings for Morgana, you know. But even I've come to see I missed my chance there. It's time to move on, and that means finding someone else to be...you know...my special someone." he frowned. "That just doesn't sound right in my mind." he complained against himself. "It sounds like I'm not being appreciative of Morgana or something..."

"No, it's okay, Mr. Mallard, we know what you mean." Honker said.

"In fact, that's great!" Gosalyn said. "No use crying over spilt milk, right? But what's the problem? Why haven't you done this yet?"

"The problem is that I don't know how to go about it." Drake said. "How dates are done these days have changed greatly over the course of the seven years I've been gone. Furthermore, I don't know anybody _to_...you know. So, I wanted to ask you two, seeing that you'd be more familiar with this kind of thing, what I should do."

Gosalyn and Honker looked at one another. Then grinned.

* * *

"Instant dating?" Drake repeated, sounding skeptical as he stared up at the big screen in Darkwing Tower. "How on earth does _that _work?"

"Quite simply, Mr. Mallard." Honker explained, sitting in the command chair. "They sit everyone down at random at tables, a man and a woman each. There they stay for a short period of time to introduce themselves and get to know each other. Then, after a few moments, they ring a bell, and they rotate, and the process is repeated." he scrolled down the website the screen was displaying to the part where this was explained.

"What good does that do?" Drake asked, not understanding.

"Well, the idea is that if you meet anybody you want to get to know better, you've got yourself your next girlfriend." Gosalyn explained.

Drake rubbed his bill for a moment. "Suddenly I'm having second thought about this." he said. "I can't possibly see how this could work. It takes love and turns it into a fast food service."

"Dad, this is the information age." Gosalyn said. "If it takes longer than five minutes to do, we're not interested."

"But I'm not _from _the information age!" Drake pressed. "I grew up in a time when it was _impossible _for something as complex as this to happen in under five minutes. I'd rather do it _that _way."

"But no one's doing that anymore." Gosalyn objected.

"You know what, forget I asked." Drake said. "Dating these days is just too impersonal. I had enough doubts _before_ knew about this instant dating thing."

"C'mon Dad, just give it a try!" Gosalyn pleaded.

"The odds of this working are actually better than you think, Mr. Mallard." Honker said. "They're..."

"I don't want to know the odds, Honker!" he said, turning to leave.

"But they're actually..."

"No, just forget I asked, okay!" Drake said sitting down in one of the armchairs that would lead home, but not activating it. "Let's face it, there's no way I can get into another relationship like the one I had with Morgana."

"Oh, dad." Gosalyn said, coming to his side. "I know you took your break-up with Morgana hard, but you're right. You do need to move on. Moping about isn't going to do you any good. We've seen what can happen because of it."

"Furthermore, there are far worse methods you could try that this one." Honker pointed out. "We chose this one, because we thought it would be the one you'd be the most comfortable with."

Well, it isn't." Drake said. "It ruins the true spirit of a relationship. I don't know what I was thinking when I convinced myself to do this."

"Maybe Drake Mallard doesn't." Gosalyn admitted. "But Darkwing Duck does."

Drake glanced at her for a moment. "All right, I'll try it." he finally relented. "But don't be surprised if it's a total disaster."

"Just so long as you aren't surprised when it does work." Gosalyn said, grinning.

"No promises." Drake said, and activated the chairs, heading home.

* * *

The following night, Drake appeared dressed in a suit at a diner located in downtown St. Canard. Honker had told him that this Instant Dating organization thing was being held here tonight, and had taken the liberty of obtaining Drake tickets. Still having doubts about this, he approached the waiting area. An official saw him and approached him.

"Here for the Instant Dating Meeting?" he asked.

"I suppose so." Drake asked, suddenly very nervous. He wondered if he could back out of this without warning.

"Your name please?" the official asked.

"Drake Mallard."

"Ah yes, one of the late entries." the official said, skimming through a notebook. "Right this way please."

He led Drake to his table. He noticed Drake's anxiety. "Nervous?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm kinda new to this." Drake admitted.

"Don't worry, the newbies always are." the official said. "You'll catch on quick. Anyway, here's your table."

Drake looked the table over. It was small, and had various finger foods set in the middle. Sitting down, he looked across the table where his first possible 'candidate' sat. Keeping an optimistic attitude, he looked her over. She seemed decent enough, but he still failed to see how this crazy idea would ever work. He was pleased to see the lady in front of him was nervous too, and was avoiding eye contact, like he was.

After a few moments, a man standing at the front of the restaurant called for their attention. He thanked them all for coming, and said that they were ready to begin. Quickly, he reviewed how the process worked. In this meeting, only the women would rotate from table to table. Which Drake was perfectly fine with. He wasn't sure he had the courage to move anymore. The man then said that it will begin when the bell rang. All too quickly for Drake, the intro ended, and the bell did, indeed, ring.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the lady duck sitting before him. He hoped she would start and give him an idea how this would work, but she seemed hesitant to, and not about to begin. A few moments passed while they sat in silence. Finally seeing that he was going to have to start this, Drake made the first move.

"I'm Drake Mallard." he said politely.

"Jane." the lady replied simply, looking up long enough to say this, before staring down into her plate again.

Another moment of silence passed.

"Nervous?" Drake asked, venturing again to engage in a conversation.

"Very." Jane replied, and again left it at that.

Drake wanted to say something else, but had nothing else to say. They remained silent until the bell rang and the lady left to go to the next table.

* * *

The next lady, a goose, was rather large, and joyful. As she sat down, nibbling on the food from the last table she was at, she started to talk very quickly.

"Hello, hi, how are you?" she said rapidly. "I'm very happy to be here, you know. It's kinda embarrassing to admit, but this is my idea of a fun night. Anyway, I'm Katie, who are you?"

"Dra-"

"Very nice to meet you, I'm sure. That's a nice suit you're wearing. I've always liked brown. It reminds me of the earth, and chocolate, and root beer, and all the other brown things in the world. What's it made out of, cotton?"

"Actu-"

"You know, I had a dress that was like that once. Extra frilly, so it was. Bit small, and real pain to put on, but I loved it. Funny, though, everyone said it was ugly. I wonder, has anyone said you're suit is ugly?"

"Well-"

"That's very interesting I'm sure. I love these bread sticks, I wonder if I could get the recipe..."

This one-sided conversation went on until the bell rang again, and the lady left, which Drake was personally thankful for. Her constant talking was beginning to get annoying.

* * *

The next lady was an otter, surprisingly enough, and spoke with an accent.

"G'evenin' mate." she greeted as she sat down. "Me name's Kesmin Riverstryke. Wot's yore's?"

"I'm Drake Mallard."

"Pleased t' meet ye mate." she grabbed a bread stick from the basket and nibbled on it. "I must say, I've never really gotten t' know many ducks. Not many where I come from."

"Where's that?" Drake asked, curious.

"Just a liddle place on th' other side of th' globe called Mossflower." Kesmin replied. "'eard of it?"

"I've been there once." Drake admitted, then added, "This explains your accent."

"Beauty, ain't it?" Kesmin said proudly. "Wish more people around 'ere talked like me."

"I'm not sure if I could even try." Drake stated, then changed the subject. "So, you're trying this instant dating thing out too, huh?"

"Thought it was worth a shot." Kesmin admitted, leaning back and thumping her tail on the table. "But I guess it's just fer fun now. T' be 'onest, I've only got one person I'm interested in. Have ye 'eard of Rowe, that otter in that criminal group that goes on around 'ere?"

Drake glanced at the lady otter for a moment. "Yes..." he replied cautiously, feeling this was getting closer to Darkwing's world that he cared.

"Well, I kinda got a crush on 'im."

She chose to say this the same time Drake went to sip his drink, which he promptly gagged on. "_Rowe?_" he repeated. "What do you see in _Rowe_ of all people?"

"He's cute, don't ye think?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Oh right, of course ye wouldn't."

The bell rang.

"Well, nice talkin' t' ye, mate." Kesmin said, getting up to leave.

"Yeah, same...here." Drake said slowly, unsure what to make of it.

* * *

He was sipping his drink again when the next person sat down, and he gagged on it again when he saw it was the very last person he expected.

"Dr. Bellum?" he exclaimed, surprised.

"Oh, I see my reputation has preceded me." Dr. Sarah Bellum, of course not realizing she was talking to Darkwing's secret identity. "Funny, no one else here has known who I am."

"What are you doing here?" Drake asked, still surprised to see the SHUSH scientist here.

"Getting out for a change." Bellum replied. "My work keeps me locked up most of the time. Also, I'm trying my luck at love, as you, of course, are no doubt trying to do as well. But now I'm curious. If you know my name, you must have heard of some of my work. Where'd you here it, and from whom or what? I work for the government you know, most of it's top secret."

"Oh, well, um..." Drake said, wondering how he was going to tackle this. "Just here and there. You know, a magazine here, a newspaper there..."

"Guess that makes sense." Bellum admitted. "I have tried to get the Nobel prize for nine years now, I suppose word of some of my attempts get spread around in the community."

"Nine years, huh?" Drake said, knowing Bellum had been trying to get the award already, but never knew it was for so long.

"Yeah." Bellum said, sadly peering into her glass. "I've come up with some real good stuff that could've guaranteed me that award, but because I, like I said, work for the government, they got first dibs, and slapped the 'top secret' label on most of it before anyone else could see it." she sighed.

"So," Drake said, thinking he'd better act like he didn't know much about Bellum, "What do you do?"

"Oh lot's of stuff!" Bellum replied, brightening. "Let's see, there's astronomy, chemistry, quantum physics, nuclear science, which is my personal favorite. See, it works like this..."

And she spent the rest of the time explaining Drake nuclear science, who was instantly lost. By the time the bell rang and Sarah Bellum left, Drake's mind was aching from all the information he didn't want to know.

* * *

And it went on like this for a couple of hours. More ladies came and went, but Drake was rapidly losing interest, wondering how he had let Gosalyn and Honker talk him into this. This was a total waste of time, and a total waste of money too, for getting a ticket to this wasn't exactly cheap. This was mistake. He wasn't ready to try again at this after all.

He winced as the bell rang once more.

And then that stupid bell was starting to get on his nerves.

He sighed, swirling his drink, as he awaited the next person to sit in the seat across from him. Whoever it was, they weren't coming quickly. Finally, the next lady sat down before him. He blinked, slightly surprised at the duck's slightly disheveled brown hair, and more causal outfit. It reminded him of Gosalyn, for some reason.

"Sorry I'm late." she said, flustered. "It took me forever to find the restroom in this place."

"Uh-huh." Drake said, half listening.

"Anyway, I'm Christine." she continued extending her hand for Drake to shake. "Christine Merriweather."

"Drake Mallard." Drake said, accepting the handshake. "Pleased to meet you, Christine. Here falsely hoping to find a date, too, huh?"

Christine laughed, "I'm glad someone else here think's this is a stupid idea." she remarked. "I'm only here mostly out of desperation. Lived by myself since I graduated from high school, and figured it was time to change that, but have kind of...well...struck out."

"I'm only here because a certain daughter of mine talked me into it." Drake explained.

"Daughter?" Christine asked, surprised.

"Adopted daughter." Drake explained, reaching into his wallet and pulling out a picture. "That one is a little out dated, she's seventeen now."

"Outdated nothing." Christine remarked. "She looks to be ten in this picture."

"That sounds about right." Drake said, running the numbers through his head quickly.

"Still, she seems sweet." Christine said, handing back the picture.

"Ha!" Drake snorted, slipping the picture back into his wallet. "Then you don't know Gosalyn."

"Troublemaker, is she?" Christine asked, bemused.

"An expert." Drake admitted. "Still, she means the world to me."

"That really is sweet, Drake." Christine remarked. "You're the first man I've met here that has had any kind of parenting experience."

"Really?" Drake asked, looking around. "They're all single?"

"I would guess so." Christine admitted, but then made face. "But I wouldn't venture too far on that subject."

"I see what you mean."

"So what do you do for a living Drake?"

"Me? Oh, I, er, work at home in a little self-managed business of mine."

"Just enough to pay the bills?"

"Pretty much, yeah. What about you?"

"I'm a doctor. I expertise in treating anything from a triple bypass surgery to the common cold."

"That sounds interesting."

"That's what you'd think, but it hasn't gotten me much. Just a living, an apartment, and enough loneliness to go around. It also keeps me really, really, busy, so I've never really had much time for this kind of thing. At first I thought it was a good thing. At least it kept my mind off it. But, hey, you can't always be right." she paused, sipping her drink. "To be honest, this is the first time I've gotten to do this in a long time. I'm hoping this time will actually leave me with something to show for it. Usually, though, I just never get on with anybody."

"Now, see, with me, it's different." Drake said. "I, too, haven't done this in awhile, but I had a girl once."

"What happened then?" Christine asked. "I mean, if you're here of all places, something must have happened."

Drake sighed. "Something did happen." he admitted. "I left for...awhile, and when I came back, I found she had gone and married someone else."

They were silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry." Christine said.

"Don't be." Drake said. "She found the right guy, and I guess it just wasn't me." he sighed. "It's been hard getting the nerve to try again, though, I will admit that. I was starting to think that maybe I just wasn't meant to have anybody else."

"Don't think that." Christine said. "I mean, where will that get you?"

Drake shrugged.

"Pain and agony." Christine answered for him. "It's no good dwelling on the past. You need to move on, and you've done the right thing by taking the first step. I mean, there's no point in crying over spilt milk, is there?"

Drake laughed, despite himself. "Funny, that was the same thing Gosalyn said to me." he remarked.

"Then Gosalyn is a very smart teenage girl, then." Christine remarked.

The bell rang. Christine stood up. "It's been nice talking with you, Drake."

"Same here." Drake said, with a grin.

* * *

When Drake stepped in through the front door, he found Gosalyn sitting on the couch watching _Jumpgate: The Box of Verity _with a snoring Launchpad sitting next to her.

"Gosalyn!" Drake exclaimed, annoyed. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Aw, c'mon Dad, I'm seventeen now!" Gosalyn objected. "Can't I stay up at least a few hours later than in the past?"

"Only for patrols." Drake replied. "And besides, it's a school night. You have no reason to stay up so late tonight."

"Okay, so I'll admit it, I wanted to be the first to hear how things went." Gosalyn said, following her dad as he went upstairs. "So? How _did _it go?"

"Not as well as you predicted." Drake replied, stepping into his bedroom.

"No sparks?" Gosalyn asked, sounding dismayed.

"No sparks." Drake said.

"Drat." Gosalyn said. "You mean didn't meet _anybody _you liked?"

"Yep." Drake said, pulling off his suit jacket and hanging it up. "Except for one, but not to any great lengths."

"What do you mean?" Gosalyn asked, suddenly hopeful again.

"I mean, she'd make for a good friend." Drake explained, untiing his tie.

"Well, there you go!" Gosalyn encouraged. "Try and build on that!"

"I don't think so, Gos."

"Oh keen gear, Dad, what will it take to get you to see what's in front of you?"

"You're over exaggerating."

"Am I?"

Drake gave her a look. "Can I have some privacy, so I can change, now?" he asked.

Gosalyn rolled her eyes. "Whatever." she said, and walked off.

"Thank you." Drake said, closing the door.

"Just know that Honker booked you for the same thing tomorrow night as well!"

"He did _what_?"

"Good night Dad!"

Drake moaned, rubbing his eyes. "Gosalyn, you will make me grey before my time." he muttered. "But...since it's already said and done, I..._guess _it couldn't hurt. Could it?"

* * *

So the next night, Drake was back at the same table. Trying to tune the annoying bell out of his mind, he patiently interacted with the ladies, most of them new ones. This time around, it was the men's turn to switch when the bell rang, so Drake was constantly finding himself at a new spot every fifteen minutes or so.

Again, he started to feel like this was fruitless until he sat down at the fifteenth table since the evening began.

"Fancy seeing you again, Drake." Christine remarked as Drake sat down at her table.

"Christine!" Drake exclaimed, surprised. "Take two, huh?"

"Yeah, I thought this activity or whatever you wanted to call it deserved at least one more chance." Christine said. "It may be a bit of a funky idea, but hey, you never know."

"I'm only here because Gosalyn booked me for this without me knowing." Drake explained, rolling his eyes to Christine's amusement. "And, well, since it's so costly..."

"I know what you mean." Christine said. "No date should have to cost so much, particularly one where you don't know who you're meeting."

"A blind date, I guess." Drake reasoned.

"I went on one of those, once." Christine remarked. "Back in high school. Total disaster."

Drake laughed. "That's more than I can say." he admitted. "I was a bit of a social outcast in high school. Didn't have many friends, and most definitely didn't have any girls."

Christine grinned. "Ah, well, high school isn't exactly the best place to start a relationship anyway. I mean look at me. I'm nearly forty and still don't have a relationship to speak of."

"Really?" Drake asked. "How old are you?"

"Thirty-eight." Christine said.

"Me too!" Drake said. "Wow, what a coincidence."

"Yeah, funny how that works out." Christine said. She paused. "You know, I was kind of hoping to see you again, tonight, Drake. You're fun to talk to."

"You're fun to talk to too." Drake said. He paused, and admitted. "And Gosalyn wouldn't let me live it if she knew this, but I was kinda hoping to see you here too."

"And why is that, Drake?" Christine asked.

"I don't really know yet." Drake admitted. "You remind me a little of Gosalyn, but there must be more to it than that."

"Well, I can tell you why I wanted to meet you again." Christine said. "You're polite. Kind. Funny. Appearance isn't too bad..." Drake shrugged at this remark. "...and you're a family man. Those are all of the traits I look for in a man."

"Really?" Drake asked, impressed with himself.

"Really." Christine replied.

They looked at one another for a moment. Then the bell rang. They both winced.

"You know, that bell is getting _really _annoying." Christine remarked.

"Hey, I know this Italian restaurant that's not far from here." Drake said suddenly. "Their special is really good, and economially friendly, too. Wanna go?"

"Anywhere is better than here." Christine agreed, and they both left.

* * *

An hour later, they were talking away, having the time of their lives.

"So," Drake said, in the middle of the story, trying not to laugh, "Because of that doomed experiment with the peanut butter, the sealing wax, and my VCR, we spent _days _trying to clean it up, and Gosalyn never _did _get that assignment done for school."

Christine laughed. "Oh boy, I bet you were mad." she remarked.

"Mad? Heck I hit the _roof _when I saw that mess!" Drake exclaimed, and they both laughed together. "That incident _still _holds the record for getting Gosalyn grounded for so long."

"Gosalyn sounds like quite a girl." Christine said.

"Yes, she is." Drake said, twirling his fork in his spaghetti. "A real hand full sometimes, but I couldn't live life without her."

"What did make you decide to adopt Gosalyn?" Christine asked.

"Well, it's a long story, but, in short, I guess we just fit together." Drake said. "Plus, she needed a dad. Her life was full of turmoil. Her parents died in a plane crash when she was very young. So she stayed with her grandfather until he died in a lab accident. After that, she stayed in an orphanage until I came along."

"That's so sad." Christine remarked. "She must get really sad sometimes."

"If she does, she hides it well." Drake remarked. "She's been as happy as she could be since she entered into my life." he paused, then added. "Like me."

"You must be doing a good job then." Christine said.

"I'd like to think that." Drake admitted. "Though, she will occasionally say her grandfather was more willing."

"Who was her grandfather?" Christine asked.

"Um, I know he was professor, and his last name was Waddlemeyer." Drake said hesitantly.

"Waddlemeyer?" Christine repeated. "Isn't the guy that made that Ramrod thing that Darkwing Duck helped destroy eight or so years ago?"

"Um, yes, I think so." Drake said, surprised the subject shifted so quickly to something so touchy for him.

"You know, he's quite a guy, Darkwing." Christine remarked. "But I've heard mixed opinions about him. Some say he's a hero, others say he's a total idiot."

Drake frowned at this, but wisely held his tongue.

"What do you think about Darkwing, Drake?" Christine asked.

"I personally think he's a hero." Drake said. "One that St. Canard doesn't give enough credit for, nor enough appreciation. They either don't realize or ignore the fact that their lives would be greatly different if it weren't for...him. He's just a guy trying to make the world a better place, but everybody seems they'd much rather drag him down. It's amazing he hasn't called it quits yet."

Christine nodded, understandingly. "I agree." she said.

"You do?" Drake repeated, surprised.

"Of course." Christine said, taking the last bite of her meal. "It's more than clear to see he's done more than save St. Canard on more than one occasion. You'd have to be blind not to see it." she grinned. "I'm glad you're not blind, Drake."

"Uh, yeah, me too." Drake said, flattered in more ways that Christine realized.

"Anyway, thank you for dinner, Drake." Christine said, standing. "I've had a great time."

"My pleasure." Drake said, also standing, and upon leaving enough money to cover the bill, followed her out the door. "Need a lift home?"

"No, thank you, you've done enough already." Christine said. "Thank you though. We should get together again, sometime soon."

"We should." Drake agreed.

"Here, here's my card." Christine said, handing Drake a business card. "It has my home number and my office number on it. Call me whenever, just so long I'm not in the middle of a surgery or anything."

"I won't." Drake promised. "Good night!"

"Good night, Drake!" Christine said, hailing a cab and climbing in. "See you soon!"

Drake waved as the cab drove off. He watched contentedly as the cab vanished around the corner, merging into traffic...

* * *

As Darkwing rode in the Thunderquack during patrol that night, he started, out of the blue, to sing.

"Daring duck of mystery, champion of right! Swoops out of the shadows, Darkwing owns the ni-ight! Somewhere some villain schemes, but his number's up! 3-2-1..."

Crimson and Launchpad looked at each other.

"Um, DW, why are you singing?" Launchpad asked, glancing behind him where Darkwing sat in the back.

"Singing?" Darkwing repeated, surprised. "I wasn't singing!"

"Yes, you were." Crimson stated, with a grin.

"I was not." Darkwing said huffily.

"Whatever you say, Dad." Crimson remarked.

There was silence. For a moment, anyway, before the sound of Darkwing voices reach the front of the craft again.

"A cloud of smoke and he appears, the master of surprise! Who's that cunning mind behind, that shadowy disguise?..."

"Uh, DW, you're doing it again." Launchpad said.

"Doing what?" Darkwing asked.

"Singing!" Crimson explained.

"I wasn't singing!" Darkwing persisted. "That was...getting lyrical!"

"Sure, Darkwing." Crimson said sarcastically. She was silent for a moment before adding slyly, "So, what's her name?"

"Who's name?" Darkwing asked.

"The lady's name."

"Who said I knew a lady?"

"Dad, what have you been doing the past two nights?" Crimson asked, annoyed.

"That doesn't mean there's anything going on between me and her!"

"Ah HA!" Crimson exclaimed victoriously. "So there is a lady! So, who is she?"

"Who, Christine?" Darkwing asked, still trying to play innocent, but saw he blew it anyway. Seeing this, he sighed and grumbled. "Okay, she's a lady I met at the dating thing and we had dinner and we chatted."

"And?" Crimson pressed.

"And that's it." Darkwing said.

"What?"

"Crimson, you can't develop a relationship overnight!"

"So you admit that it's a relationship, now, hmm?"

"Er...well...that's private! You don't need to know that!"

"Um guys?" Launchpad interrupted. "Not that this isn't interesting or anything, but we have an alarm at a nearby diamond store. Someone's broken in."

Darkwing sighed again. "Probably just some random crook off the streets." he remarked. "Take us away Launchpad. Oh, and Crimson, for the final time, there's nothing between me and Christine!"

"Sure dad."

* * *

All seemed to be quiet in the jewelry store, but Darkwing didn't buy it for a minute.

"Something's up, I know it." he remarked. "LP, you call the cops and stay with the Thunderquack. Me and Crimson should be right back."

"Roger Wilcox DW!" Launchpad said, leaning against the side of the red craft.

Darkwing and Crimson climbed down the fire escape to the ground level of the store. As they did, Crimson grumbled to herself.

"Fine night for Techno to have a day off." she remarked. "I don't see why he wanted to go to that home grower's festival Mrs. Muddlefoot's all fired up with the rest of his family."

"Everyone needs some family time, Crimson." Darkwing said.

They slowly entered the store through the front door. Standing not far into the store was a shadowy figure grabbing jewels out of a broken case.

Crimson pointed her gas gun at the figure. "Freeze!" she exclaimed. "The terrors of the night have you now!"

"Oh, but who's really the terror, Crimson?" the figure asked, and turned around, pointing a P90 at the two crime fighters.

"NegaGosalyn." Crimson growled. "And when there's you, another is never far behind."

"Where's Negaduck?" Darkwing demanded, knowing his evil twin was somewhere around here as well.

"Over here, Dorkwing." came Negaduck's voice.

Darkwing and Crimson whipped around to see Negaduck and Liki indeed standing there, but were then grabbed from behind by Rowe and Bushroot. Megavolt flipped on the lights, standing with Quackerjack.

"Well, I guess I haven't lost my touch after all." Negaduck remarked, approaching his prey. "This was a trap, by the way."

"Thank for stating the obvious." Darkwing grumbled, trying to shake Rowe off of him, but the otter held on tight.

"So, what are we going to do with them, boss?" Megavolt asked.

Negaduck thought for a moment. "Gos, what's in our arsenal at the moment?" he asked.

"A P90, two Uzis, a machine gun, and, of course, the various superpowers we have scattered about the room." NegaGosalyn replied, motioning to the other members of the Fearsome Five.

Negaduck grinned as he got an idea. "Put your P90 on single shot." he requested. "Let's just shoot them, but in such a way that the police will be disgusted when they find the bodies."

The Fearsome Five snickered.

"We'll start with Miss Goody-goody-two-shoes, here." Negaduck said, motioning to Crimson and nodding to Bushroot to bring her forward.

"No!" Darkwing exclaimed, trying to break free from his capture, but failing again. He was pretty much ignored by everyone else.

NegaGosalyn quietly prepared and lifted her P90, taking aim.

"Now don't shoot me." Bushroot said quickly, a little nervous at the fact that he was in the line of fire.

"Relax, I won't." NegaGosalyn replied.

Darkwing began to panic, but then got an idea. "Hey Rowe." he said. "I know of someone out there who likes you." he said quickly to the otter that held him captive.

"Really?" Rowe said, stunned. He turned to Megavolt. "By the fur, mate, I've got a fan!"

"A lot of good she'll do you, too!" Darkwing added, stomping on Rowe's tail as it swished into view.

"Yowch!" Rowe exclaimed, and released Darkwing, who quickly lunged for Quackerjack.

NegaGosalyn, distracted, adjusted her aim to shoot at Darkwing, but missed.

"Let's get dangerous!" Crimson exclaimed, and threw Bushroot off of her, and into NegaGosalyn.

"Eat voltage Dipwing!" Megavolt yelled, sending off a bolt of energy at them.

"DUCK!" Crimson yelled.

Both she and Darkwing hit the floor as the bolt of energy streaked by overhead. Negaduck, upon seeing NegaGosalyn all tangled up with Bushroot, pulled out his pistol, taking aim. But Darkwing proved to be quicker, slapping the pistol to one side as Negaduck fired. The shot missed completely, hitting the wall near Megavolt. Megavolt jumped, and backed into Quackerjack.

"Enough of this, already!" NegaGosalyn said, pulling her P90 free from Bushroot's vine-like arms, and picking the closest target and firing.

The bullet hit Crimson in the shoulder, who gasped, and collapsed to the floor.

"Gos..I mean Crimson!" Darkwing shouted, alarmed.

Negaduck took this moment to deck Darkwing. He got ready to do more, but heard the distant sound of alarms.

"Drat!" he cursed. "The knob called the cops! All right, retreat!"

Most of the Fearsome Five didn't need to be told twice, but NegaGosalyn hesitated beside her double. "But, what about them?" she asked.

"Leave them!" Negaduck said, "Let the cops find them!"

"But..." NegaGosalyn objected.

"I said retreat!" Negaduck repeated, his eyes raging with anger. "I'll kill you if you don't!"

NegaGosalyn shot one last glance at Crimson, then followed the others out the door.

Darkwing regained consciousness first, picking himself up. Slightly disoriented, he looked around as he rubbed blood from his cut beak, until his eyes fell upon Crimson again, who now lay flat on the floor.

"Gosalyn!" he gasped, and crawled over to her, rolling her over. He instantly saw the bullet wound, small but deep, bleeding heavily and staining Crimson's black costume.

Crimson herself was about to slip unconscious. "Where's Honker when you need him?" she asked, before she passed out.

Darkwing stared at his adopted daughter's face for a long moment, then, panicking, sought a pulse. Finding one, his tension lessened, but he still worried greatly for Crimson's well-being. Taking his cape and ripping a strip of cloth off of it, he used it to try and slow the bleeding.

"Hang in there, Gos!" he said as he worked, then called out, "Help! Launchpad! I need help! Gos has been shot!"

His reply as the sound of screeching tires as the police pulled up to the building.

"Hey, help!" he called, now direction his shouts at the police. "Somebody call an ambulance! Crimson's been shot! Help! Get a medic, somebody! Just help me!" seeing he had done all he could for the moment, he hung his head. "I couldn't live without her..." he mumbled.

* * *

"Excuse me, sir, but we'll take it from here!" the medic said, as Crimson was rolled into the emergency room at the St. Canard Hospital on a gurney.

"No, I want to stay." Darkwing said, "You don't understand, she's...she's..."

"Please Mr. Darkwing sir," a doctor said, coming up to him and gently pushing him to one side. "You've done what you could. Now you can help by leaving the rest to us. We'll make sure she lives, I promise."

Darkwing nodded numbly, as the female doctor ran off.

It wasn't until several moments later that Darkwing realized the doctor was Christine.

"Wha...?" he said, surprised. "But I thought...why is she...uh-oh..."

But Christine was right. There was nothing for him to do now but stay out of the way and wait. So wait he did, as best as he could, anxiously pacing in the waiting room as he awaited the verdict.

It wasn't long before it arrived in the form of Christine.

"Well?" Darkwing asked, coming straight to her. "How is she?"

"She's fine for the moment." Christine explained, not realizing she was talking to Drake Mallard in disguise. "She's stable, and it seems the bullet missed all of her organs. But it went in deep. We're afraid it cut a major artery, so we need to operate in order to find out."

"Well, by all means, do so!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"We will, but I need to know who she is first, so I can refer to her medical records." Christine said.

Darkwing paled. Of course there had to be a catch. "But...but..." he stuttered.

"Look, I know she has a secret identity and all of that, but I can't help her until I know who she is!" Christine said. "If you want her to live, then you need to tell me, Darkwing."

Darkwing was frozen in spot for a long moment. Finally, he sighed, and hung his head. "Gosalyn." he said. "Gosalyn Mallard."

Christine's eyes widened as she recognized the name. "But then..." she began, "That means she's still underage! I'll have to contact her guardian and inform him, and..."

"Don't bother." Darkwing interrupted. "You already have."

And with that, he pulled off his mask and hat.

Christine's eyes widened even more. "Drake..." she said slowly.

Drake nodded slowly to confirm it was true.

"But..." Christine stuttered, "Why didn't you tell me? Why...why didn't..."

"Look, we'll talk later." Darkwing said, putting his hat and mask back on. "But please, worry about Gosalyn for right now. Make sure she gets through this okay."

Christine hesitated for a long moment. "I will." she promised, and turned to leave.

Darkwing watched her go and sighed. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

He spent the next several hours sitting in the waiting room, doing what he was supposed to do in a waiting room. Wait. Launchpad wanted to stay with him, but was having a harder time just waiting than he was, so Darkwing told him to go and take the Thunderquack back to the hideout. Besides, he knew it was probably better he do this on his own.

Finally, just as the sun started to rise, Christine returned once again. She stopped when Darkwing turned to look at her, and hesitated for a moment.

Finally, she sighed. "Come with me." she said.

Darkwing nodded, and followed her into an empty room, away from unwanted eyes and ears.

Christine closed and locked the door, and turned to face Darkwing. "She's out of the OR." she reported calmly.

"And?" Darkwing asked.

"She's fine." Christine assured him. "We removed the bullet, and no major damage was done. All she has to worry about is the wound and a chipped shoulder blade. She should be back on her feet in no time."

Darkwing let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank heavens." he said.

"Speaking of which, I'm the only one who...knows." Christine went on to say. "I've arranged things so no one else knows who she truly is. As far as they all know, she's the Crimson Avenger. And I'm the only one who has access to her medical records. Thankfully, they're fairly thorough, so we shouldn't have any problems there."

Darkwing nodded to indicate that he understood.

Christine fell silent for a moment, and finally blurted out the question that had been bugging her all night. "Why didn't you tell me, Drake?" she asked.

"You didn't ask." Darkwing pointed out, and upon seeing Christine's face added, "Look, I can't just go blabbing about my secret identity to the first girl I meet! What if things don't work out, or she's the enemy in disguise? That would put _me _at risk!"

"I know what a secret identity is for, Drake!" Christine said hotly. "But...still...I thought we had something going there...you know...between us..."

"But does it have to end here?" Darkwing asked, taking Christine's hand. "Just because I didn't tell you I'm really a crime fighter in a purple suit and hat by night? Look, I may not be the best at this kind of thing, but even I saw that we...we...had something going there, to use your words."

"Drake, one of the traits I look for in a man is honesty." Christine said. "I thought you were being honest with me the past few nights, but clearly you haven't." she paused. "You've betrayed my trust."

"I know." Darkwing said. "I'm sorry. Maybe I should've told you sooner. But, can you at least see why I did do what I did?"

"I do see."

"Good!" Darkwing said, brightening slightly.

But Christine didn't. "I'm sorry, Drake." she said.

"What do you have to be sorry for?" Darkwing asked, not understanding.

"This isn't going to work out, Drake." Christine went on to say.

Darkwing froze. "What?" he said.

"When this is all over, and Gosalyn's out of the hospital..." Christine said slowly, and painfully, heading for the door, "I never want to see you again."

"But..."

"Goodbye Drake." Christine said. "The two nights we had together were wonderful. I'm sorry it couldn't have lasted longer."

And then she was gone. Darkwing hung his head. "I'm sorry too." he said to no one.

* * *

Later in the day, Gosalyn awoke with a splitting headache. Squinting against the bright light, she coughed.

"Gos?" said a hopeful voice.

"Dad?" Gosalyn said. Carefully, she turned her head to see Darkwing sitting in a nearby chair, heavy eyed, but not about to fall asleep. "You look terrible."

Darkwing grinned weakly. "At least you look okay." he said.

"I don't feel like it." Gosalyn said with a croak. Slowly she turned her head back. "I'm drugged, aren't I?"

"Yeah, with painkillers." Darkwing replied.

"That explains where my energy went."

"Getting shot will do that to you."

They were silent for a moment. Gosalyn felt some itchy on her face, and rubbed at it. She was surprised to see she still had her mask on.

"Wha...?" she remarked, rubbing at the cloth.

Darkwing noticed. "It's there to protect your identity." he explained.

"So no one knows who I am, here?" Gosalyn asked curiously.

"All save the doctor who operated here." Darkwing said.

"Oh? And who's that?"

"Her name's Christine Merriweather."

"Christine...isn't that the name of the..."

"Lady I met? Yeah, she's the very same."

"Keen gear, no way. What was she doing here?"

"I...don't know actually. She said she gets called into the emergency room fairly frequently, though. Maybe she was called in to work late, and just happened to be on hand."

"A matter of fate I guess. So she knows who I _really _am?"

"And me too."

"Uh-oh." Gosalyn said, looking at Darkwing again, seeing his face. "She didn't take the news well, did she?"

Darkwing shook his head.

"Will you two still...you know..."

Again Darkwing shook his head.

Gosalyn bit her lip. "I'm sorry."

"So am I."

Gosalyn stared at the ceiling for a moment. "Stupid fate." she remarked.

"It's not your fault." Darkwing assured her.

"Yes it is. If I had been on my guard better and not let NegaGos line up a shot like that..."

"It's not your fault." Darkwing repeated. "If it's anybody's fault, it's mine."

"Don't going blaming yourself for this, dad. You do weird things when you do that."

"Okay."

Another moment of silence fell.

"So, what will you do now?" Gosalyn asked. "Will you keep looking for another girlfriend?"

Darkwing shook his head. "No, it seems all I ever do in a relationship is blunder things up." he remarked.

"But dad..."

"No buts, Gos. When you get out of here to go home tomorrow, we're going to go on living life like we always have." he sighed, and added, "Clearly Darkwing wasn't meant to have a love life."

Gosalyn sighed, and reached for her father's hand. "Dad...don't..."

But Darkwing shooed the hand away. "I've got you." he assured her. "That will just have to be enough."

They were silent for yet another moment.

"You know," Gosalyn remarked. "It's too bad. Sounded to me thing could've worked out for the both of you." she paused and added, "I wonder, who made the choice to break up?"

"She did." Darkwing said.

Gosalyn was quiet for a moment. "Then I guess she's missing out." she said with a sly grin.

Darkwing had too grin a little too. "Yeah." he agreed, taking Gosalyn's hand and squeezing it. "She will."

* * *

The next day, late in the morning, the Thunderquack landed softly on the hospital helicopter pad to pick up Crimson, back in costume save for one arm, which was in a sling. She watched the craft land from where she sat in the wheelchair, with Darkwing standing behind it, who had slept better last night and was more rejuvenated, but still sad-looking.

"It figures that the one time in a long time I get to watch Launchpad land the Thunderquack from the outside, and he does it perfectly." Gosalyn quipped, trying to cheer her dad up.

Darkwing grinned briefly, but otherwise did not react to the joke.

Launchpad opened the canopy and climbed out of the jet, seeming to be surprised he had landed so well. "Must be losing my touch..." he muttered. He turned to his two friends. "Hey you two. Ready to go home?"

"Yeah, I miss home." Crimson replied, as Darkwing pushed her towards the jet. "But can I do it under my own power?"

"Sorry Crimson, hospital policy states that..." Darkwing began to say, but was cut off.

"Darkwing, I know the policy." Crimson said. "But we're already two feet from the stupid jet. I can stand and walk. All I need is help is getting inside."

"Oh, all right, fine." Darkwing said, releasing the wheelchair as Crimson stood up and walked over to the Thunderquack, accepting Launchpad's aid. "Need my help too?"

"Nah, me and LP have got it." Crimson said, turning to look back and seeing something. "How about you take the wheelchair back over to your doctor friend?"

"Huh?" Darkwing asked, and looked behind him.

Sure enough, Christine stood there watching them from afar, her face neutral. Taking a deep breath, Darkwing turned the wheelchair around and headed towards her.

"I suppose I still can't get you to change your mind." Darkwing remarked as he approached.

Christine nodded sadly.

Darkwing stopped before her and sighed. "Look, at the very least know that I really am sorry." he said.

"I do." Christine said. "It's just..."

Darkwing didn't want to push her, but he was too curious. "Just what?"

"I...it's a little much to bear...I need time to think...I think...I don't know." she sighed herself. "I...just...looking at this logically, I don't see this working out."

Darkwing sighed. "I understand." he said. "Really, I do. But if you ever change your mind..."

"...I know how to contact you." Christine finished.

"Exactly."

They were silent for a moment.

"They're...uh...ready to leave." Christine said, pointing back to the Thunderquack.

"Yeah, I probably should be going." Darkwing said, turning to go. "Goodbye Christine."

And he walked away.

"Bye." Christine said softly, taking the wheelchair and heading back into the hospital. But she hesitated for a moment, looking back, thinking.

Meanwhile, Darkwing had climbed into the jet, and strapping into the passenger seat, Crimson safely strapped into the backseat. "So LP," he began, "how _did _you manage to land the plane without crashing it?"

"I had it on autopilot." Launchpad explained, starting the engines, and flipping the switch to lower the canopy. It started to lower slowly. "It's still on right now, in fact. I figured it'd ease the ride for Crimson."

"But even with the autopilot on, you still manage to crash." Darkwing remarked. "So how on earth did you, just this once, manage to-mmph!"

He was cut off when Christine suddenly dove into the Thunderquack just before the canopy closed and planted her bill on Darkwing's. They didn't separate until the autopilot kicked in and the plane lifted off. Even then, a moment of silence fell, as everyone in the plane, including Christine was surprised at what just happened.

Finally, it was Darkwing who spoke. "But, what about all that stuff about looking at it logically?" he asked.

"Logic's for the birds." Christine replied with a grin. "You could also say that I finally came to my senses and reacted before I let you vanish forever. Drake, I'm the one who should be sorry. I reacted stupidly to you not telling me you were Darkwing Duck. Of course you didn't tell me sooner, and I shouldn't ever think you should've done differently. If our relationship is going to work, I need to be much more understanding about what you do. And I will. I'm not about to let you walk out like that again. Even though it's only been two nights of seeing each other, already you mean too much to me."

Darkwing blushed, and grinned sheepishly.

"But of course, now that we've finalized the relationship..." Christine continued, realizing for the first time that Launchpad and Crimson were watching, Crimson bemused, and Launchpad stupefied, "...you need to tell me any other secrets you've got."

"And so I will." Darkwing said. "LP, how about we start with Darkwing Tower?"

"Um, sure DW." Launchpad replied, still unsure what to make of this, taking the controls of the airplane.

"Better sit tight, Chris." Darkwing told Christine. "You're in for one heck of a ride."

_Some Fun Facts: The name of the otter Darkwing met during the Instant Dating thing, Kesmin Riverstryke, is pulled for a character I have in another fanfic I'm working on over in the Redwall thread. When I did this, I went ahead and gave her the typical Redwallian accent otters have and said she originated in Mossflower Country for the fun of it. There's also a deleted scene from this adventure in which, while heading home, Christine is attacked by the Fearsome Five and Darkwing rescues her. I cut it out, because it just didn't fit, and seemed to have no revelance to the rest of the story. In short, it just didn't work. Finally, the song Darkwing is singing IS is own theme song. Anyway, hoped you enjoyed this chapter, and please review!_


	12. A FOUL Return

Summary: SHUSH is about to reveal a secret, that could possibly make life for Darkwing and the gang that much more complicated...

Rating for this adventure: K+

Author's note: Despite what it might seem like, this is actually a more Honker centric chpt. This came about from a review I got last chapter. While it was a flame and thus none to polite (it was pretty much ignored) it did point out that I had been writing Honker a bit out of character, and hadn't really given a very thorough explantion why. This one still isn't all that thorough either, but I hope it gets the point across that this isn't quite the same nervous nelly Honker of old. ;)

12.

A FOUL Return

"Well, it's finally November, Honk."

"It certainly is, Gos."

"Fall's coming along well."

"Yep."

"School's coming along well."

"Yep."

"The crime rate in St. Canard has dropped."

"Uh-huh."

"The Fearsome Five are staying out of trouble for the moment."

"Sure are."

"Dad's got a new girl, now."

"Mm-hmm."

"Everything's going along great."

"Yep."

"So why do we have to ruin it all by studying?"

Honker sighed and set down his pencil, reaching under his eyeglasses long enough to rub at his eyes. "Because, Gosalyn, this is the time of year that everyone has to do testing." he explained, not for the first time. "And how can you expect to do well on these tests if you don't study for it?"

"I get that, but think about all of these tests we have coming to us." Gosalyn said, sliding the school book she had been idly flipping through away, disgusted. "The CSAT, the ACT, the ASVAB, and so on! Honk, there's a whole alphabet's worth of these stupid tests! _Why _do we have to take them?"

"Gos, the tests are used to make sure that you are doing well in school, and learning what you need to." Honker replied autonomously.

"Can't proof that you actually passed your classes be good enough?" Gosalyn asked, frustrated.

"Apparently not." Honker admitted. "Either way, you need to study, so you'll be ready."

"I am ready!" Gosalyn protested. "Remember how well I've been doing in my math classes as of late?"

"Gos, you've only been passing that class by using nonsensical formulas you make up yourself."

"But even you had to admit that was still getting the right answers."

"Well...yes. I have to wonder if you're seeing something in math that the rest of us don't. Some of your formulas could be the next breakthrough in the world of mathematics, for all we know."

"Who cares? I'll just settle for passing my math class."

"But math isn't going to be the only thing on those tests, and furthermore, no matter how good you think you are, it never hurts to study further."

"Yes it does, when it bores you have to death."

"Gosalyn..."

"Stop trying to reason with me Honker. I get it. I do. I just don't like it."

"I've already come to that conclusion, thank you."

"Then come to the conclusion that there's nothing you can do to make me stay and study." Gosalyn said, putting her stuff back in her bag. "I'm going home to go watch TV. _Jumpgate: Avalon_ will be coming on soon. Care to join me?"

"No, I'll stay here and study so I won't live to regret it when I get my tests scores back and see they were lower than they could've been simply because I didn't study." Honker grumbled.

"Fine." Gosalyn said, slipping her arms through the straps of her backpack. "I'll be seeing you then."

She left Honker's room in silence. Honker mentally gave thanks for that. Gosalyn may be his friend, maybe even more than that, but she could get annoying at times. He'll be able to study a whole lot better now that he was alone.

He heard his mother say farewell as Gosalyn left, and savored the silence that followed. He worked for about fifteen minutes until he heard a beeping sound. Surprised, he looked around for it's source. Thinking it was an instant message on his computer, he first went there, bringing the computer out of sleep mode. But as it turned out, that wasn't the source of the beeping sound after all.

But then that only left one other alternative.

"Uh-oh." Honker said, and quickly went to his bedroom door. "Mom!" he called.

"Yes, sweety?" the flowery voice of Binky Muddlefoot echoed back up.

"I'm going to work on a project in my bedroom!" Honker explained. "I need to be left undisturbed for a little while!"

"Okay sweety, just be sure to come get dinner when you're done!" Binky replied.

Honker heaved a sigh of relief, and closed his bedroom door, locking it in the process. What he just said was a complete lie, and he knew it. It pained him to have to say it, but there was a very logical reason for it. Besides, if his mother knew what he was about to do, she'd worry for his safety and probably disallow him from continuing, and his dad...well, he had no clue what he'd think, but if he did know, he'd tell Binky, and that would only land him in the same situation.

His only fear was that one day someone was going to see through the lie, and cause problems. Not that would ever happen though. After his older brother, Tank, moved out, and Honker found he actually had a right to privacy now, he made use of it by conducting various science experiments that required that privacy. And his parents respected that, never interrupting such a project without his permission.

They had yet to do it still, but Honker didn't require that privacy for random science experiments anymore, not after Mr. Mallard from next door volunteered to do some remodeling on Honker's bedroom. See, a month or so back, Gosalyn accidently messed one time too many with a science project Honker was working on for extra credit at school, and in the chaos that followed, ended up in Honker's closet in getting destroyed.

Upon hearing about it, Drake Mallard did something very unusual for him and volunteered to do the repairs for the Muddlefoots, since Gosalyn was partly to blame for it. And, even more surprising, agreed to be repaid by allowing Binky into the Mallard home and giving it a deep cleaning (a decision Gosalyn claims Drake regretted to this day).

But there was a method to this madness. Now that Honker was pretty much the Crimson Avenger's side-kick whether he liked it or not, (he still had his doubts about doing it) Drake reasoned that Honker should probably have a quick and easy means to get to Darkwing Tower. And the remolding job on his closet was cover for installing that route. In the back of Honker's rebuilt closet was a hidden compartment that would transport him directly to Darkwing Tower. The beeping noise was coming from this compartment, and was in essence 'calling' him to come to the tower.

Apparently something had come up and he was needed. Once he was sure that his room was secure from unwanted eyes and ears, Honker stepped into his closet and pressed a hidden control that made a portion of the back wall slide open. Slipping through that opening, Honker readied himself as the wall resealed itself, plunging him into darkness. The next thing he knew, he was sliding along a dark tunnel at high speeds, having lost his sense of direction back in his closest.

But as suddenly as it started, it ended when Honker abruptly arrived at Darkwing Tower by getting thrown out of the arriving compartment and crashing to the floor. Retrieving his lost glasses, he shuddered.

"I will never get used to that journey." he remarked, picking himself up.

"Honk!" Gosalyn cried out suddenly, seeing him, and rushing over to help him up. "Good! You came quickly."

"I take it that I'm here on bad circumstances, then." Honker said, feeling his stomach sink.

Gosalyn nodded. "Director Hooter from SHUSH just called." she explained. "We're to come to his office to be debriefed on a 'grave situation', as he put it."

"Wait, all of us?" Honker asked, surprised. "Why all of us?"

"He didn't say." Gosalyn admitted. "The message was quick and to the point."

"But we're not here to question Hooter's methods, now are we, Honker?" Darkwing asked, as he stepped up, already dressed in his costume. "If he wants all of us to come meet him at his office, then that's what we'll do."

"B-but I've never met the director before." Honker objected, but then remembered all the video conferences he and the others had with the director. "At least not face to face." he amended, but then remembered that they _had _met face to face last month at the St. Canard Town Square Celebration. "At least not professionally." he amended again, but then was forced to admit that one meeting _was _on professional terms. "At least not in his office." he amended yet again, only to go on to remember that he _had _met the director of SHUSH in his office before now. "Maybe I'll just shut up." he finally concluded.

"Don't worry if you're nervous, Honk." Gosalyn said, going to change into her own costume. "Since you're my sidekick, you shouldn't have to do too much talking."

"Thank goodness for small favors." Honker muttered, waiting his turn to change.

"And besides, this will be good practice." Crimson added, reappearing again in her black and red costume.

"Hey DW," Launchpad said, coming up to Darkwing. "You want me to load up the Thunderquack?"

"Yes, LP, it's the only vehicle we've got that'll fit all of us." Darkwing said, following his own sidekick to the awaiting aircraft. "Be quick Honker, I want to leave immediately."

"Yes, Mr. Darkwing, sir." Honker replied in a mumble.

Crimson noticed. "Something wrong, Honk?"

"I don't know." Honker admitted. "I...well...I'm just hesitant, that's all. You know very well that there are many parts of this crime fighting stuff that I don't like. I never really thought I'd get into it so far that I would be _requested _to come to the office of the leader of one of the most secret organizations on the planet."

"You aren't having second thoughts of being Techno, are you?" Crimson asked, alarmed. "I thought you said you could handle this, and that you were okay with it."

"That what I _thought_." Honker said. "But now, suddenly, I'm not so sure anymore."

"But I don't get it." Crimson admitted. "Why the sudden change of heart? You were fine with this until now."

"I don't know what brought it on." Honker admitted. "Maybe it's the fact that I thought too much that I'm lying to my parents about what I do these days. Maybe it's just feeling overly nervous about seeing Director Hooter. Or maybe it's just the fact that _you _got shot not that long ago."

Crimson frowned, and rubbed the area of her shoulder where she had been shot by her Negaverse double not so long ago, still slightly tender and fragile, but healed to the point it hindered her no more. It was only through luck that the wound hadn't been any worse. "I see your point." Crimson said. "You're realizing that there's more danger to this than you first thought."

"Something like that, I guess." Honker admitted.

"C'mon you two, lets go!" Darkwing called across the hideout.

"Go get ready Honker." Crimson urged. "We'll talk about this later."

Honker nodded, and went to go change, hoping Crimson could help get his confidence back.

* * *

As the sun set, marking the day's close, Audubon Bay Bridge seemed as peaceful as always. No one knew that Darkwing's hideout was there yet, and this was a fact that Darkwing wanted to keep. So when the tower was revamped not that long ago, one of the things added was a more secluded way for the Thunderquack to come and go through. It no longer entered the hideout by the roof anymore. In fact, it didn't even enter by air anymore.

Some distance down from the bridge, the calm water of Audubon Bay was disrupted when the Thunderquack suddenly shot out of it, switching to jet power to take to the air.

"DW, I know I've said it before, but I gotta say it again." Launchpad remarked as he leveled the jet out at a low altitude over St. Canard. "That water entrance for the Thunderquack was ingenious!"

"That's because I'm Darkwing Duck!" Darkwing exclaimed proudly. "The terror that flaps in the night always has good ideas!"

"Or so he thinks." Crimson murmured to Techno from the backseat.

"I heard that!" Darkwing said in a warning tone. "If you can't keep you're comments to yourself, Crimson, then you aren't coming along on this little outing."

"You really don't think you can keep me off this case, do you Dad?" Crimson grumbled.

"Who said it's a case? Hooter could just want us to transport something." Darkwing pointed out. "And besides, aren't you still recovering from a certain bullet wound?"

"I am recovered!" Crimson protested, showing this by moving her affected shoulder freely in various directions. It ached slightly, but otherwise didn't bother her. "All thanks to Christine's care. She herself said it should be healed enough for me to fight crime again."

"Ah, but we agreed that _I _would be the judge of that, didn't we?" Darkwing said.

"You wouldn't really use my already healed wound as grounds to keep me home, would you?" Crimson asked.

"I didn't say that." Darkwing pointed out, but he wore a sly grin, regardless.

"But you did imply it, sir." Techno pointed out.

"Whatever the case, just so long as you behave Crimson, you shouldn't have to worry about that happening." Darkwing said, turning around in his seat to look at his adopted daughter. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly." Crimson said, then added under her breath, "lousy dictator."

Darkwing heard, but chose to ignore the remark.

"Approaching SHUSH HQ, DW!" Launchpad announced, pointing at the building in question.

"Good, set us down, LP." Darkwing said. "And this time, try to land on the landing pad and not in Hooter's office, please?"

"Okey doke!" Launchpad said, and brought the jet into a steep dive for the building's roof.

Just when it seemed clear that Launchpad would ram the building, he leveled the jet off, missing the landing pad by a few feet, and skidding to a halt roughly on the roof.

"Oops." Launchpad said. "Forgot to lower the landing gear first."

"At least we're on the ground in one piece." Darkwing grumbled, straightening his hat.

"But we're several stories _off _the ground, DW." Launchpad pointed out, opening the cockpit so they all could climb out.

"You know what I meant." Darkwing said, looking around.

First Agent Grizzlikof had been waiting for them to land at the landing pad they had missed, and now stepped over to greet them.

"Good day, Darkwing." Grizzlikof said with forced politeness. "I see your pilot missed landing pad again."

"Only by four and a half feet." Techno pointed out, measuring the distance in his head. "That's a half foot shorter than last time."

"Crash was nothing too spectacular, though." Launchpad said.

"It is SHUSH's best interests that crashes be kept to less spectacular." Grizzlikof said with a disapproving frown. "But regardless, Director Hooter is waiting for you in office. Please follow."

He lead the way off the roof, down about two floors, and into Hooter's office.

"Director, the clown parade is here." Grizzlikof announced flatly.

Darkwing shot him a look.

"Ah, Darkwing, glad you came so quickly." Hooter said, turning his desk chair around to face his guests.

"Pleasure's all mine, J. Gander." Darkwing said, helping himself to one of the leather seats in front of Hooter's desk. "What's up?"

"Something you probably should've been the first to see, Darkwing." Hooter said gravely.

"I don't like that tone." Crimson remarked, also taking a seat. "What's happened?"

"Several things, Miss Avenger." Hooter replied. "But we shall begin with an event that occurred two months ago."

"Which is?" Darkwing asked.

"The mass breakout of the St. Canard Supervillain Prison." Hooter replied.

"What?" Darkwing repeated. "What's new about that? It was merely the event in which Quackerjack, Liki, and Bushroot all broke out of jail with the aide of Megavolt and Negaduck."

"Leaving quite a mess in the process, too." Crimson added.

"All of that is true, and still stands." Hooter said. "But there is one thing about that event that you do not know about."

"Which is?" Darkwing asked, intrigued.

"Someone else escaped the prison that day as well." Hooter said.

He then typed in a few commands on a computer that sat on his desk, turning the screen so everyone could see. "Watch these security videos of the breakout." Hooter requested. "They'll answer a few questions. We'll begin with this one to refresh your memories on what happened."

The video began showing an aerial view of one of the many bleak hallways of the prison. Two guards stood outside a cell. An electric field shimmered over its entrance, indicating that this was a high level prisoner. Looking closer, it was clear that the prisoner was the Liquidator. There was no sound with the video, so it was hard to tell what was going on, but the two guards started to become edgy, one talking into a walkie-talkie.

Then, without warning, the electric field flared, and shut down. Liki, almost looking bored, stared at the guards for a moment, before smiling. He stood and approached them. The guards panicked and opened fire with their pistols, but that did no good, seeing Liki was made entirely of water. Liki finally exited the cell, said something, then transformed into a wave of water that washed the guards away and flooded the hallway.

Darkwing was starting to become bored. "We know all this already." he whined. "Where the part we haven't seen?"

"Right now." Hooter replied, pressing another key on his keyboard.

The view changed to show another hallway. This one was identical, with the same two guards and electric field, but held a different prisoner. Who it was couldn't be clearly seen, as he was at the rear of the cell, out of the camera's view. Nothing happened for a few moments, but then a wave of water that was presumably Liki washed by, sweeping the guards away and flooding the hallway with about three feet of water. That water came in contact with the electric field, overloading it and shutting it off.

Darkwing, Crimson, Techno, and even Launchpad gasped as they recognized the figure who came to the cell's entrance, looked around, then fled down the unguarded hallway.

Hooter stopped the video. "I presume then you recognize who that prisoner was." he said.

Darkwing nodded, still slightly shocked. "Steelbeak." he replied. "Former agent for FOWL."

"And he escaped?" Techno remarked.

"Why are we only hearing about this now?" Crimson asked. "I mean, at first, it was understandable, Darkwing wasn't officially back until a few days later. But still..."

"And I agree." Hooter said. "Seeing that it was Darkwing who helped SHUSH bring FOWL down and throw Steelbeak and many of his cohorts into jail, you should have been informed sooner. But apparently, that wasn't my call. My superiors made me wait until now to tell you."

"But...why?" Crimson asked.

Hooter, surprisingly, shrugged. "I do not know." he admitted. "I may be the director of SHUSH, Miss Avenger, but that doesn't mean I know everything. However, if I were to speculate, I would guess it was due to some political matter."

"Politics saves the day again." Darkwing grumbled.

"They probably thought that Steelbeak, being on the run and on his own, would be easy to recapture." Hooter speculated further. "Clearly, though, they were mistaken."

"What's Steelbeak up to, anyway?" Crimson asked, annoyed. "I would've thought that he'd start something once he escaped, not lie low."

"That's what we thought." Hooter said. "Again, if I were to speculate, though, I would presume he was doing both. Starting trouble, but while at the same time, keeping it secret."

"For now, anyway." Crimson added.

"Is it possible he's trying to break other ex-FOWL agents out of jail?" Darkwing reasoned.

"Possible, but unlikely." Hooter said. "When FOWL went under, as I'm sure you can recall, Darkwing, many of the agents went to prison in their respected places of origin. Steelbeak was one of the few St. Canard had jurisdiction over. The rest are scattered all over the world. So far, no attempts to break any of those other agents out have been made."

"What about High Command?" Darkwing asked.

"Ah, that is even less likely." Hooter said. "They have been placed in a top secret prison, separate from everyone else who was involved in FOWL."

"Top secret?" Crimson repeated. "Keen gear, where is it?"

"I'm sorry, but even you and Darkwing don't hold a high enough security clearance to know that." Hooter apologized. "But rest assured, High Command is not going anywhere. Their prison has triple the security the St. Canard Supervillian Prison has. They would be virtually impossible to break out."

"But that's what we thought about the supervillain prison." Techno pointed out.

"And when that breakout occurred, security at the prison High Command is in quadrupled." Hooter said. "I daresay it would be easier to break into Scrooge McDuck's money bin than the prison High Command is locked up in."

"So what could Steelbeak be up to?" Crimson asked.

"SHUSH has a theory." Hooter stated. "Not everyone in FOWL was thrown in jail. For example, most of the Eggmen went free. We believe that Steelbeak is gathering those people back together to resume the basic goals of FOWL, but this time, to take it all for himself."

"We have evidence, too." Grizzlikof added. "SHUSH has been keeping tabs on some former Eggmen. Not long after Steelbeak escaped, they vanished."

"So our mission is to stop Steelbeak from getting the gang back together." Darkwing said, his eyes alight with the prospect of this assignment.

"Partly, yes." Hooter said. "But there's more." he typed a few commands on his keyboard again. "We have received a message from Steelbeak himself." the message appeared on the computer screen for the others to read. "He wishes to speak with, surprisingly enough, you, Darkwing, on neutral grounds under a white flag."

"Me?" Darkwing said, at first surprised, but quickly recovered. "Well, clearly, he got word that I was back, and knew he couldn't handle it. I'll bet he wants to surrender."

"Well, you are partly correct." Hooter said. "It seems Steelbeak _has _been keeping in touch with the going ons in the world after he escaped."

"He's right." Techno said, reading the message. "This message says Steelbeak wishes to meet with all of us, not just Darkwing. He even lists us all by name. The Crimson Avenger, Techno..."

"And he wants us alone." Crimson added, frowning as she also read the message. "No tricks, and no agents from SHUSH, or any other spy organization." she fiddled with the seam of her red and black cape for a moment. "Sounds like a trap to me, guys."

"I came to that same conclusion." Hooter agreed. "Which is why we're going to break the terms and send two agents with you to the meeting place in secret. If anything happens, they can come and assist."

"We won't need those agents, J. Gander." Darkwing assured him. "We can handle Steelbeak and whatever trap he has for us."

"I trust you, Darkwing, but I don't want to take any chances." Hooter said, and then changed the subject, considering the subject closed. "Agent Grizzlikof will escort you back to your aircraft. Await there until I have selected the appropriate agents to join you. They will not hinder you, I assure you Darkwing, or they will have to answer to me."

Darkwing looked like he wanted to protest again about SHUSH agents joining him on _his _mission, but kept his silence. "Very well." he said instead. "Just so long as the mission goes smoothly, I think I can handle that."

He got up and turned to leave, Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad who, had remained silent during all of this, following. Darkwing, who lead, did not wait for Grizzlikof to escort them back to the Thunderquack. He knew his way around well enough, and besides, he wasn't exactly happy at the moment.

* * *

They did indeed wait for the agents to arrive, however. Standing around the Thunderquack, with the exception of Techno, who sat inside the jet, they waited. Grizzlikof stood nearby, watching them. He clearly did not trust leaving them alone, thinking they would leave without the agents if they weren't watched. But Crimson knew that if Darkwing really wanted to do that, Grizzlikof, despite his superior size and strength to Darkwing, couldn't stop them. Besides, he was outnumbered.

Bored, and ready to do this little mission, Crimson kicked at the rooftop, leaning on one of the Thunderquack's wings. She glanced at Techno, sitting quietly in his seat. Up until now, she thought he was working on something, but now saw that he was just sitting there, deep in thought.

"Hey, Techno." she said, leaning on the side of the open cockpit. "Still reeling in self-doubt?"

Techno nodded. "I know it's a bad time for it, and that I have no logical reason for it, and it would only cause problems on this mission should it continue, but I am." he admitted.

"You know, we could probably send you home, if it makes you feel any better." Crimson offered.

"No, I'll see this through." Techno stated stubbornly. "Besides, you might need my help."

Crimson choose not to deny that, and looked upward at the sky, rapidly filling with stars as night increased it's grip upon the city. At least, as many stars as you'd see in a bright, polluted, metropolis such as St. Canard.

"You do know that I understand how you feel, right?" Crimson asked.

Techno shook his head. "I doubt it." he said. "You are a crime fighter born, Crimson."

"I'm flattered." Crimson said. "But are you forgetting my opinions on crime fighting during those seven years Darkwing was gone?"

Techno was silent for a moment.

"I had given it up, hadn't I?" Crimson asked, answering her own question. "Swore to never get involved in that kind of thing, didn't I?"

"You certainly went back on your word very quickly." Techno remarked.

"That was because I needed to." Crimson pointed out. "I had evidence that Darkwing was still alive, but it wasn't much to go off of, and it _was _a seven-year-old clue. It could've only led me nowhere. I didn't want to get anybody's hopes up unnecessarily, and Darkwing _did _request I keep that one clue secret for the time being. The only way I could see to investigate that one clue and keep it secret was resume hero work, at least temporarily. But there's more. Once I was past the point of no return, and saw that I was combating major villains and _winning,_ I knew I could do this."

"But that's _my _problem." Techno said. "I'm not sure I can do what you do. I never was. You know me, I'm a total whimp."

"That's not true, and you know it, Techno." Crimson said. "You have grown up. I've seen you face your fears and do things I've never thought you would do seven years ago."

Techno snorted. "Like what?"

"When I was searching for Darkwing, and fighting with Negaduck over the super suit, you were always there at my side, helping me." Crimson pointed out.

"But you're my friend, of course I would do that." Techno pointed out.

"But it takes quite a friend to risk his own life to save his friend's." Crimson pointed out.

Techno was silent.

"And there are other times." Crimson went on. "What about the time we were fighting Nanite? It was you that thought quick and stopped Nanite well enough that he could be placed in jail, where he remains today. It was you who came and helped me when Darkwing got all depressed over losing Morgana. It was you who thought to look for Frogduck at the waterworks, and the one who found his hiding spot. It was you who chased after Bad Guy after he wreaked the St. Canard Town Square Celebration, and the one who got close enough to see who and what he was. And I can go on, Techno."

"But there's one thing I didn't do." Techno stated. "I wasn't there when you got shot."

Crimson fell silent for a moment, subconsciously rubbing the healing wound. "Don't blame yourself for that." she said. "You have no idea if things could have played out differently if you were there."

"Maybe not." Techno admitted. "But I wasn't there to help regardless."

"Techno, I doubt there was much you could've done." Crimson said. "But I think I've figured out why you've suddenly lost your confidence. You've convinced yourself that you failed because you weren't there when you thought I needed you the most."

Techno did not deny it.

Crimson sighed. "Techno, you're a great friend, but sometimes you're the dumbest smart guy I know."

"Excuse me?" Techno asked, stunned by the insult.

"You're blaming yourself for something you had no control over, and happened in the past!" Crimson said. "You have no reason to! The damage that was caused isn't even permanent! If you're really as smart as you claim to be, then you wouldn't have allowed this to happen."

Techno sighed. "Maybe you're right." he admitted. "But it still doesn't change how I feel. What can I do to get my confidence back?"

"By proving to yourself that you _can _do this." Crimson stated.

"And how do I do that?" Techno asked flatly.

"That's for you to find out."

They were silent for a moment. It was then that Grizzlikof, looking disapproving as always, made an announcement.

"Director Hooter has selected agents." he said in his peculiar accent. "They are on their way here."

* * *

"How long until we reach the rendevous point, LP?" Darkwing asked as they flew along in the Thunderquack.

"About another half-hour, DW." Launchpad replied.

"That long?" a voice from behind asked.

Darkwing turned in his seat to look at the two SHUSH agents sitting in the back between Techno and Crimson, dressed in neutral grey suits and sunglasses. "There a problem?" he asked, clearly straining to keep his temper in check.

"I know of aircraft that can go from SHUSH Headquarters to this former FOWL storehouse we're to meet Steelbeak at in fifteen minutes." Agent Mia, a young female feline, replied.

"Can this craft not go any faster?" asked Agent Lupis, a male wolf, who as older than Agent Mia, and probably her superior.

"We're already maximum speed." Darkwing said, annoyed that this was too slow for the agents.

"And the Thunderquack is supposed to be the fastest jet in the world." Launchpad bemoaned, not liking the idea of his favorite plane being outclassed.

"Maybe eight years ago." Agent Lupis replied.

"Well, you'll just have to live with it." Darkwing grumbled. "This is the only way we're getting to the rendevous point, and this as fast we can go. So there."

"You do not like us, do you?" Agent Mia asked.

"To be truthful..." Darkwing said, and hesitated for a moment, clearly wondering if he truly wanted to answer that, "...no."

"Is it because you are used to doing things on your own?" Agent Mia asked, seeming to be genuinely curious.

"That, and the fact that SHUSH has some regulations that Darkwing views as...hindering." Crimson replied for Darkwing. "He has his own style of doing things."

"Yes, you would know that very well, wouldn't you, Miss Mallard?" Agent Mia asked.

"Yes, I..." Crimson trailed off as she realized fully what Mia had just said. "Wait, what did you say?"

"Your true name is Gosalyn Mallard, is it not?" Agent Mia repeated.

"I...I don't know anybody by that name." Crimson quickly lied.

"Do not deny it." Agent Lupis said sternly. "SHUSH knows very well your identity." he gave Agent Mia a disapproving look. "However, that _is _need-to-know information, information that shouldn't be carelessly babbled out."

Agent Mia flushed a deep red color under the reprimanding.

"But...how?" Crimson asked.

Techno cleared his throat, drawing Crimson's attention. "Should I remind you of the incident with the SHUSH super suit?" he asked.

Crimson frowned, remembering that Hooter revealed he knew who she was during that incident, and realized that a costume change probably didn't hide the fact from him that she was still the same person. Hooter had simply decided that it didn't need mentioning.

"What other secrets does SHUSH know that we don't know about?" Darkwing asked, frowning. He clearly didn't like the idea that SHUSH knew the identity of his adopted daughter. "I suppose you all know who we are."

"No, the identities of you and Mr. Techno are still unconfirmed." Agent Lupis said, and left the subject at that.

Darkwing looked like he wasn't satisfied with that answer, but took it anyway. It was clear that even though he didn't like the agents and their presence, he was stuck with them, and fighting with each other wasn't going to help things.

The next several moments of the ride was spent in silence. Watching the two agents carefully, Crimson noticed that they didn't move or speak. They just sat there, staring straight ahead.

"Not very talkative, are you?" she quipped.

Agent Lupis shot her a neutral look. "It's against SHUSH regulations to make small chat while on a mission." he explained flatly.

"Bit boring, to be honest." Agent Mia added, leaning over to whisper in Crimson's ear.

"I heard that." Agent Lupis said warningly.

Agent Mia quickly resumed her neutral attitude.

More moments passed, before Launchpad finally broke the silence.

"We're almost there." he said, pointing out the glass canopy. "Look, that must be the storehouse Steelbeak wants us to meet at."

"Yes it is." Agent Lupis remarked, pulling out a pocket sized version of binoculars and looking through them at the warehouse-like building in the middle of a small, sandy, desert. "You can still see the FOWL logo on it's front. Slightly worn, but still there, nonetheless."

"I wonder why here, of all places." Techno remarked, working with the controls of his visor, displaying something on the visor's lenses. "According to the records SHUSH has on this place, it was used to store raw materials for building the various equipment FOWL would need for their usual projects for world larceny, nothing more. They had hundreds more like this one. If it fell into SHUSH's hands, it was no big loss. In fact, all SHUSH did with it was sweep the place for anything unusual, and then closed it off to the public, leaving it that way."

"Perhaps that wasn't such a good idea if Steelbeak's here." Darkwing noted. He patted his sidekick pilot on the back. "Take us down, LP." but as he realized Launchpad was about to bring the plane into a sharp dive added, "But do it nice and easy, and slow, and try _not _to crash."

Launchpad nodded, bringing the Thunderquack in for what could've been a perfect landing, had the sand dune not gotten in the way. The craft jerked to a halt when it hit the dune, burying half of it's nose in the sand.

"Um, whoops." Launchpad said, and chuckled nervously. "I guess this spot wasn't as flat as I thought it was."

"Nice going, Launchpad." Darkwing grumbled, flipping the switch that would open the canopy.

A wave of heat attacked them.

"Whoa, big contrast to the nice air-conditioned interior of the Thunderquack!" Crimson remarked.

"Stay here." Agent Lupis announced, hopping out and pulling his sidearm, being followed by Agent Mia. "We will make sure the area is secure."

"Oh, no you don't!" Darkwing exclaimed. "You're only here for the ride! _I'll _take it from here! _You _stay here in the jet. If we need you, which I highly doubt, we'll call for you."

"That is against SHUSH regulations." Agent Mia remarked. "We are not allowed to permit our honorary escort venture into a potentially dangerous area without securing the area first."

"I don't care about your stupid SHUSH regulations, I only...wait, honorary escort?" Darkwing repeated, attitude suddenly changing.

"Those were Director Hooter's orders." Agent Lupis offered.

"Oh, well, um..." Darkwing said, flattered. "Still, I think you should stay here. What if Steelbeak, or maybe one of his cohorts sees you? Remember, you two aren't supposed to be here."

"He does have a point." Mia said to Lupis.

Agent Lupis frowned. "We should follow regulations." he said. "We'll be careful."

He started to leave again, with Mia following.

"No, wait!" Darkwing said, grabbing Mia's striped tail and pulling. The feline flinched, and turned to glare at Darkwing. "Er, sorry." he apologized. "But I'm serious you two. Just because SHUSH regulations says otherwise, doesn't mean you shouldn't follow my advice."

"Besides, rules are meant to be broken." Crimson added.

"And I _am _the honorary escort, right?" Darkwing said, making a proud face. "Don't I get a say?"

The agents looked at one another for a moment. "We will wait here." Lupis finally announced.

"Yes!" Darkwing said. "Don't worry, I'll have everything under control in no time! We'll be right back! Oh, and listen for any calls of 'shush'. That'll be us needing your help. But don't get your hopes up." he motioned for Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno to follow as the agents climbed back into the jet and waited.

They approached the door quickly, pressing their backs into the nearby wall.

"Techno?" Crimson whispered to her friend and sidekick.

"It's hard to tell in all this desert heat..." Techno mumbled, staring at the structure through his visor. "But my visor's infrared sensor indicates that there's definitely somebody in there."

"Where?" Darkwing asked, pulling out his gas gun, and motioning for Crimson to do the same.

"Again, it's hard to tell." Techno said, making a few adjustments to the visor's sensors. "But there's someone standing in the middle of the room, all by himself."

"Steelbeak." Darkwing said, and proceeded towards the storehouse's entrance.

"I still say this is a trap." Crimson remarked, following. "Probably nothing we can't handle, but it'd still be dangerous."

"Then let's get dangerous." Darkwing said.

* * *

It was dark inside the large and mostly empty storehouse. Most of it was dark with shade, while the storehouse roof was completely pitch black, hiding everything up there from view. But Darkwing was used to the dark, so he did not hesitate to make his entrance.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing exclaimed as a cloud of blue smoke filled one corner of the room and he and Launchpad stepped out of it. "I am the school bell that rings at the end of recess! I am...Darkwing Duck!"

"And I am the heir to the cape!" came Crimson's voice from another corner of the room as she and Techno stepped out of a cloud of red smoke. "I am the full memory card on your G-pod! I am the Crimson Avenger!"

"So, some things never change, do they?" a voice echoed out in reply, and figure stepped out to where he could be seen.

Darkwing and Crimson pointed their gas guns at the person.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Steelbeak said, dressed in his trademark white tuxedo. "I'm unarmed!" he held up his arms to show this. "Is this really the hello I get after not seein' ya all in seven some odd years? Don't I at least get a 'how are ya' or somethin'?"

"No." Darkwing and Crimson replied together.

"Now what do you want?" Darkwing continued.

"Would ya believe it was just t' say hi?" Steelbeak asked.

"No." Crimson said, her aim not wavering.

Techno, who's visor was still on infrared, saw something out of the corner of his eye, and turned to look at it.

"Well, yer right." Steelbeak said, lowering his arms, and pulling them idly behind his back. "Get 'em boys!"

And suddenly the quartet found themselves surrounded by Eggmen, all of them armed.

"Uh oh." Launchpad said.

"Now, here's what I want youse t' do." Steelbeak exclaimed, coming up to stand just outside the circle of Eggmen. "Put yer guns down, and slide 'em t' the nearest Eggman. Once yeh do that, put yer hands on yer head." he demonstrated this comically, grinning his metallic beak.

Giving Steelbeak a glare, Darkwing and Crimson set down their gas guns, and slid them towards the Eggman closest to either of them, where they were retrieved by the respected Eggman, before placing their hands on their head. Launchpad was unarmed, so he just put his hands in the air. Techno did likewise, hoping to fool Steelbeak and his cohorts that he didn't have any weapons either.

"Well, it must be my lucky day." Steelbeak said once this was all done, circling his prisoners as he looked them over. "I managed t' do on my first try what High Command could _never _do. Capture Darkwing. Never thought it'd be so easy, not after all the grief ya caused High Command, heh-heh-heh."

Darkwing did not reply. He just stared at Steelbeak.

"Times really have changed." Steelbeak noted. "Usually you were quite a talkative one, Darkwing. But of course, back then, ya didn't have yer little gang of Darkwing juniors, either." he gestured to Crimson and Techno. "Guess ya decided ya couldn't do it alone, hmm? Needed the help, hmm?"

"Steelbeak, I only have one thing to say to you." Darkwing said.

"And what's that, Dipwing?" Steelbeak asked.

"**SHUSH!**" Darkwing exclaimed as loud as he could.

One of the Eggmen went to whack Darkwing on the top of his head with the butt of his gun, but Crimson quickly pulled Darkwing out of the way. For their credit, the SHUSH agents didn't take long to get here, for moments after this, they barged into the room, weapons drawn.

"Freeze, Steelbeak!" Agent Lupis exclaimed.

"Ah, so we didn't decide t' play fair after all!" Steelbeak said, not looking alarmed at all. "Very well, I won't either! EGGMAN!"

Suddenly, lights flared on above them, lighting the darkened roof for the first time. Everyone looked up. Darkwing and gang all gasped, while the two SHUSH agents widened their eyes. There, hanging above them was a massive zeppelin. As the roof started to open above the zeppelin, a ladder was lowered to hang next to Steelbeak. He quickly climbed up it. Agent Mia fired a shot at him, but missed. She didn't get to fire anymore, as she and Agent Lupis suddenly found themselves surrounded by two more Eggmen.

"Well, guess I must be off, then!" Steelbeak exclaimed, waving from halfway up the ladder. "Have fun with my Eggmen, heh-heh-heh!"

"Wait a minute Steelbeak!" Darkwing exclaimed. "What was this all about, if you were just going to flee?"

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Steelbeak said, reaching into his pocket. "I wanted t' make an announcement! Here, check out my business card!"

He threw a small card down to them. Crimson caught it and studied it.

"F-O-U-L?" she spelled out, eyes widening.

Darkwing took the card from her and read it himself. "The Fiendish Organization for _United _Larceny?" he read aloud, stunned.

"What's in a name?" Steelbeak asked with a grin. "And anyway, couldn't be FOWL, cause High Command trademarked th' name. So, if I was gonna be president of a similar organization, I needed a new name!"

"_President?_" Agent Lupis repeated, also stunned.

"That's right!" Steelbeak confirmed. "Leader of my own larcenist organization now! Yeh'll have t' deal with a new FOUL now! Different name, but same soundin' acronym, heh-heh-heh!" he continued climbing the ladder, entering the zeppelin itself. "Anyway, I must be off! Tak 'er away, Eggman!"

The hatch on the zeppelin closed, and it rose up and out the now fully opened roof, beginning to move forward.

"We can't let him get away!" Crimson exclaimed.

It was at that moment that Techno threw a football shaped pellet over his shoulder, where it landed somewhere outside the surrounding circle of Eggmen. Five seconds later, it exploded. The Eggmen jumped in surprise, and turned to look at the distraction. It was then that everyone reacted. Darkwing and Crimson tackled the Eggmen who had their gas guns, disarming them and then shooting clouds of smoke into the battle, confusing the Eggmen further. Agent Lupis and Agent Mia reacted quickly, taking the confused Eggmen and subduing them. Launchpad even helped attack, by punching and knocking out a few of the FOUL cohorts.

Techno, however, once the smoke started to fill the area, zipped out of the cloud of mixed blue and red smoke to stand under the fleeing zeppelin. He made a mad grab for the ladder Steelbeak had left hanging down, but it had already risen too high for Techno to reach. He sought other options but had none.

Save one.

"Oh, I hate it when I have to do this." Techno muttered, as he pressed a concealed control on his wristband and grabbed the controllers that popped out into his hands, pressing the activation button on them.

His rocket boots flared into life, propelling him forward suddenly. As always when he did this, it took Techno a moment to stabilize his flight, like it always seemed to do in the first few moments of this intense flight. And as a result, he nearly rammed into the zeppelin. He quickly managed to avoid that, by adjusting his flight to fly along the zeppelin's cockpit.

Adjusting his speed so he matched the zeppelin's, he pulled out another little chemical bomb from one of his wristbands, activated it, and threw it at the zeppelin's cockpit. It exploded, breaking one of the glass windows. Techno quickly adjusted his flight to zoom into the cockpit and landed.

A small party of Eggmen stood in the cockpit, and pulled out their weapons when Techno appeared. Ducking the first shots, Techno raised one of his fists, and a stream of a colored gas gushed out of the wristband. All the Eggmen caught in the stream wobbled, then sank to the floor, sound asleep. Soon, all the Eggmen were out like lights.

Techno then turned his attention Steelbeak, who sat in the pilots chair, working the controls, and hadn't even so much turned to look at Techno. He also wore a grin Techno did not like.

"So, one of yeh got through and up here, hmm?" Steelbeak quipped. "Silly me. Shoulda thought about that."

"You're under arrest." Techno said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and approaching the rooster.

But Steelbeak was still unalarmed. He reached for a switch on the control panel before him. "Yeh shoulda thought I'd have a plan B, kid." he said, flipping the switch.

A rocket suddenly flared on the rear of the cockpit. Wings popped out, as well as a tail. A big broom-like device popped up and swept all of the unconscious Eggmen into a little pen. The device also knocked Techno over.

"Way out of you're league, kid." Steelbeak remarked, as Techno picked himself up. he reached for the throttle control. "See ya."

He pushed the throttle up to full. The rocket suddenly roared. The whole floor of the cockpit suddenly lurched forward, leaving the rest behind, tearing away from it. Techno was thrown off his feet, and had yet to start falling before the glass windows shattered, the metal frame holding half of the cockpit in place snapped, and Steelbeak escaped in his hidden escape craft, quickly vanishing from sight.

Techno managed to grab one of the mangled support beams to stop his fall. But then his eyes caught sight of something previously hidden. A bomb. And it was ticking away to zero. Gasping, Techno let go of the frame, starting to fall. Quickly fumbling with the controls to his rocket boots, he flew away as fast as he could.

Seconds later, the zeppelin exploded, the shockwave reaching Techno faster than he would've liked, pushing his forward, instantly losing control of his rockets. He started to tumble, the rockets pushing in odd directions at random as he somehow continued to go downward. He tried to stabilize his flight, and started to level out, just as the ground rushed up to greet him.

He plowed right into a sand dune, stopping his flight instantly, smothering the rockets, and extinguishing them. Coughing, he spat sand and grit from his mouth, looking wearily around him.

"Just once, I'd like to land properly after a flight like that," he muttered wearily, "and not do a Launchpad-style crash."

Still, he seemed to be okay, just too stunned and buried in sand to move. He heard people coming towards him, and saw the others racing up to him, Crimson in the lead.

She knelt down beside him, checking him over. "Oh, Techno, are you okay?" she asked, worried.

Techno coughed again. "Yeah, I'm alright." he said, sitting up. "Once I get all this sand off of me, anyway."

He started to brush the dirt from him, standing up.

"Techno, that was both the stupidest and bravest thing I have ever seen!" Darkwing exclaimed, a mixture of amazed and worried.

"Look who's talking." Crimson grumbled, supported Techno.

"Hey!" Darkwing objected.

"You really think that, Mr. Darkwing?" Techno asked. "Wow."

"Too bad Steelbeak got away, though." Launchpad remarked, joining them.

"I almost hand him, too." Techno added.

"Oh, Techno, this probably doesn't make you feel any better, does it?" Crimson asked, thinking about his state of depression.

"Actually, I feel much better now." Techno said with a lopsided grin. "Weird, huh?"

"But...how?" Crimson asked, not understanding.

"Crimson, think about it." Techno said. "Would I have done all of that seven years ago?"

Crimson suddenly grinned, catching on. "No." she said.

"See?" Techno said. "What better way to prove myself to myself and get back my self-confidence? I think I really _can _do this!"

Darkwing looked blankly at them for a moment. "Did I miss something?" he asked, naturally having no idea what they were talking about.

Techno and Crimson shared bemused looks.

"Yeah dad, ya missed something."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No."

"Just between the two of you, then, hmm? Should I be worried?"

"No."

"Well, I am anyway, Tech."

"Well, look on the bright side guys. Those SHUSH agents have all of those Eggmen in that storehouse captured."

"True, LP. I suppose SHUSH will get a few answers about this new FOUL we have to worry about from them."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

"To be honest, I don't know what SHUSH will do in such a situation. I should ask."

"Please don't."

"Hmm, a FOUL run by Steelbeak."

"Seems odd, doesn't it Techno?"

"Actually, I was thinking it should be pretty easy. I mean, it's Steelbeak we're talking about here."

"I completely agree. Why, with Darkwing Duck on the case, Steelbeak won't last the night. He'll probably surrender tomorrow morning."

"Sure dad."


	13. Mr McDuck

Summary: Darkwing needs Lapunchpad to fly him to a case. Unfortunately, Launchpad is previously engaged to fly a former emplyoer of Launchpad's...

Rating for this adventure: K+

Aurthor's note: As you've probably already figured out, this adventure is a DW/Duck Tales crossover, and was originally intended to just throw Scrooge McDuck into the mix of things and have the characters (particularly DW and Mr. McD) bounce off each other. But as I was writing it, it evolved slightly to include a bit more than that, and takes a stab at covering that unknown time period in which LP leave McD's service to join DW. Anyway, enjoy! (BTW, I have never microwaved a banana, so I don't know what happens, but it can't be anything good, so I don't recommend it. :p)

13.

Mr. McDuck

"DW? A word of advice."

"Yes LP?"

"Never microwave a banana."

"Okay...I don't want to know the story behind that one."

Rolling his eyes, Drake put the feather duster had been using to dust away in the supply closet. "Remember, LP, we're supposed to be cleaning the house, not making a mess." he pointed out.

"Don't worry DW, it was contained to the microwave." Launchpad called from within the kitchen. "See, if it had been Gosalyn who had been doing this, the mess would've been much greater."

"That goes without saying." Drake grumbled.

He headed downstairs and started to walk into the living room when the phone rang. He turned and looked back at it where it sat on a little table next to the stairs. It rang again.

"Need me to get that?" Launchpad called.

"No, I've got it." Drake said, going to pick up the phone. "It's probably just Gosalyn or Christine calling." he pressed the earpiece to his ear. "Hello, Mallard residence, Drake Mallard speaking."

"Ah yes." came the reply. "I don't suppose Launchpad McQuack is there?"

"Hang on one moment, please." Drake said, then covered the phone's mouthpiece. "Launchpad! It's for you!"

"Coming!" Launchpad said, stepping through of the double doors that lead into the kitchen. He took the phone from Drake. "Hello?"

"Launchpad?" the person on the other end spoke.

"That's me." Launchpad said, watching Drake leave the area. "Do I know you?"

"Do you know me? Of course you know me!" the person on the other end said.

"I recognize the voice..." Launchpad admitted. "Okay, I'll bite. Who are you?"

"Launchpad..." the person on said, clearly exasperated. "This is Scrooge McDuck!"

* * *

"_Who?_" Drake repeated, surprised, looking up from what he was doing.

"Scrooge McDuck!" Launchpad repeated happily. "Y'know, the richest duck in the world?"

"I know who he is!" Drake said, annoyed. "But why did he call _here_?"

"I used to work for him, remember?" Launchpad said. "I know I've told you."

"You have." Drake said. "Repeatedly. But, he didn't call here just to chat with you, did he? I mean, this is the first time he's ever _called _just to chat."

"You never know, he could." Launchpad pointed out.

"But he didn't, did he?" Drake persisted.

"Well, no." Launchpad admitted. "See, he's got a problem. His usual pilot is under the weather. And he needs to go a few meetings. One of them is here at St. Canard, the rest out in the countryside where he has a mining facility. He called me hoping he could ask me to do him a favor and fly him to these meetings."

"And you agreed." Drake guessed.

"Well, yeah!" Launchpad said. "He's my friend! And, he's gonna pay me a penny a mile!"

"A penny a mile?" Drake repeated skeptically.

"It's more than I get around here." Launchpad pointed out.

"True." Drake admitted, remembering that all the income any of them got around here was small grants of money from SHUSH to Darkwing, to cover various crime fighting expenses, among other things. Launchpad didn't get a cent of that. "So, in short, you're saying you're going to be out of town tomorrow."

"That's right." Launchpad said with a nod. "So if Darkwing Duck needs a pilot, he'll have to find someone else."

"Don't worry about it, LP, I don't plan on going anywhere tomorrow." Drake said. "Things actually have been keeping close to home. If anything happens, I'm sure I can handle it without you."

"Thanks DW." Launchpad said. "It's been awhile since me and Mr. McD have seen each other. This will be a good chance to talk and remember of times past."

"Fine, fine, fine." Drake said, pulling the cushions off the couch he was cleaning. "So when are you leaving?"

"Early tomorrow morning." Launchpad said. "I'll have to drive to Duckburg and meet Mr. McD at the airport before ten o'clock."

"Sounds good, LP." Drake said, pulling the vacuum he had sitting next to him closer and picking up the hose. "Have fun with that."

He then turned on the vacuum, drowning out any further conversation. Seeing Drake was busy vacuuming the couch now, Launchpad walked off, heading into the kitchen again. Drake continued vacuuming for a moment, then he paused, thinking about what he had been just told.

"Wow, Scrooge McDuck." he muttered.

* * *

"So Launchpad's going to be unavailable tomorrow?" Gosalyn repeated, walking across the school cafeteria, cell phone in one hand and her lunch in the other.

"Yeah, he's going to help out a friend." Drake replied on the other end of the phone.

"Which friend?" Gosalyn asked.

"Well, remember that he used to work for Scrooge McDuck?"

"Keen gear, that's who he's helping?" Gosalyn asked surprised. "Wow, McDuck's the richest duck in the world! I bet LP's gonna be rolling in the dough after tomorrow."

"Don't get your hopes up, he's only getting paid a penny a mile." Drake said.

"A penny a mile?" Gosalyn repeated skeptically as she sat down at an empty table. "Isn't that a little low?"

"Depends on how many miles Launchpad covers." Drake pointed out.

"Dad, if you do that math, it doesn't add up very fast." Gosalyn replied. "Launchpad could cover a full hundred miles, and only end up with a single buck to show for it. That won't even pay for a soda these days."

"Well, we do have to keep in mind that this _is_ Launchpad." Drake said. "You and I know very well how prone he is to crashing."

"That doesn't mean he should only be paid a penny a mile." Gosalyn said. "If McDuck really is his friend, shouldn't he be paid at least the standard amount every pilot gets?"

"Keep in mind that McDuck is a business man, and dang good one." Drake said. "He's going to be looking for the best bargain he can. But you're right, too. And that's not the only thing I found odd. Why Launchpad? McDuck would know as well as we do how much Launchpad crashes his planes. Wouldn't you think he'd turn to other pilots for help, rather than Launchpad?"

"Maybe he did, and they all turned him down." Gosalyn proposed, munching on a french fry.

"Or maybe they really are good friends, and McDuck knew Launchpad would help him."

"Or maybe McDuck knew he'd have to pay the least if he got Launchpad's help."

Drake sighed. "Or maybe we should just not worry about it." he said. "This is Launchpad's concerns, not ours. And he seems to be perfectly happy to do this. He talked about how nice it would be to see McDuck again."

"Which makes me wonder again." Gosalyn said. "We both know that Launchpad used to work for McDuck because he's told us. But if he hadn't, would we ever know? This is the first time McDuck has called LP, right?"

"I seem to recall Launchpad would get the infrequent letter from McDuck." Drake said.

"Maybe six years ago." Gosalyn admitted, sipping her milk. "But shortly after you vanished, those letters stopped coming. I haven't seen one come in since. Have you?"

"No." Drake admitted. "Which means that if they truly are the friends Launchpad claims they are, then why don't they stay in touch better?"

"I have to wonder if there's something LP hasn't told us." Gosalyn pointed out. "I mean, when he worked for McDuck, he may have gotten paid a penny a mile, and may haven't been viewed as a very important employee, but Launchpad clearly enjoyed working for McDuck, and McDuck apparently trusted him enough to call for his help when he needed it. So why did Launchpad leave?"

"Launchpad told me once he was interested in hero work when he came here to St. Canard, and he _is _one of my biggest fans." Drake pointed out. "Furthermore, I know he tried to start his own flying service here in St. Canard before he became my sidekick, but it failed poorly."

"But that doesn't explain why he stopped working for McDuck." Gosalyn reasoned. "Was he fired, or did he quit?"

"Hard to say." Drake admitted. "It seems clear to me, too, that there's something about all of this that we don't know."

"But what?" Gosalyn asked.

* * *

The next day, Launchpad left for Duckburg, taking the Mallard's blue station wagon. As was agreed, he arrived at the McDuck Enterprises Airport by ten o'clock. Scoorge McDuck was there waiting for him, looking virtually unchanged since Launchpad last saw him. he still wore the same blue suit, the same top hat, and the same cane. He even stood next to a small yellow-orange helicopter, the same one Launchpad remembered crashing a few times.

"Hey, Mr. McD!" he exclaimed as he approached his former employer. "Long time, no see, huh?"

"Hello Launchpad." Scrooge greeted. "Nice to see you too. But we need to be going."

Launchpad looked crestfallen. "But Mr McD, it's been nine, ten, years since we've even seen each other last!"

"Don't remind me, Launchpad." Scrooge said, pulling open the helicopter door. "That only tells me that I'm that much older, and I cannot dwell on it for too long."

"But, can't we talk first?" Launchpad asked.

"There will be plenty of time for that during the flight, Launchpad." Scrooge said, climbing into his seat and buckling himself up tight. "We need to be going, now, or we'll be late."

Launchpad sighed, but relented. "Okay Mr. McD." he said, walking around the helicopter to climb into the pilot's seat. As he did the pre-flight check, he glanced at Scrooge out of one eye, who was avoiding eye contact. "You still haven't forgiven me, have you?" he asked.

"To put it bluntly, no." Scrooge replied. He then tapped the helicopter's dashboard with his cane sharply. "But let's not dwell on that. We need to be going."

"Right." Launchpad said, starting the engine, and taking off, flying back for St. Canard.

They were silent for a long moment.

"How are Huey, Dewy, and Louie?" Launchpad asked.

"Just fine." Scrooge replied. "Now that their uncle Donald is out of the navy, they're staying with him again."

"They must be teenagers by now." Launchpad guessed, comparing the triplets age with Gosalyn's.

"Aye." Scrooge replied.

"They still live nearby?"

"Aye, just outside of Duckburg."

"What are they interested in doing these days?"

At this, Scrooge brightened. "Well, Huey and Dewy want to go into business like their Uncle Scrooge." Scrooge said proudly, unable to keep himself from bragging. "Their studies are focusing on that field, and Donald says they both are looking into applying to enter the Duckburg Business Vocational Collage when they graduate from high school next spring."

"What about Louie?" Launchpad asked.

Scrooge bright expression faded. "Apparently, he's interested in other things." the quad-zillionaire grumbled. "Donald says he's fallen behind in some of his studies. Plays video games mostly, these days. Not at all as productive as his brothers."

"That doesn't sound entirely like Louie." Launchpad said, frowning.

"Aye." Scrooge said with a sigh.

Launchpad decided to change the subject. "What about Webby?"

"Young Webbigail?" Scrooge repeated, looking distracted. "Oh, she's fine. Growing up to be a fine young gel."

"Mm." Launchpad said, nodding.

They were silent again. Finally Launchpad couldn't take it anymore.

"Mr. McD, I don't get it." he said. "I've said sorry more times than you have money. And yet you still hold a grudge against me. It wasn't really that bad, now was it?"

"Launchpad, you may be a dolt sometimes, but I could always count on you being there, willing to help me, even if you did make a blunder out of it." Scrooge said. "Not many people have that trait. I considered myself lucky to have you around. But then you failed me, just that one time."

"I said I was sorry!" Launchpad persisted.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" Scrooge roared. "Clearly you had your own life now, and it was getting in the way of my own! I _tried _to talk you out of it, but would you listen? NO! _That's _what is so bad about it, Launchpad!"

And with hmpf, he turned to look away from the pilot.

Launchpad was silent for a moment, staring down at the altitude gage blankly. "I'm sorry." he said.

"Don't bother." Scrooge said. "Like you said, you've said sorry more times than I have money. This one apology is like small change to me now."

Launchpad sighed, and focused on flying the helicopter. All conversation dried up after that.

* * *

Crime fighting was only one of many of Drake's hobbies. Since he couldn't do crime fighting full time anymore, what with being Gosalyn's adopted father and having a household to look after, Drake found various other things to do when he wasn't out was Darkwing Duck.

One such hobby was painting. This surprised many people he knew. They all claimed that he didn't seem to be the painting type. Drake had to admit he thought the same thing about himself until one fine evening years back in which he discovered that Morgana knew how to paint, apparently a necessity for someone using magic like she did, and used it to paint freestyle in her free time.

And she taught Drake. Drake was a slow learner, but he eventually caught on. Morgana was quite pleased with his work, although Drake wasn't very pleased with his skills. So he didn't do it too often, and when he did, he did it in secret. As such, Launchpad and Gosalyn didn't see his work very often.

He had all but given it up by the time Negaduck had kidnaped him and imprisoned him in the Negaverse for seven years, but during those seven years, missing the Posiverse he knew and loved, picked up painting again, just so he could see the world he knew so well again, as well as the people within it that he loved.

He still did even now, home again at last, but for different reasons. After he broke up with Morgana, he found that painting helped soothe his depressed feelings, and recover from the occasional spells of depression he fell into that much faster. He sometimes found it ironic, considering that it was Morgana who taught him to paint in the first place, but reasoned that maybe it was because it reminded him of the good times years back, when they were still together and happy.

Today, having finished a portrait of Christine, he was painting Gosalyn, full figure, as he realized that he didn't have a painting of her as a teenager yet. Already, he wasn't happy with it, for Gosalyn's beak seemed too big, and her red hair too long. But he was satisfied with the clothing, as it perfectly matched the real purple jersey and blue jeans she frequently wore in the real world. And the eyes. The eyes were perfect, reflecting Gosalyn's large and innocent spirit, as well as Gosalyn's more mischievous side.

As he attempted to work on Gosalyn's beak some, he heard a distant buzzing noise. He looked around his cluttered study, thinking he had something in here that he had left on, but upon not finding it, looked out the study's open door and into the living room beyond. There, standing on their coffee table was a small vase of flowers. Daffodils, Gosalyn's favorite (though she would never admit it in public).

But within the vase, a red light was flashing, casting an eerie red glow on the contrasting yellow flowers. Every time the light flashed, the buzzing noise was made. Drake's eyes widened as he realized what was going on. Quickly setting down his paint brush and rushing forward, he tripped on the multitude of stuff that littered the floor, and crashed to the floor.

Picking himself up, he pushed the stuff in his way aside, and rushed into the living room. sitting down on the couch. Quickly pulling out a spare hat and mask, Drake thumbed a concealed control on the table. The vase of flowers stopped buzzing, the red light within stopping it's flashing to glow solidly. The whole vase then moved from the center of the table to the far edge. In it's place, a flatscreen monitor and a keyboard unfolded from the table. The SHUSH logo was quite clearly seen on the monitor. Drake waited a moment to get the hat and mask on fully, before pressing a control on the keyboard.

J. Gander Hooter's face replaced the SHUSH logo on the screen. "Darkwing, old boy, caught you at home, did I?" the director said cheerfully.

Darkwing avoided the question. "What's up, J. Gander?" he asked.

"Just a minor thing, really." Hooter said. "I need you to head out to the countryside, where we believe some criminals are attempting a theft. We believe the Fearsome Five are among them."

"Where is this place?" Darkwing asked, pulling out a notebook and taking notes.

"A few miles from St. Canard, you'll have to go by plane." Hooter said.

Darkwing froze. "I'm afraid I can't, J. Gander." he said. "My pilot is away, on other business, and won't be back until sometime tonight. By far too late for me to do anything."

"That is a problem." Hooter admitted. "But Darkwing, I'm afraid you're the only person I can rely on. All of my agents are preoccupied with other missions and assignments, and cannot be spared. You're all I have left."

"You sure?" Darkwing asked, surprised. "What about the Justice Ducks?"

"The Justice Ducks disbanded over five years ago, Darkwing." Hooter said with a frown.

"Oh, right, right, I keep forgetting." Darkwing muttered, rubbing at his eyes in frustration. "But can't you contact the individual members?"

"I already did contact the next possible candidate, Darkwing." Hooter said. "Gizmoduck."

"Gizmoduck!" Darkwing said, taking that personally. "You contacted _Gizmoduck_ before me?"

"The circumstances are not what you think, Darkwing." Hooter explained. "This is within his jurisdiction. But unfortunately, he is busy guarding Scrooge McDuck's money bin. Apparently, McDuck is away on business at the moment, and wanted the bin to be guarded at all times. A pity too. McDuck will not be happy when he hears of this event."

Darkwing frowned. "What is this place we're talking about, anyway?" he asked slowly.

"Um, let me see, I don't have the official name memorized." Hooter said, glancing at a sheet of paper. "McDuck Enterprises Mineral Mine. Why?"

Darkwing was silent for a moment. "Tell that mine to sit tight for little while, J. Gander." he finally announced. "I'll get something to work."

* * *

Launchpad stood next to the helicopter, waiting patiently. He had been told to stay with the helicopter while Scrooge was at his St. Canard meeting. He didn't want to, knowing he would be bored stiff here, but knew that he would be bored even stiffer at this business meeting. Besides, he knew that Scrooge was still holding a grudge against him, and knew it probably would be better to do what Scrooge said.

Finally, after an hour or so of waiting, Scrooge returned.

"Hey, Mr. McD." Launchpad said, still trying to be friendly. "Meeting go okay?"

"Aye." Scrooge replied. "Fine and dandy. Went a little longer than I expected though. We'll be late for my meeting at the mineral mine."

"Then I'll get you there as fast as possible." Launchpad said, climbing into the pilot's seat.

"Just so long as you don't crash." Scrooge grumbled, climbing into his own seat.

Launchpad was just starting the engine when the Ratcatcher roared up.

"Wait!" Darkwing exclaimed, hopping off quickly. "Hold on for just one moment!"

"Launchpad, go!" Scrooge ordered.

Launchpad hesitated, torn between his options.

"Launchpad, I need you!" Darkwing said, stepping over to Launchpad's door and swinging it open. "Right now!" he started to pull the pilot from the helicopter.

"Oh, no you don't!" Scrooge said, interfering by hooking his cane around Launchpad's arm and pulling back. "I need this buffoon of a pilot here!"

"No, you don't understand..." Darkwing said, trying to explain.

"He's on MY payroll for the next seven hours!" Scrooge interrupted. "And I'm not paying him to go run off at the first chance he gets!"

Darkwing stopped pulling on Launchpad, and put his hands on his hips, glaring at the defiant multizillionaire for a moment. He then walked around the helicopter to Scrooge's side.

"I know this is an inconvenience, but I really do need him." Darkwing said. "It's important, and..."

"No!" Scrooge said, throwing open his door and climbing out of the helicopter to confront Darkwing. "I know you, I've read the papers! You're that masked vigilante, Darkwing Duck! The incompetent crime fighter! The duck who vanished for seven years without cause or reason! You're a walking disaster waiting to happen!"

He brandished the end of his cane violently at Darkwing. Darkwing gulped, and gently pushed it's point out of his face. "Look, Mr. McDuck, I know you don't like this." he said. "But this concerns you, too."

"How?" Scrooge demanded.

"Your mineral mine is being robbed as we speak."

"_Robbed?_" Scrooge looked horrified at the idea.

"I need Launchpad to fly me over there, so I can stop it!" Darkwing continued. "So, I'm going to 'borrow' him long enough to..."

"If it involves my mineral mine and my profit, then by golly, I will handle this myself!" Scrooge said, hopping back into the helicopter. "Besides, I was going there anyway! Now go, Launchpad!"

"I'm coming with you!" Darkwing said, trying to climb in after Scrooge.

"Oh, no you don't!" Scrooge said, pushing him back out. "You're bad luck! You'll only make things worse!"

"But the guys trying the rob your mine..." Darkwing began.

"...will face my wrath!" Scrooge finished, brandishing his cane in the air.

"No, I know them like the back of my hand!" Darkwing said. "I can take them out, no sweat!"

"You are not coming near that mineral mine!" Scrooge said, still trying to push Darkwing out as Darkwing tried to push his way in.

Darkwing planted both of his webbed feet on the helicopter's runners. "Go, LP!" he ordered.

Launchpad nodded, and lifted the helicopter into the air, Darkwing riding on the runner. Soon they were several feet into the air. Scrooge simply ignored this fact, however, and continued to try and push Darkwing off the helicopter.

"Get off!" Scrooge roared.

"But...but...we're several feet into the air!" Darkwing objected.

"I don't care if we were lightyears into the air!" Scrooge said. "You're not coming along!"

"Gee, Mr. McD, can't DW come along?" Launchpad asked innocently.

"NO!" Scrooge yelled, swinging his cane at Darkwing now.

Darkwing ducked it, but in the process lost his footing. Quickly, he pulled out his gas gun and fired off the grappling hook attachment. It hooked onto the bottom of Scrooge's door, stopping Darkwing fall. Darkwing then swung under the helicopter, and latched onto the runner on Launchpad's side. The moment he did this, Scrooge unlatched the grappling hook. Getting a firm grip on the runner, Darkwing recoiled the grappling hook and rope, climbing up onto the runner on Launchpad's side.

The moment he was certain Scrooge wasn't looking, he popped open Launchpad's door and slipped into the helicopter, plopping himself down into the backseat. By this point Scrooge had noticed.

"Hey!" Scrooge exclaimed.

"Too late!" Darkwing said, strapping himself in. "I'm coming along, and you're not stopping me!"

"I'll do a whole lot more than stop you!" Scrooge said, leaping from his seat and charging Darkwing.

Launchpad lunged to stop Scrooge, allowing the helicopter to tilt slightly, throwing Scrooge off-balance momentarily. Darkwing used this opportunity to draw his gas gun, switching it to fire sleeping gas. He pointed it at Scrooge.

"Don't make me use this." Darkwing threatened, as Scrooge slid to a halt just before the tip of the gas gun touched his bill. "Now trust me, you need me in order to do this."

"I hardly believe that." Scrooge said, folding his arms, and turning to look away from Darkwing. "I don't need the help of any incompetent fool."

"You do if you hired Launchpad to fly you around." Darkwing quipped.

"Hey!" Launchpad complained.

"That's different!" Scrooge insisted. "I can't fly myself, and he was the only pilot I knew who could do this little job!"

"But what about before then?" Darkwing asked. "When he worked for you full-time?"

Scrooge hesitated for a moment.

"Exiting St. Canard boundaries, if anybody cares at the moment." Launchpad announced.

"His fees were very low!" Scrooge persisted.

"A penny a mile, if I do recall!" Darkwing said. "No real profit could be gained from that, even if Launchpad flew you around the world."

"Heck, sometimes he didn't even pay me!" Launchpad offered. "Sometimes I just flew him for free!"

"The kids liked him!" Scrooge reasoned, flustered suddenly as he saw his excuses shot down.

Darkwing looked at Launchpad for confirmation of this fact, who shrugged.

"Yeah, they did." the pilot acknowledged. "But they said Mr. McD liked me too."

"Did they now?" Darkwing said, giving Scrooge a sly look. Scrooge stared back in the form of a glare. "Now why would they think that?"

"Oh alright, it's hard to not like Launchpad." Scrooge finally admitted. "He seems so...so..."

"Innocent?" Darkwing offered.

"Aye." Scrooge agreed. "But I fail to see what this questioning is about."

"Then I'll elaborate." Darkwing said, sitting back down, and motioning for Scrooge to do the same. "LP, how far are we from the mine?"

"Oh, about a half-hour, give or take five or ten minutes." Launchpad said.

"Enough time to explain." Darkwing stated with a nod. "Good. Now, Mr. McDuck, the reason I've asked these questions is because something is bothering me. As I'm sure you're already aware, Launchpad usually helps me out as my sidekick..."

"Aye, I've seen the papers." Scrooge grumbled.

"...so I know a fair bit about him already." Darkwing said. "But here's something I don't know. As you've _both _confirmed already, you two were friends. You had been on adventures with one another quite frequently, been through life and death together. And even though you occasionally fought, you were still good friends."

"Well, friend might actually be bit of a strong word, maybe..." Scrooge started to object, but trailed off when he saw Darkwing's unbelieving glare. "Oh, bless me bagpipes, you're a hard fellow to fool." he muttered.

"But that's what I don't get." Darkwing continued. "If you were such close friends, then why did Launchpad leave?"

Scrooge looked guilty, and averted his eyes. Even Launchpad shifted uncomfortably.

"There's something about this I don't know, isn't there?" Darkwing said, grinning as he saw his theory was right.

"It was a long time ago." Launchpad reasoned. "I thought that you didn't need to know, DW."

"And why not?" Darkwing asked.

"Because it was all your fault it happened in the first place!" Scrooge suddenly burst out. "I knew from the start that you were not something to get involved with; you were a source of far too much trouble! But Launchpad, saw differently."

"See, DW, what happened was this." Launchpad said, picking up on the story. "About a year before Mr. McD fired me, Gizmoduck came around. Things changed in Duckburg because of it. It suddenly became the center of a superhero craze. And I guess I kinda got caught up in it."

"Kinda doesn't begin to cover it." Scrooge grumbled. "You were so caught up in it, you wanted a piece of the action."

"I won't deny it, I did want to be a hero too." Launchpad said. "And not just any stunt pilot accidental-hero like I had been before. I wanted to be a superhero like you, DW."

"And that's when the problems arose." Scrooge grumbled.

"Mr. McD didn't think it was wise of me to be a superhero." Launchpad clarified. "Too clumsy, he said."

"So you started this." Darkwing reasoned, glaring at Scrooge.

"Don't deny that it's true." Scrooge pointed out. "He _is _too clumsy to be that kind of hero."

"So I got the bright idea of being a sidekick." Launchpad added. "At first, I tried to be Gizmoduck's sidekick, but Giz and I eventually agreed he didn't need it, not with the Gizmosuit."

"And then you had to make front page news." Scrooge said, pointing an accusing finger at Darkwing.

"Actually, the article was on page three of the _Duckburg Herald_." Launchpad corrected. "And it was Mr. McD who found it, and read it aloud at the breakfast table. Thought it was funny."

"Funny?" Darkwing repeated indignantly.

"You were a masked clown with a cape, trying to stop crime, but as the article clearly stated, you only made things worse!" Scrooge declared.

"It was the incident at the candy factory, DW." Launchpad explained.

Darkwing blushed at the memory of the disastrous event.

"But it was good news for me!" Launchpad continued. "I could see you had the potential, DW, you just needed help! And who was willing to give the help?"

"You." Darkwing replied, thinking he saw where this was going.

"Everyone I discussed it with loved the idea!" Launchpad went on. "Except for..."

"Me!" Scrooge finished. "And I don't regret what I did! I told him to forget the idea, that this masked vigilant wasn't worth the time and effort, and that he was better off keeping the job he had!"

"I tried to reason with you, Mr. McD, set up some kind of arrangement that would keep all of us happy, but you downright refused." Launchpad pointed out. "You even said that by the time we had anything worked out anyway, DW would've given up by then! You thought he wouldn't last the week!"

"And now look where he is!" Scrooge said, gesturing to Darkwing.

"Anything but gone due to giving up." Darkwing growled icily.

"He's even saved the world once or twice!" Launchpad added. "But you still refused!"

"I tried to make it up to you, Launchpad!" Scrooge insisted. "I provided the funding for you to start your own flight service! Anything to distract you from this stupid Darkwing!"

"Stupid?" Darkwing repeated.

"But that _wasn't _what I wanted, Mr. McD!" Launchpad pressed.

"And I saw that!" Scrooge continued. "I saw the scrapbook, the posters, the plans, bless me kilt, I even saw that plane you built, the Thunderquack! You were refusing to follow my advice, and I knew it was only going to get you nothing! That's why we had that argument!"

"Argument?" Darkwing interrupted. "Whoa, whoa, wait. What argument?"

"The argument we had about a week before we met, DW." Launchpad answered, looking none too happy of the memory. "I said a lot of things I regretted that night."

"We both did." Scrooge admitted. "But it didn't change anything. All it did was delay the storm sitting on our doorsteps. We were so upset about that argument, that we were willing to play along with each others wishes for the time being."

"A kind of stalemate, huh?" Darkwing guessed.

Scrooge nodded. "But it was Launchpad who ended it." he said.

"He dropped into my hanger bay needing my help!" Launchpad said in his defense, gesturing to Darkwing. "Literally! I had to help him!"

"And as a result, you never showed up to fly me to that meeting that not only cost me hundreds, but also forced me to cancel a trip me and the laddies were going to take!" Scrooge exclaimed. "So the morning I saw the headline of your heroics, that was the final straw!"

"Hence why I showed up in your hospital room the day after the battle with Taurus Bulba, DW." Launchpad explained.

Darkwing was bewildered. "You _fired _him because he missed flying you to a stupid meeting?" he asked, awestruck at Scrooge's selfishness.

"He didn't just fire me, he essentially cut off all my funds and kicked me out into the street." Launchpad said. "You were the only person I had left to turn to, DW."

"But why didn't you tell me?" Darkwing asked.

"Mr. McD said it was all your fault it even happened in the first place." Launchpad said with a shrug. "I didn't want you to feel responsible for forcing me out into the street?"

"Me feel responsible?" Darkwing repeated, "if anybody should feel responsible, it should be _you _Mr. McDuck!" he pointed an accusing finger at Scrooge.

"I still stand by my choice!" Scrooge persisted. "It may have cost me my pilot, my friend, his trust, your trust, soil my good name, disappoint my nephews, cost me good money to find a replacement, reduced the excitement in my life...um...er..." he suddenly ran out of steam in his persistent argument. "Point is that I didn't intend for all o this to happen." Scrooge said, much calmer now. "I still say that you are an incompetent crime fighter, and that Launchpad is wasting his life in helping you."

"Oh really?" Darkwing asked. "So what's your definition of an incompetent crime fighter? I'll admit I'm not perfect, probably more than I'm _willing _to admit, but I've hung on, and done things to help save the day you can't even _begin _to imagine! Many people are starting to see that they've misjudged me, and most of them thought the same about me as you do! Clearly, you haven't gotten with the program! And then there's Launchpad! He may have had nothing when you left him, but he certainly doesn't anymore! He has family and friends, and a job doing what he loves best!" he paused, and glared at Scrooge for a moment. "And clearly, everything _we've _gained from making the choices we did is equal to everything you _lost _because of that choice, Mr. McDuck."

Scrooge was silent for a long moment.

"Fifteen minutes until we arrive at the mine." Launchpad announced, glancing at the helicopter's controls.

Scrooge sighed. "You bring up many good points, lad." Scrooge finally admitted. "And maybe I do feel sorry for what I did for Launchpad. But I still think I was doing it for his best interests, and it would take a great deal to convince me otherwise."

"And that," Darkwing said, pulling out his gas gun and loading it, "I believe I can do."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, the helicopter hovered over the mineral mine. The three occupants inside peered down at the mine curiously. Outside the facility that housed the mine's entrance, the workers and employees were all being gathered up and sat down on the ground, surrounded by armed robbers. Scrooge recognized the robbers instantly.

"The Beagle Boys?" he exclaimed, surprised. "Why do they want the mineral mine? They aren't mining anything valuable those low time crooks would want, like diamonds! Just metals like aluminum and various other industrial minerals! And it's all worthless until it's been smelted at a facility nowhere near this mine! Why would they want to rob it?"

"Ah, because they have an employer." Darkwing said, looking down and seeing someone he recognized. "Rowe's down there. Hooter was right, the Fearsome Five _do _seem to be involved in this. I suppose Negaduck could make use of a mineral mine, using those minerals to build his weapons and tools for his plans of world domination, and, of course, my death."

Scrooge caught on. "I'll bet you my money bin that this Fearsome Five group hired the Beagle Boys to aid in the robbery." he reasoned.

"That's what I'm thinking, yes." Darkwing said. "And the fact that it's only Rowe that's down there indicates that this is probably just one of several stops for Negaduck. In fact, Rowe's probably only down there to supervise." He pulled out some binoculars and scanned the area. "Doesn't seem they started collecting the goods yet, though. They're just finishing gathering up the employees."

"Then we still have time." Scrooge said, getting an idea. "Launchpad, land us on the rear landing pad. We can then sneak around, and..."

"No good." Darkwing said, getting a better idea and pulling out his gas gun. "The Beagles are armed, and are guarding the roof. They've seen us too, probably just waiting for us to come within their shooting range. Or just awaiting orders from Rowe."

Scrooge thought for one wild moment. "Launchpad, how quickly can you get us down there?" he asked.

"Depends." Launchpad admitted. "Is this with crashing the helicopter, or without?"

"I don't care which, just so long you can get me down there before the Beagles open fire." Scrooge said.

"Well, I can try..." Launchpad said, but was cut off before he could even touch the controls.

The helicopter rocked suddenly as the Beagles down below opened fire at the helicopter, some of the bullets striking the craft, but causing minor damage.

"Curse me kilts, what was that about?" Scrooge asked.

"Rowe's probably told them to give a warning shot before actually trying to shoot us down." Darkwing said, going for the door on the helicopter.

"Well, I daresay they got the message across." Scrooge admitted. "But that doesn't mean...wait, where are you going?"

But Darkwing didn't reply as he flung the door open and leapt out of the helicopter, latching a rope and grappling hook to the door's edge as he went. Then, sliding down the rope, he fired his gas gun in a wide circle at the Beagle Boys. They tried to flee the assault, but Darkwing's shots didn't need to hit right on, only near, for every canister fired contained a heavy dose of sleeping gas.

By the time Darkwing reached the end of the rope, the Beagle Boys had all been rendered unconscious. The only criminal left awake was Rowe, who had been out of range. He stuck around long enough to see who had attacked, then upon seeing that it was Darkwing and that he was the only one left, he ran for it, heading for a nearby river.

Darkwing saw this, and let go of the rope, grabbing the edges of his cape and pulling it taunt to form a kind of parachute, and floated the rest of the way down to the ground. He landed some feet behind Rowe as the otter ran, and quickly gave pursuit. Darkwing nearly had him until Rowe reached the river and, without hesitation, dove into the water. Darkwing fired his gas gun into the water, but it was already too late. The elusive otter had already swum away, and gone from sight.

But back in the helicopter, Scrooge's beak unhinged. "He did that faster than it takes me to file my tax returns!" the multizillionaire said, awestruck. "And he nearly caught them all, too!"

"That's DW for you, Mr. McD." Launchpad said, proudly. "Once he sees what he needs to do, he doesn't hesitate."

Scrooge shook his head. "He wasn't joking when he said he could convince me otherwise." he said. "Launchpad, I must admit I've been blind about that fellow. I shouldn't have gone making opinions about him until I knew him better. And now, I regret to say I made a great mistake because of it. One that could've been costly if I hadn't realized it." he shook his head again. "Launchpad, I'm sorry, lad. I've only been thinking of myself again. And, as always, it's made a real mess. I shouldn't have ever fired you like that, or argued with you like that, either. I don't know what I can do to make it up to you."

"Aw, shucks, Mr. McD, I'd forgiven you years ago." Launchpad said. "You actually registering it was just the seal for the contract, so to speak."

"Please, Launchpad, I insist." Scrooge persisted. "I nearly ruined your life over nothing. I want to repay you somehow."

"All I think you should do, Mr. McD is to apologize to DW, and recognize him as the hero he truly is." Launchpad said, seeing Darkwing signal everything was clear, and bringing the helicopter in for a landing.

"Then that is exactly what I'll do." Scrooge vowed.

* * *

Later that day, Drake returned to his home, finding Gosalyn already home from school, and watching TV.

"_There _you are, Dad." the teenager grumbled. "Where the heck have you been?"

"Been busy." Drake replied, getting up from the armchair he had just arrived in. "Darkwing had a case today."

"Oh?" Gosalyn said, instantly apologetic and interested. "Must have been quite a case, because you said you weren't going anywhere with Launchpad being away."

"It was, urgent too, SHUSH priority." Drake explained, walking across the living room. "I had to borrow LP to get to the location. Caught all of the Beagle Boys, and foiled another scheme from the Fearsome Five, nearly catching Rowe in the process."

"Sounds like an eventful day." Gosalyn remarked. "But I bet McDuck wasn't too thrilled over it."

"He wasn't." Drake admitted, heading for the door to his study. "But made great progress there, too. Found out the rest of the story between him and Launchpad, got them to work it out, become friends again, showed off what Darkwing can do, and impressed Mr. McDuck so much so, that Darkwing has signed on to McDuck Enterprises to be substitute crime fighter and superhero whenever Gizmoduck is unavailable or requires help."

"No wonder you're so happy, then!" Gosalyn exclaimed, disappointed she missed all of this because of school. "That must have taken quite awhile to sort out, no wonder you're so late!"

"Yes, lots and lots of paperwork." Drake admitted, unlocking his study and stepping inside. "But I've finished all of that now."

"So now what?" Gosalyn asked.

"Now, I'm going to relax in my study." Drake said, closing the door behind him as he entered. "I have a painting to finish."


	14. The Date

Summary: Drake and Christine are on a date. But unbewknowest to them, they are being watched...

Rating: K

Author's Note: Real quick adventure that sets the scene for a few things by it's end. Since it's so short, I felt it would be okay to write two chpts (hence why this chpt is getting posted along with #13) this week, and started writing earlier than usual. I ended up finishing eariler than planned to, and had time to start chpt. 15, which will be coming up shortly after these two, just so you know. And as always, enjoy!

14.

The Date

"Your name, sir?"

"Drake Mallard. I called ahead and reserved a table for two?"

"Ah yes, so you did, a week ago. One moment please."

Christine was impressed. "Wow Drake, you reserved a table for us a whole week ago?" she asked.

"Of course." Drake said, as a waiter arrived and took them to their table. "I like to have things taken care of well in advance. Because, in my line of work, if I don't do it then, most likely I'll never get around to it."

"But you didn't ask if I was available for a date until three days ago." Christine pointed out as they arrived at the table in question.

"Like I said, I'm very busy in my line of work." Drake said with a grin, motioning for Christine to sit first, before sitting in the seat on the opposite side of the table. The waiter returned and delivered a menu for them both.

Christine glanced over it. "Wow, some of things seem exquisite." she remarked, looking at all the exotic dishes the restaurant had available to pick from. "And expensive." she added, seeing their prices. "Drake, are you sure you want to pay for all of this? You know I'm more than willing to spilt the bill with you."

"Of course I'm sure!" Drake said. "It's against dating protocol to split the bill! Besides, Gosalyn was adamant that I stop splitting the bill anyway. Says it's impersonal."

"Of course she did." Christine said with a grin.

"Don't worry, though, it was just pay day, I have enough to cover this meal." Drake assured her. "So go ahead and pick whatever you wish."

Christine grinned, and skimmed through the menu again. "So, how's life, Drake?"

"For me, okay." Drake said. "Gosalyn's doing well in school. Launchpad's is on good terms with a friend of his again. Me, I'm still alive, and that's good enough."

"It would, in your line of work." Christine said, knowing full well what Drake did for a life. "Speaking of which, what's Darkwing up to these days?"

"There's an entirely different situation." Drake admitted. "Steelbeak's still on the loose, heading this virtually unknown new organization of his, FOUL, and the Fearsome Five are up to something, although exactly what, Darkwing doesn't know. He just stopped them from trying to rob a mineral mine belonging to McDuck Enterprises, and has helped taken action to prevent it from happening with other facilities, but that doesn't explain what they're up to."

Christine nodded, grim faced. "Sounds like a lot to worry about, I'm surprised you took time off from all of that for this date." she blinked and then sighed. "I mean I'm surprised Darkwing took the time off...I mean, oh shoot."

"Don't worry Christine, you'll get the hang of it." Drake said. "It's not easy referring to that stuff in the third person. I know from experience."

"I know, but it just feels funky, that's all." Christine admitted. "I'm just not used to the idea of my boyfriend having so many secrets."

Drake was silent for a moment. "If you think you can't keep it up..." he began.

"No, you're right, I'll get it down eventually." Christine insisted. She gave drake a grin. "The benefits are definitely worth it."

Drake blushed, grinning sheepishly. The waiter returned.

"Ready for me to take your orders?" he asked.

"Christine?" Drake asked inquisitively.

"Yes, I'm ready." Christine said, sliding her finger down the list of foods. "I'll try this mushroom noodle bowl, with a Caesar Salad on the side."

The waiter nodded, jotting this down on his notepad.

"And I'll have the Black Forest Ham with the mashed potatoes and gravy." Drake said, taking Christine's menu and handing it to the waiter, along with his.

"Very good mate...I mean sir." the waiter said quickly, taking the menus. "I'll be right back with your orders."

And then he walked off. Drake frowned, realizing for the first time there seemed to be something familiar with that waiter...

* * *

The alleged waiter, an otter, delivered the orders as he was supposed to, then went and tracked down another waiter, a rat, delivering glasses of water to a small family. He saw the first waiter trying to get his attention, and quickly finished his task and stepped over.

"Well?" Megavolt whispered to him in his waiter disguise. "You see him?"

"No, mate." Rowe admitted from within his own waiter disguise. "I came to see if you had seen him."

"Nope, no sign of Darkwing yet." Megavolt admitted. "I dunno, I think the boss got the dates wrong, or at least the wrong place, cause he hasn't shown up as planned."

"I was thinking the same thing, but we better stick to it for now, matey." Rowe reasoned. "He could be running late, and Negs wouldn't be happy if we called it quits without his say so."

"Good point." Megavolt agreed. "By the way, I forget, where are the others hiding?"

"Well, Bushroot's over there, in those bushes." Rowe said, pointing. "Liki's in that water cooler, and Quackerjack's over there at table nine, eating breadsticks."

Meagvolt looked, and saw the top of Bushroot's pedal-like hair sticking up from over a line of bushes lining one side of the restaurant, something swirling in the transparent water cooler that had to be The Liquidator, and the most easily seen out of all of them, Quackerjack, who sat alone at a table dressed in a plain grey suit with a matching business hat sitting on top of his clearly visible jester's hat.

Meagvolt frowned as he watched Quackerjack downing breadsticks. "He's lucky, getting to sit and eat like that, while the rest of us have to work." he grumbled.

"I dunno mate, I think he might blow the whole operation." Rowe said warily. "Darkwing could take one look at him and know we're tryin' to spy on him."

"Maybe if we're lucky, you or me will be one of the waiters who serve Darkwing and his date." Megavolt reasoned. "Then we can simply set them down at a table away from Quackerjack."

"Aye, good thinking." Rowe said. "Then I could conveniently come along with a cart or something, and further block their view."

"And I could always arrange for a power blackout." Megavolt said, making electricity spark quickly between his finger tips.

"I dunno if Negaduck will like that, Megs." Rowe said. "Could just make things worse."

"But I get ornery if I don't get to zap something every now and then." Megavolt complained. "Maybe if I were to talk with Negaduck...say, where is Negs?"

"Dunno, he didn't tell me." Rowe admitted. "Probably somewhere right in plain sight, and we don't even know it."

They looked around nervously, suddenly feeling like they were being watched.

"Look, I've got and go deliver some couple's meal." Rowe said suddenly, turning to go. "Give me a shout if you see him. But discreetly."

"Right." Megavolt said, nodding. "I think."

* * *

"So enough about me." Drake said, as he and Christine chatted as they awaited their dinner. "What's up in the medical world?"

"Oh, nothing much." Christine admitted. "I agreed to take part of a medical program for treating orphans from the orphanage."

"Gos would like that." Drake said. "She never liked it too much at the orphanage, saying that while she had lots of friends, there were several things it could use to make it better."

"And I bet medical treatment is one of them." Christine said.

"Yes, she said that when she was there, most injuries and illnesses were treated there, and never had a doctor so much as visit, just to avoid the fees that would involve." Drake said.

"Yes, I'm glad the mayor thought to start MTO, the medical treatment of orphans." Christine said, sipping her drink of water. "Now the orphanage can enjoy medical attention without any expenses. Now if only more doctors would sign up for it."

"It's a good idea, but I still don't like the mayor himself." Drake said. "He wouldn't let Darkwing give a speech at the St. Canard Town Square Celebration last month, you know."

Christine rolled her eyes. "Oh Drake, like that's really the end of the world." she muttered seriously, but was stifling a grin.

"I'm serious though." Drake said. "I swear, half the time he thinks Darkwing doesn't even exist. I'm not sure he even realizes how many times Darkwing saved St. Canard from total takeover during his term in office."

"He's not a crime fighter." Christine said. "He's focusing his attention not so much on the problems of St. Canard has now, but it's problems in the long term. He's trying to help build a better tomorrow, today." Drake frowned, so Christine added, "But if it makes you feel any better, I didn't vote for him, either."

Drake forced a grin, and sipped his drink.

"I like your suit, by the way." Christine said, changing the subject. "Darkwing's colors, correct?"

"Yes, it is." Drake admitted, looking down at his purple suit, white shirt, and pink tie. "Gosalyn said she hated the brown suit."

"Normally I'd say something like you trust Gosalyn's word too much, but I'm inclined to agree." Christine said. "The brown suit wasn't exactly appealing to the eyes. Good thing the duck within it was."

Drake grinned broadly. "But, going off subject here, I don't rely on Gosalyn's opinion that much." he said.

"Yes you do, Drake, but that's not a bad thing." Christine said. "You love Gosalyn, and you trust her. If she says she doesn't like something, then you trust that she's telling the truth. Besides, you two are a bit alike. It's amazing you aren't related."

"Speaking of Gosalyn, she liked the little outing you two went on." Drake went on.

"I thought she did." Christine said. "I was confident there was more female in her than she was willing to show ever since I first met her. We got along with each other just fine."

"And here's hoping things will continue going fine." Drake said, raising his glass into a toast.

Christine did likewise, clinking the crystal glasses together before they sipped their drinks again. By this point, the waiter had arrived again.

"Your food, sir and madame." he said politely, placing each dish down in front of them.

"Oh, it looks delicious." Christine said, eyeing her plate hungrily.

But Drake was eyeing the waiter as he walked off, confident that there wasn't something right about all of this.

What he didn't realize was that he was being eyed himself...

* * *

Several tables away sat another duck, all by himself, dressed in a red suit, with black shirt, and a yellow tie. He was watching drake closely from where he sat, rubbing his bill in thought. At first, no one would think anything too odd about this, until one noticed that this duck looked remarkably like Drake.

Negaduck wore a neutral face, but was smiling inwardly. About a week ago, he had gotten word that a reservation call had been made for this restaurant, and that the call originated from Darkwing Tower. While his informant was unable to listen to the actual call, or give Negaduck a recording of it, it was clear that it was Darkwing who made the call. His informant was extremely interested in this information, but Negaduck decided the informant's health was trivial, and made sure the informant didn't go spreading the info.

Normally, Negaduck didn't care too much about Darkwing's personal life, but found this information particularly interesting. Last he knew, Darkwing's personal life was on pause, due to his seven year stay in the Negaverse, and as such, he hadn't bothered to keep tabs on it. This is the first indication he's gotten though that Darkwing was seeing someone again.

So he decided to lie in wait and find out.

He had been expecting Darkwing and Morgana to walk in through the door, unaware the two had gone their separate ways. So he was surprised to find that it was instead Drake Mallard who walked through the door, accompanied by a woman he had never seen before in either universe. And as Darkwing wasn't in costume, Negaduck was the only one of his gang who knew he was here.

As such, plans had to be changed. Fortunately, Negaduck already knew what he was going to do...

* * *

"This is really, really, good." Christine said again, greatly enjoying her noodle bowl. "I, personally, love mushrooms."

"And I don't." Drake said, enjoying his Black Forest Ham. "But I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

"I am." Christine said, taking another bite, closing her eyes as she savored the flavor. "So, are we doing anything else tonight?"

"Well, I was thinking of going to a movie, but I don't know what movie you'd like to see." Drake said.

"I hear that the _Pelican's Island_ movie is good." Christine remarked.

"Yeah, Launchpad and Gosalyn have already seen it, so I know all about it." Drake said. "And I never particularly cared for the show, and I don't imagine that'll change for the movie."

"Well, that's okay, I didn't watch the show much either." Christine said. "Too bad the _Jumpgate: Box of Verity _movie only came out on DVD and video, otherwise I'd suggest that."

"You've watched _Jumpgate _too?" Drake asked, bewildered. "Sheesh, maybe I will have to watch that show after all. Gosalyn has all ten seasons on DVD."

"Lucky girl, I wish I did." Christine said. "It's a good show."

"So I hear." Drake said. "Gosalyn and Launchpad are fanatics over the show, so they tell me how good it is fairly frequently. I'm not sure about it's sister show, _Jumpgate: Avalon_, though. Seems repetitious to me."

"That probably because you've only seen bits of it." Christine said. "If you watch it all the way through, it fits together better."

"I still don't know, though." Drake said. "I might watch that new movie that's coming out next month, _Jumpgate: Continuum_, though."

"Yes, it does look to be very good, better than _Box of Verity_, definitely." Christine agreed. "But we're getting off subject. Now, what movie would we like to see?"

"May I suggest _The Black Shadow_?" the waiter said returning. "It's a very good movie."

"We'll take that into consideration." Drake said, squinting his eyes at the waiter, trying to find out who he reminded him of.

"Anything I can get you?" the waiter went on to ask.

"No, not that I can think of." Christine said. "How about you, Drake?"

"No, I'm think I'm good." Drake said, frowning as he realized something. He turned to the waiter and purposely said. "That is unless you have something to add, mate."

"I ain't your...I mean, no sir." the waiter stuttered, and then hurriedly walked off.

Christine frowned. "That was a bit funky." she remarked. "Normally otters aren't so nervous."

"Yes, indeed." Drake said, rubbing his chin in careful thought. He picked up his drink and sipped it.

He noticed in the liquid's reflection someone coming to stand at the table.

"Enjoying yourself, Drake?" the newcomer asked.

"Negaduck." Drake said, setting down the drink, but not looking up to face his adversary. "I was wondering when you'd show up."

"I take it, then, that you realized you were just speaking with Rowe, then." Negaduck stated.

"Took me a moment, but yes, I have." Drake said, finally turning to look at his double. "But I take it he didn't realize who _he _was talking to."

"And it will remain that way if you cooperate." Negaduck said.

Christine, who had been nervously watching the exchange, suddenly figured out what this was about. "You're Negaduck." she stated unnecessarily. "Public enemy number one."

"Yes I am." Negaduck said, looking flattered, but was clearly seen as fake. "Who's you're girlfriend, Drake?"

"No one of consequence." Drake replied, then changed the subject. "You must be here for a reason, Negaduck, to be out of costume and so polite, and keeping certain secrets secret."

"Oh, way to go, Sherlock." Negaduck said, adding extra emphasis to every syllable, pulling out a little remote and pressing it's sole button.

Across the restaurant, unaware of what was happening, a device in Megavolt's pocket beeped. Glancing at it, he went to carry out the unspoken order.

"I take it can't be anything good." Christine remarked.

"On the contrary, this little conversation will be one peaceful terms." Negaduck assured them. "No tricks."

It was then that the fire alarm went off, and the occupants in the building, save those three, quickly headed out of the building. Drake gave Negaduck an inquisitive look.

"Just insuring we have some privacy." Negaduck said, replacing the remote to his pocket as the majority of the restaurant filed out. "Now keep an eye out for certain people, Drake."

Drake did, and first saw Rowe, easily seen know that he knew who he was. He quickly found Megavolt, though, dressed in a waiter's outfit as well, who was followed by Quackerjack in a tacky suit. He just barely saw Bushroot stealthily slip out a window, and while he didn't actually see Liki, he heard a pipe somewhere creak, and presumed that was him making his escape.

"Note that none of them looked for us, meaning that our secret identities are safe for the moment." Negaduck said once the restaurant was empty. "But the Fearsome Five will be waiting nearby, so try anything funny, and I'll have them come fight, regardless of the consequences."

"So what's this about?" Drake asked.

"All I wish to do at the moment is present a warning." Negaduck said. "I knew you were coming here tonight, Drake, but I thought it would be in costume, with your apparently former love, Morgana. Now I can see that is not the case, and rest assured, I will find out why."

"I'm sure you will." Drake grumbled.

"But, you have done one thing for me." Negaduck said, turning to Christine. "You've revealed to me that there's yet another person in your life."

Christine glared at Negaduck, already seeing where Negaduck was going. "You wouldn't." she said.

"If Darkwing ever ticks me off bad enough I will." Negaduck vowed. "And don't think the mere fact that I don't know your name will stop me from getting at you, either. Darkwing should know very well that it would be very easy to find out."

Drake gulped, and did not deny it.

"So your saying, play by your rules, or..." Christine began.

"Or else." Negaduck finished, with a evil grin. "Now, I bid you two a good night."

And with that, he left. Drake and Christine glanced at one another, then followed out into the crowded street outside in the noisy hubbub of confused patrons. Drake searched valiantly for any sign of the Fearsome Five, but found none. They had vanished.

"Well, it's safe to say we've been given a warning." Christine said.

"Yes it is." Drake admitted, a determined look on his face. "But I'll see to it that Negs never gets to carry it out..."


	15. The Negasphere Part I

Summary: With the help of some magic, Negaduck is going to obtain power...power that even he might not be able to control...

Rating for this Adventure: T

Author's Note: Here's chpt. 15, as promised. It went on for longer than anticipated, so I split it into a two-parter. The story ends in chpt.16. Couple of scenes I like in this, such as the beginning scene, and a scene Gosalyn and Christine have to themselves. :)

15.

The Negasphere Part I

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_I've been really busy settling back in, and fighting supervillains, so I thought it was time to treat myself to some quality time with one of my favorite persons on this planet."_

"_Me or Launchpad?"_

"_Close, but not quite. I'm going to go see Morgana again."_

_--_

"_You didn't tell him?"_

"_Tell me what?"_

"_Well, no! I mean, how could I? I didn't really know how, and besides, was it really something I should tell him?"_

"_Tell me what?"_

"_Well, no, I suppose not. But still...him coming to me like this will only make it worse and..."_

"_Will somebody please tell me what in the world it is that I don't know?"_

"_I'm married, Dark."_

_--_

"_I am sick and tired of your attitude! I know, you've lost Morgana, and your heart is broken, and you're trying to gather the pieces, perhaps unsuccessfully! But the rest of the world isn't going to stop, just so you can sit around and mope!"_

_--_

"_Launchpad talked some sense into me, and I saw you were right. Just because I was grieving didn't mean I had to bring everyone else down with it."_

_--_

"_Thank you, Darkwing, for everything you did for me."_

"_And the same from me to you. Until we meet again, then. Goodbye, Morgana."_

"_Goodbye, Dark."_

_--_

"_Sorry I'm late. It took me forever to find the restroom in this place."_

"_Uh-huh."_

"_Anyway, I'm Christine. Christine Merriweather."_

_--_

"_But of course, now that we've finalized the relationship, you need to tell me any other secrets you've got."_

"_And so I will."_

_--_

"_So what's this about?"_

"_All I wish to do at the moment is present a warning. I knew you were coming here tonight, Drake, but I thought it would be in costume, with your apparently former love, Morgana. Now I can see that is not the case, and rest assured, I will find out why."_

* * *

In the center of St. Canard was Canard Tower. And in the very top most floor of Canard Tower was Honker and Launchpad. Sitting in a fairly luxurious, but messy, penthouse, they had an arm each on a coffee table and were arm wrestling viciously.

"C'mon, little villain, my grandmother has stronger arms than you." Launchpad quipped, not even breaking a sweat as Honker strained to move Launchpad's unmovable arm.

"I could _break _your arm if I wanted to!" Honker roared angrily.

"Not with that arm, you couldn't." Launchpad said, slowly starting to push Honker's arm downward.

"Maybe...not...with..._one_...arm..." Honker gasped, and violently pulled out is other arm, and using both arms, whipped Launchpad's arm down onto the table with a smack.

Launchpad gasped from the pain the sudden move inflicted upon him, but was glaring at Honker. "You cheated!" he exclaimed.

"We never set any rules down in this game." Honker pointed out with a taunting smile.

"Why you little..." Launchpad yelled, grabbing an axe that was conveniently nearby and lunged at Honker.

Honker quickly dodged, and made a face at Launchpad. "Nah-nah, you can't catch me!" he said as he again dodged another lunge from Launchpad. "Did your grandmother move faster than that, too? Hahahaha!"

This time, however, Honker waited a second too long, and enabled Launchpad to grab him by the neck. Lifting Honker bodily from the ground, he held Honker aloft as he raised the axe in the other hand preparing for the final kill.

Then a chime rang out as the elevator, the main way in and out of the penthouse, arrived, and someone stepped out.

"Alright boys, the fun and games and over." said Gosalyn, dressed in a red jersey with a yellow one on it and black jeans.

Honker and Launchpad instantly froze for a moment, before Launchpad suddenly let Honker go, allowing him to fall to the floor with a thump.

"Gos?" Launchpad said, surprised, quickly hiding the axe.

"You're back?" Honker added, also surprised.

"Of course I'm back, doofus." Gosalyn remarked, stepping past Honker to approach Launchpad. "Now, LP, how many times have I told you that you're not allowed to kill my second in command? They're awfully hard to replace."

"Eh, I ain't sorry." Launchpad said, looking past Gosalyn to give Honker a glare. "He was asking for it."

"You'll be asking for it if you don't _obey_!" Gosalyn hissed, grabbing a P90, also conveniently laying nearby and armed, and pointed it at Launchpad with one hand. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly." Launchpad said, clearly afraid of Gosalyn and her weapon and backing down.

Gosalyn grinned and lowered the P90. "Good." she said, and flopped down into a nearby beanbag chair. "Ah, it's good to be home." she said with a crooked grin. "Honk, get me something to eat."

Honker nodded, and ran off to get it.

"Launchpad, stay put." Gosalyn ordered next. "You have a visitor."

The elevator dinged again. The elevator doors opened once again, and another duck stepped out, this one wearing a red sweater with yellow pinstripes, and a black shirt. He looked like Drake Mallard.

But here he was known by a different name.

"Lord Negaduck!" Launchpad exclaimed, surprised.

Honker, who had been returning with a platter of food, gasped, and dropped it. Gosalyn simply grinned yet again.

Negaduck inhaled sharply. "Ah, it's good to be back in the negatron rich Negaverse." he remarked. He went and sat down on a nearby couch. "Report!"

"Everything's fine and evil here, your lordship." NegaLaunchpad replied nervously, but respectively. "Y'know, death and murder, theft and betrayal, pollution and corruption."

"How about our little quest for NegaRowe?" NegaGosalyn asked. "If the Friendly Four find him before we do..."

"They haven't found him." NegaHonker assured her. "Although neither have we."

"Ooh, I personally hate failure." Negaduck remarked.

NegaGosalyn nodded, and held her P90 up airily.

NegaHonker gulped. "We're trying, honest!" he said, his usual tough and cruel demeanor fading under the threat. "Problem is that Rowe's knows we're after him, and is on the run. And he's proving to be quite illusive. However, listening to the goodie-goodie grape vine indicates that the Friendly Four are no closer to finding him either."

"And us attacking them every possible chance slows them down further." NegaLaunchpad added proudly.

"And speeds us up." NegaHonker concluded.

They were silent for a moment, Launchpad and Honker's Negaverse doubles fearing if Negaduck would punish them regardless for failing the task. NegaGosalyn, still holding up the P90, glanced at Negaduck, awaiting orders. Negaduck discreetly shook his head, and with a frown, NegaGosalyn lowered the P90. NegaHonker and NegaLaunchpad heaved sighs of relief.

"Alright, now down to business you knobs." Negaduck said, leaning forward. "Hopefully you idiots remember that my goals lately have been taking over the world in the Posiverse, and kill my stupid double. Made little progress there. So, I have a new plan." he pulled out a picture from his pocket and studied it to himself for a moment. "Launchpad?"

"Yes, your lordship?" NegaLaunchpad asked.

"Got a job for you, LP." Negaduck said, throwing the picture down on the coffee table between them. "Find the Negaverse guy in that picture, and arrange with him a meeting for me. I believe he could help me."

NegaLaunchpad picked up the picture and studied it. On it was the Posiverse Morgana, grinning happily, dressed in a wedding gown. Standing next to her was her husband and Negaduck's target, Bob...

* * *

"So this is the Morgana Macawber I've heard so little about." Christine remarked as she flipped through the photo album. "For a witch, she does look fairly pretty."

Gosalyn, sitting next to her, nodded. "The magical community seems to be full of surprises." she remarked, and sighed. "It's a shame, though. She and Dad were getting along great."

"And then he disappeared for seven years, as the story goes." Christine said, flipping through the pictures. She noticed suddenly Drake vanished from the photos. "I'm presuming these were taking during that time." she noted.

"Yes, they were." Gosalyn said. "Morgana helped me and Launchpad greatly during those first few years after Dad vanished, despite being distraught herself."

Christine turned the page and saw someone new beginning to appear in the pictures. "And I presume this is her husband, Bob?" she guessed.

"Yes, shortly after they met and started dating." Gosalyn said. "On the next page should be pictures from their wedding." she noticed Christine hesitate, and added, "if you want to look at them, of course."

"Gos, I don't know about this." Christine finally admitted. "Should I really be studying the past love life of Drake's? I mean, it's clear it's still painful for him to remember."

"Christine, you said yourself that if any relationship between you and Dad was going to work out, neither of you should keep secrets." Gosalyn pointed out. "And when I found out that Dad had been vary vague in the matters of Morgana, I felt you needed to find out a bit more about her." she paused, then went on, "But if you don't want to, I won't make you."

Christine hesitated a moment longer, then finally turned the page. Sure enough, there were the wedding pictures, bright and cheerful. Christine couldn't help but grin at the joyful pictures. "Oh, look, there's you, Gos." she said, pointing at one picture that portrayed a thirteen-year-old Gosalyn dressed as a flower girl.

Gosalyn, however, was looking at a different picture, or rather, the lack of one. "That's odd, there's a picture missing." she remarked, tapping the empty spot with one finger. "This picture showed Bob and Morgana just after the wedding, happily celebrating together." she frowned. "I wonder what happened to it."

"Probably nothing." Christine said. "Maybe it fell out."

"Maybe." Gosalyn said, still thinking about the matter.

Christine used the distraction to set the photo album aside. "Would you like a drink?" she asked. "I think I have some orange soda lying around here."

Gosalyn gave her a bemused look. "A doctor drinking soda?" she asked teasingly. "I thought doctors usually frowned upon that."

"I won't tell if you don't." Christine remarked, playing along as she got up and entered her apartment's kitchen.

Finding the soda, she poured some into two separate glasses, and carried them back into the apartment's living room. She found that Gosalyn had risen and was looking out the window at the view of St. Canard's skyline that the skyscraper apartment had a great view of. Handing one glass to Gosalyn, they stood at the window, admiring the view as they sipped their drinks.

Finally, Christine asked, "What's it like in the Negaverse?"

Gosalyn was caught off guard by the sudden question. "Why do you ask?" she asked.

"I've just been wondering what it would be like to spend seven years of your life in the Negaverse." Christine said, thinking about those virtually unspoken years of Drake's life. "I want to get an idea what he had to go through."

Gosalyn sighed, but nodded. She paused to gather her thoughts. "Okay, first take St. Canard, as you know it." she instructed. "Picture it in your mind."

"Okay." Christine replied, visualizing the city they lived in, closing her eyes.

"Now, take all of it's bad traits, and mentally enhance them four or five times." Gosalyn said.

Christine did, visualizing what St. Canard would be like. She didn't like what she saw. "That's what the Negaverse is like?" she asked, opening her eyes to look at Gosalyn.

"No, that's getting _close _to what the Negaverse is like." Gosalyn clarified.

"Yikes." Christine said. "No wonder neither of you talk about it much."

"Yes, if given the choice, we would never return there, at all." Gosalyn agreed. "Unfortunately, we don't have that choice. Not with Negaduck around..."

She trailed off, having made her point, and the two fell silent as they went back to looking out the window at the St. Canard they knew and loved...

* * *

"Here we are, boss." NegaLaunchpad announced as they pulled up to the rickety old mansion in the Negacatcher. "This is Macawber Mansion!"

"About time!" Negaduck grumbled, back in costume. "You sure you arranged this meeting properly?"

"Of course!" NegaLaunchpad replied. "Don't I always?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Now stay here, and stay out of trouble. Or else."

Negaduck walked up to the mansion's front door, and knocked, oddly enough, politely. His reasoning for this was that he didn't want the meeting to go wrong simply because the person he was meeting had the wrong impression about him. He needed this guy to be cooperative if he was going to get what he wanted.

The door swung open to reveal NegaBob. "Lord Negaduck." the warlock exclaimed in a calm voice. "I've been expecting you. Please, come in."

Negaduck didn't like such formalities, but he let it slide this time. "I'm hoping my knob of a sidekick told you why I'm here?" he asked as he stepped into the musky mansion.

NegaBob closed the door before replying. "Yes." he said, looking somewhat excited. "And I believe I have just the thing for you. But we must be secret about it, I promised my wife's father that I would never use some of the things I'm about to show you. But it's not like he's constantly watching. So long as I'm careful, I can get away with it."

"Good." Negaduck said, as he followed NegaBob into the library. "Speaking of Morgana, she had better not disturb us."

"No worries, I sent her on a few chores." NegaBob assured him. "That'll keep her busy long enough for her to stay out of my hair." he said this none too nicely.

They entered the library. NegaBob motioned for Negaduck to stay there for a moment, then walked into a clearly less used portion of the library. Negaduck realized the books contained here contained more volatile spells in them, because some of the books were quite defensive, some even snapping at NegaBob's fingers.

Finally NegaBob found the book he wanted, pulling it off the shelf. "Here we are." he said. "Magic spells someone like you could use to take over a world." he held it dramatically. "Take a look, see for yourself."

Negaduck was a bit apprehensive at first, but accepted the book, opening it, and flipping through it.

"Tell me if you see anything of interest." NegaBob said.

It wasn't long before Negaduck did. "What's this one?" he asked, pointing.

"Ah, the sphere spell." NegaBob said, recognizing it. "A very powerful spell indeed. Good choice milord."

"But what is it?" Negaduck asked, losing his patience some.

"This complicated, but doable, spell creates a sphere of energy, that, when commanded, will collect all of the particles of a specified element." NegaBob explained. "It all gathers within the sphere, and then the user of the sphere, or the spell's caster, can use the collected elements as he pleases."

"What's the range on that thing?" Negaduck asked, intrigued.

"Very far." NegaBob replied. "At least far enough to cover the whole planet."

"Perfect." Negaduck said darkly, rubbing his hands together at the thought of the plan coming to mind. "One more thing, though. Will it work with trons?"

"The element deciding what's good and evil?" NegaBob asked. "Sure, negatrons or positrons alike. Take your pick."

"I pick negatrons." Negaduck said, grinning wickedly.

"Then let's start building a Negasphere." NegaBob said, sharing Negaduck's wicked look...

* * *

"Okay, so are the power readouts for our transdimensional portal generator at subzero, zero, just above zero, minimum, little above minimum, moderate, a bit above moderate, maximum, above maximum, high, really high, really really high, or insanely high?" Dr. Sarah Bellum asked as she walked around the basement laboratory at SHUSH HQ.

"Only really high, Sarah." one of her assistants replied, looking at a gage that literally said this.

"Dang, still need to get this thing up to insanely high." Dr. Bellum mumbled to herself, as she looked up at the large gateway-like device that filled most of the room. "You know, you're one of my best inventions, but you take far too long to recharge!" she said to it.

As if in reply, the machine started to hum.

"All right, who bumped the on switch?" Dr. Bellum asked, whirling around to face her associates.

But they all stared blankly back at her, none of them anywhere near the on switch.

"But...then...why is our machine turning on and activating a portal to another dimension?" Bellum asked, puzzled.

"It isn't!" one assistant exclaimed suddenly. "According to this, someone from another dimension is trying to open a portal to here!"

"What?" Bellum exclaimed. "But who?"

"I guess we're going to find out." the assistant replied, as the machine finished charging.

With a flash of light, the multi-colored portal opened, and something stepped through it...

* * *

"Thanks for helping me get rid of this computer virus, Honk." Drake said as he sat in the command chair for Darkwing Tower's supercomputer. "I used to know how to work with stuff like this. Then I left for seven years, and the technological world suddenly got very complicated."

"It's okay Mr. Mallard." Honker replied as he worked at one of the smaller stations. "It's understandable that you're still playing catch up. Still, I think it's not too bad, probably an Internet virus we picked up because Gosalyn was surfing the web with the firewall deactivated again."

"And if that's truly the case, then I swear, I will ground her until she's eighteen." Drake grumbled, sitting back as the file recovery program started to work. "Still, I don't get it. This computer virus didn't attack the system on a whole, just certain parts, such as video surveillance."

"I know, that's unlike most computer viruses I've seen." Honker admitted. "It's almost as if the virus wanted to hide something."

"Hide something..." Drake repeated, suddenly sitting up again. "Now there's a thought. Honk, have you recovered the lost video surveillance files?"

"Most of them, yes." Honker said.

"You got the more recent ones?"

"Ah, yes. Why?"

"Open them up one at a time on the big screen." Drake requested. "Start with the file the virus corrupted first after it entered the system."

Honker nodded, and obeyed, the video popping up on the screen. It showed an empty tower, late at night.

Drake thought for a moment. "Speed up the play back a little bit." he asked.

Honker obeyed, and the playback sped up. At first nothing changed. Then something appeared on the screen.

"Whoa, there." Drake exclaimed. "Stop and go back a few seconds, and freeze the frame."

Honker did, then turned to get a good look at the frozen scene. Drake got up and pointed at a shadowy figure who was standing at one of the tower's computer terminals.

"What, or rather who, do you think that is?" Drake asked.

They were silent for a moment. Then a beeping noise rang out.

"It's SHUSH." Honker reported after a moment. "From Director Hooter."

Drake nodded, and pulled out a hat and mask, putting it on. "On screen please." he said.

Moments later, J. Gander's face appeared.

"Ah, Darkwing Duck, just the duck I wanted to talk to." Hooter said. "I need you and the gang to come up here to HQ as soon as possible."

"Sure thing, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "Why?"

"Trust me, Darkwing." Hooter replied cryptically. "You'll understand when you see for yourself."

* * *

"So what's this about, J. Gander?" Crimson asked later after she, Darkwing, Techno, and Launchpad all had arrived at SHUSH Headquarters.

Hooter led the way down the hallway. "Patience, Miss Avenger, and you'll see for yourself." he said.

They reached the doorway to a cell. Hooter pulled out a set of master keys and unlocked it, opening the door. He motioned for the others to enter the room. Looking at one another, only more puzzled, they filed into the room, one by one. They were surprised by what they saw, sitting in a chair, watching his reflection in the one-way window, completely free to move around.

"Megavolt?" Launchpad exclaimed, surprised.

"Er, not exactly." Megavolt replied, seeing he had visitors, and turning to face them. "Thanks for getting them here, Director Hooter."

"You're welcome." Hooter replied.

"Wait, what?" Darkwing said. "Last I knew, Megavolt was the enemy!"

"Not this Megavolt." Hooter said.

"But, then, I don't understand." Crimson said, furrowing her brow in puzzlement.

"We found him in sub-level five." Hooter offered.

"But what difference does that make?" Crimson asked, not catching on.

But Techno understood. "Sub-level five...isn't that the level where the transdimensional portal generator is?" he asked.

Darkwing and gang looked at the Megavolt before them with new respect.

"You mean to say this is the NegaMegavolt?" Darkwing asked, surprised. He looked Megavolt over for a moment, concentrating.

Megavolt grinned sheepishly. "Kinda has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?" he asked. "Hey, Darkwing, long time, no see."

"Megs..." Darkwing said. "Wha...what are you doing out of the Negaverse? The Friendly Four can't afford to lose another member, now that I'm back where I belong."

"I know, but I came here to deliver a very important message." NegaMegavolt replied matter-of-factly. "Now...what was it again?"

"I'd rather know how he got here." Crimson said, suspicious. " The only people we know of that have a means to go from one universe to another is Negaduck, with his portal remote, and SHUSH."

"Not anymore." NegaMegavolt said. "After we heard about SHUSH's portal generator, us in the Negaverse set about making our own."

"And you did it without Negaduck knowing about it?" Techno asked, amazed.

"It wasn't easy." NegaMegavolt admitted. "Negs nearly caught the UIO building and testing it several times."

"The UIO?" Darkwing repeated. "That's new."

"Well, after we heard about SHUSH existing in the Posiverse, we wanted something similar." NegaMegavolt explained. "It stands for the Underground Independence Organization. I think. It used a lot of big words I struggle to remember. It's easier to just call it the UIO."

"Right." Crimson said slowly, then shook her head. "This is weird, conversing with someone who's an enemy in your universe."

"You get used to it." Darkwing said, thinking of the seven years he spent in the Negaverse with the Friendly Four. "So...NegaMegavolt..."

"Just call me NegaMegs." NegaMegavolt said. "It's easier, and less of a tongue twister."

"Okay, NegaMegs." Darkwing said. "You said you where here to deliver a very important message."

"Yeah." NegaMegs replied.

"Care to elaborate?" Crimson asked.

"It's Negaduck." NegaMegs said. "He's suddenly back in the Negaverse. Me n' the Friendly Four have been keeping tabs on him, and we discovered why."

"What's the why?" Techno asked.

"Negaduck has hired a magician to help cast him a spell that will create a sphere of energy that will be able to attract all the negatrons in the world." NegaMegs explained. "He plans to use these negatrons to enhance his own negatron count. He wants as many negatrons as he can get, too, so..."

"...so he'll be using this sphere in the Negaverse." Techno reasoned.

NegaMegs nodded.

"So the question I'd like an answer to," Hooter spoke suddenly, "is what to expect once Negaduck has enhanced his negatron count."

"We're not going to let him." NegaMegs said.

"Why not?" Crimson asked, folding her arms.

"Because, all those negatrons compacted into one spot will give Negaduck a great deal of power, several times over the combined powers of the Friendly Four." NegaMegs replied.

"So, something like a galvanized Negaduck?" Darkwing asked with a shudder, remembering the last time he fought a galvanized Negaduck.

"Worse." NegaMegs said. "We're talking so much power here, that we're not even sure if Negaduck will even be able to control it like that. We're afraid that if he pulls this off, the power will control him, and force him to destroy everything and anything."

A moment of silence fell.

"That's why I'm here." NegaMegs continued. "I was selected to come here and ask for your guys's help stop Negaduck before that happens."

"Wait, you mean actually _go _to the Negaverse and stop Negaduck?" Crimson asked.

"Into territory Negaduck controls?" Techno asked.

"To a place I hoped to never return?" Darkwing asked.

"A place I wish I'd never have to even see?" Launchpad asked.

"I'm not sure I like this plan, NegaMegs." Hooter said. "If I were to lose all four of these people..."

"Don't worry, the UIO and the Friendly Four will be looking after them at all times." NegaMegs assured the director. "And anyway, we could be close to turning the Friendly Four into the Friendly Five."

"Five?" Crimson asked.

"NegaRowe!" Techno suddenly exclaimed. "You're referring to NegaRowe! He'd be good in the Negaverse, wouldn't he?"

"That's right, my double referred to a search for him once." Crimson remarked, remembering. "You mean to say you still haven't found him?"

"He's being chased by two different sides, and doesn't know which is good or not." NegaMegs explained. "So he runs away, and being an otter, he's pretty good at that. But we've almost got him tracked down and cornered. And we're confident that once we explain things to him, he'll be on our side. Maybe if you were to help..."

"One thing at a time here." Darkwing said. "I'm still not sure I'm going to agree to this."

"I will not force you to do this, Darkwing." Hooter assured him. "I can understand that the idea of going to the Negaverse it a bit uncomfortable for you."

"Uncomfortable doesn't begin to cover it." Darkwing muttered.

"But do we dare not go?" Techno asked. "If and when Negaduck reaches this negatron rich form, he probably won't stop to destroying the Negaverse. He'll come to our universe to destroy it, too."

"There is one thing that I have to ask first, before I make a choice." Darkwing said. "You said that a magician was helping Negaduck make this...Negasphere. Do you, by any chance, happen to know his name?"

"Uh, sure, let's see here..." NegaMegs said, thinking for a moment. "I believe his name was Bob."

Crimson unfolded her arms in surprise. "Keen gear..." she muttered, "That's Morgana's husband!"

"Clearly, he's evil in the Negaverse, in order to be working with Negaduck." Techno noted. "We must still think of him as such."

"Right." Darkwing said. "And I've decided. We're going."

**To Be Continued...**


	16. The Negasphere Part II

Summary: With the help of some magic, Negaduck is going to obtain power...power that even he might not be able to control...

Rating for this Adventure: T

Author's Note: And here's part two. Not as satisfied with some of these scenes such as one with DW and NegaMorgana. Probably because I cut some stuff out of that scene. Well, enjoy it anyway. :)

16.

The Negasphere Part II

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Ah, it's good to be back in the negatron rich Negaverse."_

_--_

"_Got a job for you, LP." Negaduck said, throwing the picture down on the coffee table between them. "Find the Negaverse guy in that picture, and arrange with him a meeting for me. I believe he could help me."_

_--_

"_That's odd, there's a picture missing. This picture showed Bob and Morgana just after the wedding, happily celebrating together. I wonder what happened to it."_

_--_

"_Here we are. Magic spells someone like you could use to take over a world. Take a look, see for yourself."_

_--_

"_This complicated, but doable, spell creates a sphere of energy, that, when commanded, will collect all of the particles of a specified element. It all gathers within the sphere, and then the user of the sphere, or the spell's caster, can use the collected elements as he pleases."_

"_What's the range on that thing?"_

"_Very far. At least far enough to cover the whole planet."_

"_Perfect. One more thing, though. Will it work with trons?"_

"_The element deciding what's good and evil? Sure, negatrons or positrons alike. Take your pick."_

"_I pick negatrons."_

"_Then let's start building a Negasphere."_

_--_

"_We found him in sub-level five."_

"_But what difference does that make?"_

"_Sub-level five...isn't that the level where the transdimensional portal generator is?"_

"_You mean to say this is the NegaMegavolt?"_

_--_

"_Negaduck has hired a magician to help cast him a spell that will create a sphere of energy that will be able to attract all the negatrons in the world. He plans to use these negatrons to enhance his own negatron count. He wants as many negatrons as he can get, too, so..."_

"_...so he'll be using this sphere in the Negaverse."_

"_So the question I'd like an answer to, is what to expect once Negaduck has enhanced his negatron count."_

"_We're not going to let him."_

"_Why not?"_

"_Because, all those negatrons compacted into one spot will give Negaduck a great deal of power, several times over the combined powers of the Friendly Four."_

"_So, something like a galvanized Negaduck?"_

"_Worse. We're talking so much power here, that we're not even sure if Negaduck will even be able to control it like that. We're afraid that if he pulls this off, the power will control him, and force him to destroy everything and anything."_

_--_

"_I was selected to come here and ask for your guys's help stop Negaduck before that happens."_

"_Wait, you mean actually go to the Negaverse and stop Negaduck?"_

_--_

"_Right. And I've decided. We're going."_

* * *

"But Director, we won't be able to hold a portal open for very long." Dr. Bellum objected. "We aren't fully recharged from last time we opened a portal. We'll be able to get them there, but we probably won't be able to get them back, not without giving the generator a chance to recharge."

"You won't have to." NegaMegs assured her. "We have a generator on our side. All it needs is another generator to connect to, and it'll do the rest."

"Yes, but the power had to be shared between both generators in order to do it." Dr. Bellum objected. "They'd still need to recharge afterwards."

"But not nearly as much, correct?" Hooter asked.

"Well, no, but still..." Dr. Bellum asked.

"Darkwing, could you hold out in the Negaverse for a short while presuming you had to wait for the generators to recharge?" Hooter asked.

"I dunno, director, if we succeed in stopping Negaduck, he'll probably be after our guts afterwards." Darkwing said. "But, I suppose we could manage."

"And besides, I've studied a bit of this science, and I'm confident it won't come to that." NegaMegs assured them.

"Oh all right, fine." Dr. Bellum said. "Just so long it doesn't come out of my paycheck if things don't work out."

"Thank you, Dr. Bellum." Hooter said. He turned to Darkwing and the others, and NegaMegs. "You'll have a moment or two to prepare. Good luck, all of you."

He then left to join Dr. Bellum in the control tower.

"Well, here's goes nothing." Techno remarked, looking at the machine as it started to hum.

"Gee, I've never been to the Negaverse before." Launchpad remarked. "What will it be like?"

"Yeah, how much as changed since I left?" Darkwing asked, curious.

"Nothing much." NegaMegs admitted. "The UIO is pretty much the only big thing."

"So everything's still the same, then?" Darkwing asked. "NegaHooter still in charge of FOWL?"

"FOWL exists in the Negaverse?" Crimson asked, surprised.

"It's kind of the evil twin of SHUSH there." Darkwing explained.

"Yeah, they keep track of the happenings all over the world, then report it to the lord." NegaMegs explained further.

"Which one, Negaduck or my double, NegaCrimson?" Crimson asked.

"Depends who's been left in charge." NegaMegs said. "In this case, it'd currently be Negaduck."

All further conversation was cut off when the portal suddenly opened with a flash of light.

"All right, let's do this." NegaMegs said, heading up the small rap to step into the portal.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Techno remarked, and followed, who was likewise followed by a stunned silent Launchpad.

Darkwing started to follow, but Crimson held him up for a moment. "Dad, quick father and daughter chat, please." she said. "You're not doing this in hopes of seeing NegaMorgana, are you?"

"No, of course not!" Darkwing said, looking offended. "What made you think that?"

"The fact that you asked if the magician was NegaBob." Crimson said. "And the fact you keep inquiring about the Negaverse's status, like you're expecting to hear something specific. It's almost like you're asking loaded questions."

Darkwing sighed, and didn't answer.

"You're hoping NegaMorgana could be a replacement for our Morgana, aren't you?" Crimson asked, surprised of Darkwing.

"It's very tempting." Darkwing admitted. "But I never even saw her last time I was in the Negaverse. Rumor was that she was good, but there was no way to confirm it. She could be evil."

"But you're hoping not." Crimson guessed.

"Crimson, I will admit that the thought is very pleasant." Darkwing said, placing one hand on Crimson's shoulder. "But I would never do it. The Negaverse is the land of my nightmares, and that fact is made worse by the fact it actually exists. No matter what I might find there that I don't have here, I would stay as far away from the Negaverse as possible."

Crimson grinned, hearted by this statement.

"Now let's get going, before Dr. Bellum comes in here, blaming us for wasting power." Darkwing joked.

Laughing, the two walked through the portal. But once they reached the other side, the laughter stopped...

* * *

"This is really, really, weird." Techno said, as he looked eerily at each member of the Friendly Four as they acted as the group's bodyguard as they traversed the dirty streets of NegaCanard in general silence. "I keep expecting you guys to suddenly pounce on me, or attack me, or something."

"Imagine how it is for us, then." NegaBushroot pointed out. "Here, you're all the bad guys, but the leaders of the planet. People get killed just for disobeying them. Here, you're bad, _and _feared."

"Twenty four, seven." NegaLiquidator added bubbly.

"So where are we going?" Crimson asked, as she hesitantly NegaQuackerjack watch her with a big grin.

"We're going to Bob's house." NegaMegs replied, who was leading. "Hopefully we can find out there where Negaduck is having the Negasphere made."

"That would be Macawber Mansion." Crimson noted, wondering why this road seemed so familiar.

"Right, and we're almost there." NegaMegs said.

Sure enough, a short while later, they had arrived at the mansion. They grouped up on the porch, but unsure how to enter.

"Doesn't this Bob guy have a wife?" NegaBushroot asked.

"Yes." Darkwing and Crimson replied together.

"Do you think we should just barge in, then?" NegaQuackerjack asked.

"Maybe we should sneak around..." Techno proposed, feeling awkward.

"Maybe you should leave me to this." Darkwing said. "And, no, Crimson, it's not for the reasons you think. I'm well known around here, right?"

"Yeah..." NegaMegs admitted.

"Then, assuming NegaMorgana is here, then she'd trust me, right?" Darkwing asked.

"Presuming she's good, and not evil." Techno pointed out.

"She's good." NegaBushroot said. "We've confirmed it. But uh..." he paused. "It's for a good reason she's good."

Darkwing looked at him for a moment, wondering if he'd continue. But NegaBushroot didn't.

"All right, then, I say Darkwing gets a shot at this, then." NegaMegs said. "He'd probably do it better than us, anyway."

"In that case, go hide somewhere." Darkwing suggested. "If she thinks I'm alone, then she'll be more willing to talk."

They nodded, and a few moments later, had all vanished from sight in their respectable hiding places. Satisfied that it looked he was alone, Darkwing knocked on the door, and waited. No response. He knocked again, with same results. He was just starting to think that maybe there was no one home after all when the door cracked open, and a frightened face peeked out. Darkwing recognized it as Morgana's, but had to check twice to be sure. Her hair was let down, and hung ragged. She also wore a grey, loose-fitting, gown. And she seemed ready to run from the first thing that so much as startled her.

But her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Darkwing. Darkwing took of his hat. "Good day Madame Macawber." he greeted, remembering to be proper.

NegaMorgana was further stunned by that. "No one has called me madame in years." she whispered.

Darkwing suddenly started to wonder what NegaMorgana had been through that he didn't know about.

"You're him." NegaMorgana suddenly said. "Darkwing Duck."

"Yes." Darkwing said. "I was hoping if I could talk with you."

"By all means!" NegaMorgana said, brightening, opening the door for Darkwing to enter. "You're not safe out there anyway. And don't worry, Bob is not here."

"I know." Darkwing said, stepping inside and turning to see NegaMorgana fully. "In fact, that's why I'm...here..."

Now that he could see NegaMorgana fully, he noticed that she was unusually thin and pale.

"Er..." Darkwing said, unsure how to react to this new development. "Er...um..."

NegaMorgana's face fell, and she hid it quickly as she broke out into tears.

"Hey, don't cry!" Darkwing said. "I'm sorry, did I offend you?"

"No, I offended you, I'm sorry." NegaMorgana quickly apologized.

"Of...fend...ed...me?" Darkwing repeated slowly, feeling lost. "Why would I be offended?"

"I didn't do what you wanted."

"Who said I wanted you to do anything?"

"I should know when you want something." NegaMorgana said, then attempted to pull herself together into look more brave. "You may punish me now."

"P-punish you?" Darkwing said, suddenly having second thoughts about all of this. "Why would I punish you?"

"Bob does."

"What?" Darkwing was shocked."Why would Bob do that?"

"Bob hates me." NegaMorgana said. "I'm nothing but his slave, he said so."

Darkwing cursed, having forgotten that this was Negaverse. Stuff like this happened. He now knew what NegaBushroot had meant when he said 'it's for good reason she's good.'

"Everybody hates me." NegaMorgana added.

"I don't!" Darkwing quickly assured her.

"Yes you do." NegaMorgana insisted.

"No, I don't!" Darkwing said, wishing he could prove it to her. "Look, if NegaBob hates you so much, then why did you marry him?"

"I didn't even want to marry him." NegaMorgana babbled, like she had just been waiting for someone to ask. "My father arranged it against my will. He needed the money."

Darkwing felt his stomach lurch and sink at the same time, and suddenly had to sit down. As there were no chairs nearby, he simply just sat down on the floor. NegaMorgana didn't mind; she had lapsed into another crying fit. Darkwing was disgusted by all of this. He hadn't pictured NegaMorgana to be so...broken and tortured. He also felt an anger build up against NegaBob like he had never felt before. This may not be his Morgana, but no one should do this to anybody.

"Negaduck is a very bad duck." NegaMorgana suddenly chocked out.

"Yes, I know." Darkwing agreed, surprised the subject changed so quickly, and to Negaduck of all people. He slid over to comfort her and dry her tears, deciding to take advantage of the subject change. "But that's why I'm here. I'm going to try and stop him. But I need your help. I need to now where Bob is. If I know where Bob is, I know where Negaduck is, and then I can stop him."

NegaMorgana worked at trying to pull herself together, but didn't reply.

"Do you understand?" Darkwing asked.

NegaMorgana nodded, and turned to face him. "I know where Bob is." she said.

* * *

"Canard Tower." Darkwing said, as he stared at the tallest building of the St. Canard of both universes.

"You've got to be kidding me." NegaMegs muttered. "This is the most secure building on the face of the planet! Not even Scrooge McDuck's money bin is this secure!"

"Yeah, remember the last time we broke out of here?" Crimson asked. "And it's not likely they're going to fall for the disguise tactic like last time."

"Maybe Bushy here could grow us a ladder." NegaQuackerjack reasoned.

"No, they'd see it too quickly." NegaBushroot said, clearly already coming to that idea and crossing it out.

"And for once, advertising is something we should avoid." NegaLiquidator remarked. "There's no profit in it here."

"I agree, which means we'll have to go the same way everybody else does." Darkwing said, gulping.

"No, we won't!" Techno suddenly announced, who had been studying something through his visor. "There's an unguarded repair shaft on the north side of the building, that will lead straight to the elevator! We can get in that way!"

"Okay, now we're talking!" Crimson said, relieved they wouldn't have to go the hard way.

"There's only one problem." Techno continued. "We won't all fit."

"We'll stay here, then." NegaMegs offered. "That way, if something happens, we can come help."

"But how can we contact you?" Techno asked, thinking that NegaMegs was just trying to get out of having to go into Canard Tower.

"Don't worry, Tech, it's no problem." Darkwing said. "It probably would be a good idea for someone to stay behind, just in case. So lead the way."

Techno nodded, and upon parting ways with the Friendly Four, lead Darkwing, Crimson, and Launchpad to the south side of the building. There, they found a grill. Techno tugged on it for a moment, barely moving it.

"Here, I can help you, little buddy." Launchpad offered, and came to help remove the grill.

Once it was off, they clambered into the tunnel, and crawled along it in single file. It wasn't long before they came out of the tunnel in the elevator shaft, directly over the waiting elevator car.

"We're in luck." Techno remarked as he climbed down onto the elevator. "It doesn't seem to be in use at the moment."

He pulled the emergency escape hatch off the elevator's roof, and climbed into the car. The others followed. Crimson glanced at the many buttons that sat next to the closed elevator doors.

"Which floor do we need to go to?" she asked.

"It could be any one of those." Darkwing added.

"I'd think the top most floor." Techno reasoned. "It'd be a private place for Negaduck and NegaBob to work on the Negasphere."

"That was a little bit of an alliteration, there, Techno." Launchpad remarked.

"It's not my fault we class everything in this universe with the prefix of 'nega'." Techno muttered.

"Well, here we go to the top floor." Crimson said, pressing the topmost button.

The elevator started to move, traveling up and up. They stood riding it in silence.

"You realize we'll probably be forced to fight the moment these elevator doors open, right?" Crimson asked.

"Yeah, I know." Darkwing said, pulling out his gas gun. "So be on guard, everybody."

The elevator began to slow, and with a small jolt, came to a stop. The elevator doors opened, but to everyone's surprise, no one was there. Crimson stepped out into the fancy penthouse apartment, looking around.

"I don't think this is the place." she said, turning back to look at everyone else as they filed out of the elevator.

"Look anyway." Darkwing said. "LP and Techno, go check out that kitchen. Crimson, examine this living room. I'll take a look in this library."

They went their separate ways. Crimson searched the living room as ordered. She noticed that while it was fancy, it was cluttered with random junk, including various weapons. Stopping to look behind a couch, Crimson bent over. She then felt something press against her back.

"Don't move." a voice behind her said.

Crimson froze for a split second. "Dad!" she called out in a warning tone, as she slowly straightened and put her hands in the air.

"Crimson," Darkwing muttered as he stepped back out of the library, "how many times do I have to tell you not to...whoa."

He saw NegaGosalyn, dressed in her casual attire and not in costume, pressing the barrel of a P90 into Crimson's back. Darkwing pointed his gas gun at NegaGosalyn. "Let her go, NegaGos!"

"No." NegaGosalyn replied defiantly. "Make one wrong move, and I'll shoot! Now drop your weapon!"

"No!" Darkwing said. "Launchpad, Techno!" he called into the kitchen. "I need your help!"

"Uh, sorry DW, but we're kinda...heh...in a bit of a jam ourselves." Launchpad nervously chuckled as he was escorted out of a kitchen, a kitchen knife pressed to his neck as NegaLaunchpad escorted his double out into the living room.

They were followed by Techno, who was in a similar position with his own double. "I think you'd better take her advice, Mr. Darkwing." Techno gasped nervously, trying to pull back from the blade NegaHonker held at his throat and failing.

Darkwing hesitated a moment, then dropped his gas gun, holding his hands above his head in reluctant defeat.

NegaGosalyn smiled cruelly.

* * *

As NegaBob mumbled incantations in languages Negaduck wasn't bothering to take the time to comprehend, the occasional flash of light would appear over their heads. But Negaduck had yet to see a sphere of any type form.

"C'mon, Bob, you've been at this for over an hour now." Negaduck grumbled impatiently. "It doesn't take this long to cast a spell, does it?"

"Don't rush me." NegaBob replied. "The more powerful the spell is, the more complicated it's incantations are. Now, you must be patient if you expect this to work, and quit distracting me."

Negaduck gave NegaBob a glare, but said no more.

"Yo, Dad!" NegaGosalyn shouted as she joined them on the roof of Canard Tower, her prisoners in tow, "Looky what I found!"

"Well, well, well!" Negaduck exclaimed, brightening when he saw Darkwing and gang were prisoners. "It's the goodie-goodie gang! You know, I'm not surprised you showed up."

"You're not?" NegaHonker asked, looking surprised.

Techno, however, wasn't. "You were the one who put the computer virus in our systems, didn't you?" he accused.

"You're a quick thinker, Techno." Negaduck said, grinning with approval.

"A computer virus?" NegaGosalyn asked. "You put a computer virus in their systems?"

"One just bad enough to hopefully hide the fact that I dropped by to visit to get this." Negaduck said, pulling out a picture and tossing it down at the feet of the heroes.

Crimson recognized it. "That was the picture missing from the photo album!" she exclaimed.

Darkwing's eyes widened. "That's how you put me and Morgana's past together, wasn't it?" he asked.

"I said I was going to figure it out, didn't I?" Negaduck asked. "And when I found out I had a potential ally who was a magician in the Negaverse, of course, I pounced on the idea."

"And came up with the Negasphere." Darkwing said, watching NegaBob work, ignoring this conversation.

"How do you know that?" NegaLaunchpad asked.

"We were..." Launchpad started to reply, but Crimson cut him short.

"None of your business." she said.

NegaGosalyn and Negaduck shared bemused looks, already putting two with two.

"Hmm, those Friendly Four, always up to something." Negaduck said, turning to look away.

"Not unlike yourself, hmm?" Darkwing asked darkly.

Negaduck glanced back, half-grinning. "Yeah, kinda like." he agreed.

"Negs!" NegaBob shouted. "I'm ready to form the sphere!"

"Coming!" Negaduck called. "Be sure to watch this Darkwing. I think you'll find it interesting."

Darkwing simply glared at Negaduck, but Negaduck wasn't looking anymore.

"Okay, first, I need to encompass you in a shield to prevent the Negasphere from sucking up the negatrons you've already got." NegaBob explained, and muttered a quick incantation that formed a kind of forcefield around Negaduck. "Now, comes the cool part."

Flexing his fingers, he waved them about, as he exclaimed another incantation. A flash of light appeared above them, started to fade out, then swelled bigger again, before it suddenly exploded, washing a wave of energy over them all. The residual purple energy swirled around for a moment, then began to join together to form a shape, which quickly smoothed out to form a sphere, about five or so feet in diameter, hovering above their heads.

"Keen gear." both Gosalyns muttered together in amazement.

"Is that it?" Negaduck asked anxiously, his voice echoing within the forcefield. "Is it ready now?"

"Not yet." NegaBob said. "I still have to give it one more incantation. _Collectee_!_"_

The Negasphere suddenly flashed, then started to fill with a dark substance that was presumably large quantities of negatrons. NegaBob, being the closest and not protected by a forcefield like Negaduck, suddenly wobbled on his feet, then, clutching his head, sank to his knees.

Then, NegaHonker and NegaLaunchpad soon followed, considerably weakened. The rest remained as is, not apparently affected like the others.

NegaGosalyn actually lowered the aim of her P90 in shock. "What's happened?" she demanded.

Techno thought for a moment, examining NegaHonker, who had just moments ago had been holding a blade to Techno's throat. "I believe there are some side effects to having all the negatrons drained out of your body." he reasoned.

"Then why isn't it affecting _her_?" Crimson asked, jabbing a finger at NegaGosalyn.

"Clearly, she doesn't have as high a negatron count as everyone else in the Negaverse." Techno replied.

They all looked at NegaGosalyn.

"Shouldn't that mean she'd be good?" Launchpad asked, scratching his head.

"I'm far from good!" NegaGosalyn objected.

"You are now." Crimson reasoned. "But you weren't originally, were you?"

But any further talking was interrupted when the Negasphere suddenly crackled, and flashed yet again, now completely full with the dark, inky, substance.

Negaduck let out an evil laugh. "It's ready!" he proclaimed.

NegaBob, still weak, nodded, and quickly waved his hand. The forcefield collapsed, freeing Negaduck. The villain quickly approached the Negasphere, holding out one hand as if to touch it.

"What will happen when he touches that?" Crimson asked.

"Nothing good." Darkwing said, and raised his voice. "Negaduck stop! There's too much power there, you'll never be able to control it!"

"Who cares?" Negaduck asked, then slapped his hand against the Negasphere.

"No!" Crimson exclaimed, starting to rush forward to stop Negaduck.

But it was too late. Crackling purple energy surged into Negaduck, who arched his back, as if in pain. The black negatrons in the sphere slowly started to drain into him. White light engulfed Negaduck, blocking him from sight. The light continued to glow for awhile, as the rest of the negatrons drained out, gradually fading from a pure white color to a dark purple. Then, the light suddenly vanished, revealing Negaduck's new form for the first time.

Anatomically, he still looked the same. But his flesh, feathers, beak, even his clothes, had all faded to the darkest of blacks, looking so dark, that it was seemed to be sucking up the light around him. The only thing not black, however, was Negaduck's eyes, which were now glowing a blood red.

"Dad?" NegaGosalyn inquired, hesitant.

Negaduck suddenly let out a cruel laugh, his voice altered, sounding not at all human anymore.

"Dad!" NegaGosalyn said again.

Negaduck suddenly stopped, and glared at his adopted daughter. "You!" he shouted. "You've always been in my way!"

"I have?" NegaGosalyn asked, surprised. She cautiously started to raise her P90 again, to point at Negaduck. "But..."

"I never said anything about it, because I had no power to change it!" Negaduck continued, stepping closer. "But now I do."

He extended one hand at NegaGosalyn, and bolts of purple lightning shot out of it. It all homed in on NegaGosalyn, striking her and knocking her backwards several feet. The P90 fired blindly before NegaGosalyn hit the rooftop again with a thump.

"He's lost control..." Techno muttered. "He doesn't have control over the power!"

"Negaduck!" Darkwing exclaimed. "Stop this!"

Negaduck turned to face him. "I am not Negaduck any longer, Darkwing!" he grumbled. "Now, I shall only be known as Nega! And I will destroy everything! Starting with you!"

He repeated the same feat he had done with NegaGosalyn. Techno, Crimson, and Launchpad, all moved to block the blow, but only ended up in having all of them hit, getting scattered all across the rooftop.

"You!" Nega exclaimed, pointing at NegaLaunchpad, who was suddenly thrown forward and into Nega's hand. "You've blundered in my way for the last time."

He then threw the blubbering NegaLaunchpad aside and into the nearby wall of the pyramid structure that topped Canard Tower, leaving a large dent. NegaLaunchpad then collapsed into a heap, apparently unconscious. Nega then turned to face NegaHonker. Senseing he was next, NegaHonker tried to flee, hindered by his weakness caused by the draining of the negatrons. Nega was on him in a moment.

"And you!" Nega roared, grabbing NegaHonker by the throat. "You're such an annoying brat! Unworthy to so much as _look_ at me!"

He flicked NegaHonker aside, who slammed into the recovering Techno. As Nega turned, gunshots suddenly rang out as NegaGosalyn, recovered, fired her P90. But the bullets simply bounced off Nega. Looking annoyed, he waved his hand, and the P90 shot out of NegaGosalyn's hands, stopping to hover just before Nega.

The gun then started to turn red hot, then suddenly exploded.

"Negaduck..." NegaBob suddenly gasped out, who had been ignored until now.

Nega approached him, and NegaBob suddenly zipped up and into Nega's hand. Nega geared up to finish the warlock off right there, but NegaBob quickly stopped him.

"No!" he gasped. "You have to leave me alive! The sphere will collapse if I die, because it was me who cast the spell!"

Nega growled, then threw NegaBob aside. Darkwing, who had overheard, looked up, an idea suddenly coming to mind.

Meanwhile, Techno pushed the unconscious form of NegaHonker off of him and pulled all three football shaped chemical bombs out of his right wristband and hurled them at Nega. They all exploded violently, leaving craters around the area Nega stood at, but Nega was unfazed. Desperate, Crimson pulled out her gas gun and fired off a charge of sleeping gas. The yellow gas swirled around Nega, but didn't affect him in the slightest.

He then retaliated against the attacks, using his apparent telekinesis abilities to hurl Techno into the pyramid structure on the roof, and Crimson off the roof entirely, out into open space. Crimson saved herself by firing the grappling hook from her gas gun. It latched onto the roof ledge, and swung Crimson down and through a window, crashing into the penthouse sitting directly below them.

Nega was about to start forward again, heading away from the Negasphere, when a sudden shout stopped him.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!"

Several clouds of smoke erupted around Nega, disorienting the negatron-enhanced duck for a moment.

"I am the stray positron in your Negaverse!"

Letting out a roar, Nega unleashed a bolt of purple lightning, striking each cloud of smoke in turn. He hit nothing. Then Darkwing suddenly pounced on him from behind.

"I am Darkwing D-whoa!" Darkwing exclaimed as he was promptly thrown off of Nega's back.

"You have annoyed me for the last time, Dipwing Dork!" Nega roared, stalking his prey. "Now I'll crush you like a bug!"

"Fine, go ahead!" Darkwing exclaimed. "But while you're at it, take out NegaBob, too!"

"NegaBob?" Nega repeated, puzzled. He turned to look at the warlock, who seemed puzzled himself.

"Oh yeah, he's done some pretty evil things himself." Darkwing said, standing and folding his arms. "Bad stuff, like abusing others. Stuff that could compete with you, Nega."

"Me!" Nega roared, turning to advance on NegaBob.

NegaBob's eyes widened as he saw what Darkwing was trying to do. "No, stop!" he exclaimed to Nega.

"He's abused his wife for one thing." Darkwing continued, undeterred now that Nega had his attention elsewhere. "Who knows what other bad things he's done."

"No..." NegaBob said again, as Nega continued to approach.

"And, you heard what he said." Darkwing continued. "He _cast _the spell that gave you that power. Who's to say he can't take it away again?"

Nega clearly hadn't thought of this. "You're right." he rumbled. He turned to face NegaBob. "You cannot be allowed to live."

"No, Negs, you can't!" NegaBob hollered. "You'll..."

He was cut short when Nega used his telekinesis to hurl NegaBob towards him, grabbing the warlock by the throat, gagging him. Nega then threw NegaBob into the air, before using his powers to pull NegaBob back again. As the warlock came within his reach again, Nega clubbed him over the head, flipping NegaBob head over heels in mid-air, unconscious, if not worse already.

NegaBob was then hurled into the air again. Nega unleashed his purple thunderbolts on the warlock, zapping him repeatedly. He then gathered his power together and hurled a single large bolt at NegaBob, that hurled his now very battered body off the rooftop. It sailed out in the air for a moment, then dropped down below the edge of the roof, gone from sight.

A moment of silence fell. Darkwing was somewhat stunned that Nega actually killed NegaBob. He had expected NegaBob just to be beaten into submission, and be forced to end the spell in order to save his own life. But he couldn't dwell on it right now, as Nega suddenly turned to face him.

"Uh-oh." Darkwing muttered.

But just when Nega was about to pounce, the Negasphere, still glowing behind them, suddenly winked out existence. Nega froze for a moment, then his eyes rolled upward, and he fell over onto his face.

"Wow, talk about timing." Launchpad remarked, coming to Darkwing's aid.

Now purple lightning was starting to surge over the fallen Nega.

"Something tells me we should RUN!" Darkwing said, and turned to run.

Launchpad followed, who grabbed the recovering Techno and fled for the stairs. Crimson, tattered and bruised, but otherwise unharmed, had been just coming up them to rejoin the battle when she met up with them.

"Hi guys, where are you going?" she asked.

"We're running!" Darkwing said as he ran past her. "Care to join us?"

Canard Tower suddenly shuddered.

"Now that you mention it, a good run does seem nice." Crimson agreed, and ran to join them.

They were halfway down the quaking building when an explosion of energy rang out somewhere above them. As they entered the building's lobby, everyone who had grown weak and collapsed due to the loss of negatrons were suddenly beginning to recover.

"The negatrons are returning to their designated places!" Techno exclaimed. "Let's go!"

They exploded out the doors of Canard Tower, and nearly collided with the Friendly Four as they fled.

"Darkwing!" NegaBushroot exclaimed, who was first to recover. "We heard a commotion, and saw flashes of light and somebody falling! What's..."

"Mission accomplish, let's go before the retaliation squad gets here!" Crimson explained hurriedly.

The Friendly Four all looked back at Canard Tower, saw the guard, now fully recovered, pouring out to investigate what had happened, and began running too.

"But what about Negaduck?" NegaMegs asked as they ran. "What happened to him?"

"Um, I dunno." Darkwing admitted. "We didn't stick around to find out."

"He can't be dead, can he?" Crimson asked.

Then a loud voice echoed out, faint, but was shouted loud enough that they all could identify who said it, and what they said.

"DARKWING!" Negaduck yelled angrily somewhere far off.

"He's alive." they all choused together, and continued running.

* * *

Fortunately, in the chaos caused by the negatron-draining effects of the Negasphere, escape was quickly rendered. Taking shelter in an abandoned warehouse, Darkwing related the events on the roof of Canard Tower.

"So you only stopped Negaduck by convincing him to _kill_ NegaBob?" NegaMegs asked, shocked.

"That wasn't the idea." Darkwing said gloomily. "I was hoping that Nega, as he called himself in that form, would just rough NegaBob up a bit, and hopefully convince NegaBob that the project had failed, and that the only way any of them could survive was for him to reverse the effects of the spell. I didn't intend to have anybody be killed, in fact, I was trying to _save _everybody, _including _Ngeaduck."

"But, judging from what you've told us about NegaBob, he had it coming to him." Techno remarked.

"Ah, but Techno, it's not for us to decide who should live or die." Crimson pointed out. "NegaBob may have done some bad things in his life, but that doesn't mean he had to die."

"Unfortunately, Negaduck thought otherwise." Techno replied sadly.

"Speaking of which, that means NegaMorgana's a widow now, doesn't it?" Launchpad asked.

"Yes it does." Darkwing said, turning to the Friendly Four. "Can you guys make sure she gets a safe place to stay? You know, a place where she can live a better life than the one she's had, and just kind of look after her?"

"After what you've done to help the Negaverse be a better place, of course, Darkwing." NegaMegs said.

"We'll make sure she stays safe." NegaBushroot added.

"I think I know just the place, too." NegaQuackjack said. "The UIO's hideout!"

"Speaking of which, we should take all of you over there, so you can go home." NegaMegs remarked, standing.

"Yes." Darkwing said, this statement being music to his ears. "Let's go home."


	17. Darkened Mirrors

Summary: It is a place that haunts Gosalyn has always subconsciously feared, but time has allowed her to adapt to it. But an old fear is about to be rediscovered...

Rating: T

Author's Note: I've been looking forward to writing this adventure. I think you'll all like it. ;)

17.

Darkened Mirrors

"You sure this is an okay place to do this at?" NegaGosalyn asked as Negaduck stealthily pulled out his transdimensional portal remote. "Suppose we're seen?"

"You mean the knobs that work for me?" Negaduck asked, jerking his head back into the other room of the warehouse where his lackeys were all gathered, playing a card game and unaware of what NegaGosalyn and Negaduck were up to. "Heck no, they're too stupid. They couldn't see anything even if it was a millimeter from their eyes. Besides, where else can we do this at? That old office building we used to use for communicating with the Negaverse has been compromised. That stupid SHUSH has laid siege to it. We even come within five feet of it's entrance, and we'll be thrown in jail."

"I know, but the advantage of the office building was that it was private, Dad." NegaGosalyn continued. "The Fearsome Five hideout is hardly a good substitute for it."

"Oh hush." Negaduck muttered, fiddling with the remote's controls. "We're safe here, I know it. Besides, it'll only be the one time. You heard NegaHonker's last report, he said they had a lead on NegaRowe, and expected to have him captured by today. I, personally, want to know if the idiot hasn't messed it up already or not."

"True." NegaGosalyn admitted. "It's become quite a touchy matter. Both us and the Friendly Four are close to tracking him down and surrounding him."

"And if the Friendly Four beat us to him..." Negaduck began.

"...then they've got a new ally." NegaGosalyn finished. "But still..."

"We gotta stay in the loop on this one, Gos." Negaduck persisted. "Now hush, I'm gonna open the portal now." he pressed a control on his remote precisely. "Just have to let it build a charge for a few minutes, and..."

But his sentence was suddenly cut off when he heard the very last thing he wanted to hear.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" came an all too familiar voice. "I am the unfinished tax form that was due yesterday! I am...Darkwing Duck!"

There was a shuffling noise from the other room as the card game came to an abrupt stop. Negaduck and NegaGosalyn drew their weapons and headed for the door, but before they could, yet another voice rang out.

"I am the heir to the cape!" came another familiar voice. "I am the Internet cookie that bogs down your operating system! I am, the Crimson Avenger!"

"Her!" NegaGosalyn sneered, grasping her P90 tighter, as she and Negaduck finally reached the door and stepped out it.

But then they heard yet another thing they didn't want to hear.

"This is SHUSH!" a voice rang out via a megaphone. "We have the warehouse completely surrounded! Surrender now!"

Negaduck and NegaGosalyn looked out the door in time to see Darkwing and Crimson keeping Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot, Liki, and Rowe all at bay with their gas guns, as SHUSH commandos invaded the building, all armed to the teeth. Among them was Agent Grizzlikof, who stood observing everything victoriously.

Negaduck was outraged, as he tried to select a target with his pistol. "Darkwing!" he roared. "You ruin everything, you know!"

"All part of the job description, Negaduck." Darkwing said cooly, adjusting his aim to point at Negaduck. "You know, fight crime, save people, and give Negaduck a bad day, everyday!"

"I must say, though," Crimson added, "we've really out done ourselves this time around."

NegaGosalyn shot her double a mad look. "How'd you find us, anyway?" she asked.

"You were trying to open a portal to the Negaverse." Darkwing answered simply.

NegaGosalyn and Negaduck exchanged surprised looks.

"How do you know that?" Negaduck asked.

"We've been tracking your portals since the beginning, Negs." Crimson replied, holding up a scanner with a blinking dot on it. "Courtesy of SHUSH. In fact, they've refined the tracking system to the point that we can even detect you charging _to _open the portal."

"We would have pulled mission like this sometime ago," Grizzlikof continued, "But SHUSH did not know which portal was coming or going."

"That is until after the little escapade with the Negasphere two weeks ago." Darkwing added.

"We knew you were in the Negaverse already, so all SHUSH had to do was wait for the first portal to open after that incident." Crimson explained. "That marked your return to the Negaverse. The portal you were about to open just now would've been the first portal you opened since you returned to the Posiverse."

"And of course, with the SHUSH tracking system, it led us straight here." Darkwing concluded.

"So this isn't an attempt to capture us and the rest of the Fearsome Five at all." NegaGosalyn summarized.

"Just a mere bonus." Crimson confirmed.

"You want the remote." Negaduck stated flatly, understanding.

"We know you have it nearby, Negs." Darkwing said. "Now hand it over."

Negaduck folded his arms defiantly. "Suppose I don't have it on me at the moment?" he asked rhetorically.

But then a beeping noise suddenly rang out from his back pocket as the remote in question announced it was fully charged, and awaiting the final command to create the portal. Negaduck glanced at the pocket, then back at the group surrounding him.

"Very clever Darkwing." Negaduck admitted. "But, of course, you know that we aren't going to go own with out causing some chaos first."

The statement was a code phrase, and the moment after Negaduck had said it, all seven of the villainous group attacked simultaneously. There was no method to the attack; they were all fighting blindly, and at the closest target, but soon Negaduck's statement became truth as chaos did indeed reign in the warehouse.

Grizzlikof began shouting orders to the SHUSH commandos while ducking a bolt of energy shot by Megavolt. Darkwing and Crimson fired off canisters of crowd control gas into the crowd, but was ending up subduing more of the SHUSH agents than the Fearsome Five. Gunfire rang out as NegaGosalyn and Negaduck fired their weapons. At whom was unclear, but feeling threatened, the armed commandos returned fire.

Yelps of pain rang out as the bullets hit home. One or two SHUSH commandos tumbled to the ground, their exact condition unknown in the chaos. Bushroot yelped, and fell, clutching one of his leafy arms. Rowe, who had been displaying a great deal of aerobatics as he fought fancifully in hand-to-hand combat, was subdued when a bullet grazed his arm. The chaos was added when a large tree suddenly sprung up from the floor of the warehouse, going on up to break through the roof, pushing others aside.

As Bushroot, clearly the one behind the tree attack, was aided by Quackerjack, the demented clown throwing whatever toys he carried on his personage at the same time, The Liquidator transformed into a wave, washing over everyone. Very soon, the warehouse was flooded, and everybody and every weapon was waterlogged. A moment of calm fell as people began to recover from this attack. Negaduck saw an opportunity to flee, grabbed NegaGosalyn, and hurriedly retreated into the other room.

But this didn't go unnoticed.

Looking behind them, the two Negaverse natives slipped into the room, then turned to face ahead of them. They were greeted by a cloud of red smoke, from which Crimson emerged, gas gun drawn.

"Going somewhere?" she asked.

Negaduck started to turn for the door again, only to find it was blocked by Darkwing.

Negaduck fumed for a moment. "I hate the pair of you." he grumbled.

"The feeling's mutual, I'm sure." Darkwing assured him, stepping closer. "Now hand over the remote, or we'll take it away by force."

"Take one step closer, and I'll shoot!" Negaduck warned, bringing up his pistol to point at Darkwing. NegaGosalyn did similarly with her P90 to Crimson.

Darkwing hesitated, then took that step. Negaduck pulled the trigger, but the pistol did not fire. NegaGosalyn found she had a similar problem. The weapons were too waterlogged from Liki's reckless attack. The two evil twins paused for a moment, debating their options.

"Aw, heck with this." NegaGosalyn finally muttered, and swung the butt her P90 at Crimson.

Crimson's gas gun was slapped out of her hand, and before she could do a thing more, she was tackled by her double. Darkwing then surged forward and tackled Negaduck, only to be quickly thrown off. Quickly, Negaduck pulled out the remote, searching for the remote's activation button to create an easy escape route. Before he found it, Darkwing fired off his gas gun at Negaduck.

It fired despite having had a bath, and a canister of gas surged towards Negaduck. As the canister flew slower than a bullet, Negaduck had just enough time to dodge the canister, allowing it to shoot past him. But in the process, lost his grip on the remote, and hurled it into the air. NegaGosalyn quickly pushed Crimson off of her and grabbed it, and started to run for it.

"Give me that!" Crimson objected, quickly reaching forward and pulled NegaGosalyn's feet out from under her.

NegaGosalyn hit the floor with a thud. Crimson relieved her of the remote, and ran for it, messing with the remote's controls as she did so. Negaduck suddenly attacked her, trying to take back the remote. NegaGosalyn went to help, but was distracted when Darkwing shifted his attack to her.

As Crimson and Negaduck fought over the remote, the activation button was accidently pressed, and the portal flared into life, it's bright glow in the dim room blinding it's occupants. Negaduck pulled at the remote suddenly, catching Crimson off guard, who still held it, and allowed Negaduck to kick her in the stomach. Her grip loosened, and Negaduck was able to pry the remote from her.

Seeing his prized possession free, Negaduck made a wild dash for the open portal. But Crimson recovered quicker than he expected, and tackled him from behind. Their momentum hurled the pair of them into the portal.

The ride was wild as always, and the portal spat them out onto the hard cement on the other side with a painful thud. The remote clattered from both of their grasps, and the portal closed behind them, showing that no one else had the chance to follow them. Negaduck forced Crimson off of him, and was the first to stand and look around.

The victorious grin he had been wearing suddenly faded.

"This isn't the Negaverse." he observed.

Crimson got up, looking around, and saw he was right. They weren't in a warehouse as expected, but at the edge of an empty city street. It was still St. Canard, alright, but it seemed...enhanced. Technology seemed to have been evolved by several years. Various bright spotlights scattered throughout the city shined up into the starry night. Several signs hung around, describing various warnings and laws Crimson had never heard of.

Negaduck looked around and around, completely bewildered, as this St. Canard didn't seem at all familiar.

However, to Crimson, it was all too familiar.

Feeling her stomach sink, she picked up the fallen remote, and walked over to Negaduck.

"We need to get out of here, now!" she said nervously. "Get us back, Negs!"

Negaduck turned, glanced at the remote, then at Crimson. He raised an eyebrow, wearing a neutral expression.

"I don't think so." he said, grabbing the remote, and kicking Crimson in the stomach again, before turning to run.

"No, Negs, you don't understand!" Crimson yelled racing after him. "Trust me, you don't want to be here!"

"Who said I was going to stay here?" Negaduck called back, ducking into an alley.

"No way you're leaving me here!" Crimson exclaimed, catching on to Negaduck's plan and redoubling her pace.

But as she exited the alley in another street, she slowed when a shadow was cast over her from above. Hesitantly, she looked up, to see a large, dark, robot hanging over her.

"You are in violation of eight o'clock curfew." it announced monotonously. "Crime is punishable by sentencing in prison. You are to be placed under arrest."

"Fat chance!" Crimson exclaimed, and began running again.

"Warning, suspected criminal on the run from crime alpha-one-three-beta." the robot announced as it followed. "Giving pursuit. Requesting backup, and relay information to superior."

Crimson ran faster, catching up with Negaduck. "Go, Negs, go!" she said, on the verge of panic.

Negaduck gave her an odd look, looking behind him at her. "Hey, what...whoa." Seeing the robot, he also redoubled his pace. "Let's get evasive." he said, and suddenly veered out into the empty street.

Crimson, not thinking, followed.

The robot did also. "Criminal now joined by cohort." it stated. "Caught jaywalking, filing crime delta-two-four-gamma to list. Still pursuing."

"Yeah?" Negaduck said, overhearing, and suddenly stopping, drawing his pistol. "Pursue this!"

He fired at the robot, and this time the pistol actually did fire. The bullet ricocheted off the robot's large, black, metal bill, and smashed into one of it's red, glowing, eyes.

"Warning, cohort is armed and dangerous." the robot said as it slowed for a moment, as if to assess it's damage for a moment. "Has opened fire upon unit two-two-three. Filing crime ceti-five-seven-alpha to list." it paused, watching Negaduck and Crimson duck into a nearby alley. "Unit two-two-three has received new orders. Breaking chase. Request for backup belayed."

"Ha!" Negaduck whooped, running down the alley. "I sure showed him!"

But he screeched to a halt as he exited the alley, causing Crimson to run into him. Negaduck hardly noticed as he watched the large tank before him come to a stop. It's hatched sprang open, and released a cloud of blue smoke, and Crimson heard a phrase she had hoped to never hear again.

"I am the terror that hunts in the night! I am the jackal that picks at your bones! I am Darkwarrior Duck!"

* * *

The figure emerged from the smoke, looking remarkably like the Darkwing they both knew well. But the clothing this person wore was several shades darker than Darkwing's traditional costume. His hands were gloved, and wore black army boots over his webbed feet. Over his chest was spiked armor. And the figure's eyes were twisted into an evil look, glowing red.

It was nightmare come true for Crimson.

Negaduck was of an entirely different opinion. "Dark_warrior _Duck, huh?" he quipped. "Some name. Like always, you have no originality."

Darkwarrior twitched, like he was trying to resist the urge to strangle Negaduck. "Have we met?" he asked in a strained voice.

"No." Negaduck said. "But before the night's over, you'll know me very well."

Darkwarrior was unfazed by the vow. "Yes we will." he said. "You two have just committed three serious crimes in five minutes, including firing at one of my robot assistants." he frowned. "No one does that and gets away with it without some kind of punishment."

Negaduck gave Darkwarrior an odd look, like he was suddenly recessing his opinions of his adversary. "Sounds evil." he commented.

"Evil." Darkwarrior snorted. "A word that has little meaning here in St. Canard."

"I suppose you haven't looked at yourself, then." Negaduck remarked, a sly grin spreading on his face that Crimson didn't like.

Darkwarrior ignored the comment. "Usually, I give criminals like the pair of you the death sentence..."

"Death sentence?" Negaduck and Crimson repeated together.

"Isn't that a little harsh?" Negaduck asked, surprisingly. "I mean, I know that one has to be extra strict about rules, but even I know when there's too much."

"...but I will be relenting just this once." Darkwarrior continued undeterred. He leaned down to look at his prey. "Because I have some very important questions to ask you. If you talk willingly, I promise the punishment will be quite painless."

Crimson gulped at this statement, hiding behind Negaduck, ironically.

Negaduck snorted. "You think we'll just go with you willingly?" he asked, hardly believing it.

"Not think, know." Darkwarrior corrected, pulling out some rope and climbing down from the tank.

"You'll have to catch me first." Negaduck challenged.

It was then that Crimson decided to look around. "Um, Negs?" Crimson said hesitantly. "He already did."

Surrounding the pair were several more of Darkwarrior's robots, having snuck up there without their noticing. All of them had their weapons activated and pointed straight at them. Negaduck and Crimson exchanged looks. Crimson raised her hands into the air, not wanting to spark a fight they couldn't win. She nudged Negaduck to do the same. Negaduck shot her an annoyed glance, but relented.

Darkwarrior smiled approvingly. "Very good choice." he said. He tossed the rope to a nearby robot. "Relieve them of all of their suspicious items, tie 'em up, and put them in the tank." he ordered, climbing back up on the tank. "We're going to go someplace special."

Crimson gulped, already having an idea of what that place was.

* * *

She was proven right. The tank was heading straight for Canard Tower, but it wasn't the Canard Tower they knew in the Posiverse or the Negaverse. The original structure had been added several more stories to tower much taller than any other building in St. Canard. In the upper levels of this monolith was Darkwarrior's hideout. Although, Crimson wasn't entirely sure if it was a hideout anymore. It's location was publically known, a luxury Darkwarrior had, because crime rates were probably below zero here.

"A good thing, yes." Crimson said to herself. "But for what price?"

"Talking to yourself, now, are we?" Negaduck remarked flatly, struggling against the rope that bound them back to back.

"Oh hush, you don't know half the story of all this." Crimson replied, annoyed.

"All I know is that this Darkwarrior has real potential, but is wasting it on crime fighting." Negaduck said. "This place is far too...perfect. Needs a villain to mess things up a bit."

"Unfortunately, everyone fears Darkwarrior too much to even dare." Crimson remarked.

Negaduck glanced over to where Darkwarrior sat driving the high-tech tank to see if he was listening. Once he was sure that Darkwarrior wasn't he glanced at Crimson. "How do you know so much about this guy, anyway?" he asked.

"It's a very long story." Crimson replied. "And not a very pretty one."

"Well, good, I don't like pretty stories." Negaduck muttered.

"You don't get it, do you?" Crimson asked. "This is going to be the very last place you're going to want to stay at, Negs. You think Darkwing's bad? Well, I assure you, Darkwarrior's ten times worse." she struggled against the rope for a moment herself. "Speaking of which, how did we get here, anyway?"

"It was the portal, doing what it was supposed to." Negaduck replied. "Creating a transdimensional portal from the Posiverse to the Negaverse isn't as easy a pushing a button you know. Things have to be properly calibrated. That calibration was thrown off in our fight earlier. Too many stupid buttons were pushed on my remote. So when the portal was activated, it connected the Posiverse with this universe."

"So this is another, entirely different, parallel universe?" Crimson asked.

"Sure, there are plenty out there." Negaduck grumbled.

"A Darkwarrior Universe." Crimson remarked.

"I was actually thinking of Warriorverse being it's official name, but I guess beggars can't be choosers." Negaduck remarked. "Only problem I see with all this, though, is that we're the only ones who know we ended up here."

"You're right!" Crimson exclaimed, shocked at this realization. "That means the others have no clue where to look."

"Right." Negaduck said, still struggling with his bonds. "But why am I telling you all this? You're my enemy!"

"Like that's going to matter here!" Crimson pointed out. "Like it or not, we're probably going to have to work together to get out of this."

"Ha, fat chance." Negaduck said. "I wouldn't be caught dead working with you."

"Oh really?" Crimson asked. "Then what about the time Bad Guy was attacking back home? You were willing to work with us then!"

"That was under special circumstances." Negaduck insisted. "A matter of life and death for us all. Besides, he was going to destroy the world I'm planning to take over. Darkwarrior there can't even _get _to our...er...your universe."

"And again, I have to question your thinking." Crimson said. "For example, where _is _your remote?"

"Um..." Negaduck began, and shifted around for a moment, feeling his pockets. He couldn't find it. "Drat, those blasted robots took it!" he exclaimed.

"Exactly!" Crimson said. "Darkwarrior has it! And whether he can get us to talk or not, he'll eventually figure out how it works, and eventually get to my universe _and _yours, too!"

Negaduck grumbled incoherently for a moment.

"Well?" Crimson asked expectantly.

"This doesn't mean _I'm _going to work with _you _just to escape!" Negaduck insisted.

"Suit yourself." Crimson said, seeing that she was probably going to have to work alone on this one.

The tank arrived at the base of Canard Tower. Darkwarrior flipped a switch, and a door opened. The tank drove right into it, the door closing behind it. Heading along a dimly lit corridor for a few moments, the tank finally stopped in a small, rectangular room. Crimson looked around, but her view was blocked; she could only see straight ahead, out the tank's front window.

But something above them moved. A moment later, the tank started to move upward. Crimson realized that they were on a kind of elevator, and were heading right up the Darkwarrior's hideout. The ride was surprisingly short, the elevator coming to a halt in some lower level of the hideout. Darkwarrior unstrapped himself from his seat and started to climb out of the tank, leaving Crimson and Negaduck where they were.

"Hey!" Negaduck exclaimed. "What about us?"

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be back." Darkwarrior assured them poking his head back into the tank. "Now don't go anywhere. Oh wait, you can't, can you?" Laughing, he vanished from view.

Negaduck let out a frustrated growl. "I would _so _like to strangle that guy!" he grumbled.

The two struggled with their bonds for a moment, before they froze, hearing a humming noise.

"What's that?" Negaduck asked.

They found out quickly enough. A much smaller version of Darkwarrior's robots had slid into the tank through the open hatch, and moved to hover over Crimson and Negaduck. Slowly, it lowered a pole that slid between Crimson's and Negaduck's backs, pushing them apart enough that the rope that held them bound tightened it's hold. They were now tied to either side of the pole.

The robot paused for a moment, the started to fly back out of the tank, taking Crimson and Negaduck with. Crimson was secretly hoping that they would slide off the pole holding them here, but they did not. Darkwarrior was watching all of this from outside the tank. He nodded approvingly.

"Good." he said to the robot. "Now follow me."

He walked up a flight of stairs, heading for the upper levels of the hideout. The robot obediently followed, flying high enough that Crimson and Negaduck's feet left the floor. Finally they arrived in a room Crimson recognized instantly. The main control room of Darkwarrior's hideout. She had been here once before, when she had accidently traveled into the future years back and saw her vacancy during those years she had skipped had brought about Darkwarrior. She wondered if something similar had happened here, in this universe.

Looking distracted, Darkwarrior wandered off to a nearby control panel, pulling of his hat, but leaving his mask on. Without speaking, he gestured to the spot he wanted the robot to take it's load. It obeyed, going to hover over that spot, but did not release the two prisoners. Negaduck looked annoyed at this, but was otherwise silent.

Finally, Darkwarrior returned, carrying a tray of items, which he set on a table. Crimson, who was the one facing towards him, saw it was all the items that had been taken from her and Negaduck. Darkwarrior turned to look at Crimson, hands on his hips. He frowned.

"Have we met before?" he asked. "You look familiar."

This confirmed in Crimson's mind that there had indeed been a Gosalyn Mallard once in this universe. Still, playing it safe, Crimson answered no, that they had not met.

Darkwarrior didn't seem convinced. He rubbed his beak for a moment. "I don't believe you." he finally stated, looking Crimson up and down.

Crimson feared for a moment that Darkwarrior was going to inquire as to who she was, or worse, force her to remove her mask and reveal who she really was, but Darkwarrior only shook his head.

"I'll get back to you." he said. "I'll deal with the other guy first."

The robot, listening, turned so that Negaduck now faced Darkwarrior, and Crimson now faced away, pointing towards the nearby glass wall.

"Alright, we'll start simply." Darkwarrior told Negaduck. "Name?"

"Negaduck." came the gruff reply. Crimson was glad Negs had enough sense to not reveal his real name. She wasn't sure how well Darkwarrior would react to the fact he was talking to his double. Right now, it seemed he hadn't noticed.

"Good." Darkwarrior said, when he got the reply he wanted. "Now, can you explain to me what this is?" he pulled something out to show to Negaduck. Crimson tried to see what, but her view was blocked by Negaduck's red hat.

"I don't know, you tell me." Negaduck replied.

Darkwarrior sighed. "It's an energy signature, doofus." he said. "A pretty unique one at that."

Crimson squeezed her eyes shut and bit back the sigh about to escape her lips. Darkwarrior was talking about the portal they had arrived in. He must of detected the massive amounts of energy it produced.

Negaduck decided to play dumb. "So what does this have to do with me?" he asked. "I don't know what that energy signature _is_."

"Oh, yes you do." Darkwarrior said, not buying it. "Now tell me!"

Negaduck remained silent. Darkwarrior suddenly slapped Negaduck with the back of his hand.

"Tell me!" he asked again.

"No!" Negaduck replied. "I can't tell you what I don't know!"

Darkwarrior still didn't seem convinced, but relented, setting aside whatever object he had now, and swapped it out with another from the tray of items. Crimson could see this object, and saw with dismay that it was Negaduck's transdimensional portal remote.

"Maybe you can tell me what this is, then." Darkwarrior said. "I know you know for this object, because it was found on you."

"Well, I don't." Negaduck replied.

_Slap!_

"Tell me!"

"No!"

_Slap!_

"Tell me now!"

"Go to h..."

Darkwarrior slapped Negaduck again before Negaduck could finish that sentence. "Tell me, before I take a buzz saw to you!" he roared.

_Buzz saw?_ Crimson thought realizing that she had something of hers that Darkwarrior _hadn't _taken. Wiggling around, she fumbled for the buzz saw cufflink on her right wrist. After a moment, she had it activated, and the circular blade snapped open, nearly cutting Crimson. Carefully, activating it to turn at a slow rate so Darkwarrior wouldn't hear, she began to cut the rope that bound her and Negaduck.

Meanwhile, Negaduck's unwillingness to talk was earning him quite a beating.

"I don't know!" Negaduck continued to lie, his face starting to bruise under the beating.

"Yes, you do!" Darkwarrior persisted. "And I _will _find out what it is, soon enough!"

But whatever it was, they didn't find out, for at that moment, the rope snapped, freeing Negaduck and Crimson. The moment the rope released him, Negaduck was on Darkwarrior, trying to strangle him. The robot hovering over them all reacted by firing some kind of laser. It hit Negaduck's hat, knocking it clear off his head, scorching it pretty severely to the point it was unwearable. Negaduck, the tips of the feathers on his balding head singed , scowled at the robot, tossed the fighting Darkwarrior aside, then grabbed his pistol from the tray of items.

He fired it repeatedly at the robot, forcing the robot to back down. Crimson used this chance to run forward and retrieve her captured items. Negaduck did likewise, grabbing the fallen remote in the process, before turning and shooting out the window Crimson had been staring out.

"Stop, I command you!" Darkwarrior shouted, moving to intervene.

Crimson fired off a couple canisters of smoke in his direction, blocking him from view. Then, already seeing what Negaduck probably had in mind, dove out the broken window. She let herself fall for a few feet outside the tower, before firing off her gas gun's grappling hook, feeling it stop her fall with a jolt as it latched onto something. Negaduck soon followed in a likewise manner.

"Despite what it looks like, that wasn't a team effort!" he exclaimed.

"Whatever you say!" Crimson replied, swing to land in a small alcove in the building's architecture.

She had expected Negaduck to follow, but apparently he found another way, because he was longer anywhere in sight. He had vanished. Taking the only way home with him.

* * *

Figuring out where Negaduck was going, however, wasn't the hard part. Crimson, once she was safely back on the ground, and had escaped Darkwarrior's robot henchmen as they sought her and Negaduck for the moment, noticed that Darkwarrior's St. Canard had a slightly different layout that the one she was familiar with. The major landmarks such as Canard Tower and Audubon Bay Bridge were still around, but the more little things such as the Hamburger Hippo on the corner of second south and the Fearsome Five warehouse hideout were not.

As such, it was hard to tell where you were standing in relation to St. Canard back home. Opening a portal anywhere here would mean that you had no real idea where you might end up, and in the case of Negaduck, he risked ending up somewhere undesirable. Chances were good that Negaduck would try to go home in a place he knew where his chances of getting away were good.

And Crimson only knew of two. The old office building Negaduck had previously used, which not only didn't still stand in this universe, but was also under SHUSH control in the Posiverse. That just left the Fearsome Five warehouse hideout, which, despite it having been captured, was probably Negaduck's best bet.

That was of course presuming that Negaduck tried to go back to the Posiverse. He could try to go to the Negaverse. But whatever the case, it was imperative that Crimson tracked him down before he left, otherwise she would be trapped here forever, living in one of her worse nightmares. And she didn't want that.

Still thinking that the location they had arrived at was her best bet of finding Negaduck, Crimson hurried along the barren and empty streets of St. Canard, being careful to avoid detection from the robots that seemed to be the only living thing around in the city. Getting close, she increased her pace, watching the sky more than where she was walking.

As such, she failed to notice she was about to walk into someone until too late, and they slammed into each other. Crimson overbalanced, and toppled over onto her back. The person she had ran into panicked slightly.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going!" she said, working to not drop the shopping bag she carried.

"It's okay." Crimson said, picking herself up and brushing dust from her costume. "I wasn't either."

She went to look at the newcomer, and saw she was looking at herself, and nearly freaked out. One would think, seeing that this kind of thing seemed to happen frequently with NegaGosalyn running around back home, that she would've gotten used to this by now, but Crimson was surprised nonetheless.

The Gosalyn standing before her would've been almost identical to Crimson were Crimson out of costume, but she wore a purple blouse with no extra designs on it and black dress pants, a big contrast to Crimson's casual purple jersey and blue jeans she wore when out of costume. This Gosalyn also wore her hair in a long, red, ponytail, a big difference to Crimson's short two pigtails. She also seemed very shy, and looked to be very uncomfortable being near Crimson.

"I'm sorry." Crimson said in apology to their collision.

"No, I should be sorry." Gosalyn replied, looking around nervously. "If Darkwarrior finds out about this..."

Crimson was going to say that probably even Darkwarrior wouldn't care too much about this, but then thought against it, as she couldn't confirm that. She then thought about something else entirely. "Hey wait, why are you out and about?" Crimson asked. "Isn't there an eight o'clock curfew?"

"Yes, but me and my father are exempt from it, and we needed groceries." Gosalyn replied.

"Your father?" Crimson repeated, wondering if this Gosalyn hadn't ended up getting adopted by Darkwarrior like she had been thinking for the past half-minute after she had realized who it was she was talking to.

"Mm-hmm." Gosalyn replied softly. "My adopted father, Drake Mallard. He works with Darkwarrior."

So much for that theory. But then Crimson realized something else. "Wait." she said. "He just _works _for Darkwarrior?"

"That's right." Gosalyn replied, puzzled.

Crimson now realized something else. This Gosalyn didn't know Darkwarrior was really her adopted father. But this caused another alarm. This Darkwarrior didn't become this way because Gosalyn had vanished without a trace, like that last time Crimson encountered Darkwarrior. He became this way, even though he still had Gosalyn as his adopted daughter.

Was Darkwing back in the Posiverse at risk of doing the same thing?

"Who are you?" Gosalyn asked suddenly.

"Er..." Crimson said, hesitating, unsure if she should unveil her identity to her double.

"You aren't a criminal, are you?" Gosalyn asked, starting to panic. "Keen gear, you are, aren't you? That's why you're so funnily dressed!"

"Alright, I _am _on the run!" Crimson admitted. "But I'm not a criminal! Darkwarrior only thinks I am, and is trying to frame me for crimes I didn't commit."

"You must have deserved it, then." Gosalyn said calmly.

This caught Crimson off guard. "You don't support Darkwarrior, do you?" she asked.

"Darkwarrior's methods may seem violent, but he has made St. Canard virtually crime free." Gosalyn admitted with a shrug.

"Yes, but at what cost?" Crimson asked. "You're safe from criminals, but not Darkwarrior! You're all living in fear of him!"

Gosalyn didn't answer right away. "There are some things we all have to sacrifice for the greater good." she finally stated.

"Greater _good_?" Crimson repeated, finding it hard to believe her own double had these beliefs. "What could there possibly be good about all of..." she trailed off, as she saw two of Darkwarrior's robots appear behind Gosalyn, stop as they saw Crimson, and change their courses to intercept.

"Uh oh." Crimson said, backing up. "I'm in for it now."

"As it should be." Gosalyn said. "Darkwarrior knows what he's doing."

The robots whizzed past her, and headed straight for Crimson.

"Freeze, you are under arrest." they said together.

Crimson thought for a split second, then raced forward, heading along the path she had been taking before she bumped into her double. The robots followed, reporting that their target was on the run. Pushing past Gosalyn, Crimson saw that her only hope was to find Negaduck and get out of here before the robots caught her.

She was already very close, so, running as fast as she could to stay ahead of the robots that were rapidly gaining on her, Crimson pressed on. Finally, she arrived at the spot she had arrived in this universe. And standing there, working with his remote as predicted, was Negaduck.

"Negs!" Crimson said in relief. "I never thought I'd say this, but boy am I glad to see you!"

Negaduck, hearing her voice, looked up, and blinked when he saw the robots pursuing her, having been joined by three others to make a grand total of five.

"Oh great, you've brought me more trouble." he grumbled.

Crimson, however, was looking past him. "We're going to be in ever more trouble if you don't open that portal soon!"

She pointed past him, at an aircraft that was rapidly approaching them. It was the Darkwarrior equivalent of the Thunderquack, armed to the teeth, and rapidly approaching. Darkwarrior was guaranteed to be behind it's wheel.

Negaduck seemed torn over his options. "Who says you were coming along?" he asked.

The remote started to beep, indicating that the portal was ready. Crimson looked around, saw the robots gaining on them, arming their own weapons, and the Warriorquack lowering a missile, getting ready to fire. It was then that Crimson took matters into her own hands.

She lunged for the remote, grabbing it, while Negaduck grabbed back, and pressed the activation button. The portal flared into life. The first shot was fired, exploding nearby. Negaduck pushed Crimson aside, and ran for the portal. Crimson quickly recovered, and raced after him, avoiding weapons fire as weapons began shooting all over at them.

Just as Negaduck was about to dive into the portal, Crimson grabbed onto him, and they both tumbled into the portal.

Crimson didn't pay attention to the ride, just hoping she would get home safe. They landed with a thump on the floor of a warehouse. Untangling herself from Negaduck, Crimson started to stand, but Negaduck was faster, quickly grabbing her by the neck and holding her in front of him.

It was then that Crimson noticed gratefully that they were surrounded by armed SHUSH commandos, Grizzlikof, and Darkwing.

"Negs, let her go!" Darkwing demanded, raising his gas gun.

"I don't think so, Darkwing!" Negaduck said, holding tight.

"Let her go, or I _will _shoot!" Darkwing promised.

Negaduck hesitated, then finally, seeing he was outnumbered anyway, shoved Crimson at Darkwing. Crimson instantly latched onto Darkwing, pulling him into a hug. Darkwing was caught off guard by this, but Crimson didn't care. She was just glad to she her dad again.

Grizzlikof had taken control of the situation. "You lose, Negaduck!" he said, stepping forward. "Hand over the remote, and come quietly."

"Ah, but quietly isn't a word in _my _dictionary!" Negaduck said, reaching into his pocket and pulling something out.

He threw it at the floor, and it erupted into a red cloud of smoke. The commandos all fired at the same time, but their shots hit nothing. As the smoke cleared, it was quite obvious that Negaduck was gone, escaped once again.

"Drat, NegaCrimson escaped the same way." Darkwing grumbled, pulling Crimson off of him. "Liki got away too, but at least we got the rest of the Fearsome Five arrested."

"And even I must admit that SHUSH could not have done it without you, Darkwing." Grizzlikof admitted reluctantly.

"I thought the price for it was a little too high for a moment, there, though." Darkwing said, looking at Crimson. "We were just about to mount a rescue party into the Negaverse to get you, you know."

"I figured as much." Crimson said. "But you could have searched that entire universe twice if you wanted, and you wouldn't have found me."

"What, you mean to say you weren't in the Negaverse after all?" Darkwinag asked.

"No."

"Then where were you?"

Crimson hesitated. "Let's just say that it's good to be back, and that I won't have to worry about where I've been ever again." she said. Then, looking at the closing portal, added, "I hope."

* * *

As the portal closed in the Darkwarrior Universe, a scanner was scanning it. Finally, just as the portal blinked out of sight, the scanner completed it's scan, flashing the related message on the screen. His face reflected in the screen of the scanner, Darkwarrior Duck smiled...


	18. The Elements

Summary: While checking out old abandoned FOWL facilities, FOUL finds something interesting...

Rating for this adventure: K+

Author's Note: This is an interesting chpt because Darkwing and the gang actually hardly appear at all in it. Instead, this focuses more on the bad guys (specifically FOUL). I feel I could have ended this chpt a bit better (the ending feels rushed) but it's satisfactory enough. and there is a brief (and probably cheesy) reference to Fantasic Four, because it was one of those moments in which I just couldn't resist. Anyway, enjoy. :)

18.

The Elements

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Director Hooter from SHUSH just called. We're to come to his office to be debriefed on a 'grave situation', as he put it."_

_--_

"_Ah, Darkwing, glad you came so quickly."_

"_Pleasure's all mine, J. Gander. What's up?"_

"_Something you probably should've been the first to see, Darkwing."_

"_I don't like that tone. What's happened?"_

"_Several things, Miss Avenger. But we shall begin with an event that occurred two months ago."_

"_Which is?"_

"_The mass breakout of the St. Canard Supervillain Prison."_

_--_

"_But there is one thing about that event that you do not know about."_

"_Which is?"_

"_Someone else escaped the prison that day as well."_

_--_

_Darkwing, Crimson, Techno, and even Launchpad gasped as they recognized the figure who came to the cell's entrance, looked around, then fled down the unguarded hallway..._

_--_

"_I presume then you recognize who that prisoner was."_

"_Steelbeak. Former agent for FOWL."_

_--_

"_We have received a message from Steelbeak himself. He wishes to speak with, surprisingly enough, you, Darkwing, on neutral grounds under a white flag."_

_--_

"_Hey, hey, hey! I'm unarmed! Is this really the hello I get after not seein' ya all in seven some odd years? Don't I at least get a 'how are ya' or somethin'?"_

"_No."_

"_Now what do you want?"_

"_Would ya believe it was just t' say hi?"_

"_No."_

"_Well, yer right. Get 'em boys!"_

_--_

"_Wait a minute Steelbeak! What was this all about, if you were just going to flee?"_

"_Oh, I almost forgot! I wanted t' make an announcement! Here, check out my business card!"_

"_F-O-U-L?"_

"_The Fiendish Organization for United Larceny?"_

"_What's in a name? And anyway, couldn't be FOWL, cause High Command trademarked th' name. So, if I was gonna be president of a similar organization, I needed a new name!"_

"_President?"_

"_That's right! Leader of my own larcenist organization now! Yeh'll have t' deal with a new FOUL now! Different name, but same soundin' acronym, heh-heh-heh!"_

_--_

"_Too bad Steelbeak got away, though."_

_--_

"_Hmm, a FOUL run by Steelbeak."_

"_Seems odd, doesn't it Techno?"_

* * *

In the depths of the Sahara Desert, a small luxury jet zoomed over the desert, coming down to land seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The hatch opened, and a staircase unfolded down from that hatch. Stepping out of the plane, Steelbeak blinked in the sudden change in lighting, and pulled at the collar of his white tuxedo.

"Gee, I miss the nice air conditioned interior of the plane already." Steelbeak grumbled, stepping down the staircase. "Where are we again, Edward?"

Steelbeak was followed by a single Eggman, but this one was dressed in a much more flashy and formal yellow suit than his more common counterparts, and was several feet shorter than Steelbeak. "The Sahara Desert, sir." he answered Steelbeak's question. "Several miles from any cities or civilization."

"Sheesh, that would explain a lot." Steelbeak said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Weren't we here just last week?"

"Yes sir." The Eggman, Edward, replied. He didn't seem bothered by the heat as they trudged through the desert sand. "Our predecessor, FOWL, established many secret facilities here, because of the harsh environment the Sahara supports."

"The Antarctic supports a harsh environment." Steelbeak pointed out. "Why couldn't we go there once or twice?"

"We did, sir." Edward replied. "And you vowed to never return because of the cold."

"Well, right now, all that extreme cold sounds very good at the moment." Steelbeak said, glaring up at the merciless sun. "Heck, back home would even be preferred over this. It'd be cooler there."

"Very much so, sir." Edward said, flipping through some papers. "In fact, I just got word that St. Canard received an inch of snow today."

"Some snow would be nice right about now." Steelbeak agreed. "All right, but down to business. What's today's secret lab that we're checkin' out?"

"Unknown, sir." Edward replied. "FOWL left very little information about it, hence why SHUSH never discovered it. I can confirm, however, that some kind of science experiment was under way here, and there were volunteer test subjects involved."

"That's it?" Steelbeak asked. "C'mon Edward, give me somethin' more than that t' chew on."

"Sorry sir, the FOWL records we recovered only tell so much." Edward stated. "That is why you've been sending teams of Eggmen to explore each and every one of these abandoned facilities that SHUSH has never found."

"In hopes that we'd find somethin' neat t' have fun with." Steelbeak said. "I ain't gonna waste my time checkin' out a base that's got nothin' in it."

"The preliminary report the team of Eggmen filed when they gained access to the lab indicated they had found some interesting stuff." Edward offered, trying to be helpful.

"Not good enough. Edward, I made ya my second in command so ya could work this stuff out." Steelbeak said. "I'm a busy guy, can't afford t' go wastin' my time."

"Speaking of which, sir, I have confirmed that SHUSH, with the help of Darkwing Duck, _has _thrown the Sinister Seven..."

"It's Fearsome Five, Edward, regardless of what the press says." Steelbeak interrupted. "Ol' Negsy isn't about t' change the name, even though it don't make sense anymore."

"Whatever the case sir, four of the seven members of the group _are _in jail, and have yet to escape." Edward said. "I believe this Darkwing Duck could be a greater threat that you give him credit for, sir."

"Dorkwing? Are ya kiddin' me Edward? I could've nabbed him last time we met. Ya weren't there t' see it, though, so ya wouldn't know." Steelbeak suddenly stopped his walking, looking around at the barren landscape. "Where is this base, anyways?"

Edward looked up from the papers he was sorting. "I'm not sure, sir." he replied.

"You're not sure?" Steelbeak said. "I though ya was leadin' the way?"

"With all due respect sir, I was following you."

"Well, I was followin' ya, too! Don't tell me we're lost!"

"No sir, the jet is only twelve feet that way." Edward pulled out a report from the stack of papers he carried and skimmed through it. "If it helps any, sir, the preliminary report says that the base is underground."

"So all we have t' do is find the entrance."

"Correct sir. I'm sure FOWL left a marker around here somewhere."

"X doesn't mark the spot, Edward, I saw that in a movie once. And besides, I've got a better idea." he took a deep breath, and yelled in his loudest voice, "EGGMAN!"

The white-helmeted head of one of the expendable workmen poked up through the sand under Steelbeak's feet, who jumped back in surprise.

"You called sir?" he asked in a nasal voice.

"Just wonderin' where this lab I've heard so _little_ about is." Steelbeak replied.

"Oh, then right this way, sir." the Eggman replied, and swept the sand away from the area around him, revealing a buried entrance, before climbing down a ladder into the facility itself.

Steelbeak motioned to the entrance. "After you, Edward." he said cordially.

His 2IC nodded, and climbed down the ladder, leaving Steelbeak to come down last. He found himself in a small, steel-plated, room. It was little by a single lightbulb, and had three, heavy metal doors branching off of the one room, two of which were open. Menial Eggmen filled this one room.

Steelbeak looked around a second longer before saying anything. "Kinda cramped, dontcha think?" he remarked to no one in particular.

"FOWL worried more about keeping it's secrets safe, than guaranteeing comfort, sir." Edward replied automatically.

Steelbeak glanced at him. "That was a _rhetorical _question, Edward."

"Oh. My apologies, sir."

"Don't mention it." Steelbeak sought out the commanding officer of the party of Eggmen. "Report!" he barked once he found him.

The commanding Eggman jumped at the sound of Steelbeak's exclamation, and quickly saluted. "Yes sir!" he said, and made his report. "We've secured the facility, and restored power, sir! The main generator is in there!" he pointed to one of the open doors, leading into what looked like a maintenance room. "It was perfectly intact, sir. One merely had to throw a switch."

"Good, I like it when things are easy." Steelbeak said. "What else do ya got?"

"We've also found the computer core, sir, which had contained all of the records." the Eggman commander continued, pointing to the other open door, leading into a room lined with computers.

"Great!" Steelbeak said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's go check 'em out!"

"Um, you can't sir." the Eggman commander said, stopping his superior.

Steelbeak glared at him. "And why not?"

"The computer core is empty." the Eggman explained. "There's no data on it whatsoever."

"But I thought ya said that's where all the records where?" Steelbeak objected, confused.

"He said where they all _had _been, sir." Edward explained, who had listened more attentively.

"Oh." Steelbeak said, slightly embarrassed. "Then, where _are _the records?"

"There aren't any, sir, they've all been wiped." the Eggman commander explained.

"Wiped?" Steelbeak repeated. "Ya mean deleted?"

"Yes sir, done according to clause three-two-two-alpha in the original FOWL regulations." the Eggman commander said matter-of-factly.

"Clause three-two-two...ya mean t' say that FOWL _abandoned _this facility?" Steelbeak asked in disbelief. He glanced at Edward for an explanation.

Edward, after quickly skimming through the collection of papers he carried, merely shrugged. "It wasn't in the recovered FOWL records, sir." he said simply. "I presume, however, that the facility was most likely abandoned and locked down when SHUSH disbanded FOWL seven years ago."

"Right, to keep whatever was here secret and safe, in hopes of comin' back t' it." Steelbeak said, remembering his FOWL regulations well. "The question I'd like t' have answer to, though," he said, turning back to the Eggman commander, "is what that somethin' is?"

"We're not quite sure sir, but we're presuming it's all behind this door." the Eggman said, leading them to the third, and closed door.

"Okay, then, let's see what's behind it." Steelbeak said, motioning to the commander to open the door.

"We can't sir." the Eggman commander objected. "It's locked."

"Then _un_lock it!" Steelbeak prompted, losing his patience.

"No, you don't understand sir." the Eggman commander said, pointing to a nearby control panel. "The door requires a DNA scan from a member of High Command. Only one of the three members of High Command can have access to whatever is behind this door."

"_Only _High Command?" Steelbeak repeated. His eyes suddenly sparkled greedily. "Well, that means they had somethin' _big _goin' on in there!" he thought for a moment, surveying the situation. "I want t' see what it is." he whined, throwing his weight against the door. "Maybe we can force the door open." But the door didn't budge.

"We already tried that, sir." the Eggman commander stated.

Steelbeak thought for another moment, then snapped his fingers as he got another idea. "C4!" he exclaimed, turning to Edward.

Edward blinked in alarm. "Sir, you can't blow open the door!" he objected. "You have no idea what is beyond that door! An explosion could damage whatever is in there!"

"If ya got a better idea, I'd like t' hear it!" Steelbeak remarked, annoyed.

Edward frowned, but dejectedly reached into his pocket and handed Steelbeak a small amount of the plastic explosive. Steelbeak liberally plastered the substance to the door, then slapped a small detonator on it. Taking the remote from Edward, he walked into one of the open rooms nearby, and motioned for the others to do the same. After ordering the other Eggmen wandering around into the room, Steelbeak pressed the ignite button.

A loud roar rang out, followed by a loud thud. Stepping back out into the smoke filled room, Steelbeak grinned victoriously as he saw that the door had toppled over, and that nothing within the room beyond was damaged.

"Ha!" he said happily to Edward, who simply rolled his eyes.

The Eggman commander quickly rallied his forces together and stepped into the room, looking around. A few moments later, he returned.

"It's secure, sir." he said.

"Like there would be any doubt." Steelbeak said, anxious to see what was in there and rushed right on in, Edward following.

The room was rather small, and the walls were lined with mechanical equipment. Against the room's far wall were four glass canisters, completely fogged up with condensation, making it impossible to see what was within them. Branching off the one room where four more rooms, all identical with a cot and a small supply of medical equipment in each.

Steelbeak shivered in the room's surprising chill. "Y'know, some heat would be nice right about now." he remarked to Edward.

"Yes sir." Edward simply replied, deciding against pointing out that Steelbeak had wished for the cooler temperature less than a half-hour ago.

"Any idea what went on here, sir?" the commanding Eggman asked, peering into each of the four rooms in turn.

"Nope." Steelbeak admitted. "This was one project High Command kept me out of, even though I _was _their top agent." he glanced at the four glass canisters, noting their dimensions, and suddenly got a weird feeling. "Edward, ya said that there were test subjects involved in this project, whatever it was." he said, turning to his 2IC. "Any idea how many?"

"No sir." Edward replied. "Why?"

"Because I think I know where they are." Steelbeak said, and stepped up to the nearest canister. Wiping away some of the condensation, he peered inside.

And inside the canister was a male duck of average height, asleep, and had been perfectly preserved for seven years in cryogenic stasis...

* * *

Now very intrigued, and curious as to what was so important about these four test subjects that FOWL left them in cryogenic sleep for seven years, Steelbeak ordered that the canisters be opened, and it's occupants revived. All four were removed from their respective container, and moved to be placed in the four separate rooms, each one getting their own room.

In addition to the male duck, there was a female hare, a male fox, and another duck, this one female, with black hair pulled back into two pigtails. All four of them wore identical blue jumpsuits with the FOWL insignia stitched onto them. As all the equipment for reviving the four was already there at the facility, set and ready, it was easy work for the Eggmen to revive them. However, it wasn't until some time later that they actually began to regain consciousness. The male fox was first to awake, and thus was the first Steelbeak met with.

Lying on the cot, the fox awoke, and looked blearily around.

"Good morning." Steelbeak greeted.

The fox turned to look at Steelbeak. "Um, good morning." he said. "I think." he looked around. "Where am I? What happened?"

"You're in a FOWL laboratory." Edward replied automatically. "You've been in cryogenic sleep for the past seven years."

"I have?" the fox asked, stunned. "For seven years? Why?"

"Don't ya remember?" Steelbeak asked.

"No, n-not really." the fox admitted, thinking. "I remember entering a FOWL laboratory, I'm presuming this one, for some experiment and seeing a bunch of armed Eggmen, and after that..." he shrugged. "It's blank."

"We shouldn't be too surprised." The Eggman commander said. "Cryogenic sleep can cause lapses of memory."

"Will he ever get that memory back?" Steelbeak asked.

The commander shrugged. "It varies." he admitted.

"Well, maybe if you were to tell me what happened, it would jog my memory." the fox suggested.

"Would if I could, be we don't know ourselves." Steelbeak said with a sigh. "We was hopin' you'd tell us."

The fox shrugged. "I can't tell you what I don't remember." he pointed out. He squinted his eyes at Steelbeak for a moment, sitting up. "You're Agent Steelbeak." he suddenly announced.

"Well, actually, it's president, now." Steelbeak corrected proudly, then asked, "You know me?"

"Well, we haven't met face to face." the fox admitted. "But I know who you are. Your name was always at the top of the FOWL list of agents."

Steelbeak frowned, thinking. "Who are ya, anyway?" he asked.

"Jack O'Hara." the fox replied. "I was an agent for FOWL."

"That's right, now I remember ya!" Steelbeak said. "Ya were one of the more minor agents High Command employed. Accordin' t' the records, you were relieved of command for unknown reasons."

"That was merely the cover story." Jack explained. "I remember that this project, whatever it was, was very secret, and still very much experimental. High Command wanted to be sure it worked before they spread the word."

"What do ya remember?" Steelbeak asked.

"Everything, up to that one moment with the Eggmen." Jack said, thinking. "The seven years I guess that come after that point are blank."

"Well, tell us what ya do know about the project."

"It was going to be revolutionary, I remember High Command saying." Jack said. "A real breakthrough."

* * *

"A breakthrough?" Steelbeak asked, folding his arms. "How so?"

"That was the secret." the female duck, answering to the name of Elizabeth Guire, replied. "They wouldn't say, not until the day the testing began. But they promised that, providing that it worked, would change our status in FOWL's ranking system once and for all. And me, being a mere scientist that was assigned all the tedious and annoying tasks, it was very tempting."

"But there was a catch." Edward guessed.

"With FOWL, when isn't there?" Elizabeth asked. "This project was so secret, we were sworn to secrecy, even though we didn't know a thing about it. But they assured us that they were very confident it would work and work right, they just needed to test it. And if and when it did, High Command claimed to have big plans for us all."

"Ya keep sayin' 'us'." Steelbeak said. "Did ya know there were gonna be other test subjects?"

* * *

"Admittedly, no." the male duck, Garth Miner, said. "Not per say. But High Command hinted towards it, so I presumed there would be. I just didn't know who or how many."

"And ya still don't." Steelbeak guessed.

"Yes, I only remember first entering the facility." Garth admitted. "It's all blank after that."

"Ya aren't alone." Steelbeak said, thinking of the other three, who seemed to have the same problem with their memory. "But despite all this uncertainty, ya signed up anyway?"

"Like I said before, I was a mere Eggman before this project." Garth said. "I was looking for the benefits High Command was offering, and I trusted their reassurances that it was all very safe. I had no reason to doubt them."

"So ya signed up." Steelbeak summarized.

"I signed up." Garth confirmed with a nod. "All it took was writing my name on a piece of paper, and I was in."

* * *

"So what happened then?" Steelbeak asked.

"Well, for the next few bloomin' months, I kept on livin' the way I always lived." the female hare, Sally McHare, said in her curious British accent. "For awhile, I thought FOWL had forgotten about me. An' in my mind, it made sense. I was new recruit, hardly had any time on the field. Who'd think about someone like that, eh wot?"

She sighed, then continued. "I then got word that SHUSH was workin' at underminin' High Command. Rumor was that High Command was gettin' desperate. 'Round then, they contacted me, an' told me t' meet an official at the primary airstrip. Said they were ready t' begin the flippin' project."

"And ya just went, without asking questions?" Steelbeak asked.

"Oh, I jolly well asked questions alright." Sally assured him, waggling her long, slender ears at him. "Like, I asked wot had kept 'em. Didn't get much of a reply t' any of me questions, though. Said they had been busy makin' preparations, and left it at that. I started t' have second thoughts right about then, but I went anyway. Got in me plane, flew out to the secret lab in the Sahara, entered the lab and saw all those Eggmen, an' that's it. That's all I know."

Steelbeak frowned, rubbing his metal beak in thought. "Doesn't answer a whole lot." he muttered.

"So, seein' that I've been in this state of cyro-whatchamacallit sleep, wot have I missed durin' the past seven years?" Sally asked, curious.

"The rumors ya heard about SHUSH underminin' FOWL were true." Steelbeak explained. "By our estimates, FOWL went under only weeks after this mysterious project began. They locked down this whole facility when FOWL got disbanded, and it's been left untouched ever since then. That is, until now."

Sally looked around at Steelbeak, Edward, and the Eggman commander for a moment. "So wot organization are you three in?"

"FOUL." Steelbeak replied, distracted.

"But yeh just said FOWL got disbanded." Sally objected, confused.

"No, FOUL." Steelbeak said. "FOWL under new management."

Sally still looked confused.

"We're a part of the Fiendish Organization for United Larceny." Edward explained helpfully. "Steelbeak is the president of the organization."

"Officially went up just last month." Steelbeak added. "We're checkin' out all the leftover FOWL facilities that SHUSH hadn't found t' see what goodies we could get when we came across this place."

"Wotever this place is." Sally remarked.

"Right." Steelbeak agreed, turning to leave. "But I'm going t' get to the bottom of this, and I'll be Darkwing's uncle before I give up."

* * *

An hour later, Steelbeak was found pacing the room containing the computer core, as several Eggmen worked desperately to try and recover the deleted data.

"Anything?" Steelbeak asked.

"We're working as hard as we can, sir." the Eggman commander said, getting a prompt from another Eggman to search for any recovered data and finding none. "You do realize that we might not find anything, right sir?"

"There has t' be _somethin' _left." Steelbeak insisted. "If this project really was so important, and so secret, FOWL had t' have left somethin' behind. They wouldn't erase all the data on this project, particularly when they thought they was gonna come back t' it when things blew over."

"You know, he's right." Edward agreed, sitting in a corner, filing paperwork. "If FOWL had any hope of this project working, they would have kept a backup of the data."

"Maybe they had some hard copies lyin' around." Steelbeak suggested.

"There isn't a scrap of paper to be found anywhere in this facility, sir." the Eggman commander stated.

"Which means the only other place hard copies would've been kept was at FOWL HQ." Edward said.

"And they aren't there." Steelbeak said confidently. "That was the first place SHUSH hit; they would've found out about this place if there was any data on the project there."

"So why destroy all the data?" the Eggman commander asked. "If they were so sure they were going to come back to it..."

"Maybe they didn't lock this place down because they thought they were going to come back to this place." Edward suggested suddenly. "Maybe they locked it down to keep whatever was here from getting out."

Steelbeak froze, and stared at Edward. "That had better be a joke, Ed." he said harshly.

"It's a real possibility we should consider, sir." Edward pointed out.

"But if that's true, then we've got the test subjects to this project just in the other room!" Steelbeak said, suddenly looking leery.

"We could always put those four back in stasis, sir." the Eggman commander suggested.

"I don't know if they'll agree to it." Edward said. "We all know they're all missing the same parts to their memories. Maybe there's a reason why to that."

"What are ya gettin' at?" Steelbeak asked.

"I'm wondering if FOWL altered their memories to cover up something, sir." Edward reasoned. "Maybe something went wrong. And those four are now dangerous. Perhaps the memory was altered so that they wouldn't know they were dangerous, and willingly be put into stasis."

"But if they are a failed project, why not just destroy them?" the Eggman commander asked. "Why keep them around where they were still a threat, regardless of how slim?"

"Maybe they couldn't destroy 'em." Steelbeak suggested. "So they did the next best thing."

"So now the question is, what happened?" Edward asked rhetorically.

The computer the Eggman commander worked at suddenly beeped. "Well, maybe this will have the answers." he said.

"Ya find somethin'?" Steelbeak asked, rushing over.

"Oh yeah, I found something." the Eggman commander said. "A document, encoded in such a way, I failed to see it before now." he worked with the controls for a moment, and shook his head, getting a message box on his screen.

"What?" Steelbeak asked, sensing there was a problem.

"The only problem, sir, is that the document is password protected." the Eggman commander said. "Highest level. We need to type in High Command's master password in order to access it."

"Oh, no problem," Steelbeak said, "I know what that is, it's...uh...uh..."

"Gemini." Edward told him, walking over.

"Right, Gemini, thanks Edward." Steelbeak said, typing in the codeword. "G-E-M-I-N-I. There."

A lengthy text document sprang onto the screen.

"Whoa." said the Eggman commander, taking control of the computer and scrolling through the data. "Here's where all the missing data is."

"So, what's it say?" Steelbeak said, trying to read it, but the commander was in the way.

"Quite a bit, sir." Edward said, who had a better view. "Apparently, for starters, there was a fifth test subject in addition to the other four."

"A fifth test subject?" Steelbeak asked.

"Yes, a kind of prototype." Edward explained. "He was used for the test before the other four were obtained."

"And?" Steelbeak prompted.

"Something went wrong." Edward said. "The test partly worked. Whatever it was supposed to do worked, but in the extreme, and additionally turned the test subject crazy and violent, causing a great deal of damage, and costing FOWL a fair sum of money. The test subject was then destroyed. FOWL was going to end the project right there, but the project leader found out the problem, and was confident he could fix it. FOWL granted him more time, and finally the project leader believed he had a fix ready for testing. The other four were then arranged for the test, but FOWL set up extra precautions in case something went wrong again. Each test subject was brought in one at a time, and the moment they entered, were tranquilized. Apparently, they were kept unconscious for the remainder of the test."

"That's why they can't remember anythin' about the test!" Steelbeak said. "Can't remember what ya don't see!"

"Right sir." Edward agreed.

"So what happened then?" Steelbeak asked. "Did the test work this time?"

"I think so." Edward said. "The document doesn't say exactly. But it does say that before the project was completed, SHUSH disbanded FOWL. The project leader knew that the project could not continue without FOWL's support, so he wiped the computer core of it's records, put his test subjects, still unconscious, into stasis, and _killed _the work team, so that word of the project wouldn't leak out."

"Killed 'em?" Steelbeak said, surprised. "This really must have been important."

"Whatever the case, sir, all the project leader did after that was take the hard copies of the records, burned most of them, locked the facility down, and vanished, taking all the evidence he could with him." Edward concluded. "The project has been left like that ever since."

"So this guy, the project leader, is the only guy left who knows a thing about this project." Steelbeak said.

"It would appear so, sir." Edward agreed.

"If we were t' track this guy down, then maybe we could find out a thing or two more about this project." Steelbeak theorized, thinking.

"Maybe sir, but this document doesn't reveal the project leader's identity at all." Edward said, motioning to the screen. "We have no idea who he is."

"But that's not the end of the document either, sir." the Eggman commander said, scrolling on down the file. "There's more. And it talks a bit more about the project itself." his eyes widened as he read. "Sir, you aren't going to believe what this project is supposed to do..."

* * *

Jack O'Hara sat on his cot, bored. He waited patiently as a trio of unidentified Eggmen examined him, but his patience was beginning to grow thin.

"Aren't we done yet?" he grumbled.

"Not yet." one of the Eggmen replied as he worked. "We have orders to discover anything out of the ordinary about you, and your friends too."

"Friends I haven't even seen, much less met." Jack grumbled. "Do you really need me here to do all these tests, though?"

"Well, no..."

"Great!" Jack said, hopping up. "I'll just go and look around..."

"No, you're going to stay here." the Eggman said, sitting Jack back down. "You can't just go wandering around until we're sure there's nothing about you to worry about."

Jack frowned for a moment. "You know, I'm a FOWL agent." he said. "I have command over you three."

"You did when FOWL was around." the Eggman admitted, turning his back to Jack as he joined the other two to conduct a test. "But that did not carry on through to FOUL. By our records, you don't exist in FOUL's command tree."

Jack slapped in hand down on the cot in anger. He fumed for a moment, before hanging his head, looking down at the hand he had slapped.

And jumped in surprise.

"Um, doc." Jack said, surprisingly calm. "You said you're looking for anything odd about me, right?"

"Right." the Eggman replied, not turning to look at Jack.

"Well, here's something odd for you." Jack said. "My hand's on fire."

"What?" the Eggman exclaimed in surprise, and whirled around.

Sure enough, Jack's hand was engulfed in flames.

"It doesn't hurt, either." Jack added, staring at his flaming hand.

The three Eggmen stared at Jack, unsure what to do. Sure enough, Jack's hand, even though it was on fire, was unscathed. His orange-red fur wasn't even being damaged. It was like Jack's hand was burning, but not being consumed by the flames.

For a long moment, they were all silent.

"You know, this reminds me of a comic book I used to read." Jack remarked, oddly calm. "It makes me want to try something."

"I think I know what." the Eggman said, panicked. "But don't. We have no idea what that could do to you. And besides, if you and I are really thinking of the same thing, you can't do it. The catchphrase is trademarked."

"Since when has FOUL, regardless of how it's spelled, care about trademarks?" Jack asked.

"They trademarked their own name." the Eggman offered.

"I mean other people's trademarks."

"Oh, er, good point."

Jack grinned then, standing. "Then there's something I'd like to say." he remarked, lowering his burning hand. "Flame on!"

And Jack's entire body suddenly burst into flames...

* * *

And at the same time, other odd things started to happen in the secret facility. Sally O'Hara, having asked for a glass of water to drink, accidently dropped the glass, only to end up in somehow stopping the water in the glass from hitting the floor without touching it. Elizabeth Guire simply sneezed, and accidently caused a windstorm to fill the room she was in. And Garth Miner simply stood up. That mere action caused an earthquake that rocked the facility for a second or so.

And even as the tremors of that earthquake faded away, all four, tired of being kept prisoner, wanted to escape.

And now they knew how.

Jack, having discovered his ability first, escaped his room first. As the Eggmen in the room with him were unable to touch him, much less want to, the escape was easy. Elizabeth's accidental windstorm swept the Eggmen guarding and examining her all off their feet, and they failed to recover in time for Elizabeth to escape. Garth's earthquake, having rocked the whole facility, clearly was able to escape with ease, too.

With Sally, it took an extra step. Once she saw she had the ability to manipulate water, she had to mentally seek out a pipe filled with water. Once she found it, she burst the pipe, and flooded the room. The water washed away all surrounding Eggmen, but did not wash her away. The water all swept around her, avoiding her, like something unseen blocked it's path.

Steelbeak, having been rocked off his feet in Garth's accidental earthquake, quickly got back on his feet, and raced to the door, in time to see Jack, fully aflame _and _flying, zip into the facility's entry room. Seeing Steelbeak, Jack used his newfound pyrokinesis to create a wall of fire in front of Steelbeak, blocking his path.

Seeing Steelbeak preoccupied, Jack headed for the facility's entrance, and, using a ball of fire, blew it off it's hinges, then flew right out into the open air of the Sahara. Steelbeak, aided by Edward and the other Eggmen he had in the room with him, quickly doused the flames with a nearby supply of fire extinguishers, in time to see Elizabeth enter the room, and head for the open entrance. She paused there, then suddenly used her ability to manipulate air to propel herself into flight, zooming out to join Jack. The backwash of this launch blew Steelbeak and company over.

Garth then arrived, surveying the situation. Steelbeak was up again by this point, and called to Garth, telling him to stop. Garth, however, slammed his fist into the nearby wall, creating another earthquake. The facility was weakened already by the first one, and so this next one caused more damage than the first. Steelbeak and company quickly found themselves on their backs again while Garth escaped, and had to deal with things falling down on them, too.

Finally, as Steelbeak tried to get out the door for a fourth time, Sally came in, water swirling all around her, under her complete command. She didn't even notice Steelbeak and the Eggmen as she flooded the room with water. Approaching the facility's entrance, she used her own powers, a hydrokinesis ability, to surge the water together and build pressure, and to launch herself out of the facility like water-propelled rocket. Landing safely, she joined her awaiting companions.

But before they got far, Steelbeak, finally, _finally, _got out the door, and caught up with them, all windswept, wet, scorched, and shook up.

"WAIT!" he roared. "I know what this project is about!"

The foursome, curious, paused, debating their options.

"It was a project funded by FOWL t' create a kind of serum." Steelbeak went on to explain. "A serum capable of enhancin' the performance's of one's body! That's what it's done t' you guys! Only it's unexpectedly gone and enhanced a little further! It did the same with another test subject, predatin' you guys, only the effects were more bad! That was fixed when you guys were tested, and this is the results! Ya don't remember it, because, remembering what happened with the fifth guy, FOWL had ya all put unconscious! The project didn't finish in time for FOWL t' go under, so the project leader put ya all in stasis, so ya all would be safe! I have a document in here that proves it!"

"How does this affect us?" Jack asked, landed and flaming off, looking like he was never on fire to begin with.

"FOWL clearly intended ya t' be put t' use as it's ultimate team of agents." Steelbeak said. "That hasn't changed! Clearly, if ya all were involved with FOWL before this happened, ya supported it's motives! FOUL, my FOUL, can still let ya do that!"

"Suppose we don't want to have anything to do with FOUL, now?" Jack asked.

"Listen, Firefox, I'm givin' ya quite an offer." Steelbeak said. "If ya run off, where will ya go? What will ya do? If ya stay with me n' FOUL, though, I can give ya places to go an' stuff t' do. Now what do ya say?"

The superpowered foursome thought for a moment, conversing with one another as they debated their options, Steelbeak anxiously awaiting.

Finally, after a long and tense moment, a choice was made...

* * *

A couple days later, Darkwing was busy winter-proofing Darkwing Tower.

"I can't believe all this weatherproofing wore out in a mere seven years." he muttered, filling in a hole in the tower's insulation as he did so. "And just in time for winter too. We were just fine until this snowfall came out of nowhere!"

"It's late November, DW, almost December!" Launchpad pointed out from across the room, changing the antifreeze on the Ratcatcher. "Thanksgiving was last week! We always get snow this time of year."

"Oh, I know, but did it have to trigger a weather catastrophe for the tower?" Darkwing grumbled. He checked his watch. "I was supposed to be out on patrol by now! But no, I had to stay here and do this dirty work! Sometimes, I swear, the world it out to get me!"

And he looked like he was prepared to rant on, when the supercomputer bleeped. Darkwing, being the closest, rushed over to answer the bleep.

"It's SHUSH!" he said, and quickly patched through the transmission. Launchpad, being curious, stepped over to join Darkwing.

J. Gander Hooter's face appeared on the screen. "Ah, Darkwing, good evening." Hooter greeted.

"What's up?" Darkwing interrupted. "I'm kinda busy, so unless this is a case or something that would interest me, I really need to get back to what I was doing."

"This won't take long, Darkwing, I just wanted your opinion of something." Hooter promised. "Now, take a look at this satellite photo we obtained in the Sahara a few days ago."

A picture appeared on the screen. Darkwing squinted his eyes at it.

"Hey, there's Steelbeak!" Launchpad remarked, pointing.

"Yes, I see him, LP." Darkwing replied. "But who are they, and what the heck was that?"

He pointed at three figures standing nearby, and a fireball.

"Is this some kind of FOUL project we don't know about, J. Gander?" Darkwing asked.

"That is why I called, Darkwing." Hooter said. "SHUSH has already gone to the sight and searched for clues, but the facility was abandoned, and stripped of all it's equipment. We have no idea what had been going on there. The facility itself had seen better days, as well."

"Well, whatever it was, it was important enough to involve Steelbeak." Darkwing agreed, glancing back at the FOUL president before looking again at the three figures and the fireball, which looked suspiciously like a figure itself. "I don't know what to make of this, J. Gander, but I will say this. Whatever it was, I get the feeling it was big. So let's hope that we never find out what _was _going on there that day..."


	19. Past, Present, And Future

Summary: Someone is going around and helping St. Canard from it's little jams, posing as Darkwing. But if it's not Darkwing who's doing it, then who is?

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Another chpt. I've been looking forward to writing. The Fearsome Five had a role in this, but actually not a major one. They're virtually out of the picture after the chpt's halfway point. But enjoy anyway. :)

19.

Past, Present, and Future

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_This is SHUSH! We have the warehouse completely surrounded! Surrender now!"_

_--_

_Negaduck and NegaGosalyn looked out the door in time to see Darkwing and Crimson keeping Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot, Liki, and Rowe all at bay with their gas guns, as SHUSH commandos invaded the building, all armed to the teeth. Among them was Agent Grizzlikof, who stood observing everything victoriously._

_--_

"_Darkwing! You ruin everything, you know!"_

"_All part of the job description, Negaduck. You know, fight crime, save people, and give Negaduck a bad day, everyday!"_

_--_

"_How'd you find us, anyway?"_

"_You were trying to open a portal to the Negaverse."_

"_How do you know that?"_

"_We've been tracking your portals since the beginning, Negs. Courtesy of SHUSH. In fact, they've refined the tracking system to the point that we can even detect you charging to open the portal."_

"_We would have pulled mission like this sometime ago, But SHUSH did not know which portal was coming or going."_

"_That is until after the little escapade with the Negasphere two weeks ago."_

"_We knew you were in the Negaverse already, so all SHUSH had to do was wait for the first portal to open after that incident. That marked your return to the Negaverse. The portal you were about to open just now would've been the first portal you opened since you returned to the Posiverse."_

"_And of course, with the SHUSH tracking system, it led us straight here."_

_--_

"_You lose, Negaduck! Hand over the remote, and come quietly."_

"_Ah, but quietly isn't a word in my dictionary!"_

_--_

_He threw it at the floor, and it erupted into a red cloud of smoke. The commandos all fired at the same time, but their shots hit nothing. As the smoke cleared, it was quite obvious that Negaduck was gone, escaped once again._

_--_

"_Drat, NegaCrimson escaped the same way. Liki got away too, but at least we got the rest of the Fearsome Five arrested."_

"_And even I must admit that SHUSH could not have done it without you, Darkwing."_

* * *

"C'mon, Honker, we need to hurry!" Gosalyn said, towing Honker along behind her as they walked along down the city street.

"I fail to see why." Honker remarked, adjusting his glasses as he was so haphazardly towed along. "This isn't exactly a best-selling item we're after."

"I know, but I'm so excited!" Gosalyn exclaimed, barely able to contain her excitement. "I've been waiting for this day ever since I got word it was coming to stores everywhere!"

Honker shivered against the early December cold, and adjusted his jacket to better warm himself. "Do we have to get it now?" Honker asked. "You let Launchpad get the last one."

"And it took him _weeks._" Gosalyn pressed. "I'm not going to wait weeks."

"Clearly." Honker said, as they turned the corner. "But Gos, we just got out of school! We haven't gone home yet! Shouldn't we do that first?"

"Honk, this is _Jumpgate: Continuum_ we're talking about!" Gosalyn persisted. "This is the biggest movie event since _Jumpgate: The Box of Verity!_ This doesn't happen every day, you know!"

"It went straight to DVD, Gos!" Honker objected. "It's budget was a mere seven million, there are movies that went to theaters that ultimately failed in the box office that had bigger budgets than that!"

"_Jumpgate: Continuum _is not a failure, Honker!" Gosalyn proclaimed angrily as they approached the video store.

"I know, and that's not to say I don't like the movie, the show, or any of that!" Honker said in his defense. "I like it just as much as you do! But I think you're making a big deal out of nothing."

Ah," Gosalyn said, stopping just outside the video store's entrance, "but it's a big deal to me, and that's what matters!"

Giving Honker a wink, they slipped inside the store. It was currently rush hour inside the store because, as Honker had already noted, school had just gotten out, so there were a great many students wandering around looking for something to do. Checking out the latest movies were among them.

Gosalyn ignored all of these people, and went straight to the new releases rack. Completely covering one side of this rack were DVD cases containing the _Jumpgate: Continuum _movie. Gosalyn promptly snatched it up and hugged it to her chest, doing a little dance of joy.

"Yay!" she said. "Man, I can't wait to watch this!"

"Yes, you've made that quite apparent." Honker said, idly looking around as Gosalyn celebrated touching the DVD in it's case for the first time.

"You know, Honker, another moment like this isn't going to come around anytime soon." Gosalyn pointed out to her friend. "There probably isn't going to be another _Jumpgate_ movie until they release the upcoming _Jumpgate: Avalon _movie."

"What? They're making a _Jumpgate: Avalon _movie?" Honker asked, surprised. This was news to him.

"That's what the rumors say, anyway." Gosalyn said, as they went to the cash registers to pay for the movie. "They're ending the show after this season, the fifth season, ends."

"What?" Honker asked, even more surprised. "So soon? But _Jumpgate_, it's sister show, lasted for double than that!"

"It's not going to be so bad, Honker, they're starting a new show." Gosalyn explained, stepping in line for the register. "Slated to begin summer next year. They're calling it _Jumpgate: Universitas_, whatever that means."

"That's 'universe' in Latin." Honker explained automatically.

"Hmm, intriguing." Gosalyn said, as their turn in line came and Gosalyn handed the person at the register the movie. "That gives a few clues as to what it's story plot might be about."

She was about to say more, when something within the walls of the store suddenly grumbled. The store fell silent as everyone looked around in sudden puzzlement.

"That did not sound good." Honker remarked.

Gosalyn silently agreed, and quickly took back the _Jumpgate: Continuum _case from the cashier, feeling it was safer in her possession than anyone else's.

Whatever rumbled suddenly did it again, quickly followed by a long groan. It was then that a pipe behind one of the walls suddenly burst explosively, spraying the store with metal, plaster, and water. At first the water merely sloshed around for several moments, then it started to form into something all too familiar.

"He's big, he's bad, he's The Liquidator!" Liki exclaimed as he fully resumed his normal dog shape.

And he was only five feet away from where Honker and Gosalyn stood.

"Oh, what a bad time to be caught out of costume." Gosalyn remarked softly as Liki surveyed the store.

Several customers screamed, and raced for the door. Liki quickly used his powers to create a wall of water to completely cut off the front of the store, and it's exit, heating that wall of water to a boiling temperature. No one could escape.

"All right, now, listen up!" Liki began, marching back and forth before his wall of water. "Leading experts say it's in your best interest to give me all of your valuables and merchandise that you currently have! Doing otherwise is bad for your health. So I suggest you cooperate."

He pulled out a plain brown sack, and started walking around to the individual customers, so they could all turn over their merchandise, whether it was there's or the stores. When they didn't immediately hand it over, Liki took it away by force. While this was going on, Gosalyn looked around for someplace private to change into costume, and saw none.

"Keen gear, where's a phone booth when you need one?" she asked, upset she could do nothing.

"There isn't even a closet nearby." Honker observed, also looking for a place to change into costume. "And if we even try to move, Liki will see us."

"I know." Gosalyn admitted. "And it's stupid. I know that ever since SHUSH caught four members of the Fearsome Five and rendering it inactive for the time being, Liki's been doing robberies such as this for his own personal profit, but why this store, today, at this time of day?

"It's rush hour Gosalyn." Honker replied bluntly. "The only thing that would stop Liki from robbing this store is a miracle."

So they stood and hoped for a miracle as Liki came ever closer. Finally, he reached the two teens, and held out his bag at Gosalyn, who was closest.

"C'mon, kid, hand the goods over." he said.

Gosalyn pressed her DVD closer to her chest. "Over my dead body!" she exclaimed.

"Gos..." Honker said, apprehensive about challenging the Liquidator out of costume and with no gadgets on hand.

Liki frowned, then tried to yank the DVD from Gosalyn. But Gosalyn held on tight, not about to let go of the DVD she had every intention of keeping.

"Let go!" Liki exclaimed.

"You'll have to fight me for it, Liki!" Gosalyn growled, not surrendering the DVD.

"That can be arranged!" Liki said, drawing all the nearby water to surge around him.

He was just about to unleash this pent up water on Gosalyn when there was a sudden poof of smoke, and something smashed into Liki, disrupting his dog-like form, and breaking his concentration. The figure that had just plowed through Liki skidded to a halt behind the living liquid, and readied for another attack. He held the bag of stolen items as well.

Gosalyn recognized the purple costume the figure wore instantly. "Dad-er-Darkwing!" she exclaimed. "Talk about timing!"

Darkwing did not reply, however, as Liki lunged at the superhero in the form of a torrent of water. Darkwing quickly dodged it, athletically bouncing around the store. Finally, he pulled out his gas gun, and fired out several canisters at Liki. They exploded on contact, and spread some kind of chemical that froze whatever they touched and a small area around them.

Taking several hits, and realizing he was at risk of being defeated at the hands of this unknown liquid, Liki, half frozen, quickly retreated, heading for the front door, and rushing out it in a flood of water. Darkwing pursued, but Liki was too fast, and the liquid villain was quickly down a storm drain and gone from sight.

A moment of calm fell, then everyone in the store broke out in applause for Darkwing.

"Way to go, Darkwing!" Gosalyn whooped, heading towards the figure. "Cool new attachment for the gas gun too! I didn't know you had it; when did you get it?"

Darkwing spun around, looked at Gosalyn for half a second, his face hidden by his hat, then suddenly vanished in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, all that remained was the sack of stolen goods.

"Darkwing?" Gosalyn asked, surprised by this uncharacteristic move. She glanced at Honker, as if her friend had an explanation. He did not, and merely shrugged.

Then another cloud of smoke appeared in the back of the store.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" a voice within the cloud said. "I am the late fee you get when you don't turn in your movie rentals! I am...Darkwiiing duck!"

The smoke cleared to reveal Darkwing, this time accompanied by Launchpad.

"Darkwing?" Gosalyn said again, puzzled.

"Hey Gos, busy at the moment." Darkwing said, as he and Launchpad quickly surveyed the situation, only to find that everything was under control. "Hey, where's Liki?" he whined, starting to look puzzled himself. "We got word that he was robbing the store!"

"Maybe he's hiding." Launchpad suggested.

"No, he's already been beaten." Gosalyn said, approaching Darkwing.

"Beaten?" Darkwing repeated, enraged he had been upstaged already. "By who?"

"By you, Mr. Darkwing, sir." Honker replied.

"Me?" Darkwing said. "But I just got here!"

"I know, I don't get it either!" Gosalyn said. "But Liki was here, robbing the store, just as you said, then you came along and chased him off in just under five minutes!"

"Gee DW, I didn't know you could be in two places at once!" Launchpad remarked.

"But I just got here!" Darkwing exclaimed again. "How can I defeat someone when I haven't even arrived yet?"

"Well, who ever stopped Liki just now certainly looked like you." Gosalyn persisted, just as confused as her father.

"That's just it!" Honker exclaimed. "The guy only _looked _like Darkwing. We have no way to actually confirm it was him!"

"But if it wasn't me who stopped Liki..." Darkwing began, "...then who did?"

* * *

Without warning, the office door suddenly banged open, and NegaGosalyn poked her head inside.

"I just got word." she reported. "We've confirmed the locations, and the care packages are away."

"Good." Negaduck replied, turning his desk chair around to face NegaGosalyn. "Then we're ready to begin."

* * *

Rowe had never been in jail before, so being locked away in the St. Canard Supervillain Prison was a new experience for him.

And the otter hated it.

It wasn't like he hadn't been forewarned. He had seen enough TV shows to know that every supervillain hated being locked away like this, and his fellow Fearsome Five teammates had never spoken very fondly of the supervillain prison anyway. Still, he had been admittedly curious as to what it would be like.

Well, now he knew, and now he was ready to get out. The only problem with that was that he had no clue how. And he had no idea when he might come up with a solution. In fact, it took seven years for the Fearsome Five to escape last time they were locked up in here, and that was only accomplished with outside help, and knowledge of a flaw in the prison's design.

But now that flaw had been fixed, and Rowe had no way of knowing if he was going to get outside help. He knew only four members of the Fearsome Five had landed in jail, including himself. The others were Megavolt, Bushroot, and Quackerjack, all locked away in their own, separate, cells. That just left The Liquidator, Negaduck, and NegaCrimson free.

And since it seemed the only members of the gang he ever seemed to get along with was Bushroot and occasionally Megavolt, Rowe wasn't too hopeful.

But, as he was beginning to settle in for a long stay at the prison, a policeman walked down the barren corridor and stopped outside his barred cell.

"Package for you, Rowe." the policeman said, sliding the package through a little doggy door in the cell's entrance.

"Who from?" Rowe asked, picking up the package curiously.

"Not my business." the policeman replied, and he walked away.

Rowe inspected the package, and realized it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The package did not say who it was from. Curious now, Rowe pulled off the brown shipping paper and opened the box within. To find another box, but this one was different. It was cold to the touch, heavier, and had some kind of electronic seal. Words were written upon it.

"'Portable Refrigerator?'" Rowe read aloud, confused.

After a moment of examining the device for clues and finding none, Rowe finally broke the seal and peered inside the container. Inside, to his amazement, was a salmon prepared as he liked it, and perfectly preserved.

"Ooh, somebody must like me." Rowe remarked, who hadn't eaten such fine seafood cuisine since he had been locked away.

A fork was included with the meal, but being an otter, Rowe didn't bother, just grabbing the fish with his paws and biting into it. His teeth instantly hit something hard, placed within the fish, and it wasn't bone.

"Ow." Rowe said, rubbing at his sore teeth, then picked up the fork and picked at the fish to find the object at fault.

He was quite surprised to find that it was some kind of earpiece. With it was a note, laminated to protect it. It said quite simply to put the device in his ear and say hello. Confused, Rowe did as the note said, and quietly whispered hello, so not to be overheard by the guards at the end of the hall.

"Rowe?" a voice came back in response, broadcasted through the earpiece.

"NegaCrimson?" Rowe said, surprised. "Is that really you, mate?"

"Who else would it be, you twit?" NegaCrimson replied. "Anyway, I see you got our care package."

"Yes, and the salmon is very tasty, thank you." Rowe said, nibbling at the fish now it was free of all foreign objects.

"This isn't about the fish." NegaCrimson grumbled. "We're going to break you and the others out, and in order to do that, we needed to get this earpiece to you."

"Break us out? Really?" Rowe repeated, again pleasantly surprised. "Yes! By the claw, it's about time! Oh, I could kiss you!"

"Oh, ick!" came NegaCrimson's disgusted retort. "Please _don't_."

"Sorry, mate, but I'm just happy to hear this!" Rowe said, trying to keep his excitement under control. "When will this break out happen?"

"Tonight." NegaCrimson replied. "You'll know it when you see it. But we'll keep you posted through the earpiece until then."

"About that, shouldn't the police be able to listen in to this conversation?" Rowe asked. "Can't they track transmissions and stuff like this?"

"Not transdimensional ones." NegaCrimson replied cryptically. "But you'll see what I mean tonight, and not a moment sooner. NegaCrimson out."

* * *

"I just don't get it, Techno." Crimson grumbled as they drove along in the Ratcatcher later that night. "I can understand somebody trying to impersonate Darkwing for criminal reasons, but whoever fended off Liki so skillfully today clearly isn't a criminal."

"I don't get it either, Crimson, but now isn't exactly the time for this." Techno said, scanning the area for criminal activity with his visor from the sidecar. "And, now that I've got my visor with me, I should be able to scan whoever it is should we run into him again."

"Right." Crimson said. "But somehow I don't think that will happen."

They were silent for a moment. Then the Ratcatcher suddenly jerked as it drove along.

"Whoa." Crimson remarked, looking around. "Was that a road bump that I hit?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever it was, it's causing a power spike in the Ratcatcher's electric components." Techno said suddenly. "I can see it with my visor."

The motorbike's engine suddenly whined loudly as it flared with energy, then sputter and died. The bike slid to a stop.

"Okay, that was weird." Crimson remarked, trying to restart the bike and failing.

The shrill noise of an alarm suddenly rang out down the street. The two turned to look at it's source, and saw it was coming from a nearby bank.

"I'm calling it luck at the moment." Techno said, climbing out.

"We'd better check it out." Crimson agreed, also climbing off the bike and drawing her gas gun.

"Techno to Darkwing, investigating alarm at nearby bank, stand by to assist." Techno muttered into his helmet radio, relaying the message to where Darkwing was in the Thunderquack.

They quickly rushed over to the bank. Finding the door open and knowing that wasn't a good thing at this hour, they marched right inside.

"Act now to get The Liquidator's free wipe out package!" Liki exclaimed suddenly from within the bank.

A wave of water struck the two teens from the side, washing them into one corner of the bank. Seeing his path clear, Liki quickly rushed out the door with the bags of money he had just stolen from the bank.

"Wait!" Crimson exclaimed, picking herself up, coughing up water. "Get back here!"

"Make me!" Liki bubbled back, as he ran down the empty street, unchallenged.

"Tech, rocket boots!" Crimson ordered.

Techno made a reluctant gesture, and went to activate the devices he dreaded so much. But before he could, something swooped down to land before Liki, blocking his path. It was Darkwing.

"Oh no, not you!" Liki exclaimed, and turned to run away.

But Darkwing had his gas gun out already, and fired once at Liki. Whatever it was he fired was quite a device, because Liki suddenly burst into a cloud of steam, and floated away. He had evaporated, and left the bags of money behind.

"Way to go, Darkwing!" Crimson exclaimed, and rushed towards Darkwing.

But by the time she and Techno arrived, all there was awaiting them was the bags of stolen money. Suddenly it donned on Crimson what just occurred.

"Dang it, that wasn't Darkwing, that was that double we saw earlier!" Crimson exclaimed, looking around for the double, but of course, it was in vain. "And again, he stopped the villain! Who the heck _is _he?"

"Hey, look at this." Techno said, and pulled a note free from the abandoned bags, and read: "'Be advised, robbery a distraction.'"

"Distraction?" Crimson repeated. "Distraction for what?"

But then Techno's radio suddenly crackled, and he titled his head, pressing one finger to his ear as he listened.

"Techno?" Crimson asked hesitantly, seeing Techno's face fall.

"It's Darkwing, he's just got word." Techno reported, gravely. "There's a breakout in progress at the supervillain prison!"

"Oh, keen gear, distraction is right!" Crimson exclaimed, as she ran for the Ratcatcher. "C'mon Tech, let's hope we can get there in time to stop it!"

* * *

It had happened quite suddenly. At first, all four members of the imprisoned Fearsome Five were sitting around, doing nothing, and it looked to be an easy night for the guards. Then, one by one, transdimensional portals opened in each cell, and after a moment's hesitation, each occupant dove through the portal.

The prison was instantly one the alert, working quickly to try and stop the next member of the villainous gang from escaping in the few moments it took for one portal to close in one cell, and another to open in another cell. Darkwing, being flown by Launchpad in the much faster Thunderquack, arrived moments before Crimson, and without needing an explanation, headed straight for Megavolt's cell, the last one to escape, Launchpad trailing in his wake.

He arrived in time to see the portal open and for Megavolt to dive through it. Skidding to try and stop his reckless run to get there, Darkwing opened fire with his gas gun, trying to stop Megavolt. Guards also arrived with their own weapons and opened fire, but it was useless. Megavolt was already gone.

By the time Crimson and Techno arrived a few moments later, ready for action, they had missed the entire event.

The four members of the Fearsome Five Darkwing and gang had worked so hard to put in jail had escaped, and were free to do evil once again.

* * *

"We should've seen this coming." Darkwing remarked, dismayed they were unable to stop the sudden breakout. "We should've known that Negaduck would've tried something like this. Only he could've done it."

"I've advised SHUSH of the situation, though." Techno said, tapping his radio. "They'll be on the lookout for any return portals to the Posiverse."

"It's not your fault, DW, we just weren't fast enough." Launchpad assured his friend.

"Thanks LP." Darkwing glumly replied, but he didn't look reassured.

"Not only that, but me and Techno we're busy stopping Liki from robbing a bank." Crimson added, as they exited the prison, and headed back outside.

"Odd incident, too." Techno added. "Stopped without cause or reason due to some technical problem in the Ratcatcher that has since vanished without a trace, and we ran into that Darkwing double again."

"Still helpful?" Darkwing asked.

"Still helpful." Crimson replied.

"Hmm." Darkwing said, non-committedly. "Well, I guess we need to get back to patrol." he climbed into the waiting Thunderquack. "Start her up, LP."

Launchpad nodded, and started up the jet. Techno headed for the waiting Ratcatcher.

"C'mon, Crimson, let's get going." he said.

But then Crimson suddenly caught something out of the corner of her eye. "Hang on, tech, I'll be with you in a moment." she said, and suddenly ducked into a nearby ally.

She traveled down it a few feet, then looked straight up. standing up on the roof of the nearby building, was the Darkwing double, looking down at her. Seeing he was being watched, he quickly ducked away, turned to flee.

"Oh, no you don't!" Crimson exclaimed, firing her grappling hook and rope from her gas gun.

The treble hook latched onto the edge of the roof, and the gas gun quickly recoiled the rope. Crimson turned the speed of the recoil all the way to maximum, sending her shooting up the side building and into the air when the gun ran out of rope to recoil. Landing on her feet, she unhooked the treble hook with a well-practiced jerk, and ran across the roof after the Darkwing double, still heading across the roof. Crimson gained on him quickly, reaching out to grab him.

"Stop!" she cried out, and reached out and grabbed the double hat, pulling it away.

Short red hair bound into pigtails spilled out from under the hat. It was then that Crimson realized that the double wasn't a he, but a she. And not just any she.

Crimson suddenly realized she was looking at herself.

The Crimson in Darkwing attire screeched to a halt, and turned around to angrily face the other Crimson.

"Give me tha-at!" she exclaimed, snatching back the hat from limp fingers.

"Y-you're..." Crimson said, unsure what to make of this.

"Yourself, I know." the other Crimson finished, putting her hat back on her head. "At least, in a sense."

"A sense?" Crimson repeated puzzled, then shook her head. Something seemed extra odd about this. "You're not NegaGosalyn, are you?"

"Keen gear, of course not." the other Crimson replied. "Trust me, you'd know if I were our Negaverse double."

Crimson stared at her double for a moment, then shook her head. "This is so confusing." she muttered. "Why are you dressed like this?"

"It's cover." Crimson said, turning and heading for the edge of the roof. "I can't really tell you. In fact, you weren't supposed to know this much, but hey, I underestimated myself. Go figure, right?"

"You're undercover?" Crimson asked, only getting more puzzled.

"I can't answer that." the other Crimson said.

"Why are you helping us?"

"Because it wouldn't hurt, and the end result would've been the same anyway."

"Why does that matter?"

"Trust me, it does."

Crimson shook her head, only getting more puzzled. "So you're here to help us beat the Fearsome Five?"

"This has nothing to do with the Fearsome Five." the other Crimson answered. "Those incidents where just a matter of being in the right place at the right time."

"It doesn't?" Crimson repeated, completely lost. "Then what _is _this about?"

"I'm after a supervillain." the other Crimson replied.

"Who?" Crimson asked.

The other Crimson debated to herself for a moment. "A villain called Gigavolt." she replied finally.

"G-G-Gigavolt?" Crimson repeated, surprised. "I've heard of Megavolt, but not a _Gig_avolt."

"That because you haven't met him yet." the other Crimson said with some hesitation.

Suddenly, it donned on Crimson what seemed so odd about this double. "Wait." she said. "Are you implying what I _think _you're implying?"

"Oh yeah." the other Crimson replied. "I'm from the future."

* * *

Crimson stared at the time traveler for a long moment. "Keen gear." she muttered. "How far into the future?"

"I can't tell you." Future Crimson replied.

"Why not?" Crimson asked.

"It's a time continuum thing." Future Crimson replied.

"Well, it must be pretty far, because now that I'm looking at you, I can see you're a few years older than me. You're a fully grown adult, in fact."

"Very good." Future Crimson said, pulling out her gas gun, and firing off the grappling hook within it. "Hopefully that'll be a good enough answer for you."

She then jumped from the roof.

"Hey, wait!" Crimson said, firing off her own grappling hook and chasing after the time traveler. "Tell me more about my future!"

"I can't!" Future Crimson replied when they arrived on the another roof and tried to avoid her past self. "Telling you too much about the future can alter time."

"What difference does that make?" Crimson asked, persistently following.

"Look, you've watched a lot of sci-fi shows, you should know that messing with time is a very dangerous thing." Future Crimson replied.

"Then why are you here?" Crimson asked.

"I'm here to try and protect the timeline." the time traveler replied. "Someone's trying to alter it."

"Who?" Crimson asked, but just as soon the words were out of her mouth, she had the answer. "This Gigavolt you alluded to?"

"Yes, he's come back in time to alter history." Future Crimson replied, still trying to get away from her past self, heading from building to building. "He doesn't realize what kind of impact that will have on history."

"What's this Gigavolt like, anyway?" Crimson asked, still following her future self.

"Imagine a supercharged Megavolt on steroids." Future Crimson replied.

"That's what he's like?" Crimson asked, not liking the sound of Gigavolt.

"No, that's getting _close _to what he's like." the time traveler corrected.

"Yikes."

"Yeah. Which is why I've got to stop him."

"But I don't get it. If you're so bent on protecting time, then why where you helping us?"

"Because, it's as I said, the end result would've been the same. You would've stopped The Liquidator from robbing the video store and the bank on your own, if Gigavolt hadn't intervened."

"Gigavolt was there?"

"Yes, and you didn't even know it."

"What was he doing?"

"I can't get too specific, you know, to protect the timeline and stuff, but it was Gigs that stopped the Ratcatcher from working at the bank. And if he hadn't done that, you wouldn't have needed my help in order to stop The Liquidator from robbing the bank."

"But I still don't get it. Won't you interfering alter time?"

"Not as much as you think. It's a time tested situation."

"So you've traveled through time before."

"Yes."

"How many times?"

"I can't tell you."

"Right, the time continuum thing. So you can't tell me anything about my future, but what about other people's futures?"

"I can't tell you, for the exact same reasons."

"Time travel must be very complicated, then."

"It is. You should know."

"Yeah, so I've traveled into the past once with dad, and into the future another time. But it sounds to me you do this kind of thing on a regular basis."

"Kind of. Actually, I've grown to dislike time travel due to it's complexity, and I didn't want to do this mission because I knew there was a chance of me meeting up with...me." the time traveler gestured to Crimson helplessly. "But, I was kinda blackmailed into this mission." she rolled her eyes. "The Agency to the rescue again."

"The Agency?" Crimson repeated, recognizing the name.

"I shouldn't have said that, look just leave me alone!" Future Crimson exclaimed.

She tried again to avoid her past self, but Crimson was still keeping up. They were now several rooftops away from the one they had started at.

"Wait!" Crimson called. "Maybe I can help!"

"This doesn't concern you!" Future Crimson said.

"Then why has Gigavolt traveled back in time and tried to stop _me _from saving the day?" Crimson argued.

"He's not after you, he's doing that to get at me!" Future Crimson argued, whirling onto

"Which is me." Crimson pointed out.

"Right! Wrong! I mean...I don't know!" Future Crimson raved angrily. "Look, you weren't supposed to know this much, and the more you learn, the more risk you take in ruining your _own _future!"

"Look, just explain to me what's going on." Crimson begged. "Since I know you're here, you might as well explain why."

Future Crimson hesitated. "Fine." she said. "Gigavolt, in my time, got his hands on a time machine. Being the supervillain he is, he's come back to the past to change time so his number one enemy won't be there to stop him back in our time."

"Which is...?" Crimson prompted.

"Me." Future Crimson replied.

"So this does affect me, then." Crimson reasoned.

"In a sense, I suppose so." Future Crimson admitted. "But the moment my superiors..."

"The Agency?" Crimson guessed.

"I can't tell you that."

"Oh, forget trying to hide that one fact from me, I know you work for The Agency!"

"Fine." Future Crimson said, then continued, "The moment The Agency found out what Gigavolt had done, they sent me back in time to stop him."

"By blackmailing you." Crimson finished, remembering that detail. "But why you, and not someone else, like Darkwing?"

"I can't tell you that."

"What _can _you tell me?"

"Technically nothing, so consider it a favor that I've told you this much." Future Crimson said. "_Now _will you leave me alone?"

"I still want to help." Crimson complained.

"I know you do, and I can understand, seeing you're me." Future Crimson admitted. "But it's for your own good that you stay out of this!" she paused, then folded her arms. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be on patrol or something?"

"Oh, keen gear, I forgot." Crimson muttered, pulling out a radio. "Tech, ya there?"

"Yes." came Techno's reply over the radio.

"Where are you?"

"Sitting in the Ratcatcher like you asked me to, waiting for you." came Techno's annoyed reply. "Where the heck are you, anyway?"

"I'm..." Crimson began, then hesitated, glancing up at her future self. "I got preoccupied with something."

"Clearly."

"I should be there in a moment."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere."

Crimson nodded, and lowered the radio. "How can I help?" she asked her future double.

"You can help by leaving me alone and staying away." Future Crimson said flatly. "I will handle this alone, it's best you stay away."

"But..."Crimson objected.

"No buts." Future Crimson said, looking her past self over. "I know, you're young, looking for a challenge, and that you can handle anything, but trust me, if you knew some of the things you're going to face in future years..." she trailed off, knowing she had to be careful to not give too much away. "...the point is that you don't know how to handle Gigavolt, and I do. If I where to let you help me, and something where to happen to you, do you know what kind of repercussions that would have on the timeline? Particularly for me?"

"If I can't handle this Gigavolt, what makes you so sure you can?" Crimson asked.

"You forget that I'm from the future, and therefore are older and wiser too." the time traveler pointed out. "More experienced, too. Me fighting Gigavolt is like you fighting The Liquidator. Easy. But just for me, because I know him a heck of a lot better than you do. And besides..." she lifted Crimson's beak up so to look into her eyes. "You'll get your chance soon enough."

Giving her past self a grin, Future Crimson fired off her grappling hook at another building rooftop and swung over to it. This time Crimson did not follow. Instead, she was busy debating something.

"I never was the kind to sit around and wait, though." she finally admitted to herself, and lifted her radio back up to her mouth. "Techno, I've got a favor to ask of you..."

* * *

It was nothing but a half-sunken warehouse on the edge of Audubon Bay not far from the bridge that share's the bay's name. No one knew how long it had been abandoned for, or even what it was originally had been built for. The St. Canard City Council had on many occasions considered tearing down the warehouse, with the intent of putting something up in it's place, but the area was too unstable to build anything there anymore.

So it was left there in the terrible condition it was in. It was in such a terrible state and even Negaduck had ruled it out as a possible hiding place for the Fearsome Five. However, Future Crimson knew this was the most likely place where her prey would lurk. Because in the future, this place was of great importance to Gigavolt. And since she hadn't found her prey anywhere else in St. Canard, she knew this was the only place left to look.

Cautiously entering the rickety building, Future Crimson looked around leerily. She knew Gigavolt well. He could hide very well, and be right in front of her without her even knowing until too late. However, as she moved further into the old warehouse, she knew this wasn't the case, for she could see the tell-tale flashes of light that indicated Gigavolt's presence.

Finally, she reached a doorway, and pressed herself against it's frame, gas gun drawn, to avoid detection. Half of the room was filled with water, collapsed into the bay. Positioned a fair distance from there was Gigavolt, muttering to himself.

"Let's see, travel back in time, check." he said in a nasal voice, identical to Megavolt's, only it had an enhanced, echoing, sound to it that made it seem electronic. "Avoid counterattacks from The Agency, check. Set up a temporary base in the past, check. Change history to get rid of the Crimson Avenger, hmm, not check."

Future Crimson shifted positions, and froze when she heard a floorboard creak under her. The next thing she knew, the doorframe next to her exploded when it was struck by a very large bolt of electricity, knocking her backwards. The time traveler quickly compensated the sudden attack, and was on her feet again in a flash, pointing her gas gun at Gigavolt.

Gigavolt had risen from the table he sat at, glaring at Future Crimson, revealing himself fully for the first time. He was, in a sense, Megavolt, but was glowing brightly, to the point all the color on his personage was drowned out. Electric bolts zapped to and from him frequently, drawn to Gigavolt's superconductivity. An aura of energy surrounded him at all times. In fact, he was more than that, he _was _energy. A living ball of electricity given Megavolt's form. Future Crimson remembered when she first encountered this new form of Megavolt.

But that was a story for a different day.

Gigavolt was shaking his head as he stared at Future Crimson. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Crimson Avenger." he remarked in his eerily unnatural voice. "And in Darkwing attire, too. Gee, it's been awhile since I've seen _that _outfit."

"Can it, Sparky." Future Crimson said, keeping Gigavolt in her sights.

"Don't call me Sparky!" Gigavolt exclaimed. "And besides, what can you do? Your little device in you gas gun only works at close range. You're too far away at the moment." he stopped, and folded his arms. "I suppose The Agency sent you here, didn't they?"

"Unwillingly." Future Crimson replied.

"That's right, you two never did get along." Gigavolt noted idly. "Bet they sent you alone, didn't they?"

Future Crimson didn't reply, which, of course, answered the question for Gigavolt.

"No friends to help you, hmm?" he said. "Isn't that a bit of a risky move?"

"I can handle you." Future Crimson said confidently.

"Well, I've got a news flash for you." Gigavolt said, and with that unleashed not one, but many bolts of electricity at his opponent.

Future Crimson, caught off guard by the sudden attack, dodged valiantly, before one bolt stuck at her feet, and she tripped, falling over. Gigavolt raised up on hand dramatically, collecting a ball of energy, that he fully intended to use to end the whole matter, when a voice suddenly rang out.

"Oh, no you don't!" Crimson exclaimed from where she stood on a balcony, gas gun drawn.

"Crimson, no!" Future Crimson warned her past self. "Gas canisters don't..."

But Crimson had already fired off two canisters of gas. They whizzed right through Gigavolt like he wasn't there and exploded behind him. Gigavolt whirled around to face Crimson, ball of energy still in one hand, and grinned.

"Well, lookie here!" he exclaimed, and hurled the ball of energy up at Crimson's balcony.

"Oh crap." Crimson remarked, before the ball struck the balcony right next to her, and exploded.

The already weak balcony wobbled for a moment, then flipped over to hang vertically. Crimson slammed into the railing, flipped over it, and hung there, a story or more above the ground. She had lost her gas gun in the process of this, and it tumbled down to the ground. Before it hit, though, Gigavolt shot it out of the air with a well-aimed lightning bolt.

"So, you got your past self into this, too!" Gigavolt exclaimed, turning to face Future Crimson with a sly grin. "But Crimson, isn't that against you're precious time travel protocols?"

"She's not supposed to be here, and she knows it." Future Crimson remarked, picking herself up and glaring up at her past self.

"It looked like you needed the help to me!" Crimson retorted, then yelped as the balcony she hung from jerked suddenly. It wasn't going to stay there for much longer.

"I told you I can handle this myself!" Future Crimson remarked, raising her gas gun to point at Gigavolt.

But Gigavolt suddenly blurred together into a large bolt of energy, and shot towards Future Crimson. The time traveler quickly leapt aside, avoiding the attack, so Gigavolt looped up into the air, and sailed towards the weakening balcony. He struck it's metal railing, reverting into pure energy, and raced up it in large electric arches towards Crimson, with the idea of shocking her and forcing her to let go.

Crimson let go out of pure fright long before Gigavolt got that close, and started to fall. Future Crimson reacted quickly by firing off her gas gun. A rubber raft shot out of it, inflated, and landed right under the falling Crimson, breaking her fall. Meanwhile, Gigavolt had shot back out of the metal railing, recollected into the bolt again, and shot towards Future Crimson.

This time Future Crimson was ready, and brought up her gas gun to bear at Gigavolt. She activated some unknown attachment on the gun that started to suck Gigavolt up like a vacuum cleaner. Knowing that he was at risk of being captured, Gigavolt quickly broke off, and went after the Crimson from the past, who had armed herself with a metal pole, swinging it at Gigavolt like a baseball bat.

But as the metal was an electric conductor, it ended up not affecting Gigavolt and shocking Crimson, who fell over. Looping around for another attack, Gigavolt landed, resuming his usual personage form, approaching Crimson threateningly. Learning from her mistake, Crimson picked up a dry wooden board, and this time used it as a baseball bat, swinging it at Gigavolt at the last possible moment. Caught off guard, it struck Gigavolt, and knocked him backwards towards the submerged part of the warehouse, and fell in. Lights flashed under the surface, then all was calm.

"Ha! Got him!" Crimson exclaimed, running up the edge of the water to peer down into it.

"You kidding me?" Future Crimson asked, cautiously backing up from the water. "You've probably made him madder!"

"Excuse me?"

"Gigs is _immune _to water!"

"He's _what_?"

But before a thing more could be said, Gigavolt suddenly shot out of the water in his bolt form, rose up a few feet, then slammed into the floor just before Crimson, blasting his way through it, and going under Crimson, tearing up the floor in the process. The force of the attack lifted Crimson into the air, and before she hit the ground again, Gigavolt broke back up through the floor on the other side of Crimson, and flicked her aside with one arm.

Sailing across the room, she crashed into a stack of empty crates that crumbled under the force of Crimson slamming into them. Gigavolt allowed himself a moment to do a victory dance, and failed to notice Future Crimson sneak up behind him. Raising her gas gun once more, she activated the unknown attachment, and whatever it was, started sucking up the electricity that made up Gigavolt.

Gigavolt realized what was happening, and tried to fight it, but it was already too late. With a flash of light, Gigavolt vanished into the gas gun from the future, and silence fell.

Crimson pulled herself from the broken crates, amazed.

"Told you I didn't need your help." Future Crimson remarked.

"What did you do?" Crimson asked.

"My gas gun has a kind of energy collector." the time traveler explained. "And since Gigavolt is nothing but energy, it can suck him up like a vacuum would dirt. The only drawback to it is that it only works in close proximity to the energy source, almost at point-blank range. Other than that small detail, though, it's the most effective way to fight Gigavolt."

"So he's in there?" Crimson asked, pointing at the gas gun, which didn't seem nowhere big enough to hold something the size of Gigavolt.

"He's in here." Future Crimson explained, patting her gas gun.

Crimson was silent for a moment, shifting awkwardly. "So, now what?" she asked.

"Now, I go back to my time, and throw Gigs into jail." Future Crimson replied.

"That simple?" Crimson asked.

"That simple."

Crimson was silent for a moment. "I suppose I can't tell anyone what happened, right?" she said.

"It would be preferred, yes." Future Crimson replied, pulling back one sleeve to reveal a technological wristband with several buttons on it. "You haven't, have you?"

"No, I told Techno to go home, then came after you." Crimson replied. "No one knows what happened here."

"Good." the time traveler said, and thumbed one final control.

A portal flared into existence, not unlike Negaduck's transdimensional portals, except it was solid blue. Future Crimson stepped towards it.

"So I can't convince you to tell me anything about my future?" Crimson asked hopefully. "Not about me, or Techno, or dad, or his relationship with Christine or Morgana?"

"Nope, I can't...wait...Morgana?" Future Crimson asked, surprised. "Why Morgana?"

"Just curious." Crimson said with a shrug. "Why, has something happened to her in the future?"

"You know I can't say."

"Which, of course, could just be a way to avoid saying 'yes.'"

Future Crimson paused before the portal that would clearly take her back to her time. "I will tell you this." she finally said. "You know the Fearsome Five?"

"Yeah?"

"They're nothing compared to what you'll meet up against in the future."

And with that, Future Crimson stepped through the portal and vanished from sight.

* * *

Honker sighed, and leaned back as _Jumpgate: Continuum _concluded and transitioned into it's credits. "Well, I have to say that was a pretty good movie." he announced. "Not quite as much action as I had expected, nor as much of Nathaniel Bean Ganderson as I had hoped, either, but still good."

"Mm." Gosalyn replied, sitting next to him.

Honker glanced at her. "You know, you've been pretty quiet lately." he said. "Did something happen the other night you haven't told me?"

"I can't tell you." Gosalyn said, giving Honker a funny look. "But don't worry about it. Let's just say I was left with a lot to think about when that night ended."

Honker shrugged. "Fair enough." he said. "So what did you think about the movie? Was it worth the wait?"

"Oh yeah, it was good." Gosalyn said.

"Agreed, that was one heck of a time travel adventure." Honker said. "But, despite all the complexities time travel has, I wouldn't mind trying it for myself."

Gosalyn gave Honker another odd look. "Be careful what you wish for, Honk." she said with a grin. "Because you never know. You might just get to do that in the future..."


	20. David

Summary: Gosalyn gets asked to a dance by a sports jock, and Honker doesn't react too well to the news.

Rating: K+

Author's Note: A Gosalyn and Honker chpt. Fearsome Five get back in action. Get to throw Rowe and Liki together for a team mission (you've all been asking for it, so I finally did it). Jax, who was introduced breifly during Gos's birthday party in "Escaped Convict Part I", makes a come back for this chpt. Also introduce a random character that really has no bearing on the story, but he's there anyway. Anyway, enjoy.

20.

David

"Honk, suppose I told you I was going to try something completely outrageous. If I told you what it was and promise to keep it a secret, would you tell me the odds of whether or not it'll succeed?"

Honker looked up from the book he was reading while walking to his next class, and frowned. "What kind of something completely outrageous are we talking about?" he asked apprehensively.

Gosalyn shrugged. "It's not a matter of life and death, if that's what you're worried about." she said.

"That's what _you _say." Honker said, knowing that just because Gosalyn viewed it as non-life threatening didn't mean it actually was. "I'm not agreeing to anything until I know what it is you're thinking of doing."

Gosalyn looked around at the crowded school hallway. "You have to promise to keep it a secret first." she said.

"I'm not making any promises, Gos." Honker said, folding his arms. "Just tell me what it is, _then _we'll see."

Gosalyn hesitated for a moment, then pulled Honker into a nearby classroom, empty with all the students in transition to their next class. Closing the door behind her, she turned to face Honker.

"Okay, first, Dad's got not one, but two dates scheduled with Christine. One's tonight, so we get to go on patrol ourselves tonight." Gosalyn paused for a moment to silently celebrate this fact. It wasn't often that they were allowed to go on patrol alone. "The other date is about a week from now, just before school let's out for the holidays."

"Which day?" Honker asked, believing he could see where this was going already.

"December twentieth." Gosalyn replied. "That's next Thursday."

Honker mentally pictured a calender in his mind. "Gos, that's the night of the school's winter dance." he remarked.

"Exactly." Gosalyn said. "That's what so important about it."

"But what does that have anything to do with it?" Honker asked, not catching on.

"Because Dad's going on a date that night, there's nothing stopping me from going to it." Gosalyn explained, looking excited. "_And _it's a girl's choice dance."

Suddenly, it all came together. "You're going to ask someone to go to the dance with you." Honker realized, his apprehension vanishing.

"Yes!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"Who?" Honker asked.

"David Creek."

Honker looked blank.

"He's on the school soccer team." Gosalyn went on to explain. "You've met him before. Tall, blond hair, muscular, has a perfect beak..." she trailed off, realizing Honker still didn't know who she was talking about. "You know..." Gosalyn said, then sighed, realizing there was only one name Honker knew David by. "...the sports jock?"

Honker's eyes widened. "_Him?_" he exclaimed.

"Is there a problem with that?" Gosalyn asked hotly.

Honker thought for a moment, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, trying to think of something to say. "I'm not sure." he admitted.

"Well, will you help me calculate the odds of him agreeing to go with me?" Gosalyn asked, almost pleadingly.

"I guess so, I mean, I'm so far ahead in my next class, I suppose I'll have enough free time." Honker admitted. "But I really think..."

"Thanks Honk." Gosalyn said, exiting the classroom. "I'll see you at lunch, then!"

"Um, yeah." Honker said, still unsure about all of this.

* * *

"So?" Gosalyn inquired, when she sat down next to him at lunch. "What are the odds?"

"Not as easy to calculate as one would think." Honker replied, punching numbers into a calculator and writing them down. "There are a lot of variables to consider, and..."

"Honk, just forget the variables, and just give me the straight answer." Gosalyn ordered, taking bite of her slice of pepperoni pizza.

Honker nodded, and retraced his steps in the equations he had been working with. "Fifty-fifty." he finally reported.

"That good?" Gosalyn said, surprised.

"But that's just without the variables." Honker said. "If we add things like how willing that sports jock is willing to stop and talk to it, the chances of you seeing him before school ends today, whether or not he already has date, and whether or not you actually get the nerve to ask him..."

"Honk..."Gosalyn said, rubbing her forehead. "Just tell me the odds."

"Less than ten percent."

Gosalyn stared at him.

"From a mathematical standpoint, of course." Honker quickly added.

"Honker..." Gosalyn bemoaned. "You sure that's correct, or did you fudge the numbers?"

"Why would I fudge the numbers?" Honker asked innocently.

"Because you hate David, and don't try to deny it, either!" Gosalyn said.

"Gos, have you seen that sports jock's grades?" Honker asked, leaning closer. "All C's, with the occasional D's. Just high enough to keep him from getting kicked off any of the school's sports programs. That's the only thing that's keeping him in school too, is the sports!"

"My grades aren't the greatest, either, Honk."

"He drives a 1960's Ferrari to school, that probably only gets two miles per gallon, but releases probably several times that much of exhaust!" Honker persisted. "Not only is that bad for the environment, it's expensive too! The only reason _he _doesn't pay for that wasted gas is because his parents spoil him to death, and gives him whatever he wants!"

"You don't have proof of that."

"He threatens to sue people when drip of water falls on his clothes."

"The water could be cold."

"He _bribed _his way into the class presidential race last year."

"He was practicing true politics."

"He thinks everyone who can't bench over 200 hundred pounds is a weakling! That would include you, Gos!"

"So you don't like him!" Gosalyn said, slapping down her hand loudly. "But is it really your business whether or not I should ask him to go to _one _dance?"

Honker didn't answer.

"Well, at least I got the answer I wanted." Gosalyn said, and left, leaving Honker to brood over the situation.

* * *

"Crimson, I'm sorry about what happened today." Techno later admitted once they were on patrol that night. "I was out of line to question your motives for asking David on a date. I should leave the choice up to you, regardless of what I think."

"Well, you were right, too, Tech." Crimson admitted, focusing on driving the Ratcatcher through the dark city streets. "Thinking about asking him and actually asking him are two entirely different things. It's not at all as easy as I thought it would be. I saw him today at soccer practice, had the perfect opportunity, and I chickened out." she shook her head. "Sheesh, when you think of everything I've ever been through, you'd think asking a guy to a dance would be a piece of cake."

"Maybe that's why it's usually the men that are supposed to ask the girls to the dance and not the other way around." Techno reasoned. "I don't even know why they do the girl's choice dances."

"I think I do." Crimson said. "The school board thinks it'll let everybody have a chance to do the asking. In reality though, it's just a waste of effort. Most of the girls wait for the boys to ask them, regardless if it's girl's choice or not." she laughed suddenly. "I told Dad about the dance before he left on his date, and he was completely lost when I told him it was girl's choice. Apparently, there was no such thing when he was in high school."

"Times change." Techno agreed.

Suddenly, his visor flickered, it's HUD vanishing from sight for a moment.

"Oh c'mon, not again." Techno grumbled, slapping at the visor, trying to get the image to reappear.

"That visor giving you grief again?" Crimson asked, glancing at him.

"Yeah, I don't know what the problem is with it." Techno admitted, slapping it still, before the picture refocused, although not as clearly as he would've liked. "If this keeps up, I'm not going to be able to use it in action."

"Well, we're not doing much at the moment, think you could stop and fix it?" Crimson asked.

"I'd have to take it off in order to do that." Techno said. "And since it's the visor that's protecting my identity..."

"We need to do it in secret, got it." Crimson said.

She turned the Ratcatcher into a nearby alley and turned off the engine. Away from unwanted eyes now, Techno removed the visor from his face, pulled out a screwdriver, and started to dismantle the SHUSH-issued device. It didn't take him long to find the problem.

"I guess that would do it." Honker said, showing Crimson the little bolt within the visor's mechanism that had snapped in half. "With that bolt out of the way, that part can bounce around freely, and interfere with the visor's systems."

"Okay, but what the heck caused that bolt to snap like that?" Crimson asked.

"Considering everything this thing has been through since I got it, it shouldn't come as any surprise." Honker pointed out. "All I have to do is fix it is replace the bolt. The problem, though, is look at how tiny that bolt _is_. Where would I get such a small bolt without drawing attention to myself?"

Crimson thought for a moment. "I think I know." she said.

* * *

The next day found Honker at a small watchmaker's corner store that Gosalyn knew of. She reasoned that since the owner made watches and stuff, it stood the reason he'd have the bolt Honker would need. So, hoping she was right, Honker paid the store a visit on his way to school.

Entering, he found that the room was filled with clocks and watches of all sorts of varieties. Going across one end of the room was a counter. Honker approached it, and saw a little bell, with a sign over it that said "ring for service." Honker tapped it lightly.

"Just a moment!" a voice called out from the back room, in what Honker perceived as a workshop.

In no hurry, Honker waited, looking around. Spying a fairly impressive grandfather clock nearby, he stepped over to it, studying it. Honker never really took the time to look at clocks before, but seeing the beauty and the detailed craftsmanship of the clock, Honker had to admit it was quite a clock.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice asked suddenly.

Honker turned and saw a middle-aged mouse standing behind the counter, wiping his hands with a cloth. "Yes it is." he admitted.

"My father worked on that clock." the mouse continued. "It was his pride and joy. Passed it on to me when he died." he waved a hand dismissively "But you're not here to hear my family history." he extended a hand for Honker to shake. "Henry Bantamock at your service. Owner of this fine store."

"Honker Muddlefoot." Honker said, taking the hand to shake.

"What can I do for you, Honker?" Henry asked.

"I'm looking for special kind of bolt." Honker explained, reaching into his pocket, and pulling out the broken visor bolt in a plastic bag. "A little one, like this one."

Henry took it, and examined it. "Little bugger." he observed. "Don't see many quite this size." he opened the plastic bag, and pulled out the broken bolt, fitting the pieces together. "Can't say I've ever seen such a bolt abused in such a way, either."

"It's...kinda been through a lot." Honker admitted.

"Must not be very kind to your watches." Henry went on, pulling out a book from a drawer. "I'm presuming it's from a watch, yes?"

"You could say that." Honker admitted.

Henry gave him an odd look. "Like I said, I don't see many bolts like this one used very often." he said, flipping through the book. "Particularly in watches."

"Does that mean you can't help me?" Honker asked, crestfallen.

"Oh no, I can help you." Henry said, tapping an entry in his book, which Honker realized was a record of the supplies the store had. "Just not on hand. I'm currently out of those bolts. But I can order some, and you'll have your bolt in a matter of days."

"Sounds good." Honker said, relieved.

"Just come in a couple of days." Henry said. "Should come in by then. I would like to hang on to this broken one, though, just so I don't accidently order the wrong ones."

"Sure, go ahead." Honker said. "Not doing me any good."

"I'm sure of that." Henry said. "See you then?"

"Yeah, same time." Honker said, and left the store.

Henry watched him go, then eyed the broken bolt again, clearly puzzled about something...

* * *

Honker sat at lunch later that day, studying while eating the soup special the school cafeteria was serving. He looked up when Gosalyn joined him.

"Honker, guess what!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Honker asked, distracted as he went back to his studies.

"I didn't need to ask David to the dance, because he just came to_ me _and asked _me _if I liked to go to the dance with him!"

Honker froze. "He did?" he said, surprised. "Oh."

Gosalyn frowned. "Oh?" she said, a little put out by Honker's reaction.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's worked out, it's just that..." Honker trailed off, unsure what to say now. "Well, you know how I feel about that sports jock, and..."

"Honker, you said last night that you were wrong to interfere with wasn't your business." Gosalyn said.

"I know, it's just...odd." Honker said. "Why would David ask you to go to the dance? He's never done so before. You two aren't even really friends, just teammates on the soccer team."

"Clearly, Honk, we're friends." Gosalyn said, a little harsher than intended. "Quit trying to reason me out of it, all right?"

"Yeah." Honker said, looking down at his lunch, and deciding he wasn't hungry anymore. "Sure. Right. Whatever." he slammed his book shut and got up to leave. "I'm going to the library. See you later."

"Yeah, see you Honker." Gosalyn said with a sigh, shaking her head.

* * *

In the library, Honker was working in peace, and successfully taking his mind off the matter of Gosalyn and that sports jock. But like all good things, it had to come to an end.

"Hey, remember me?" a female Fox said, approaching the table Honker sat at, alone.

Honker squinted at her, trying to remember. "Y-you're Jax." he said, remembering. "Gosalyn's friend."

"That's right." Jax said, sitting down. "We met at Gosalyn's birthday party a few months ago, remember?"

"Unfortunately." Honker said, feeling a little nervous around her. He resumed his studying.

"Whatcha studying?" Jax asked, glancing at the book Honker had open.

"Anatomy." Honker replied.

"Looking at the pictures?"

Honker gave her a look. "I'm studying the digestive process for my anatomy class." he said. "Test on it tomorrow."

"Oh. Of course." Jax said, looking a bit put out. "You know, I never really did like that class."

"I take it you aren't very fluent in anatomy, then." Honker remarked, keeping his eyes on the book.

"Sure I am." Jax said, looking ready to prove to Honker she knew. "Digestive system, that's the system with the heart and blood, right?"

Honker gave her an are-you-stupid look. "No." he said flatly.

"Okay, so I don't know much about some parts on the subject." she admitted. "But there are some parts I know _very _well."

"Oh really?" Honker asked, wanting to test that claim. "Like what?"

Jax gave him a sly look.

"No wait, don't answer that! Ack!" Honker said quickly, seeing that was the wrong question he asked. He closed his book and quickly packed up to leave. "Maybe I can find some peace and quiet elsewhere in this school."

"But I just..." Jax began, watching Honker leave.

"Goodbye." Honker said, heading out the door.

"But I wanted to..."

"I said, goodbye!"

* * *

Elsewhere in St. Canard, a small storehouse sat quietly behind a factory. Quiet, that it, until a SHUSH commando team suddenly raided it.

"Freeze!" the leader of the team exclaimed when they burst into the structure.

But no one was in sight within the structure. And a quick search confirmed it.

"Gold leader to HQ." the team leader said into a radio. "They're not here."

"You're sure?" a voice came back on the radio. "We've confirmed that's where the return portal opened."

"We're sure." the team leader said. "No one's here. They must have snuck out the moment they got here."

"Then Negaduck and the Fearsome Five have given us the slip once again."

* * *

A few days past, and nothing seemed to be getting better for Honker. A wall seemed to have formed between him and Gosalyn, who was unhappy that Honker was so unsupportive of her and David going to the dance. Honker tried to be supportive, but just couldn't. He hated David, and thought he wasn't someone Gosalyn would want to associate with.

Then, there was the matter of Jax. For some reason, the fox had become unnaturally friendly to Honker, and tried several more times to engage in a conversation with him, learning from her mistake at the library. Honker tried to avoid her, however. He wasn't sure what she was up to, but she was just coming off as annoying.

And crime fighting wasn't going to good, whenever he donned his Techno costume for the night. Still waiting for the replacement to bolt to come in, Techno was forced to make due without, and without the bolt, it had rendered his visor, his most important tool in crime fighting, pretty much useless. Fortunately, the past few nights had been slow, crime-wise.

Finally, the time came for Honker to return to Henry Bantamock's little shop to see if the bolt had come in.

"Mr. Bantamock?" Honker called, entering the store and not seeing anyone in sight.

The mouse watchmaker poked his head out the backroom. "Ah, young Honker!" he said. "Come in, and please, call me Henry."

Honker nodded, and approached the counter. "Has the bolt come in?"

"I'm afraid not, Honk." Henry replied. "It's not a very common bolt, apparently. In fact, I've talked with a few friends about it, and we all agreed, we had never heard of such a bolt being used in a watch before. Your watch must be very special."

"Heh, yeah, it is." Honker said nervously.

"I wonder, could I perhaps see this watch?" Henry went on. "You know, just to study it for a little while?"

"I'm afraid not." Honker said. "Besides, I don't have it with me."

"Understandable." he then tilted his head, watching Honker. "Something wrong? You seem a bit blue."

"Oh, well, it's nothing, really." Honker assured him, setting the notebook he carried in one hand on the counter and leaning on it. "It's just...the past few days having going too good for me, and I was hoping I could at least get this one thing sorted out."

"Hmm, I'm sorry to hear that." Henry said. "What kind of things aren't going right? It can't be grades, for you seem to be a smart boy."

"That's what they say, but sometimes I have to wonder." Honker said, then hesitated. "See, there's a friend of mine that I know, and she's...er...going to a school dance in a few days with a person I completely hate. And I was kinda...you know..."

"Hoping she would go to the dance with you." Henry filled in.

Honker paused, then nodded. "She's not too happy with me, because I don't like the idea of her going to this dance with that sports jock, and it's affecting our friendship."

"Well, I may be a watchmaker, but I do know that one thing that would probably help is if you told her the whole story." Henry said. "I'm presuming she doesn't know of your hopes of going to the dance with her, correct?"

"Yeah." Honker admitted, unsure why he was admitting all of this to Henry, but was anyway. "But that's easier said than done. Besides, she's not about to pass out on this chance to go to the dance with this guy, anyway."

"Trust me Honker, it'll help." Henry assured him. "But of course, the choice is yours to make."

"Right." Honker said turning to leave. "Well, goodbye then."

"Yes, goodbye." Henry said, returning to his work.

It wasn't until later that Henry realized that Honker had left his notebook behind.

* * *

"Rowe, get in here!" Negaduck exclaimed from within his makeshift office.

"Yes sir, right away sir!" the otter said, quickly bounding into the office. "What can I do for you, mate?"

"First, sit." Negaduck said, pointing at a nearby sit. "Next, listen."

Rowe obeyed, sitting down, and looking attentively at Negaduck.

"All right, you knob, here's the deal." Negaduck said. "We, the Fearsome Five, are still getting things pulled back together now that I was so kind and broke you idiots out of jail. But just because we're still getting the technical stuff sorted out, doesn't mean I want the gang to stay inactive. You're going out to cause some crime and chaos. I don't really care what. Just don't get caught and end up in jail again."

"Got it." Rowe said, standing up to leave. "I'll start..."

"I'm not finished." Negaduck interrupted. "Sit down."

Rowe did.

"I'm teaming you all up." Negaduck explained. "Rowe, you're going to be working with Liki for this one."

"The Liquidator?" Rowe repeated. "But boss, why can't I work with Bushroot or maybe Megavolt?"

"Bushroot I've got teamed up with NegaCrimson." Negaduck replied flatly. "And Megs is going to work with Quackerjack."

"But I don't like Liki!" Rowe protested. "He's a living water, mate! I like my water for swimming in and drinking, not conversing with! Liki's unnatural to nature!"

"I completely agree." Negaduck said. "But those are my orders. So either do them, or..." he pulled out a pistol from a drawer in the desk and held it aloft. "Get the picture?"

"Perfectly, mate." Rowe replied with a gulp.

* * *

"Honker, what was the assignment we're supposed to do in English?" Gosalyn asked when Honker passed by her locker at the end of the school day. "Was it read page two-hundred to two-hundred-fifty, or was it read page three-hundred to three-fifty?"

"Actually, it was page four-hundred to four-fifty." Honker corrected, sliding his books into his backpack.

"Thanks." Gosalyn said, and without a word more, started to walk off.

Honker sighed, sad that their conversation had been reduced to such, and continued packing his bag. He then froze when he saw someone approach, and suddenly raced over to Gosalyn and hid behind her.

"Honker, what the..." Gosalyn began, annoyed.

"I'm hiding from Jax." Honker explained simply.

Gosalyn looked behind her and saw the fox walking through the hallway, seeming to be unaware Honker was there. "Jax?" she repeated. "What's wrong with Jax?"

"I swear, she's stalking me, or something." Honker replied.

"Stalking you?" Gosalyn repeated. "Why would Jax stalk you? The last time I remember you two meeting, you made a complete fool of yourself."

"I know, I don't get it either, but she's been following me all over the school, and trying to engage in conversations every time she comes within talking range." Honker said. "And it's going to drive me bananas, sooner or later."

"I know Jax, that's not quite like her." Gosalyn admitted. "Still, she's my friend, so whatever she's doing, I trust she has a good reason."

"Still doesn't mean I want to meet up with her." Honker pointed out.

"Look, it's okay, she's going down that staircase." Gosalyn said, pointing. "_Now _can I go on about my business?"

"Yeah." Honker said, stepping away from Gosalyn. "Yeah, go ahead."

"Thank you." Gosalyn said, continuing on.

"Oh, and Gos?" Honker said, at the last moment. "I'm sorry we have such differing opinions about that dance. But I really think you going to it with David is a bad idea."

Gosalyn stopped, and looked back at Honker. "We'll see about that after tomorrow night, won't we?" she said hotly, then went on, vanishing out of Honker's sight.

* * *

"...But wait! This offer doesn't end there! If you call within the next five minutes, you'll get our supreme bonus package absolutely free! That's right, absolutely..."

"Will you shut up and just open the grate already, mate?" Rowe said angrily. "It's crowded enough in here with just me, much less sharing it with a liquidated salesman!"

"Practice makes perfect, you know." Liki pointed out, one watery hand on the grate covering the drainage pipe.

"How about I practice punching you in the face?" Rowe threatened. "Now open that grate!"

Rejected, Liki swung the grate open and splashed into the empty drainage ditch beyond.

"Our motto is service with a smile!" he cried out.

"Oh hush." Rowe said, stomping out into the snow-ladened ditch and shivering. "_Now _where should we go, mate?"

"Studies say that this route will be the most profitable." Liki remarked, pointing down the ditch, the cold winter day not seeming to affect him.

"It had better be." Rowe said, trudging forward. "We've been walking around in this cold, doing nothing, for the past hour and a half! My tail's half frozen, and my ears are sore from having to listen to you spout your salesmanese!"

In the distance, a ringing bell could be heard. Liki looked in it's direction.

"What was that?" he asked.

"That would be a school bell, mate." Rowe said, rubbing his fur to try and warm himself up.

"Worth checking out, you think?" Liki asked.

"Sure, why not, just so long we can get this stupid assignment over with." Rowe grumbled.

"This way, then, mate." Liki said, mimicking Rowe's voice, and slithered up and out of the ditch.

"I ain't your mate." Rowe muttered.

A short while later, the two poked their heads through a set of bushes that lined the yard of the St. Canard High School, and watched the students file out.

"Hmpf, nothing here but teenagers." Rowe remarked.

"Ah, but teenagers are consumers, too." Liki pointed out. "Profit can be gained from them."

"Whatever." Rowe said. "Just look for something we can do to cause 'crime and chaos.'"

Liki looked around and saw the school's event board. "'Come to our Winter Fun Dance, December twentieth.'" he read out loud. "That would mean the offer ends tomorrow night."

"A dance?" Rowe repeated. "By the fur, mate, it's been awhile since I've been to a dance. Wish I could go."

Liki suddenly looked like he had been struck by lightning. "Then why don't we?" he asked rhetorically.

* * *

The next day, Honker stopped at the watch store once again.

"Is it here?" he asked Henry when he entered.

"Indeed it is." Henry replied, and disappeared in the back room for a moment, before returning with a small box. Setting it down on the counter, he opened it and pulled out one bolt from amongst many. "Here it is."

"Great, how much?" Honker asked, pulling out his wallet.

"Consider it on the house." Henry said, handing it to Honker. "Besides, selling just one of those little things would only earn me about half a cent."

Honker laughed, put away his wallet, and took the bolt, studying the little object intently.

"One more thing while you're here." Henry went on, reaching under the counter. "I believe you forgot this last time you visited." he pulled out Honker's notebook.

Honker paled slightly. "D-did I?" he stuttered, accepting it. "Oh, well, thank you." he paused, holding the notebook. "You didn't look through it...did you?"

"I admittedly did skim through it." Henry admitted. He gave Honker an odd look. "Very interesting life you lead, young Techno."

Honker paled again. "H-how much d-do you kn-know?" he stuttered.

"Not a great deal." Henry admitted. "In fact, I didn't really understand what was all in that notebook until I reached the part about the visor. Very interesting device, and I presume that's what the bolt's truly for."

Honker nodded numbly. "You won't..." he began.

Henry shook his head. "Your secret's safe with me." he promised. "Besides, I don't really have anybody to tell it to."

Honker laughed, feeling the tension break. "Well, thanks again." he said, turning to leave, unsure what else to say.

"One last thing, however." Henry interrupted. "I'm quite curious; did you follow my advice?"

Honker hesitated. "Kind of." he admitted. "But she won't really listen to me anymore. She'll just talk with me for as long as is needed, then move on. And anyway, it's too late now. The dance is tonight."

"Are you planning to go?" Henry asked.

"Not really." Honker admitted. "Why?"

"Well, it's a dance, isn't it?" Henry asked. "Isn't there always a moment in the dance where they have you dance with another?"

Honker paused for a moment.

"Perhaps that would be your chance to make amends with your friend." Henry continued.

"Yeah." Honker said, looking bright. "Yeah, your right. In that case, I better get going." he started out the door, but then paused. "Oh, and Mr. Bantamock?"

"Yes?" the mouse watchmaker asked.

"Thanks."

Henry grinned. "You're welcome." he said. "And if you ever need parts for your visor again, I will be glad to help."

Honker grinned, nodded, and then left.

* * *

That night, the student body of the St. Canard High School convened for the Winter Fun Dance. Among them was Honker, who was there alone, dressed in a suit. He was glad to see he wasn't alone. A great deal of people both male and female had come to the dance without a partner as well. Apparently, they were hoping to meet up with the person of their choice as well.

Standing by the snacks table, Honker watched the dates come in, watching for Gosalyn and David. When they finally entered, Honker almost missed them, but finally spotted David from the group. The tall athlete wore a plain tuxedo and had his blond hair slicked back. He reminded Honker of a TV show host, and his prideful persona only added to the image

But Honker had to double check to make sure David's dancing partner truly was Gosalyn. Because he hardly recognized her. Instead of wearing her hair in the usual two pigtails, they had been undone to let Gosalyn's hair fall down to her shoulders. It had been brushed and well-groomed, and the red hair shone in the dim lighting of the school gym.

But what dumbfounded Honker the most was what Gosalyn wore. A stunningly pretty white dress that not only seemed out of place on Gosalyn, it also very unlike Gosalyn to even wear it. Since when had Gosalyn ever willingly worn a dress?

But there she was, dancing with David within Honker's line of sight, chatting as they danced. Honker stood there watching them for a good part of the night, sipping punch. When the DJ stopped to change CDs and the music stopped, Honker turned to look in his direction, and was dismayed to see Jax coming towards him, wearing a red, sleeveless dress.

"Hey Honkman, care to dance?" she asked politely.

"I, er, just ate." Honker quickly excused. "Should wait one to two hours after eating."

"That's for swimming, silly." Jax said, mocking annoyance.

"That's right, it's three hours for dancing." Honker corrected himself nervously.

"Oh, quit being such a stick in the mud and just c'mon." Jax prompted, and grabbed Honker's hand and pulled him out onto the dance floor as a new song started playing.

"No, really, I don't want to..." Honker began, but Jax had taken control, and soon the two were in fact dancing, despite Honker's resistence.

"There." the fox said with a grin. "That's not so bad, now is it?"

"Depends." Honker said, adjusting his glasses and avoided the question.

"You know, you look dashing in that suit." Jax said, changing the subject. "But I'm curious. How do you think I look?"

"T-that would require me sitting down and running through a few calculations." Honker said, looking around for a way to escape. To his dismay, he saw that Jax was steering them towards Gosalyn and David.

"Hey, Gos." Jax greeted as they danced past.

Gosalyn turned and saw Honker with Jax, and gave him a bewildered look. Honker tried to shrug, to indicate this wasn't his idea, but Jax turned him away before he could, and then they danced away. As they did, Honker could feel Gosalyn's eyes drilling into his back, and he realized this had just worsen the situation.

"Are we done yet?" Honker asked, anxious to break away.

"Not until this song is over." Jax said, refusing to let Honker break away so easily.

Honker endured the rest of the song, then promptly broke away from Jax. "Right, we're done, bye!" he then ran off, putting distance between him and the fox.

He then sought out Gosalyn, who he was pleased to see was by herself at the punch table.

"Hey Gos, could I have a word?" Honker asked, approaching, and looking around for David. "Where's your date?"

"Bathroom break." Gosalyn replied, giving Honker a glare. "Where's yours?"

"Uh-oh." Honker said to himself. "Look, back when you saw me dancing with Jax, I assure, that wasn't my idea."

"You went along with it." Gosalyn said flatly.

"No, she forced me into it." Honker corrected. "Look, I told you yesterday, that girl's been stalking me, and she's starting to go too far! I swear, I'll call Darkwing next time she comes along."

"Uh-huh." Gosalyn said, not buying it. "So why Jax? I mean, I know you don't like the idea of me and David dancing together, but why use Jax to get back me?"

"What?" Honker asked. "No, Gos, I'm telling you the truth, here."

"Just go away, Honker." Gosalyn said, then walked off.

Honker watched her go, then sighed, leaning against the punch table.

"How much longer do I have to do this? I'm getting sick of her!"

Honker froze when he heard the voice coming from the other side of a large stack of paper cups, out of sight. Wasn't that David's voice?

"Just a few moments long, I think I'm getting through to him."

Honker bit his lip. There was no denying that was Jax's voice right there. He felt his stomach sink. What was going on that he didn't know about?

"Well, you had better." came David's voice. "I didn't agree to be with her for so long. You owe me extra for this, Jax. Your plan was crazy enough as it was originally. I don't need you to go and alter it every half-second."

"So I ran into a few problems." Jax was heard replying. "He's proving to be quite stubborn. But I just need him apart from Gosalyn just awhile longer. The longer their apart, the more of a wall we build between them."

Honker gulped, realizing the "he" they were referring to was him.

"You mean the wall _you _are building." David spoke. "I'm just the henchman in this scheme of yours to win that little twerp's heart, and it's not a very pleasant job at all. That Gosalyn isn't my type at all."

"Look, just stick to the plan, all right?" Jax spoke. "By this dance is over, it'll all be over, got it? Now get back out there and do your job."

"Not so fast." David said. "I want another advance first."

"_Another?_ Sheesh, David, you really are spoiled."

"Hey, if you want my help, you have to pay. Besides, it's in the contract you signed."

Jax grumbled something about having to sign a contract for something like this and how that it had no real power, and Honker heard the crinkle of money being passed around. "There! Satisfied?"

"Very." David replied. "You had just better pay in full once this is over."

"I will, now go dance with Gosalyn or something."

David nodded, and left. Jax was busy putting away her purse. "Really, I shouldn't have to pay so much for this." the fox muttered.

She turned to walk out from behind the table, and found Honker standing in her way.

"You know, I have to agree with that." Honker said hotly. "I hope you can get a refund."

"Er..." Jax began, looking pale. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Actually, I didn't _see_ anything." Honker said. "I heard all I needed to know."

Jax studied him for a moment. "So?"

"Some friend you are, Jax." Honker said. "Betraying Gosalyn like just so you can try to get close to her closest friend who _never _wanted to do a thing with you _in the first place_?"

"So what?" Jax asked. "There's nothing you can do about it! Gosalyn won't listen to you, I saw your little conversation a moment ago!"

"Maybe not her." Honker agreed. "But I have other contacts that can guarantee you are brought to justice."

But before another word more could be said, the gym doors suddenly sprang open.

"Presenting the Liquidator and Rowe Chaos Package!" Liki exclaimed as he glided into the room with Rowe at his side. "Some assembly required, batteries not included."

* * *

Liki wasn't joking, either. The moment he and Rowe appeared on the scene, everyone panicked, and fled for the nearest exit.

"Warning, wet floor." Liki remarked, and suddenly melted.

The resulting pool of water spread across the gym floor, soaking it. Everyone running was soon slipping and sliding on it in their mad rush to exit. Rowe vaulted over the snacks table, and quickly closed the only other door that led out of the gym. By that point, however, most of the gym's occupants had already slipped out. All that remained beside the two villains was Honker, Jax, David, and Gosalyn.

"Drat, you could've been a bit faster about that water trick there, mate." Rowe remarked to Liki as the liquid dog reformed.

"Products may vary." Liki remarked with a shrug. "But at least we caused chaos, just like the boss requested. Now, we'll complete the crime part by stealing all the valuables from these four."

"Here, take her, she's all yours!" David exclaimed, pushing Gosalyn towards the two before running for a far corner of the gym.

"David!" Gosalyn exclaimed, looking both hurt and enraged.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Liki asked, sliding up to Gosalyn.

Gosalyn gulped, and turned to face Liki. "Someone who isn't going to go down without a fight." she said.

"Oh yeah?" Rowe challenged, grabbing Gosalyn by the throat and lifting her into the air. "I'd like to see you try, mate."

"Oh I will, mate." Gosalyn said mockingly, struggling against Rowe's choking grip.

"I ain't your mate." Rowe replied.

"While you're doing that, I will go collect our profit from the coward." Liki said, and headed for David, who was cowering in a corner.

Jax watched this for a moment, then turned to Honker. "We need to get...Honker?" she was surprised to see Honker had vanished.

"Please, don't hurt me!" David pleaded, trying to press himself into the wall as Liki approached.

"Then the solution is simple." Liki replied. "Give me all the goods you got, kid. Tux included."

"My tux?" David said, stunned, fingering the expensive suit he wore.

"Sure, you'd be surprised how much they'd sell for on the black market." Liki said. :In fact, once I saw...

"Oh Likiii!" a voice suddenly called out from above.

Frowning Liki looked up.

"Try getting this at the black market!" Techno exclaimed from the support beam that draped over the roof of the gym and poured a tank of liquid nitrogen down on the Liquidator.

Liki tried to flee, but the moment the liquid nitrogen touched him, his watery body started to freeze. Within moments, he was frozen solid. Grinning in victory, Techno came sliding down from the beam on a grappling hook and rope.

"Whew, good thing the chemistry lab was just around the corner from here." he remarked.

"Liki?" Rowe said, worried, turning to look towards his cohort.

When he did so, Gosalyn reached behind her, grabbed a metal tray of crackers, and whacked it over Rowe's head. Going cross-eyed, the otter let go of Gosalyn, letting her drop to the floor, then crumpled into a heap. Techno quickly rushed to Gosalyn's side.

"Gos, are you all right?" he asked urgently, helping her up.

"No." Gosalyn said flatly, smoothing out her dress. "No, I'm not all right." she turned, and stomped towards David.

"Uh-oh." David said. "Now, Gos, I know what you're thinking, but really..."

"Leave me for the enemy, why don't you!" Gosalyn exclaimed, and then punched him in the beak.

David froze for a moment, a kind of weird grin planted on his face, then tipped over onto his back, unconscious.

Meanwhile, Jax was slowly heading for the door. "Well, it's been fun, but I think it's time for me to go now." she remarked nervously.

Techno quickly moved to block her path. "Not so fast." he said. "Don't you have something to show Gos?"

"W-w-what do you mean?" Jax asked, not understanding.

Techno took her purse from the fox and tossed it to Gosalyn. "Here, Gos, catch!"

Gosalyn caught it, and quickly found the alleged contract David had made Jax sign when they established their little agreement, and on it was all the details about that agreement. Gosalyn skimmed through it for a moment, then looked up to stare at Jax.

Jax chuckled nervously. "April Fools?" she asked hopefully.

Gosalyn stormed towards Jax, angrily. "I can't believe I let you be my friend." she growled. "But you have been everything but! Turning against me, setting me up with a traitorous dance partner, and going after my best friend and annoying the living daylights out of him! _And _you've got a stupid contract to top it off! Who's dumb idea was that?"

"David's, he's so greedy and stuff..." Jax began to explain, but was cut off when Gosalyn punched her in the snout.

Jax spun around, but was still conscious, so Techno helped out by spraying some sleeping gas in the fox's face. She then collapsed and was out like a light.

Techno looked up at Gosalyn, who was breathing heavily. "Now are you all right?" he asked.

"Oh yeah." Gosalyn said with a cruel grin. "I feel _great_."

They fell silent for a moment, realizing they were the only ones left conscious, and they stood around listening to the music Techno realized was still playing.

"Gos," he began suddenly. "Look, I really am sorry for what happened, but I was a pawn in this just as much as you were."

"It's okay." Gosalyn said. "Besides, you were right. David's not that great after all. Not only did he turn against me, he's got a terrible sense of humor. It was a mistake to get associated with him." she paused, and sighed. "No, I should be sorry. I blamed you over nothing, when I really should've listened to you." she grinned. "To think it took a battle with Rowe and Liki to see it."

Techno laughed, then paused. "Wanna dance?" he asked, just out of the blue.

Gosalyn grin grew bigger as she looked Techno in the eye, envisioning Honker's face behind the visor. "I would love to, Tech." she said.

And so they danced, and did not stop until the police arrived some time later.


	21. Liquify

Summary: Something odd is happening, and all of the usual candidates have been ruled out. So who is Darkwing and the gang fighting against...

Rating: K+

21.

Liquify

Previously, on The New Adventure of Darkwing Duck...

"_What's today's secret lab that we're checkin' out?"_

"_Unknown, sir. FOWL left very little information about it, hence why SHUSH never discovered it. I can confirm, however, that some kind of science experiment was under way here, and there were volunteer test subjects involved."_

_--_

"_Then, where __**are**__ the records?"_

"_There aren't any, sir, they've all been wiped."_

"_Wiped? Ya mean deleted?"_

"_Yes sir, done according to clause three-two-two-alpha in the original FOWL regulations."_

"_Clause three-two-two...ya mean t' say that FOWL __**abandoned**__ this facility?"_

_--_

"_The question I'd like t' have answer to, though, is what that somethin' is?"_

"_We're not quite sure sir, but we're presuming it's all behind this door."_

"_Okay, then, let's see what's behind it."_

_--_

"_Edward, ya said that there were test subjects involved in this project, whatever it was. Any idea how many?"_

"_No sir. Why?"_

"_Because I think I know where they are."_

_--_

"_Where am I? What happened?"_

"_In a FOWL laboratory. You've been in cryogenic sleep for the past seven years."_

"_I have? For seven years? Why?"_

"_Don't ya remember?"_

"_No, n-not really. I remember entering a FOWL laboratory, I'm presuming this one, for some experiment and seeing a bunch of armed Eggmen, and after that...It's blank."_

_--_

"_So why destroy all the data? If they were so sure they were going to come back to it..."_

"_Maybe they didn't lock this place down because they thought they were going to come back to this place. Maybe they locked it down to keep whatever was here from getting out."_

_--_

"_FOWL granted him more time, and finally the project leader believed he had a fix ready for testing. The other four were then arranged for the test, but FOWL set up extra precautions in case something went wrong again. Each test subject was brought in one at a time, and the moment they entered, were tranquilized. Apparently, they were kept unconscious for the remainder of the test."_

_--_

"_But that's not the end of the document either, sir. There's more. And it talks a bit more about the project itself. Sir, you aren't going to believe what this project is supposed to do..."_

_--_

"_Um, doc. You said you're looking for anything odd about me, right?"_

"_Right."_

"_Well, here's something odd for you. My hand's on fire."_

"_What?"_

"_It doesn't hurt, either."_

_--_

"_It was a project funded by FOWL t' create a kind of serum. A serum capable of enhancin' the performance's of one's body! That's what it's done t' you guys! Only it's unexpectedly gone and enhanced a little further!"_

_--_

"_Suppose we don't want to have anything to do with FOUL, now?"_

"_Listen, Firefox, I'm givin' ya quite an offer. If ya run off, where will ya go? What will ya do? If ya stay with me n' FOUL, though, I can give ya places to go an' stuff t' do. Now what do ya say?"_

_--_

_Finally, after a long and tense moment, a choice was made..._

* * *

"You have a meeting in the morning with the city council to discuss the possibilities of improving traffic on Jacques Street, a luncheon with Councilman Jones at twelve, and your wife has requested you actually come home for dinner for a change. You also still need to approval the new tax relief bill."

Mayor Kim of St. Canard sighed, putting his head down on his desk. "Whoever or whatever convinced me I would actually _like _this job should be hanged, or shot, or something..." he grumbled.

His aide frowned. "I'm sorry sir." she apologized, like it was her fault. "If you want, I can see if I can clear your schedule..."

"No, that's okay." Kim said, standing up, and starting to pace his office in city hall. "I'm just weary, that's all." he glanced at the clock. "It's getting late, shouldn't we be calling it a night?"

"There is still some paperwork you need to finish, sir." his aide said, pointing to the small pile on his desk.

"Oh." Kim said, glancing at it. "Right. Is that all?"

"Yes sir."

"Then I guess I'll get to it, then." he sat down at his desk again, and pulled the first paper from the stack towards him.

His aide, seeing her job was done for the moment, left the office, leaving the mayor alone. Kim worked on the papers for a moment, before stopping to rub his eyes. "I'm glad I didn't decide to run for president." he remarked. "If I can't handle these mere mayoral duties, there's no way I could handle the duties a president has." he sighed. "My predecessor certainly left a lot of junk for _me _to handle though. Typical politics, no wonder so many people hated him."

He stared at the paper before him, noting it required his signature. Since he figured he already had a good enough idea about what the document was about, he skipped to the end, read the last sentence or so, then reached for his pen. He noted it felt warm under his touch, but didn't think a thing more about it until he clicked the pen, which caused the heated writing utensil to promptly burst, splattering ink all over Kim's hand.

"Oh..." he grumbled, dropping the pen and standing up, holding his hand out away from his suit. "That was my best pen, too."

Grumbling, he walked out of his office to the restroom, stopping before a sink. Holding his hand under the facet, he turned the knob for some water. Nothing happened, however, the facet simply grumbled for a moment, and rattled. Kim frowned at it for a second, wondering why no water was coming out.

Then, without warning, the whole sink exploded, spraying water everywhere with enough force that chaos quickly followed...

* * *

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the phone call you nearly kill yourself to answer only to find out it's a telemarketer! I am...Darkwing Duck!"

"And I am the heir to the cape! I am the politician who never does what he promises to do! I am the Crimson Avenger!"

Darkwing and Crimson materialized from their respective clouds of smoke in the hallway of city hall, only to be surprised by the fact that it flooded with an ankle-deep amount of water.

"Whoa." Darkwing remarked, lifting up his cape to keep it from getting wet. "Should've used a water related catch phrase this time."

"I can see why the police called us here, now." Crimson remarked, starting forward down the flooded hallway to where a large group of people were crowded around a bathroom doorway. "Wonder what happened."

"Only one way to find out." Darkwing remarked, following.

They pushed their way through the crowded doorway filled with city hall personnel, police officers, and a medic. Once through here, they could see the damage the exploding sink had dealt to the room. One person knelt down before the remains of the sink, snapping pictures of the evidence. Standing over him watching this was...

"Officer Matthew!" Crimson exclaimed, surprised.

Matthew turned at the sound of his name, and grinned at the sight of the two superheroes. He quickly rushed over. "Oh good, you came!" he said. "Thank goodness! We've got something that's right up your guys's alley!"

"Well, that's why we're here, Matt." Darkwing said, surveying the situation. "So what happened?"

"As I understand it, Mayor Louie Kim was in here cleaning up when his pen burst in his hand, washing off the ink." Matthew explained, turning back to look at the broken sink. "According to the mayor, the sink rumbled for a moment when he turned the knob, then suddenly exploded."

Crimson stepped up the broken sink and ran her hand over the crumbled edges. "Could it be an accident?" she asked.

"No, I don't think so." Matthew said. "I think that if this explosion of water had been caused by a natural means, we would've found evidence of it long before it actually blew. But this sink was working just fine until the _mayor _of all people came along to use it."

"So what _do _you think happened?" Darkwing asked.

"I think it was an assassination attempt." Matthew said. "Sinks don't just blow up randomly when ever the mayor of St. Canard goes to use it. And besides, we know of someone who could arrange for this kind of attempt, anyway."

"The Liquidator." Crimson said, rubbing her beak. "This does sound like something he'd try."

"I suppose it's possible Negs is trying to take out the city council, so he can take over, and had Liki try and start by taking out the mayor." Darkwing reasoned.

"Speaking of which, how is Mayor Kim?" Crimson asked.

"Fair." Matthew replied. "Except for a broken wrist and feeling a little waterlogged, he's fine. He was taken to the hospital so his wrist could be put in a cast, and he has an escort of officers with him."

"Too bad it wasn't his predecessor that was subject to this attack." Darkwing grumbled, kicking at the water they all waded around in.

"Oh please, Darkwing, you're only hate that mayor, because you're still mad he wouldn't let you give a speech at the St. Canard Town Square Celebration." Crimson said, rolling her eyes.

"Darn straight!" Darkwing said. "I had it all ready and prepared, too..."

"Getting back on subject." Matthew interrupted. "What's the plan of action?"

"Right." Darkwing thought for a moment. "First, we should make sure that the rest of the city council is safe, in case this attempt, or something like it, is repeated on one of them. Matt, you should be able to handle that, easy. Me and Crimson will investigate who caused it, starting with Liki."

"Sounds like a plan." Matthew said. "Thank for your help."

"Don't mention it." Darkwing said, grinning.

"But thank us later." Crimson said. "We haven't caught the bad guy just yet."

* * *

"A sink exploded?" Launchpad remarked as he flew the Thunderquack. "Sounds something like the time I tried cleaning out the fridge last."

"Yes, we all learned to never shove that much rotten food into the garbage disposal at once." Darkwing agreed, watching St. Canard fly by down below. "But still, I think ol' Officer Matthew's right. I think this was an attempt to assassinate, or more likely, just hurt, our find mayor of St. Canard. And Liki and the Fearsome Five seem to be the most likely candidate."

"But I thought the police captured Liki when he and Rowe tried to attack at that dance Gos and Honker were at last week." Launchpad remarked.

"They did." Darkwing replied. "But that liquid nitrogen bath Techno gave Liki didn't last as long as everyone thought. He unthawed during the trip to the supervillain prison, and escaped. Rowe's still locked away, though."

"Think he might have some answers, DW?" Launchpad asked.

"That's the idea, LP." Darkwing replied. "I sent Crimson and Techno to go interrogate him. _We_, however, are still on patrol, on the look out for any crime on this fine post-Christmas night." he glanced at the thermometer, indicating the temperature outside, and frowned. "Even though it is fifteen degrees Fahrenheit below zero, and it's unlikely there are any criminals stupid enough to go out in _this _cold."

* * *

Deep underground in the St. Canard Supervillain Prison, Crimson and Techno were traveling through the barren grey hallways of the prison with an armed escort of police officers. Very soon, they arrived before a simple cell, designed to hold more common villains. Such as Rowe, who sat on a cot, eating salmon from a previously-sealed container. He looked up when he say the party arrive.

"Hey, Rowe." Crimson said, leaning against the bars of the cell, looking in. "What's up?"

Rowe swallowed the bite of salmon he had in his mouth and wiped a paw across his whiskers. "Crimson and Techno." he said. "What brings you to my lonely cell, mates?"

"We want to ask you some questions." Techno said. "Involving any plans you knew the Fearsome Five was working on before you got locked up."

"And why should I tell you?" Rowe asked with a grin, stepping over to the bars, leaning on them as well. "You can't force me, now can you?"

"Oh, just try me, Rowe." Crimson said, folding her arms. "Besides, we don't want to know much. Be vague if you must."

Rowe frowned. "I ain't telling a thing, mates." he said, turning his back to them.

"That's too bad, then." Crimson said, reaching her hand through the bars to grab Rowe's tail. "_Mate._"

"I ain't your...YOWCH!" Rowe exclaimed, trailing off when Crimson yanked hard on his tail. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, All right! Ow! I-I'll...ow...tell!"

"Good!" Crimson said, releasing the otter's rudder-like tail. "Let's hear it, then."

Rowe rubbed at his sore tail for a moment before answering. "Let's see..." he began. "All I know was that Bushroot was working on some really complicated project, and there was something involving the Negaverse."

Crimson frowned. "Is that all you're going to tell me?" she asked.

Rowe paused for a moment. "You said to be vague." he pointed out. "Why? Where you looking for something in particular, mate?"

"Actually, yes." Techno said. "Anything involving Liki and the terrorizing of the mayor or city council of St. Canard."

"Political stuff, huh?" Rowe remarked, thinking. "Uh, no, nothing of the sort. Particularly not with Liki. He's a big fan of politics."

Crimson narrowed her eyes at Rowe for a moment. "C'mere Rowe, I want to tell you a secret." she said, beckoning to him.

The otter paused for a moment, then leaned over, pushing his ear as close to Crimson as he could, with the bars dividing them.

"Thank you!" Crimson said, pulling the concealed and previously hidden earpiece from Rowe's ear.

"H-hey!" Rowe stuttered, standing up.

Crimson ignored him, pressing the earpiece to her own ear, listening.

"Rowe?" the voice of NegaGosalyn came from the earpiece. "You there still? What happened? Tell them we really don't know a thing about a plot to terrorize the city council."

Crimson gave Techno an evil grin, then held the two-way earpiece up to her beak. "HELLO NEGACRIMSON!" she yelled into it.

"Ow! Wha...why...CRIMSON!" NegaGosalyn could be heard exclaiming from the other end of the earpiece.

Crimson wasn't listening anymore, having learned what she wanted. Throwing the earpiece down to the floor, she stomped on it with her webbed foot and crushed it.

"Move Rowe to another cell, so that Negs and company don't know his exact location anymore." Crimson advised the police officers, taking Techno's arm and steering him back out. She caught sight of the container of salmon Rowe had been eating. "Oh, and no more salmon for Rowe either. That's how he got the earpiece in the first place, I betcha."

* * *

"You sure?" Darkwing asked as the Thunderquack circled over St. Canard.

"Positive." Crimson replied from over the radio. "The Fearsome Five aren't behind our little exploding sink incident. Someone else must have done it."

"Ok, thanks." Darkwing said, leaning back in his seat. "Keep me posted, Darkwing out." he sighed. "There goes that lead."

"But I don't get it then, DW." Launchpad remarked. "Who else besides The Liquidator could've done it?"

"That's the mystery, LP." Darkwing said. "Unfortunately, all we can do is wait, and hope we'll get another lead."

They flew on for a few moments. Then a light started to flash on the Thunderquack's dash.

"There's an alarm going off at the Last National bank, DW." Launchpad reported.

"Lay in a course, LP." Darkwing said. "Probably just some goon looking for trouble. Easy fix."

"Roger Wilcox, DW." Launchpad said, turning the Thunderquack around sharply, nearly running into the lightning rod of a nearby skyscraper.

Darkwing squeezed hismelf into the back of his seat. "Easy," he repeated, "unless we crash first!"

* * *

They arrived at the bank in question in a matter of moments. Launchpad brought the Thunderquack to hover over the building, then shut off the engine. The jet crashed to the roof with a loud crash.

"Launchpad!" Darkwing exclaimed, wincing, and pulling himself free from the tangles mess he had gotten in with his seatbelt in the crash. "Now they know we're here!"

"Sorry DW." Launchpad said. "Forgot to lower the landing gear again."

"No, you forgot to _land the plane_!" Darkwing corrected, climbing out of the Thunderquack, and heading for the stairs leading in the bank. "C'mon, we'll discuss it later. First let's go catch this robber."

They clambered on down the stairs to the bottom floor, where the vault was. Stopping at the door, Darkwing fired a canister of gas at his feet, and let the purple smoke fill the stairwell for a moment, before flinging the door open, and stepping into the bank's lobby.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am-YIKES!"

The moment he and Launchpad entered the room the floor before them ruptured and a pipe burst, sending a wave of water at them, throwing both crime fighters backwards and into a wall, getting knocked out. But just before this all happened, Darkwing saw four figures standing in front of the vault, and they didn't look like any gang he knew of before then.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself hanging upside down, tied up with a rope. Beside him was Launchpad, in a similar predicament.

"Well, look who decided to wake up." a male fox remarked from below Darkwing.

Darkwing glanced at him, and at his cohorts, two ducks (one male and the other female) and a female hare. They all wore identical jumpsuits with a circular logo on them split into fourths. On each fourth was a certain object. One had a drop of water, another a ball of fire, the third a cloud, and the fourth, a mountain. Darkwing realized they must be some sort of team. He told them this little revelation.

"Very good, Darkwing." the fox, the apparent leader, remarked. "We're new in town, so this is the first time we've met. I'm Jack. Jack O'Hara. The two ducks are Elizabeth Guire and Garth Miner, and our favorite hare here, is named Sally McHare. Together, we're called The Elements."

* * *

"The...what?" Launchpad repeated, puzzled.

"According to the Greek, there were only four things that made up our universe." Elizabeth explained. "They were fire, water, air, and earth. They were referred to as 'elements.'"

"Due to an experiment that we participated, we four all now have an ability reflecting each one of these 'classical elements.'" Jack said. "Seeing our potential, we formed a team to unite these powers to use to our benefits."

"Fire, water, air, and earth." Darkwing repeated, things starting to click into place. "One of you has the ability to control water!" he deduced.

"Aye, that would be me." Sally said, stepping forward.

"You tried to attack the mayor!" Launchpad exclaimed, slow to realize this fact.

"It's all part of the plan." Sally replied calmly in her British accent. "Yeh'll see wot I mean soon enough."

"Fire, water, air, and earth." Darkwing repeated again, rubbing his chin. "Fire...it was _you _guys that was involved in that incident with FOUL in the Sahara earlier this month!"

"Oh, so SHUSH _did _see our little escapade, then." Jack remarked, grinning.

"So are you all working for FOUL?" Darkwing asked.

"We did, once." Garth said. "And we were offered the chance to keep working with Steelbeak."

"But we turned it down." Jack remarked. "Now we work solo."

Darkwing and Launchpad glanced at each other. "So what are you all up to, then?" Darkwing asked.

"If I told you that, Darkwing, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Jack grinned. "Anyway, we got what we came for, even with your brief interference." he held up the bag of money he had stolen from the vault. "Now, Darkwing, witness the power of The Elements."

Tossing the bag to Elizabeth, Jack suddenly burst into flames. The flames not hurting him at all, he suddenly shot upward like a rocket, going through the skylight of the bank, which had already been opened. It was most likely the way they had entered the building.

Sally went and stood by the broken pipe that had washed Darkwing and Launchpad aside earlier, and held her hand out over it. A stream of water shot out of the pipe and stopped to hover in her hand, forming a ball. Waggling an ear at Darkwing, Sally hurled the ball of water at Darkwing, it splashing into his face.

That done, a gust of wind suddenly swirled around, lifting Elizabeth into the air, as well as Garth and Sally, who Elizabeth was giving a lift. The whole group was quickly gone again. A moment of silence fell, during which Darkwing struggled against the bonds that held him upside down. Then the front doors of the bank suddenly slammed open, and a cloud of crimson smoke poured into the room.

"I am the heir to the cape!" said Crimson as she and Techno stepped into the room. "I am..." she trailed off for a moment, seeing Darkwing and Launchpad captured, and the bad guys no longer in sight. She frowned. "...late."

"Crimson!" Darkwing exclaimed hopefully. "Quick, help us down! I need to get in touch with SHUSH!"

* * *

"Darkwing, if what you're suggesting is true, then we could be facing problems far bigger than the Fearsome Five!" Hooter reasoned, as he, Darkwing and the gang, and a small escort of SHUSH agents walked through the hallways of SHUSH Headquarters at a rapid pace.

"I know, I wish I was bringing better news." Darkwing admitted sadly. "But the point is, J. Gander, that The Elements are up to something, and we need to track them down and stop them!"

"Exactly what I was thinking, Darkwing." Hooter said, as they made their way towards his office. "Which is why, after I received your call, brought in some help."

"Help?" Darkwing repeated, puzzled, as they stepped into the office. He then saw the unmistakable figure of one of the people he hated the most on the face of the planet. "Oh no, not him!"

Gizmoduck turned around from where he had been looking out the window. "Wingy!" he exclaimed in his usual dramatic voice. "Heard we had a problem on our hands, and hurried on over from Duckburg to help out!" he rolled forward and back out the door on his one wheel. "Well, come along then, we haven't a moment to lose! Oh, and before I forget, good to see you again, Wingy!"

Darkwing didn't reply. He was too busy trying to keep from blowing up in anger.

* * *

"Well, isn't this a great way to get back together, gizmobuddies!" Gizmoduck said from the back of the Thunderquack, sitting between Crimson and Techno. "Nothing like the threat of chaos to bring us all together again, hmm?"

"All the more reason to put an end to chaos." Darkwing grumbled. He turned to Launchpad. "Please tell me you've found _some _trace of them!"

"Sorry DW, I've got nothing." Launchpad remarked, looking at the Thunderquack's radar. "For such a powerful group of supervillains, they certainly have vanished without a trace."

"Reminds me of the time the Beagle Boys got some of that invisibility formula Mr. McDuck was working on a couple years back." Gizmoduck said, also looking for The Elements with one of his gadgets. "I was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Except you couldn't see it."

"Uh-huh." Darkwing said flatly.

"Well, I'm personally glad to see you again, Giz." Crimson remarked. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"It most certainly has, gizmobuddy!" Gizmoduck agreed. "We should do this more often!"

"Oh, please, no." Darkwing grumbled.

"Mr. Darkwing sir, Director Hooter was just trying to help when he asked Gizmoduck to help." Techno said, trying to comfort Darkwing.

"I know, but you'd think he could've ran it by me first!" Darkwing said.

"Oh where, oh where, can they be?" Gizmoduck said to himself in a sing-song voice.

"Particularly so I could've gotten a chance to grab some earplugs." Darkwing said, slapping his hands over his ears to drown out Gizmoduck's annoying voice.

* * *

The security guard stood calmly outside the gates leading into the St. Canard waterworks. He was very used to his job, and had it down to a science now. So he wasn't worried in the slightest when he saw the black car pull up to the gates.

Calmly, he stepped up to the driver's side window, as the driver rolled down the window.

"Can I help you?" the guard asked.

"Aye, that yeh can, sah." the driver, a female hare in a brown overcoat and matching hat, remarked. "My companion..." she motioned to a male duck, similarly dressed, "...an' I are here t' run an inspection on the facilities. Routine, y'know."

The guard frowned. "I don't remember such an inspection scheduled for today." he said. "It's after hours, anyway."

"It's really for tomorrow, but we arrived in town a tad early, and jolly well figured it wouldn't hurt t' come now." The driver said.

The guard frowned, and pulled out a clipboard. Sure enough, there was such an inspection scheduled for the following morning. "Can you not wait until morning?" he asked.

"We're busy people, sah, got lots of things we need t' do elsewhere in the world!" the driver said. "St. Canard jolly well isn't the only city in this bloomin' world, now is it?"

"Well, no." the guard admitted. "I don't think I should let you in, though."

"Tell yeh wot, I'll give yeh a bit of an incentive." the driver said. She looked around first before continuing in a conspiratorial whisper. "When's yore next paycheck?"

"Not until next month." the guard said. "Why?"

"Would yeh like t' get an advance?" the driver asked with a wink.

The guard hesitated, considering the bribe. "How much?" he asked.

"As much as yeh need, sah." the driver said.

Moments later, the guard allowed the car to drive through the gates, his wallet full of money that wasn't there earlier. The driver drove her car down to the facilities, then around a nearby building, going out of sight of the guard. She then stopped the car, and climbed out.

Shedding their costumes, Sally and Garth walked around to the back of the car, and opened the trunk. Jack and Elizabeth climbed out of it.

"Goin' all accordin' t' plan, Jack." Sally remarked. "The guard accepted that bribe with the stolen money from the bank straightaway!"

"Good, and with the SCPD busy investigating that attack on the mayor, they'll never see what we're about to do coming!" Jack said. "All right, gang, you know your jobs! Get to it!"

The group nodded, and The Elements broke apart to do their jobs. Sneaking up a staircase to the waterworks security room, Elizabeth poked her head into the room. Two night workers sat lazily at the control panel. Quietly, she approached them.

"Dull evening gentlemen?" she asked.

The two workers turned in surprise to face her, then two gusts of wind suddenly pulled them out of their chairs to smack into the opposite walls. They both slid to the floor, unconscious. Elizabeth grinned, worked with the now-abandoned controls for a moment, then pulled out a radio.

"Security's down, Jack, you're free to take the control room now." she reported.

"One step ahead of you, Liz." Jack said from within the control room, already having disabled the workers within and now working with the controls.

Meanwhile, Garth pinpointed all the entrances into their area of the waterworks, and stamped his foot at each one he approached. The resulting earthquake caused each entrance to either collapse, or become blocked by rubble falling down from around it's surroundings.

"We've got the whole place to ourselves, now." he said to himself as he blocked the last entrance.

Jack was busy pulling a few levers in the controls room, shutting down machinery, and blocking off the pipes that allowed water to flow in and out of the waterworks. "All right, Sal." he said into his radio, pulling the last lever. "It's all you."

Sally stood before a large tank of water, the largest collection in St. Canard besides Audubon Bay.

"Here goes." the hare said, and raised her arms.

The whole collection of water in the tank suddenly erupted upward, looking like a great big mushroom cloud of water...

* * *

This cloud unknowingly went up the same moment the Thunderquack started to fly over, the cloud of water rising up to cut off the Thunderquack's flight path.

"Holy H2O!" Gizmoduck exclaimed, surprised.

"LP, submersible mode, NOW!" Darkwing exclaimed.

Launchpad quickly slapped a button. The Thunderquack's engines shut off for a moment to switch into water mode, allowing the jet to sail onward for a moment. It slipped right into the mushroom cloud of water with a jolt.

"Dive, dive, dive!" Launchpad remarked, bringing the jet down into a dive, going down the middle of the rising collection of water. He then realized they were about to run into the bottom of the tank the water was all surging out of.

"Surface, surface, surface!" Darkwing exclaimed anxiously.

Launchpad pulled back on the steering wheel, and brought the Thunderquack's nose up. It shout back out of the cloud of water, shooting right over Sally's head, then smashed into the control room Jack still occupied.

Picking himself up from the debris, Jack whirled around to face the Thunderquack sticking into the room, watching the superheroes within climb out. Anticipating a fight, the fox lit one of his hands aflame.

"Alright, Firefox..." Darkwing began, drawing his gas gun and about to fire a flame retardant at Jack, but Gizmoduck moved in the way.

"Halt, for I'll be forced to use force!" the metal-plated duck remarked boldly to Jack.

Jack looked Gizmoduck over, then decided he would need more firepower and burst fully aflame, starting to charge Gizmoduck. He was brought up short when Gizmoduck sprayed him with a fire hose he had pulled out from his side, extinguishing Jack.

"Ack...gag...splutter...you...glub...you..." Jack tried to say, but the water kept spraying too much at him.

"Go on, you four, I've got him!" Gizmoduck said to Darkwing and gang, keeping his fire hose trained on Jack. "Go and stop the other three!"

"Thanks Giz!" Crimson thanked quickly, as she followed Darkwing, Launchpad, and Techno out of the control room.

"All right, Crimson, Techno, you take out Sally there, me and LP will track down the other two!" Darkwing ordered.

"Got it!" Crimson said, as she and Techno broke off to go after the water-raising hare.

But as they got close, Sally simply used her powers to create two streams of water that lashed out and struck the two, knocking them back. Sally then formed a bubble of water around herself to temporarily hold back other attacks as she concentrated.

Meanwhile, Darkwing and Launchpad ran through the complex, and came face to face with Garth. Garth approached them slowly, then stomped his foot once. An earthquake rushed outward from Garth foot, creating a crack in the ground right under Darkwing and Launchpad. Just as they were about to fall into that crack, and large gust of wind blew them aside, blowing them along like tumbleweeds.

Elizabeth climbed down from the staircase leading into the security room, and floated over to Garth on a gust of wind.

"Let's go." she told him. "We've done our part here."

She then picked up Garth in the same gust of wind, and the two were swept away by the wind, Elizabeth allowing the wind blowing Darkwing and Launchpad to stop, allowing them to tumble to a stop.

Up in the control room, Gizmoduck was still dousing the fighting Jack with his fire hose, the steady stream of water the only thing keeping Jack from bursting into flames again. Then, without warning, the fire hose stopped spraying water. Gizmoduck suddenly realized he had exhausted his small supply of it.

"Uh-oh." he said. "This could be a problem."

Jack shook water off of him, then burst into flames, first firing a fire ball that knocked the armored Gizmoduck backwards to smack into the crashed Thunderquack. The force of both pushed the Thunderquack free from where it was rammed into the control room, and it fell to the ground with another crash. Gizmoduck quickly activated his helmet copter, and watched with dismay as Jack the fireball flew away.

By this point, Sally had successfully collected all the water from the tank while also fending off attempts to stop her from Techno and Crimson. Gathering her strength, she then hurled the large collection of water floating in the air to one side, allowing it to crash down again.

"Techno!" Crimson exclaimed, and fired off her grappling hook and rope from her gas gun. It latched onto Techno's arm as he was nearly swept away in the flood of water, and pulled him to safety.

The water surged onward, heading into St. Canard itself. The closest structure to the waterworks beside the small and grassy hillside the facility sat upon was the St. Canard hospital.

"Oh no!" Darkwing exclaimed, rushing forward as the wave of water surged towards the hospital. "We've gotta stop that wave of water!"

"I completely agree, Wingy." Gizmoduck said, flying down to hover nearby. "We can't let that wall of water wash away the weary souls who reside in that hospital!"

"Not only that, but Christine's working late there!" Darkwing exclaimed. "We gotta stop it!"

Gizmoduck had an idea. "Grab on, Wingy, I'll need your help!" he exclaimed, starting to fly off with his helmet copter.

Darkwing quickly grabbed hold of Gizmoduck's tire, and they flew away, outracing the wave of water Sally had created, and coming to hover near a tall radio tower standing nearby that had it's support frame covered with metal plating.

"Here, throw this at the tower's base!" Gizmoduck said, pulling out a lit bomb from a compartment in his Gizmosuit and handed it to Darkwing. "If we can knock this structure over..."

"...it'll act like a dam!" Darkwing said, getting it, as he hurled the bomb down at the tower's base.

A moment later, the bomb went off, weakening the structure. Slowly, it tipped over, forcing Gizmoduck to fly out of the way. Just as the wave of water started to surge past, the tower fell down on top of it, cutting it off short. A significantly lessened amount of the water continued out, spreading out until only about an inch of it reached the hospital.

"You did it, Giz!" Darkwing exclaimed, relieved.

"Correction, Wingy, _we _did it!" Gizmoduck said, heading back for the waterworks.

When they landed, they found Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad standing there waiting for them.

Darkwing looked around. "Where's Sally?" he asked.

"She's gone." Crimson said. "Slipped away like the rest."

"You mean they're _all _gone?" Darkwing asked, stunned.

"Yep." Techno admitted.

"We tried to stop them, DW, but they were too quick." Launchpad said.

"Well, at least we stopped their evil scheme from causing too much harm." Gizmoduck pointed out.

"Yeah, but just barely." Darkwing said.

"Still, maybe that'll get them to think twice before messing with us again." Crimson said, happy that they had somewhat succeeded.

"Oh, they will, Crimson, you can count on that." Darkwing said. "Which means they'll be even harder to beat next time..."

* * *

Hidden away deep in some woods, a facility of some sort jutted out of a nearby mountain, more than half of it hidden by the wall of rock that made up the mountain. Within this facility, someone sat in a large chair, turned to look out the large windows that lined the back wall of his office.

The double doors that led into the office suddenly banged open, and Jack entered, smirking.

"Well?" the person in the chair asked.

"They bought it." Jack said proudly. "Hook, line, and sinker."

"Good." Steelbeak said, turning around in his chair to face Jack. "Which means they'll never see what's comin' next, heh-heh-heh!"


	22. The Animator

Summary: An invention and all related materials are ordered to be destroyed. But the ehtical problems prove to be too much for the inventor to handle, and he decides to strike back...

Rating: T

Author's Note: This chpt. is a bit hard to describe, as it bounces around (I feel) alot in mood. I also feel I stretch the truth a bit more than usual in this. And there is a bit of a cliffhanger, but I haven't decided if it's one I want to come back to. Connie Lovell and Titan Laboratories that first appeared in "Gizmos and Gadgets" make a come back.

22.

The Animator

Dr. Connie Lovell watched the equations scrolling past the screen, mentally double checking them. She shook her head. "You sure this is going to work Matt?" she asked her cohort, who was working across the lab with another device. "This seems to be a bit more like science fiction that true science."

Dr. Matthias Codwell, better known as Matt by his coworkers at Titan Laboratories, nodded. "I've double checked the equations, Connie." he said, adjusting the device he was working with. "I can hardly believe it myself. But the results are completely conclusive. This will work."

"I hope you're right." Lovell said, stepping over to join him. "Titan Laboratories has had a lot of bad publicity since that incident with Keith Gideon." she sighed. "I should have never given him that formula. If I hadn't, he wouldn't have gone and gotten himself killed. Besdies, we never did get that stupid formula to work right."

"Just because he's been missing for the past several months doesn't mean he's dead, Connie." Codwell said, preoccupied with his work. "Besides, the police never did find a body."

"He might as well be as good as dead, though." Lovell persisted. "According to the reports, he was part-amphibian now, and his memory had more holes than swiss cheese."

"Sounds a bit like Megavolt." Codwell noted absentmindedly. "He allegedly has a very bad memory."

"And how, prey tell, would you know that?" Lovell asked, annoyed.

"I've researched all these supervillains running around St. Canard." Codwell explained. "They may be supervillains, but they're very interesting people. I would _love _to have a chance to run a few tests on some of them. Like The Liquidator, for example. He's made completely out of water, right?"

"Right..." Lovell said hesitantly.

"Then how can the guy live?" Codwell asked. "In fact, it's questions like that one that ultimately led me to make this discovery."

"If it's even true." Lovell grumbled.

"Connie, it makes perfect sense." Codwell said, making some final adjustments to his device. "We already know that certain types of energy allow things to work. So it stands to reason that there would be some kind of energy that makes life possible as well."

"But if this so-called 'life energy' exists, then why haven't we discovered it before?" Lovell asked, still skeptical.

"Sometimes even the greatest of scientists miss what's staring them straight in the nose." Codwell replied, making a final tweak to the device. "There, that should do it."

He took a few steps back, studying it. Lovell did likewise, eyeing the platform-like device.

"So, now what?" she asked.

"Simple, we find something to test it with." Codwell said, looking around for something. "Just anything should do."

He finally found a set of sticknotes stuck to his desk, and pulled one off to take over to the platform. Setting it down carefully on the platform, he flipped a switch, and a reinforced glass cage lowered down to cover the platform. He brought his hand to hover over the activation button.

"Here's hoping." he said to Lovell, then pressed the button.

The machine hummed for a moment, then a full bang rang out from within the case, making the stickynote shudder for a moment. The device then winded down. Lovell stepped over to the case and peered inside.

"Nothing happened." she noted, looking smug at the idea she was right.

But then the stickynote fluttered again, and then suddenly lifted itself to stand on it's edge, wiggling it's two top corners at the scientists in a very life-like manner. Lovell jaw hung slack as Codwell's face brightened.

"Ha! It worked!" he exclaimed, hurrying over to a nearby computer to check a few readouts. "It lives! The stickynote actually lives!"

"But...how?" Lovell asked, nervously eyeing the wiggling stickynote, having no way to tell what it was going to do next.

"It's just like I've been telling you, Connie!" Codwell said, excited. "There _is _a kind of energy responsible for life! And we've just harnessed it's power! Now we can give just about anything we want the gift of life!" he laughed victoriously for a moment. "This is fun, let's do it again!" he looked around for something else they could give life to.

"No, Matt, wait!" Lovell said, grabbing Codwell's arm. "You gotta be careful with this! If you give too many things life, you'll have a whole army to contend with!"

"Right!" Codwell said, missing the point.

"Matt, think!" Lovell said. "If you've given that stickynote life, then that means it can _think _too! Who knows what kind of thoughts could be going through it's head!"

"But what kind of harm can a stickynote do?" Codwell asked, motioning to it. "Give you a paper cut?"

"It's not the stickynote I'm worried about, it's what we can give life to with that device of yours that _could _cause serious harm if it wasn't kept in check!" Lovell said, then shook her head. "We gotta tell somebody about this before we continue. Somebody who'll have a idea or two about how we should go about this."

"Fine, while you're doing that, I'll be giving life to other things as well." Codwell said, pushing her towards the door.

"Oh, no you don't!" Lovell said, grinding her heels into the floor and swooping down to yank the thick power cord the machine used for power. "No more giving things life until we have a better idea of what this thing can do! Got it?"

Codwell hesitated for a moment, then sighed. "Got it." he said.

Nodding curtly, Lovell then left. Sighing again, Codwell sat down in a chair, and watched the stickynote, which was working on walking towards him, pressing it's top against the face of the glass cage it was entrapped in. It looked like it wanted out.

"Sorry little buddy, Connie would flip out if I let you out." Codwell remarked to it. "So...just sit tight for now."

To Codwell's surprise, the stickynote sat, by folding itself in half.

Codwell blinked. "Wait, you understand me?" he asked.

The stickynote nodded, another surprise.

"And you know how to communicate back?" Codwell added, amazed.

The stickynote nodded again.

Codwell was silent for a moment. "Well, I hope you know that I only said that as a figure of speech. You can stand, you know."

So the stickynote stood. Codwell eyed it for a moment.

"Sit." he commanded, on a whim.

The stickynote sat.

"Will you do everything I say?" Codwell asked.

The stickynote nodded.

"So if I were to ask you to do a back flip..." Codwell began.

The stickynote needed no further instruction, and did a back flip by crinkling itself in a certain way, landing on it's edge again.

Codwell was impressed. "It's...it's...amazing!" he exclaimed. "Lovell was right, I _can _make a whole army like this! And they'll obey my every command!" he thought for a moment, then plugged the machine back in once more. "But for now, we'll stick with stickynotes. They'd be easy to hide. And besides, what Connie doesn't know won't hurt her."

* * *

But as evening wore on, Codwell had gotten an even better idea. After keeping his living stickynotes in a shoebox where he could observe them while keeping one in the glass cage so Lovell wouldn't suspect he was up to something, he realized there was a much better way to do this. He discovered a way to make his machine more compressed, compressed enough it would be battery operated, and could be held in one's hand, like a gun.

Completely dedicating himself to this project, Codwell had worked well into the night developing his Handheld Life Energy Delivering Device (HLEDD for short), and was working on the final touches on the futuristic gun-like device by late morning the next day.

Lovell had been gone for that long as well, conversing with authorities over the matter, and finally going right on up the chain of command to some of SHUSH's top scientists. While they all agreed that the discovery was amazing and would easily change the course of science as they all knew it, they determined it was simply too dangerous to keep the project going. Far too many things could go wrong. Lovell was ultimately given the order to shut the project down and dismantle it.

So, with a heavy heart, Lovell went to go tell Codwell the bad news, knowing he wouldn't take it well.

As she entered, Codwell quickly covered the now-completed HLEDD with a piece of cloth, and stood to face her. "Back already?" he asked.

"Matt, it's ten o'clock _in the morning_." Lovell said.

Codwell glanced at his watch. "So it is." he said. "Anyway, what's the report?"

Lovell quickly looked around the lab to make sure everything was in order, and saw only one stickynote in the glass cage on the device, and the device unplugged. "Matt, I was told to shut the project down." she stated plainly.

"What?" Codwell asked. "Why?"

"It was agreed that it was far too dangerous to keep running." Lovell explained in short. "And I have to concur."

"But, I've been watching this guy all night." Codwell said, motioning to the one stickynote in the glass cage. "Look, he'll obey our every command! Try it! Tell him to stand!"

Lovell eyed the sitting stickynote for a moment. "Stand." she ordered.

But the stickynote simply watched her, doing nothing.

Codwell frowned. "C'mon..." he prompted. "Stand!"

The stickynote stood at Codwell's command.

Codwell rubbed his beak in thought for a moment. "Maybe they'll only obey me." he reasoned aloud.

"Why?" Lovell asked, missing the fact that Codwell had said "they" instead of "it".

"Maybe its because it was me that made the device and operated it." Codwell said. "I guess that would make me their creator then, in a sense."

"Like a god." Lovell said, paling.

"Yeah, that works." Codwell agreed absentmindedly.

"But then that's even worse!" Lovell said. "Giving the power of a god to a mere life like us..." she trailed off. "Matt, what would we do if this fell in the wrong hands? What then?"

"I know, I see the point." Codwell admitted, but he was frowning. "Still...shut it down?"

"Yes Matt." Lovell said, then motioned to the stickynote. "And he'll have to be destroyed as well."

"What?" Codwell said. "Destroyed?"

"Yes, I've reviewed your math, and I'm positive that hitting the thing with another blast from your device will reverse the life-giving effect." Lovell explained.

"You mean kill it." Codwell said.

"Yes." Lovell admitted.

"Connie, we can't just kill it!" Codwell objected. "That's...inhumane!"

"I'm sorry, Matt, but I have orders from SHUSH itself." Lovell said, trying to sympathize. "Look, if you don't want to do it, I'm sure I can..."

"No. No, that's okay." Codwell assured her, sighing. "Just...give me a few moments. Alone."

"Sure." Lovell said, and she exited the lab.

But the moment she left, Codwell did the very opposite of obeying the orders he had been given. Throwing off his white lab coat and slipping on a tan overcoat in it's place, he grabbed the shoebox that contained the other stickynotes he had given life to and opened the glass cage containing the one stickynote that wasn't in the box.

"Get in." he told it, opening the shoebox so the stickynote could join its cohorts. "I'm not going to let them finish you guys off like that. That's genocide, no matter how you look at it. And I'll be darned the moment I let that happen."

Once he had the stickynotes safely in the shoebox, he uncovered the HLEDD and picked it up. "But," he continued, "I'm going to need help guaranteeing your guy's safety."

And with that, he started firing the HLEDD at various objects within the lab, giving them life instantly...

* * *

"Dad, when I said we should go do something fun, I wasn't thinking about going to the bowling alley." Gosalyn grumbled from the passenger seat of the Mallard station wagon.

"C'mon, Gos, you used to love bowling." Drake said from the driver's seat, turning the car around a corner.

"Seven years ago, yes." Gosalyn muttered under her breath.

"And besides, Launchpad's down there already." Drake added. "And with it being early January, there's too much snow on the ground, and it's too cold, to do much else."

"I was thinking about going to the movies or something." Gosalyn said. "Or maybe go find an indoor basketball court to play in. Bowling wasn't on that list."

"Oh, you'll warm up to the idea in due time." Drake said, as they drove down Rowling Road. "Look, I'll even get you some of that unhealthy junk food they serve there."

Gosalyn wasn't listening anymore, and was instead looking out the window. "Hey, there's Titan Laboratories." she remarked, pointing out Drake's window. "Remember when they accidently created Frogduck there?"

"Oh boy, yes." Drake said, rolling his eyes. "One of the weirdest missions Darkwing's ever done."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Gosalyn said, as they drove past the lab. "What about the time when..."

But they got no farther than that, when they side of the laboratory's wall suddenly caved in, and a flood of somethings suddenly poured out. One stopped the station wagon, then clambered over it on it's four, long, spindly legs. It was then that Gosalyn realized it was a table.

"Keen gear, was that what I think it was?" she asked, hopping out of the car and into the cold to watch the table march away, scaring off pedestrians on the snow-filled sidewalk like it had a mind of it's own.

Drake climbed out of the car as well, watching the army of ordinary objects marching out of the hole in the building, acting very much alive, despite the fact that they should be nothing more than mere inanimate objects. He yelped when a fleet of test tubes rolled past his feet.

"What in the world caused this?" he asked.

He got an answer with Codwell marched out of the building, holding the shoebox of stickynotes under one arm, and holding the HLEDD with his other hand.

"Onward!" he was crying out. "We'll get these guys to let you all live!"

He started firing the HLEDD at random objects, striking them with bright, blue, bolts of energy. Every inanimate object the bolts hit brought them to life. One bolt narrowly missed Drake and hit the station wagon behind him. Slamming it's doors shut with a bang, it revved up then drove off without a driver.

"Whoa, keen gear!" Gosalyn exclaimed, whirling around to watch as this happened.

Seeing the living objects regrouping, Drake quickly headed for cover, dragging Gosalyn with him. "I've got a bad feeling about this." he remarked.

"Regroup, my faithful subjects!" Codwell was exclaimed at the top of his lungs, waving the HLEDD around blindly. "Together as an army, we'll go attack SHUSH en masse, and teach them a lesson about killing innocent objects such as yourself!"

"SHUSH?" Gosalyn exclaimed, listening to all of this.

"Betcha SHUSH knows about that thing he's using." Drake reasoned, pointing at the HLEDD in Codwell's hands. "And I think they told him to get rid of it, and destroy everything he brought to life."

"Clearly, he didn't get the message." Gosalyn remarked, watching Codwell hop onto a lab table, and it and the army of other inanimate objects left, heading towards SHUSH Headquarters. As they went, Codwell fired the HLEDD at other objects, adding to his growing army.

"Alright, looks like it's time for Darkwing to make an intervention." Drake said, escorting Gosalyn into a nearby alley to change into costume. "I'll call LP, you call Honker."

Gosalyn nodded, and pulled out a walkie-talkie to call Honker. "Honker, you there?"

"LP, come in, please."

"What are you doing, Honk?"

"Can you backtrack to the tower and get the Thunderquack? We've got a bit of situation here."

"Meet us at Rowling Road, Honk. Shouldn't take long to get here in the Ratcatcher."

"What kind of situation? Well, let's see here, how can I describe this...?"

"Remember that time when Megavolt managed to make regular electrical appliances come to life, Honk?"

"Yeah, something like that, only to the extreme, it seems."

"Good, we'll be waiting."

"In the meantime, we'll be trying to get some answers from around here. Maybe someone at Titan Laboratories here knows the story behind this. Darkwing out."

* * *

"I can't believe he'd do this." Lovell said later, shaking her head. "I always thought Matt had more sense than this."

"But you gave him orders to kill what he perceived as innocent life forms." Darkwing pointed out. "He thinks he's doing some good by doing what he's doing."

"And I have to agree, DW." Launchpad added. "Maybe I wouldn't do the same thing as this Codwell guy would, but I can see the mural problem to that."

"That's 'moral' problem, LP." Darkwing corrected.

"I also can't believe that it's going to be you guys that are going to try and stop him." Lovell added, leaning forward from the backseat of the Thunderquack all three rode in at the moment.

"Not stop him." Darkwing corrected. "Just keep him at bay long enough for you to come up with a means to stop him."

"Why me?" Lovell asked.

"You're the only other scientist around who's even _seen_ Codwell's work on that device of his." Darkwing pointed out. "So you're the only one who can figure out a way to reverse it."

"But I didn't even know Matt had a portable version of his device until fifteen minutes ago." Lovell objected. "All I ever saw was the larger version he had in his lab." she trailed off, thinking for a moment. "Though, I suppose it shouldn't be too hard. All I theoretically have to do is hit the objects Matt's brought to life with another blast of the life energy, and that should render them back to normal again. The trick will be figuring out a way to hit all of the objects at once."

"Can't you use the thing he had in his lab?" Launchpad asked.

"No, Matt destroyed it before he left the lab." Lovell said. "Saw it for myself."

"Why?" Darkwing asked.

"Probably to keep us from using the same tactic he has." Lovell reasoned. "But this also means I'll have to figure out a way to rebuild the device altogether before I can figure out a way to reverse the process."

"Well, where we're heading, you'll have plenty of help." Darkwing assured her as they zoomed towards SHUSH HQ...

* * *

Down on the ground, Crimson and Techno trailed behind the army of living inanimate objects as they slowly made their way towards SHUSH, unknowingly terrorizing St. Canard in the process.

"You know, I can't blame the guy for doing this." Techno remarked from the sidecar as they drove along. "If I were in his shoes, I would...consider...doing the same thing."

"Unfortunately, he's taking this too far." Crimson pointed out. "We've got to stop them."

"Do we?" Techno asked. "Think about it, Crimson. This guy's invention has rendered him with power comparable to a _god._ And that's essentially rendered all of us with that same ability, providing we ever get a hold of the device he's got and choose to use it like he has. We wouldn't be very good gods if we just wipe all those objects out like that."

"I know, Tech, but clearly playing the part of a god is not without consequences." Crimson remarked.

They were silent for a moment.

"You realize that if we do this, we'll be essentially killing everything that has been brought to life, right?" Techno asked.

"I do." Crimson said. "And I wish there was another way. But there isn't."

"Not that we've thought up, anyway." Techno pointed out.

They were silent for another moment. Then, quite suddenly as they turned a corner, they found that they had caught up with the army, and nearly ran into the back of it. Two objects, a metal table and a lamppost, turned and went to attack the oncoming Ratcatcher. Both Crimson and Techno went to defend themselves, but then saw Codwell turn from where he stood in the middle of the army, and raise his HLEDD to point at them.

Crimson quickly turned the motorbike around. "We can't let him hit the Ratcatcher with that thing!" she exclaimed, as she increased the bike's throttle to zoom away to safety.

Codwell fired the HLEDD anyway, and ended up hitting one of the mounds of fluffy snow that covered the streets. A great ball of it came to life, and swung itself at the Ratcatcher as it started to speed away. It's tires slipped, and Crimson suddenly found she had lost control as the Ratcatcher veered to the right, still sliding in the direction it had started, and started to tip over. Crimson quickly hopped off the bike, landing in a pile of soft, unalive, snow.

Techno didn't move fast enough, and remained in the sidecar until the Ratcatcher tipped over fully with a thud, and jolted him out of the sidecar and onto the ground. The motorbike slid on for a few feet before coming to a stop. Crimson quickly rushed to the side of her friend.

"Are you all right?" she asked, helping Techno up.

"Yeah, just a little bruised." Techno said, brushing snow off of him, and looking behind Crimson. "But I won't be alright if we don't move, _now!_"

Whirling around, Crimson saw the ranks bringing up the rear of the living object army turn towards them to do battle. Quickly pushing Techno towards a nearby building, which he quickly pressed himself against one side of, Crimson raced in the other way, heading for a nearby alley. As she did so, she fired off canisters of gas towards the oncoming objects, but the gas didn't seem to effect the living objects.

Codwell then fired the HLEDD again, and it smashed into Crimson's gas gun, who quickly dropped it in surprise. The gun clattered to the ground, then picked itself up and joined the ranks of the army. Frozen in surprise, Crimson looked up in time to see Codwell fire two more shots at Crimson, one of which hit the hem of her sleeve, and the other brushed against her black hat.

Instantly, Crimson felt her clothes come to life, and they started to struggle to free themselves. Crimson yelped, and tried to fight them, but her hat pulled itself over her eyes, and her black and red cape wrapped itself around her. Doing an odd hop-skip into the alley, very soon Crimson was out of the sight, where one could only hear her cries of frustration as she fought her own clothes.

Techno, meanwhile, pulled out one of the three chemical bombs he kept in his right wristband, and threw it into the ranks of the army. A few moments later, it exploded, taking out a trash can. The object did not pick itself back up, so Techno presumed it was officially dead. Seeing this tactic worked, Techno threw another bomb, and another, each taking out another member of the army. Finally, the ranks retreated, seeing they were overpowered and rejoined the army at the rear, heading away.

Techno was personally relieved. He had just used his last bomb.

Remembering Crimson, he quickly hurried over to the dark alley in time to see Crimson's costume slither out, hat and all, and go join the army, ignoring Techno. Frowning, Techno looked into the alley, and saw Crimson step out, wrapped up in a blanket she had found in the alley. She still wore her mask, and probably whatever she had been wearing under her costume, but Techno realized that was pretty much it.

He stared at her for a moment. "Um..." he began, feeling awkward.

"I don't want to hear it!" Crimson grumbled, heading towards the wreaked Ratcatcher. "Let's just get back to the tower so I can put on my spare costume."

* * *

Meanwhile, at SHUSH Headquarters, the relatively unsuspecting building had been transformed into a war zone. Guns and weapons had been mounted all over the building, all being manned by every SHUSH agent available. They were to shoot at any object Codwell had brought to life that came too close to the building. Agent Grizzlikof supervised these proceedings, and was currently monitoring the agents that were bringing guns to mount on the windows of Director Hooter's office.

"Remember, only shoot when you must." Grizzlikof reminded the agents as they prepared. "We are only to hold objects at bay until effects of device can be reversed."

Hooter stood nearby with Darkwing, watching all of this, and shook his head. "I hate to see my own office turned into a military encampment like this." he said aloud.

"I agree, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "You know I've never been too fond about using this kind of violence to solve a problem. I mean sure, sometimes a good kick to a bad guy's chest is necessary, but I hate it when it comes to using guns like this."

"Director, you had better head for safe room." Grizzlikof said. "I will handle this."

Hooter nodded, knowing better to contradict his 2IC in a situation like this. "Come, Darkwing." he said. "Let's check up on the scientists before I'm shut away in a lonely room, and you go join the fight."

They wandered through the hallways, jam packed with armed agents hurrying to prepare for the oncoming battle, to a nearby lab. Inside was Lovell, who was hard at work with Dr. Sarah Bellum and her team of scientists.

"If we reverse the polarity, we should be able to create the life energy in the amounts we need." Bellum was saying to Lovell.

"No, no, no, and _no_." Lovell said. "That'll just make things worse. We need to reroute the power flow from the flux regulator and divert it into the positron relays. _Then _we'll have a working device to work with!"

"Codswallop!" Bellum exclaimed. "That would cause a massive power build up that will more likely blow up the whole building! But maybe, if we backtrack the flow through the power converter..."

"You eggheads getting anywhere on this?" Darkwing asked as he and Hooter entered.

Both scientists turned to look at them.

"Of course we are." Bellum assured them. "Why wouldn't we?"

"I must admit, Dr. Bellum, it didn't sound like it when we walked in." Hooter remarked.

"Well, we have the device mostly completed, but we still have to figure out how to get it to work." Lovell explained.

"And that's only the easy part." Darkwing guessed.

"No, actually, that's the hard part." Lovell corrected.

"But I thought you said getting it to hit all the living objects at once was going to be hard." Darkwing remarked.

"We already have a solution for that." Bellum said.

"See, all we have to do is channel the energy from the device..." Lovell began, gesturing to the mostly-completed life energy producing device, "...though this pulse emitter." she gestured to a much smaller, dome-shaped, device that sat next to the first. "It'll release the energy in huge surges that will cover all of St. Canard. One pulse should be enough, but it'll release a full three, just to play it safe."

"So all we have to do..." Darkwing began, motioning to himself.

"...is keep the objects at bay long enough for us to finish, yes." Bellum concluded.

"Good thing Codwell's in no hurry to get here." Darkwing remarked.

"About how long until you have the device ready?" Hooter asked.

"About fifteen to twenty minutes, tops." Bellum replied.

"And once we have it ready, we won't hesitate to fire it off." Lovell assured them.

"Then we are good to go." Hooter remarked.

Then an agent stepped into the lab.

"Sir!" he exclaimed. "They're here!"

* * *

Swarming down the streets that joined together to form the three-way intersection in front of the SHUSH building was a massive amount of inanimate objects that Codwell had essentially animated. The army was mostly composed of objects one would find lying around the streets of St. Canard and from Titan Laboratories. But there were other objects that had been thrown in to shake things up.

The army came to a halt in front of the building. A long and tense moment followed. Then Codwell came to the front of his army.

"Attack!" he exclaimed. "Teach them to not try and kill you so mercilessly!"

The objects needed no second bidding, and charged towards the SHUSH building. The agents posted everywhere within the building opened fire. Bullets clattered everywhere as they smacked into the invading objects, most of them made out of metal. Some of the more powerful guns blasted holes into the objects. When an object received enough damage, it collapsed, and was presumed dead.

But bullets weren't proving to be enough, and very soon more heavy duty weaponry was brought in to take out the troublesome objects. Grenades were hurled, usually at the bigger more powerful objects such as automobiles, and many such objects met their end like this, including the Mallard family car. One agent even pulled out a kind of ray gun from out of one of the SHUSH labs, and started firing at the objects, mowing them down.

Some of the objects got clear of the bombardment and headed towards the building's entrance. But it was here that they were met up with whole teams of SHUSH commandos, as well as Darkwing. The objects were stopped before they got too close.

Meanwhile, Crimson and Techno, having made their necessary stop at Darkwing Tower, were now rushing towards the battle on the battered, but still usable, Ratcatcher.

"SHUSH is going to be crowded with Codwell's army by now." Techno said. "We'll never get to the building now."

"Oh, yes we will." Crimson said, cape flapping in the winter wind. "We just have to think three-dimensionally."

She turned the Ratcatcher suddenly, and steered it down an alley. Seeing a fire escape nearby, she drove it towards it, going up the escape's metal steps. The ride was bumpy, and the Ratcatcher barely fit on the steps, but they ultimately made up to the top of the steps and on the building-in-question's roof. Crimson drove the motorbike to the edge of the roof and stopped. Down below they could see the slightly shorter SHUSH Headquarters building and the battle raging on there.

"Right." Crimson said, backing the Ratcatcher up to the other end of the roof.

Techno had already guessed what Crimson was going to do. "Crimson..." he began.

"Don't worry Techno, this is a foolproof plan." Crimson said, revving the motorbike's engine.

"Crimson, only a _fool_ would try this!" Techno exclaimed as Crimson gunned the Ratcatcher for the other end of the roof.

They went off the edge at the bike's top speed, and sailed through the air, flying over the battle below, and landing with a bone-wrenching jolt on the roof of the SHUSH building.

Completely calm, Crimson turned off the bike's engine. "See, Tech?" she said, hopping off. "Nothing to worry about."

Techno didn't reply. He was white from fright and had lost his ability to speak.

The battle that had been waged continued. Codwell was starting to see his number dwindle, and got an idea to better face the odds against him. Taking his HLEDD, the scientist pointed it at one of the guns he could see pointing out the window of the SHUSH building, and fired at it.

He hit his target, and the gun came to life, turning against it's user, who had to quickly seek cover. Other agents had to turn away from the battle to defeat the living gun, and when they turned back, they saw that Codwell was shooting the HLEDD at other targets as well, and bringing them to life behind SHUSH lines.

Up on the roof, Crimson and Techno watched as to of the guns agents were using, mounted to the roof, were brought to life and turned against the agents using them. The agent with the ray gun, standing on the roof, fired the ray at these rogue guns, incinerating them. After watching this, Crimson suddenly got a thought.

"I wonder..." she said, going to the Ratcatcher and pull off one of it's side view mirrors.Going back to the edge of the roof, she waited until Codwell fired the HLEDD up at the roof, and quickly deflected the blue energy bolt with the mirror. It worked. The bolt reflected off the mirror and bounced into the ranks of Codwell's army of living objects. As Lovell had predicted, another blast from the life-giving device was all it took to turn the objects back into their old, non-living, selves.

Word of this tactic spread fast, but unfortunately, there was only so many mirrors in the building to go around. Still, it was enough that the odds started to turn again, and Codwell knew it. So he brought out the big guns, by ordering all of the automobiles, both big and small, to ram the SHUSH building, all at once. The tactic worked, because they went too fast to be stopped, and there was too many of them.

As the building trembled from the impacts, both Lovell and Bellum looked up at each other as they worked in their lab, putting the final touches on the device.

"There." Lovell said, taking a few steps back. "That should do it."

"Think this will really work?" Bellum asked. "The beam could dissipate far sooner than we calculated, greatly limiting the range on this thing."

"We don't have time to figure that out." Lovell said, as another shudder rippled through the building. "Let's just fire it, and be done with this."

She moved to activate the device.

"Wait!" one of the scientist on Bellum's team said. "Will this affect us? I mean, since we're living, don't we have life energy as well?"

"Yes, but this pulse won't be strong enough to take out natural life." Bellum said. "Only Codwell's device has that kind of power."

"But how will it affect us?" the scientist asked, still leery.

"We won't even feel it." Lovell said, and not waiting to be delayed any longer, she activated the device.

It hummed for a spilt second, then a wave of transparent blue energy washed out from the attached pulse emitter, going out in all directions. It spread out, leaving the SHUSH building, and going on to cover all of St. Canard as predicted. Two more similar bursts of energy followed the first, but only the first was necessary. Codwell's object army was instantly neutralized, reverting back to their non-living states.

A moment of silence fell, as everyone realized that it was over now. From up on the roof, Crimson watched Codwell, who was looking shocked, for a moment.

"C'mon." she said to Techno, heading for the stairs and taking her mirror with. "Something tells me Codwell's not done yet."

Codwell stood in the middle of his once great army in stunned shock, realizing that what he had been trying to prevent happened anyway. Almost refusing to deny it, he quickly went to the shoebox he had been carrying with him during all of this, and opened it. All the stickynotes he had given life to in it where now regular stickynotes, with no life in them at all.

Darkwing headed towards Codwell, slowly and cautiously. "Dr. Codwell." he said calmly. "It's over. They're gone now."

Codwell stared at Darkwing for a moment, looking unsure how to take this.

"Give me the device." Darkwing said, motioning to the HLEDD in Codwell's limp fingers.

Codwell looked as if he was going to obey for a moment, then suddenly he gripped the HLEDD tighter, and pointed it at Darkwing. "No." he said flatly, and fired.

The bolt of blue energy rushed towards Darkwing, but it never reached him. Crimson suddenly arrived and quickly brought the rearview mirror she still carried to block the blast. She succeeded, the bolt being reflected off the mirror, bouncing back towards Codwell. Codwell didn't even have time to react before the bolt hit his hand. The next they knew, Codwell was frozen in place, the life energy within him sapped out of him...

* * *

Darkwing and the gang watched as the stiff Codwell was carried into a sealed room with various other items SHUSH had collected over the years.

"So what happened exactly?" Crimson asked, puzzled by the whole incident.

"Unlike the wave of energy we released to stop the object army, Codwell's device had more power, and was capable of giving, or taking, life energy from anything." Dr. Bellum explained as they watched this event take place. "When the bolt of energy you reflected, Crimson, hit Dr. Codwell's exposed flesh, it took the life energy away from him, and has left him rendered in this state."

"So he's dead." Darkwing said.

"Not necessarily." Bellum said. "By all accounts, he is still physically fit. He just doesn't have the energy to make life possible. Think of it like a calculator with a dead battery. The calculator itself is still in fine condition, it just can't work until it gets a new battery."

"So, if that life energy was to ever get put back into Codwell..." Techno reasoned.

"...he would be brought back to life, yes." Bellum said. "However, it was agreed that perhaps it would be better to leave him in this state, until a means to deal with him better is found."

"You think we can't just talk him out of what he was doing, or at least reason with him?" Launchpad asked.

"After the way he went after all of us?" Crimson asked with a snort. "Not likely. He's a pure-blood supevillain now."

"Or at least was." Bellum said. "And besides, that device of his is going to be destroyed, if it hasn't been already. Once that's done, there isn't any real means of returning the life energy into him."

"Yes, I issued orders regarding the matter of the HLEDD, as Codwell reportedly called it." Hooter remarked idly, also present.

Lovell shook her head, present as well. "It's sad it had to come to this for Codwell." she said, as the stiff figure of Codwell was stood up in one corner of the room, and the movers left. "He really did mean well."

"He just went about it in the wrong way." Darkwing said, watching as the door to the room was closed and locked, sealing Codwell within...

* * *

As night fell and repairs that had been dealt to St. Canard was well under way, Hooter saw to it that he supervised one more thing. He watched as two agents placed something into a case.

Grizzlikof stood nearby, watching the proceedings as well. "You sure you wish this, director?" he asked.

"I'm sure, Agent Grizzlikof." Hooter assured him.

The agents completed the task and awaited further orders. Hooter stepped up to the case and peered inside. He nodded to indicate everything was proceeding along satisfactorily.

"Take this case to Area 51." he ordered. "Make sure that case stays safe, and that it's contents do not leave that case, no matter what the reason."

And with that, he took one last look at the HLEDD within, then closed the case...


	23. The Crimson Darkwing

Summary: An accident regarding a mission to the Negaverse has left Darkwing and Crimson in a curious situation, and leaves them pondering on things...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: This chpt. actually ended up going in a completely different direction than I had first expected, and is really two ideas rolled into one, the second one actually coming off as more dominant than the first (which should've been the more dominant) This was alos supposed to be a more humorous chpt. but because of all the above, it never happened. It's actually more serious.

I love the beginning, tho, because it drops off the reader into the middle of the action, and the reader has to figure things out as the chpt. progresses along. Couple characters from past chapters make reappearances.

23.

The Crimson Darkwing

"They're gaining on us!" Darkwing exclaimed, looking behind them as Negaduck and his minions roared towards them.

NegaMegavolt added more fuel to the Friendly Four's six-seater motorbike, racing down the dangerous streets of the Negaverse. "Don't worry, we'll get you guys out of here in time!" he called to Darkwing and Crimson. "We're almost back to the portal!"

"Better step on it, Megs, the Negaquack's joining into the chase as well!" NegaQuackerjack squealed, pointing towards the sky.

Sure enough, coming about to chase after the motorbike was the dark and ominous shape of the Negaquack, with NegaGosalyn no doubt at the controls. It came to hover over the Negaduck and his minions chasing after the Friendly Four, all using their own means of transportation, lowing it's machine guns.

Darkwing fired his gas gun again at the pursuers and reached for another cartridge from his pocket, and was dismayed to see he was running dangerously low. Glancing over to NegaQuackerjack, he saw that the clown was running low on the wide assortment of toys he had been hurling at their pursuers. NegaLiki was still doing good, as he had a near infinite supply of water at his disposal and was firing long bursts of water in long streams.

But it seemed that no matter how many pursuers they took out, more would take their place. Darkwing was unaware Negaduck had so many supporters in the Negaverse. Worse still, however, was the fact that no one could seem to hit Negaduck, chasing after them in the Negacatcher, or hit the Negaquack, which fired off the odd popshot, and nothing more.

Using his last cartridge, Darkwing looked around quickly for something to us in it's stead. He saw NegaBushroot sat in one sidecar, hanging on for dear life, and was giving NegaMegs directions, and was about to ask the mutant plant-duck to help hold off their pursuers, when he noticed Crimson sitting in the other sidecar.

Sharing her seat, and was sprawled out in her lap, was the limp and unconscious form of NegaRowe.

Darkwing leaned over to her. "Crimson, I need your clip of cartridges!" he explained quickly.

Crimson quickly handed them over, then focused her attention back to NegaRowe, looking like she wished there was something she could do to help.

"How is he doing?" Darkwing asked.

Crimson shook her head. "Not good." she said mournfully. "The poison is acting quickly. He won't live for much longer if he doesn't get the antidote soon."

"He'll get it!" NegaMegs exclaimed, as he turned the motorbike sharply at a corner while dodging weapons fire from the Negaquack at the same time. "We're nearly at the site of the portal! Once we've dropped you guys off there, we're going straight to UIO HQ! They've got the antidote there, and they've been notified of the situation! They'll get it in Rowe the moment he arrives, trust me!"

"But will it be soon enough?" Crimson asked.

NegaMegs didn't reply.

They arrived quite suddenly at the abandoned office building that would've been SHUSH Headquarters back in the Posiverse. NegaMegs brought the motorbike to a sudden halt.

"Go, go, go!" NegaMegs urged Darkwing and Crimson, looking behind him as their pursuers gained rapidly on them, now that they weren't moving.

All four members of the Friendly Four helped Crimson and Darkwing off the bike, and pushed them towards the building, then NegaMegs gunned the motorbike again, zooming on down the street and around the corner, just as their pursuers caught up with them. Half of the pursuers followed the motorbike, including the Negaquack.

The other half, including Negaduck, stopped at the office building, and continued to chase Darkwing and Crimson on foot.

Darkwing and Crimson didn't stop to watch all of this, and instead hurried into the building's abandoned lobby, and hurried on down the staircase to the sub-level five floors down where an active transdimensional portal was. Negaduck, leading the gang he commanded at the moment, paused at the top of these stairs, thinking for a moment.

Getting a much better idea, he pulled a stick of dynamite from his pocket and lit the fuse. He then chucked it down the staircase, watching it bounce down the steps to the bottom floor.

"Let's go." he ordered his followers, turning to exit the building once more.

Darkwing and Crimson reached the bottom floor, and spied the portal just feet away from them.

Darkwing pulled out a radio from his pocket and spoke into it as he ran. "SHUSH, this is Darkwing, we're coming in hot, repeat, we're coming in..."

"RUN!" Crimson exclaimed, seeing and hearing the stick of dynamite Negaduck had lit reach the bottom of the stairs, it's fuse almost gone.

Forgetting everything else, the two superheroes made a mad dash for the portal. They were nearly there when an echoing bang rang out, followed by a bright light. A shockwave smashed into the backs of Crimson and Darkwing, and propelled them forward, and through the portal. Like they were shot out of a cannon, they popped back out of the portal in the Posiverse and crashed to the floor.

A large blast of fire billowed out of the portal as the two superheroes were thrown out of it, followed by a large amount of debris. The portal sparked and wavered, shooting out long arches of energy that laced itself over the generators that ran the portal and overloaded them. The portal shut off quickly after that.

Director Hooter quickly ran out of the generator's control room, Dr. Bellum hot on his heels. "Stand down!" he exclaimed to the armed agents that had been prepared to open fire on any enemies that came out of the portal. "Get a medical team down here on the double!"

He quickly came to the sides of Darkwing and Crimson, lying flat on the floor, and unconscious. He looked them over for a moment, feeling helpless.

"Dr. Bellum, do you know if they're all right?" he asked as the scientist arrived beside him.

"Director, I may have a doctorate in many fields of science, but medicine isn't one of them." Bellum replied, shaking her head.

They waited for the medical team to arrive, which wasn't long. They examined the two unconscious superheroes at the scene and said that both had no serious injuries. Both Darkwing and Crimson were taken away for further treatment and evaluation.

* * *

Later, and after filling out several documents that had appeared on his desk in the aftermath of this incident, Hooter returned to sub-level five, where Dr. Bellum and her team was working on repairing the damage to the massive portal generator.

"Director!" Bellum exclaimed as she saw Hooter approach. "Any word on Darkwing and Crimson?"

"The doctors assure me that they both are in no life-threatening danger." Hooter replied. "Darkwing is still unconscious, and merely has a bump on the head. Crimson is slightly worse, having a sprained ankle, and appears to be in a coma of some sort. But otherwise both are fine. I've called in someone to help with their treatment. However, Dr. Bellum, I want a status report on our generator."

"It's not as bad as it could've been." Bellum assured him, turning to look at the scorched generators. "We blew a few fuses, and the generators have completely lost their charge, meaning they will have to spend the next week recharging. That explosion in the Negaverse wreaked havoc with the portal and caused one heck of an overload. But it's nothing we can't repair. We'll have operations here going on as normal by the end of the month." she paused, then added with an excited gleam in her eye, "particularly with that device Darkwing and Crimson managed to obtain from the Negaverse."

Hooter nodded in agreement. "It'll be a little while before you see it, however." he explained. "I'm having another team examine it, making sure it is safe to use. Knowing Negaduck, I wouldn't be surprised if it's booby trapped, and that is the very last thing I want to worry about today."

* * *

Darkwing awoke with the overload of all headaches doing a percussion solo in his head. "Ow..." he murmured, rubbing his forehead, and finding a large bump on it. "Curse you Negs."

"Hey, it could've been worse." a familiar voice said softly. "Judging from the bruising on your arm, you nearly broke it."

Darkwing opened his eyes and looked around. "Christine?" he said, surprised.

"In the flesh." Christine said, working at the side of his bed, wearing a white doctor's coat and a stethoscope. "So that means you went accident free for how many days? Three? Four?"

"Four, I think." Darkwing said, slowly sitting up and looking around. "Where am I?"

"SHUSH Headquarters." Christine replied simply, her back turned to Darkwing.

"SHUSH..." Darkwing repeated slowly, noting that he was indeed wearing his mask and trademark teal turtleneck, so to protect his identity. "But then, why are you here?"

"Apparently, one of the advantages of being Darkwing Duck's official physician includes making house calls when you're injured during a mission for SHUSH." Christine said, finishing whatever she was doing and turning around to face her boyfriend, and held up the name tag she wore on her jacket. "See? Moderate security clearance. Hooter just gave it to me. He says this lets me have minimal access to SHUSH Headquarters and access to any information pertaining to the mission you, Crimson, Techno, or Launchpad were injured on. You were on a mission to the Negaverse, then?"

"Yeah, and it was...kind of...a success." Darkwing admitted, playing back the mission. "What happened?"

"According to the report, you and Crimson were knocked out of the portal by the blast from an explosion and were knocked unconscious in the process." Christine explained, sitting down. "You've been unconscious for the past hour or so. All you've got though is a bump on the head and a bruised rib, in addition to that arm you nearly broke that I mentioned earlier."

"Crimson..." Darkwing said, sitting up even further. "Where is she?"

'Here, dad.' Darkwing heard her speak.

Darkwing turned in the direction of the voice, and saw lying in a neighboring bed was Crimson, also wearing her mask to preserve her identity, but appeared to be unconscious.

"Crimson?" Darkwing asked uncertainly.

"She's in a coma, Drake." Christine said, looking a little concerned. "I'm not sure why. Perhaps her head got hit harder than we thought, but she doesn't have a concussion or anything like that."

"She's in a coma?" Darkwing asked, puzzled.

'I'm in a coma?' Crimson's voice rang out again, making Darkwing look around bewilderedly for the source.

"Yes, a coma." Christine confirmed, looking at Darkwing oddly as he looked around.

"Then why can I hear her?" Darkwing asked, pointing at his ear.

"Hear her?" Christine repeated, looking puzzled herself.

'Yes, hear me!' Crimson's voice rang out again.

"See, right there!" Darkwing exclaimed, looking around bewilderedly. "She just spoke again!"

Christine stared at him for a long moment. "Drake," she began, "she can't speak if she's in a coma."

Darkwing stared at her in reply. "Can't you hear her?" he asked.

"No." Christine replied, then leaned over to examine Darkwing's head again. "Maybe that bump is more serious than I first thought."

"I'm fine!" Darkwing said, brushing aside her hand. "Why can't you hear her?"

'Maybe I should shout.' he could hear Crimson reasoning. 'HELLO CHRISTINE!'

"Ow, Gosalyn!" Darkwing exclaimed, rubbing at his ringing ears.

Christine suddenly looked thoughtful for a moment. "Drake, how are you hearing her?" she asked.

"Like she's somewhere nearby, but just out of my line of sight." Darkwing replied.

'Kinda like an out-of-body experience for me.' Crimson was heard to be saying. 'In fact, I think it is. Just saw me lying on a bed a moment ago.'

"Right, I was just looking there a moment ago." Darkwing noted.

"What are you doing?" Christine asked.

"Shush, don't interrupt." Darkwing said, holding up a finger to silence her. "Gos, you still there?"

'Yeah, I am.' Crimson replied. 'Where are you, dad? I can hear you, but not see you.'

"I'm right here!" Darkwing exclaimed angrily. "Where are you?"

'I'm still trying to figure that out!' Crimson replied. 'I...think I might have an idea. But if I'm right...you're not going to like it.'

"Drake, what's going on?" Christine asked, feeling lost as she watched Darkwing carry on a conversation she could only hear one side of.

"Shush." Darkwing told her again. "Gos, what's the idea?"

'Put your hands over your eyes, dad.' Crimson instructed.

"Okay..." Darkwing said, clapping his hands over his eyes.

"Drake..." Christine bemoaned, puzzled beyond belief.

"Just hang in there for a moment." Darkwing said. "Gos? What's the word?"

'Keen gear.'

"What?"

'Dad, I can see your hands!'

"So?"

'No, you don't understand! I can see everything you see!'

Darkwing froze for a split second. "You mean to say..." he began.

'Yeah, I'm in your head at the moment, Dad.'

* * *

A short while later, Christine shook her head at the readouts she saw on the computer monitor. "I don't know how, but it's true." she said. "According to every scan I've made, I'm detecting two sets of brainwaves. One matches up as Darkwing's, and the other, Crimson's."

Hooter stared at the readouts for a moment. "How could have this happened?" he asked aloud.

"Probably has something to do with the portal's reaction to the explosion, Director." Dr. Bellum reasoned, running theories through her head. "That blast clearly interfered with the transit of all the molecules going through the portal. It's quite possible the portal didn't get everything sorted out to the right places, and kinda...slurred...Crimson and Darkwing together a little. Just enough that Crimson's mind ended up getting downloaded into Darkwing's brain, and now the two minds are sharing the same place."

"Kind of like downloading a computer program to a hard drive." Christine noted.

"I remember something like this happening before." Darkwing said, still in bed. "An accident with my equipment resulted in me and Crimson switching bodies for a day."

'Yeah I remember that.' Crimson remarked from within Darkwing's head. 'There was a bit of an upside to being you, I recall.'

"Probably something similar occurred here, but events caused the process to get interrupted." Bellum observed.

"It would explain why Crimson's body is in a coma." Christine said. "Technically, her body's just fine, there's just no consciousness to give it commands."

"Like a computer without a keyboard, or any other means of inputting data into it." Bellum reasoned.

"Okay, this is all good." Darkwing said. "Now how do we reverse this? Or am I stuck with her in my head for the rest of my life?"

'Keen gear, I sure hope not.' Crimson remarked. 'I don't want to have to share a body with dad all the time!' Darkwing sensed a slight echo of a shudder run down his spine, and realized it was Crimson who had inadvertently caused it. 'This could get embarrassing if we're stuck together for that long.'

"It won't come to that." Darkwing assured her, then realized everyone was staring at him. "I was...um...talking to Crimson." he clarified.

"Can't you communicate telepathically?" Bellum asked, looking curious. "You know, hear each others thoughts and stuff?"

'Thankfully, no.' Crimson remarked.

"No." Darkwing repeated, so everyone could hear. "But I think we can feel slight echoes, so to speak, of each others feelings."

'Yeah, I figured that myself.' Crimson confirmed unnecessarily.

"Hmm, fascinating." Bellum said. "I would love to do some tests with this, and..."

"Perhaps another time, Dr. Bellum." Hooter interrupted. "Right now, let's concentrate on getting these two minds sorted out."

"Oh, well, that should be easy." Bellum said. "All we got to do is send them back through the portal, and it'll fix this on it's own. Doesn't even have to lead anywhere, the portal could just connect to itself. They'll step through, then step back, like they didn't go anywhere. Because they didn't. But their minds will be fixed, and in the right bodies again."

"It's that simple?" Darkwing asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Bellum confirmed. "At least, in theory. Probably should run a few simulations first. And, of course, finish repairs on the generator and rig it to create a portal connecting to itself. Should be easy though, won't even need all that much power."

"Good, you have a go." Hooter said.

Bellum nodded, and left. Hooter turned to Darkwing.

"Don't worry Darkwing, we'll get this sorted out in no time." he promised. "Then we can focus on the fruits of your mission."

"Right, the mission." Darkwing said, having nearly forgotten why he had been traveling through the portal in the first place...

* * *

"_So what's up, J. Gander?" Darkwing asked as he, Crimson, and Hooter wandered through the hallways of SHUSH HQ._

"_Today, at 0400 hours, our portal generator opened, and we received from a communique from the Underground Independence Organization in the Negaverse." Hooter explained as they walked. "They were requesting permission to send someone through to deliver a message."_

"_Who?" Crimson asked._

"_Who else?" Hooter asked, as he opened a door to a room._

_Standing in the middle of the room, looking around, was NegaMegavolt._

"_NegaMegs!" Darkwing said. "Official messenger for the UIO now, huh?"_

"_Guess so." NegaMegs said with an indifferent shrug. "Good to see you, though. Glad you came so quickly."_

"_So what's going on?" Crimson asked._

"_Well, as you probably know already, seeing you guys can track when he comes and goes from our universe, Negaduck is in the Negaverse, doing an inspection of a sort." NegaMegs explained._

"_Typical." Darkwing said. "So, is this inspection going to cause problems for the Friendly Four or the UIO?"_

"_Oh no." NegaMegs assured them. "In fact, the inspection is over already."_

"_Then, I don't understand." Crimson said. "What's the problem?"_

"_Negaduck called the inspection off early, because he found NegaRowe." NegaMegs said._

_A moment of silence fell._

"_Negs found him hiding in an old warehouse." NegaMegs went on. "According to what we've learned, NegaRowe provided little resistence. He's now locked away in the jail under Canard Tower."_

"_So what does this have to do with us?" Hooter asked._

"_The UIO and the Friendly Four have arranged for a way to break in and rescue Rowe." NegaMegs explained. "But, we need help."_

"_Our help." Darkwing guessed._

"_Yes." NegaMegs said. "And we can give you guys some extra incentive too. You know that remote Negaduck uses to go from universe to universe that you guys want so badly?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_We think that, with your help, we can get that remote for you guys."_

* * *

Upstairs a floor or two from where Darkwing and Crimson inhabited one body, a team of SHUSH scientists worked with Negaduck's transdimensional portal remote while a pair of SHUSH agents, Lupis and Mia, stood guard over the proceedings.

"Amazing." the lead scientist said, examining the inner circuitry of the device. "Negaduck has managed to compress a whole portal generator in here. Technologically speaking, he must be lightyears ahead of everyone else in the Negaverse. Heck, we don't even have something as advanced as this lying around."

"That's not the important thing here." Agent Lupis said in a no-nonsensical tone. "Are there any booby traps?"

The scientist picked up the device and looked it over. "None that I can find." he said.

"Then, can it be reversed engineered?" Agent Lupis asked.

"Sure." the scientist said with a shrug. "Give me and my team a month or so, and we can get it done."

"Sounds like we have everything under control, then, sir." Agent Mia said, swishing her long tail back and forth.

"We'll see, Mia." Agent Lupis said to his subordinate. The wolf then turned to face the scientist. "Can you operate it?"

"Oh, certainly." the scientist said, replacing the back cover to the device. "Why?"

"I want to see that it works." Agent Lupis said.

"Oh." the scientist said. "Oh, okay." he worked with the remote for a moment. "I suppose that's a smart choice." He pressed the activation button on the remote, pointing it at the back wall of the room.

But no portal formed of any sort. Instead, Negaduck suddenly appeared, putting everyone on the alert. The agents drew their sidearms, ready to fire, but the scientist stopped them.

"Don't shoot!" he exclaimed. He waved his hand through the frozen image of Negaduck, which blurred slightly every time the scientist's hand passed through it. "It's a hologram."

After he said this, the image of Negaduck suddenly unfroze, and he started to move.

"Hello SHUSH." Negaduck said in a flat tone. "If you're watching this, then you've obviously managed to steal my portal remote. Kudos for you." Negaduck stopped for a moment, then an evil grin spread over his face. "But every reward has a downside." he concluded.

The image then flickered and faded away. The scientist set the remote down, and moved forward to stand in the spot the hologram had appeared in. This action saved his life, for the remote suddenly exploded, and chaos broke loose...

* * *

"Darkwing Duck and Crimson Avenger, to sub-level five, please." the voice of Dr. Bellum rang out from the SHUSH intercom. "Darkwing Duck and Crimson Avenger to sub-level five, please."

Darkwing stood up, finishing buttoning up his double-breasted jacket. "I guess this means Bellum's ready to fix us."

'Finally.' Crimson remarked from within Darkwing's head. 'I'm getting really bored in here.'

"Are you implying that I'm boring?" Darkwing demanded, placing his hat over his head.

Christine looked up from where she was prepping Crimson's unconscious body for transport.

"Oh, I was talking to Crimson again." Darkwing explained to her sheepishly, then changed the subject. "You ready to go?"

"Almost." Christine said, returning to her work. "I want to be careful about transporting Crimson's body. With nothing but a mere biological brain that's a total blank slate without a consciousness in it, it could be delicate to move."

'Ah, don't worry about it Christine, it can handle it.' Crimson remarked.

Darkwing glanced upward in annoyance, like he could see Crimson up there. Christine noticed.

"What? What did she say?" she asked.

"She thinks that we have nothing to worry about." Darkwing explained.

'No, I think she's getting worried over nothing.' Crimson corrected.

"Well, you tell her that we're doing this my way, and that she should be thankful that we're treating her body so carefully." Christine said, returning to her work once more.

"Gosalyn, she said..."

'I know, I know, I heard. I can hear everything you hear, too, you know.'

Darkwing grinned at the sound of annoyance in Crimson's voice. "So," he began, directing his attention to Christine again. "Should we wait for you?"

"No, go on ahead." Christine said, not looking up. "I'll only be a moment."

"Okay." Darkwing said, and started out the door.

He hadn't taken more than five steps down the hall, when alarms started to go off, the lights went out, and suddenly every door slammed shut, and locked. Darkwing suddenly realized he was alone in the hallway.

'It's a lockdown!' Crimson exclaimed in his head.

"But why?" Darkwing asked.

'I dunno, you tell me.'

"I've got a better idea." he pulled out a walkie-talkie. "J. Gander, come in please." he said.

"Darkwing, where are you?" came back Hooter's voice.

"Trapped in a hallway." Darkwing replied. "What's happening?"

"There was an incident with Negaduck's portal remote." Hooter replied over the radio. "It seems it had an undetected booby trap in it. It exploded when triggered. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the remote was lost."

'Dang it.' Crimson said. 'All that work for nothing.'

Darkwing ignored her. "So why the lockdown?" he asked into the radio.

"Apparently, the remote wirelessly downloaded a computer virus into the SHUSH computer mainframe, and has commanded the facility to lock itself down." Hooter explained. "Dr. Bellum believes she can override and remove it from where she is down in sub-level five, but it's going to take some time. In the meantime, just sit tight. Hooter out."

"Great." Darkwing said, sitting down on the floor. "Looks like we're stuck together for awhile longer, Gos."

'So prepare for a very long and boring wait, right?' Crimson asked sarcastically.

"Well, maybe we can do something to pass the time." Darkwing suggested.

'Like what?' Crimson asked. 'No offense dad, but you aren't exactly always the most entertaining guy around. Too bad Honker's out of town and Launchpad's in bed with the flu. They're lots of fun.'

"Oh, I'm sure we can work something out." Darkwing persisted.

'Oh yeah? Like what?'

"I dunno, maybe discuss our mission in the Negaverse?"

If Crimson had a face of her own to control at the moment, she would've frowned. That was the very last thing she wished to discuss at the moment...

* * *

_The UIO's plan was fairly simple. Canard Tower had a very complex ventilation system_, _and had large and spacious vents that were big enough for someone to climb through. However, despite the complexity of the system, it was the least secure of the facilities of Canard Tower._

_It's one and only protection was a kind of sensor that could detect the presence of an intruder in the vents. The UIO had recently developed a kind of wearable transceiver that could jam this sensor, and would work to hide any intruders within the vents. Issued to every member of the Friendly Four and Darkwing and Crimson, they were all now invisible to this sensor._

_Once they were inside the vents, they spilt into two teams. Darkwing took NegaLiki and NegaQuackerjack into a team, and headed up to the upper levels of the tower, where it was believed that Negaduck's transdimensional portal remote resided. Crimson took NegaMegs and NegaBushroot, and headed down into the underground prison under Canard Tower and break NegaRowe out of prison and hopefully talk him into picking a side, as the otter had nemained neutral in the whole affair for some time now._

_This proved to be quite easy. As they were invisible to the sensor, Crimson was able to lead her party down to the prison, disable the security system within the underground prison, and take out all the guards that could see what they were going to do. Even finding NegaRowe was easy. Opening his cell was a snap, and he wasn't chained to the wall like most other prisoners down here. Crimson figured Negaduck was trying to please NegaRowe to try and get him to join his side._

_They didn't have any problems with any of this. The only problem they had, was NegaRowe himself._

"_Whoa, whoa, wait, who are you?" he demanded when Crimson unlocked and opened the cell door._

"_We're here to help you!" NegaBushroot explained._

"_You're the Friendly Four, then." NegaRowe deduced, relaxing slightly, but still looking worried._

"_Well, nearly, I don't really count." Crimson remarked. "See, I'm from another universe..."_

"_Will you guys let me go free then?" NegaRowe asked._

_Crimson trailed off at the interruption. "Er...huh?" she asked, puzzled._

"_We're just here to help you Rowe." NegaMegs said. "But we also need your help."_

_NegaRowe sighed. "Who doesn't, mate?" he asked. "By the fur, it seems everybody wants me to help them. But I don't want to. I just want to be left alone. Is that too much to ask for?"_

"_Look Rowe, we don't exactly have all the time in the world here." Crimson said. "Just let us take you back to the UIO's headquarters, and then you can talk..."_

"_Oh, so the UIO wants me too, huh?" NegaRowe asked. "Look, all of you. I just want to be left alone, to go free, and not have to worry about all of __**your**_ _troubles."_

"_Look Rowe, a great many people want that." NegaBushroot said. "But it's just not possible."_

"_Sooner or later you'll have to pick a side." Crimson agreed. "And we're hoping you'll pick the good side."_

_NegaRowe didn't reply._

"_Look, I can relate." Crimson said. "I personally hate the Negaverse. Back home in the Posiverse, things are much better. I much rather just stay there and forget everything that happens here. But I can't. They need my help from time to time. And I wouldn't be a really very good person if I denied them that help simply because I don't like what happens here. The same thing is true with you. The Friendly Four and UIO need your help, and they have gone to great lengths to try and get it. But all you've done is run away. I know that it seems like everyone is after you, and you probably aren't sure which side you want to be on, but you can't keep running away forever. Eventually you'll have to face the thing you're running away from."_

_NegaRowe was silent for a long moment. "What you're proposing is very dangerous." he pointed out. "Deadly, even. Sink my rudder, are you saying that I should go and risk my life over matters I can just hide from, like my life means nothing?"_

"_Your life means something, Rowe." Crimson persisted. "Everyone's does. But every life has a purpose. You're just afraid of what that purpose is."_

_NegaRowe looked at Crimson for a very long moment. NegaMegs cleared his throat noisily._

"_Um, not to seem rude or anything..." he began, "but we really should get going."_

"_Right." Crimson said. "So right now you need to choose, Rowe. Either stay here, or come with us, so you can work this out in full later."_

_NegaRowe was silent for a long moment. "I'll come." he announced._

* * *

"Gosalyn?" Darkwing asked hesitantly.

Crimson snapped back to the present. 'Sorry dad, I was just thinking.' she said.

"About what?" Darkwing asked.

'Nothing.'

"Don't lie to me Crimson, I can sense some of your feelings. You're upset over something." he paused. "Is there something you want to talk about? Now actually might be a good chance, considering the position we're in."

'No.' Crimson replied, then paused. 'Yes. I was just thinking about the mission. A lot of things went wrong that shouldn't have.'

Darkwing nodded in agreement. "If it's any constellation, it wasn't exactly a cake walk on my end either." he said, remembering...

* * *

_Things had gone smoothly at first for Darkwing's team as well. Almost too smoothly. Darkwing sensed it was all probably going to come crashing down on him sooner or later. But they traversed the vents without event, arrived in the penthouse apartment Negaduck and NegaGosalyn resided in when out of costume. It was empty, indicating that both were out at the moment, and there were no henchmen about._

_They didn't have time to look around, however. Quickly, they found what appeared to be a kind of office for Negaduck, and they rooted through it. Finally, after opening a drawer, Darkwing found the remote they were looking for._

"_AHA!" He cried victoriously and raised the remote up over his head. "I've got it!"_

"_But not for long."_

_Darkwing, NegaQuackerjack, and NegaLiki all whirled around, to see NegaGosalyn standing in the doorway with her trademark P90 in her hands, in casual attire._

"_Put that remote back, now, Darkwing, or I'll shoot." NegaGosalyn threatened._

_But she didn't have time to shoot. NegaLiki, seeing the situation, sped into action and transformed into a wave. He hit NegaGosalyn head on and engulfed her in a column of water. Suspended in the middle, NegaGosalyn struggled, but was at NegaLiki's complete mercy. Darkwing realized she was drowning._

_At first he told himself not to worry about it, but his mind wouldn't go for that. He kept envisioning his own Gosalyn in that column of water, struggling to survive, even though this Gosalyn was wearing the red sports jersey and black jeans that signified her as the Negaverse Gosalyn. The thought was pure torture to his mind._

_Furthermore, this Gosalyn once used to be good, too. Perhaps somewhere deep down, that good still existed. He couldn't let NegaLiki do this._

"_Liki." he began softly. "Let her go."_

_NegaQuackerjack gave him a bewildered look. "Darkwing, NegaGosalyn is the enemy, if we let her live..."_

"_I know!" Darkwing exclaimed, watching NegaGosalyn give one last attempt to break herself free, and suddenly go limp. "Let her go."_

_The column of water suddenly collapsed, splashing as water spread out all over the floor, and exposing NegaGosalyn to a breathable atmosphere again. She breathed instinctively, but the oxygen deprivation had knocked her out cold. Darkwing felt a wave of relief wash over him, even though he was well aware of who he was feeling relieved for._

"_Such actions normally loose customers." NegaLiki remarked as he popped up beside Darkwing, forming his usual form, with his arms folded._

"_Trust me, Liki. I knew what I was doing." Darkwing assured him, hoping he wasn't lying. "We got what we came for. So let's go."_

_And they left, taking the portal remote with, as they stepped over the unconscious form of NegaGosalyn and exited the room..._

* * *

'Dad, are _you _okay?' Crimson asked within Darkwing's mind, sounding concerned. 'I can sense that you're feeling sad. Like how I felt when I found out that grandpa had died all those years ago.'

"Mm." Darking said, not really in the mood to reply at the moment.

'Did something like that happen?' Crimson asked.

Darkwing was silent for a moment. "Almost." he admitted. "I have to wonder if that's a good thing, though. Only time will tell."

'Time.' Crimson remarked, and Darkwing sensed a curious feeling from her. 'There a lot of things only time can tell.' she was silent for a moment. 'So what happened?' she asked finally.

Darkwing, after a moment of hesitation, told her the story in short.

Crimson was silent for a moment. 'You did the right thing, dad.' she assured him.

"I hope you're right, Gos." Darkwing said. "I really do." he sighed. "Well, I told you what was bugging me. What's bugging you?"

Darkwing sensed her sigh, or at least it's equivalent. 'It's NegaRowe.' she admitted.

* * *

_They were on their way back through the vents, heading for the exit. Crimson was second to last, with NegaMegs in the lead._

"_We're nearly there." he reported._

"_Good, because I'd like to stretch my limbs again." NegaBushroot bemoaned._

"_Oh quit your complaining, Bushy, it could be a lot worse." Crimson pointed out._

"_Hey, Crimson." NegaRowe said from behind her. "Could I have a word?"_

_Crimson stopped, and allowed the otter to catch up with her. NegaRowe was silent for a moment, clearly gathering his thoughts._

"_Look, about what you said back there." he began. "You probably don't realize it, but you may have just helped me answer a great deal of questions for me that needed answers. And that...well...means a lot to me. Just so you know."_

_Crimson opened her mouth to reply, but was too flattered to do so._

"_Don't worry about it." NegaRowe said, seeing her struggle. "It's not that important. But I just wanted to...well...just to say thank you, mate."_

_He extended a hand for her to shake. Crimson took it and shook._

"_You're welcome." she said._

_They continued on._

"_You know, you're the first that's tried to get me to pick a side and actually made sense." NegaRowe admitted, continuing on. "Maybe I can repay you somehow."_

"_Don't worry about it." Crimson persisted. "It's like you said. It's not that important."_

"_But maybe it is." NegaRowe said, sounding like he was having second thoughts about that statement. "Really, though, I want to pay you back somehow."_

"_I'm fine as is." Crimson said. "Besides, where I come from, you're the enemy. It's kinda hard for me to get too friendly with you guys from the Negaverse."_

"_Really?" NegaRowe asked. "Because I kinda thought we were friends already."_

_Crimson paused and glanced at him._

_But then an alarm started to ring off in the distance._

"_Uh-oh, that can't be good." NegaMegs said._

"_Sounds like they're putting the building on full alert." NegaBushroot reasoned. "If they complete it before we get out of here..."_

"_We don't have time to head all the way to the exit." Crimson said. "Head for the lobby, it's much closer. We might have to fight our way out, but we stand a better chance there."_

_NegaMegs nodded, and adjusted their course. A few moments later, they were at the vent leading into the lobby. Climbing out, NegaMegs turned around to help the others come out. Bending over to catch her breath quickly as NegaMegs and NegaBushroot helped NegaRowe out, Crimson saw feet enter her line of vision. Looking up, she saw Negaduck standing there. Yelping, Crimson quickly backed away from him._

"_Well, trying to make an escape, are we?" Negaduck asked, pulling out a weapon of some sort._

_Crimson went for her gas gun, and the others went on the defensive._

"_Now, now, let's not fight." Negaduck said airily._

"_No, let's." NegaMegs said, and launched a bolt of electricity at Negaduck._

_Negaduck dodged it, then pointed his weapon at the closest target, Crimson, and fired. Crimson remembered seeing the burst of light as the gun fired, then NegaRowe suddenly throwing himself between him and her, who grunted before falling to the floor. Worried, Crimson unloaded half a clip of gas cartridges at Negaduck, driving the villain out of sight, before she bent down and rolled NegaRowe over._

_He was barely conscious. He was clawing weakly at something that protruded from his chest. Crimson puled it out and examined it. It appeared to be some sort of dart. NegaBushroot paled when he saw it._

"_A poison dart!" he exclaimed, rushing to NegaRowe's side._

"_Poison?" Crimson repeated._

_NegaBushroot nodded. "The UIO has an antidote, but we need to get Rowe over there quickly or he'll die!"_

"_Then we need to go, now!" Crimson exclaimed standing._

"_Agreed!" Darkwing said, stepping out of the smoke suddenly, followed by NegaLiki and NegaQuackerjack._

_NegaMegs blinked at them. "Where's Negaduck?" he asked._

"_Not here, but it seems to me that we need to get out here fast before we ever find out where Negaduck went." Darkwing replied, taking control of the situation..._

* * *

'He shouldn't have done that.' Crimson said after she finished telling all of this. 'He didn't need to at all. Yet he did. I could very well owe NegaRowe his life for what he did.'

"Rowe did what he thought was right." Darkwing pointed out.

'Do you think he survived? That they got him an antidote soon enough?' Crimson asked. Darkwing could sense fear from her.

"I don't know." Darkwing admitted. "We can only hope."

'One thing is for sure, though.' Crimson remarked. 'I'll never look at Rowe in the same light again, good or bad.' she paused, then added, 'I don't think I'll look at you the same way either, dad.'

Darkwing nodded. "I don't think I will either." he admitted. "All of this has kind of brought us closer together. It's not as really as bad as I first thought."

'Funny how it takes a situation like me being stuck in your head makes stuff like this happen, isn't it?' Crimson asked.

"Yes." Darkwing agreed. "Yes it is."

Then, suddenly, the alarms went off, the lights came back on, and the doors unlocked up and down the hallway they were in.

'Dr. Bellum must have gotten rid of that computer virus.' Crimson noted.

A moment later, an announcement came over the intercom that stated just that.

Darkwing grinned, and stood up. "How about we go and get you back in your body?" he asked.

'Sound good dad.' Crimson replied.

* * *

A few moments later, Darkwing stood before the portal Bellum had rigged. Beside him, lying on a gurney, was Crimson's body, being pushed by Christine. Darkwing took a deep breath, then nodded to her, before stepping through the portal. As he did so, Christine pushed the gurney through the portal as well. Both were hardly through before they returned, coming the other way.

"Whoa." Darkwing muttered as he stepped through. "Weird to step through a portal that leads back to the same place you started."

The gurney slid back through, and into Christine's hand. On it, Crimson was conscious and wide awake, sitting up and looking around.

"That felt a bit different." she remarked, but did not elaborate. "So what did I miss?"

Christine laughed at the joke, as Hooter approached.

"I guess it worked, then, Darkwing." he said.

"Yep." Darkwing said, helping Crimson off the gurney. "But now I think it's time to head home. Me and Crimson have been through a lot today. I think it's time we went home and thought about it some more."


	24. Under Fire

Summary: An explosion at Avian Way has led Darkwing and the gang into something even deeper than involves The Elements...and someone else.

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Continuation of The Elements storyarc. Several familar faces reappear. Got another chapter in the works, hopefully will get it posted soon.

24.

Under Fire

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Edward, ya said that there were test subjects involved in this project, whatever it was. Any idea how many?"_

"_No sir. Why?"_

"_Because I think I know where they are."_

_--_

"_It was a project funded by FOWL t' create a kind of serum. A serum capable of enhancin' the performance's of one's body! That's what it's done t' you guys! Only it's unexpectedly gone and enhanced a little further!"_

_--_

"_Suppose we don't want to have anything to do with FOUL, now?"_

"_Listen, Firefox, I'm givin' ya quite an offer. If ya run off, where will ya go? What will ya do? If ya stay with me n' FOUL, though, I can give ya places to go an' stuff t' do. Now what do ya say?"_

_--_

_Finally, after a long and tense moment, a choice was made..._

_--_

"_So what __**do**__ you think happened?"_

"_I think it was an assassination attempt. Sinks don't just blow up randomly whenever the mayor of St. Canard goes to use it._

_--_

"_The Fearsome Five aren't behind our little exploding sink incident. Someone else must have done it."_

"_Ok, thanks. Keep me posted, Darkwing out. There goes that lead."_

"_But I don't get it then, DW. Who else besides The Liquidator could've done it?"_

"_That's the mystery, LP."_

_--_

_The moment he and Launchpad entered the room the floor before them ruptured and a pipe burst, sending a wave of water at them, throwing both crime fighters backwards and into a wall, getting knocked out. But just before this all happened, Darkwing saw four figures standing in front of the vault, and they didn't look like any gang he knew of before then._

_--_

"_We're new in town, so this is the first time we've met. I'm Jack. Jack O'Hara. The two ducks are Elizabeth Guire and Garth Miner, and our favorite hare here, is named Sally McHare. Together, we're called The Elements."_

_--_

"_So are you all working for FOUL?"_

"_We did, once. And we were offered the chance to keep working with Steelbeak."_

"_But we turned it down. Now we work solo."_

_--_

"_But the point is, J. Gander, that The Elements are up to something, and we need to track them down and stop them!"_

_--_

"_We tried to stop them, DW, but they were too quick."_

"_Well, at least we stopped their evil scheme from causing too much harm."_

"_Yeah, but just barely."_

"_Still, maybe that'll get them to think twice before messing with us again."_

"_Oh, they will, Crimson, you can count on that. Which means they'll be even harder to beat next time..."_

_--_

"_Well?"_

"_They bought it. Hook, line, and sinker."_

"_Good. Which means they'll never see what's comin' next, heh-heh-heh!"_

* * *

Gosalyn Mallard sat in the living room window, looking out at the bleak and cold February morning that currently held St. Canard in it's grasp.

"Boy, has today ever been boring." she muttered.

Launchpad looked up from where he was working with some papers in the dining room. "Gos, it's only nine a.m." he remarked. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean that the day's hardly begun?"

"Yeah." Gosalyn admitted.

"So how can you know for sure that your whole day is boring?" Launchpad asked.

"Because, if nothing exciting happens by the end of morning, it's too late to save the day." Gosalyn replied.

Launchpad frowned. "Well, don't give up hope for today, just yet." he said, returning to what he was doing. "You never know, something exciting could still happen. Maybe when DW comes back..."

"Nothing will change when Dad comes back." Gosalyn interrupted. "I may like dad, but he can be boring at times."

Suddenly, from outside, the sound of a car engine revving was heard, and Gosalyn saw an unfamiliar car pull into the driveway of the Mallard home.

Gosalyn jumped up onto her feet. "I may be standing corrected here." she said, wide-eyed, and rushed for the front door.

Swinging it open, she ran outside in time to see Drake Mallard climb out of the driver's seat of a very modern and expensive four-seater sports car. Gosalyn's beak fell open in surprise.

"Dad?" she exclaimed, rushing towards the blue car. "Is this _ours_?"

"Yep." Drake said, leaning on the hood and looking satisfied at Gosalyn's reaction. "Since the ol' station wagon got destroyed in that incident back with Codwell and his HLEDD, we've been needing a new mode of transportation, and since I was in the neighborhood of a certain car dealership..." he left his sentence hanging.

"You mean you _paid_ for this?" Gosalyn asked, amazed. "But I thought we couldn't afford _anything _fancy like this."

"We can't." Drake admitted, wearing a sly grin. "We had help paying for it."

Gosalyn looked up. "SHUSH?" she asked.

"No, McDuck Enterprises, actually." Drake said. "Apparently, Launchpad told McDuck through a letter about what happened to the station wagon, so McDuck offered to pay for a replacement. 'Consider it a gift,' he said."

"You mean to say that Scrooge McDuck, the richest and at times the greediest duck in the world, _paid _for this car?" Gosalyn asked. "With no expectation of us paying him back?"

"Yeah, I know, even LP was surprised." Drake admitted, but then shrugged. "I guess McDuck is still trying to make it up to LP for all those years they spent mad at each other over nothing."

Gosalyn distractedly nodded, studying the car. She shook her head. "You have _got _to let me drive this baby." she said.

Drake winced at this comment. "I was afraid you were going to say that." he said, stepping over to stand next to her.

Gosalyn gave him an odd look. "Are you worried I'll crash the car or something?" she asked. "Don't worry, I won't hurt it."

"That's what you always say." Drake mumbled.

Gosalyn's puzzled look turned into a glare. "Are you implying that I'm a bad driver?" she asked.

"Nothing of the sort." Drake said in his defense. "I just...er..."

But whatever lame excuse he was going to utter was cut short when a low hiss was heard nearby.

"What's that?" Gosalyn asked, cupping a hand over one ear and turning towards the sound.

Drake was one step ahead of her, and had already placed the source of the sound to a manhole sitting out in the middle of the suburban street, just feet away from their house. He suddenly saw a flare of light begin to flash from under it. Instinctively sensing that this wasn't a good thing, Drake turned and grabbed Gosalyn and pushed her away from the manhole all in under a second. Before either of them had started to fall onto their snow-layered yard, a column of fire suddenly erupted out of the manhole, blasting it's cover high into the air.

A millisecond later, the whole street exploded. The shockwave slammed into Drake and Gosalyn and propelled their fall, slamming them into the snow. The sound of glass shattering was heard, and the whole world flared up with a right light for a second. As quickly as it had happened, the fiery explosion had subsided, and all was left was a flaming crater in the road, stretching to the curb on either side of the street, and stretched as far a two houses in length.

Somewhere in the distance, a car alarm had gone off. A moment later, people started pouring out of their houses to see what in the world had happened, and were awestruck at the damage.

The entirety of Avian Way was caught in a mild spell of chaos.

Drake and Gosalyn picked themselves out of the snow, melting slightly from the blast of fire the explosion had caused. They looked at one another, silently confirming that they were alright, then turned to look at the crater, standing up. A moment later the front door of the Mallard home slammed open and Launchpad stumbled out, looking stunned.

"What in the world caused this?" the pilot exclaimed, referring to the crater.

"A very good question, LP." Gosalyn admitted, staring into the crater.

"And I might have an answer already." Drake added, who was the only one who wasn't looking at the crater, but up into the sky.

High above them was a small fireball, sailing higher and higher. At first glance, it looked like debris from the explosion, but it had already sailed far too high for that. But what really proved that the object wasn't what it seemed to be was the fact that after it had gone straight up for a long ways, it suddenly veered to the left ans shot towards the metropolis section of St. Canard across the bay.

There was more to that fireball than what met the eye.

* * *

Within the hour, officials of all sorts had gathered at the site, such as the police, fire department, and others, all there to survey the damage and to figure out an explanation. Fortunately, other than the road which was going to have to be entirely rebuilt, little was damaged. The worse of the damage was merely windows that had broken in the blast, such as the front living room window of the Mallard home. No one had been injured either.

But that still didn't explain why a whole street exploded.

Officer Matthew stood studying the crater, rubbing his beak in thought as he dimly listened to a fire fighter list off various possible explanations for the explosion, each one of them starting to seem more unlikely than the first. He said as such.

"I know, sir." the fire fighter admitted. "But to be honest, there are a lot of inconsistencies with this explosion that no one can seem to figure out. So unless the SCPD has a theory..."

"We don't." Matthew admitted. "But I've called for someone whose good and figuring out the unknown."

Then, a cloud of smoke erupted out not far from where they stood.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" a voice echoed out.

"Speaking of which..." Matthew said, excusing himself to the fire fighter, then walking over the cloud of smoke.

"I am the slice of toast that begins it's fall with the buttered side facing down, but lands with the buttered side facing up!" Darkwing continued as he stepped out of the cloud of smoke. "I am Darkwing Duck!"

"Darkwing, glad you came!" Matthew said. He looked around for a moment. "Crimson not with you?"

"Here I am!" Crimson said, running up to them, adjusting her hat. "Darkwing, I thought you were going to wait for me to finish getting ready!"

"Is that why you didn't do your trademark entrance?" Matthew asked.

"Huh?" Crimson said. "Oh, er, I am the heir to the cape, I am the paper jam in your printer... etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. All right, so down to business. What's up?"

"The darnedest thing I've ever seen." Matthew replied, turning to look back at the crater in the road. "Avian Way virtually self-destructed for no real explanation. The popular theory is that it's a gas leak that was responsible, but no one's seen a gas explosion tear apart a road quite like this."

"Neither have I." Darkwing admitted, peering down into the crater at the tangle of debris that sat at it's bottom. "Something tells me that no natural event caused this."

"That's what I was starting to think." Matthew agreed, joining him. "Unfortunately, none of us have the resources to try and find out."

"Yes, this kind of thing isn't exactly the normal thing the SCPD has to deal with." Darkwing admitted, rubbing his beak.

"Exactly why I am here, Darkwing ol' boy." a voice said from behind them.

The trio turned to face the speaker.

"Director Hooter?" Crimson asked, surprised.

Sure enough, Hooter stood there, along with Dr. Bellum, both looking ready to get to the bottom of this little mystery.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" Matthew said, as Hooter approached. "You mean _the _Director Hooter? From SHUSH?"

"Yes." Hooter said, extending a hand for Matthew to shake. "Pleasure to meet you, officer."

Matthew didn't accept the hand. "What does SHUSH have to do with this?" he asked.

"I bet I know." Darkwing said, stepping forward. "They, like me, have reason to believe that The Elements are behind this."

"Indeed we do, Darkwing." Hooter acknowledged.

"Wait, wait, _wait_." Matthew said. "Who, or what, are The Elements?"

* * *

"The Elements are a group of super empowered beings that have been causing SHUSH grief for a few months now." Dr. Bellum explained once they had all retired to a secluded spot and Bellum had a chance to open up a laptop containing what little information they had obtained on The Elements. "They are called as such because each of the four members have a special power that pertains to the classical elements, meaning earth, fire, water, and air."

"So they're something like the Fearsome Five." Matthew guessed.

"In a sense, but they are much more organized and crafty." Bellum said. "They're more on the level of super spies, as they work without drawing the attention of the public spotlight. Regardless, they have attempted some major things, which is why SHUSH is quite concerned about them."

"Why?" Matthew asked. "I mean sure, they're supervillains, but St. Canard sees a lot of them. How is this anymore concerning than that? And why haven't I heard of them before?"

"The members making up these guys are all ex-employees to FOWL." Darkwing explained. "They have training that no other supervillain would have, not even Negaduck."

"And they've been kept secret because they avoid the spotlight, like Dr. Bellum said." Crimson piped in. "Not only that, but we haven't had very many encounters with them yet."

"SHUSH has been trying to track them down for sometime now, but ever since that incident at the waterworks two months back, we haven't caught a glimpse of them." Hooter explained. "This is actually our first lead to them since that one encounter."

"Okay, I buy all that." Matthew said. "But how do you believe they're connected to that?" he gestured to the crater in the street.

"Because, SHUSH happened to be watching at the time." Bellum said, tapping controls on her laptop. "You are all aware that SHUSH as many spy satellites in orbit, correct? Well, one of which monitors St. Canard constantly, as this is where SHUSH HQ is located. And it just so happened to be watching Avian Way when the explosion occurred."

She tapped one finally command into the computer, and a very high resolution image of Avian Way, taken from above, appeared on the screen. "This was taken just before the explosion." Bellum explained, before tapping another command. A new picture appeared, featuring a small plume of light in the middle of the roar. "This one as the explosion occurred. And this one as the explosion started to dissipate."

She tapped another control, and a third picture appeared on the screen, showing a fading version of the explosion. But more interesting was a ball of fire that had separated itself from the rest of the explosion.

Matthew squinted at it. "What is it, debris?" he asked.

"It went much too high for it to be debris." Darkwing said. "I saw it."

"You are correct, Darkwing." Hooter said, and motioned to Bellum to advance to the next picture.

She did, and now the picture showed a smoldering crater with a small ball of fire hanging over it.

"What _is _that?" Matthew asked.

"That's Jack O'Hara, the leader for The Elements." Darkwing said.

"Correct again, Darkwing." Hooter said, as Bellum zoomed the picture in at the ball of fire.

Close up, the image started to blur, but there was no denying that the fireball was a living being.

"Well I'll be." Matthew remarked.

"But I don't get it." Crimson muttered. "Why would The Elements want to blow up a road in the middle of the suburbs?"

"We believe they didn't wish to, but felt it necessary regardless." Hooter said.

Darkwing frowned, looking at the director. "What do you mean, J. Gander?"

"The crater allowed us to get an underground scan of the area like never before." Bellum explained, tapping a few more commands into the laptop. "Before now, our range was very limited do to the road and everything, but the crater has allowed us to get some scans down below all of that. And guess what we found."

The image of Avian Way turned into wireframe models. Starting from the spot where the crater was, long lines started to branch out from the one spot, before just stopping. Everyone stared at them for a moment.

"What are those?" Matthew asked.

"Tunnels." Hooter replied. "We believe that The Elements had an underground hideout here, and that the explosion was an attempt to destroy it in order to cover their tracks."

"What tracks?" Crimson asked.

"That is what we intend to find out, Miss Avenger." Hooter replied.

* * *

A short while later found Darkwing and the gang, along with a few officers in the bottom of the crater, digging away.

"Dr. Bellum said that the tunnels still exist, and branch out from here, so there must be an entrance here somewhere..." Matthew muttered, shoving aside a piece of asphalt. "Ah ha! Here it is!"

He pointed at the opening he had just uncovered, and the dark tunnel beyond.

"All right, here's where we come in." Darkwing said, pulling out flashlights and turning to Crimson as well as Techno, who had joined them by this point. "Remember, this is just a reconnaissance mission of sorts for SHUSH and nothing more. No getting dangerous if it can be helped."

"Got it." Crimson said, accepting a flashlight before handing one to Techno. "By the way, Tech." she began as she handed him the flashlight and they continued to prepare themselves for the excursion in the tunnels. "What kept you? I would've thought you'd have joined us long before now."

"Mom." Techno explained with a shrug. "The explosion sent a piece of debris hurtling through our front window. Rather than go outside and gape at the crater like everyone else, Mom had us all cleaning up the mess until about fifteen minutes ago."

"Well, that's Binkie Muddlefoot for you." Crimson muttered without thinking. Fortunately, no one noticed.

"All right, ready." Darkwing said as he lowered a rope into the tunnel. He pulled out a radio as he prepared to climb down. "We'll keep you posted of our progress, Hooter."

"Very good Darkwing." came the reply. "Be on the look out for anything that might tell us what The Elements have been up to for the past two months."

"Will do, J. Gander." Darkwing said.

He lowered himself into the tunnel. Crimson and Techno quickly followed. Flipping on their flashlights, they looked around.

"It appears that the explosion was centered around this area, and did not continue on very far past this point." Techno noted, using his visor to scan the tunnel walls.

"These tunnels are super long, too." Crimson added, shining her light down the clouded tunnel and seeing it didn't reach the end. "How do you think they managed to built all of this without us knowing?"

"They've got Garth Miner on their side." Darkwing replied. "With his ability to control the Earth, building these tunnels was probably a snap." he looked around, trying to decide a direction to go in. "Let's go this way." he finally said, pointing.

And with that, they traveled deeper into the hideout, wondering what they would find...

* * *

Elsewhere in St. Canard, a TV was on, and showing a news report about the explosion. Negaduck glanced at the muted TV for a moment before turning his attention back to The Liquidator and NegaGosalyn.

"You see that?" he said, pointing at the TV. "Things like that don't just happen. Someone caused that to happen, and I want to know who and why."

"Any ideas?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"One." Negaduck said. "Ol' grape vine's has been saying that SHUSH is on the lookout for a new gang of supervillains. Judging from what little I've heard about these guys, not only do they have the power to cause something like this, but also be competition for the Fearsome Five. I want you two to find if they're behind it, and all you can about them. See if they really will intrude on my turf."

"Why us, boss?" Liki asked.

"Bushroot's still working on that project of his, Megavolt's helping him, and Quackerjack has gone frolicking again." Negaduck explained. "With Rowe still in jail, the knob, you two are the only guys I can spare. Now, are there any more annoying questions you two have?"

"No." Liki and NegaGosalyn replied together.

"Good." Negaduck said. "Gos, you're leading this one. Now get out of here."

* * *

Darkwing and the others were still in the same tunnel, looking for it's end, and not finding it. Once they had cleared the area of the explosion, they found that the tunnels were more intact, but did not reveal very much about what The Elements had been up to.

"Still going down the one tunnel, J. Gander." Darkwing reported into his radio. "Still no end in sight. Clearly, The Elements have been really busy."

Crimson felt a drop of water hit her head, and looked up at it's source. "Water?" she muttered. "There appears to be a leak in the roof."

Techno watched the water dropping for a moment. "That's water from Audubon Bay!" he realized.

Darkwing spoke into his radio again. "J. Gander, we're under the bay now." he said.

"The bay?" Hooter replied from his end. "You've gone that far?"

"Yeah, this tunnel goes pretty far." Darkwing admitted.

"I think it covers a much larger area than we first thought." Techno reasoned.

"Like how big, Tech?" Crimson asked.

"Possibly as big as St. Canard itself." Techno replied.

Darkwing relayed all of this to Hooter.

"Keep at it, Darkwing." Hooter said. "I want to know why The Elements would want such a large facility at their disposal. Hooter out."

"Oh, so it's a facility now, and not a hideout." Crimson muttered as they pressed forward. "Still, Hooter's got a point. Why would The Elements want such a large place? And what were they up to, and why did they abandon it?"

"I'm not sure." Techno said, scanning the area with his visor again. "But the tunnel appears to widen into a room up ahead. Maybe there will be some answers up there."

They continued on, and quickly found the room in question. Finding a light switch, Darkwing flipped on the lights, and whistled in awe at all the equipment the rounded room contained.

"They were certainly up to something big." he remarked, heading towards a nearby table.

Crimson found a sign hanging near the entrance. "'Elementary Underground.'" she read. "Must be their name for this place."

"Oh yeah, they were up to something big." Techno suddenly announced, who was at another table. "Come check these out."

Crimson stepped over, and saw that the table was littered with pictures, all of them showing SHUSH Headquarters or something pertaining to SHUSH.

"Yes, they were doing something big." Crimson agreed, sorting through the pictures. "But why the interest in SHUSH? What do they plan that involves them?"

"It's not just SHUSH." Darkwing suddenly announced, drawing Crimson and Techno towards the other table in the room. "And these prove it."

There were more pictures on the table, but they didn't relate to SHUSH. Instead, they were all taken at Avian Way, focusing particularly on the Mallard house and the neighboring Muddlefoot house. There was at least one picture of them all out of costume in the piles.

"This can't be good." Techno remarked, pulling out a picture of himself and Crimson, both out of costume, chatting as they walked to school.

"Do you think they know our secret identities?" Crimson asked, worried.

"They were at least on the right track." Darkwing said, but shook his head. "This still doesn't explain the explosion, however. If they've been doing this operation in secret for so long now, why blow their cover with an explosion that couldn't have possibly destroyed the evidence?"

Techno sat himself at a nearby computer, and brought it out of screen saver. His eyes widened at what he saw. "Darkwing, sir?" he called. "You'd better take a look at this!"

Darkwing and Crimson stepped over to the computer to study what was displayed on the screen.

"I should've known that they lied to me." Darkwing muttered.

Displayed quite proudly on the screen was the FOUL logo.

* * *

All appeared to be quiet at SHUSH Headquarters. Which was exactly what Jack O'Hara had been hoping for.

Lowering his binoculars, the fox picked up a radio and brought it up to his lips. "Everything is going according to plan." he said. "SHUSH isn't even on minimal alert."

"Very good." the voice of Steelbeak came back. "That means they'll be totally unprepared for a full frontal attack from FOUL, heh-heh-heh! Oh, and kudos for you and yer team for making it a reality, Jack."

"We did loose a very important hideout for this, though." Jack pointed out.

"It served it's purpose." Steelbeak said dismissively. "Besides, it worked, didn't it? That explosion ya set up has got SHUSH and all the rest of St. Canard lookin' elsewhere. While ol' Hooty's undoubtably checkin' out yer hideout, we'll be takin' SHUSH HQ. By the time he gets word of what's happened, it'll be too late, and SHUSH'll be ours!"

"I'll admit, it is a pretty good plan, even if it did come with a price." Jack admitted.

"Of course it's a good plan!" Steelbeak said snidely. "Now get to work, and take SHUSH HQ!"

"Got it, Jack out." the fox said, then turned to the other three members of his team, awaiting orders as they all stood on the roof of a nearby building.

"You heard the rooster, move out!" Jack said. "Remember, focus your attacks on SHUSH's defenses, and leave the rest for the FOUL troops that'll arrive at my signal! Now, let's go!"

The Elements split, all going to carry out their required jobs. But unbeknownst to them, they were being watched themselves from yet another building.

NegaGosalyn lowered her own pair of binoculars and turned to face her cohort. "Prepared for a scuffle, Liki?" she asked.

"Statisticians indicate the odds of that to be very high." Liki said with a grin, flexing his fingers.

* * *

By this point, Darkwing and the others had already figured out what The Elements were going to do themselves.

"Darkwing to Hooter, come in please." Darkwing said into his radio. "Hooter, come in please." Only static replied.

"I believe that the room has some kind of shielding in place to block out transmissions." Techno reasoned. "Probably why it was never found until now."

"Well, we can't go all the way back to warn them ourselves, that would take too long." Crimson said. "It took us over an hour just to get to here!"

"Crimson's right, Tech." Darkwing agreed. "We're stuck."

"Not so, Mr. Darkwing." Techno corrected them. "There's more than one way out of this facility. There's another tunnel that leads straight to SHUSH HQ, and it'll take less time to get there than to head back to Avian Way."

"Then I guess stopping The Elements will be up to us." Darkwing said, drawing his gas gun. "Let's go. And hurry. The attack could've started by now."

* * *

Darkwing proved to be right. Elizabeth Guire started the first move by destroying SHUSH's sensory equipment located on it's roof, and destroyed the backup power generator with some well placed and powerful gusts of wind. Garth Miner took out power to the building with a small earthquack that shook the SHUSH building to it's foundations too. And Sally McHare cut off the flow of water.

Left with the basic equipment the building contained, Jack was then free to turn into a living ball fire, and plow into the building through the entrance, to disable as many of the guards and agents within as possible. Sally was out front, and watched him enter. She prepared herself to hold the building, and turned in time for a large jet of water to rush towards her.

Caught off guard, Sally quickly used her powers to stop the flow of water from hitting her. Spraying out for a moment, like the jet of water had hit an invisible wall, it eventually stopped and formed into The Liquidator.

"Presenting The Liquidator!" Liki exclaimed in his usual salesman manner. "No competitor can compete with this living liquid!"

"Well, I'm jolly well gonna change that!" Sally exclaimed, and used her power to break a water main that sat under the road she stood upon, and unleashed the water at Liki.

Using his own aquakinesis, Liki shielded himself from the water by making it swirled around him, decelerate, and surge into him, making him larger and stronger. It wasn't long before ally realized she had just added fuel to the fire.

"Oh corks." the hare muttered.

The enlarged Liki then came crashing down at Sally in the form of a wave. Sally used her powers to quickly shield herself, but the wave pushed hard, and it's amounts were great.

"Face it." Liki said, his face appearing in the wave. "You can't compete with The Liquidator."

Sally was silent for a moment. "Y'know wot?" she asked. "Yore right!"

She suddenly released her hold on the water she was holding back, and allowed it to crash towards her, engulfing her in water. For a moment, it looked like she had been washed away in the resulting flood, but then a spout of water suddenly shot out of the body of water. Sally was riding on top of it.

"Fortunately, I jolly well don't 'ave to." she added, then turned to hail her closest teammate. "Oi! Elizabeth! "How 'bout givin' me a bloomin' hand 'ere?"

Elizabeth, who had been monitoring the mission from the roof, ran forward and used her own powers to get herself airborne. As she sailed over Sally, she grabbed a hold of the hare, and pulled her along with.

Elizabeth looked back down at the flood of water below, and frowned. "Annoying person, that Liqudiator." she remarked.

"Oh, I dunno, I thought he was rather charmin'." Sally said.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jack was making good progress within SHUSH HQ. Still airborne and fully aflame, there was little anyone could do as he rocketed around and was rapidly seizing control of the facility. No one seemed to stop and think that all it took to stop Jack was a fire extinguisher.

That is, except one.

Rounding a corner, Jack was suddenly stopped when a spray from a fire extinguisher caught him full on. When it cleared, NegaGosalyn was standing there, tossing aside the extinguisher and rasing her P90.

"Heh, Negaduck should be relieved." she remarked. "You guys are pushovers. The turf belonging to the Fearsome Five is safe."

Jack stood, and gave her a sly look. "That's what you think." he said.

He lit himself on fire again, but also lit the surrounding air around him on fire as well, using his pyrokinesis. The result was a small explosion that knocked NegaGosalyn back, and blasted Jack through the roof, and free to escape. NegaGosalyn was quick to get back on her feet, but as she did so, the number of guards and agents that had been chasing Jack all over the building finally caught up.

Seeing NegaGosalyn instead of Jack in the building, they quickly switched targets, pointing their weapons at her.

NegaGosalyn merely grinned. "Bye." she said, pulling an object from her pocket and throwing it at the floor.

She vanished behind the resulting cloud of crimson smoke. The combined agents and guards opened fire at the cloud, but hit nothing. NegaGosalyn had escaped herself.

* * *

Garth Miner was started to suspect that something had gone wrong when a manhole cover nearby suddenly slid open, and Darkwing climbed out. Seeing Garth, Darkwing started firing off smoke cartridges at him. Crimson, who followed, did likewise. Garth became disoriented for a moment, then finally pulled himself together enough to unleash an earthquake that ended up collapsing the tunnel Darkwing and the others had just exited. As it collapsed, Crimson had to grab and pull Techno to safety, who was last to exit the tunnel.

As they were distracted, Garth ran for it for a few feet, then caused another earthquake that caused sections of the ground to rise up and form a makeshift staircase. Garth climbed up it until he reached the roof of a nearby building and vanished from sight.

"Dang it." Darkwing muttered, who was about to line up a shot with Garth. "There goes him."

A low hum started to ring out.

"What's that?" Crimson asked.

They looked upward, and saw a large fleet of zeppelins appeared over St. Canard, each of them having the FOUL logo imprinted on it's side.

"It's Steelbeak's main attack force!" Techno realized. "We have to stop them!"

Both Crimson and Darkwing raised their gas guns.

"Ready..." Darkwing began. "Aim..."

* * *

"We're approaching SHUSH HQ, sir." Edward reported to Steelbeak as the zeppelins gathered over their target.

"Good." Steelbeak replied. "Now just wait for my command, and we'll make SHUSH a thing of the..."

The zeppelin suddenly started to rock. Large clouds of smoke obscured the view out the zeppelin's windows.

"Someone's shooting at us!" an Eggman reported. "We're not taking damage, but we're losing visibility!"

"Call in some backup!" Steelbeak ordered.

"Sir, I already tried!" Edward said, tapping an earpiece in his ear. "But our radios are suddenly jammed."

"What?" Steelbeak asked, whipping around to look at his 2IC.

* * *

"There, that'll take care of their radios." Techno reported after tinkering with his visor for a moment. "The jamming signal I'm sending out will stop all communication in that fleet."

"Wish we had something other to shoot at them besides smoke." Darkwing muttered as he and Crimson continued their barrage of gas canisters at the zeppelins. "And it's not like we've got an endless supply either."

"Not only that, but Steelbeak might just take a best guess as to where SHUSH is and unleash all the weapons his zeppelin's got at that spot." Crimson added. "We need a better way to take care of these guys."

Then, like a prayer being answered, gunshots started to ring out. The agents within SHUSH HQ saw the threat and turned their attacks up to the zeppelins. It wasn't long before the craft was taking damage. A few tense moments later, Steelbeak must have realized his plans had failed, and the fleet started to retreat.

It was only then that Darkwing and the gang let out their breath in a loud whoosh.

"Whew, that takes care of that." Crimson remarked, putting away her gas gun.

"But that was yet another close call." Techno admitted. "Very nearly The Elements _and _FOUL got the better of us."

"I don't get it though." Darkwing said. "All we've seen of that group is Garth, who, as we know, got away."

"Right." Crimson said. "I presume the others got scared off already."

"Then who scared them off?" Techno asked rhetorically

* * *

"So, they're involved with FOUL, eh?" Negaduck asked later, when NegaGosalyn and Liki had returned to make their report.

"Yes." Liki bubbled.

"I think we would've had them if we had more fighting them." NegaGosalyn added.

Negaduck got a wicked grin on face. "Then next time, we'll be ready."


	25. Transmutation

Summary: A fight at Bushroot's greenhouse has caused an special gene-swapping machine Bushroot has built to activate. And guess who it affects...

Rating: K

Author's Note: Another chpt eariler than normal. Partly because it was a slow weekend, and I want to hurry and get to chpt. 27, cause it'll be a fun one. ;)

25.

Transmutation

In a greenhouse located on the outskirts of St. Canard, was Dr. Reginald Bushroot. He currently stood near a fairly large device, holding a clipboard, and going through a checklist. Sitting on a table nearby was Megavolt.

"You ready to test the stupid thing, yet?" he asked, sounding bored.

"Not yet." Bushroot said. "I want to make sure everything is in order first. I've worked to hard to have it all crashing through the floor simply because I've overlooked something."

"You're too thorough, Bushy." Megavolt said.

"Maybe so, but that's just how I am." Bushroot said, checking off something on his clipboard. "Now hush."

Megavolt sat idly for a moment, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. "Ready yet?" he asked again.

"No."

"How about now?"

"No!"

"What about now?"

"Megs! I'll _tell _you when I'm ready!"

"What am I supposed to do in the meantime?"

"Be quiet."

"You're no fun."

"Now you sound like Quackerjack."

Megavolt did indeed fall quiet for a few moments. "Why did you need me anyway?" he finally asked. "You're not letting me do anything."

"I needed your input on various electronic stuff, and to get me various tools." Bushroot replied.

"Right, I'm your slave."

"If Rowe wasn't in jail at the moment, I would've had him do the getting various tools part, and not you, Megs." Bushroot assured him. "He wouldn't have complained so much. Besides, he actually enjoys helping so closely to the work I do."

"Oh yes, you two are friends." Megavolt mumbled, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I don't know about that." Bushroot said. "We're...coworkers. Just like you and me."

"Speaking of the Fearsome Five, how does this device fit into it?" Megavolt asked, pointing at the device.

"It doesn't." Bushroot said. "This is a personal project."

"Does the boss know about that?"

"Kind of. He knows I've been working on it in my free time, at least." Bushroot paused and checked off another item on his checklist. "Besides, I don't know what use Negaduck would have for a gene-swapping device anyway."

"I still don't see how you need such a device for that matter." Megavolt remarked.

"It'll help in my work in creating the perfect plant." Bushroot explained. "See, it'll allow me take genes from one plant and swap them out in another plant for another set of genes. If I swap the right genes into the right plants, it'll be easy to create the perfect plant."

"You and your plants." Megavolt grumbled.

"It's not ready for that yet, though." Bushroot said. "I still have many tests I want to run first."

"You know, you're the only supervillain I know that works on stuff like this, yet doesn't use it to terrorize the world." Megavolt remarked.

"That's because I'm not a supervillain." Bushroot said. "I'm just...misunderstood."

"That's what you always say, but you have yet to prove it."

"This is one of those cases that isn't so simple to prove, Megavolt."

"Then it's not true."

"Sure it is. Trust me, Megs, if you could walk around in my shoes, you'd know what I'm talking about."

"You don't wear shoes, Bushroot."

"You know what I mean."

Another moment of silence fell.

"Aha!" Bushroot exclaimed suddenly. "It turns out you were wrong, Megavolt, and it was a good thing I did a checklist! There's a wire here that's not properly connected! If I had tried to run the device like this..."

"It would've blown up?" Megavolt asked, worried.

"No, it would've worked anyway." Bushroot admitted. "_But_...not nearly as well."

"Sure."

Bushroot fiddled with the wire for a moment. "There, that should fix it." he said, making the appropriate check on his checklist. "And that's it."

"You're ready?" Megavolt asked hopefully.

"I'm ready." Bushroot confirmed, moving towards him.

"All right!"

Megavolt jumped up onto his feet. "Where do you need me to plug in?" he asked.

"Here." Bushroot said, pulling out a set of jumper cables. "Just a little power should be all I need. And remember..."

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!"

Bushroot froze, and slapped his face. "Hold that thought." he said, and turned to face the blue cloud of smoke that had formed behind him.

"I am the network that cancels your favorite TV show! I am...Darkwing Duck!"

Darkwing appeared out of the smoke and stood before the two supervillains.

"Darkwing!" Bushroot exclaimed. "This doesn't concern you!"

Darkwing took one look at the large device in the middle of the room, and shook his head. "Any known criminal working on a big, unknown, device concerns me." he said.

"No it doesn't!" Bushroot persisted. "You don't even know what it is!"

"Knowing you, Bushroot, it's nothing but trouble." Darkwing persisted.

"You know, he's got a point, Bushy." Megavolt said.

"Shush!" Bushroot exclaimed, then turned back to Darkwing. "Look, I'll prove it to you!"

He turned and started to run for the device.

"Crimson!" Darkwing exclaimed.

A red cloud of smoke appeared in front of the device, cutting off Bushroot's path. Bushroot attempted to slide to a stop before it, but was failing.

"I am the heir to the cape!" Crimson exclaimed dramatically as she emerged from the smoke, not immediately aware Bushroot was sliding out of control towards her. "I am _about to be run over by a mutant plant-duck!_"

Crimson tried to avoid Bushroot as he slid towards her, but they collided anyway, and both ended up draped over Bushroot's device. It rattled for a moment, then sparked violently, causing Megavolt and Darkwing to both back up. Then it fell silent. Crimson looked up at Bushroot lying on top of her for a moment.

"So Bushy," she began, "know any good restaurants?"

Then the machine under them suddenly popped as something in it's structure broke, and it's top titled to one side. Both Crimson and Bushroot slid off it and onto the floor. Crimson rolled so that it was now her that was on top of Bushroot. She pulled out her gas gun and pointed it at Bushroot's head.

Darkwing took his and pointed it at Megavolt. "All right, you two." he said. "Let's go to jail quietly for once."

"How about we just not go to jail at all?" Megavolt asked, and shot a bolt of energy at Darkwing, who was forced to leap to one side in order to avoid it. Megavolt then made a run for it.

Bushroot pushed Crimson off of him, looked sadly at the broken device for a moment, then exclaimed, "grab 'em boys!" He then turned to flee as well.

Crimson started to run after him, but then a vine lashed out and grabbed her around the middle, dragging her back. The same had happened to Darkwing, and both were ensnared by the vines long enough for Bushroot and Megavolt to escape.

"All right." Darkwing said matter-of-factly. "Plan B, then. Ready? On three. One...two..."

Together, both Darkwing and Crimson activated their buzzsaw cufflinks and used them to free themselves from the vines, and drop softly to the floor.

"Well, I guess that could've gone better." Crimson remarked.

"Oh well, it wasn't too big of a deal." Darkwing said, walking over to Bushroot's broken device and giving it a boot. "What do you think this thing was, anyway?"

"I dunno." Crimson said with a shrug. "But whatever the case, I don't think we need to worry about it anymore."

* * *

As he couldn't be sure when it would be safe to return to the greenhouse, Bushroot spent the rest of the night at the hideout for the Fearsome Five. As Negaduck was currently away attending to matters in the Negaverse, NegaCrimson was in charge over the group for the moment, and didn't mind Bushroot staying here.

He slept well, all things considered. So much so that when morning came around the following day, he found that it was hard to get up again. Moaning from a slight headache, he clambered out of the large pot he had used as a bed, and stretched, brushing the dirt off of him.

Liki passed by, who doubled back when he saw Bushroot out of the corner of his eye.

"Bushroot!" he bubbled. "You aren't normally here at this hour."

"I spent the night here." Bushroot explained with a shrug.

"And why would that be?" Liki asked.

"It's because of a certain purple-suited someone." Bushroot grumbled, walking forward.

"Mm, Darkwing." Liki remarked as Bushroot walked past him. "Doctors do not recommend frequent exposure to Darkwing."

"Tell me something I don't know." Bushroot said, stepping into the main room of the warehouse hideout, yawning. "What's happening today, anyway?"

"So far as I know, nothing." Liki remarked. "But of course, plans may vary."

"So in other words, stay on the alert." Bushroot stated.

"Yes."

Bushroot yawned again, while Liki watched.

"You all right, Bushroot?" Liki asked. "You don't seem to be yourself."

"Well, I do feel a bit...off." Bushroot admitted, with a shrug. "I don't know what it is, yet, however. May just be I'm not fully awake yet."

"You know, doctors _do _recommend some fresh air every now and then." Liki remarked. "It can wake you up while the competitors can't."

"I dunno, Liki." Bushroot said. "As it's in the middle of February, I don't really like to go outside all that much. Too cold for a mutant plant-duck like me." he yawned again. "But I guess at this point, it wouldn't hurt. Probably could use the sun at the moment, anyway."

Bidding Liki goodbye, Bushroot headed for the door and stepped out into the chilly morning air. To his surprise, it wasn't quite as chilly as he expected, and plants, even if they are part-duck, tend to be more sensitive to the cold than other forms of life. Sure, it was still uncomfortable, but more tolerable than usual. A little puzzled, Bushroot looked around some more outside, knowing that something wasn't right, but couldn't place it.

Then, it donned on him.

The plants. Normally, even this time of year, Bushroot's mind could make out hundreds of telepathic messages from his fellow plants in the plant kingdom. But not so today. Today, it was down to a dull whisper, hardly intelligible. Alarmed, and worried something wrong had happened within the plant kingdom, Bushroot sought out a plant, found a nearby pine tree a block or so away, and hurried towards it, getting as close as possible to it, so he could hear it.

Once this was done, he asked, aloud, as he couldn't seem to communicate to plants very well telepathically, if anything was wrong.

The tree's answer was very brief and to the point. Nothing was wrong with it, it said. It seemed, however, that the problem laid with Bushroot.

* * *

Drake Mallard stepped into the dining room and saw that he had managed to beat Gosalyn into the room. So had Launchpad, but that wasn't so surprising, as the pilot grew hungry very quickly, and was often one of the first to breakfast. As for Gosalyn, though, it was uncharacteristic of her not to be at the table already.

"Where is she?" Drake grumbled, glancing at his watch. "Gosalyn!" he called up the stairs, "Come get breakfast! You're going to be late for school if you don't get in here soon!"

There was a brief pause, then Gosalyn's bedroom door opened, and she made her way downstairs, rubbing at her eyes, yawning.

"Coming dad." she said, sounding tired. "Sorry, but I guess patrol last night hit me harder than usual. I'm dead tired this morning."

"Mm." Drake said, as he watched her walk past. "Well, go get breakfast. Maybe you just need some food to fuel you up."

"Yeah." Gosalyn said. "Maybe."

She sat down at the table, and poured out a bowl of cereal. Drake joined her and Launchpad, getting his own breakfast.

"So," he said, biting into a slice of toast. "What does everybody have planned for today?"

"Just school." Gosalyn muttered.

"LP?" Drake asked.

"Nothing much, DW." Launchpad replied, flipping through the morning paper. "Although, there will be a televised air show that'll be showing later today. Might want to watch that."

"To see how other pilots in the world flies?" Drake asked.

"To see if any of them crash like I do." Launchpad replied.

"Don't hold your breath." Drake muttered, then continued. "Well, I, for one, have a busy day as Darkwing Duck. I've got a meeting today with J. Gander at SHUSH, to discuss the events of the past year. Annual report kind of thing, you see. Then, J. Gander promised me a tour of one of their new labs out past Duckburg. He says it should be really interesting. Lots of new gizmos they've got over there, he says."

By this point, Drake had expected Gosalyn to start whining and complaining about not getting to go, but was surprised to realize that Gosalyn hadn't said a word. Turning to glance at her, he was surprised to see she was hardly eating her breakfast, either.

"Gos?" he said, a little worried. "You feeling all right?"

"Huh?" Gosalyn said, snapping out of the dazed look she wore on her face.

"You've hardly touched your breakfast." Drake said, pointing at her bowl of cereal.

"Oh that." Gosalyn said, rubbing at her eyes. "I think I'm just not that hungry."

Getting more worried, Drake stood up and felt Gosalyn's forehead. "Maybe you're coming down with something." he said, but he couldn't detect a fever of any sort.

Gosalyn pushed her father's hand away. "I'm fine dad." she persisted. "I just think I didn't get enough sleep last night is all, and it's doing funny things to me." she checked her watch, standing up. "Whatever the case, it's time for me to go to school." she picked up her backpack, and waved to Drake and Launchpad. "Bye."

She then left. Drake stood there, thinking for a moment.

"Hmm, I really hope she is okay." Drake said.

"Oh, don't worry about it, DW." Launchpad said, turning the page in his paper. "If it really was something important, she would've told you."

"I hope you're right, LP." Drake said, sitting back down to finish his breakfast.

* * *

Bushroot went back to his greenhouse to try and figure out what had happened to cause his ability to telepathically talk to plants to become so hindered. Several tests later, and he was no closer coming to the truth.

It worried him immensely. What if he had some kind of sickness? Worse still, what if it spread to the rest of the plant kingdom? What if this disease killed all the plants in the world? If that happened, it would be the end of the world; animal life couldn't exist without the plant life. They were too closely tied together.

He ran several more tests, using his own blood, leaves, and other samples, to study. As the day wore on, he was still no closer to getting an answer.

Sighing in frustration as he worked, he ran a hand through his pedal-like hair. He had been pretty proud about it lately, as it was currently in full bloom, and looked very impressive, from a plant's perspective, anyway. But he was very alarmed to find that pedals from his hair come away in his hands.

He was starting to go bald!

Even more alarmed now, Bushroot sought out a mirror, and examined his hair. Sure enough, the pink pedals were starting to wither and die, falling out in the process. His leaves were starting to do the same, and his green pallor had started to go pale.

What in the world was wrong with him?

* * *

At lunchtime, Gosalyn only picked at her food, and didn't really eat it. And it was hamburgers, too, and Gosalyn loved the cafeteria's hamburgers.

"Gos, are you sure you're feeling all right?" Honker asked, worried.

"Yeah." Gosalyn said wearily, picking at her hamburger before finally picking it up to take a bite. She chewed at it sluggishly. "I'm just tired. I think patrol last night really took it out of me."

"Well, sorry I couldn't come along last night." Honker apologized. "Parents absolutely insisted we had to go visit Tank last night."

"Speaking of Tank, how is he?" Gosalyn asked.

"For someone who dropped out of high school and never went to college, remarkably well." Honker admitted. "He's got a fair apartment in Duckburg, and his own rock band. They're doing on tour next month, go up and down the coastline of Calisota. Still a bully, though."

"Hmm." Gosalyn said, swallowing. "How do you think you did on that economics test?"

"That test?" Honker asked. "Remarkably well. Half of those questions I guessed on, thinking for sure I'd miss them. Turns out, however, that when I got the test back, I got an A- on it, which is pretty good, all things considered."

Gosalyn moaned, and hung her head. Honker again watched her with worry.

"Gos, are you sure you're all right?" he asked.

"Yes." Gosalyn asked, then suddenly turned a little green. "No." she admitted, and suddenly got up and raced off to the nearby girl's bathroom.

"Gos?" Honker asked, alarmed, and followed her to the door.

Even with a closed door dividing them, Honker could still make out the retching sounds of Gosalyn throwing up. After a moment or two, it faded, and Gosalyn returned, looking to be sweaty and greener than ever.

"Gos, I think you should go home, sick." Honker suggested.

Gosalyn nodded. "I think you're right, Honk." she agreed.

* * *

With each passing hour, Bushroot grew more and more worried. His pedal like hair was all but gone, his leaves all shriveled and dead, and his skin starting to loose it's green color. Photosynthesis had also stopped working for him, too, and he was getting to be very hungry. His root like feet had also stopped absorbing water. If this kept up, he'd die in a day or less.

Having long given up on his tests as he just wasn't finding answers there, he started to pace the length of the greenhouse. Occasionally, he stop and glance in the mirror, just to see how much worse his condition had gotten. He wanted to talk to someone about it, but he had long since lost his ability to communicate with plants. And if he went to the Fearsome Five, well, he might be proclaimed unfit to be a part of the gang and kicked out. And he didn't want that.

Well, yes he did. Being a part of the Fearsome Five wasn't exactly the best line of employment one could pursue, but Bushroot he couldn't really do anything else, so he was just going to live with it.

Which, unless something change very soon, wouldn't be for much longer.

Still pacing he stopped to glance in the mirror again, then suddenly stopped, and did a double take. Something poked out from the back of his head. Reaching back to feel it with his hand, he was surprised to see it was a feather.

Then it donned on him. Again.

This wasn't some kind of illness. He was just turning human again.

* * *

"How ill is 'ill', LP?" Darkwing asked over the phone.

Launchpad thought for a moment, scratching his head. "Well, she said she had an upset stomach, but that she was doing better now." he said. "No fever to speak of, though. She looks green around the gills, still, though."

"Okay." Darkwing said. "It probably was a good idea to have her come home from school early, then. Listen, keep an eye on her for me, would you? I'm going to be at this SHUSH meeting for awhile still."

"No prob, DW." Launchpad said, leaning against the wall as he looked to watch Gosalyn calmly sitting in the couch and watching _Jumpgate: The Box of Verity_. "We're not going anywhere."

"Well, make sure it stays that way." Darkwing said. "I don't want her going anywhere, especially if this is contagious. I fear she may have caught that flu bug you had last month." Darkwing suddenly said something to someone on his end. "Look, I gotta go. Keep me posted, and you've got Christine's number in case Gos gets worse, right?"

"Right DW." Launchpad assured him. "Don't worry about a thing. I've got things covered here."

"Thanks, LP." Darkwing said. "See you guys soon."

Launchpad hung up the phone, then walked into the living room. "Anything I can get you, Gos?" he asked.

"No thanks, LP." Gosalyn said. "Really, I am feeling a bit better now. I think whatever it was, the worse is over now."

"Well good." Launchpad said. "But if you need me, I'll be in the other room, so just shout."

"Gotcha." Gosalyn said.

Launchpad then left, leaving Gosalyn in peace. She silently watched the movie for a little while longer, then paused, a puzzled look coming onto her face. She looked around for a moment, then picked up the remote and stopped the movie, plunging the room into mild silence. Gosalyn listened for a moment.

Whispering. She could hear whispering. But from where?

Puzzled, Gosalyn stood up and started following it to it's source, finding herself at the bottom of the stairs. Looking up them, she realized it was coming from upstairs. Curious, she went on, the whispering getting louder as she drew closer. Finally, she stood outside the door of her own bedroom, having tracked the voice down to where it originated inside. Going into a defensive mode in cause it was trouble, Gosalyn swung the door open.

And found that no one was in her bedroom, save herself.

Really puzzled now, Gosalyn looked around for any sign of whispering, but now realized she couldn't even hear that anymore. Ultimately, she shrugged, guessing it was some side-effect of whatever illness she had. She gave her room one last look over, then saw a flower she had potted on her windowsill.

Stepping over, she gently fingered the leaves of the flower, a daffodil. It was her favorite flower, and every now and then would get one to grow. Unfortunately, this flower hadn't been growing too well. By all accounts, it was healthy, and was getting plenty of nourishment and sunlight. It just wasn't growing like it should. It was like a daffodil runt.

Gosalyn continued to gently rub one of it's leaves. "I really wish you'd grow." she muttered out loud.

Then, right before her very eyes, the plant started to grow at a very fast rate, quickly becoming full grown, and even going into full bloom. Shocked, Gosalyn released the plant and took several steps back.

How did that happen? Plants don't grow like that all by themselves, and never that fast. The only way she knew of that happening was when Bushroot did it with his powers, and she was pretty sure he wasn't...

Suddenly Gosalyn got a very, very strange idea. Strange...

But it would explain a great deal.

* * *

"Gosalyn, this is highly irregular." Christine said as she went about treating her current patient, Gosalyn trailing along in her wake. "You shouldn't even be in here without my okay."

"Which I clearly already have, otherwise you'd have sent me out by now." Gosalyn pointed out.

"True." Christine admitted, turning her attention to the six-year-old duck by placing a band-aide over the cut the youth had received. "There." Christine said, smoothing out the wrinkles on the band-aide. "That will keep that cut safe, Charlie. Now, how about you try and stay out of trouble? This is the third time this month you've had to come in here for some kind of injury. Let's not make it four, okay?"

"Okay Dr. Merriweather." the youth, Charlie, said hopping down from the examination table. "Thank you Dr. Merriweather."

Christine grinned. "Cute kid." she remarked, mostly to herself. "Orphan at the orphanage, but has great hopes of getting adopted and having a family someday."

"Yes, that's a very good thing for an orphan to have." Gosalyn agreed, remembering her days as an orphan.

"Now, what's this about, Gos?" Christine asked, closing the door. "I'm presuming it's Darkwing related?"

"It might." Gosalyn said, sitting down on the examination table herself. "I don't really know yet. But I need you to draw some of my blood, and check it out for anything...odd."

"Okay, define odd." Christine said, gathering the necessary materials. "And does Drake know you're here?"

"Well, dad doesn't, but Launchpad does, it was him that brought me up here." Gosalyn said. "He doesn't know why, though. I wanted to be sure before I told him."

"Okay, but define odd." Christine repeated, preparing a needle and vile.

"Well..." Gosalyn began, trailing off for a moment as she rolled up her sleeve. "Anything that could be related to a plant."

Christine looked up sharply. "A plant?" she repeated.

"I know, it seems odd, but please, just do it." Gosalyn pleaded. "If I'm right, then there's a very good explanation for it."

"All right." Christine said, rubbing alcohol over a vein on Gosalyn's arm. "I suppose if your mind could get transferred into Drake's body for nearly a day, this isn't nearly as odd." she put the needle into position. "Ready?"

Gosalyn nodded.

Christine slipped the needle into Gosalyn's vein, and watched as the blood started to flow into the attached vile. Only the blood wasn't red. It was green.

Christine looked up at Gosalyn, and the two looked at one another for a moment.

"I think a blood test isn't necessary anymore, Gos." Christine announced.

* * *

The first thing Bushroot did when he realized he was turning human again was go to the nearest all-you-can-eat buffet and gorge himself on all the food he could get his hands on. As a mutant plant-duck, photosynthesis had taken care of nourishment, and he no longer needed to eat typical food anymore. He had missed it greatly, but eating it when he was a plant usually made him very ill. His body wasn't designed to process food like that anymore.

So this was an extra special treat for him, and he treated it like a feast. Once that was done, he returned to the greenhouse, mostly to think things through. Night was starting to fall by this point, and the transmutation back into his old, duck, self was now complete. He even had his same old balding hair of the past. Everything about his old plant form he had spent the past nine to ten years as was now gone.

For the first hour or so, Bushroot was ecstatic. He had forgotten how many nice things he had when he was a normal living being. Even more, he had been able to walk down a street, and not have anybody stare at him. Everyone merely ignored him, which he found much more appeasing.

For the first time in years, he could live a normal life.

But on the other hand, he missed being a mutant plant-duck. It had it's niceties itself. That, and he actually had friends as a mutant plant-duck in the plant kingdom. Now that he was normal again, he couldn't communicate with them anymore. And, his career in the Fearsome Five was now officially over; Negaduck wasn't going to have any interest in him now. And, mutant plant-duck or not, he had too much of a criminal record now to easy get a replacement line of employment.

So, now what?

Did he want to stay normal, so he could live the normal life he realized he had missed so much?

Or did he want to be the mutant plant-duck no one seemed to like anymore and only have plants for his friends?

But then there was a third question too. How and why did this happen in the first place? And why now?

Bushroot thought about it for a little while, then realized there was only one answer. Turning around, he looked at his broken gene-swapping machine that had been broken the previous night. That had to be it. In the fight, it activated, and swapped out his plant genes for a set of human genes. And now the genes had made him normal again.

But then, where did the human genes come from?

Bushroot saw there was only one answer to that as well, and it alarmed him.

Crimson. He had traded his plant genes for the Crimson Avenger's human genes!

* * *

As Darkwing drove the Ratcatcher back into the tower, he sighed.

"Finally!" he exclaimed, climbing off the motorbike. "Home!"

Weary, he pulled off his hat and hung it on a hook. "Now all I look forward to is to heading home, getting some hot chocolate, put on a DVD to watch, and..."

"DW?" Launchpad's voice rang out, appearing suddenly near the supercomputer. "DW!"

"LP?" Darkwing said, turning to face his sidekick. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Gosalyn!" Launchpad explained, heading towards him. "A...er...a problem's kinda come up."

"A problem?" Darkwing repeated. "Oh no, has Gosalyn's illness gotten worse?"

"Oh no, DW, she's fine." Launchpad said. "Technically, at least."

"Technically?" Darkwing said. "LP, start from the beginning."

"Actually DW, maybe it's just better if you see for yourself." Launchpad said, then turned to look back at the super computer. "C'mon on out, Gos!"

Something poked it's head out from behind a row of computers. Darkwing looked at it and felt his beak hit the floor. For a spilt second, he thought that he was looking at Bushroot, but then realized that this mutant plant-duck was too short, and too much of a feminine appearance.

It was Gosalyn.

"Heh." Gosalyn chuckled weakly. "Hi Dad."

* * *

In Bushroot's greenhouse, a lonely cloud of blue smoke appeared in the room.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing exclaimed, stomping out of the cloud, enraged. "I am the...the...superhero who's too angry to come up with a witty metaphor at the moment! I am, DARKWING DUCK!"

"Oh, c'mon dad, take a chill pill." Gosalyn said as she and Launchpad stepped out of the cloud. "I really don't think Bushroot meant for this to happen."

"I don't care!" Darkwing exclaimed, rushing around the greenhouse, searching for clues. "He's turned my favorite daughter into a _plant_!"

"Mutant plant-duck, actually." Gosalyn corrected calmly, putting her leaf-like hands behind her back.

"Whatever!" Darkwing ranted on. "I just know that he will pay..."

Launchpad, however, was looking around and saw no one was present. "He's not here." he announced with a shrug.

"Yes, thank you, we've already established that!" Darkwing exclaimed, still searching for clues. "Why do you think I'm trying to figure out where he went?"

Gosalyn was looking around herself. "Well, that device of his is gone." she noted, regarding the empty spot the device had once sat in.

"Aha!" Darkwing exclaimed, coming over to investigate. "He's trying to destroy the evidence!"

"Actually, maybe he just figured out what happened, and is trying to set things right again." Gosalyn proposed calmly.

"Ha! Like that would ever happen!" Darkwing exclaimed, pulling out a magnifying glass and swooping down low to examine the floor. "No, he's trying to destroy the evidence. Besides, what proof do you have that he's trying to do otherwise, anyway?"

"Well, that's what the plants say." Gosalyn offered, pointing at the row of plants behind her.

Both Darkwing and Launchpad stared at her for a moment. Gosalyn just shrugged.

"What?" she asked, pushing her pedal-like hair out of her face. "Bushroot could talk to plants, so it stands to reason I can now, too."

"True." Darkwing admitted. "You just seem so...calm...about it."

"Well, I've been hearing them for a few hours now, so I've kinda gotten used to it." Gosalyn said with another shrug. "Speaking of which, Dad, our front lawn would like you to shovel the snow off of it so it can get some sun, and the daffodil I have in my bedroom would like it if we all stop eating salad."

Darkwing just stared at her.

"What else do the plants say, Gos?" Launchpad asked.

"Well, lots of things." Gosalyn admitted. "It's kinda hard to sort it all out at times. They've mentioned that something happened to Bushroot to due to all of this, and now he just wants to fix it all. He just left with the machine to go looking for me."

Darkwing looked to be skeptical still. "And how do we know these plants aren't just lying?" he asked.

Gosalyn shrugged. "We don't, I guess." she admitted. "But when you really think about it, why would they want to?"

"I still don't trust them." Darkwing persisted.

"You don't have anything else to go off of, though." Gosalyn pointed out.

"True." Darkwing admitted, and looked to be considering the issue.

"Do the plants know where Bushroot went?" Launchpad asked, trusting as always.

Gosalyn fell silent for a moment, as she listened to the plants telepathically. "Not at the moment." she said. "But they say that they can talk to other plants nearby, and see if they've seen Bushroot. If not, those plants can talk to other nearby plants, and so forth. Sooner or later, they'll probably find a plant who's seen Bushroot recently."

"Sounds like the Internet." Launchpad noted.

"So how long do we have to wait?" Darkwing asked, impatient.

Gosalyn shrugged. "I dunno." she admitted. "I guess anywhere from minutes to hours. I've never done something like this before."

"This could take forever, then." Darkwing summarized, throwing his hands up into the air, and bending over to look for clues his way again.

"Just give this a chance, Dad." Gosalyn pleaded, then suddenly had a vacant look on her face. "Got it." she finally announced.

"Already?" Darkwing asked, looking up.

"Bushroot was just seen passing the plant store on McAllister Lane." Gosalyn said.

"Then let's go." Darkwing said, straightening and pocketing his magnifying glass.

* * *

A moment later, they were all speeding down the dark streets of St. Canard in the Ratcatcher.

"McAllister Lane!" Launchpad announced from the sidecar, reading a passing street sign. "Nearly there! Bet you're anxious to be normal again, huh Gos?"

"Actually, it's not so bad being a mutant plant-duck." Gosalyn said as they rode. "I mean, some things take some getting used to. But it's tolerable, nonetheless."

"Well, it's not going to last!" Darkwing exclaimed. "I'm going to make sure of that!"

They arrived at the plant store in question. Darkwing brought the Ratcatcher to a stop, and hopped off, drawing his gas gun.

"LP, you're with me." Darkwing said. "Let's see if ol' Bushy's still here, and if he is, I want to get a jump on him."

"Actually Dad, I think I might have a better idea..." Gosalyn said, starting to climb off the Ratcatcher herself.

"No Gos, I want you to stay here." Darkwing persisted. "I'll handle this!"

And before Gosalyn could object, he and Launchpad had vanished around the corner of the store searching for Bushroot. Frowning, Gosalyn leaned back in the sidecar, and waited with annoyance.

"Crimson?" a voice asked slowly.

Gosalyn turned at the sound of her voice, and saw a shadowy figure standing just out of range of the ratcatcher's headlights. Gosalyn instantly recognized the figure however.

"Bushroot!" Gosalyn exclaimed, and leapt out of the sidecar and tackled Bushroot, pinning him to the ground.

It was then that Gosalyn her first good look at the former scientist, and saw that Bushroot was an ordinary duck again, and not a mutant plant-duck.

"Y-you're normal!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"Yeah." Bushroot said, looking slightly upset by this.

"But how?" Gosalyn asked, letting him up. "The same way I got turned into a mutant plant-duck?"

"In a sense, yes." Bushroot said, brushing off his feathers, then reached into a nearby alley and pulled out his machine. "This is a gene-swapping machine. It swaps genes in one living being for a set in another living being. When it broke yesterday night, it swapped your human genes with my plant genes, changing us into the forms we bare now." he looked Gosalyn over. "You actually don't look that bad, Crimson."

Gosalyn blushed. "Can you undo it?" she asked, changing the subject. "Darkwing's enraged over all of this."

"I figured he might be." Bushroot admitted, prepping the machine. "That's why I waited until you were alone to reveal myself. I didn't want Darkwing to get all angry at me. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. Really."

"I didn't think you did, Bushroot." Gosalyn assured him. "Unfortunately, I can't convince Darkwing of that."

"Then let's hurry and do this." Bushroot said, switching on the machine. "I'll be in enough trouble when Negaduck finds out about this."

"Right." Gosalyn said. "So what do I need to do?"

"Grab there." Bushroot said, motioning to the opposite end of the device from where he stood, where a handle was. "I'll grab here. Then, I'll throw a switch, and, presuming I fixed this thing right, it'll swap the genes back. by this time tomorrow, we'll be back to our normal selves again."

"Just like that?" Gosalyn asked, surprised as he did as instructed.

"Just like that." Bushroot replied. "Ready?"

Gosalyn nodded. Bushroot flipped the switch, and the machine hummed for a moment, then shut down.

"That should do it." Bushroot announced.

"That was really simple." Gosalyn said, looking down at her hands. "Thanks Bushroot."

Bushroot grinned sheepishly. "Least I could do. I really felt bad for this happening." he paused. "You know, I should probably thank you too. Because all of this, I got to spend a few hours as my old normal self again, and I realized just how much I had missed it. That couldn't have happened without you."

"Well, the plants will be glad to have you back as a mutant plant-duck." Gosalyn said. "They speak very fondly of you."

Bushroot grinned sheepishly again.

"But I don't get it." Gosalyn said. "Don't they realize all the bad things you do? That you're a troublemaker?"

"I'm not a troublemaker." Bushroot said. "I'm just misunderstood."

"Yes." Gosalyn admitted, reflecting back on her time as a mutant plant-duck. "And maybe I can see that now more than ever." she grinned one more time. "Thanks Bushroot. Really."

"You're welcome." Bushroot replied, taking his machine and moving away. Very soon, he had vanished into the night.


	26. Earthquake

Summary: An earthquake has unexpectedly struck St. Canard, creating a small amount of chaos for everyone. But, Aas everyone tries to begin the preparations to recover, it is realized that the earthquake may have been no accident...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Sorry this chpt is a little later than usual. It was a really busy last week for me, trying to apply for a term of college, my mom harvesting our garden and canning it all, and me getting a laptop (which I'm posting from right now). But, hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Some fun facts are included at the end of this chpt.

26.

Earthquake

Drake Mallard entered the hospital though it's visitor's entrance, feeling confident with himself. Wearing a big grin, he worked his way across the room and to the receptionist's desk.

"How can I help you?" she asked as Drake approached.

"I'm Drake Mallard." Drake replied. "I'm here to see Christine Merriweather. She works here. Is she in?"

"She is, Mr. Mallard." the receptionist said, pulling up the necessary information on her computer. "In fact, she gets off for her lunch break in fifteen or so minutes."

"Perfect." Drake said. "Can you drop her a message, saying that I'm here?"

"Mm-hmm." the receptionist said. "Also why you're here?"

"No." Drake said. "It's a surprise."

"One moment, Mr. Mallard." the receptionist said. "If you'll please have a seat, I'll call for her straight away."

"Thank you." Drake said, and went and sat down in one of the many chairs that lined the room. Drake was reminded of the waiting room for any private practice a doctor would have. Christine didn't have such a thing, but hoped to one day. For now, however, she was content to continuing working as a doctor here at the hospital.

"Mr. Mallard, she says she's busy at the moment, but will call me back when she is available." the receptionist announced. "In the meantime, she asks that you wait here, if it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble at all." Drake said. "I can wait." he glanced down at the tickets he held in his hand. They were for the latest play that had begun showing at the Duckburg theater. Christine had been dying to go see it, but had been unable to get tickets. So Drake, as Darkwing Duck, pulled a few strings with his contacts with SHUSH to get tickets for two. Hooter was more than happy to agree, seeing that SHUSH owed Darkwing a lot as of late for all that he had done for them. Drake grinned at the thought of Christine's expression when she saw these ticket. "Oh yeah." he said to himself. "I can wait."

* * *

"Honk, are you sure you can't put that away for just a few minutes?" Gosalyn pleaded into her cell phone. "I mean, with Dad having most of his day planned and Launchpad visiting friends in Duckburg, I'm left with very little to do."

"Gos, you'll live." came Honker's reply. "Besides, I've been meaning to do this all month and haven't had a chance until now."

"Honk, we'll live if the Internet connectivity at the tower is at ninety-nine percent instead of a full one hundred." Gosalyn muttered, sitting down on the couch in the living room and switching on the TV. "You can't expect it to be perfect anyway."

"Gos, that one percent lowers our Internet speed at the hideout by a whole millionth of a second." Honker replied indignantly from where he was at Darkwing Tower.

"Is that all." Gosalyn muttered flatly, surfing through the channels.

"That one millionth of a second could be vital when we're trying to find something or connect to something on the web." Honker continued. Gosalyn could hear him typing away on a keyboard in the background.

"Yeah, or something." Gosalyn said.

"Look, I'll come and visit when I've got this done, promise." Honker said. "Seeing it's Saturday, though, I'm surprised you're so bored."

"It's a Saturday in the middle of February, Honk." Gosalyn said. "The snow is starting to melt. It's that point of time in the seasons where it's neither spring or winter. As such, I can't do anything winter-related nor anything spring-related. That leaves me with nothing." she tuned off the TV. "There's nothing on to watch, either."

"You could do your homework." Honker suggested.

"I'm bored enough as is, Honker." Gosalyn said. "I don't want to become suicidally bored."

"How wonderfully responsible of you, Gosalyn." Honker murmured over the phone.

"Besides, it's all that math stuff." Gosalyn went on. "You know how quickly I can do that stuff."

"Yeah, I don't get it, either." Honker said. "You use nonsensical formulas to get answers that by all accounts shouldn't work, yet somehow do."

"You're just overanalyzing it Honker." Gosalyn said. "You're way beyond my level of math anyway."

"No, I'm serious, Gos, we really should show your formulas to an expert or something one of these days." Honker insisted. "You may have invented an entirely new form of algebra or something, that could revolutionize the world of mathematics!"

"Boring." Gosalyn said. "I'd much rather revolutionize the world of contact sports."

"Yes, you would, wouldn't you." Honker said.

"So are you done yet?" Gosalyn repeated.

"Give me an hour or so, Gos, _then _ask if I'm done."

"An hour? What am I supposed to do in the meantime?"

"Like I said, Gos, you'll live."

* * *

It was oddly quiet in the St. Canard Supervillain prison. Too quiet in Rowe's opinion. Usually, there was something happening somewhere in this dull place. He had learned that after a week or so of staying here. Of course, under normal circumstances, Rowe wouldn't have been in here that long. In the past, Negaduck had always broken him out of here by now. But no.

He hadn't been keeping track of how long he had been in here, just that had been too long. It had to be well over a month now. But he felt he had been in here long enough, and was ready to leave now. He wasn't sure how his fellow villains like Megavolt had managed to spend seven whole years locked up in this place. How did they keep for going mad?

It hadn't been too bad when Negaduck's care packages got through to him. At those times, he not only got a salmon to eat, but someone to talk to as well. Now he had none of that. Negaduck and the rest of the gang hadn't done anything to break him out since then, either. Rowe had a hunch Negaduck had ordered the Fearsome Five to leave him alone, for punishment for getting sent to jail.

Well, if so, then Rowe had learned his lesson.

Hanging his head with a sigh, Rowe stared down at his footpaws, bored senseless. He wished something would happen.

Then suddenly, he heard a low off rumble, somewhere distant. Rowe looked up. What the heck was that?

* * *

As luck would have it, Busroot wasn't too far from where Rowe was, but the mutant plant-duck wasn't even thinking of the otter at the moment. Instead, he was thinking of the plants. Spring was well on it's way, and it was hard for some plants to start growing. Bushroot learned this quickly after becoming a mutant plant-duck. So he had started a habit sometime ago of going around and aiding the plants in their growth.

This was what he was doing now, helping the grass lawns that lined the street that just so happened to contain the police station grow just enough that it had enough of a head start for spring. But while he was doing this, Bushroot was also holding a very interesting telepathic conversation with said plants.

It seemed that they sensed something was going to happen soon. In fact, they all did, but none of them knew when or why, or what. Just that it was going to happen. They also didn't know if it was going to be good or bad when whatever it was happened.

But, as Bushroot listened intently, he knew that whenever this kind of thing happened, it usually meant to prepare for the worst...

* * *

Drake was still waiting in the hospital, but his high spirits weren't letting him get annoyed just yet. Still grinning, he looked around quite animatedly at his surroundings, watching various people enter and leave. He had been doing this for awhile absentmindedly, so he almost didn't notice someone he knew enter. And it took him a moment to realize who it was, and when he finally did, he had to do a double take.

"Morgana?" he exclaimed, surprised, and leaping to his feet.

"Dark?" Morgana Macawber said, hearing her name called, and recognizing it instantly. She turned around to look at Drake. "Why, Dark! It _is _you!" she approached him. Drake noticed she was favoring one hand. "Why are you here?" she asked. "You aren't injured, I hope?"

"Why am I here?" Drake said, snapping out of the dazed look he had been giving Morgana. "Why are _you _here? Here, in the St. Canard Hospital!"

"Oh, er, a little accident with a spell." Morgana explained, looking embarrassed. She held out the hand she had been favoring. It sported a very deep cut. "It's cursed now, so I can't use magic to heal it. Because it's so serious, the only real option I had was to come here and have it treated like anyone else of non-magical blood." she blushed. "It was stupid mistake, really."

"Oh, don't say that, Morg!" Drake said, instinctively going to reassure her. "I'm sure it was a total accident! And besides, look at it this way! This way we get to see each other again! It's been...what...a few months since we've seen each other?"

"About, yes." Morgana admitted. "But why are you here, Dark? You don't seem to be injured."

"I'm not." Drake replied.

"Then why are you here?" Morgana asked.

"Well..." Drake began, suddenly feeling awkward. "Remember me telling you about Christine?"

Morgana's expression faded a little into a more neutral one. "Oh." she said, then bit her lip. "A bit awkward, then, for your ex-girlfriend to show up when you're here to see your current girlfriend, isn't it?"

"Kinda." Drake admitted.

An awkward silence followed.

"But hey, let's make the best of it!" Drake said, trying to look at the bright side. "I mean, that cut of your's looks pretty nasty, maybe there's something I can do to help while I wait for Christine?"

"Mr. Mallard!" the receptionist suddenly called out. "Miss Merriweather will see you now. She trusts that you know where to look."

Drake suddenly got a big grin. "Better yet," he began, "allow me to take you to the best person who can treat that wound the best."

"Oh no, Dark, that's really sweet of you, but I don't think..." Morgana began, not liking the idea of meeting Drake's new girlfriend.

"Oh, don't worry, Morg." Drake said, escorting her to the elevator. "You'll like Christine, I promise."

At first, he expected Morgana to resist, and prepared himself to drop the subject if it came to that. He knew what happened if he tried to force Morgana to do something she didn't want to do, and it wasn't good, at least for him. Morgana always was a bit short-tempered. But Morgana, surprisingly, did not resist, and allowed Drake to escort her into the elevator. Grinning and thinking this idea was good one, Drake pushed the button for the floor he wanted and watched the doors close.

* * *

It was Bushroot who noticed it first, probably because he was outside, and knew to look for it. A distant rumble, steadily and rapidly growing louder. Stepping out of hiding in an alley to investigate, Bushroot turned to the source of the sound, and saw Canard Tower suddenly shuddered, and a wave of dust, almost like a shockwave, rush towards him.

Knowing instantly that this was a bad thing, Bushroot rushed for cover, but he wasn't fast enough. As the wave of dust swept past him, the ground beneath him started to shake...

* * *

"And another thing." Gosalyn went on talking into her cell phone as Honker listened on the other end at Darkwing Tower. "She said pink doesn't match with pink. Now Honker, you're smart, do you see the logic in that? I mean, if they're both pink, then how can they _not _match? I mean, there wasn't even _patterns _on the two pieces of clothing..."

Honker rolled his eyes as he half-listened, typing away while sitting in the command chair for the big screen. He froze, however, when a beeping alarm started to ring out, and a message popped up on the screen. He read it quickly.

"Gosalyn, look out a window, now!" Honker said into the cell phone he had been listening into.

In the Mallard home, Gosalyn hopped off the couch and looked out the window, seeing what appeared to be the St. Canard skyline start to shudder.

"What in the world..." she began, but was cut off as the whole house jolted, and started to shake violently.

It was an earthquake.

* * *

Gosalyn was instantly knocked off her feet, toppling over and onto the coffee table behind her, dropping her cell phone in the progress. The shaking quickly caused her to topple off the table, knocking the table over in the process. The front window suddenly shattered and sprayed glass everywhere. Gosalyn yelped and tucked into a ball, holding her hands over her head. She bounced with the floor, seeming to drop out of her suddenly, then rise back up to meet her.

More glass broke somewhere else in the house, and something noisy crashed to the floor. Gosalyn just ignored it, waiting it for it all to end, bouncing around, trying to grab the edge of the couch, only to find that the couch had scooted away from her.

* * *

The moment the quake had hit the tower, Honker felt it sway violently. He was thrown from the command chair, and hit the floor, dimly aware of the computer screens surrounding him suddenly going into static. One after another, every window in the tower shattered. A loud crash rang out as the Ratcatcher suddenly toppled over onto it's side.

Horns blared loudly outside the tower as the traffic below suddenly started to veer around, thrown off their paths in the earthquake. The whole Audubon Bay Bridge swayed and twisted in unnatural ways. The bay itself sloshed and splashed, creating waves that broke against it's shores, flooding them.

A loud crack rang out, and the entirety of Darkwing Tower suddenly tilted. Honker slid into that tilt, sliding down the steps leading down from the platform. Something somewhere sparked suddenly, and several twanging sounds struck the air as the cables holding the suspension bridge up snapped.

Finally finding a handhold to steady himself, Honker hung on tightly, awaiting the end of the quake.

* * *

Bushroot yelped when the ground suddenly dropped out from under him, then rushed back up to slam into him. Thrown off his feet, he started to fall to the ground in time for it to fall out from under him again. A nearby parked car suddenly started to bounce away from him, and several streetlights toppled over with crashes.

The many windows in the skyscrapers that lined the street shattered and the shards of the glass tumbled to the ground. Screams rang out as the pedestrians out on the streets sought cover. The whole street cracked and crumbled under them all, heaving itself up in the chaos.

* * *

Underground, Rowe was knocked off his cot and to the floor of his cell as the earthquake began. Dust rained down on his head. He heard his guards shout, then run off, for reasons unknown. Rowe presumed to aide elsewhere. Looking up as the earthquake continued, he saw the electronic lock to his cell spark and short circuit, possibly frying the lock.

More dust rained down on his head, and Rowe instinctively rolled under his cot. Moments after he did so, the roof of his cell buckled, and debris crashed down to the floor. Rowe coughed on the dust that kicked up, and hoped the whole cell wasn't going to collapse.

* * *

In the elevator, Drake and Morgana were both knocked to the floor when the earthquake hit. The light in the elevator flickered, then went out. It continued upward for a moment, then jolted to a stop, before starting to drop again in quick jerks. It dropped down several floors before finally abruptly stopping. The earthquake did not, and continued to tremble. In the darkness, both Drake and Morgana quickly sought handholds and eventually found them. They did not realize until later that their handholds was each other.

* * *

Finally, as quickly as it had started, the earthquake stopped, and St. Canard was suddenly still. For a long moment, no noise was to be heard save a distant siren. Then, finally, the populace started to emerge from their impromptu shelters to survey the damage.

* * *

Honker lay on the floor of Darkwing's hideout for a moment longer after the earthquake had stopped, almost too afraid that if he moved, the earthquake would start again. Finally, he got enough nerve to pick himself up and look around. Dust filled the room, shaken loose from it's hidden corners. But otherwise, it seemed that the tower had faired the earthquake well.

He stood up, and started to walk around to double check the damage. Sure enough, the only real damage seemed to be the windows, which had all shattered, and judging from the fact that several of the computer screen up on the platform were still in static, the computer systems had received some damage as well.

Several of Darkwings book had fallen from their shelves, and a couple of cupboards had popped open. Righting the Ratcatcher again with some difficulty, Honker saw that even the motorbike had faired well from the earthquake. But, upon looking out a nearby window, he couldn't say the same for the rest of the bridge.

A fair share of it's support cables had snapped, and now draped down from the bridge like strands of spider silk. Fortunately, none of the cables seriously threatened the bridge's stability. Several long cracks stretched across the paved road on the street, and several cars littered the road, all having veered very far from their intended paths. Quite a few and ran into each other, creating several car pileups. People now flooded the bridge and wandering aimlessly, like they were unsure what they should do now.

Grimacing, Honker tore himself away from the window and directed his attention back to the hideout. Heading back up the steps to the top of the platform, he first started a system reboot of the computer, then searched for his fallen cell phone. He eventually found it under the master control panel, no worse for wear. He tried to call back Gosalyn, but only found that he had no signal. He presumed that a tower somewhere had collapsed in the earthquake.

As it was unlikely that the tower's hard phone line would be up and running, Honker went to the cabinet containing his costume and pulled out his walkie-talkie, switching it on.

"Gos, come in." he said into it. "Come in Gos."

* * *

At the Mallard home, Gosalyn pushed the coffee table off of her and stood up. The living room was a total mess, but that was the least of Gosalyn's concerns at the moment. She quickly sought out her cell phone again, and found it under a pile of DVD cases that had fallen from it's shelf, only to find out that, like Honker, she had no signal. Going for the hard line, she found out the same held true for it.

Frowning, she looked around, unsure what to do now. She caught a glance out the broken living room window, and saw that the road that made up Avian Way was all cracked and broken, and would need re-paving. Again. The repairs from when The Elements had blown it up had been just completed not that long ago. Now, in the space of a few seconds, they had been undone again.

Looking around, though, Gosalyn didn't see any other damage to the street she called home, at least nothing major. Curious now as to how the rest of the house had faired the earthquake, Gosalyn decided to find out, by first going upstairs to her bedroom. She was pleased to find that it looked exactly as how she had left it, but then it had been a mess then, too.

It was then that she heard Honker trying to call her on her walkie-talkie, and went to her closet to pull it from her spare costume.

"Honk, glad to hear that you're alright." she said.

"Oh good, Gos, you're there." came Honker's relieved voice. "How's the house?"

"Well, it's still standing, if that's what you're asking." Gosalyn replied. "How'd the hideout fair this sudden earthquake?"

"Remarkably well." Honker replied. "Just a few broken windows, really, and the computer system froze. We lost Internet, and the power's out. Running on backup batteries at the moment."

Gosalyn confirmed the power outage by quickly flipping her bedroom lightswitch a few times. "Well, as it's only late morning, I think that won't be a big problem." Gosalyn said, exiting her bedroom. "Any idea how the rest of the city faired?"

"None whatsoever." Honker replied. "I've got limited operations here. I can't really tell you anything more besides what I've already told you."

Gosalyn bit her lip for a moment. "How do you think Dad's doing?" she asked.

"I'm sure Mr. Mallard has everything under control and is well on his way to getting back here." Honker assured her.

* * *

"Dark, are you okay?" Morgana asked, as she quickly cast a spell that created a small ball of light hovering in the middle of the stuck elevator.

Drake picked himself up. "Yeah." he said. "You?"

"Good, all things considered." Morgana replied. She looked around at the elevator. "It's these kind of things that explains why we don't use elevators in the magical world."

Despite the situation, Drake chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose so." he admitted. "All right, down to business now. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, that was an earthquake that we experienced a few moments ago. Probably knocked out the power, which is why the elevator stopped moving."

"Okay." Morgana said, following along calmly.

Drake balanced on one foot for a moment. "There is a slight tilt to the elevator now, though." he remarked. "I think the elevator cable has probably broken. Thankfully, the earthquake bouncing the car around stopped it from going into a free fall by knocking it against the sides of the elevator shaft."

"Okay." Morgana said. "So where does that get us?"

"Nowhere at all." Drake admitted. "We're not getting out of here anytime soon."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Morgana said.

"Don't worry though, more than one person knows we could be in here, and will eventually get to helping us out." Drake assured her. "Presuming that things aren't worse outside this one elevator car."

"Can't you call for help?" Morgana asked.

Drake pulled out the emergency phone and held it to his ear. "Nope." he said, shaking his head. "Line's dead. Can _you _call anybody with your magical powers, Morgana?"

"Not here." Morgana admitted. "The conditions are all wrong. Besides, the best way to do it that I know of would require a mirror, and I don't have one with me at the moment."

"What about your familiars, Eek, Squeak, and Archie?" Drake asked next, not ready to loose hope just yet.

Morgana shook her head. "Back home with Bob, helping him with a project of his." she said. "No one thought I would need them while I was here getting my hand healed."

"Speaking of which, how is that hand?" Drake asked, taking another look at it. He frowned at how much worse it looked now. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief and tied it around the cut, stanching the flow of blood. "There, that should do for now."

Morgana looked at the bandage and grinned. "Thank you Dark." she said.

"You're welcome." Drake replied.

They were silent for a moment.

"Well, I guess we've got some time to ourselves, then." Morgana finally said.

"Yeah, I guess so." Drake agreed. "Wish it was under better circumstances, however."

* * *

Rowe pushed aside the debris, and crawled out from under his cell's cot. Looking around, he saw that the roof of the cell had buckled, and sunlight now streamed in through the hole. Rowe looked up at it, wondering if he could squeeze through it, but eventually decided it was too small, and scratched out the idea as impossible.

Remembering that the lock to the cell had shorted out, Rowe turned to it, and fiddled with it for a moment. To his dismay, however, the lock had not unlocked like he had expected, but rather fused itself shut. Probably why his guards had yet to return to their posts as well. Pounding the bars angrily with his fist, Rowe saw that he was in no better a situation than he was before.

Then, he heard footsteps coming from above. Looking up, Rowe saw a shadow pass by, and thought that maybe whoever was up there could help him.

"Hey!" he called. "Down here! Help!"

A head suddenly appeared in the hole in the ceiling, and Rowe was amazed to see it was Bushroot.

"Bushy!" he exclaimed, relieved. "Boy, am I glad to see you, mate! But what in the name of Redwall Abbey are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, Rowe!" Bushroot said. "But here, let me help you out there!" he left for a moment, then suddenly came back. "Oh, you'd better take a step back." he added.

Rowe quickly ducked into a corner of the cell. A moment later, roots grabbed the edges of the crack and tore it open, now wide enough for Rowe to slip through. As the dust cleared once again, Rowe stepped under the hole. Bushroot stuck one hand down to him, Rowe grabbed it, and the mutant plant-duck pulled him out.

Rowe immediately looked for pedestrians and worse, police officers, but was surprised to see there was no one. "Where is everybody, mate?" he asked.

"Gone!" Bushroot said. "Once the earthquake stopped, everybody ran off in panic. Didn't even notice me. The police have all been dispatched elsewhere too, to handle the emergencies that are no doubt occurring all over the city."

"So I'm gonna make a clean getaway?" Rowe asked, surprised.

"Looks like it." Bushroot said. "Good thing I was here to help."

"Yeah, mate, I owe you one." Rowe said, then started forward. He stopped at the sight that greeted them. "Sink me rudder." he muttered aloud.

Bushroot joined him, getting a good look around for the first time himself. Both fell silent as the realized just how much damage had been dealt to St. Canard...

* * *

"Honker, what are we going to do?" Gosalyn asked into her walkie-talkie as she one-handedly tried to clean up the Mallard home.

"Sit and wait, I guess." came Honker's reply. "I'm keeping an eye out for any new news, but so far I've got nothing."

"I hate waiting, especially at times like this." Gosalyn said. "Y'know, Crimson and Techno should probably get out there and see what we can do to help."

"Well, come on over then, if it makes you happy." Honker said.

Liking that idea, Gosalyn plopped herself into one of the armchairs, and slapped the head of the little figurine that sat between the two chairs.

Nothing happened.

Gosalyn slapped it again, then again, with same results. "Um, Honk?" she said into her walkie-talkie.

"Yes?" Honker said.

"The chairs seem to be broken." Gosalyn reported. "They won't activate."

"It's possible that the failsafes engaged in the earthquake." Honker said. "Or that the whole system was disabled in the turmoil." there was a momentary pause. "I can't see to activate them from here, either." Honker continued. "Try the secondary entrance."

Gosalyn nodded, despite Honker not being able to see the nod, and went out into the backward. It looked to have faired the earthquake well itself. But, however, she noted a slight depression in the ground, not far from the secondary entrance.

"Honk, I think the tunnel may have collapsed." she said into her walkie-talkie. "Better no go that way just to play it safe. Any other way to get to the tower? On foot, perhaps?"

"No." Honker said. "Traffic's really backed up on the bridge and there are several pileups blocking the usual paths. Not only that but there's a lot of police and people wandering around. You'd be seen too easily."

"Drat." Gosalyn said.

"Unfortunately, there's more." Honker said. "I've been checking out the readings for this earthquake, and they don't match up to any earthquake I've ever heard of before."

"So?" Gosalyn asked, heading back inside.

"Gos, I think this earthquake didn't happen naturally."

It took a moment for Gosalyn to fully comprehend this. "But, if that's true, then who caused it?" she asked. "I don't know of anyone who would have the tools, or the power to..." She suddenly trailed of, realizing that there _was_ someone who had that kind of power. "The Elements."

* * *

Drake and Morgana sat calmly in the elevator, looking at one another. They seemed to not have anything to say.

"So." Drake began, the silence finally getting to him. "How's married life?"

"Um, okay." Morgana said.

"Everything's working out with Bob, then?" Drake asked.

"Yeah." Morgana said. "How about you? How's life treating you?"

"Good. Dating Christine, Gosalyn's getting good grades, not too much trouble for Darkwing. Can't complain really."

They were silent for another long moment.

"You know, Morg, I do miss you, though." Drake said suddenly. "I really wish we could've gotten further in our relationship than we did."

Morgana was silent for a moment. "So do I, Dark." she finally admitted. "So do I. And if you hadn't been gone for seven years..."

"...that could've happened." Drake finished. He leaned his head against the elevator wall. "Stupid Negaduck. That's all his fault, really. If he hadn't imprisoned me in the Negaverse we could've gotten m..."

He stopped, realizing what he was going to say, and decided he didn't want to say that after all. Morgana glanced in his direction, probably knowing what he intended to say, but didn't comment.

"...could've gotten closer." Drake finally amended.

They were silent again.

"Drake, I must admit I was a bit...surprised...to hear you had started seeing someone else." Morgana admitted.

"I'm just doing what you told me to do, Morgana." Drake said. "Moving on. Besides, think how I felt when I found you got married."

Morgana laughed. "Yeah, I see your point."

Her laugh faded when she saw Drake's expression, and realized it was no laughing matter.

"Is there something wrong with me seeing someone else, now, Morg?" Drake asked.

"Well, no, it's just..." Morgana paused, unsure if she should say this, regardless of how she should say it. "I guess I'm just longing for the relationship we will never have, I suppose."

Drake didn't reply for a moment. "Same here." he agreed. "I long every day for it, in fact."

Morgana looked surprised. "What about Christine?" she asked. "Is there something wrong with her and your relationship with her?"

"Oh, no, Christine's great, she's a great girl." Drake said quickly. "It's just...well...when you really come down to it, she's no Morgana Macawber."

Morgana grinned sympathetically. "Unfortunately Drake, it's too late to change things." she said. "Life has taken us in different directions now."

"Yeah, I know." Drake said. He sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of."

* * *

"Remember Honk, the last time they tried something like this, it was merely cover for an attack on SHUSH." Gosalyn said over the walkie-talkie as Honker quickly changed into his Techno costume. "The same is probably true now. No doubt The Elements are attacking SHUSH, it would explain why they haven't contacted us yet regarding this earthquake."

"Think we're too late?" Techno asked as he slipped on his visor.

"I can't say Honk, that's why you need to get over there." Gosalyn said. "I think they're going for a more stealthy attack this time, otherwise we would've gotten word of it by now. But if their using more stealth this time, then it's going to take them longer to capture SHUSH HQ. It should be easy to throw a wrench into the gears."

"Right, piece of cake." Techno said nervously, stepping over to the Ratcatcher and hopping onto it.

"You aren't nervous, are you Tech?" Gosalyn asked.

"Gos, I've never fought a team of villains like this going solo before!" Techno exclaimed, starting the Ratcatcher's engine and driving it out of the tower.

"I know, and I wish I could come and help you, but I'd never get there in time!" Gosalyn said. "I've got a costume, but that's it! I'm pretty much cut off where I'm at!"

"Right, right, I get it!" Techno exclaimed as he drove the motorbike down the bridge's main support cable and down to the ground.

"Techno, I think you can handle this." Gosalyn said. "Now, we'd better maintain radio silence from here on out."

"Right." Techno said.

"Oh, and Techno?"

"Yes Gos?"

"Good luck."

"Thanks Gos."

* * *

When Techno arrived at the SHUSH building, he found it to look abandoned. Worried if he was too late, he dismounted from the Ratcatcher and ran to the front door. He found two guards lying flat on the floor, out like lights. He also found evidence of a fire, and a thin layer of water coated the floor.

"They were here, all right." Techno muttered, and pressed on.

As he wandered down the hallways of the building, he found more and more unconscious people, but it didn't seem like they had been attacked. In fact, except or the lobby, there weren't even signs of a battle. Getting puzzled, Techno wandered to the one place he knew he could get some answers.

Moving cautiously, he opened the door to J. Gander Hooter's office and peered inside. Sprawled out on the floor in a spreadeagle position was Agent Grizzlikof. Sitting in the desk chair was Hooter, positioned oddly. Both were unconscious, but otherwise seemed unharmed. Getting more puzzled, Techno went to Hooter's computer and glanced at the screen. He immediately noticed a large message on the screen.

It said: "Intruder alert. Building purged with sleeping gas."

Techno blinked in surprise, then noticed that this very un-SHUSH-like procedure had been activated just moments before the earthquake had hit. And not by Hooter's command code, either. Techno could see evidence that the system had been hacked. Then it started to come together. The Elements did this, so they could have easy access to the building and whatever was in it. And, as always, to keep people looking in the wrong way while they did this, had Garth Miner create the earthquake. It seemed almost like overkill, but Techno saw that it was a good plan.

But like always, the good guys figured it out.

But then, where _were _The Elements? Had they gotten whatever they wanted and left again? If so, then what was it, exactly, that they wanted? And how important was this theoretical something?

Techno turned back to Hooter's computer to try and find out. He was impressed with some of the things he found on it. Most particularly some sort of life signs detector. Opening it, he saw that it could be specified to find certain kinds of life forms in certain states. This included life forms that were conscious or not.

Seeing this could be the best way to see if The Elements were still here, Techno set in the necessary parameters, and brought up the scans graphical results. He saw a lay out of the entire SHUSH building. One dot was sitting several floors up all by itself. Techno presumed this was him.

However, there was another group of dots several levels _down_ that Techno quickly realized could only be The Elements themselves. Quickly, he calculated the floor number they were on. He blinked in surprise when he figured it out.

"Sub-level five?" he said to himself. "What do The Elements want with SHUSH's transdimensional portal generator?"

Really perplexed now, Techno decided to find out, and started to leave. But as he did so, he found a gadget sitting on Hooter's desk. It looked brand new; perhaps Hooter and Grizzlikof had been talking about it when the sleeping gas had flooded the room. Picking it up, he read it's label.

"Voice synthesizer?" Techno repeated to himself.

* * *

Down in sub-level five, in the portal generator's control tower, The Elements were all gathered together around the controls. Jack O'Hara and Garth Miner were the ones sitting at the controls themselves, working away while Sally McHare and Elizabeth Guire stood guard.

"Hurry Jack, I don't think we can stay here much longer." Elizabeth urged, feeling edgy.

"Relax, Liz, the SHUSH agents won't be waking up for another hour." Jack assured her.

"Still Jack, Elizabeth's got a bally point." Sally remarked. "Best not to push our luck any."

Jack didn't answer as he and Garth typed in the final commands. Finally, Jack pressed one button, waited a moment, then motioned to Garth. Garth then pulled out a data card from it's slot in the control panel.

"Right, let's go." Jack said, standing.

Then, a voice rang out from outside the control room's door.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" the voice of Darkwing Duck rang out. "I am the road construction that makes you late for work! I am, Darkwing Duck!"

Urgently, Jack motioned to Elizabeth and Sally forward to deal with it. The two responded, and headed for the door, where purple and crimson colored smoke was seeping in under.

"And I am the heir to the cape!" the voice of the Crimson Avenger rang out now. "I am the laptop that doesn't have a wireless connection! I am..."

The voice stopped when Elizabeth and Sally threw open the door and stepped into the smoke filled hallway beyond. They then quickly discovered that the colored smoke was really sleeping gas in disguise, but by that point it was too late, and both passed out and toppled over. Before Jack or Garth could do much to react to this development, a little football-shaped object suddenly rolled into the room.

The two villains watched it roll past them and under the control panel, looking puzzled. Then the little object suddenly exploded taking out the control panel, blasting out the tower's wall, and knocking them back to the floor. Letting out an enraged yell, Jack burst into flames, and looked for the culprit by hurling fireballs into the doorway. They hit nothing.

Starting to look on edge themselves, Jack and Garth started to back up. Then, some sixth sense made them turn, and there they saw, hovering with his rocket boots engaged, Techno, right outside the hole blasted into the wall of the control tower.

Techno reacted first by going to spray sleeping gas into the faces of the two villains, but Jack was faster, hurling a fireball into Techno's chest. Techno's jumpsuit protected him from harm, but the blast knocked him backwards and surprised Techno. He started to loose control of his rocket boots, and in anxiety, deactivated the rocket boots. He then started to fall a whole floor's length, and would've crashed onto the uneven edges of the portal generator that filled most of the five story room, had he not stopped his fall by shooting a grappling hook up at the ceiling bringing him to an abrupt stop.

Techno dangled there for a moment, trying to gather his bearings, then started to swing back and forth. As he reached the peak of his swing, he unlatched the grappling hook and dropped the rest of the way to the floor. His momentum carried him away from the generator to land on the flat floor in front of the are where the portal would appear was the device active.

Spinning around, he caught sight of Jack and Garth, supporting the presumably still unconscious forms of Sally and Elizabeth, slip out the door.

"Stop!" Techno ordered, and raced after them.

By the time he was at the door, they had already vanished up the staircase. Hurrying, Techno followed them all the way up to the lobby. But once there, he saw that they had simply vanished.

"Darn." Techno muttered to himself with a sigh.

* * *

"Gee Drake, I never thought you still painted!" Morgana exclaimed. "I thought you had given that up!"

"Oh sure." Drake said, sitting beside Morgana. "I don't talk about it often, but I've actually found it to be rather soothing for the nerves. I haven't had much chance to do it lately, but yeah, I still do it."

Morgana grinned. "That's a bit touching for me, considering that it was me who taught you." she remarked.

"Yeah, kinda." Drake admitted.

"You know, for being stuck in an elevator because of an earthquake, this has actually become quite enjoyable." Morgana remarked. "And I think what's made it great is seeing you again."

"Same here, Morg." Drake said.

They snuggled a little closer to each other. But then they suddenly and quickly slid apart when the elevator doors suddenly slid open.

"Well, don't you two seem comfy." Christine remarked with a smirk.

"Christine!" Drake exclaimed, standing. "Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes!"

"I'll bet, you two have been locked in here for three, going on four, hours." Christine said.

"So long?" Morgana asked, also standing. "It hardly seems so long to me."

"Well, I think spending time with your ex-boyfriend does that to you." Chrsitine remarked.

Drake winced. "It's not what you think, Chris." he promised.

"I know Drake." Christine said, and said nothing more on the subject. "So Drake, aren't you going to introduce me?"

"Oh, er, Christine, this is Morgana Macawber." Drake quickly introduced. "Morg, this is Christine Merriweather."

"Pleasure to meet you." Morgana said, extending her good hand for Christine to shake.

"Pleasure's all mine." Christine said, accepting the hand to shake. "Now, how about we get you two out of there?"

"Yes, let's." Drake said. "I'm ready to get out of this stupid elevator."

* * *

It took some time, but Techno eventually found an antidote to the sleeping gas that the occupants of the SHUSH building had been put under, and started administering it to the major agents, such as Hooter and Grizzlikof. Once Techno had explained what had happened, Hooter took over, and slowly clean up of the damage The Elements had done was slowly being cleaned up.

Techno saw his job here was done for now, but stuck around for awhile longer, for a good reason. He waited in Hooter's office for about an hour, then Hooter and Dr. Bellum arrived.

"Techno." Hooter greeted as he entered.

"Mr. Hooter, sir." Techno replied, jumping to his feet.

"We've examined the databanks and security footage of The Elements intrusion into the facility, and think we know why they were here." Hooter explained.

"Which is?" Techno prompted.

Hooter looked to Dr. Bellum.

"We think they were getting a copy of the plans for the portal generator." Bellum said.

"What?" Techno asked. "Why?"

"Clearly, to make use of it." Hooter said.

"We believe that FOUL wants to gain access to the Negaverse." Bellum added.

"But...why?" Techno asked, not understanding. "Why do they want _anything _to do with the Negaverse?"

"That is the mystery, Mr. Techno." Hooter said. "But knowing FOUL and The Elements, we'll find out eventually."

* * *

_Fun Facts: There are two deleted scenes from this. One involving Rowe and Bushroot wandering around St. Canard in the aftermath of the quake, and another scene with Drake and Morgana in the elevator. They were left out because I worried the chpt. was getting too long and wordy, mostly. I'm not worried too much about the Rowe and Bushroot scene, as it was really just there to press the point that Rowe's escaped from jail and that Bushroot and Rowe are friends, as the scene would've gotten the two talking about each other's lives and their opinons and such. But as I had these points already established in past chpts, I felt there was no real pressing need to include it in this chpt. The only thing I regret about this choice is that it leaves the Bushroot and Rowe aspect of the story unfinished._

_The extra scene with Morgana and Drake in the elevator however, I miss, because it would've had Morgana finding out more about Drake's reasons for visiting Christine that particular day, and leading to Morgana to ask how close Drake and Christine were. After shiring the question a little while, I would've eventually had Drake admit that he did love Christine, but then press he still wished he and Morgana had hit it off better as well. Really it was just to further stress the point that while Drake and Morgana have gone seperate ways, they've done so rather unwillingly, and still have feelings for one another._

_But hey, we can't have everything in life. :)_


	27. Breeched

Summary:It has been giving Gosalyn nightmares for several months now. However, she was confident she would never have to confront her fear again. Unfortunately, she was wrong...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: This is a chapter you've all asked for. Me thinks you'll all like it. Negaduck and the fearsome Five were going to make an appearance in this originally, but the chpt. ran on to be longer than expected. Oh, and it is true that by the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) definition of a planet, Earth would not be considered planet. Go figure, huh?

27.

Breeched

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_So this isn't an attempt to capture us and the rest of the Fearsome Five at all."_

"_Just a mere bonus."_

"_You want the remote."_

_--_

_Seeing his prized possession free, Negaduck made a wild dash for the open portal. But Crimson recovered quicker than he expected, and tackled him from behind. Their momentum hurled the pair of them into the portal._

_--_

"_This isn't the Negaverse."_

_--_

"_I am the terror that hunts in the night! I am the jackal that picks at your bones! I am Darkwarrior Duck!"_

_--_

"_You don't get it, do you? This is going to be the very last place you're going to want to stay at, Negs. You think Darkwing's bad? Well, I assure you, Darkwarrior's ten times worse. Speaking of which, how did we get here, anyway?"_

"_It was the portal, doing what it was supposed to. Creating a transdimensional portal from the Posiverse to the Negaverse isn't as easy a pushing a button you know. Things have to be properly calibrated. That calibration was thrown off in our fight earlier. Too many stupid buttons were pushed on my remote. So when the portal was activated, it connected the Posiverse with this universe."_

"_So this is another, entirely different, parallel universe?"_

"_Sure, there are plenty out there."_

"_A Darkwarrior Universe."_

"_I was actually thinking of Warriorverse being it's official name, but I guess beggars can't be choosers."_

_--_

"_And again, I have to question your thinking. For example, where is your remote?"_

"_Um...Drat, those blasted robots took it!"_

"_Exactly! Darkwarrior has it! And whether he can get us to talk or not, he'll eventually figure out how it works, and eventually get to my universe __**and**__ yours, too!"_

_--_

"_Good. Now, can you explain to me what this is?"_

"_I don't know, you tell me."_

"_It's an energy signature, doofus. A pretty unique one at that."_

"_So what does this have to do with me? I don't know what that energy signature is."_

"_Oh, yes you do."_

_--_

"_We were just about to mount a rescue party into the Negaverse to get you, you know."_

"_I figured as much. But you could have searched that entire universe twice if you wanted, and you wouldn't have found me."_

"_What, you mean to say you weren't in the Negaverse after all?"_

"_No."_

"_Then where were you?"_

"_Let's just say that it's good to be back, and that I won't have to worry about where I've been ever again. I hope."_

_--_

_As the portal closed in the Darkwarrior Universe, a scanner was scanning it. Finally, just as the portal blinked out of sight, the scanner completed it's scan, flashing the related message on the screen. His face reflected in the screen of the scanner, Darkwarrior Duck smiled..._

* * *

With an abrupt stop, the chairs stopped spinning. Closing her eyes for a moment to stop her spinning head, Gosalyn stood, and walked away from the chairs, looking around the darkened hideout.

"Dad?" she called out. "You here? Launchpad said you were up here working with something."

The command chair sitting before the master control panel slowly turned around to show Drake Mallard.

"Gos!" he said calmly. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Clearly." Gosalyn said, taking a few steps towards him. She then frowned. "You all right?"

"Perfectly." Drake replied, holding his hands out. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you seem..." Gosalyn trailed off for a moment, searching for the right words. "...different. Not like your usual self."

"Trust me Gos." Drake said, standing from the chair and taking a deep breath. "I've never felt better."

Gosalyn paused, and gave her dad an odd look. "Just what have you been working on up here?" she asked slowly and cautiously.

"Well, Gos, I've been doing some thinking." Drake said, coming to stand at the top of the stairs that led up to the platform he stood upon, looking down at his daughter. "About how successful have we been with our crime fighting?"

"Oh, I dunno." Gosalyn admitted, and ran a few numbers through her head real quick. "Probably about seventy to eighty percent."

"Exactly." Drake said, jabbing a finger at her. "And in my mind, that is far too low. That percentage should be much higher. And I've come up with just the way to do it."

Gosalyn was now starting to feel worried. "Dad..." she started slowly.

Drake ignored her. "You see Gos, we aren't being strict enough." he continued. "We're letting ourselves be soft, and letting too many people get away with crimes, no matter how minor. If we stopped doing that, enforcing those rules _to the letter_, every day and night, then that percentage can shoot all the way up to one hundred."

"Dad..." Gosalyn said again, this time more in a more warning tone. "Don't go there."

"And why not, Gosalyn?" Drake asked cooly. "Times are changing. We simply must take the crime fighting techniques of Darkwing Duck and company to the next level."

"But in order to do what you're proposing, we'd all have to be in several places at once." Gosalyn objected quickly.

"Exactly!" Drake said again. "Which leads me to what I've been working on." he reached for a nearby lever. "Presenting the very key to making St. Canard crime free."

He threw the lever. The lights came back on to full, lighting the tower fully for the first time since Gosalyn had arrived. Gosalyn turned, and saw large and massive, dark-looking, robots lining the room. Gosalyn gasped with recognition as they all started to come online, their red eyes glowing brightly, beginning to hover off the floor of the hideout.

"Unit online." they all choused together in a flat, mechanical voice. "Ready for active duty."

"No!" Gosalyn exclaimed, seeing what was happening. "No! This can't be happening! Not here! No, Dad, you're Darkwing Duck! You can't do this!"

"Oh, but I can, Gosalyn." Drake's voice echoed out, as a cloud of smoke appeared before her. "And I will no longer be known as Darkwing Duck. From now on, I will be known as the terror that _hunts _in the night. Known as the jackal that picks at your bones! I am..." he stepped out of the cloud of smoke, revealing himself in costume for the first time, confirming Gosalyn's fears. "...Darkwarrior Duck."

* * *

Gosalyn yelped, and sat upright in bed. Breathing heavily for several moments, she looked around and saw the very cluttered surroundings of her bedroom, late at night. Realizing it was merely a dream, Gosalyn breathed a sigh of relief, and flopped back down on her pillow.

"I hate my subconscious." she muttered.

Lying there awake for a few moments, calming herself, Gosalyn finally sat up again, pulled open her bedside table drawer, and pulled out a walkie-talkie.

* * *

Honker awoke to a beeping noise. Wincing at the fact that he was still very tired, he rolled over and glanced at the time displayed at his alarm clock, and let out his breath in a long sigh.

"Three guesses as to who that is." he muttered to himself.

Pulling open his own bedside table drawer and pulling out the walkie-talkie within, he flipped it on, and held it up to his beak. "Had the dream again, Gos?" he asked sleepily.

"That obvious?" Gosalyn asked from the other end.

"Why else would you call me at one in the morning when we're not on patrol?" Honker asked. "Gos, really, this is starting to get really old."

"I'm sorry Honk." Gosalyn said apologetically. "I wish I could just make these dreams go away, but I can't. And they always leave me so on edge in the end..."

"I've been thinking about that, Gos, and it's starting to worry me." Honker said. "You've been having these dreams, nonstop, ever since last fall. Then you immediately call me, disrupting my _own _sleep. That can't be a good thing, Gos."

"I know, but Honker, you're the only one besides Negaduck who even knows Darkwarrior even _exists_." Gosalyn pointed out.

"Exactly my point." Honker said. "Now, I've tried everything _I _can think of to help you with this dream problem of yours with little to no success. So I think it's time you told someone else about it."

"Like who?" Gosalyn asked hotly. "If you're suggesting a psychiatrist..."

"No, I agree, that would be too risky, because it would mean revealing our identities as superheroes." Honker interrupted. "No, I'm thinking you should tell someone more close to home. Like Christine. With her being a doctor, she might be able to help."

"Hmm, I suppose." Gosalyn admitted.

"Or better yet, tell your dad." Honker went on. "Seeing that this fear of yours is directly tied with him."

"It's not a fear, Honk."

"Gos, what else could it be?" Honker asked. "If you weren't afraid of these nightmares, then they wouldn't _be _a nightmare."

"So you're saying I have Darkwarriorphobia?" Gosalyn asked sarcastically.

"I'm not going to bother labeling it, Gos." Honker said. "But really, you need to talk to someone about this." he paused, then added, "_Other _than me."

Gosalyn could be heard sighing. "I don't know Honker." she said. "Darkwarrior has always been a really touchy subject for me, especially after that incident back during the fall when me and Negs ended up in the Warriorverse. I don't know if I can do what you suggest. Not yet."

"Well, whatever you decide to do, I hope it works out for you." Honker said with a yawn. "Now good night."

And before Gosalyn could object, he turned off the walkie talkie, yanked out it's battery pack, and let both fall to the floor.

"I should've thought of that months ago." he muttered, snuggling himself back under the covers of his bed.

* * *

"Gos, you seem to be deep in thought."

Gosalyn snapped out of her daydreaming with a start, looking up from her bowl of cereal to look her dad in the face. "Oh." she said. "Sorry, I had an...interesting...night last night."

"Really?" Drake asked as he cleared the table of the dirty dishes. "Maybe we should talk about it."

Gosalyn bit her lip, looking torn over the idea.

"Of course, it's up to you." Drake added, seeing her hesitation.

"Yeah." Gosalyn agreed, and thought for a moment more. "No, let's not talk about it." she finally deduced, then added, "For now, anyway."

"Well, if you do want to talk about it, you know where I am." Drake said.

"Thanks dad." Gosalyn said with a grin, wiping her beak as she finished off her breakfast.

"Now, you better hurry, or you'll be late for school." Drake added, glancing at the clock.

"Right, thanks dad." Gosalyn said, getting up, slipping on her coat and picking up her backpack. "See you later!"

"Yeah, see you Gos!" Drake called. "Have a good day!"

He listened to the front door opening and closing. Grinning, he gathered up the remaining dishes, and took them to the sink. He stopped, however, when he heard a distant buzzing noise. Backtracking a few paces into the dining room, he looked out the doorway and into the living room, and saw that the vase of daffodils sitting on the coffee table was the source of the buzzing, a little red light blinking within it.

Quickly setting down the dishes, Drake pulled out a spare mask and hat, and quickly rushed to the coffee table. Pressing a concealed button, the vase moved aside, and a flatscreen monitor unfolded from the table, SHUSH's logo being clearly advertised upon it. A moment later, the face of J. Gander Hooter appeared on the screen.

"Darkwing, ol' boy!" Hooter said. "Glad to see you got my message!"

"What can I do for you, J. Gander?" Darkwing asked.

"Just a little thing, Darkwing." Hooter said. "We've monitored a transdimensional portal opening in the industrial section of St. Canard. We believe it to be Negaduck, and possibly the Fearsome Five."

Darkwing frowned. "But if that's true, J. Gander, then he's probably long gone by now." he said. "He knows we're tracking his movements with the portals, so he leaves the site of the portal as quickly as possible."

"A fact we are well aware of." Hooter agreed. "In fact, I wouldn't have troubled you at all with the matter was it not for the fact of one thing." he paused, as if for dramatic effect. "The portal is still open."

"Still open?" Darkwing asked. "What do you mean, it's still open?"

"It's been open for the past half-hour, and has shown no signs of closing." Hooter explained.

"Really?" Darkwing asked, puzzled. "But why would Negs do that?"

"That is what I'd like you to find out, Darkwing." Hooter said. "And when it involves Negaduck..."

"...it can't be anything good." Darkwing finished, nodding. "Of course, there's another aspect. We know The Elements stole the plans for the transdimensional portal generator. Could it be possible that this is FOUL we're detecting?"

"It's a theory we've thought of, Darkwing, but there are several inconsistencies." Hooter said. "First and foremost, FOUL has been in possession of those plans for no longer than a few weeks. That is simply not enough time to build a portal generator. Second, is that St. Canard is a little close to home to SHUSH for FOUL to be building such a device. And we know Steelbeak is smarter than that."

"Hmm, but it's highly irregular for Negaduck to have such a portal on for so long." Darkwing added. "Well, you just missed Crimson and Techno, but me and LP can go check it out."

"Thank you Darkwing." Hooter said. "Be sure to report back to SHUSH on your findings."

* * *

In the aftermath of the recent earthquake The Elements had unleashed on St. Canard had disrupted a great deal of things within the city. Most of the major damage had been repaired already, but there was some that was waiting for spring, which was just around the corner, this week being the last week of February.

As such, many of the more minor industrial facilities located in a certain district of St. Canard had been closed due to the earthquake and was awaiting March to come around. With it as abandoned as it was, Darkwing had to admit it was a good place for some funny business to take place.

Driving the Ratcatcher slowly, Darkwing looked around for evidence to the portal Hooter described. "I'm not seeing anything." he muttered. "How about you, LP?"

"Nope." Launchpad reported, looking around from where he sat in the sidecar. "You sure it's here?"

"That's what Hooter and all the eggheads at SHUSH claim." Darkwing said. "And I must admit that it's the perfect place for anyone to open a transdimensional portal, with how the industrial district has been lately. But..." he paused, sighing. "LP, we've just about covered this whole place, and haven't seen anything. I have to wonder if SHUSH's equipment is on the fritz, or something."

"Well, we haven't looked over there, yet, DW." Launchpad offered, trying to be helpful. He pointed towards the center of the district.

"LP, that spot is _way _too public for someone to open a portal." Darkwing said. "All the villains I know are smarter than that."

"I know, but would it hurt to look?" Launchpad asked.

Darkwing thought about it for a moment. "No, I suppose not." he admitted, and turned the Ratcatcher to go in that direction.

In order to reach the center, public square of sorts, area of the district, the Ratcatcher had to scale a small hill, which blocked the center from immediate view, and whomever was scaling the hill out of view of whomever was on the hill's other side. This turned out to be a good thing for Darkwing and Launchpad, because as soon as they reached the hill's crest, they saw that down at the bottom was the portal they had been looking for, and several things gathered around it.

Quickly, to avoid detection, Darkwing swung the Ratcatcher around and went back down the hill until they were out of view. Hopping off the motorbike then, then climbed back up to the top of the hill, lying flat on the ground so that he wouldn't be seen. Launchpad followed his example.

Darkwing watched what was happening below for a few moments, then shook his head. "LP, I guess I owe you an apology." he said.

"That's okay, DW." Launchpad said from beside him. "Just get me something to eat, and we'll call it even."

"Sounds good." Darkwing said. "But first we need to tell SHUSH what we've found. By the looks of it, whomever is behind this portal is bringing a whole army through." he eyed the metal objects being pulled through the portal by small, floating, robots. "It can't be Negs, though. Completely not his style."

"Then who could it be, DW?" Launchpad asked.

"I don't know LP." Darkwing admitted. "But it can't be anyone good." he went back for the Ratcatcher. "C'mon, let's go spread the word."

The two left, and their timing for leaving couldn't be any worse, because they missed the chance to see a figure step through the portal...

* * *

"You're right, Darkwing." Hooter agreed later, after Darkwing had returned to SHUSH HQ to make his report. "This is unlike anything we have encountered before. I believe we could be dealing with someone from an entirely different parallel universe."

"Another?" Darkwing said, sitting in a chair in front of Hooter's desk. "Great. And just when I thought I would only though I'd have to contend with the Negaverse."

"I am of a similar opinion Darkwing." Hooter agreed. "This is the very last thing we need. But clearly, someone out there in the multiverse disagrees."

"Yeah, and I'd like to punch him." Darkwing added.

Hooter grinned. "I will see if I can give you that chance, Darkwing." he said. "But first, we need to know more about this newcomer before we do anything more about it."

"Um, director." Grizzlikof suddenly said, who was looking out one of the windows. "I believe it may be too late for that."

Exchanging puzzled glances, Darkwing and Hooter stepped over to the windows. They gasped at what they saw.

"This can't be good." Darkwing muttered.

* * *

Across town, Gosalyn and Honker were both sitting in their science class, Gosalyn half-listening, while Honker was busy taking notes for them both.

"So, on August 24 of 2006, the IAU defined the term "planet" for the first time in history." their teacher was going on. "And if one were to follow this definition, this means that Pluto is no longer a planet. However, many astronomers believe that Pluto should still be a planet, and, technically speaking, according to the IAU's own definition, Earth would not be considered a planet-what is that noise?"

The science class looked up from what they were doing, and listened. Sure enough, they could make out an odd humming noise. The class started to murmur, also wondering what that noise was. Honker and Gosalyn, being trained for this kind of thing, quickly pinpointed the source of the sound was outside. Curious, they both rose from their seats and headed towards the windows, to look out at the many dark shapes that was buzzing around the city.

Gosalyn recognized them instantly. "Honker." she said, paling. "Please tell me that I'm dreaming."

"I'm sorry Gos." Honker said, as he watched the floating robots flying around. "I wish I could."

* * *

"What in the world?" Hooter exclaimed. "What is it, some kind of attack?"

"That has to be what it is!" Darkwing exclaimed. "We gotta stop them! We gotta crush them before they ever get the chance to..."

"Look out!" Grizzlikof exclaimed suddenly, pushing both Darkwing and Hooter out of the way of the windows.

A good thing too, for a moment later, a robot smashed through the whole wall, flying into the office.

"Unit one-one-two has gained entrance to SHUSH Headquarters." it announced in a monotonous voice. "Searching for suspects now."

It started to turn, looking towards Grizzlikof, Hooter, and Darkwing. It's red eyes glared at the three suddenly.

"Suspect found." it announced. "Moving in to apprehend."

And then it moved towards Hooter. Grizzlikof wasn't about to let that happen, and quickly stepped in the way, pulling out his sidearm and opening fire upon the robot, the bullets clattering loudly against the robot's metal skin. Darkwing quickly pushed Hooter towards the door as this happened.

"Warning, suspect is armed and dangerous." the robot reported, relentless pushing itself closer to it's target, despite Grizzlikof emptying his clip of ammo on the bot. "Has opened fire upon unit one-one-two. Filing crime ceti-five-seven-alpha to list."

Using one of it's metal arms, it slapped Grizzlikof aside, and zoomed towards Hooter and Darkwing. Darkwing gave Hooter one last shove through the door, then turned and raced towards the robot. He kicked at it's metal bill, then hopped up on top of it, and jumped up and landed a kick to the robot's red eye, shattering it and disabling it.

"Take that!" Darkwing said, the force of the kick driving the robot back, and leaving him with nothing to land his jump on. He dropped to the floor.

"Warning, suspected criminals are resisting capture." the robot said, as it flew backwards, blinded in one eye. "Filing crime beta-four-four-ceti to list. Requesting backup, and relay information to superior."

"Yeah? _Yeah?_" Darkwing challenged, picking himself up. "Well, I'd like to talk with that superior of yours, whomever he is!"

The robot paused for a moment, backing up out the hole in the wall it had created. "Unit one-one-two has received new orders." it said. "Standing by. Awaiting further commands."

And then it just hovered there. Puzzled, Darkwing, Grizzlikof, and Hooter, all gathered to watch it.

"What was that about?" Hooter asked aloud.

"I dunno." Darkwing admitted, pulling out his gas gun. "But hey, at least the stupid thing's a sitting target now."

"For once, I like your thinking, Darkwing." Grizzlikof agreed, reloading his sidearm.

The two started to take aim, but then they were stopped by a loud voice.

"Don't! Or you'll be sorry!"

Darkwing, Grizzlikof, and Hooter all looked up and out the hole in the wall, and up to the top of a neighboring building, where a figure was perched on top of it's lightning tower, as it continued with it's announcement.

"I am the terror that hunts in the night! I am the sound of a gavel pounding, sentencing your fate! I am Darkwarrior Duck!"

* * *

"It's Darkwarrior."

Honker turned to look at Gosalyn, as the rest of the class gathered to watch Darkwarrior's robot fly around. "Are you sure?"

"There's no denying it Honker." Gosalyn said, watching the robots flying around. "Darkwarrior's here."

"So the question is..." Honker began, "Is it the Darkwarrior you've met in an alternate reality, or your dad?"

"Only one way to find out, Honk." Gosalyn said, turning to the door of the classroom and leaving.

Honker followed. No one noticed their departure, being too engrossed in watching Darkwarrior's robots flying around. The hallways for the school were empty as well, giving Honker and Gosalyn as much privacy as they needed to change into costume. When they emerged out the school doors and onto the street, they emerged as Crimson and Techno.

Outside, they stopped and looked up at the robots flying around.

"Okay, first thing we should do is pinpoint these robots to their source." Techno said.

"Agreed." Crimson said. "Pick a robot, and let's follow it."

A nearby robot suddenly stopped after passing by, and redoubled to fly towards the two teens. "Warning, convicted criminal sighted." it announced monotonously. "Moving in to arrest."

"Um, that one seems good!" Techno exclaimed. "So now, let's RUN!"

Urgently, the two ran away from the robot, as the robot pursued relentlessly...

* * *

The figure pulled out what appeared to be a gas gun, fired off a grappling hook, and swung down from his perch on the lightning tower to stood before Grizzlikof, Hooter, and Darkwing. Darkwing looked him over, noting just how similar this person was to himself. In fact, he might as well be, except he had a much darker, crueler, persona, and more heavily armed. And the eyes, Darkwing shuddered at the red, glowing, eyes, and wondered how this person had managed to pull that off.

"Dark_warrior_ Duck?" Hooter repeated, interrupting Darkwing's line of thought.

"That's right." Darkwarrior said. "New crime-fighter in town.

"Crime _fighter_?" Darkwing repeated, scoffing the idea. "More like crime _starter_."

Darkwarrior glared at his double. "You must be Darkwing." he said.

"Yeah, that's me." Darkwing said. "And if you think you can just barge in here and cause trouble, while _I'm _on patrol, you've got another thing coming! Who do you think you are, anyway?"

"Me?" Darkwarrior asked. "Why, I'm you, Darkwing."

Darkwing stared blankly at him.

"You're from parallel universe." Grizzlikof said slowly.

"Yes I am." Darkwarrior said. "And it disgusts me to come to this universe and see that my own double is so...so..._weak_."

"Weak?" Darkwing exclaimed. "WEAK? Well, I'll have you know..."

"You've been shirking your duties, Darkwing." Darkwarrior interrupted. "You haven't been cracking down on the villains, letting them get away with their crimes. That is almost a crime in or itself."

"And you think that because you haven't, that makes you all high and mighty?" Darkwing asked, again scoffing such an idea. "All right, I'd like to know how _you _define crime-fighting, then."

"Not like how you define it, Darkwing." Darkwarrior said. "But even your crimes pale in comparison to the crimes _he's _committed."

He pointed at Hooter.

"Me?" Hooter said, gesturing to himself.

"That's right, you knob." Darkwarrior said with a sneer. "By being director of SHUSH, you had the power to put an end to crime once and for all in this St. Canard, yet you sit around on your duff like a fat bird, doing nothing!"

"Wait, wait, _wait_!" Darkwing exclaimed. "You're here to arrest J. Gander for some imaginary crime?"

"That was the original plan, yes." Darkwarrior admitted. "But why stop there, when I can get three criminals for the price of one?"

As he said this, two more robots floated into view, joining the first. Darkwarrior glanced back at them briefly, then pointed at the three so-called 'criminals.'

"Get 'em boys." he said.

The robots needed no second bidding.

Yelping, both Grizzlikof and Darkwing raced for the door. Hooter started to follow, but was too slow, and was grabbed from behind by one of the robots.

"Director!" Grizzlikof said, stopping, and starting to turn back.

Darkwing stopped him, and made him continue onward. "No, no, run now, rescue later!" he exclaimed, as the remaining two robots raced towards them.

They quickly squeezed through the door, and out into the hallway, hearing the crashing noises of the robots trying to follow them.

"We need to get everybody out of here and relocate to a safe location!" Darkwing said as they ran.

"Right!" Grizzlikof said, pulling out a walkie-talkie. "All SHUSH agents, retreat to backup headquarters, repeat, retreat to backup headquarters! Main HQ been compromised! This not a drill!" he put the walkie-talkie away as they ran on, heading downstairs to the lobby. "Follow me, Darkwing!"

As they entered the lobby, they saw Launchpad exiting the break room, looking lost in all the excitement.

"Hey DW, what's all the excitement?" he asked, while munching on some dates.

"I'll explain later, now run!" Darkwing ordered, grabbing Launchpad's arm and dragging him along.

Darkwing didn't need to be told twice, and completely trusted Grizzlikof, despite the two being longtime rivals. They burst out the front doors of the HQ, and saw the building was completely surrounded by Darkwarrior's robots. Perched on the shoulder of the bot that held a struggling Hooter was the extremist himself.

"Surrender now, there's no escape!" Darkwarrior exclaimed.

"This way!" Grizzlikof said, dragging Darkwing towards an alley.

As they were about to duck inside, they caught sight of another robot rounding the corner, chasing two figures. Darkwing recognized them instantly.

"Crimson? Techno?" he exclaimed, surprised.

"Mr. Darkwing!" Techno exclaimed back. "Help!"

Grizzlikof and Darkwing replied, by firing their respected weapons at the robot chasing them, driving it off.

"Quickly, follow us!" Darkwing said, pulling Techno and Crimson into the alley.

"After them!" Darkwarrior cried out.

"This way!" Grizzlikof said, as they raced down the alley, two robots hot on their trail.

They ducked around a corner. The two robots, a few paces behind them, followed. But as the robots rounded the corner, they found nothing. For a moment, their red eyes scanned the area, looking for any trace of their prey. Finally, they seemed to give up.

"Suspects have escaped." one of the two robots reported. "Returning to base."

They then left. Once they were long gone, a manhole cover in the alley lifted up slightly, and Darkwing peaked out. He heaved a sigh of relief, and lowered the cover.

"They're gone." he told the others, climbing down into the tunnel they found themselves in.

"Where are we?" Launchpad asked, puzzled.

"I know where we are." Techno said. "This is Elementary Underground, the former hideout for The Elements."

"Yes it is." Grizzlikof said, leading the way down the tunnel. "SHUSH captured it and converted it into a backup base after The Elements abandoned facility."

"So you didn't dismantle it, like all the papers said." Darkwing said.

"No, that was merely a cover story." Grizzlikof said. "SHUSH saw the use of such a facility should an instance as the one we find ourselves in now occurred."

"Yeah, stupid Darkwarrior." Crimson agreed.

"Wait, you know who he is?" Darkwing asked.

"Yeah." Crimson admitted.

"How?"

"I'll explain it later, Darkwing." Gosalyn promised. But then she turned a grinned at her dad. "I'm glad to see that you're not Darkwarrior, though."

Darkwing's face went blank with puzzlement for a moment. "Um...you're welcome." was all he could think to say.

Silence fell as they walked onward. Finally, they arrived in the main room of the massive underground complex. Many SHUSH agents were already present in the room, and had clearly heard Grizzlikof's call to evacuate and obeyed. They were currently turning everything on, and re-engaging normal operations for SHUSH from here. One of them broke away from the others and made their way towards the newcomers. It was Dr. Bellum.

"Ah, glad you guys all escaped!" Bellum exclaimed cheerfully. "I was starting to wonder if this Darkwarrior had gotten you guys!"

"Oh, he nearly did." Darkwing assured her. "Now, we need to figure out a way to stop him."

"I think I've got something we can use already." Bellum said. "I've been using our satellites and scanners to monitor how this Darkwarrior works his magic."

"And?" Crimson prompted.

"And, I've come to a conclusion that the only reason Darkwarrior is so successful at his method of...whatever we want to call it...is because he has..." Bellum left the sentence hanging, expecting the others to fill it in.

"Robots." Crimson said.

"So if we get rid of robots..." Grizzlikof said.

"...we can really cripple Darkwarrior." Darkwing said.

"But how?" Techno asked.

"I was hoping you'd ask." Bellum said, andled them over to a computer. It's screen was filled with complex codes. "As chance would have it, I've lately been working on a very advanced computer virus. I had designed it to use against FOUL, and to infect their computer systems and take control of them. But upon looking through the coding again, I believe that with a few simple tweaks, I can set it up to infect Darkwarrior's robots and permanently shut them down."

"That'll either force Darkwarrior to give up and go back to his universe, or turn to a new tactic." Darkwing said, getting excited. "And maybe by then, we'll be better prepared to battle him!"

"When will this be ready?" Grizzlikof asked.

"Depends." Bellum said. "Probably by tonight, at most."

Crimson frowned. "Let's hope Darkwarrior hasn't imprisoned all of St. Canard by then."

* * *

By nighttime had fallen, though, everybody in St. Canard had figured out what Darkwarrior was here to do. At first, everybody was okay with that, until Darkwarrior's methods started affecting them. Usually by them getting convicted by Darkwarrior and arrested by him personally or one of his robots.

The police reported that Darkwarrior tried to deliver the arrested at the jail, but when they resisted, Darkwarrior grew angry, and left with his prisoners, saying he would come back to handle the police's "laziness" later. It was presumed that Darkwarrior then took the prisoners to keep somewhere else himself. But no one knew where that was.

Fortunately, SHUSH did.

They had done it by tracking the positions of Darkwarrior's robots. Sooner or later, they would all return to a spot just outside St. Canard's boundaries in some woods, stay there for a period of time, and then leave again. As this event occurred nowhere else, Dr. Bellum logically deduced that this was where Darkwarrior had prepared some sort of hideout.

So it was here that Darkwing and the gang found themselves at as night started to fall that day.

Slipping out of the Elementary Underground tunnel exit, Darkwing stopped and looked around for signs of trouble. All he could see was the sparkling city lights of St. Canard and the neighboring forest on the other side of Audubon Bay. Seeing it was safe, Darkwing looked back into the tunnel and motioned for the others to come on out.

Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad all came out. Launchpad shivered.

"Certainly got cold out here." he muttered.

"It's still February, nearly, March, Launchpad." Crimson said. "What did you expect?"

"Well, don't worry, things are going to heat up soon." Darkwing promised. "Now, this way. Bellum said that Darkwarrior's hideout was through here."

They wandered into the woods, looking eerie in the darkness. The silence was oddly great, so much so that they all started to imagine that they were hearing things.

"Remember, it's a good idea to keep an eye out for Darkwarrior's robots at all times." Darkwing warned, as they all stopped to investigate a sound they all had imagined for the fifth time.

However, they never did find anything of the sort in their journey through the woods, not until they arrived at Darkwarrior's hideout. Arriving at the edge of the clearing, they saw it jut up from the ground in the form of a fairly impressive and futuristic tower. Robots zoomed back and forth from the tower constantly.

Darkwing blinked at it. "Okay, Darkwarrior couldn't have set that up all today." he said.

"Darkwarrior must have come here before." Techno reasoned. "He used that time to prepare for today."

"That would also explain how he knows so much about this universe already." Crimson noted.

"But why didn't SHUSH detect him coming here sooner?" Launchpad asked.

"They probably did, but just perceived it as a portal Negaduck had made." Techno said. "They probably would've kept on thinking that had it not been for the fact that the portal he used today was open for an extra long time."

Darkwing watching the hideout for a very long moment. "This could be a little harder than I first expected." he said. "And that's saying something, because I knew it would be hard to begin with." he shook his head. "Techno, you've got that chip still?"

"Yes, Mr. Darkwing." Techno said, raising the computer chip he held in his hand. "Bellum's virus is right here. All we have to do is plug this into the central server for the robots, and let the virus do the rest."

"Piece of cake." Launchpad said.

"Easy for you to say." Crimson mumbled.

"Well, there's no point in prolonging this." Darkwing said. "Let's go."

They hurried towards the hideout, being careful to not be seen by anything. Approaching a door, Techno examined it for a moment with his visor, and saw that it was unlocked and safe to open. Quickly, they slipped inside. Darkwing looked around at the hallway they found themselves in, and whistled.

"Darkwarrior's got some pretty advanced gizmos." he noted.

"That's because, in his universe, everything is more technologically advanced." Crimson said.

"Well, it is possible for one to become too dependant on technology." Techno reasoned, holding up the chip.

"Absolutely right." Darkwing agreed. "Kind of like you and your cell phone Crimson. I swear, you spend more time on it than..."

"Can we get going?" Launchpad interrupted. "This place is giving me the creeps."

"I'm forced to agree." Crimson said. "We should get moving."

"Right, right, right." Darkwing said, looking down the hallway. "I guess we can only go forward from here."

They moved on, finding not a soul in the hallways, not even a robot. They were all empty. It was clear that Darkwarrior wasn't expecting intruders. Finally, the hallway ended abruptly, exiting into a balcony that hung in a large, half-circle shaped room. At the railing stood Darkwarrior himself, looking down into the room.

In it was a large army of his robots, these ones armed with weapons.

"Robots!" he exclaimed dramatically. "I have underestimated how corrupt the St. Canard of this universe is! I've found that all of it's law-enforcing agencies are too weak! Therefore, it is now up to us to set things right, by taking the control those unworthy criminals have and giving it to a person who can truly handle the job! Me!"

"Uh-oh." Crimson muttered, from where she and the others secretly watched in the hallway.

"I have already taken care of SHUSH, and have set it into hiding!" Darkwarrior continued. "This just leaves the SCPD, which is reported to beginning to unite their forces to fight me! It will be their undoing! So now, go and take away their control on this poor city!"

"Acknowledged." the robots then all chorused together, and exited the room through a large door, heading on out into the night, and back into St. Canard.

Darkwarrior watched them go, then exited the balcony, heading into the hallway. He did not see anybody there who shouldn't be, however, because Darkwing and the gang had all hidden themselves in a nearby closet. After he had passed, they all slipped out again.

"We need to hurry, before Darkwarrior singlehandedly levels St. Canard!" Darkwing said.

* * *

Officer Matthew watched the night skies, suddenly and unexpectedly void of all of Darkwarrior's robots.

"Where did they all go?" he asked aloud.

But then he caught sight of one heading towards him, and the other officers that had blockaded themselves around the police station. The one robot was quickly followed by more.

"Here they come!" Matthew exclaimed. "Prepare to fire!"

The officers raised their weapons, taking aim. Matthew waited for the robots to get a little closer.

"Fire!" he exclaimed.

The officers obeyed, shooting out at the robots. The first few started to fall, but by that point the robots had come into range, and started firing their own, superior, weapons, beginning to wreak much havoc in the ranks of the officers...

* * *

Back at Darkwarrior's hideout, Darkwing and the gang were hurrying along down the hallways.

"C'mon, c'mon, where are those servers?" Darkwing mumbled to himself as they ran.

Techno stopped at one door and pushed it open. "In here!" he exclaimed.

They all slipped into the large, computer filled, room. But that wasn't all. There was also all of Darkwarrior's prisoners, several all jammed into one cell at a time, and kept there by beams of blue energy that acted like prison bars. Seeing Darkwing and the others, the prisoners all started to talk at once, pleading to the heroes to free them.

"Hush!" Darkwing quickly urged. "You need to be quiet if we're going to do anything!"

"Darkwing?" a familiar voice came out from within the multitudes.

"J. Gander?" Darkwing said, looking in each of the cells for the director. "Where are you?"

"Here DW!" Launchpad called out, standing at one cell.

Sure enough, J. Gander Hooter stood at the front of it.

"Director Hooter!" Crimson said, hurrying up to the cell. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, now that you're all here." Hooter said, looking pleased. "I knew you'd show up sooner or later. Thank you for not letting me down."

"Well don't thank us yet, we need to get you out of here first." Crimson said.

At that moment, a very ominous humming sound could be heard outside the room.

"Techno!" darkwing said, seeking cover, and motioning to Crimson and Launchpad to do the same. "Get that virus uploaded quickly! I think we're going to have company!"

He was proven right when the first of many of Darkwarrior's robots entered the room, and they were all the armed version. Darkwing and Crimson quickly opened fire on them, and the robots fired back. Meanwhile, Techno headed to the back of the room where the servers were, and was dismayed to see that there wasn't just one server like he had hoped, but seven. Only one of them was the one he wanted. Which one was it?

Knowing time was short, he stuck it into one at random. A message popped up on a nearby computer screen. It read: "Device unknown, unable to download contents." Undeterred, Techno removed the chip and stuck it into another. He got the same message. Starting to panic, he tried again. And again. Finally, when he stuck it into another server, it paused for a moment, then a new message appeared on the screen. "Device recognized. Downloading contents."

"I've got it!" Techno called out. "It should only take a few moments for it to work!"

"Let's hope it's not a few moments too many!" Darkwing exclaimed back, feeling overwhelmed as Darkwarrior's robots started pressing into the room and firing constantly at the intruders.

* * *

Back at the blockade the SCPD has set up, the police was about ready to retreat, they were so overwhelmed. The robots had started to get into the ranks and capture them and haul them away. Their weapons were proving to not be effective enough. Every robot they took out, they'd loose two to three officers with.

Matthew was starting to see there was little he could do here. If they kept at it, he'd risk losing everybody.

"Retreat!" he said. "Get out of here while you still can!"

"No, wait!" another officer interrupted, pointing. "Look!"

All over, the robots suddenly froze, then dropped to the ground, completely lifeless. The officers stared at them for a few moments. When it seemed clear that they weren't going to get back up again, they all started to cheer.

* * *

Darkwing came out of hiding, and stared at the fallen robots. "That was kind of anti climatic, really." he noted.

Techno was busy at one of the computers. "I think I can lower these forcefields if I..." he trailed off when the beams of blue energy keeping the prisoners in their cells vanished. With a cheer, all the prisoners raced out of their cells.

"Hold on, hold on!" Darkwing quickly intervened. "Get yourselves together everybody, and follow me! Be quick now!"

Darkwing led the escapees out the door. They all started to follow. Crimson was taking up the rear, but stopped when she discovered that Techno hadn't left yet.

"Techno, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Believe it or not, this place has a self-destruct." Techno said, and tapped one final command into the computer. Alarms started to ring around.

"And let me guess." Crimson said, looking around. "You just activated it."

"Naturally." Techno said. "Now lets go. We only have so many minutes."

They raced out of the hideout, along with the rest of the escapees. They met no resistence, and was able to go all the way to the entrance back into Elementary Underground. As the last of them got into the underground facility, Crimson and Techno looked back in time to see a large explosion plume out from the area where the hideout was.

"Well, that ends that." Techno said.

"For now." Crimson said. "I'm beginning to suspect that Darkwarrior won't disappear so easily."

* * *

Some time later, the gang returned home, ready for a good night's sleep after all they had been through today.

"Wow, I think I'll sleep good tonight." Gosalyn said, as she headed for her bedroom.

"Oh, no you don't!" Drake said. "You still need to explain how you know more about Darkwarrior than all the rest of us!"

Gosalyn froze. "Can't that wait until tomorrow?" she asked.

"Gos, I think that whatever this is about, you've haven't told me about it for some time." Drake said. "I know everybody has a need for secrets, but every now and then, those secrets have to come out. Usually it's for the better. Now, please, just tell me."

Gosalyn hesitated for a moment, then let out a long sigh. "Okay." she said. "Okay, starting from the beginning seven years ago, long before you were abducted by Negaduck and trapped in the Negaverse, you were going to stop Megavolt and Quackerjack from using what we later learned was Quackerjack's Time Top. I came along, and tried to help despite you telling me not to, and I happened to go along on the trip through time with Quackerjack and Megavolt and, well, that's when my first encounter with Darkwarrior began..."


	28. Airstream

Summary: St. Canard has been plauged with heavy winds for more than a week now. It seems harmless, but Darkwing's convinced otherwise...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: This chpt has an incredibly weak plot, but all things considered, I think I pulled it off pretty well. The end sets up for a later chpt, so it is purposely left hanging and a little irrelevent.

28.

Airstream

"In other news, today marks as the seventh day that St. Canard has been subjected to gusts of wind ranging up to thirty miles per hour or higher. This also marks a record, as St. Canard has been subjected to this wind non-stop, all week, a highly irregular weather occurrence for this area. And now to John with the sports. John?"

"Ha!" Drake Mallard exclaimed as he sat on the couch, watching the news report continue. "Figures that they wouldn't even spend a full minute talking about this wind! It's all they've done all week!"

"Uh-huh, dad." Gosalyn said from within the dining room, half-listening as she worked on homework.

"And those numbers aren't even accurate!" Drake went on. "According to Honker, he says the winds actually have been averaging much higher than that, more around _fifty _miles per hour!"

"Right dad." Gosalyn said.

"And it's been going on for a full, straight, week now!"

"Sure has."

"So am I the _only _one who finds that the least bit odd?" Drake asked.

Gosalyn sighed, and didn't look up from her homework. "Yep." she replied.

Drake grumbled something for a moment.

"Dad, SHUSH said they'll look into your theory, but you have to admit, it just doesn't fit." Gosalyn pointed out.

"Yeah DW." Launchpad agreed, stepping out of the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn, and joining Drake on the couch. "Why would any villain want to create a little windstorm like this?"

"Because it's distracting!" Drake exclaimed, hopping up onto his feet. "Takes the attention _away _from them! And who do we know likes to do that?"

"The Elements." Gosalyn admitted. "But this whimpy little windstorm isn't nearly distracting enough for them. Not for the level of stuff they do."

"This _whimpy _windstorm, as you call it, little lady, is reaching speeds of _fifty _miles per hour!" Drake said, turning to face his adopted daughter. "Do you know what happens when winds reach fifty miles per hour?"

"No." Gosalyn said matter of factly, and didn't really care to know.

"Singles start getting torn off of _roofs_ at those speeds!" Drake exclaimed.

"Really." Gosalyn said melodramatically.

"Yes, really!" Drake said. "And we should be out looking for the cause, not sitting here watching TV!"

"_I'm _not watching the TV, dad, I'm doing my homework, just like you asked me to." Gosalyn said.

"You know what I meant, Gos." Drake said.

"Look, this wind is probably nothing more than a freak of nature." Gosalyn continued. "Even Honker agrees with that! We don't have any proof that there are any villains behind it."

"Yeah, and besides, DW, it always gets a little windy in March." Launchpad added.

"But not this windy!" Drake retorted.

"So Mother Nature decided to break a trend." Gosalyn persisted. "It's nothing to get so worked up over. And besides, you've got SHUSH investigating the matter, what more do you want?"

"That's right, I've got SHUSH!" Drake said proudly. "J. Gander will trust me no matter what. He keep his agents at it until they get to the bottom of it!"

* * *

"I'm sorry, Darkwing, but I'm afraid I have to call off the search." Hooter reported the following morning.

"What?" Darkwing said, hopping out of his command chair indignantly. "Does that mean you've found something?"

"We've found nothing, Darkwing." Hooter said.

"Then why call it off?"

"Darkwing, I have my own bosses you know, and they've gotten word of this investigation." Hooter explained with regret. "They view this investigation a waste of SHUSH resources and time, and have ordered me to stop it."

Darkwing grunted and folded his arms. "Typical." he muttered.

"Darkwing, you know I trust you completely for your opinions and views." Hooter said. "But they're right. SHUSH can't dedicate all of it's time investigating a whim, not when there are bigger fish being fried out there in the world."

"But...but..." Darkwing began. "What if there's a villain out there causing all this wind?"

"The wind isn't the real concern here, Darwking." Hooter pointed out. "It may be abnormally strong, and lasted all week, but it's not causing any _real_ problems."

"The point is that there still could be a villain out there!" Darkwing said. "And now you're telling me SHUSH is staying out of this?"

"Darkwing, if there were more proof, then SHUSH would back you all the way." Hooter said. "But until we have such proof, I'm afraid you're on your own."

Darkwing was silent for a moment, then hung his head. "Right." he mumbled. "Of course."

"I truly am sorry, Darkwing, but when it involves the people who outrank me, they can easily overrule me." Hooter assured Darkwing.

"Well, at least thanks for trying to help." Darkwing admitted, looking glum. But then he brightened. "But when I come back with the evidence..."

"Yes, well, until then, Darkwing, good day." Hooter said, and closed the channel.

Darkwing sighed, and put the big screen into screen saver.

"Well, if nobody else will help me, I'll get to the bottom of this myself." he said, pulling of his mask and hat, reverting back to his secret identity. He checked his watch. "But first, see Gosalyn off to school."

Hopping into one of the nearby armchairs, Drake arrived back home in a flash, and hopped out of the chair with a flourish. Stepping into the dining room, he expected to see Gosalyn eating her breakfast in preparation for leaving school, but found only Launchpad, munching on toast.

Drake looked in the kitchen for his daughter, and upon not finding her there, turned to Launchpad. "LP, where's Gosalyn?" he asked.

Launchpad shrugged. "I dunno, still in bed?" he asked.

Drake threw up his hands in despair, and marched upstairs to his daughter's bedroom and stormed right in without bothering to knock. As Launchpad had predicted, Gosalyn was still in bed, and looked to be asleep. Or at least, had been until Drake entered noisily. Gosalyn rolled over to look at him, blinking a few times.

"Hey dad." she said. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Drake repeated sarcastically. "Well, I want to know why you aren't out of bed yet."

"Because I didn't wake up." Gosalyn replied with a simple shrug.

"And why didn't you wake up?"

"Because my alarm didn't go off."

"And why didn't it go off?"

"Because I turned it off."

"And why did you turn it off?"

"Because today's the first day of spring break. No school."

Drake froze. "It is?" he said, checking the _Jumpgate_ calendar hung on Gosalyn's wall.

"Yeah, this is the second week of March, isn't it?" Gosalyn asked.

Drake checked. "Well, so it is." he said.

Gosalyn sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you here again?" she asked after a moment.

"I _was _going to hound you, and tell you to get out o bed or you'll be late for school." Drake said.

"No point in that now." Gosalyn remarked.

"Yeah." Drake agreed, walking out the door. "So resume what you were doing."

He closed the door. Gosalyn stared blankly at it for a moment, then laid back down. "Works for me." she said.

Downstairs, Drake was grumbling to himself as he went back to the armchairs and return to Darkwing Tower.

"And to think, I wasted a full..." he checked his watch, "...five minutes trying to get Gosalyn up for nothing." he grumbled.

"DW, you going somewhere?" Launchpad asked, from within the kitchen.

"Yeah, to the tower." Darkwing said. "SHUSH bailed on me on this situation with the wind, so now it's all up to me." he made himself comfy in the armchair, then reached over to activate them, still talking. "I'll probably stop at the weather station to search for clues, and be there most of the day. You stay here and keep an eye on Gosalyn."

"DW, she's seventeen, and can look after herself." Launchpad said.

"Okay, let me rephrase that then." Drake said, pausing to dramatically to think about it, annoyed. "Stay here and watch over her, so you can make sure she doesn't blow up the house."

"Oh." Launchpad said, understanding. "Got it."

"So anyway, I'll be at the weather station if you need me." Drake continued, once again reaching for the little figurine that sat in-between the two chairs.

"Well, why go all the way there, when you can just talk to Honker?" Launchpad asked suddenly. "He's been working on his own little backyard weather station that he's been building ever since the snow melted, and is more accurate than anything I've seen."

Drake froze again, realizing Launchpad had a very good point.

* * *

Having donned a jacket, Drake stepped out in the backward, his clothing flapping as the heavy winds that plagued the city still rushed past him. Shivering from the chill, he looked into the neighboring backyard of the Muddlefoots, and saw Honker outside working with a very large and complicated device sitting on a fold up card table. Drake stepped over and leaned on the fence.

"Howdy neighbor." he greeted with a grin.

Honker looked up from what he was doing for a brief moment. "Oh, hello Mr. Mallard." he greeted in return, focusing on his work.

"Some wind, huh?" Drake went on.

"Yeah, it's really putting my anemometer to the test." Honker said.

Drake looked blank. "Huh?"

"The spinny-thing with the cups on it." Honker clarified.

"Ah."

"So anyway, what brings you out here, Mr. Mallard?" Honker asked, tweaking something on his contraption.

"I was hoping you would ask, Honk." Drake said. "Got a few questions to ask you."

"Okay."

"Secret ones, I mean."

Honker paused for a moment, then looked around nervously. Seeing that there was nobody around, he stepped over to where Drake leaned on the fence.

"You see, Darkwing thinks there's more to this wind than meets the eye." Drake said softly, so only Honker would hear. "But he needs to get some evidence in order to get some support from people such as SHUSH. I was hoping you might have something?"

Honker sighed. "Unfortunately, Mr. Mallard, I have very little." he said. "By all accounts, this wind checks out. There is _nothing _unusual about it, besides it's so strong, and has lasted an entire week."

"Tell me what you've got anyway, maybe I can figure out something." Drake said.

"All right." Honker said, looking apprehensive. He picked up a clipboard from off the weather contraption and started to read from it. "Let's see, wind speed is averaging around the upper fifty miles per hour, slacking off occasionally, usually in the mornings or late evenings to forty or less. The wind chill brings the temperature from about forty degrees Fahrenheit to the upper thirties. Direction comes from the east, southeast, and..."

"Wait, this wind is blowing from the east?" Drake said, not having realized this.

"Uh, yes, according to my information." Honker confirmed.

"Honker, that can't be." Drake said. "That means it's blowing _towards_ Duckburg."

"So?" Honker asked.

"That means this wind is blowing _towards _the ocean."

"Yeah. So?"

Drake gave Honker a surprised look. "Honker, I know for a fact that all winds blowing more than twenty miles per hour _always _blow _in _from the sea, not out to it! And as St. Canard is so close to the sea, this rule is very rarely broken!"

"So?" Honker asked. "This doesn't prove anything."

"Maybe not." Drake admitted, turning to walk back into his house. "But it gives me a place to look."

* * *

Not long later, Darkwing was sitting alone in the Ratcatcher, zooming along the roads and ever heading east. Passing out of St. Canard's boundaries, he drove along the now highway road, looking for anything out of place, anything that would give him a clue as to what to look for next, to solve this riddle of the wind.

Naturally, he didn't find anything, but being stubborn as he was, he kept driving until the Ratcatcher finally ran out of gas not too far from a nearby gas station and diner, sitting on the outskirts of the next town. Frustrated, Darkwing walked the motorbike into the station, refilled the tank, got a quick bite to eat from the diner, and prepared to head off again.

But as he was fastening his helmet, he finally noticed something was missing.

There was no wind.

Seeing he could be onto something, Darkwing quickly rushed back into the diner.

"Hey!" he said, pulling aside a waitress. "Have you had any wind around here today?"

The waitress, much taller than Darkwing, looked down at him and frowned. "Describe wind." she said.

"Like fifty miles per hour or higher wind." Darkwing said. "Has there been any wind here today?"

"No, nothing of the sort." the waitress said.

"How about any day this past week?" Drake asked.

"Nope, nothing, unless you count a warm spring breeze." the waitress said. "Why?"

But Darkwing was already heading back out the door. "Thanks!" he called as he ran.

Hopping back on the Ratcatcher, he realized what this meant. At some point during his journey, the wind just stopped. And as he was still fairly close to St. Canard, he found that to be highly irregular. He started back for home, but this time went slowly, so he wouldn't miss this suddenly vital point and miss the exact point in which the wind stopped again.

However, one just doesn't go slow on a highway, and it wasn't long before he had a long line of cars backed up behind him, honking their horns loudly, while others worked to pass him.

"S-sorry, sorry about that!" Darkwing called out to the cars behind him, as he inched along on the Ratcatcher.

Then, quite suddenly, he was nearly knocked forward as a huge gust of wind suddenly grabbed hold of him. Brightening, he quickly drove off the road, and allowed all the cars behind him to drive past. Hopping off the motorbike, he looked around. There didn't seem to be anything here, but Darkwing was more convinced than ever that there was something fishy about this wind.

"I may not be a meteorologist or anything like that, but something tells me wind just doesn't stop and start like that." he said to himself, stepping back and forth over an imaginary line, discovering that everything was calm on one side, and violently windy on the other. "But the question is, where do I go from here?"

He considered contacting SHUSH, and seeing if this would be proof enough for Hooter to get permission to resume the investigation, but ultimately decided against it. He should get more proof, just in case. One thing was clear, though, was that whatever was starting this wind was somewhere along this imaginary line Darkwing had discovered, and was either somewhere to the south, or somewhere up north. To the south was a range of mountains, which Darkwing perceived as the least likely place for a wind to start.

But then again, like he said before, he was no meteorologist. He supposed it was possible for wind to start there. But then again...again...if it really was the least likely place for a wind to start, then maybe that would be the excellent place for this suspicious wind to have it's origins. Darkwing then decided to go to the south first. Hopping back onto the Ratcatcher, he drove south, again going slowly so not to miss the wind suddenly stopping. He hadn't gone far before the wind yet again just stopped.

Darkwing hadn't found anything but barren land, though, so he turned around and headed north, accelerating to reach the highway quickly again. Once there, he drove across it, then slowed down to again head north. He went much farther this time, and eventually passed through the barren plains and into a forest. Darkwing continued on into the forest relentless, looking for clues.

Then he realized there was a big one staring him in the face.

This forest bordered along St. Canard's eastern outskirts. Not that was anything extra special or anything, but he had visited this same forest just a couple weeks ago. This was the forest Darkwarrior had set up his hideout in. It couldn't be a mere coincidence that this wind mysteriously started within these same woods.

Grinning confidently, Darkwing revved the engine on the Ratcatcher, and turned to head towards St. Canard again, going through the woodlands. It wasn't long before the towering Canard Tower came into view again on the horizon, and it wasn't long after that Darkwing arrived at the site of the late hideout of Darkwarrior's.

Stopping the Ratcatcher and hooping down from it, Darkwing surveyed the area, and at first glance, didn't find anything out of place. In the middle of the small clearing was a pile of charred rubble, all that remained of the futuristic hideout. Scattered about where the vandalized remains of a few of Darkwarrior's robotic assistants, torn apart weeks earlier by SHUSH agents for analysis.

No sign of Darkwarrior, nor any signs that someone had been trying to rebuild, but this didn't surprise Darkwing. His extremist double had vanished without a trace after his hideout was destroyed and his robots permanently disabled, and Darkwing hoped that meant Darkwarrior had returned to his own universe. Although Gosalyn thought otherwise, and Darkwing knew now that she knew the character better than ever.

But even if Darkwarrior did stick around, he wouldn't be here. He knew that this location was publicly known to everybody. It had made headline news, and SHUSH, knowing that Darkwarrior affected everybody, didn't bother to try and hide. Darkwarrior was no idiot, he knew that he'd be easily attacked or captured if he stayed here.

So he wasn't here. That was that. But Darkwing took a look around either way, knowing that there quite easily be a clue hidden here. And he was right, there was a clue here, but it certainly wasn't hidden.

Circling the remains of the hideout, Darkwing discovered that somebody quite haphazardly dug through the debris to reach at something buried inside. Peering into the hole that had been made, Darkwing saw the remains of some sort of device, looking like a metal frame, like picture from, but with more angles so it appeared a bit more round. Darkwing suddenly realized that it looked like a kind of gateway.

But that wasn't all. The device seemed to have survived the worse of the hideout's self-destruct, but clearly someone had come along and stripped it of various pieces. Darkwing's first thought was SHUSH, but then decided that was unlikely. He saw a list of the things SHUSH had salvaged, and none of it fit the description of this gateway-thing. So unless they were keeping it secret from him for reasons unknown, it wasn't SHUSH.

Not only that, but Darkwing's crime-fighting training told him that who ever did this salvaging work had done it recently. Very recently, like within the last week. Not only did this not fit in with SHUSH's salvaging spree, which was the week before, it fit with Darkwing's theory that this wind was somehow tied into a villain's scheme's.

"So the question is," Darkwing said, taking a few steps back, "who did this?"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure it out, Dipwing Dork."

Darkwing whirled around to face the owner of the voice that had spoken behind him in time to have Negaduck punch him in the face and knock him out.

* * *

The first thing Darkwing became aware of when he regained consciousness sometime later was his splitting headache, and the fact that he was tied up. He wiggled for a moment, trying to free himself from the chair he was tied to.

"Forget it Darkwing, even a Junior Woodchuck couldn't get himself out of that."

Darkwing looked up, and saw Negaduck standing in the doorway.

"Negs." Darkwing said, glaring at his longtime nemesis. "So you're behind all of this."

"I'm behind the fact that I've captured you and have got you so nicely tied up." Negaduck answered, stepping into the room. "Dunno what you're referring to about the rest of that."

"Oh, you know." Darkwing said. "The wind, rooting through the remains of Darkwarrior's hideout..."

"That wasn't me." Negaduck said, starting to pace around Darkwing now.

"Oh sure." Darkwing said skeptically. "Prove it, then."

"Would _I_ be the kind of person who would create a week long windstorm at any speed less than a hundred miles per hour?" Negaduck asked.

"Well..." Darkwing began, thinking carefully. "...no, I guess not. But still..."

"Forget it Darkwing, you're trying to bark up the wrong tree." Negaduck persisted.

"Then why have you captured me?" Darkwing asked.

"That's been my long time goal, hasn't it?" Negaduck asked. "Besides, I thought you'd have some answers." he stopped, and grinned. "Clearly I was wrong."

"Answers?" Darkwing asked. "What do you need answers for?"

"Well, you were partly right when you accused me of rooting through the trash heap that is now the hideout of Darkwarrior Duck." Negaduck said. "I say partly, though, because it seems I was too late. You see, Darkwarrior went after me too, in addition to you, on that fateful day he turned up in our universe. I, like you, managed to avoid capture. I, however, feared that he would have a means of creating portals so I gathered the gang together and went to check out the remains of the hideout. Turns out, though, that someone had beaten me there, and took most of what I had been looking for."

"Wait." Darkwing said. "You mean to say that gateway-like thing back there was a portal generator?"

"Sure." Negaduck said with a shrug. "Obviously, Darkwarrior has one to get here in our universe, and one to get back. At least, he used to. But that's beside the point."

"Right, because someone, as you said, beat you to it." Darkwing said. "Instead, you found me, didn't you?"

"Not quite." Negaduck said. "Me and the gang showed up there a couple of days ago and found everything like it was now. I was curious as to who the heck would want parts from a portal generator other than SHUSH, though, so I laid in wait to see if whoever had taken those parts would come back." he grinned, and pressed his face into Darkwing's. "And heaven forbid, you showed up."

"Well, _I_ certainly didn't take those parts." Darkwing said in his defense.

"I _know _that." Negaduck said, agitated. "In fact, I've already figured out everything, like you clearly have not."

"Mm, there's always something, isn't there." Darkwing muttered. "I don't suppose I can talk you into telling me."

"Actually, you might." Negaduck said. "Because the real reason you're here is so I can tell you to stay away. This matter is for _me _to deal with, not you."

"Why you?" Darkwing asked.

"None of your business." Negaduck said. "But it's because of this I'm going to let you go free and...mostly...unharmed."

"What?" Darkwing asked, surprised. "Why Negaduck, I do believe you're going soft."

Negaduck frowned. "You got lucky, today, is all." he growled. "Don't expect such mercy next time."

"But why?" Darkwing asked. "Why such dedication to take care of this situation yourself?"

"I have a personal grudge against the people in question." Negaduck said.

"Who are..." Darkwing began.

"Who else?" Negaduck asked, curling one hand into a fist idly. "Who else would have interest in and can do all of the aforementioned things?"

Darkwing thought for a long moment. "There's only one." he finally deduced.

Negaduck nodded. "The Elements."

And with that, he punched Darkwing again, knocking him out cold once more.

* * *

Darkwing awoke again back in the clearing, lying next to the remains of Darkwarrior's hideout, and now sporting not one, but two black eyes, and one heck of a headache. Still, Darkwing shook all of this off, and stood up, heading towards the Ratcatcher, which had been left exactly as he had left it.

So, The Elements were behind this. It made sense, as one of their members had the superpower to create wind, as powerful as she wanted it, too. And, like always, it was acting like a distraction, just as he had predicted. Clearly, the wind came when The Elements did, and would continue until The Elements left again.

But then that conflicted with what Negaduck had told him. They had gotten what they wanted. So if that was true, why were they still here?

He promptly drove to SHUSH Headquarters with this question and asked for a meeting with Hooter, hoping that he would find the remaining answers through here. Hooter met with Darkwing immediately, and upon arriving in J. Gander's office, Darkwin instantly started to relate what he knew.

Hooter leaned back in his chair in thought, thinking this through. "Hmm, well, this does confirm that FOUL is indeed working at building their own portal generator. But the question is; where?"

"Or why?" Darkwing asked. "Does FOUL want to get into the Negaverse, or possibly the newly discovered and unknown Warriorverse?"

"Or possibly to an entirely new universe we know nothing about?" Hooter asked. "This is a question I would greatly like an answer to."

"As would I." Darkwing agreed. "But what I don't get is that if The Elements _got _what they came for and were using the wind as cover, then why is there still wind?"

"Clearly, there's more to all of this that we don't know still." Hooter said. "Darkwing, you have my complete authorization to get to the bottom of all of this, no matter what the means."

"Right, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "But where am I supposed to go now? We have no clue where to find The Elements, if they're even still in the area."

Hooter promptly stood from his chair. "Come with me, Darkwing." he said. "I believe I have a solution to that little dilemma."

* * *

"I call it the 'Elemental Tracker', or ET, for short." Dr. Bellum explained in a lab later, showing Darkwing and Hooter a map of St. Canard on a screen. "You see, Mr. Darkwing, that The Elements powers release certain amounts of phenomenons, each special to a certain power. Theoretically, one could trace these abilities if one had a strong enough sensor. This is where ET comes it. Using extra-powerful sensors, we can scan certain areas for anything that would match these powers."

"The project is still in the testing stage, however, and isn't fully operational, and may not be for some time." Dr. Bellum went on, going to point at Canard Tower in the middle of the map. "As such, we only have one, small, sensor on top of Canard Tower, and it's range is limited to only certain areas of St. Canard. And even then, it can't exactly distinguish all the data as right or wrong, so we could get something wrong."

"Still, if we wish to track down The Elements, this one sensor could be our best bet." Hooter said. "Proceed doctor."

"Right." Bellum said. "We'll start with a heat scan, clearly to look for Jack O'Hara's superpower."

A moment later, several little red dots appeared on the screen. Bellum then filtered the scan to exclude results known to not be what they were looking for. The number of dots decreased, but there were still a great deal on the screen. Too many to be of any good.

"You see where ET's flaws are, still." Bellum said. "We haven't been able to pinpoint the right frequency to pick out anything to match the heat Jack O'Hara's powers produce, and even then, we run the risk of detecting something that would match."

"Try another member of the team, then." Darkwing suggested.

"Of course." Bellum said, starting the scan again, this time with new parameters. "This one should give us the results we want. Scanning for Garth Miner."

The dots vanished from the screen, but no new ones appeared in their stead. Darkwing and Hooter looked in Bellum's direction.

"You were saying?" Darkwing asked.

"Clearly, he's not here, or at least not within the sensor's range." Bellum reasoned.

"It's possible that the whole group is no present." Hooter reasoned. "Perhaps Steelbeak has part of the team working on something else while the rest works on a mission here."

"Search for Elizabeth Guire, pinpoint the source of this wind." Darkwing suggested, rubbing his beak.

"Good idea." Bellum said. "Besides, we haven't quite gotten the scans for Sally McHare working anyway."

A moment later, large blue blurs appeared all over the map.

Darkwing frowned. "How does this work again?" he asked.

"By tracking the special features of each of The Element's powers." Bellum explained. "In the case of Elizabeth Guire, wind."

"Then this is no help, or there's wind all over St. Canard at the moment!" Darkwing said.

"No wait, look here." Hooter said, pointing at one corner of the screen. "Look at this large cluster of blurs. I don't see any others quite like it anywhere else. Maybe this is where Elizabeth is."

Darkwing thought about it. "It's possible." he admitted. "That spot isn't too far from Darkwarrior's hideout is...er...was."

"Then, it might be very much worth our time to go check it out." Hooter reasoned.

* * *

"How's the bloomin' wind goin' Lizzie?" Sally asked, as she waved a FOUL-issued scanner around.

Elizabeth, who was constantly seeming to be distracted, replied, "Fine. But I really didn't expect to generating such a large and power wind for so long."

"So it took longer to find this place than expected." Sally said, climbing down from the platform she stood upon. "Jolly well not my fault Steelbeak's intel was wrong."

"Right." Elizabeth said, turning to look at the centerpiece of the room. "So tell me you've got this thing working."

Sally came to stand by her. "Yeah, I think so." she said.

"You think?" Elizabeth asked.

"If the bally thing doesn't blow up when I activate it, that jolly well means it's workin'." Sally said matter-of-factly, holding up the remote she held in one hand.

They paused to look at the Darkwarrior-style portal generator sitting in the middle of the room for a moment.

"How big of a bang are we talking about?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, it's hard to say, really." Sally admitted. "As far as I can figure out, Darkwarrior built this back-up facility as a place to escape if everythin' and anythin' went wrong for him. Dunno if he's actually used it or not, but the blighter's rigged it so it won't turn on by just anybody. I _think _I've worked around the safeguards though, at least enough for the bloomin' thin t' turn on safely."

"Which brings me back to my original question." Elizabeth said. "How big a bang?"

"Probably enough t' tear part this whole buildin'." Sally said.

"In that case, that thing doesn't turn on until you're _sure _it won't blow up." Elizabeth said.

Sally glared at her cohort. "Fine." she said hotly. "Just keep that wind goin' for a few more days, then, why don't ya. I'm sure you aren't gettin' tired just yet."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, and turned to argue, but never got the chance, as a cloud of purple smoke suddenly appeared in the portal generator.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing said as he emerged from the cloud. "I am the portal generator that takes weeks to recharge! I am Darkwing..." he quickly ducked as Sally hurled a ball of water at him. "...Duck!"

He then fired off two canisters of gas, one at Sally, the other at Elizabeth. Both were caught off guard by the action, and where disoriented for a moment.

"Surprised to see me?" Darkwing asked proudly.

"Just a tad, aye." Sally said sarcastically, coughing on smoke.

"How did you find this hidden structure of Darkwarrior's anyway?" Elizabeth asked, also coughing.

"Well, it wasn't exactly easy, as you didn't really leave a trail of breadcrumbs." Darkwing said. "I'm actually a bit surprised Negaduck didn't get to you guys first."

"Guess again, you knob."

Everyone turned to the door that led into the one-room building, and saw Negaduck standing there. He had his pistol raised and pointed at Elizabeth, who was closest.

"Darkwing, I do believe I told you to _not _interfere." Negaduck growled.

"Oh c'mon, you let me go." Darkwing said. "You should've know that I would've gotten involved after that."

"Maybe so." Negaduck said. "But you won't be so lucky this time around. I've got the Fearsome Five surrounding this building. _None _of you are getting out of here."

"That's what _you _think." Sally said suddenly, and a spout of water suddenly shot out of the floor before Negaduck and sprayed him in the face.

Gagging, Negaduck backed up several paces, waving his pistol blindly. It fired suddenly, the bullet ricocheting off the roof. Darkwing used the moment to charge towards Elizabeth. But Elizabeth was too quick, and fired off a blast of wind at Darkwing, blowing him backwards. Darkwing failed about in midair, and managed to grab a hold of the portal generator. His momentum swung him around the portal generator and out of the gust of wind.

Darkwing then fired off a canister of gas in Elizabeth's direction. It missed, but distracted the duck anyway. By this point, Negaduck came back into the picture, and fired off the pistol at Sally. Sally dodged the bullets, and climbed up a ladder to a platform. Darkwing followed, grabbing the hare's wrist. He noticed the remote in Sally hand, and went to grab it, the same time she dealt him a kick to the middle.

It pushed Darkwing off the platform and to the floor again, where he landed with a crash. Mostly unfazed, though, Darkwing sat back up, and saw he managed to grab the remote before he fell. Having no clue what it was supposed to do, he pressed it's button. The portal generator sparked, then a low whine slowly started to build up.

The fight forgotten for the moment, all four of them stared at the generator.

"That doesn't sound good." Darkwing noted.

"You knob, of course it doesn't!" Negaduck exclaimed.

"It's not supposed to do that, is it?" Elizabeth asked Sally.

"No, it's jolly well not." Sally said. "So RUN! The bloomin' thing's gonna blow!"

Needing no second bidding, all of them made a mad dash for the exit, all three enemies fighting with one another to try and to escape before all the others. This slowed them down significantly, but they finally got outside, and spread out, all running away from the little building in different directions. They hadn't gotten far before the transdimensional portal generator within suddenly exploded, taking the whole building with it in a fiery plume of flames. The shockwave knocked them all to the ground, and in the chaos that followed, they all momentarily lost sight of one another.

Darkwing picked himself off the ground, and stood up in time to see Negaduck point a pistol in his face. Behind him, NegaGosalyn was hurrying over with her P90, also ready to fire.

"Told ya you weren't going to escape." Negaduck said, as Darkwing saw Megavolt leave his hiding spot and come towards them.

Darkwing, however, had an idea quickly. "Not if I pull off a little trick of your own, Negs." he said.

He fired off his gas gun at his feet, and quickly vanished behind the purple smoke. Negaduck fired his pistol, quickly joined by NegaGosalyn and, a little later, Megavolt. But the bullets and bolts of electricity merely flew through the cloud of smoke and hit nothing. Darkwing had already vanished.

* * *

Emerging from the woods some distance from the site of the explosion, Darkwing headed straight for the entrance into Elementary Underground, relieved. He had managed to defy death yet again. And had managed to defeat the dastardly denizens of darkness. And, better still, the wind had stopped and everything was calm. Elizabeth was no longer creating it anymore.

Grinning, Darkwing dropped into the concealed tunnel, thinking about how pleased SHUSH was going to be when he delivered this report...

* * *

Groaning weakly, Sally regained consciousness, and looked behind her. The flames, all that visibly remained of the backup hideout of Darkwarrior's, still burned. Everything within was undoubtably destroyed. Sighing, Sally started to pick herself up, knowing that Steelbeak wouldn't be happy to hear this.

She froze suddenly when she heard someone coming towards her, hidden in the darkness before her.

"Who's there?" she called out suddenly.

"Just someone who thinks he can help." a calm and reassuring voice said.

Sally trusted it instantly, as she watched the newcomer approach her, extending a hand to help her up...


	29. Double Doubloons

Summary: An incident with a transdimensional portal has landed the gang three hundred years in the past where another masked mallard who fought for good...

Rating: K

Author's Note: This is one of those ideas that seemed good at the time, but when you go to actually inact upon it, turned out not to work so well. So this chpt turned out much weaker than I had hoped. The whole plot actually turned out to not work too good, and there were several unexpected things in here that turned out to be hard to right. So sorry for posting two chpts in a row that didn't have the greatest plots in the world, but the next chpt, chpt. 30, won't be like that. ;)

29.

Double Doubloons

"We're nearing the location of the portal, Crimson." Techno reported from the sidecar of the Ratcatcher.

"Got that Darkwing?" Crimson said into her radio.

"Yep." Darkwing reported from above, where he rode in the Thunderquack. "Me and LP are moving in. Remember the plan?"

"Yep." Crimson said. "Let you and LP move it and catch Negaduck and the Fearsome Five off guard, distracting them. Only _while _they're distracted will me and Techno move in and attack from the ground."

"And don't you forget it." Darkwing added. "Remember what happened last time?"

"Oh yeah." Crimson said with a laugh. "Wonder if Quackerjack's butt is still sore from that."

"It would've been sore _and _in jail had you stuck with the plan!" Darkwing pointed out, deathly serious. "Get the point?"

"Right Darkwing, I'll stick to the plan this time." Crimson promised, and turned off the radio.

"You know, Crimson, we don't really have any confirmation that this is Negaduck's portal we're detecting." Techno pointed out as they zoomed along. "It could be Darkwarrior Duck, or maybe even FOUL."

"Maybe." Crimson admitted. "But think about, Tech. Who'd really open a transdimensional portal in the middle of railroad line?"

"Someone trying to be discrete?" Techno asked.

"The abandoned, broken, rusted, railway lines that everybody uses as a dumping ground these days, I mean." Crimson corrected.

"Oh." Techno said, rubbing his beak in thought. "I see you point." he adjusted his visor for a moment, detecting something. "I can detect an energy surge ahead. That must be the portal."

"Detect anything else?" Crimson asked.

"Seven heat signatures that could be people." Techno said.

"Betcha anything that's the Fearsome Five." Crimson said with a grin.

* * *

"By the fur and claw _and _paw." Rowe said in awe. "I can't believe I'm actually seeing one of these things again."

"Well now you are!" Negaduck exclaimed, overhearing, and giving the otter a kick to the rear. "So get moving!"

Rowe stumbled forward a few paces and stepped through the glowing transdimensional portal that hovered in front of the gang, and reappeared a few moments later with a large wooden crate in his paws. He wasn't alone; Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot, and the Liquidator were all doing the exact same thing, depositing the crates they brought through into the cargo hold of the waiting Negacopter.

NegaGosalyn stood watching all of this for a little while, holding her P90 lightly in her hands. She turned to Negaduck. "How much longer is this going to take?" she asked, concern on her voice.

Negaduck looked up from the clipboard he was using to count the crates with. "As long as it needs to, Gos." he replied.

"I hope that's not too long, because SHUSH has no doubt already detected our portal and has sent Darkwing to attack." NegaGosalyn said, looking around. "We could be attacked at any second now."

"Not my fault these knobs are so slow." Negaduck grumbled.

Megavolt plopped a crate into the Negacopter with a thud, breathing heavily. "What's in these things, anyway?" he asked Negaduck.

"Just a little toy for me." Negaduck replied.

"Does that mean you're not willing to share?" Quackerjack asked with a wimper as he joined Megavolt with another crate.

"And there's just one toy?" Megavolt said. "But I count several crates here."

"There is some assembly required, batteries not included, all that jazz." Negaduck admitted. "Now get back to work!"

Megavolt and Quackerjack quickly jumped to it, sidestepping around Liquiadator as he carried two crates towards the Negacopter, and wasn't really watching where he was going. Depositing the crates in the gang's helicopter, he started to turn around to head back for the portal, and bumped into Rowe, who he had failed to notice was behind him. Both toppled over, Rowe dropping the crate he was carrying.

"Great seasons mate, watch where you're going!" Rowe exclaimed, retrieving the crate and heading the rest of the way to the Negacopter.

Liki mumbled an apology, then continued on with the task at hand.

"You've been distracted a lot lately, Liki." Negaduck said, noticing. "Care to share?"

Liki glanced at his superior. "No." he replied simply.

"Fine, just don't let it interfere with your work, or I'll be giving you the pink slip, Negaduck style." Negaduck said, returning to counting crates.

But he made a mental note to confront Liki about the issue at a later date.

They continued working, and were nearly done, when a low hum penetrated the air. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up.

"Gos, I think that second you referred to earlier has come." Negaduck growled, drawing his pistol.

"Agreed." NegaGosalyn said, raising her P90.

* * *

"Now remember, LP." Darkwing said, as the Thunderquack dove towards the area where the Fearsome Five stood. "Just fly the plane over the heads. No crashing."

"No problemo, DW!" Launchpad said, pulling at the controls.

The Thunderquack zoomed over the heads of the Fearsome Five, and pulled up, gaining altitude. The Fearsome Five all turned to watch the jet fly away. Darkwing looked back at them, pleased to see that all eyes were on the Thunderquack, and not on something else.

And, as planned, Crimson and Techno blasted out of an ally on the Ratcatcher, and surged towards the Fearsome Five. Caught off guard, the Fearsome Five scattered, heading away from the still open portal, and sought better cover to attack with. Crimson brought the motorbike to a halt, and she and Techno jumped off, ready for a fight.

"Okay, good." Darkwing said, pleased. "Now let's do it again, LP. Let's see if we can get Negaduck's portal remote out of all of this."

"Roger Wilcox, DW!" Launchpad said, bringing the Thunderquack about again. "I'll even bring us closer this time!"

He started the dive. The plane swooped down towards the fight. Darkwing waited for Launchpad to pull up. But the plane continued to go down.

"Okay, you can pull up now, LP." Darkwing said. "LP, pull up. Pull up LP! Pull up! PULL UP!"

Launchpad did, but far too late. The plane leveled off it's descent at a dangerously low altitude. It's underside became completely vertical with the ground below in time for it to strike the ground, and slide along the abandoned railway. The craft would've kept going for some time too, had the Negacopter not gotten in the way.

The Thunderquack hit the helicopter's cockpit head on, completely mangling it, but did succeed in bringing the now very battered Thunderquack to a halt.

"LP," Darkwing said, picking himself off the dashboard. "When I say pull up, by golly, PULL UP!"

"Sorry DW." Launchpad said, unbuckling himself from his seat.

"And another thing..." Darkwing began, but then something caught his eye. "DUCK!" he exclaimed, throwing himself into Launchpad and knocking him down.

"Where?" Launchpad asked as they fell.

A spilt second later, gunfire from NegaGosalyn's P90 ripped open the cockpit's canopy, shattering the glass windshield, and riddling the metallic back portion with bullet holes. NegaGosalyn continued with this for a few moments, then ceased. Stepping up to the jet, she peered inside.

It was empty.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!"

NegaGosalyn started to look up to the roof of the jet in time for Darkwing to hop off it and crash down on top of her.

"I am the paperweight you drop on your toe!" Darkwing continued relentlessly, having landed on NegaGosalyn in a sitting position. "I am, Darkwing Duck!"

Seeing NegaGosalyn incapacitated for the moment, he quickly hopped off of her, kicking NegaGosalyn's P90 out of her limp hands. Seeing Techno and Crimson keeping the rest of the gang busy, he started towards her.

"LP, provide a distraction!" Darkwing ordered, as Launchpad dropped down from the roof of the Thunderquack to join him.

"Okay, DW!" Launchpad said, watching Darkwing heading towards Negaduck.

He started forward, then promptly stubbed his foot into a crate that had fallen out of the Negacopter.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. "Ouchowowouchowpainagonyouchouchieow!"

Holding his sore foot, Launchpad started to hop around on his other, continuing to make a ruckus, and eventually hopped into the mists of the fight. Bemused, the fighters stopped their fighting to watch.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, but it's a distraction, nonetheless..." Darkwing muttered to himself.

Ducking down to lie flat on the ground, hidden in the shadow of a nearby building, Darkwing crawled towards Negaduck, who looked to be trying to line up his pistol to shoot at Launchpad. Darkwing arrived beside him without his double noticing, and reached for the portal remote poking out of Negaduck's pocket. Negaduck froze as he felt the remote start to slide out of his pocket, and in the same second, whirled around to look at Darkwing.

Just before this sudden movement, Negaduck had lined up a shot with Launchpad, and was about to shoot when he turned. As he did so, his itchy trigger finger squeezed the pistol's trigger, and a bullet whizzed out into the night air. His aim had shifted, so it missed Launchpad completely, still hopping around in pain, and instead struck a fallen crate, sitting near the still-active portal.

The bullet broke right through the wooden crate, and struck whatever was inside. When this happened, whatever was in there suddenly exploded, making everyone duck suddenly. The energy the explosion released channeled into the nearby portal, and it flared suddenly, flickering for a few moments before turning solid blue, and glowing brighter than usual.

A large wind suddenly picked up, and it became clear that the portal was now sucking things into it. This suction quickly latched onto everyone present, and started to pull them into the portal. Quickly, they all started to fight back, and stop themselves from getting sucked in, but one by one, they all were.

On the other side of the portal, they were all spat out of the portal into mid air, fell down a few feet, and splashed into an icy cold ocean. The water flashed and sparked as Megavolt short-circuited, and everyone surfaced.

"What in the world...?" Negaduck sputtered as he surfaced.

"What happened?" Crimson called out from where she had surfaced. "Where are we?"

"I can't tell!" Techno called out in reply.

All further comments were cut off when a loud bang rang out from somewhere nearby, followed by a low whistling noise. Something heavy hit the water nearby, creating a large explosion of water. Treading water, everyone turned to the source of the sound and saw a 1700's vintage sailing ship, firing off an cannon ball at a similar ship that floated on the other side from where everyone swam. It, too, was firing off cannonballs at the other ship, both unaware that there were newcomers to their waters.

"We need to get out of here!" Darkwing exclaimed urgently as another cannonball splashed down near the area where they swam. "Back through the portal!"

"Um, slight problem there, mate!" Rowe exclaimed, pointing up at the portal.

They all looked up at it in time for it to wink out of existence.

"Oh great!" Megavolt exclaimed. "Now what?"

"Swim for the closest ship!" Darkwing suggested, turning to swim to the sailing ship to their backs.

"Sure, you do that, Dipwing, but _we're _heading for _that _ship!" Negaduck said, pointing at the other ship, and started swimming towards it.

"Why that one?" Launchpad asked.

"It looks like it's winning!" Negaduck called back as he swam. The rest of the Fearsome Five followed their leader.

"But this ship is closer!" Darkwing objected. "Going this way would be easier not to mention safer! You'll never make it to the other ship!"

"We will when you've got an otter and a living liquid on your side!" Negaduck called, as Rowe dove under the water and sped towards the ship in question at great speeds, and Liki formed into a small and gentle wave that pushed the others after Rowe.

Launchpad, Darkwing, Crimson, and Techno, the ones left behind, glanced at each other, jumped when another cannonball splashed down dangerously close to their position, and then all four of them swam to the ship Darkwing had suggested. The swim seemed to be a fairly long one, but was cut shorter than it could've been as the ship turned to sail towards them.

"Hey!" Darkwing called out. "Help us!"

But the crew of the ship didn't seem to hear them over the racket of the battle that was occurring.

"Techno, rocket boots!" Crimson suggested. "That'll get their attention!"

"I already tried, they're too waterlogged!" Techno said back. "_Everything's _too waterlogged!"

Darkwing raised his gas gun to fire something at the rapidly approaching ship, but it would not fire. Neither would Crimson's. Finally, it was Launchpad who provided the solution.

"Am I the only one who thought to bring a waterproof flashlight?" he asked, as Darkwing snatched it away from him.

Darkwing switched it on and shined it at the ship, waving it in the air. "HEY!" he called. "Hey! Help! We need help here, as much as I hate to admit it!"

The ship continued onward like they didn't see them, continued to shoot at the other ship.

"Um, this may be a little thing, but I really don't think we should be in the way of that ship...." Launchpad began.

"Good point, LP, let NOT get dangerous this time, and let's swim!" Darkwing agreed.

The quartet started to swim out of the ship's path, their principle goal at the moment. It didn't take long to see that they couldn't swim fast enough to escape the wake of the ship cutting through the water.

"Uh-oh!" Crimson said. "Not good!"

"Help!" Darkwing cried out, waving the flashlight wildly. "Help! HELP! HHHEEELLLPPP!"

The ship zipped passed them and the waves it kicked up washed over them, submerging the four instantly. Spun around in the vortex of water the ship had created, Darkwing and the gang struggled under the water, but it was proving to be a struggle. Just as Darkwing himself was starting to loose hope, something splashed into the water, and swept up all four heroes.

Moments later, they were hauled clear of the water, and onto the safety of the ship. Relieved, Darkwing let himself relax as he felt himself lowered onto the deck of the ship, and realized just how tired he felt suddenly. As he let his eyes close for an impromptu nap, he was dimly aware of five shadows hovering over him that seemed remarkably familiar...

* * *

The next thing Darkwing remembered was dimly waking up in the cabin of the ship. Bone dry now, he sat up and looked around. Sunlight streamed in from a nearby window, indicating it was now morning. Sitting around the room was Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno. Launchpad was sitting on the floor, playing with some jacks. Crimson sat at a desk, flipping through a book that sat upon it, and Techno sat at the window, de-waterlogging his visor, while sniffling frequently.

Darkwing saw his hat sitting next to the bed and quickly slapped it back on his head. "What happened?" he asked aloud.

Crimson turned. "Dad!" she exclaimed, looking relieved. "You're awake! Thank goodness! You were out for a fairly long time. Tech thinks it's due to oxygen deprivation or something like that."

"Okay." Darkwing said, getting out of the bed. "Is everybody else alright?"

"I'm fine." Crimson assured him. "That swim didn't hurt me much. Launchpad's the same. Techno's got a cold..."

As evidence of this, Techno suddenly sneezed, dropping his visor in the process.

"...but other than that, he's okay too." Crimson said.

"Well good." Darkwing said, and looked around. "So, I ask again, what happened?"

"We're still trying to piece that together, DW." Launchpad said, looking up from his game of jacks briefly.

"But I think I have a theory." Crimson said.

"We're in another universe, aren't we?" Darkwing asked.

"No, I don't think so." Crimson said. "I think we've just gone back in time."

Darkwing gave her a look. "And how do you know that?" he asked.

"Because today's date is June third, 1701." Crimson said.

"And how do you know that?" Darkwing asked.

"Because it's in this book."

She pushed the book she had been flipping through to Darkwing. Darkwing accepted it, and looked it over. It was a log book, and was indeed turned to the appropriate date. Nothing was written on it, though, so Darkwing flipped back a day, just to make sure Crimson wasn't trying to pull his leg or anything. Sure enough, there was a log written there. Darkwing skimmed throughout, seeing things like "smooth sailing today", "battle at sea tonight", and "rescued some people" at the end.

"Everything seems to check out." Darkwing said, frowning. "Still..."

"It makes sense, Mr. Darkwing." Techno said through a stuffy nose. "Put under the right circumstances, a transdimensional portal could be made unstable enough to allow time travel within the same dimension." he then sneezed again. "Sorry. Anyway, I've been giving the matter some great thought, and I think we can get back to our time if we have Negaduck's portal remote, a regular transdimensional portal, and enough power to give it a super surge."

"Like how much power?" Darkwing asked, knowing their was a catch.

"Twice the power Megavolt could produce." Techno replied.

"Easier said than done, Tech." Darkwing pointed out.

However, Techno simply looked at Crimson, who looked at Launchpad, who looked lost. All three seemed like they knew something Darkwing didn't.

"All right, what is it?" Darkwing asked with exasperation.

"Getting back to our time will actually be really easy." Crimson said.

"And why's that?" Darkwing asked.

At that moment, they heard someone approaching the door.

"Ah, perfect timing." Crimson said, standing up.

The door then swung open, and cloud of purple smoke spilled into the cabin.

"I am the terror that sails the seas! I am the flea on your parrot! I am the Darkwing Doubloon!"

* * *

Darkwing was stunned, to say the least. Slowly, he approached Darkwing Doubloon with an expression of awe, observing all of the uncanny resemblances. The hat, the color of the jacket, the entrance, everything spelt a three-hundred year old rendition of himself. The only thing that really stood out as different was Doubloon's rapier strapped to his belt.

Meanwhile, Doubloon was doing likewise, looking Darkwing up and down but with a lack of awe and much more idly. He had already see Darkwing before, and had adjusted to the idea already.

"_Darkwing _Doubloon?" Darkwing asked finally, in awe.

"Aye, that's me name!" Doubloon replied in a thick British accent. "The one and only! So, I ask you..."

"How did I come to get so similar a name?" Darkwing finished. "A very good question."

"Oh, but wait until you see who else is on this ship, Darkwing." Crimson said with a sly grin.

Darkwing glanced over at her. "This doesn't bode well." he remarked.

"Oh, just come see." Crimson persisted, taking Darkwing's arm and dragging him to the door.

"Hold tight there, little lady!" Doubloon interrupted, standing in their way. "I must guarantee he is trustworthy to be allowed on deck!"

"Hey, I know him!" Crimson assured him. "You can trust him! You trusted the rest of us!"

"Not before I gave you all a thorough look-over!" Doubloon persisted.

"He's got a point, Crimson." Techno said, replacing his visor on his face.

"Yeah, I'd just go along with it." Launchpad added, joining them.

"This will only take a moment." Doubloon assured them, and began giving Darkwing a pat down.

Darkwing watching with annoyance. Doubloon pulled off Darkwing's hat and rooted through it. Then, looking at the hat, started to swap it out for his own.

"Hey, that's _my _hat!" Darkwing said, snatching it back.

"Correction, my good fellow, that is my hat." Doubloon said, pointing at the feather that protruded from the hat Darkwing held.

Darkwing quickly swapped hats. "Then leave my hat alone!" he snapped. "Now, can I go out on deck, or do I need to jump ship?"

"Fine, fine, fine." Doubloon said, and stepped aside from the door, bowing as he went. "You may leave."

Darkwing gave Doubloon a shove aside, and stepped out on deck, the others trailing in his wake. He hadn't gotten more than a few steps when he stopped, surprised to see just who was crewing this ship. He immediately recognized them all. They were all just dressed in styles similar to Doubloon, reminiscent of pirates. He saw Steggmutt standing at the front of the ship, an eye patch over one eye. A 300-year-old clone of Launchpad stood behind the ship's wheel, dressed in a tattered white shirt with red stripes.

Then, even more surprising was the fact that Gosalyn was present, but scaled back in age to be nine-years-old instead of the seventeen-year-old Gosalyn Darkwing knew now. This version of Gosalyn was talking with a person Darkwing didn't recognize, but he did sense that the squeaky voice was familiar and felt he should know who this person was.

Amazed nonetheless, he turned back to Crimson. "You _sure _we didn't land in a different universe?" he asked.

"The evidence seems to point towards time travel, Mr. Darkwing, sir." Techno said.

"Okay, but this still doesn't answer how we're going to get _back_." Darkwing pointed out.

"Ah, but that's were Doubloon comes in." Crimson said, gesturing to Doubloon.

"I am willing to help wherever possible, but I and my crew are currently busy trying to track down some villainous pirates." Doubloon said.

"Exactly." Crimson said.

"I'm not following." Darkwing said.

"Our only hope of getting back to our time lies with the Fearsome Five, right?" Crimson said.

"Right..." Darkwing said.

"And they went to the other ship, remember, DW?" Launchpad added.

Darkwing's eyes brightened with comprehension. "The ship that _you, _Doubloon, was fighting the previous night." he said, pointing at the pirate.

"Aye." Doubloon admitted. "Then you are on the right ship, for we are in pursuit of Negaduck's ship as we speak."

Darkwing froze, and turned to face Doubloon. "Excuse me?"

* * *

Negaduck fanned his portal remote vigorously with some paper. "You guys need a blow dryer or something." he muttered to himself.

"Ah, but we don't have any of these awesome devices around here." a pirate version of Negaduck standing beside him said. "However, if you were to donate some of your gizmos..."

"Now _there's _an idea." Negaduck said. "If I helped you invent some of this stuff centuries before it's time..."

"...think of the loot we'd _both _get out of it." Pirate Negaduck remarked, grinning.

"I like the way you think." Negaduck said with a grin, and opened the door this his cabin, and stuck his head out. "Bushroot!"

Not one, but two Bushroots, one of which was a pirate version, jumped up.

"Yes?" they asked together.

"_My _Bushroot." Negaduck clarified, then went on. "Bushy, you're smart, draw up some plans for some gadgets from our time. Don't care what, really, but include as many weapons as possible at least."

"B-but I'm not _that _smart!" Bushroot objected, stepping forward a few paces as his pirate double followed.

"Then get Megavolt to help you!" Negaduck roared.

"Which one?" Bushroot asked. "The pirate version, or our version?"

Negaduck slapped his face. "Doesn't take a genius..." he grumbled, "ROWE!"

"Yes mate?" the otter said, the only one who didn't have a pirate double and was feeling a bit left out.

"Help these dunderheads sort out who they need to ask for help!" Negaduck exclaimed, marching back into the cabin. "NegaCrimson, any sign of Dipwing and his pirate double?"

NegaGosalyn, perched in the crow's nest, scanned the horizon. "None yet." she reported. "But if Pirate Negaduck's right, they'll get here soon enough."

"Keep us reported." Pirate Negaduck said. "Then the real fun will begin."

* * *

"So everything's completely waterlogged still?" Darkwing asked, as Techno worked valiantly to try and dry all of their gizmos.

"Still." Techno admitted, picking up and examining various gizmos. "You and Crimson's gas guns, my visor, my rocketboots, Launchpad's mp3 player, everything. But this actually a good thing. If all of _our _stuff is still wet and inoperable from our swim last night..."

"Then that means all the gadgets the Fearsome Five's got are too." Darkwing said, catching on. "Most importantly, Negaduck's portal remote, meaning he can't go back to our time anytime soon."

"Hopefully leaving us enough time to catch up with them and guarantee a way back to our time ourselves." Techno added. "But there's no way to know how much time we've got."

"So no waiting to act." Darkwing summarized.

"Exactly." Techno said, then set back to work.

Darkwing watched for a few moments, then went to help.

Techno was surprised with this. "I can handle this, Mr. Darkwing." he assured Darkwing.

"I know." Darkwing said. "But I don't want to be out _there _with everyone else." he jerked his head at the open cabin door.

Techno glanced out it where everyone else, both pirate and otherwise, worked at sailing the ship. "Still trying to adjust to the idea, huh?" he asked.

"It's not easy." Darkwing admitted. "These pirate guys are too alike to us for them to be a coincidence. They call themselves pirates, but they work to bring about good. They're really superheores in pirate garb and on a sailing ship."

"I see your point." Techno said. "They're exact clones of the people we know back in our time. Even their villains are the same." he thought a moment longer about what Doubloon had told them about the pirate versions of the Fearsome Five. "Exactly the same, in fact."

"Everybody except one." Darkwing continued. "There's one guy who I can't place yet."

"I can, but I know more about him." Techno said. "I haven't seen it yet, but Doubloon's crew says he's got a metal suit with various vintage 1700 gadgets on it."

Darkwing blinked at that description. "Gizmoduck?" he said, looking out the door again, and at the pirate in question. "Wow, that's almost _too _much to take in."

"Maybe these guys are all ancestors to us from the future." Techno suggested.

"I dunno, even that leaves a few blanks in all of this." Darkwing persisted. "They all have the same names, too. That is not unheard of, but the coincidence of it all..."

"Well, at least the theory would confirm you're not really related to an alien, Mr. Darkwing." Techno remarked.

Darkwing shot him a look. "I thought we all agreed to never talk about that again." he growled.

"I don't remember making such a promise." Techno said with a sly grin.

Darkwing just rolled his eyes and fell silent for a moment. He looked out the cabin door again. "Well, it looks like Crimson's getting along nicely with her younger self." he noted, seeing Crimson and Gosalyn chatting at the base of the mast.

"The two Launchpads are getting along great, too." Techno added. "In fact, the only doubles not seeming to get along is you and Doubloon."

Darkwing frowned again. "I just don't like him." he said.

"How?" Techno asked. "He is, in a sense, you."

"I know." Darkwing said. "That's what I don't like about him. Besides, I've got enough doubles running loose in the world as is. I don't need another to worry about."

"Hopefully, if everything works out, you won't have to." Techno said.

"Ship sighted ahead!" a voice called out from on deck.

Darkwing and Techno glanced at each other.

"Time to get back to our time." Darkwing said.

* * *

"Here they come!" NegaGosalyn called out.

Both Negaduck's were instantly on deck. "Open fire!" they roared immediately.

The ship turned broadside to Doubloon's ship, and started firing off it's cannons. Doubloon's ship quickly returned fire. Darkwing and Techno gathered up the gizmos they had been trying to dry, and quickly set about returning them to their owners.

Crimson regarded her gas gun with a frown. "I thought these were still wet, and don't work!" she yelled over the bangs from the cannons.

"They don't!" Darkwing said, holstering his own gas gun. "But hopefully Negaduck and his gang won't know that!"

"Besides, they're nearly dry, anyway!" Techno added, strapping his wristbands back on. "Maybe they'll air dry between now and then!"

"Bring her about!" Doubloon called out to his crew. "Fire everything we've got! We simply _must _make this battle look like any other battle. They mustn't suspect a thing!"

Darkwing gave his pirate double an odd look. "I'll never get used to that accent." he said.

The fight between the two ships continued for a little while. Then Negaduck's ship came about, and charged the port side of Doubloon's ship.

"She's going to ram us, DW!" Pirate Launchpad called out from the ship's steering wheel.

"Bring her about on my signal, LP!" Doubloon called.

The two ships drew closer.

"Give the signal already!" Darkwing cried out.

"Not yet!" Doubloon said, and waited a moment longer. "NOW!"

Doubloon's ship turned out of harms way at the last possible second, the hulls of the two ships nearly scraping together as they passed by each other.

"Keep us close, LP!" Doubloon ordered. "Prepare to board!"

The crew and Darkwing and the gang grabbed hold of some ropes and hopped up onto the deck railing, waiting for Negaduck's ship to come close enough again to swing on over.

"Keen gear, just like in the movies!" Crimson exclaimed.

"Movies, what the heck are movies?" Gosalyn asked from beside her.

"Only the coolest things in the world!" Crimson said. "Pictures that move!"

"Keen gear!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"Get ready over there!" Darkwing exclaimed. "We're only going to get one shot at this." he turned to Techno. "Ready for this, Tech?"

Techno looked down at the sea below, realizing just how far down it seemed. "N-n-no." he stuttered.

"You'll do fine." Darkwing assured him.

Stegmutt hopped up on the railing. "Gee, this'll be fun!" he said in the usual, playful, voice Darkwing and the others had always recognized as Stegmutt's.

"Time to right a wrong?" asked Gizmoduck, appearing in a suit of metal with a cannon for one arm and a spiked ball for the other, looking very much like the Gizmosuit of the future. "You can bet it'll be fun!"

"Almost there, DW!" Pirate Launchpad exclaimed.

"Very good, LP!" Doubloon said, hopping up onto the railing next to Darkwing. "Join us as soon as you can!"

"Wait, do you mean me, or the other me?" Launchpad asked, joining them at the railing.

"The other you, now get up here!" Darkwing said, dragging his sidekick up onto the railing.

"Almost in range again!" Doubloon said. "Get ready!"

Negaduck's ship slip past Doubloon's again.

"Now!"

With yells, the whole group swung from Doubloon's over to Negaduck's, and landed on the deck. With the exception of Techno, who, in his nervousness, forgot to let go, and swung back to Doubloon's ship.

The group was quickly surrounded by Pirate Negaduck, his crew, and the Fearsome Five.

"Get them!" both Negaduck's exclaimed at the same time.

The pirates all rushed forward and started fighting with their swords. Darkwing and the gang engaged the Fearsome Five the usual way. Almost. Megavolt had short-circuited during the swim the previous night, and handed recharged full yet. He used his powers sparingly. Quackerjack also lacked all of his electronic-based toys, having been ruined in the same swim as well. Negaduck and NegaGosalyn, like their doubles, lacked their gadgets, as they weren't dry yet.

Still, this didn't mean they didn't try.

"I'm gonna pound you into next week, Dipwing!" Negaduck roared, pulling out his pistol and trying to shoot it. But it did not.

"Over my dead body, Negs!" Darkwing retorted, trying to use his own gas gun, but having similar results. "C'mon, shoot!" But by that point Negaduck had come over and dealt his double a punch.

"You will never win, Negaduck!" Doubloon was saying to Pirate Negaduck as they sparred with their swords.

"Ha!" Pirate Negaduck snorted as he hopped up onto the railing of his ship. "That's what you think!"

Then Techno, swinging back from Doubloon's ship, crashed into him, knocking Pirate Negaduck down, Techno landing on top of him.

"Good show, Techno!" Doubloon cheered.

Techno just shrugged.

Meanwhile, Negaduck and Darkwing were still engaged in a fistfight. Seeing Negaduck's portal remote in his pocket, Darkwing quickly grabbed it and pulled free from the fistfight. A good thing too, for a moment later, a bullet whizzed down at the spot Darkwing had been standing at a moment earlier. Looking upward, Darkwing saw NegaGosalyn adjust the aim o her P90. She had gotten it working again.

With a yelp, Darkwing ran, a stream of bullets raining down at him. These were quickly mixed in by shots from Negaduck's pistol, as it, too, started working again. But then, so were all of the gadgets. Techno's various gadgets started working again, and he quickly used his sleeping gas sprayers to subdue enemies. Crimson's gas gun started to work, and she quickly fired it off at Negaduck. Darkwing's worked as well, and he quickly fired it up at NegaGosalyn, throwing off her aim with the P90.

Darkwing then realized this probably meant one other gadget would work now as well, and glanced down at the portal remote still in his hand. Grinning, he quickly activated it, and opened a transdimensional portal. It flared into existence by the ship's starboard side railing.

Darkwing then turned to look towards Megavolt. "Hey Sparky!" he called out. "You're mother was so dim-witted a ten-watt lightbulb could've outshone her!"

Megavolt whipped around, enraged. "Why you...!" he began, and fired off a bolt of energy at Darkwing.

Darkwing ducked it, and it hit the portal instead, the two energies mixing in and enhancing each other. As this happened, Crimson quickly landed a kick to Pirate Megavolt's rear, who retaliated with his own bolt of energy, aimed at Crimson, but missed and hit the portal as well.

The supercharged portal then flared and turned a solid blue color, indicating it was connecting two times as hoped. Darkwing, being the closest was sucked in first. Crimson ran part of the way there, then was sucked in as well. Launchpad quickly followed, leaving Techno in the rear, laying out some cover fire to prevent others from following before getting sucked up as well.

He exited the portal on the other side, and landed hard on an old and disused railway track. Looking around, Techno saw that they were back in the right time now, things looking like they had never left, for it was still night. Techno wanted to celebrate, but instead focused his attention back on the still-open portal like the others, prepared to fight anybody else who stepped through it.

But no one did. The portal finally collapsed uneventfully, and silence fell.

"That's it?" Crimson asked, lowering her gas gun. "Huh, that was actually easier than even I expected!"

"Does this mean the Fearsome Five's trapped in the past?" Launchpad asked.

"Looks like it." Techno said, but let out a sigh of relief. "Either way, it's good to be back in _our _time."

Crimson, however, was watching Darkwing search all of his pockets.

"Dad, what are you doing?" she asked with a puzzled expression.

"The remote!" Darkwing replied. "Negaduck's portal remote! It's gone! I think I dropped it just before I got sucked into the portal!"

"But then that means..." Techno began.

"...it's still in the past." Darkwing concluded. "And it won't take Negaduck long to find it and figure out what we did."

"Which means the Fearsome Five will be back once again." Crimson added.

They all silently looked back to the spot where the portal had sat, and wondered when the gang will be back...


	30. Aqueous Part I

Summary: Sally McHare, of The Elements, has gone rouge, and now several fractions are after her to try and find out why. The answer maybe more than they can handle...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Two-parter chpt, with what I hope is a great cliffhanger. Please note that the recap of past chpts at the beginning here covers more than one chapter, and not all of them are referred to in this chapter. The cloning cell phone idea I got from a movie, I'm not sure if it's actually possible as I describe it.

30.

Aqueous Part I

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Maybe they didn't lock this place down because they thought they were going to come back to this place. Maybe they locked it down to keep whatever was here from getting out."_

_--_

"_It was a project funded by FOWL t' create a kind of serum. A serum capable of enhancin' the performance's of one's body! That's what it's done t' you guys! Only it's unexpectedly gone and enhanced a little further! It did the same with another test subject, predatin' you guys, only the effects were more bad! That was fixed when you guys were tested, and this is the results! Ya don't remember it, because, remembering what happened with the fifth guy, FOWL had ya all put unconscious! The project didn't finish in time for FOWL t' go under, so the project leader put ya all in stasis, so ya all would be safe! I have a document in here that proves it!"_

_--_

"_FOWL clearly intended ya t' be put t' use as it's ultimate team of agents."_

_--_

"_Yes, they were doing something big. But why the interest in SHUSH? What do they plan that involves them?"_

"_It's not just SHUSH. And these prove it."_

_There were more pictures on the table, but they didn't relate to SHUSH. Instead, they were all taken at Avian Way, focusing particularly on the Mallard house and the neighboring Muddlefoot house. There was at least one picture of them all out of costume in the piles._

_--_

"_Annoying person, that Liqudiator."_

"_Oh, I dunno, I thought he was rather charmin'."_

_--_

"_Right. So tell me you've got this thing working."_

"_Yeah, I think so."_

"_You think?"_

"_If the bally thing doesn't blow up when I activate it, that jolly well means it's workin'."_

_--_

"_Darkwing, I do believe I told you to not interfere."_

"_Oh c'mon, you let me go. You should've know that I would've gotten involved after that."_

"_Maybe so. But you won't be so lucky this time around. I've got the Fearsome Five surrounding this building. None of you are getting out of here."_

_--_

_They hadn't gotten far before the transdimensional portal generator within suddenly exploded, taking the whole building with it in a fiery plume of flames. The shockwave knocked them all to the ground, and in the chaos that followed, they all momentarily lost sight of one another._

_--_

"_Who's there?"_

"_Just someone who thinks he can help."_

_Sally trusted the voice instantly, as she watched the newcomer approach her, extending a hand to help her up..._

_--_

"_You've been distracted a lot lately, Liki. Care to share?"_

"_No."_

"_Fine, just don't let it interfere with your work, or I'll be giving you the pink slip, Negaduck style."_

_But he made a mental note to confront Liki about the issue at a later date._

_--_

"_Does this mean the Fearsome Five's trapped in the past?"_

"_Looks like it."_

_--_

"_The remote! Negaduck's portal remote! It's gone! I think I dropped it just before I got sucked into the portal!"_

"_But then that means..."_

"_...it's still in the past. And it won't take Negaduck long to find it and figure out what we did."_

"_Which means the Fearsome Five will be back once again."_

* * *

"Hmm." Gosalyn muttered as she stared at the neutral colored glop on her lunch tray. "Any way you can figure out what today's lunch is, Honk?"

Honker stared at his own tray of glop. "Not really, not without some chemical analyses." he replied. "Whatever the case, I highly doubt it's Chicken Alfredo."

"Yeah, where _is _the chicken, anyway?" Gosalyn asked as they sat down at their favorite table in the school cafeteria.

"If it even is chicken." Honker muttered, poking at the gelatinous glob with his fork and picking up his apple to eat instead. "Anyway, Gos, I think there's something we need to discuss."

"Oh?" Gosalyn asked, picking up her own apple and biting into it.

"See, I've been thinking lately..."

"Uh-oh." Gosalyn said with a grin. "I smell trouble."

"It could very well _be _trouble." Honker persisted, very serious. "But I've been thinking about the Fearsome Five, and where they're currently at."

"Yeah, three hundred years into the past, last we knew." Gosalyn said. "Not going to have to worry about them until they figure out how to use Negs's portal remote to jump back to the future."

"Yes, which is exactly my point." Honker said. "First off, time's irrelevant for them. Within theory, they could return to the present at any point in time they wished. Possibly coming back to the exact point in time they left."

"Wouldn't that alter history, or something, though?" Gosalyn asked.

"That's my second point." Honker said. "I think it was a really _bad _idea to leave the Fearsome Five that far in the past! They could do who knows _what _to the timeline!"

"But if they were to alter the future, wouldn't we know about it, seeing that we're _in _the future?"

"No, because everything about time would be altered, _including _us and our memories!" Honker pointed out. "We'd only remember if a time paradox occurred, like what happened in _Jumpgate: Continuum_, remember?"

"Honker, we'd _know _if Negaduck and the rest of the gang tried to alter history in any drastic manner, because we _know _they're all in the past." Gosalyn pointed out, eating her apple. "This discussion is proof of it! I mean, really, if they altered time so everything was bad, we would eventually figure it out."

"Not if he altered time so that we never learned he was in the past." Honker countered.

"Then the whole traveling back in time thing would've never happened!" Gosalyn pointed out. "Look, if Negaduck and the others did try to alter time, things would've taken a turn for the worse. But things are still going pretty good, so why worry?"

Finishing her apple, she picked up her tray and went to leave, ignoring the untouched glop on her tray. Honker watched her leave.

"Suppose the Fearsome Five hasn't altered time yet?" Honker asked.

"Ah, but you forget that time is irrelevant to them, Honk!" Gosalyn said back, with a victorious grin.

Honker watched her go in a moment of silence. "Gee." he muttered. "Outsmarted by _Gosalyn_, of all people."

He resumed eating his apple, and after a few moments, left as well. But what he didn't know as he left was that both he and Gosalyn were being watched...

* * *

"So, Grizzlikof." Darkwing began. "What's the difference between a duck and a goat?"

Grizzlikof glanced back at Darkwing as they walked down the hall, then look ahead of him again, not answering.

"C'mon, it's just a joke." Darkwing persisted. "What's the difference between a duck and a goat?" Silence. "It's a good one, I promise, right LP?"

"Right DW." Launchpad said, who had been silently flanking Darkwing.

"SHUSH regulations state that there will be no horseplay while on duty." Grizzlikof stated plainly.

"This isn't horseplay, it's just small chat!" Darkwing persisted.

"It is irrelevant to situation." Grizzlikof pointed out.

"The situation doesn't _begin _until we reach Hooter's office, which is still five feet away." Darkwing pointed out. "Just enough time to tell a joke. So c'mon, what's the difference between a duck and a goat?" he waited for a response, and got none. "C'mon, just guess!"

"No."

"Grizz, you're no fun."

"All part of job description."

"Then I'm glad I don't have your job. I mean, if you can't even tell jokes, then what good..."

"Director, Darkwing has arrived." Grizzlikof announced as they entered Hooter's office.

Hooter looked up from the computer monitor that sat on his desk. "Ah, Darkwing, ol' boy!" he exclaimed, grinning. "Glad you came so quickly."

"Left the moment I got your Flashquack message." Darkwing said, taking a seat before Hooter's desk. "Though, I must admit that your message was a bit vague."

"Admittedly, I do not know all of the details myself, at least, not at the time." Hooter said.

"Then why did you send for us, Mr. Director?" Launchpad asked, also sitting down.

"SHUSH has learned that a member from The Elements has gone rouge." Hooter stated.

"What?" Darkwing asked, surprised. "Why? How did you find that out?"

"We were told." Hooter said.

"By who?" Darkwing demanded.

"Perhaps the person responsible should be the one to tell you." Hooter said, turning his computer monitor around so Darkwing and Launchpad could see.

Displayed on it, was a live video feed of Steelbeak.

"H'ya Darkwing!" the FOUL president greeted with a grin on the screen, light glinting off his metal beak. "Heard Hooter told ya the news."

Darkwing blinked at the screen for several moments. "Steelbeak, what's this about?" he demanded. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No joke, my friend, though a certain part of me wishes it was." Steelbeak said.

"If that's true, then why have you shared this news with us?" Darkwing asked, not buying it.

"Because I have reason t' believe that this little situation is as much as a threat t' you guys over at SHUSH as it is for me." Steelbeak said. "Right now, we both have got ourselves a highly superpowered ex-member of The Elements out there somewhere, with no clue just what it is exactly she intends to do."

"She?" Launchpad repeated.

"Just who are we talking about, here?" Darkwing asked.

"Sally McHare, Darkwing." Hooter replied for Steelbeak.

"Didn't show up fer work the other day." Steelbeak went on to explain. "Then the next thing I know is that there's a report sittin' on my desk statin' that we've gotten word that she is over in St. Canard actin' without orders."

"How is that a bad thing for SHUSH?" Darkwing asked. "For all you know, she could have decided to switch sides."

"'Cause, Darkwing, I had what left of my team track her down." Steelbeak went on. "It was Jack who tracked her down, and confronted her 'bout what she was doin'. She didn't say much, but she did say she was doin' somethin' important, that it didn't involve FOUL, but that it did effect everybody. That would include, last _I_ checked, SHUSH."

"But I still don't get it, Steelbeak." Darkwing said. "Why tell us at all?"

"'Cause, as much as I hate t' admit it, I need yer help." Steelbeak said with a sigh. "Sal can be a real slippery hare when she wants t' be, and FOUL can't track her down on our own. But if SHUSH was t' team up with us..."

"Never!" Grizzlikof interrupted, who had been silently listening. "SHUSH would never agree to such terms!"

"Agreed." Darkwing said. "Such an arrangement would only spell trouble."

"Besides, we don't even know if what you're saying is true!" Launchpad added.

"A very good point, LP!" Darkwing agreed. "You've tried to deceive us before Steelbeak, particularly when it involved The Elements!"

"I'll admit that it'll be an uneasy alliance, but it'll be best fer everyone." Steelbeak assured them.

"The answer is still no." Darkwing said.

"They're right, Steelbeak, I cannot allow such an alliance without knowing more about the situation." Hooter agreed. "Not only that, but SHUSH has their own interests in The Elements. If we can capture one of it's members alive, we could learn more about their superpowers and possibly find a way to combat them. Any alliances with FOUL, however, will prevent that."

"I take it that your answer is a 'no', then?" Steelbeak asked with a frown.

"An _empathic _no." Darkwing corrected.

"We will still be searching for Sally as you have suggested, however." Hooter added.

"But whoever finds and captures her first gets to stake out the claims!" Darkwing added.

Steelbeak sighed. "In that case, you'll want t' stay out of the way of my agents." he said. "As this alliance isn't happenin' we'll be enemies, just like always." he went to reach for something off-screen, presumably an off switch to the transmission, then paused. "Oh, and if y'all live t' regret yer choice, don't say I didn't tell ya so."

And with that, the transmission ended.

Hooter sat back in his chair. "Darkwing, I already have a couple teams of agents out looking for Sally." he said. "I want you to go out and help in the search."

"You got it, J. Gander!" Darkwing said, giving Hooter a salute and heading for the door, Launchpad hurrying to follow. "You can always count on Darkwing Duck!"

* * *

High up in the air while riding in the Thunderquack, Darkwing looked down at the city below, waving the binoculars he had pressed to his eyes all around, desperate not to miss anything. But so far he had no clues.

"There's got to be a better way than this." Darkwing muttered. "Sally could be anywhere."

"It's like looking for a needle in a haystack." Launchpad agreed, who had one hand cupped around his eyes and was looking around himself as he flew.

"Not only that, but with her powers controlling water, she can hide where no binoculars would see her." Darkwing added. "Speaking of which, has the Thunderquack's detectors picked up anything?"

"No, not yet, DW." Launchpad admitted, glancing at the dashboard. "Clearly, Sal is lying low for the moment."

"Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised." Darkwing admitted. "Seems like everybody's after her now." he thought that through for a moment longer. "Maybe that's what this is about. Everyone's after her, so she's just trying to get away. It'd be like NegaRowe in the Negaverse."

"But what about all that stuff she told Jack O'Hara?" Launchpad asked.

"True, all that stuff about it 'effecting everybody.'" Darkwing said, rubbing his beak. "It does seem like she's got an agenda of some sort. But what? And what for?"

"Maybe there's more about this than FOUL's admitted." Launchpad reasoned. "Maybe there's a perfectly good reason why Sally's gone rouge than Steelbeak has said."

"Hmm, but Steelbeak will never say." Darkwing said. "If we could ask somebody else, though..." his eyes suddenly brightened. "LP! Turn us around! Go back to SHUSH HQ!"

"Sure, DW, but why?" Launchpad asked, turning the jet around.

"Because, I want to have a word with one of the members of The Elements..." Darkwing said.

* * *

"Darkwing, I told last time we used this, ET's not ready." Dr. Sarah Bellum explained as she, Darkwing, and Launchpad entered the lab. "I've been going over the math, and we were really lucky it allowed us to track Elizabeth. Not only that, but Director Hooter has already asked about using ET to try and track Sally, but the system can't, because..."

"It's not Sally I want to find." Darkwing said. "I want to find another member of The Elements. Steelbeak indicated that they would be around."

"But why?" Bellum said, stepping up to a control panel sitting before a map of St. Canard. "To me, that seems like looking for trouble."

"Yeah, DW, you heard what Steelbeak said." Launchpad agreed. "He said that because we didn't agree to an alliance, he's still going to treat us like enemies."

"Maybe so." Darkwing admitted, adjusting his hat. "But I need to know more about Sally, and to try and figure out why she'd do this. And the best people to learn that from is one of the people she's worked the closest with. Steelbeak's out, so that just leaves the other members of her team."

"Which one?" Bellum asked, as she implemented the parameters for the scan.

"Anyone of them will do." Darkwing said.

"But supposing we do track one down." Bellum asked, as the system worked to produce the results to the scan. "Who's to say they'd be willing to tell you?"

"They won't have a choice." Darkwing said. "I, Darkwing Duck, have devised a dastardly design to decoy the person into coming to a place devoid of means of dodging Darkwing!"

"Which means..." Launchpad prompted.

"A trap." Darkwing said with a grin.

The system bleeped suddenly, and displayed it's results on the map. The threesome studied it.

"Well, I don't see much sign of Jack O'Hara or Garth Miner." Bellum said.

"They could be conserving their powers in order to lie low, and catch Sally by surprise." Darkwing reasoned.

"But ET _is _detecting a cluster of air motion...here." Bellum pointed at a group of blue blurs smudging the screen. "Near Osborne Street."

"That's where the city pool is." Launchpad noted without thinking.

"Hey, that's right!" Darkwing said. "In fact, it makes perfect sense! Sally's powers focus on water, so what better place to search for her, than where there's water?"

"Gee, wish we thought of that sooner." Launchpad muttered.

"So, Elizabeth could be searching around the city pool." Bellum said. "But wouldn't that be bit of a too public place for someone like Sally to be at?"

"Not if she's trying to lie low." Darkwing said. "Out of uniform, no citizen of St. Canard would know who she is. The Elements have been too good about keeping their identities secret from the public. But even if she isn't, Elizabeth _is_, or at least could be! And that's good enough for me."

He glanced at his watch, and blinked in surprise. "And now that we've got the information we need, we'll be off!" he started pushing Launchpad to the door. "Thanks again, Dr. Bellum!"

"Hey, whoa, easy DW!" Launchpad said as they exited into the empty hallway outside the lab. "What's the rush?"

"It's Gosalyn!" Darkwing said quickly. "School's ending in fifteen minutes!"

* * *

Gosalyn and Honker were, in fact, just exiting the high school and stepping out into a mildly warm day in late March when Gosalyn's cell phone rang.

"Hello." she greeted as she answered the phone.

"Gos?" came the reply. "It's DW."

Gosalyn stopped, motioning for Honker to do the same. "What's up DW?" she asked. "We were just about to head home."

Honker perked up at the letters DW, and stopped to listen.

"Change in plans. I want to meet up with the pair of you at our designated meeting place." the voice of Darkwing said. "Remember where that is?"

"Yep." Gosalyn said.

"Good, I'll see you there." Darkwing replied. "Got a bit of an issue here that I'll need your help with."

"Sure thing, DW, we'll be waiting." Gosalyn said, and hung up.

"We've got a case?" Honker asked, whispering into her ear.

Gosalyn nodded. "C'mon Honker." she said, diverting her path. "Let's get dangerous."

* * *

It was a busy time of day for the St. Canard Indoor Pool. With school having let out for the day, there were many youth coming in to have a swim. The time of year also played a factor in it, as it was still too cold for some to set out their own outdoor pools, so anyone who wanted to go for a swim would come to the next best place.

And to anyone watching, that's all it seemed to be. All there were present were people here to go for a swim. Except for one pool employee, wearing dress pants and a red polo shirt with the pool's log on it, who was going about collecting abandoned pool toys that had been left in various corners of the room containing the pool. All the while watching everyone else present.

The employee, a female duck, paused when she spied an inflatable beach ball sitting just next to the door of a changing room. After debating to herself for a moment, she stepped on over to retrieve it. As she picked it up, however, she suddenly noticed it was attached to a nearly invisible wire.

Alarmed, she was just about to drop it, when a large net dropped down on her. At that moment, Darkwing jumped out of the men's locker room, while the Crimson Avenger hopped out of the woman's locker room, both in costume. They quickly latched a hold of netted figure.

"Gotcha!" Crimson said.

Elizabeth Guire frowned at the pair.

"Three guesses as to why we're here." Darkwing said softly, as Launchpad and Techno joined them.

"I don't _need _to guess." Elizabeth said. "This is about Sally, isn't it?"

Darkwing nodded, then, with the help of Crimson, moved Elizabeth to a lesser populated corner of the pool, away from immediate eyes of those having fun in the pool.

"All right, start talking." Darkwing said. "I want to know more about how Sally was acting before she went rouge, and anything that might indicate why." he paused, then added, "Do this, and we'll let you go."

"I suppose, then, that Steelbeak didn't tell you." Elizabeth said.

"No, he didn't, Lizzie." Darkwing said.

"But you can." Techno added.

"And will." Crimson added.

Elizabeth frowned again, but nodded. "Like it'll do you guys any good." she muttered. "Well, I first started noticing that something was wrong, the day you, Darkwing, caught me and Sally working with Darkwarrior's backup hideout. After the explosion, I went looking for her, having lost sight of her. Finally found her standing in the woods alone. She seemed distracted, however, and in a bit of a daze. I thought it was maybe due to the explosion, and tried to shake her out of it as we left.

"But she didn't snap out of it. It faded after awhile, though, but it stuck with her. Eventually me and the others noticed she was spending a lot of time alone, and I caught a glimpse of something she was working on, but she wouldn't let me see it. It wasn't long after that before she went rouge, leaving a very vague and to the point message saying she had done so."

"That's it?" Crimson asked.

"Yes and no." Elizabeth said. "Didn't get another clue until Jack met up with her later, and had their little conversation."

"Yes, Steelbeak related that much to SHUSH." Darkwing said. "All that stuff about her plans, whatever they are, 'effecting everybody.'"

"But there's more." Elizabeth said. "Sally related one more detail to Jack that none of us have related to Steelbeak yet."

She fell silent after that, so Darkwing pressed his bill into Sally's. "Which is?" he asked.

"Sally isn't alone." Elizabeth replied with a glare. "She's working with someone."

This was news for the others.

"Who?" Techno asked.

"That's the mystery." Elizabeth said. "We were hoping that we could find out once we caught up with her."

"We being The Elements." Crimson guessed.

Elizabeth nodded. Techno looked away suddenly, as if he saw something.

"Is that everything?" Darkwing asked.

"Just about." Elizabeth said. "So are you going to let me go or will I have to do it myself? I can, you know. The only reason I've done it myself is because there are too many people here, who could be watching."

"You're lucky then that we've seem to gone unnoticed." Crimson remarked.

"Yeah, looks like there's some kind of cannonball contest going on over at the diving board that has everybody's interest at the moment." Launchpad added.

"But that's going to change." Techno said, pointing suddenly.

The group turned around. Standing on the opposite end of the pool, dressed in civilian clothing was someone with long ears, looking right at them.

"Sally!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

But then the pool of water that divided them suddenly exploded, hurling water at the group. Caught in the wave, they were knocked backwards into the nearby wall. shouts of surprise started to ring out as the water started to spread out. Elizabeth was the only one of the group who had been left standing, and with a burst of wind, used her powers to blow the net covering her off, then took off into the air, heading for Sally.

The hare made a break for it, Elizabeth following.

"Sally, wait!" Elizabeth called.

"I jolly well can't!" Sally said, stopping and looking back at her former coworker. "Sorry, Liz."

Another wave formed in the pool, and smacked into Elizabeth, knocking the duck, in mid-air, through a nearby window. By this point in time, there was a mad dash for everyone to get out of the pool and to escape. In the chaos that followed, Darkwing and the gang wormed their way through the multitudes, searching for Sally.

Launchpad found her first, but panicked, and was promptly knocked into a potted plant by a well placed burst of water from Sally. Techno found the hare next, but met a similar fate. Darkwing was at the wrong corner of the pool to meet up with Sally, which just left Crimson. Dodging Sally first and initial attack, Crimson lunged forward and grabbed Sally around the middle, pulling out her gas gun in the same move.

"Game's over, Sally McHare!" Crimson said. "Now, I believe you have some questions to answer!"

"Unfortunately, Crimson, I cannot." Sally said, and drove her elbow into Crimson's middle, making Crimson double over. "There's too much at stake."

Shaking Crimson off of her, Sally started to run off. Crimson tried to stop her, grabbing something attached to Sally's belt, but the object yanked off, and Crimson crashed to the floor. Sally quickly blended in with the remaining people trying to flee the people and vanished.

"Crimson!" Darkwing said, hurrying over to help his daughter up. "Are you all right?"

Crimson picked herself up slowly. "Yeah." she said, holding up the item she had pulled off of Sally. It was a cell phone, in a case. "I think this makes up for it nicely."

* * *

Back at Darkwing Tower, Techno carefully examined Sally cell phone.

"Hmm, it seems to be an ordinary cell phone." he remarked. "No added gadgets to speak of."

"I could've told you that!" Darkwing muttered, pacing the room impatiently.

"But I don't get it." Launchpad said. "By being a former member of FOUL, wouldn't she have a whole bunch of cool gadgets?"

"The Elements didn't really need gadgets, Launchpad, not with their powers." Techno pointed out.

"Besides, with Sally being on the run from them, I don't really think she'd get to keep all of those benefits anyway." Crimson added.

"But why?" Darkwing asked. "Why is she on the run? What is so important that she's doing all of this?"

"Whatever it is, she seems apologetic about it." Crimson said. "She seemed genuinely saddened by having to take me out like that."

"She did apologize to Elizabeth for everything she had done or was about to do, too." Launchpad added.

"But it only just adds to the mystery." Darkwing said, frustrated.

"Maybe the answers we need are on this." Techno said, and turned on the cell phone.

They all gathered to look at the display.

"Gee, that looks oddly familiar." Techno remarked, staring at the _Jumpgate_-related background the phone sported.

"It should." Crimson said, and pulled out her own cell phone, switched it on, and placed it on the table. It had the same background.

Techno took the two phones and compared the displays of both. "They're the same." he said, shocked. "Sally cloned Gosalyn's phone. Whatever Gos receives with this phone, Sally would've received as well."

"She cloned my phone?" Crimson asked. "When?"

"Why?" Launchpad asked.

"How?" Darkwing asked, looking annoyed. "Crimson, you only use that phone when not in costume. So how could have Sally gotten it? Particularly without any of _us _knowing about it?"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Crimson snapped. "She knows who I am!"

"Of course!" Techno said. "We found evidence that The Elements were monitoring our private lives during their time in Elementary Underground, remember?"

"But we never proved that they put two with two!" Darkwing pointed out.

"We do now." Crimson said, tapping her cell phone.

A moment of silence fell.

"So, is everything we need to know in there?" Launchpad asked, pointing at the cell phones.

"I can find out." Techno said, grabbing one and fiddling with it. "Give me some time, though, like maybe an hour or two."

"Okay, in the meantime..." Darkwing began, but was cut off when a beeping sound rang out.

Quickly, Darkwing rushed to the master control panel and activated the big screen. Hooter's face appeared on the screen.

"Darkwing!" Hooter said urgently. "We've found Sally!"

"Really?" Darkwing asked, as the others joined him at the screen. "Where?"

"On the shore of Audubon Bay." Hooter said, and his face was replaced with a picture of Sally standing at the shore of the bay, looking alone and defenseless.

Crimson blinked in surprise and rushed over to a window, looking out it towards shore. Sure enough, she could see Sally standing on the shore in the same position as the picture portrayed. She glanced back at Darkwing, sending an unspoken message to him with his eyes.

"What's she doing?" Launchpad wondered out loud.

"Whatever it is, water pressure all over the city is dropping." Hooter explained, his face reappearing on the screen. "Every drop of it is flowing into the bay."

"Sally must be doing that, with her powers!" Crimson said, rejoining them.

"Yes, and very soon St. Canard's pipes will be completely void of water." Hooter said. "What will happen then, I do not know."

"Yes, what _is _she doing?" Darkwing wondered.

"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Techno said.

"So why haven't you grabbed her yet, Hooter?" Crimson asked.

"We've tried, but Sally wards off any attempts of my agents getting close to her with her powers." Hooter said. "I was hoping that you, Darkwing, could have better success."

"Gotcha, Hooter, we'll give it a shot." Darkwing said. "We'll be in touch soon."

Closing the link, he headed for the Tower's emergency exit. "C'mon, LP, Crimson." Darkwing said. "Let's get dangerous. Tech, you stay here and work with those cell phones, got it?"

Techno nodded, and got right to work.

* * *

Out on the bridge, Darkwing, Crimson, and Launchpad hurried towards the spot Sally could be standing.

"We'll have to hurry, it won't take her long to empty all the pipes into the bay." Crimson said as they ran.

"Agreed, so the first priority is to break her concentration." Darkwing said, as they reached the end of the bridge. "Spilt up. We'll catch her by surprise."

They all nodded, and went their separate ways. Launchpad ran along, taking the most direct path to Sally, and not bothering to conceal himself. He wasn't keeping track of his progress either, so eventually he nearly stumbled onto the shore Sally stood upon. Skidding to a stop quickly, Launchpad started to backtrack into the shelter of his surroundings before Sally saw him. He hadn't gone far before he, in his haste, crashed into a set of trash cans, and toppled over.

Groaning, he started to pick himself up. He suddenly realized that he wasn't alone. He looked up, and into the smirking face of Jack O'Hara.

"Hello." the fox greeted.

Launchpad picked himself up fully, only to find that he was completely surrounded, Jack, Garth, and Elizabeth, now back in uniform, blocked off all attempts to escape.

Quickly, Launchpad pulled out his walkie-talkie. What remained of The Elements did not move to stop him.

"Um, Crimson?" Launchpad said hesitantly into the walkie-talkie. "I could use some help here."

* * *

"Unfortunately, LP, I could use some help myself." Crimson replied into her walkie-talkie, and looked around at the people surrounding her, slowly reaching for her gas gun.

"I wouldn't move if I were you." NegaGosalyn remarked, training her P90 on her double.

Crimson stopped, and looked around at the members of the Fearsome Five, surrounding her.

"So, back from the past, huh?" Crimson remarked.

"In short, yes." Negaduck replied airily. "Not that it concerns you."

Crimson suddenly realized, and looked the group over again. There was someone missing. She pointed this out to Negaduck

"Very good Crimson." Negaduck said. "And it's going to be you who's going to help us resolve that little issue."

* * *

For Darkwing, the going was easy, reaching the area where Sally could be seen quite quickly. Quickly, he looked around, taking in his surroundings. Spying a vacant warehouse nearby, Darkwing quickly ducked into it, with the idea of popping out of it again and giving Sally the jump.

It was very dark within the warehouse. Unworried, however, Darkwing reached into his jacket and pulled out a flashlight, flicking it on. The beam immediately fell upon a device that looked like something between a medical bed and a mechanical arm wrestling machine.

"What the..." Darkwing began, take a step towards it.

But then the mechanical arms suddenly lashed out and grabbed Darkwing, making him drop his flashlight, and slapped him onto the medical like cot, and held him there. Darkwing struggled, but it was to no avail.

"Yes, yes, typical Darkwing." a voice rang out from in front of Darkwing suddenly. "You can always count on a disaster for him to show up at. Too bad you always make a blunder out of it." the voice sighed. "Shame on me for taking advantage of a villain's evil scheme to do this, but I must admit, the scheme worked quite nicely."

Darkwing squinted into the darkness. "Who's there?" he asked.

The voice merely chuckled, and a figure stepped into the light. Darkwing paled.

"Darkwarrior."

* * *

Techno worked with the cell phones urgently, but wasn't getting anywhere. He glanced up at the big screen every now and then, where he had a display of the water pressure all over the city up. He watched as the numbers continued to drop drastically.

"C'mon guys." he mumbled to himself, and continued to work.

He worked with the cell phones awhile longer to no avail. Then a low beeping noise rang out. He glanced up at the big screen again, and saw that the water pressure had finally hit zero. Alarmed, he looked out the window where Sally stood. Even from here, he could see her begin to raise her arms up into the air.

Suddenly, a low rumble rang out, and the ground started to shake. Without warning, a column of water suddenly shot out of the bay and sailed up into the air. Two more similar columns appeared elsewhere in the bay, carrying the water in the bay up to a certain point in the air, where it flatten out and started to merge together. Slowly, a large, oversized, bubble of water started to form over the city. Once it was completed, the city was completely enclosed by the bubble, and not a drop of the water remained in the bay...

* * *

Sally concentrated in holding the water in place over the city, then with one mental command, made the water freeze solid. Weary, she let her arms fall to her sides. The task had been very grueling, and exhausting. Under normal circumstances, attempting such a task would've killed her.

Fortunately, she had help.

She sensed his presence even before he spoke, stepping up behind her in loud sloshes, and placing a wet hand on her shoulder, speaking with a bubbly voice.

"Very good, Sally." said The Liquidator. "We're now well on our way to ruling the world..."

**To be continued...**


	31. Aqueous Part II

Summary: With the gang all seperated, they all have to find each other again, and then unite to take care of the common threat...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Part 2. Resolves the major issues from Part 1. I revisit a few old ideas while I'm at it in this chpt as well.

31.

Aqueous Part II

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_SHUSH has learned that a member from The Elements has gone rouge."_

"_What? Why? How did you find that out?"_

"_We were told."_

"_By who?"_

"_Perhaps the person responsible should be the one to tell you."_

_--_

"_I have reason t' believe that this little situation is as much as a threat t' you guys over at SHUSH as it is for me. Right now, we both have got ourselves a highly superpowered ex-member of The Elements out there somewhere, with no clue just what it is exactly she intends to do."_

"_She?"_

"_Just who are we talking about, here?"_

"_Sally McHare, Darkwing."_

_--_

"_It was Jack who tracked her down, and confronted her 'bout what she was doin'. She didn't say much, but she did say she was doin' somethin' important, that it didn't involve FOUL, but that it did effect everybody. That would include, last __**I**__ checked, SHUSH."_

_--_

"_Didn't get another clue until Jack met up with her later, and had their little conversation."_

"_Yes, Steelbeak related that much to SHUSH. All that stuff about her plans, whatever they are, 'effecting everybody.'"_

"_But there's more. Sally related one more detail to Jack that none of us have related to Steelbeak yet."_

"_Which is?"_

"_Sally isn't alone. She's working with someone."_

_--_

"_But why? Why is she on the run? What is so important that she's doing all of this?"_

"_Whatever it is, she seems apologetic about it. She seemed genuinely saddened by having to take me out like that."_

_--_

"_They're the same. Sally cloned Gosalyn's phone. Whatever Gos receives with this phone, Sally would've received as well."_

"_Crimson, you only use that phone when not in costume. So how could have Sally gotten it? Particularly without any of us knowing about it?"_

"_Well, isn't it obvious? She knows who I am!"_

_--_

"_Darkwing! We've found Sally!"_

"_Really? Where?"_

"_On the shore of Audubon Bay."_

_--_

"_What's she doing?"_

"_Whatever it is, water pressure all over the city is dropping. Every drop of it is flowing into the bay."_

"_Sally must be doing that, with her powers!"_

"_Yes, and very soon St. Canard's pipes will be completely void of water. What will happen then, I do not know."_

_--_

_Groaning, Launchpad started to pick himself up. He suddenly realized that he wasn't alone. He looked up, and into the smirking face of Jack O'Hara._

_--_

"_Um, Crimson? I could use some help here."_

"_Unfortunately, LP, I could use some help myself."_

_--_

_Crimson stopped, and looked around at the members of the Fearsome Five, surrounding her._

_--_

"_Yes, yes, typical Darkwing. You can always count on a disaster for him to show up at. Too bad you always make a blunder out of it. Shame on me for taking advantage of a villain's evil scheme to do this, but I must admit, the scheme worked quite nicely."_

"_Who's there?"_

"_Darkwarrior."_

_--_

_Suddenly, a low rumble rang out, and the ground started to shake. Without warning, a column of water suddenly shot out of the bay and sailed up into the air. Two more similar columns appeared elsewhere in the bay, carrying the water in the bay up to a certain point in the air, where it flatten out and started to merge together. Slowly, a large, oversized, bubble of water started to form over the city. Once it was completed, the city was completely enclosed by the bubble, and not a drop of the water remained in the bay..._

_--_

"_Very good, Sally." said The Liquidator. "We're now well on our way to ruling the world..."_

* * *

Techno stared upward at the encasement of frozen water that hung over St. Canard, forming a large bubble. Then he looked downward to where Sally still stood on the shore, now joined by, of all people, Liki. For several moments, Techno puzzled over why the two had wanted to do something like this. What was their motive?

It didn't take too long for Techno to figure it out, though. Glancing back at the big screen, he observed yet again that there wasn't a drop of water left in a single pipe anywhere in St. Canard. All of it had been forced to flow into the bay. But now all of that water had been used to create this bubble, leaving none in the bay at all.

This meant that there wasn't _any _drinkablewater left in the city, period. And as the bubble was frozen, and it didn't look like it was going to unfreeze anytime soon, the water there couldn't be accessed anymore. If things remained like that for too long, the entire populace of St. Canard could eventually die of thirst.

And there was more. The bubble, being several meters thick of frozen water, cut off all outside access to the world around the city. Techno even saw that the bubble stretched out far enough that the Elementary Underground wouldn't reach outside of the bubble. They were all trapped inside the bubble, and unless they dug their way out, had no chance of escape.

Sally and Liki had effectively laid siege to St. Canard.

And by doing, could use the city as leverage to get whatever they wanted, meaning...

Techno shook his head. They were _all _in deep trouble.

But what he couldn't get over was the fact that Sally was in league with The Liquidator. Liki, of all people! How the heck had those two gotten together, and without anybody else catching on? And why?

Techno stared at the two still standing on the shore of the bay from his perch in Darkwing Tower. Frowning, he then keyed a command into his visor. It zoomed in on the two, giving him a better look. The two were merely conversing calmly, completely unworried. Liki wore a pleased expression, while Sally seemed more unsure. But the fact remained that they were talking with each other like they were old friends. In fact, if Techno didn't know better, he'd almost say that they were...

Wait, wait, _wait!_ Sally and Liki? A couple? Was that even possible?

But looking again, Techno started to wonder if that was indeed the case.

Reducing the zoom on his visor back to normal, he shook his head.

"I've got to tell the others." he said, switching on the radio in his helmet. "Crimson, Darkwing, LP, come in, please."

* * *

Without warning, Crimson's radio suddenly crackled. Alarmed, Crimson broke eye contact with Negaduck, and looked down at it.

"Crimson, Darkwing, LP, come in please." came Techno's voice. "Come in, please."

Crimson looked up at Negaduck. The villain frowned for a moment, then extended his hand, motioning with his fingers to had over the walkie-talkie. Crimson hesitated for a moment, then obeyed, placing it in Negaduck's hand. Negaduck then held it up, examining it.

"Repeat, Crimson, Darkwing, LP, come in please." Techno's voice continued. "I may be on to something here."

Negaduck tossed the walkie-talkie to NegaGosalyn, and raised his pistol. "Pull!" he exclaimed suddenly.

NegaGosalyn hurled the walkie-talkie as high into the air as she could. Negaduck waited until the device had reached the peak of the throw, then fired once at it. The walkie-talkie seemed to explode as the fired bullet whizzed right through it like a hot knife through butter. Crimson gulped.

"Now." Negaduck said, turning his attention back to Crimson. "Back to buisness."

"Negs, if you think I can help you track down Liki, you must be crazy." Crimson said hotly. "I don't have the foggiest clue where he is! I didn't even suspect he had any involvement in this issue until I realized he wasn't with you guys!" she looked back up at the arching shape of the frozen bubble, almost out of sight now due to the fog that had started to arise and engulf the imprisoned city. "Besides," she went on, "it seems Liki's got us _all _at a disadvantage."

"I know." Negaduck said, who seemed completely unconcerned about the predicament. Crimson suspected he knew well beforehand what Liki and Sally's plans were.

Crimson blinked. "And you're okay with that?" she asked.

"For now, yes." Negaduck said. "Because you're going to help me resolve the issue, as I said."

"And what makes you so sure I'm going to willingly help you?" Crimson asked, folding her arms.

Negaduck snapped his fingers. Without warning, the other members of the Fearsome Five suddenly rushed forward and grabbed Crimson, completely subduing her, despite her attempts to break free.

Negaduck grinned. "Just a hunch." he said. "Now let's move."

* * *

Somewhat nearby, Launchpad and the rest of The Elements looked upward at the formed bubble of ice for several long moments. Finally, Launchpad broke his gaze with the bubble and lowered his head to look at Jack. Jack did likewise, in perfect sync with Launchpad. Launchpad grinned sheepishly.

"Heh, I don't suppose I can convince you guys to just let me go now, can I?" Launchpad asked uneasily, eyeing the remaining three members of The Elements that surrounded him.

"Not really." Jack admitted. "Because you might have valuable information about Sally's whereabouts, and what's going on here. And, you aided in the capture of one of my team members, an incident I'm not too inclined to let you go on unpunished."

"Hey, look buddy, I don't know nothing." Launchpad quickly assured him. "No more than you guys do, anyway. And that whole incident with catching Liz at the pool, I was just following orders."

He studied their unconvinced expressions, and gulped.

"Really." he persisted. "Besides, it was Techno's idea to use the net, not me."

"I'll let the matter of what happened at the pool slide for now." Elizabeth said with the wave of her hand. "But I want to know what you and Darkwing have figured out since we last met up with each other. I'm positive everything I told you must have clued you in to something."

Launchpad thought carefully about what he should say. "Look, you've really got the wrong guy." he persisted. "I'm just the sidekick, who does all the heavy lifting and the menal tasks."

"_Menial _tasks." Garth corrected.

"There, you see?" Launchpad said, pointing behind him at Garth. "I'm a total idiot! I don't know nothing!"

Jack and Elizabeth exchanged unconvinced glances.

"Besides, you're after Sally, right?" Launchpad went on. "Well then, if you want her, go get her! She's just around that corner, standing on the bank!"

The three members of the team exchanged surprised glances. Jack jerked his head to the spot Launchpad had indicated, and Elizabeth and Garth both hurried off to scope things out, leaving Jack with Launchpad. They were silent for a moment. The Jack looked down at the walkie-talkie in Launchpad's hands.

Launchpad had turned it off, thinking it wouldn't do him much good anymore, and thus couldn't hear Techno attempting to contact him. Neither could Jack, but regardless, the fox wasn't going to take any chances. Taking it from Launchpad, he held it in one hand for a moment, then lit the hand aflame. The walkie-talkie sizzled for a moment, then melted.

Launchpad winced. "Heh, I bet that's handy for cooking grilled cheese sandwiches." he said, trying to be funny and optimistic at the same time.

Jack was clearly not amused.

Elizabeth and Garth returned a moment later, empty handed.

"She's not there." Elizabeth reported to Jack. "Either she's moved since this guy saw her last, or he's lying."

"Well, I'm not lying, I can guarantee you that." Launchpad assured them. "Like I said, I really don't know what's going on here."

"Regardless, you may still come in handy." Jack said, grabbing Launchpad's wrist. "So you're going to come with us."

* * *

Currently, St. Canard was very alarmed about what had happened. But currently, there were two people locked safely away in an insignificant warehouse that had yet to learn of what had happened.

Darkwing struggled against the mechanical arms that held him to the table, to no avail. He glared at the double standing before him. "What do you want, Darkwarrior?" he demanded.

"A great many things, Darkwing." Darkwarrior said, pulling a cart items into view. "First and foremost, I wish to eliminate the serious crime problem here in your universe."

"Well, so do I!" Darkwing retorted.

"Yes and no." Darkwarrior said. "I'll admit that you will idly combat those who have been labeled as criminals by the public, but not a shred more. No, more likely you're only aiding them in their crimes, and letting the real criminals loose."

"Says you." Darkwing said with a glare.

"Yes, indeed." Darkwarrior said. "Which brings me to my second goal. I'm going to stop you twisted criminals from continuing your dirty work. You, the police, SHUSH, even!"

"Then what's stopping you?" Darkwing asked. "No one's heard of you since your cameo in this universe!"

Darkwarrior gave his double a look. "That's because I've encountered a little problem, no thanks to you." he growled.

Darkwing grinned, putting two with two. "The robots." he said. "You're helpless without your robots."

"Yes, and I can't seem to evade that pesky computer virus you've made to combat them, either." Darkwarrior said.

"Yes, SHUSH broadcasts it on all frequencies 24/7." Darkwing said proudly. "If any of your robots are anywhere on the face of the planet, they're neutralized by the virus."

"A fact I am annoyingly aware of." Darkwarrior said. "Which is why you're here." he picked up one of the devices from the cart. Darkwing couldn't identify it, but a part of him said he didn't want to.

"I have gone to great lengths to get you here, Darkwing." Darkwarrior continued, fingering the device. "I've even broken my own policies and took advantage of another criminal's plot to get you here."

"So wait, you know about Sally's scheme, whatever it is?" Darkwing asked.

"To a certain extent, yes." Darkwarrior said. "Stumbled upon it way back when you idiots tried to mess with my transdimensional portal generator. I don't know everything, but at this point I don't care. What I knew was enough to get you here."

"So, no that you've got me here, what are you going to do?" Darkwing inquired.

"Easy." Darkwarrior said, holding up the mysterious device. "I'm going to get you to tell me how that computer virus works, so I can come up with an anti-virus, and be back in action yet again."

Darkwing snorted. "Even if you did get me to tell it to you, how do you even know I know it?" he asked. "Because I don't. I get too confused with most of the science of modern day to understand how a computer virus like that would work, at least not on the details you're speaking of."

"I fact I already had theorized." Darkwarrior said. "So another option is to get you to tell me where I would find out those details."

Darkwing had to admit he _did _know that much, but he certainly wasn't going to tell Darkwarrior if he could help it.

"Now, down to business." Darkwarrior continued, starting to circle Darkwing. "You may have found a way to disable my crime-fighting robots, but that doesn't mean I'm totally helpless technologically wise. In fact, this device right here..." he patted the mechanical arms that held Darkwing to the table, "...is proof of that. Because it operates on an entirely different operating system in comparison to my crime fighting robots, it's immune to that pesky computer virus."

"So what is it?" Darkwing asked as Darkwarrior stepped into his view again, having walked a complete circle around Darkwing.

Darkwarrior grinned. "It's a holo-simulator." he said. "A little gizmo from my universe that your backwards universe have yet to dream up. It will create any environment I want it to. And..." he held up the device in his hands, "...is the memory card that contains the environment I want it to create today."

Darkwing watched as Darkwarrior slipped the card into a slot on the machine. "What kind of environment?" he asked, beginning to sweat.

"Oh, nothing much." Darkwarrior said, as the device started to hum. "Just your worst nightmare..."

* * *

Techno cycled through all the frequencies he knew of, and still couldn't seem to reach anybody.

"Where are they?" Techno asked, glancing out the window to where Sally and Liki had once stood. They stood there no more however, having vanished from sight when Techno wasn't looking. And during all of this, he hadn't seen any sign of the others working to overpower them, as was the plan. "It's like they've vanished off the face of the Earth." he continued.

Tapping the speaker to the headset built into his helmet, he frowned, listening to the soft sound of static, all he could get out of the radio now. "Something must have happened to them." he deduced.

Seeing he had no choice now, he walked over to the master control panel and sat down in the command chair. Quickly, he opened a channel to SHUSH. Moments later, Director Hooter's face appeared on the screen, but the image wasn't it's clearest, and looked to at times to be threatening to burst into static. Still, it was clear enough that both Techno and Hooter could see who they were talking to.

"Techno!" Hooter exclaimed, surprised. "I'm a bit surprised, I thought it was Darkwing who was contacting me. Where is he?"

"I don't know, I can't seem to contact him." Techno admitted. "I fear that something has happened to not only him, but Crimson and Launchpad as well." he paused, and changed the subject. "I suppose you know what's happened regarding Sally by now?"

"All to well." Hooter said. "There isn't any water anywhere in St. Canard. Even the emergency reserves are empty. Every last drop is frozen in the bubble Sally has formed."

"We're sieged." Techno summarized.

"And it only gets worse." Hooter continued. "Unlike what was expected, that frozen water is not warming up, but actually getting _colder_."

"Probably an attempt to make sure it stays frozen." Techno reasoned.

"But it's an issue, because the temperature within the bubble is dropping significantly." Hooter continued. "If this keeps up, we'll be reaching temperatures below freezing within mere hours." he sighed, and continued. "And there's even more." he admitted. "Sally has been in contact with us via an audio link. She has made us acknowledge that we're at her mercy, and has made us meet her demands."

"What are her demands?" Techno asked, curious.

"Oddly enough, technological parts." Hooter said. "We have theorized she intends to construct something."

"Or maybe not her so much, but her cohort." Techno said. "I've seen for myself who she's working with. The Liquidator."

Hooter blinked. "Surely not..." he said.

"It's true." Techno persisted. "And I think they're working...more closely...than they ought to."

"Are you suggesting that they are romantically involved?" Hooter asked.

"I can't confirm it, but it seems likely."

Hooter frowned. "But this doesn't fit in with Sally's attitude." he said. "When she contacted us, she seemed more...reluctant...to do what she's doing. Like she didn't want to do it at all, but saw no choice."

"I have that impression as well." Techno agreed. "The problem, though, is that we have no way to confirm it."

"Not without getting in contact with her." Hooter agreed. "Which remains to be your chief objective, Techno. Track her down. She is currently the most likely person to give us answers, and there is nothing I need more at the moment. I already have agents on the lookout for her. We have a theory that she might be on the south side of the city, but have yet to find anything that will confirm it. Regardless, these agents will be around, and willing to help you when needed."

"Got it." Techno said, standing and collecting what he would need.

"Furthermore, I will have some other agents work in tracking down Darkwing and the others." Hooter said. "By golly, I need Darkwing on this case more than ever now."

"Keep me posted, Hooter." Techno said, tapping his radio. "Techno out."

He shut off the transmission and quickly exited the tower. The sooner this mission was completed, the better.

* * *

The Fearsome Five never released their hold on Crimson until she was safely tied to a chair within the gang's hideout, which, to Crimson's dismay, she was unable to pinpoint it's location. After that, Negaduck shooed the others minus NegaGosalyn away, leaving just the three of them alone in one room.

"So," Negaduck began, rubbing his hands together. "Where to begin?"

"At the beginning?" Crimson offered unhelpfully.

Negaduck frowned and smacked her. "I'll ask the questions." he said. "You give me answers."

"Fine." Crimson spat.

Negaduck made a big show of considering his first question. "All right, let's start with something you do know." he said. "Sally McHare, of the FOUL team called The Elements, has gone rouge, and is acting without authority, correct?"

Crimson sighed. "Yes." she replied.

"Just as I thought, for that's what Liki's doing." Negaduck said. "The little traitor. Anyway, have any demands been made yet?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Crimson said. "Though, I suppose one could've been made since you caught me. Therefore, I'd have no way to know about it."

Negaduck ignored this fact. "Then Liki hasn't gotten far with these plans just yet." he muttered. "Now, do you know what Liki and this Sally are planning?"

"To lay siege to St. Canard with it's own water supply." Crimson replied. "Obviously. Even Launchpad could've figured that out eventually."

"There's more to that, but close enough." Negaduck stated cryptically. "Now, tell me what SHUSH plans to do in response."

"How am I suppose to know, I have made contact with them since you caught me!" Crimson exclaimed.

Negaduck slapped her again. "Lie." he said.

Crimson frowned, feeling her cheek throb. "I suppose I _could _make an educated guess." she said hotly.

"Good." Negaduck growled.

"But I wouldn't tell you, either way." Crimson continued defiantly.

Negaduck slapped her again. "Why you little..." he started to say, but then Bushroot suddenly rushed into the room.

"What is it?" Negaduck roared, hearing Bushroot entered and whirling around to face the mutant plant-duck. "I asked to not be..."

"...interrupted, I know." Bushroot said, cowering in fear of his leader. "And I'm sorry to interrupt, but we've got a problem outside. Rowe said you should probably come check it out for yourself."

Negaduck grumbled some kind of threat that made Bushroot pale, but Negaduck nodded, and stomped out of the room. Bushroot followed, keeping his distance, leaving NegaGosalyn, who stood guard at the doorway, silently gripping her P90.

Crimson watched her double for a few moments, noting her anxiety. "Nervous about something?" she asked.

NegaGosalyn shot her a glance. "Nothing that concerns you." she hissed.

"Well, maybe I can guess, seeing we're so much alike." Crimson said, and thought for a moment. "I'm willing to bet it has to do with Negaduck...no?"

"You be quiet." NegaGosalyn said, avoiding eye contact and not answering the question. Which, by doing so, gave Crimson the answer anyway.

"So, maybe you two aren't as close as you seem." Crimson guessed.

NegaGosalyn gave no response.

"That actually makes sense, seeing your good-natured past." Crimson went on.

NegaGosalyn shot her a glance.

"Look, I know you weren't always bad." Crimson went on. "I know you used to be better behaved than I was. But something changed, and I'm willing to bet it involves Negaduck, doesn't it?"

"Negaduck wanted the perfect daughter." NegaGosalyn said flatly.

"But you don't have to be the perfect daughter." Crimson retorted. "Heck, you don't have to be Negaduck's daughter at all. He's not your biological father."

"You stay with Darkwing." NegaGosalyn pointed out.

"Darkwing doesn't even to compare with Negaduck." Crimson said. "Now c'mon. Listen to reason. Deep down, you don't like the life you're leading, do you?"

NegaGosalyn was quiet for a long moment. "That's where you're wrong." she said.

But all further conversation was cut off when a ruckus suddenly erupted in the other room. NegaGosalyn quickly raised her P90 and returned her focus to the doorway, glancing out it. But she had barely taken that glance when she seemed to have gotten a better idea, and pulled out a little ball and threw it to the floor. She vanished behind the resulting cloud of blood red smoke was there no more.

Crimson was left alone in the room for several moments, wondering what had happened, and if it was something to worry over. Then, finally, two figures appeared in the doorway. Crimson immediately recognized them as SHUSH agents.

"Oh, am I glad to see you guys!" Crimson exclaimed, relieved.

* * *

Meanwhile, Techno was cautiously exploring the south side of St. Canard, as Hooter had suggested, searching for any sign of Sally or Liki. He shivered as the air dropped another degree in temperature and became even chillier. A thick fog now engulfed most of the city, making it hard to see much further than a few feet, making Techno all that more cautious. His visor had mechanisms that allowed for improved vision within the fog, but it only went so far.

So far, he had nothing to show for his long search, and Hooter hadn't contacted him much. When he had, there was very little to report for either of them. Techno was constantly finding himself getting distracted, thinking about what might have happened to Crimson and the others, what might happen to all of them if this aquatic siege went on for much longer, and why he was even out here. He was going well beyond his normal operating limits as a crime fighter. He never liked to get too serious with it, like he was now.

But then, he reminded himself, he was all that was left. For the moment, all of the responsibilities he and the gang shared now rested with him, and that made all of the difference.

So he continued on. Turning into an alley to search, he smacked his dry lips, feeling thirsty, but knew there wasn't any water to drink. Ignoring his thirst, he was just about to decide there was nothing to see in this alley when he heard a snap come from behind. Techno's senses instantly switched into alert mode, but he didn't even get the chance to turn around before he was grabbed from behind, a paw clamping over his beak.

"Hush, an' be still." the voice of Sally McHare reaching his ears. "Yore life jolly well depends upon it."

Techno didn't have much choice but obey. He sensed Sally look around, then he was suddenly stuffed behind a stack of boxes. Sally then released him, but pressed a finger to her lips again, to enforce the importance of Techno being quiet, then straightened fully and looked down the alley, where Techno couldn't see from his hiding spot.

"Sally!" the gurgily voice of The Liquidator rang out. "Whatcha doing?"

"On th' lokout for any trouble, just as yeh requested." Sally replied.

"Find any?" Liki's voice came echoing back.

"No." Sally flat out lied, to Techno's surprise.

A moment of silence followed, but it wasn't a tense one. Techno realized Liki trusted Sally completely.

"Very good!" Liki finally said. "With The Liqudator, you will never fail!"

"Aye!" Sally said, raising her voice, indicating to Techno that Liki was leaving.

Sure enough, a few moments later, Sally joined Techno in the hiding spot.

"Wot are yeh doin' here?" she demanded in a harsh whisper.

"I have orders from SHUSH to be looking for you!" Techno replied, bewildered.

"I know, but don't yeh know how much bally danger you're in?" Sally asked urgently.

"Why do you care?" Techno asked. "You're my enemy!"

"No, that's only wot I want Liki t' think!" Sally corrected, looking around urgently.

"Say what?" Techno said, now really lost. "Wait, start at the beginning!"

Sally looked hesitant, but nodded. "All right." she said. "First off, I should tell yeh that I know who yeh are, Honker Muddlefoot."

Techno blinked, but otherwise did not react. "We already presumed that much." he said.

"Aye, but yeh don't know that your secret is safe with me." Sally went on. "See, yeh no doubt found evidence that The Elements was eyein' you out of costume when SHUSH took of Elementary Underground. But, there's more t' it than yeh know. Our orders after we established that liddle hideout was t' spy on SHUSH, but Steelbeak also believed he had a lead on who Darkwing was, an' had us spy on Avian Way. Now, it's not as bad as yeh jolly well think. We weren't spyin' on yeh, but rather th' house right across from yeh."

Techno thought for a moment. "The Johnsons?" he said, surprised. "You thought the Johnson family was Darkwing Duck and company?"

"Well, Mr. Johnson as Darkwing Duck, t' be specific." Sally said with a shrug. "But one night, while I was doin' th' spyin' I managed t' figure out that it was really Drake Mallard across the street who was Darkwing. Made sense, actually, because that was where that McQuack fella lives. But after I had done that, I quickly put two with two an' figured out the rest. At first, I was really excited, and quickly started to gather the evidence needed."

"But the more I watched yeh all, the more I started t' wonder if I wanted to. I could see what good family an' friends yeh all were, and I thought yeh didn't really need FOUL strikin' at th' heart of that. So I hide me discovery until I decided wot course of action I wanted t' take, an' made plans t' destroy the evidence. But then we got new orders, an' had t' abandon Elementary Underground t' stage an attack on SHUSH instead. Never got th' chance t' destroy the evidence, but at least it was you guys who found the bloomin' things."

"So wait, you were trying to protect us?" Techno asked.

"Aye, an' I started t' doubt if I really could keep on doin' wot I was doin', knowin' wot I did." Sally admitted. "Made me start t' doubt me position in The Elements, a feelin' that just grew over time." she paused, and sighed. "The Liki came into th' picture."

"At first, it was just a silly first meetin'. Same day we abandoned Elementary Underground and attacked SHUSH, I met Liki face t' face fer the first time. Dunno why, but I fell fer his antics an' personality, not that I admitted it t' anybody."

"So there _is _some kind of relationship between you two?" Techno asked, in awe.

"There was." Sally corrected. "At first, it was just a silly liddle thing, that probably would've never become anythin'. Then there was the night when me n' Liz tried t' activate Darkwarrior's bloomin' portal doohickey. When it exploded that night, the blast knocked me down, and I lost track of Liz and everyone else. I was alright, though, so I started t' pick meself up, thinkin' I was alone. I was wrong."

"Liki was there, watchin' me just out my flippin' vision. Approached me suddenly an' offered t' help me, if I helped him in return. I agreed, an' he gave me a summarized low down on his plans. I, not thinkin' straight, thought they were clever, an' thought about agreein', but still had me doubts. By this point, Liki had somehow deduced that I liked him, must've let it slip somehow, an' he said he felt likewise about me. Total lie, by the way. He felt no such thing."

"He was just trying to use your attraction to him to get you to do what he wanted you to do." Techno deduced.

Sally nodded. "An' by th' time I jolly well figured that out, it was too late. I was committed t' the plan. Still am, in fact, an' I can't just back out."

"Then let me help you by you helping me." Techno said. "Tell me what it is Liki is planning, and together we can _both _work to stop him."

Sally bit her lip. "Liki can't know." she said.

"He won't." Techno promised.

Sally hesitated for a moment, then told all. "He's laid siege t' the city so he can have leverage t' get parts for a device as ransom. After that, he's promised t' free the city, but it's a lie. The device he's buildin' is a device that can enhance our aqua-kinesis powers a hundred fold. With this device, he'll use his powers t' do what he's done with St. Canard, steal all the water and encase things in frozen bubbles, but only t' expand it and engulf th' whole world. Once that's done, he plans t' take over as leader of the world, as he'll be the only one who's got power with water, save me."

"Then he might try to bump you off at some point." Techno realized.

"Th' thought's crossed me mind, yes." Sally admitted.

"Like him now?"

"Not so much, no. But wot can we do?"

"Now that I know what Liki's going to do, I can work to stop him." Techno said. But then he paused. "But, I can't do it alone. I need help."

Sally's expression suddenly brightened. "Find the rest of The Elements." she suggested. "Tell 'em wot I've told you. Once they know wot's goin' on, they'll help yeh, I know it!"

"Then it's a plan!" Techno said. "Can you help by keeping Liki busy?"

Sally nodded. "I'll try my best." she said with a grin, probably one of her first in a long time.

And with that, she stood, turned, and ran off, vanishing in the fog...

* * *

"I don't know, Techno, sounds like there's a lot at risk here." Crimson said into the walkie-talkie as she walked through the corridors in SHUSH Headquarters.

"I didn't say it would be easy, but Gos, you have to admit we don't have much choice." Techno replied from the other end of the walkie-talkie. "There are already reports coming in about cases of dehydration and the temperature is continuing to drop. It's already around freezing, and is showing no sign about leveling off." he paused, sensing Crimson's hesitation. "Look, it won't take long. I think I've already got a lead as to where to look for The Elements, and where they're temporarily holed up."

"Maybe so, Tech, but I still don't like it." Crimson said. "We can't trust Sally so easily, and we're still missing LP and Darkwing. We don't know what happened to them, but I do know that whatever happened to Launchpad was problematic. He was clearly in trouble."

"He might have gotten nabbed by The Elements." Techno pointed out. "If so, then all the more reason to do this. You know, you can come help."

"I can't, Hooter's got me working on trying to pinpoint the location of all these guys." Crimson said with a sigh. "Which, by the way, I think is the better idea."

"Look Crimson, no matter what you say, I'm going to do this." Techno persisted, in an attitude that was very uncharacteristic of him. "So why argue?"

Crimson thought for a moment. "You really think you can do this?" she asked.

"Absolutely." Techno replied without hesitation.

Crimson grinned. "Then go get 'em tiger." she said.

* * *

Launchpad sat alone in a chair, tied up, and sitting in an empty bait and tackle shop that sat at the bank of the currently empty Audubon Bay. He was trying to keep his hopes up, but wasn't succeeding very well. The Elements hadn't done anything to harm him, but things still weren't looking too good.

He snapped out of his revere, however, when the door suddenly opened, and Elizabeth and Garth entered.

"Find anything?" Launchpad asked hopefully.

"Kind of." Elizabeth answered., and stepped to one side.

Jack then entered, followed by another Launchpad recognized instantly.

"Techno?" Launchpad exclaimed, surprised.

"Launchpad!" Techno said, relieved. He rushed forward. "Are you all right?"

"Um, sure." Launchpad said, as Garth stepped over and untied Launchpad from the chair. "Once I know what's going on, that is."

Techno grinned. "It's a long story." he said. "But the story in short is that, for today, these guys are going to be on our side."

"Should've agreed to Steelbeak when he offered for us to join forces." Jack grumbled. "And don't expect it to be a regular thing, either."

"Either way, it's good news." Techno went on. "They're going to help us stop Sally and Liki."

"Liki?" Launchpad repeated, surprised. "As in The Liquidator?"

"Yes, and better still!" Techno continued. "These guys think they've got a lead on where Darkwing is!"

"You do?" Launchpad asked, surprised.

"We might." Elizabeth replied. "We've been monitoring some very odd activity in a warehouse not far from the eastern bank of the bay..."

* * *

Darkwarrior grinned cruelly as he listened to Darkwing scream and moan to his unique form of torture. He had no way to see what it was Darkwing was seeing in the holo-simulator, as the device excluded Darkwarrior from the illusion, but he had a pretty good idea. Events in which Darkwing's loved ones suffered serious injuries and/or death, Darkwing suffering artificial pain in conjunction to the illusion, Darkwing getting turned down exclusive interviews with news people, that kind of thing.

He had it coming to him, though. Darkwarrior knew what kind of crimes his double had committed, and he was long overdue to be punished for them. He was merely getting what he deserved, and Darkwarrior was upset he wouldn't be able to continue for a full cycle. Still, Darkwing was proving to be quite stubborn. He had yet to tell Darkwarrior much of anything that he wanted to know. If he kept it up, maybe Darkwarrior didn't need to worry about that after all.

The warehouse shuddered suddenly, and the light flickered. Darkwarrior frowned, wondering what that was about. Then it happened again, and this time, power went out completely. Hearing the simulator wind down, and Darkwing's agony decrease into a mere dull moan that continued to fade after that, Darkwarrior went on the alert, sensing was up.

But not even he was prepared for what happened next.

The door to the warehouse suddenly burst open, and Jack, fully aflame, roared into the room, swooping dangerously past Darkwarrior. Darkwarrior was unharmed, but he stumbled back a few steps. Garth then entered, and lightly tapped his foot. The ground shook in a mini-earthquake, further throwing off Darkwarrior.

Then Techno entered and hurled one of his small chemical bombs at the extremist. It exploded and knocked Darkwarrior clear off his feet. But before he hit the ground, Elizabeth entered and used her powers over air to hurl Darkwarrior into the opposite wall. Jack, who was hovering overhead, swooped down on him.

Techno and Launchpad, however, went straight for Darkwing. Gently, Techno shook him.

"Mr. Darkwing, sir." he said. "It's okay, me and LP are here."

"Techno?" Darkwing muttered, and glanced at him. "Oh. Techno. Hi." he leaned his head back for a moment. Then his eyes widened. "Techno!" he exclaimed, suddenly realizing who it was he was seeing. "Are you really there?"

"Yeah, of course I am!" Techno complained.

"What's Darkwarrior been doing to you, DW?" Launchpad asked, worried.

Darkwing didn't reply, though. "You sure it's real?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Techno asked, annoyed.

"Then why are The Elements here?" Darkwing asked, as he watched the group secure the building.

"Oh, them." Launchpad said. "They're helping us."

Darkwing blinked. "What?" he asked.

Jack then landed beside them, and flamed off. "He got away." he reported. "Don't know, how, but he did."

Techno rolled his eyes. "Him and Negaduck." he muttered.

Darkwing stared at Jack. "You're _helping _me?" he asked.

"It's a one time thing, I assure you." Jack said, looking annoyed himself.

"Look, we don't have time to discuss it." Techno said, unlatching the metal arms that held Darkwing in place. "We need to hurry and stop Liki."

"Liki?" Darkwing repeated, puzzled, allowing himself to be dragged out the door. "How does The Liquidator fit into this? Just how much have I missed?"

* * *

St. Canard Town Square was totally abandoned. With the city in the situation it was, nobody dared venture outside. Liki didn't mind. It merely meant that town square was the perfect place to set up his device.

Placing it down on the ground and securing it to the cobblestone pavement, the device being no bigger than a breadbox, he began to charge it up.

"Act now to get the most from The Liquidator's benefits package." the liquid dog muttered, annoyed at how long this was taking.

"Mm." Sally muttered, standing beside him, looking around at their surroundings. She seemed on edge.

Liki noticed, but perceived it wrongly. "Exciting, isn't it?" he asked. "Very soon, our goals will be achieved."

"Aye." Sally said, providing the answer merely to keep Liki satisfied.

Liki waited for the device to finish charging. Finally, it beeped.

"At last!" he said, reaching for the activation button.

But then his ears detected a suspicious noise coming their way. Looking up, he could see a fireball zipping towards them, followed closely by the Thunderquack. The fireball shot a stream of fire at the pair that forced them to take a step back. Then the Thunderquack zipped by. As it did, Techno hurled a chemical bomb at the device. Hitting it, it exploded, and took the device with it in a flaming inferno, that knocked Liki and Sally backwards.

"NO!" Liki exclaimed, seeing the burning crater that was all that remained of his device. "Sally, I need you..."

But he trailed off when he turned and saw Sally already up and taking a defensive position against him. "Mutiny time, luv." the hare remarked.

Then, using her powers on Liki, as he was nothing but water, hurled him backwards several feet, where he splashed down to the ground in a heap. That done, Sally then turned and focused her attention on the dome of ice that enclosed the city. Straining to hold the structure up, she began to melt the ice.

Liki picked himself up and saw what was happening. "TRAITOR!" he exclaimed, and started for Sally.

But then a stream of bullets whizzing through his watery form stopped him, and made him to turn to find the culprit. There, her P90 raised, was NegaGosalyn.

"You aren't going anywhere, Liki." she said.

Liki started to turn to run, only to find Negaduck standing in the way. "See if you can betray me and get away with it, Liki." he growled, his pistol raised.

Even though there wasn't much Negaduck could do to hurt him, Liki was afraid, and started to back up.

Meanwhile, Sally had melted the ice dome, and was using her powers to the fullest to keep the bubble of water from crashing down on the city. Greatly strained already, she started the immensely difficult task of returning the water to the bay.

Liki continued backing up the enraged Negaduck he had every reason to fear, but then a crack opened up behind him, cutting him off. Turning, and seeing that Garth was at fault, Liki got an idea. Turning into a spout of water quickly, he leapt over the crack, putting distance between him and Negaduck, then surfed on a self-made stream of water for an escape route. Before he reached it, however, a wall of plants sprung up and cut him of, acting like a dam, an act clearly done by Bushroot. Liki was forced to screech to a halt.

Then, with a yell, Rowe leapt down from a high perch and grabbed Liki around the neck. Liki merely melted, and transformed into a wave, washing Rowe away. Being an otter, it wasn't a big deal for Rowe, who merely swam out of the current and latched onto a lamppost and pulled himself from the water. Liki sped on, heading for the distracted and thus defenseless Sally, but before he could, Quackerjack stepped between them armed with a flamethrower. Firing at will at Liki, starting to evaporate the liquified dog, Liki was forced to change course.

Meanwhile, Sally was successfully getting the water to stream back into the bay in a manner similar to the one it took on it's way up. But without Liki to help her this time, the strain was starting to become too much. She was starting to loose consciousness, but forced herself to keep going.

Liki, still in wave form, surged on, taking a blind path across the square. The Thunderquack surged past and fired a missile into the liquid mass. The resulting explosion sprayed the water all over the place, and it pooled onto the ground. After a moment, it reformed into Liki's usual dog-like form. Once again he started for Sally, but then a gust of wind created by Elizabeth pushed Liki to one side.

He nearly ran into the still flaming form of Jack, who was lying in wait for him, before Liki was able to quickly change paths and move away from him. It was then that a beam of electricity struck him from behind, zapping him. Regardless of the fact that Liki was made of water, it started to overwhelm him. Another zap struck him, bringing to Liki to his knees. Another knocked Liki out all together, and he melted into a small puddle. Megavolt came to stand over Liki, blowing smoke from his finger.

Meanwhile, Sally had fallen to her own knees, struggling to keep going at her task. Finally, she collapsed all together, lapsing into a state of unconsciousness, letting what remained of the water that was still in the air to fall into a free fall. But by this point, there was so little that remained that it didn't matter. It merely fell to the ground in a light drizzle, sprinkling the ground. The Thunderquack then landed near Sally and shut down it's engines.

Silence fell.

The Fearsome Five gathered around the puddle on the ground, the unconscious form of Liki. Negaduck glared at Megavolt.

"Why didn't you do that sooner?" he demanded.

"I couldn't get a clear shot." Megavolt replied simply, shrugging.

Negaduck sighed, then pulled out a vacuum like device. Switching it on, he sucked up the puddle. Once it was all safely within the device's tank, Negaduck flipped a switch on it. A layer of frost formed on the tank, indicating that Negaduck had just froze it's contents.

"Sit tight, Liki." Negaduck said with a grin. "You're in for one heck of a week." he turned to the rest of the gang. "Let's go." he ordered.

"But what about them?" Quackerjack asked, pointing back at the others, rushing to Sally.

Negaduck glanced at them briefly and shrugged. "Let them do what they feel they must." he said, and turned and walked on, not saying a word more. The rest of the gang silently followed his example.

Darkwing hopped out of the Thunderquack and reached Sally first, closely followed by Techno and Launchpad.

"How is she?" Techno asked, as Darkwing quickly examined the hare.

"She's unconscious, but other than that, I can't tell." Darkwing said. He looked up as the rest of The Elements gathered around their teammate. "She should get some medical attention, to make sure there's nothing wrong with her." he told Jack. "How close are you to a doctor?"

Jack bit his lip. "Not close enough." he admitted.

"Then let us take her to SHUSH." Techno said. "She'll be treated there."

Jack thought about it for a moment. "I had better get her back." he said.

"I'll talk with Hooter, but no promises." Darkwing said.

Jack still seemed hesitant.

"And, of course, it's up to Sally." Launchpad added. "After this, she might not want to get involved with this kind of stuff anymore."

Jack turned and debated with his cohorts for a moment. It seemed they had already decided on what they wanted to do. Jack turned back to face them.

"All right, do it." he said, waving them off with one hand. "Now go, quickly, before I get it in my head that I should change my mind."

Darkwing nodded, and carefully, with the help of Techno and Launchpad, carried Sally to the Thunderquack. Climbing in, the jet started up and took off into the night. The Elements watched the plane leave, then left as well.

* * *

The next few hours were tense. Waiting in the SHUSH medical wing, Darkwing, Techno, Launchpad, and Crimson all waited for a report. Finally, Hooter entered the room.

"She's awake." he reported. "And according to Dr. Bellum, she's physically fine."

"But..." Darkwing prompted.

Hooter sighed. "Sally doesn't seem to remember what has occurred, or much of anything, for that matter. Just mere snippets. Furthermore, she has lost control over her powers, and according to Dr. Bellum, there was no evidence they had even existed in the first place."

Techno frowned, thinking that through. "Maybe her overusing her powers like that caused all of that to happen." he reasoned.

"That is what Dr. Bellum has deduced as well." Hooter said.

"Have you told her what has happened?" Crimson asked.

"No, I wanted the opinion of you four before I enacted upon anything further." Hooter said.

A moment of silence fell. Darkwing looked to be deep in thought.

"What's Sally opinion about all of this?" Launchpad asked suddenly.

"Or rather, what does she want?" Darkwing amended.

"All she wants is to go home and rest, Darkwing." Hooter said.

Darkwing nodded, and stood. "Then let her." he said. "After all she's been through, it's the least we can do."

Hooter nodded. "That's what we will do, then." he said. "But what about FOUL?"

"I wouldn't worry about them too much." Darkwing said, motioning to the others to stand. "The Elements may be villains, but they are still a team, and thus friends. They'll understand and respect Sally's wishes."

Hooter watched the group rise. "I trust you're all leaving then?" he asked.

"Yes, director." Techno said. "Our job here is done."


	32. Death Rowe

Summary: An attempt to steal a device from Titan Laboratories has landed Rowe in a rather curious position...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: A chpt that focuses almost entirely on Rowe, and is one I've really been looking forward to. Darkwing and the others hardly appear in this, in fact, Launchpad and Techno are completely absent from this chpt. Titan Laboratories is revisited, but it's nothing too special. The chpt title ("Death Rowe") doesn't exactly fit with the chpt's plot, as the chpt changed significantly since it's original conception, but it was kept because I thought it was a clever and witty title. Liki's fate after events in chpt. 31 is revealed, as well as what Negs intends to do with him after that. This chpt is inspried upon an episode of _Stargate SG-1_ that used a very similar concept, and it's because of this that everyone in this chpt. keeps referring to an episode of _Jumpgate,_ a homage to _Stargate SG-1_. All in all, a fun chpt, both to read and to write. :)

32.

Death Rowe

"Y'know, I gotta feel sorry for Titan Laboratories." Rowe remarked as he helped Bushroot climb through the window that had been forced open. "They've been through a lot lately."

"Yeah, they got a lot of bad publicity from that incident with Codwell and his HLEDD a couple months back." Bushroot agreed as he stepped down into the room they had broken into in Titan Laboratories, dusting himself off.

"Don't forget when they created that Frogduck guy, too." Quackerjack added as he followed Bushroot through the window.

"Yeah, I wonder whatever happened to him." Megavolt asked aloud, next to come through the window.

"Word is that they never found his body." NegaGosalyn stated as she slipped through the window as well. "Theoretically, he could still be out there. What he'd be doing, I don't know, but the possibility still remains."

"But my point is that they've been going through some rough times lately." Rowe said. "By doing this robbery, we could be driving them out of buisness."

"If we get lucky, yes." Negaduck said, last to slip through the window, and seemed completely unworried about this detail Rowe had mentioned.

Actually, hopeful would be a better way to describe it, Rowe thought.

"Now remember you knobs," Negaduck said, as they walked briskly through the empty room to the door. "We get in, nab the device, and get out. I absolutely _will NOT _tolerate any problems."

"What is it we're stealing again?" Megavolt asked as they slipped out the door and into the dark hallway beyond. As it was after hours, the facility was mostly empty.

"Yeah, what _are _we stealing, Negs?" Bushroot asked. "You have yet to tell us."

"There could be a reason for that, you twit." Negaduck muttered sarcastically. "Don't worry though. Presuming you guys don't mess up, you'll find out what it is soon enough."

"But you haven't even told _me _what it is." NegaGosalyn whined, not used to the idea of being out of the loop like this.

"This is a very sensitive device we're dealing with, and I don't want a _thing _to happen to it." Negaduck pressed with added emphasis than last time. "You don't even want to know what could happen if it breaks while we're moving it."

They turned a corner and stopped outside the entrance of the lab that supposedly contained the device in question.

"That's, of course, presuming we can even get at the device." Quackerjack said.

They found that the lab was completely blocked off by a series of red energy beams. Quackerjack pulled out a rubber ball and threw it at one beam. The ball sizzled and melted into a blob the moment it made contact with the beam.

"Okay...keeping my distance from that." Bushroot remarked, stepping back a pace.

"Drat!" Negaduck muttered, seeing a familiar logo on the devices emitting the beams. "SHUSH's gotten wind of this project!"

"Hence the higher than usual security at Titan Laboratories." NegaGosalyn added with a frown, peering through the beams. She spied a control panel on the other side. "There's the controls for this thing." she said, pointing. "If one of us could get at it, then we can turn the beams off."

Rowe gaged the space from the bottom beam and the floor. "No way any of us could slide under that lot." he reported.

"Too bad we don't have Liki on hand." Megavolt thought out loud. "He could slip past those beams in a heartbeat."

"Oh, don't even get me _started _on that guy!" Negaduck exclaimed, whirling around to face Megavolt. "You _know _why he isn't here."

"He betrayed the gang." Bushroot remarked calmly.

"And was aptly rewarded." Negaduck growled.

"I hardly think that being trapped in an unbreakable case and being constantly electrocuted a very good reward." Megavolt said.

"Not very fun either." Quackerjack added.

Negaduck rolled his eyes, and went back to trying to figure out how to get past the beams.

"Personally, I think he got what he deserved." Rowe said.

"You don't like him, do you?" Bushroot asked.

"Never have, never will, mate." Rowe said.

"Well, I still think he's not that bad a guy." Bushroot said.

"You only liked him because he watered your plants for you, Bushy." Megavolt said.

"Well...yeah." Bushroot admitted with a blush.

"Well, me and Negs have plans for Liki." NegaGosalyn said. "The thing with the case and electrocution is merely temporary. Negs wants to heat Liki so hot he turns into plasma."

"Plasma?" Rowe repeated, puzzled.

"A gas-like state of matter where the electrons within an atom are partially stripped away." NegaGosalyn explained. "The water molecules that make up Liki probably wouldn't survive the process intact, but whatever the case, seeing that Liki finds it extremely uncomfortable just getting evaporated, he probably wouldn't survive."

"But the only quick way I can think of for anybody like us to pull that off would be to subject Liki to a thermonuclear explosion!" Bushroot exclaimed.

NegaGosalyn nodded, like this was obvious.

"You're going to _nuke _Liki?" Megavolt asked, surprised.

NegaGosalyn nodded again. "The only problem is that getting our hands on a hydrogen bomb of even the smallest yield possible will be extremely difficult." she said.

The others gaped at her for a moment.

"Glad I'm not Liki." Quackerjack muttered.

"Neither am I, but I still say he had it coming to him." Rowe said, folding his arms.

"Well, look on the bright side, Rowe." Megavolt said. "Now that Liki's pretty much out of the gang, you get to fill his spot."

"You kidding me, mate?" Rowe asked, scoffing the idea. "I'm on probation, remember?"

"_Still_?" Bushroot asked.

"Will you guys shut up?" Negaduck interrupted suddenly. "I'm trying to think, here!"

"You know, I probably could just short those beam things out." Megavolt voiced suddenly.

Negaduck looked blank for a moment. "I knew that." he said.

"Of course you did." Megavolt said, stepping forward to the beam emitters, making his hand spark in preparation to overload the beams.

"Yeah, that's right!" Negaduck said, recovering his composure. "And don't any of you forget it, either! If I hear anybody saying otherwise..."

He made a slicing gesture across his throat. Everyone got the picture.

A moment later, a flash of light blinked into existence as Megavolt channeled extra energy into the beams, and a moment later, the beams flickered then vanished. Megavolt took a step back, surveying his work with a proud expression. Quackerjack was still a little apprehensive about the beams's power however, and chucked another rubber ball into the area they had been. The ball zipped right through unharmed, and bounced back, nearly hitting Negaduck in the beak. This earned a Quackerjack a cuff to the shoulder.

"Let's go." their leader grumbled once he had done this, and they stepped into the lab.

It didn't take long to find the device, as it was the prominent feature of the room, and Negaduck led them straight to it. Clapping his hand together, and rubbing them in anticipation, Negaduck examined the device for a moment, wearing an excited grin.

Rowe studied the device for a moment. "It looks like a photocopier, only not." he remarked. "It lacks those tray things, see."

"Oh, how _wonderfully _observant of you, Rowe." Negaduck muttered sarcastically, moving to stand next to the device, the others following. "Okay, let's get this thing out of here. We'll probably have to take a different route out of here than the one we took, because..."

He was suddenly cut off when a loud alarm started to ring.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" a voice rang out from behind them as a cloud of familiar purple smoke appeared.

The group whirled around to face the cloud. As Rowe whirled around, however, his paw bumped a switch on the device, flicking it to the other side. Rowe shook his stinging paw in result, but otherwise didn't think another moment of it.

"I am the pen that has run out of ink when you need it to sign an important contract!" Darkwing continued, stepping out from the cloud of smoke. "I am Darkwing Duck!"

"And I am the heir to the cape!" as a cloud of red smoke appeared beside Darkwing, and Crimson started to step out of it. "I am..."

"Attack!" Negaduck roared, pointing at the pair. The Fearsome Five quickly charged at them.

"Yipe!" Darkwing said, and quickly retreated.

Crimson followed, looking crestfallen. "How come I never get to say my catchphrases anymore?" she asked aloud. "I had a good one, too!"

Seeing he had his long time foes on the run, Negaduck indicated for a halt. "All right, Dorkwing." he began. "We can do this either the easy way, or the hard way. Either you back off and let me do what I want, or we can fight until you're defeated and I can do what I want."

"Either way, he wins." NegaGosalyn noted with a grin.

"Well, you know I can't permit that, Negs." Darkwing said. "Particularly since the device you want is being guarded by SHUSH."

"In other words, the hard way." Negaduck said, and motioned for the Fearsome Five to continue.

Both parties met each other head on, and the fighting occurred. Very quickly, it was chaos in the lab. Rowe fought hard, but at some point got thrown out of the fight, and ended up on the flat on the floor. The others didn't seem to notice. The otter started to pick himself up to rejoin the fight, shaking his paw as it stung again, but stopped when a low hum started to ring out. Glancing back, he saw the lights on the device begin to flash. Rowe realized it was beginning to activate, and got a bad feeling about that.

"Plagues n' pestilence." he muttered.

A flash of light suddenly appeared, blinding Rowe, and everything seemed to vanish...

* * *

Rowe awoke with a start, nearly toppling out of the bed. Breathing heavily, he looked around the insignificant bedroom of the apartment the Fearsome Five rented for his use. He glanced at the morning light streaming through the window and let out a sigh of relief.

"Just a dream, mate." he muttered. "Just a dream."

Glancing at his clock, he saw it was time to get up anyway, and did, getting dressed. After getting a quick bite of salmon to eat, he headed on down to Audubon Bay for a quick early April swim, then headed on over to the hideout. Quackerjack and Bushroot were already there, sitting at a card table and playing Uno.

"Hey mates." Rowe greeted as he sat down to join them.

"Hey Rowe." Quackerjack said, as he drew a card from the stack.

"Be advised, it's going to rain today." Bushroot added.

Rowe blanked out for a moment. "I thought you said that yesterday." he said.

Now Bushroot looked blank. "No." he said. "It was sunny yesterday, remember?"

Rowe frowned. "No, it wasn't." he persisted. "Don't you remember, mate? You said it was going to rain, 'cause your plants told you, and I disagreed for half the day until it really did rain."

Bushroot and Quackerjack glanced at each other.

"No...." Bushroot said slowly. "Are you sure we're thinking of the same day?"

Rowe thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I think so, but I guess it doesn't really matter." he admitted. "Anyway, can I play?"

"I was just about to ask." Quackerjack said, dealing out the otter seven cards. "Of course, you'll never beat me." he chuckled.

They spent most of the morning playing the game. At some point, Megavolt showed up and joined in the game as well. Also, at twelve o'clock, it started to rain, just as Bushroot predicted. Oddly enough, Rowe observed that it was around this time that he remembered it rained when Bushroot last predicted it to rain, an incident Bushroot didn't seem to remember. Rowe merely shrugged off this fact.

The game went on, Quackerjack winning several rounds. It was looking like he was going to win again this round as well.

"Anybody know where Negs and Ms. Second-in-Command are at?" Megavolt asked aloud, after laying down a card.

"Negs said something about being onto a scheme for today, and that for all of us to standby." Quackerjack said, promptly laying down a card in response.

"Hope playing Uno for most of the day counts to that." Rowe said, playing a card.

Bushroot glanced at his hand, and grudgingly drew another card. "You know, just once I'd like to win this game." he muttered.

"Aye, you've said that before." Rowe said out loud, but then wondered exactly when he _had _heard Bushroot say that before.

When Bushroot's turn came around again, however, the mutant plant-duck played a reverse card, bouncing the turn back to Rowe, and then to Quackerjack, who played a wild card.

"Blue." he said. "Oh, and Uno."

"Dang it, I was about to change the color to blue." Megavolt said as he played a wild-draw four card. "Oh well, now it's red."

Bushroot, who had been in the process of drawing his four cards, frowned. "Dang it." he muttered.

"No red?" Rowe asked, as he played his only red card.

Bushroot nodded. "That obvious, huh?" he asked.

"Shouldn't have played that reverse card, Bushy." Quackerjack said as he played his last card, another wild, thus winning the game.

Rowe frowned. He had just been about to say that.

"Alright, listen up, you knobs!" as Negaduck shouted suddenly as he and NegaGosalyn suddenly entered the hideout.

Caught off guard, the others quickly stood up, Megavolt stumbling and falling over, taking the card table with him. Rowe was suddenly struck with deja vu. Hasn't that happened before?

"Got a new crime for us to conduct." Negaduck went on, ignoring these events. "A late-night robbery to steal a very valuable device. I want everybody rested and on the alert for it, so go home and come back around nine. Do NOT be late."

"Who we robbing, boss?" Quackerjack asked as he helped Megavolt back up.

Somehow, Rowe knew the answer before Negaduck said it.

"Titan Laboratories." Negaduck said with a grin.

* * *

"You know, I probably could just short those beam things out."

"I knew that."

"Of course you did."

"Yeah, that's right! And don't any of you forget it, either! If I hear anybody saying otherwise..."

Negaduck made a slicing motion across his throat and turned to watch Megavolt deactivate the energy beams blocking their way into the lab. Rowe shook his head as this went on. This is way _beyond _deja vu. Rowe had the sneaking impression that events were actually repeating themselves. But why? And why didn't anybody else see this? Don't they remember?

"Let's go." Negaduck grumbled after nearly getting hit by Quackerjack's rubber ball and stepping into the lab.

Rowe promptly turned and saw the device sitting exactly where he knew it would be.

"By the fur, this is weird." he muttered.

Negaduck was stepping towards the device. "Okay, let's get this thing out of here." he ordered.

The others hurried to follow. Rowe was among them, but then he suddenly stopped, remembering what would happen next.

"Darkwing." he muttered, turning to look behind him.

Then the alarm went off.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing exclaimed as he emerged from the cloud of smoke that had appeared. "I am..."

"...the pen that has run out of ink when you need it to sign an important contract..." Rowe whispered to himself.

"Attack!" Negaduck proclaimed after Crimson had made her appearance, urging the Fearsome Five to run forward.

Events continued to play out the same as before, even right up to the battle, though this time Rowe held back, watching the battle play out. He then felt his paw sting suddenly, and heard the device begin to hum, followed by the lash of light...

* * *

Rowe awoke with a start, nearly toppling out of the bed. Breathing heavily, he looked around the insignificant bedroom of the apartment the Fearsome Five rented for his use. He glanced at the morning light streaming through the window and let out a sigh of relief.

"Just a dream, mate." he muttered. "Just a...uh-oh."

Feeling his nerves beginning to wind up again, he glanced around at the room, realizing just how eerily familiar this all was.

"Again?" he said to himself. "Either my dreams are going into reruns, or I'm in serious trouble."

Quickly, he jumped out of bed and rushed into the kitchen. Opening the fridge, he found the salmon he hadn't finished the previous night.

"Which I ate cold for breakfast." Rowe noted, putting two with two. "Plagues n' pestilence. Events really _are _repeating themselves!"

* * *

"Anybody know where Negs and Ms. Second-in-Command are at?"

"Negs said something about being onto a scheme for today, and that for all of us to standby."

Rowe watched as Quackerjack laid down his card, instinctively biting back the response he was tempting to make, as well as the urge to lay down the obvious choice of a card. Instead, perhaps out of defiance to guarantee that today played out differently, he played a different card and said nothing.

Bushroot glanced at his hand and frowned, moving to draw another card.

"Just once, you'd like to win this game, right mate?" Rowe asked suddenly.

Bushroot blinked. "Yeah." he said. "How did you know?"

"Just a hunch." Rowe replied.

The game went on. Bushroot played a reverse card when his turn came around again.

"Don't do that, mate." Rowe urged suddenly.

Bushroot hesitated for a moment, suddenly having second thoughts.

"C'mon Bushy, play already!" Quackerjack urged.

Bushroot played the reverse anyway. Rowe grudgingly played his card, then waited for Quackerjack to play his wild, setting in stone the fact that he had pretty much won, and Megavolt played his wild-draw four card, pretty much guaranteeing Bushroot would loose.

"Alright, listen up, you knobs!"

This time Rowe was prepared, and steadied the card table as Megavolt tripped and fell in his haste to get up as Negaduck and NegaGosalyn entered the room.

"Got a new crime for us to conduct." Negaduck went on. "A late-night robbery to steal a very valuable device. I want everybody rested and on the alert for it, so go home and come back around nine. Do NOT be late."

"Who we robbing, boss?" Quackerjack asked as he helped Megavolt back up.

"Titan Laboratories."

* * *

"You know, I probably could just short those beam things out."

"I knew that."

"Of course you did."

"Yeah, that's right! And don't any of you forget it, either! If I hear anybody saying otherwise..."

Negaduck made a slicing motion across his throat. It was then that Rowe lost it.

"All right, mates, that's enough!" he exclaimed. "This has got to end!"

He received blank looks.

"What are you talking about?" Quackerjack asked.

"History is repeating itself, mate!" Rowe replied.

More blank looks.

"Rowe, I've always known you were stupid, but really..." Negaduck began.

"By the claw, you mean none of you noticed?" Rowe asked.

"I think that if history was indeed repeating itself, we would notice, Rowe." NegaGosalyn said calmly.

Rowe thought for a moment. "Maybe you just aren't remembering what's happening." he reasoned. "Aye, that must be it!"

"Sounds like an episode of _Jumpgate_ I watched once." Bushroot remarked.

"Look Rowe, you need proof in order to make a claim like that and get us to not think you've gone mad." Negaduck growled.

"Alright then, I'll give you proof!" Rowe said, jabbing a claw at the lab. "Step in there, and Darkwing Duck will attack us! I guarantee it!"

"Dipwing Dork doesn't even know we're here yet." Negaduck vowed.

"Still, maybe we should play it safe." Megavolt voiced, looking uneasy.

"No." Negaduck said, turning his back to Rowe. "We continue as planned."

Rowe frustratingly watched the next few events play out, wishing he knew how to stop this from happening. He realized as he felt his paw sting and heard the device start to hum that he was going to need help, and from someone smart...

* * *

"Anybody know where Negs and Ms. Second-in-Command are at?"

"Negs said something about being onto a scheme for today, and that for all of us to standby."

Rowe watched the game continue, but this time he wasn't playing. Just watching, sitting behind Bushroot. He had hoped that his lack of participation in the game this time around would change the course of the game, but regardless, it had pretty much played out the same. Rowe could even see the reverse card that would cost Bushroot the game in the mutant plant-duck's hand.

He watched as Bushroot glanced at his hand and frown.

"Just once, you'd like to win this game, right mate?" Rowe asked.

Bushroot glanced at him and opened his mouth to say something, but Rowe was one step ahead of him.

"How did I know?" Rowe asked. "Win this game, and I'll tell you."

Bushroot slowly drew a new card, giving Rowe an puzzled glance. Megavolt and Quackerjack exchanged glances, then continued playing.

"Do you know how I can win?" Bushroot asked as the other took their turn, lowering his voice.

"Aye." Rowe said. "Don't play that reverse card. Megs's got a wild-draw four card. Play that reverse card, and you'll end up with those four cards. Not play it, and Quackerjack will get those cards, and possibly cost _him _the game."

Bushroot gave Rowe another glance, but nodded, and did not play the reverse. Megavolt played his wild-draw four card, changing to the color to blue. Quackerjack was forced to draw four, and loose his turn. Bushroot had lots of blue cards, and was quickly able to get rid of them. So did Megavolt. Quackerjack, however, didn't seem to, and had to keep drawing cards. Finally, Bushroot was down to one card, which he played victoriously.

"I win." he said, grinning.

"No fair!" Quackerjack said, grumpily folding his arms. He looked ready to complain so more, but then Negaduck and NegaGosalyn entered.

"Alright, listen up, you knobs!"

Rowe reacted quickly to stop Megavolt from tripped and the card table from getting knocked over.

"Got a new crime for us to conduct. A late-night robbery to steal a very valuable device. I want everybody rested and on the alert for it, so go home and come back around nine. Do NOT be late."

"Who we robbing, boss?"

"Titan Laboratories." Rowe whispered into Bushroot's ear.

When Negaduck confirmed this, Bushroot shot Rowe a surprised glance.

"All right, Rowe, how do you know all of this?" he asked after they were alone in the room.

"Easy, mate." Rowe said. "I've seen this day play out at least three times now."

Bushroot blinked. "How?" he asked.

"History is repeating itself, mate." Rowe explained. "A kind of time loop, I guess. And no, you don't know this because I seem to be the only one who remembers, and yes, it is just like an episode of _Jumpgate_ you watched once."

Bushroot just stared at Rowe in awe.

"Anyway, I need help in order to get it to stop." Rowe concluded.

Bushroot gaped at him for a moment, then shook his head. "Okay, presuming this is all true," he began, "then what's the big deal? Seems to me a person like you would love a chance for this."

Rowe blanked out for a moment. "I'm not following you, mate." he remarked.

"Well, if time is merely looping back a single day, you could do a whole bunch of crazy stuff each loop and never have to worry about the consequences." Bushroot explained. "It would all reset like it had never happened at the start of every loop."

Rowe stared at Bushroot for a moment. He hadn't thought of that. Finally he stood up and started to walk out of the hideout.

"'cuse me for a little while, Bushy." he said.

"Hey, wait, I thought you wanted my help." Bushroot said.

"Aye, I'll get back to you on that after a few loops."

* * *

"Where the devil is he?" Negaduck grumbled later at the hideout, staring at his watch. "Rowe had better have a very good reason for being so late."

"I'm sure he does, boss." Quackerjack said with a shrug.

Finally, Rowe came running into the room, panting.

"Sorry I'm late mates." he said, wiping his brow.

"You had better." Negaduck grumbled. "Now let's get on with this robbery."

"Uh, actually, Negs, I'll have to delay you on that for one little thing." Rowe said, holding up one claw. "I know you probably won't like this, but it's something I've been wanting to do for a little while now, and this is as good a chance as any."

And with that, he grabbed NegaGosalyn, standing nearby, and kissed her on the lips.

NegaGosalyn was caught completely off guard, but surprisingly did not resist. After a moment, Rowe took the chance to look at the others. Quackerjack and Megavolt were both giving him a look, as if to say "have you gone mad?" Bushroot was trying to stifle a chuckle, and Negaduck just looked downright disgusted. He reached for his pistol, probably so to shoot Rowe, but before he could, Rowe felt the telltale stinging in his paw.

Right on time, he thought, as time reset itself.

* * *

While the others were playing Uno, Rowe quietly slipped into Negaduck's darkened office, and moved towards the back. Sitting on a table, rattling and shaking as something within moved around, was a black case, with fine wires trailing out of it. Grinning, Rowe tapped the case.

"How are we doing in there, Liki me matey?" Rowe asked mockingly.

Liki, of course, couldn't hear him, but Rowe didn't need him to. Spying a knob controlling the electricity that was being relayed into the box, Rowe gave it a twist, turning it up to full power. The case started to shake even harder.

Still grinning, Rowe walked off, whistling off-key as he did. As he walked past Negaduck's desk, he spied a paper sitting on top of it that grabbed his attention.

"A shipment of bubble bath en route to St. Canard?" Rowe said as he read it. "Three trucks containing several hundreds gallons of the substance each? To arrive today?"

He paused, thinking about what he could do with that much bubble bath.

"Hmm...."

* * *

Next loop through time found all three of said trucks at the banks of Audubon Bay. Rowe watched as the rest of the pink bubble bath dripped out of the third and final truck, and took a few steps back to see what he had done.

He had emptied all the bubble bath into Audubon Bay, and now the entire bay frothed with scented, pink, bubbles. Rowe rubbed his paws together in anticipation, and took a few steps back. Running forward, he jumped into the bay.

"Woo-hoo!" Rowe exclaimed as he cannon-balled into the water.

* * *

"Anybody know where Negs and Ms. Second-in-Command are at?"

"Negs said something about being onto a scheme for today, and that for all of us to standby."

Rowe rolled his eyes at the now very familiar conversation as he slowly walked across the beams in the warehouse ceiling, unnoticed by those below.

"You know, just once I'd like to win this game." Bushroot muttered as he drew a card.

Rowe grinned at that thought, thinking of how Bushroot had in fact won once, and didn't even know it. Seeing he was in position. Rowe took the bucket of water he had in his paws and tipped it over and dumped it's contents down on Megavolt. He laughed as he watched Megavolt twitch as he short-circuited.

"Always wanted to see that." he muttered.

Laughing, Bushroot and Quackerjack jumped up from the table and looked up to where Rowe stood. Rowe waved at them, then continued watching Megavolt twitch in the pool of water that had gathered around him.

"Pool." Rowe repeated to himself. "Hey, now _there's _an idea..."

* * *

"So you intend to rob the lab of this device, and use it, whatever it is, for your next evil scheme?" NegaGosalyn asked they stepped up to the closed doors of the hideout.

"Yes sir, that's exactly the plan." Negaduck said, going to open the door. "I just hope those knobs I call my teammates don't..."

But he was cut off when the door he had unlatched suddenly sprung open and a cascade of water came crashing out of the hideout. Pushed back several feet, Negaduck picked himself up, enraged, and looked for an explanation for why his hideout was flooded, and found it in the form of Rowe, who was picking himself up out of the flood as well, turning to glare at Negaduck.

"Aw, Negs, you put a hole in my pool!" Rowe exclaimed in dismay.

* * *

"Alright, listen up, you kn..." Negaduck trailed off, realizing he was missing someone. "Where's Rowe?"

Quackerjack, Megavolt, and Bushroot looked up from their game and glanced at one another.

"Don't know, Negs, haven't seen him all day." Bushroot admitted.

"All right, then, change in plans." Negaduck said, straightening his posture. "I want you knobs to go out and track him down. Check all the water areas first, he's probably out swimming on the clock again. Gos, I want you to supervise"

The others nodded, and left. Once they were gone, Negaduck headed to his office and sat down at his desk, and realized one of the drawers had been forced open. Negaduck peered inside and saw that the sole item it contained was gone.

"Where's my credit card?" he asked aloud.

Elsewhere in St. Canard, Rowe was finishing off his eighteenth plate of salmon at a very fancy restaurant. Burping and wiping his mouth with his napkin, he waved the waiter over.

"I'll have another one of the salmon dishes." he said, gesturing to the now empty plate.

"Very good sir." the waiter said. "By the way, how will you be paying for your meal...er...meals."

Rowe pulled out Negaduck's credit card. "Put it all on this, mate." he said with a grin.

* * *

Bushroot stepped out of the hideout, and found Rowe working at attaching something to the side of the fence that stood next to the warehouse.

"Hey Rowe." Bushroot said, approaching the otter. "We're all inside playing Uno. Wanna join?"

"No thanks, mate, I've got that game memorized." Rowe said as he worked. "By the way, you'll loose unless you don't play that reverse card in the last round about a..." he grabbed Bushroot's wrist and checked his watch. "...a half-hour from now. Of course, by the end of the day, you won't remember that, but oh well."

Bushroot stared at the otter for a moment, then changed the subject. "Uh, what are you working on?" he asked.

"Building my own model rocket." Rowe replied, finishing attaching it to the fence and lighting a match.

Bushroot stared at the object. "That thing?" he asked.

"Aye." Rowe said, lighting the fuse. "Made it mostly out of cardboard. Used a stick of Negaduck's dynamite for the engine."

"Dynamite?" Bushroot asked, alarmed, as the fuse continued to burn. "But Rowe, you have to channel the energy for a rocket to work! A stick of dynamite will just blow up!"

Rowe tore his eyes away from the fuse as it reached it's end. "What?"

Bushroot never got to reply, as the dynamite then exploded.

Fortunately, as soon as the next loop began, any and all damage done was undone, but Rowe made note to never do _that _again.

* * *

Rowe awoke suddenly, and started to sit up. Stopping, he slowly lowered himself back down and let out his breath in a long sigh.

He had lost count how many times he had been caught in this time loop. At first, after Bushroot pointed out the...potential, to all of this, it was great fun, but it was starting to loose it's charm. He had already sat down with Bushroot during one loop to try and figure out how to get it to stop, but after spending the entire day working on it, Bushroot didn't come up with a solution.

He reasoned that if he knew more about the device presumably responsible for this, he could probably figure it out, but Rowe couldn't get Negaduck to tell him about it, and he couldn't get into the lab on his own to find out. If he wanted this to end, he needed to find someone who would actually be able to figure it all out.

And as much as he hated to admit it, there was only one person who could.

* * *

"Darkwing, Crimson, glad you came so quickly." Hooter greeted as the two heroes met him outside the room in question.

"We came as soon as we got the call." Darkwing said.

"Any ideas why he did this?" Crimson asked.

"None as of yet, but he promised to explain as soon as you got here." Hooter said, opening the door and letting himself and the others in.

Rowe looked up at them and grinned. "Oh, you're here!" he said, jumping up and extending his paw. "Thank you for coming so quickly, mates."

Darkwing stared at Rowe's paw, and did not accept it. "So is this a trick or what, surrendering yourself to SHUSH?" he asked.

"I figured you were going to ask that." Rowe said, pointing a claw at him. "So I'll get right to the point. We're caught in a time loop."

The others stared at him.

"No, you don't know this, because every time things reset back to the beginning of today, I'm the only one who remembers what happened." Rowe said, sensing their doubt. "Which kind of makes it hard to prove to you it's happening, but you gotta trust me on this."

"Oh?" Crimson asked. "And why should we trust you?"

"Because I think you're the only ones who can help me stop this time loop." Rowe said. "Or at least get me going on the right direction. I dunno if we'll get everything figured out before time resets. I hope we do, but you never know."

Crimson and Darkwing exchanged glances.

"You know, this sounds like..." Crimson began.

"...an episode from _Jumpgate._" Rowe finished for her. "Aye, I know. At least, that's what Bushroot keeps telling me."

The two exchanged glances again.

"Presuming this is all true, Rowe, then why is this loop happening?" Hooter asked.

"That's what we need to figure out." Rowe said. "It's got something to do with the device thing at Titan Laboratories, though."

He received more surprised glances.

"You know, the one SHUSH is keeping tabs on?" Rowe asked. "The one you've tripled security around it for, and posted Darkwing to lie in wait in case the Fearsome Five tries to come and steal it?"

"How do you know all that?" Darkwing demanded. "That's been kept top, top, secret!"

"_Because_, I've been through this time loop enough times to find out!" Rowe said. "In fact, the Fearsome Five tries to steal the thing every time, but time resets each and every time. And I mean, really resets, everything back to the way it was before it all happened. Kind of useful, actually, for me, particularly that one time with the dynamite. Think I killed meself that time around by mistake..."

The surprised glances continued. Finally, Crimson shook her head, clearing her thoughts.

"So, how many times have you been through this time loop?" Crimson asked.

"I've lost track." Rowe admitted. "Lots of times, I do know that much, mate."

"Then you probably know a great deal about what's going to happen." Crimson continued. "So tell us what we're going to do in the near future."

"Oh, well, I haven't really been keeping track on you guys." Rowe admitted. "I just know you show up every time the Fearsome Five tries to steal the device, and you showed up to drag me out of the bay when I filled it with bubble bath."

More glances were exchanged.

"Just what have you been doing, Rowe?" Darkwing asked.

Rowe merely chuckled and didn't reply. "So will you help me or not?" he asked.

"Well, I suppose we could wait to see if things play out as Rowe has indicated..." Crimson began.

"But by then, it'll be too late." Rowe objected.

"Not only that, but once the day is up and time resets, we'll all forget again, and be right back at square one." Hooter pointed out.

"So please, just listen to me, mates." Rowe pleaded.

Darkwing and Crimson considered it for a moment.

"You know, Hooter's got a point." Crimson said.

Darkwing glanced at Rowe. "You realize that once this is over, you'll just be thrown into jail, right?" he asked.

"Uh, actually no, because you owe me a favor." Rowe said.

"What favor?"

"The favor you owe me for me informing you guys that you're caught in a time loop." Rowe said. "I mean, without me, you'd have never know, now would you? You would've been caught in the same day forever."

Crimson sighed. "He's got a point too." she admitted.

Darkwing grumbled something for a moment.

"Please?" Rowe repeated.

"Oh, all right!" Darkwing said. "How much time do we have?"

"Until about a half-hour after nine for when time resets." Rowe said. "But I need to be at the hideout at one thirty or everybody will start missing me and wonder where I'm at. And if they start snooping around, they risk messing things up for all of us, and I'll have to endure today yet _again_."

Darkwing frowned, but did not object. "All right, let's get to work." he said.

* * *

It proved to be easier than expected. After about an hour of researching the device's designs later, they had the solution.

"You just need to turn it off." Darkwing told Rowe.

"Turn it off." Rowe said, wondering why that thought never came to him before now. "That simple?"

"Yes, because turning it on caused all of this." Crimson explained.

"Just what is that device, anyway?" Rowe asked.

"That's classified." Hooter said, intervening. "But it does involve time."

"As far as we can figure out, you accidently turned it on at the very beginning of the time loop." Crimson explained. "Improperly, of course. It's not supposed to cause the time loop when operating normally. But when you activated it, it scanned your DNA, and programmed itself to exclude you from a complete reset, a.k.a, wiping your memory. Now it's on a timer to reset time every time it reaches zero. Turning it off will stop that timer, and not allow it from resetting time yet again."

"Makes sense." Rowe admitted. "In fact, that probably explains why my paw hurts before every reset."

"Now, there's one more thing we need to talk about." Darkwing said. "You've mentioned repeatedly that the Fearsome Five is going to try to steal the device tonight. But we can't let that happen."

"Aye, I thought about that." Rowe admitted. "And I guess I kinda owe it to you guys for helping me like this."

"So, you're going to help us find a way to stop it from happening." Darkwing said.

"Fine mates, just so long as the gang all gets to go free." Rowe persisted.

"Mr. Rowe, just so long as SHUSH maintains possession of the device, that is all that matters." Hooter said.

* * *

"You know, I probably could just short those beam things out."

"I knew that."

"Of course you did."

"Yeah, that's right! And don't any of you forget it, either! If I hear anybody saying otherwise..."

Negaduck made a slicing motion across his throat. Rowe tried not to groan in boredom, having seen Negaduck do that more times than he could remember. Hopefully, this would be the very last time.

A moment later, a flash of light blinked into existence as Megavolt channeled extra energy into the beams, and a moment later, the beams flickered then vanished. Megavolt took a step back, surveying his work with a proud expression. Rowe watched with amusement as Quackerjack chucked a rubber ball into the area the beams had been. The ball zipped right through unharmed, and bounced back, nearly hitting Negaduck in the beak. This earned a Quackerjack a cuff to the shoulder.

"Let's go." Negaduck growled, and stepped into the lab.

Rowe followed, then quickly turned to face the device and ran for it.

"Look, this must be it!" Rowe said, acting, as he raced to it.

"Rowe, you knob!" Negaduck exclaimed. "Get back here!"

But Rowe continued on to the device, quickly flipping the switch labeled "on/off". Immediately afterwards, the alarms went off, and two clouds of smoke appeared on either side of the device. Darkwing stepped out of one cloud, and struck Rowe in the snout, as they had rehearsed earlier. Rowe purposely stumbled backwards several steps to rejoin the rest of the Fearsome Five. Negaduck shot him a glance, but otherwise did nothing.

"All right Dorkwing." Negaduck said, stepping forward. "We can do this either the easy way, or the hard way. Either you back off and let me do what I want, or we can fight until you're defeated and I can do what I want."

"Either way, he wins." NegaGosalyn noted with a grin.

"Ah, but there's a third choice." Crimson said with her own grin. "You may enter now, J. Gander."

A pair of doors open, and Hooter entered, followed by a small militia of SHUSH agents. They gathered around Darkwing and Crimson.

"I do believe you're out numbered now, Negs." Darkwing remarked.

Negaduck fumed for a moment. "So what are you going to do?" he asked.

"We're willing to let you go." Darkwing said. "But we will fight for this device if we must, and that the Fearsome Five stands little chance against us, particularly since you now lack a certain liquified dog in your ranks."

Negaduck glared at him, but knew he was right. "Retreat." he growled. "C'mon you knobs, let's get out of here."

The gang left, leaving the lab quietly. They did nothing, nor said anything, until they were a fair distance from the lab. It was then Negaduck whirled onto Rowe.

"Rowe, you idiot!" Negaduck exclaimed, grabbing the otter by the scruff of his neck. "If it hadn't been for you..."

"If it hadn't been for me, we _all _would've been gathered around that device when Darkwing and Crimson appeared, and we'd be halfway to jail by now." Rowe pointed out. That, among other things. "Perhaps tonight's scheme was ruined, but in the long term, I think we got the better end of the deal than we could've."

Negaduck fumed for a moment, knowing that Rowe was right, and was hating it. Finally, he released Rowe. "It's not worth my time to beat you up." he muttered, and walked on.

"Right." Rowe said, smoothing his fur. Inside, though, he was celebrating. The time for time to reset had come and gone, and the device had not reset time yet. Time was going to continue on like before.

Bushroot then came over to join him. "You're really lucky Rowe, you know?"

"More than you know." Rowe said with a grin.

"But it wasn't really like you to do that, nearly getting yourself caught." Bushroot said. "Why did you do it?"

"Well, Bushroot, I realized there are several lessons to be learned from this." Rowe said. "That if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again, that you are terrible at Uno, that Liki really is getting what he deserves, that it'd be great with Audubon Bay was one great big bubble bath, that Megavolt doesn't like water for a reason, that you can turn just about anything into a swimming pool, that salmon tastes better when you don't have to pay for it, that dynamite is a terrible thing to use for the engine of a model rocket, and that NegaCrimson is...is..."

Grinning, he trailed off, patted Bushroot on the back, and then continued on his way, leaving a very perplexed Bushroot behind...


	33. Inside Nanite

Summary: Nanite has broken out of jail, and has stolen some devices from SHUSH. Now Darkwing and the gang has to work to stop him...

Rating: T (to play it safe)

Summary: Yeah, he's back. Honestly didn't mean to leave him out for so long, but did anyway. He'll make a few odd appearances hopefully from here on out. This chpt tells a bit more about what Nanite's become, from the best perpesticive possible (title should clue you in). There's also, a little bonus: I reveal where Tuskerninni has been during all of this. No, I'm not planning on doing anything with him, tho. (IMO, he was one of the more oddball villains of the show). Another little cookie, too, while I'm thinking about it. This is the first time Crimson has managed to say her catch phrase without getting interrupted since chpt. 21, "Liquify". Everytime since, she either never said it, or got interrupted halfway through and never got the chance to finish. :p Oh, and uh, one more thing. This chapter ties in loosely with an episode from the original show. Can you guys guess which one before I reveal it in the chpt.? ;)

33.

Inside Nanite

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_It's a control nanite. It will be released into the necessary environment, and then begin to make even smaller service nanites. Together, they will all make a large control structure to house themselves in, and await further orders."_

_--_

"_Mr. Mallard, there are nanites on your arm. I think they're using the materials in your feathers, your blood, and probably your flesh too, to convert all of it into some kind of metal. In a matter of days, they could turn your entire body into metal."_

"_Which means?"_

"_That you'll be a kind of robot, I guess."_

_--_

"_I lost my job because of you. Now I'm going to take my revenge before you cause any more damage to this city."_

"_So your going to kill me."_

"_Yes."_

_--_

_Standing up, Lewis looked around for his fallen gun, wincing as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down, though, he only saw a small pinprick of a wound, and thus ignored it, recovering his pistol and leaving._

_What he didn't know was that his wound was just the right size for a control nanite to fit through..._

_--_

"_You'll leave him alone, Negs, if you know what's best for you. Darkwing's mine."_

"_Fat chance. What can you do to me?"_

"_Never you mind. But I assure you, that if you don't obey, you and your little pack of thieves here don't stand a chance against my wrath."_

_--_

"_You have no idea who you're dealing with."_

_--_

"_Anyone we know of who'd have a grudge against poor Hugo here?"_

"_Just one."_

"_Oh, don't tell me..."_

"_Ex-Officer Lewis Jakeway."_

_--_

"_This is really weird. SHUSH just doesn't make mistakes like this. And by the sound of things, it wasn't a mistake."_

_--_

"_Good evening, Darkwing."_

"_Who are you?"_

"_What, you mean you don't recognize me? How about now?"_

"_Officer Lewis?"_

_--_

"_You might think that I'm totally insane to like this...enhancement, with the control nanite. But I'm totally lovin' it. I'm better, stronger, smarter, and these nanites in me give me such an advantage. As you've already seen, I can command them to create the forms of others. And that is only the very beginning of what they can do. I don't think even Bushroot knew their full potential."_

_--_

"_Argh! Don't you get it? I'm not Lewis anymore! I've changed! The name is Nanite."_

_--_

"_Nanite, you're under arrest."_

"_On what charges?"_

"_For the murder of Police Chief Hugo, for one. Also for attempted murder, disruption of the peace, carrying illegal weapons within city boundaries, willful destruction of public property...I've got more."_

* * *

It was a quiet day within the St. Canard Supervillain Prison. Perfect for training the new officers assigned here. One such officer was giving the new guy a tour of the facilities.

"If you suspect any kind of escape attempt, don't hesitate to raise the alarm." the officer said to the newbie as they walked down the curving tunnel leading to one of the many isolated prison cells within the prison. "We have a lot of people trying to escape quite frequently in this place. Remember, there's a red button at every security checkpoint."

"Right, like the one at the end of the corridor." the newbie said, pointing back the way they came.

"Exactly." the officer said.

They arrived outside a barred entrance of a cell. The newbie looked inside at the dark shape within. "So who's this guy?" he asked.

The officer grinned. "You really are new to not know that guy." he said. "That's Nanite. Came here about eight months ago. You shouldn't see much of him, though."

"Why not?" the newbie asked, trying to get a good look at the guy.

"Because, he went into that cell willingly, and he hasn't moved from that spot since." the officer said, gesturing to Nanite. "He doesn't talk, he doesn't eat, he doesn't drink..."

"Could he be dead?" the newbie asked, puzzled.

"According to the eggheads he isn't." the officer said with a frown. "Healthy as a horse, they claim. But then...he isn't exactly..." he looked around conspiratorially, "...human, anymore."

The newbie gave the officer a glance. "What happened to him?" he asked.

"Well, the story is that the guy used to be an officer, like all of us." the officer said, folding his arms. "But he messed up one case so bad he got fired. Took it personally, and went around venting his anger on people. One such person was Darkwing Duck."

"That crazy superhero guy?" the newbie asked, surprised.

"Mm-hmm." the officer said. "Nanite didn't like him too much, and tried several times to kill him. Finally, he walked in on Darkwing while he was in the middle of busting some kind of science experiment the Fearsome Five was doing."

"Know them." the newbie said, but then few in St. Canard didn't these days.

"Anyway, in the fight that ensued, something happened to Nanite that made him what he is now." the officer said.

"Which is?" the newbie asked.

"Some kind of biological, technological, robot." the officer said. "According to the docs, anyway."

"So why is he like that, then?" the newbie asked, gesturing to the dark shape in the cell.

"You mean just sitting there?" the officer asked. He shrugged. "No one really knows. I guess he just admitted his fate and decided to go along with it. Docs say he put himself into some kind of power save or something."

"So it's like he's on screensaver." the newbie reasoned.

"Kinda like, yeah." the officer said, turning to go. "Anyway, enough about ol' Nanite. Got plenty of other places to see. If you really want to see a lively inmate, it's Tuskerninni. C'mon, I'll show you."

They walked off, leaving the area around the cell empty. Just as they left, the dark shape within the cell suddenly moved. Then it's eyes opened, casting an evil-looking red glow...

"So just how much action does this place see?" the newbie was asking as they walked away.

"Hmm, depends on the month." the officer admitted. "Usually, we see the most action when we've got the big supervillains like members of the Fearsome Five in here, because they're always trying to break out. Rest of the time, it's pretty quiet, so most likely you won't see much happen..."

A loud crash suddenly rang out behind them. They stopped and looked back down the corridor.

"...here." the officer finished, hurrying towards the source of the noise. The newbie followed.

Rounding the corner, they gasped at the sight they saw. Scattered around the area was what remained of the bars of the cell. Standing outside his cell among the wreckage was Nanite. He turned to look at the two officers as they appeared, and narrowed his red eyes. He raised one arm, which transformed into some kind of weapon.

"Oh, that is not normal..." the newbie said as the officer suddenly grabbed him and pulled him out of the way.

The shot of energy that was shot at the pair of them whizzed past and struck the wall, blasting a large hole into it. Both officers were knocked down. They started to get up again in time to see Nanite run past and on into the security checkpoint, where the sounds of more chaos arose. By the time both officers were up and had run into the checkpoint and raised the alarm, it was too late. Nanite was already well on his way out of the prison. Little could stop him now.

And so ended the St. Canard Supervillain Prison's peaceful day.

* * *

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the turkey dinner your dog eats when you aren't looking and is now sitting in it's stomach! I am Darkwing Duck!"

"And I am the heir to the cape! I am the alarm clock you can't get the alarm to turn off on! I am the Crimson Avenger!"

"And don't forget all related people as well."

"Techno!"

The quartet of superheroes emerged from the cloud of smokes that had formed within the hallways of supervillain prisoner and surveyed the situation. Police officers were storming the hallways, and the injured were being moved. A lot of destruction had been dealt to a large majority of the facility.

"Okay, something definitely happened here." Crimson remarked, as they made their way down the hallway.

"But by what?" Launchpad asked.

"Some kind of fire fight." Techno said, looking around with his visor. "I can detect lots of energy radiation and residue all over the place. I can't place it though. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it."

"I hate it when you say stuff like that, Tech." Darkwing muttered, searching through the sea of officers, picking out one. "Ah, there he is. Officer Matthew!"

Officer Matthew turned at the sound of his vice, saw who called his name, and grinned, heading right over. "Darkwing, Crimson, thank goodness you're here." he said, clearly relieved.

"We came as soon as we got your call." Darkwing said.

"What's up Matt?" Crimson added.

"Well, it should be pretty clear by now." Matthew said, stepping aside to reveal the ruined cell behind him. "We had a prisoner break out."

"Which one?" Techno asked.

Matthew hesitated. During that hesitation, Darkwing put two with two.

"Oh, don't tell me..." he began.

Matthew did anyway. "Nanite." he replied.

"I told you not tell me!" Darkwing exclaimed. "Dang it, I _hate _that guy! I had _so _hoped he was in here for good!"

"So we all did." Matthew admitted. "In fact, it sure seemed like that would be the case. This is the first time since he was put in here that he even so much as _moved_. And move he did, judging from the mess he made. We're lucky no one was killed."

"So why escape now?" Crimson asked out loud.

"That's what I wouldn't mind knowing, but more importantly, we need to find Nanite and get him back in here." Matthew said. "And Darkwing, seeing he was so keen to kill you last time..."

"...he'll probably try it again." Darkwing concluded with a sigh. "So be on my guard."

"Not only that, Mr. Darkwing, but if Nanite comes looking for you to cause trouble, then we don't have to go looking for him." Techno added.

Launchpad suddenly looked around nervously. "What if he knows we're here?" he asked. "Maybe he's hiding somewhere and..."

"Unlikely." Matthew said, putting Launchpad's mind at ease. "The prison's too crowded and guarded, particularly now that he's escaped. He'd want to stay away from here if he can help it."

"So he's most likely hiding out somewhere, waiting to make his move." Crimson deduced.

"Either that, or attacking some defenseless guy out of revenge." Darkwing muttered.

"We don't know that." Matthew said.

"So what else could he be doing?" Darkwing asked grumpily. "Attacking some NOT defenseless guy out of revenge?"

At that moment, something zipped over the heads of the officers, making several duck, and then zipped around to stop in front of Darkwing. It was a Flashquack.

"Me and my big mouth." Darkwin muttered as the Flashquack opened and the screen within engaged.

"Darkwing, ol' boy, you are needed at SHUSH Headquarters stat." Hooter said on the screen. "A situation has arisen here, that..."

"Let me guess." Darkwing interrupted, holding up one hand to indicate to Hooter to be quiet for a moment. "It involves a demented ex-cop robot bent on killing me, right?"

Hooter sighed. "Yes, Nanite is here and is raiding our stores of gadgets." he said. "All attempts from our agents to stop him have failed. Darkwing, I need you here."

"We're at the supervillain prison at the moment, J. Gander, we can be over there real soon." Darkwing promised.

"Be quick Darkwing." Hooter said. "I don't know how much longer we can keep him at bay..."

* * *

The Thunderquack zoomed over St. Canard quickly, rapidly heading towards SHUSH HQ.

"We'll be there in a matter of moments, DW!" Launchpad reported.

"All right guys, here's the deal." Darkwing said, turning in his seat to look at Crimson and Techno sitting in the back. "You two will distract Nanite, and draw his fire. _Don't get hit_. Once you've done that, me and LP, namely me, will drop in and stop Nanite."

"So what do we do while you're doing that, dad?" Crimson asked.

"You two will stay out of the way." Darkwing said.

"What?" Crimson asked. "But I want to help as well."

"You will be helping by staying out of the way."

"But Dad..."

"Don't 'but dad' me." Darkwing said. "Look Crimson, it's not because I don't think you can't handle it. You can, I know it, you've proven that on many occasions. But I've got a person grudge against Nanite. So he's mine."

"With all due respect, Mr. Darkwing, sir, but I think Nanite will be too dangerous for you to take alone." Techno said.

"Don't worry, I'll have LP with me." Darkwing said, patting Launchpad on the shoulder. The pilot paled at this, not at all keen to go up against Nanite.

"Dad, Launchpad isn't even in the running." Crimson said grumpily.

"It's final, Crimson." Darkwing said. "This is the plan, and we're doing it."

"Fine." Crimson said, leaning back in her seat. "But let's see how long it takes for that plan to bite the dust."

"There's SHUSH HQ!" Launchpad announced, pointing. "Coming in for a landing!"

The Thunderquack swooped down on the street below, leveling out to hover over the street, bumped into a mailbox, knocking it over, then landed with a thump on the ground.

"Launchpad, what have I told you about hitting the mailboxes?" Darkwing asked as they hopped out of the jet. "Do you know much money the government fines for that?"

"Sorry DW." Launchpad apologized.

They rushed towards the SHUSH building. Techno looked it over in puzzlement.

"That's odd." he muttered. "Everything seems to be in order here."

A small explosion suddenly belched out one of the building's many windows, raining debris down on the four superheroes.

"You were saying?" Crimson asked, giving Techno a look.

"So I spoke too soon!" Techno exclaimed.

Another explosion bursted out the window, and something big shot out of it this time. A rope shot out of it and latched onto something, then the object safely dropped down to the ground, gently stepping down onto it lightly. It was Nanite.

"Well, well, _well_!" he said in his eerie and mechanical voice, eyeing the group. "Darkwing! So _un_pleasant to see you again! See you brought the whole gang along, too! Arrow Kid, is that a new outfit? _Nice_."

"Enough small chat!" Darkwing said. "You're mine, Nanite!"

He raced forward. Nanite yawned, and converted his arm into a weapon, one different from the usual one.

"Maybe later." Nanite said, and shot a beam of light at Darkwing.

It made Darkwing freeze in motion, and lift off the ground. Nanite swung Darkwing into Launchpad, who was about to charge Nanite himself. Both crashed to the ground. Nanite released the beam's hold on Darkwing, and grinned a metallic smile. A canister of gas then hit him in the face, swallowing him up in the resulting cloud of crimson smoke.

"All right, Nanite, come this way!" Crimson shouted, trying to draw Nanite's fire as Darkwing had told her to. Techno was also waving to draw Nanite's attention their way as well.

Nanite simply sighed, turned his arm into a new weapon, and fired once at the pair. The shot landed short of it's target, but exploded so hard it blew a large crater into the road, and knocked both Crimson and Techno back several feet. Nanite blew smoke from his gun and grinned again.

"Anyway, love to stay and chat guys, but I've got places to be." he said with a grin, and ran off.

Darkwing picked himself up and watched him go. He made an annoyed grunt, and helped Launchpad up, then went to help Crimson up.

"Crimson, are you all right?" he asked as he helped her up.

"I'll live." Crimson said, brushing herself off.

There was a hurrying of footsteps, and the two turned in time to see Hooter arrive with a squadron of agents.

"Ah, J. Gander..." Darkwing moaned, "...why couldn't you've shown up with those guys sooner?"

"Sorry Darkwing, we got held up." Hooter apologized. "But even if we were here, we wouldn't have helped much." He took off his glasses to wipe a speck off of them and put them back on before continuing. "Nanite has taken the devices and weapons he's stolen and integrated them with his systems." he gestured to the crater in the street. "You've seen some of them in action already."

"What gadgets has he stolen?" Techno asked, arriving.

"It's hard to say." Hooter said. "Dr. Bellum is doing an inventory as we speak, but it'll be some time before we know."

"In the meantime, Nanite's getting away." Darkwing said, pointing in the direction Nanite ran off in. "We gotta catch up to him."

"We can do that easy in the Thunderquack DW." Launchpad said, hurrying to go warm up the jet.

"Good, let's go." Darkwing said. "Excuse me, J. Gander."

"No need, Darkwing ol' boy." Hooter said. "This is what I hired you to do."

Techno slipped past the director. Crimson started to follow, but paused, looking back at the crater Nanite had blasted into the road.

"Okay, I gotta ask." Crimson said to Hooter. "How many times has this road been repaved as of late?"

"More times than I'd care for Miss Avenger." Hooter said, turning to walk back into the SHUSH building.

* * *

The sun was starting to set as the Thunderquack soared up to hover over St. Canard. Quickly, the occupants within looked back down at the ground below.

"C'mon, he couldn't have gotten far." Darkwing persisted.

"He can theoretically run faster than a normal person would, Mr. Darkwing." Techno said, searching the ground.

"He's not going to get away from me that easily." Darkwing said.

"Well, when we do find him, we need a new plan of action." Crimson said. "Dad, I think you need to include me and Techno in the attack."

"No." Darkwing said stubbornly. "I don't _need _your help. I can handle Nanite myself. Just like last time."

Crimson shot her dad a look. She wasn't the only one.

"Um, Mr. Darkwing, it was me that beat Nanite last time." Techno said hesitantly.

"With flame retardant from _my _gas gun." Darkwing said.

"Uh, it was actually _my _gas gun, Dad." Crimson said.

"Yeah DW." Launchpad said. "Don't ya remember? You were too busy getting your..."

"Ah-ha!" Darkwing exclaimed suddenly, pointing. "There he is! Running along McAllister Lane! Launchpad, dive and land!"

Launchpad hesitated from a moment, caught off guard at being interrupted, then nodded. "Roger Wilcox, DW." Launchpad said, bringing the jet into a dive.

They shot back down towards the ground. At the last moment, Launchpad leveled the jet out to trail behind the running form of Nanite. He shot a glance back at the jet, frowned, but otherwise did nothing save keep running. Launchpad quickly landed the plane and opened the hatch.

"Crimson, Techno, stay here!" Darkwing ordered as he hopped out, watching Nanite turn the corner. "LP, come with me!"

Launchpad hopped out and followed silently.

"Hey, wait!" Crimson said.

But Darkwing didn't stop to listen. He kept running until he and Launchpad turned around the corner and were gone. With an annoyed grunt, Crimson leaned back in her chair with an annoyed thump. Techno looked at her sympathetically.

"You know your dad can sometimes let things go to his head." he said.

"I know." Crimson said.

"And he'll probably be coming to ask for our help soon enough anyway." Techno added.

"Maybe so, but will he do it _before_ he's about to face death or after?" Crimson asked sarcastically.

Techno winced. "After." he admitted. He sighed. "Well, if it really bothers you that much, why don't you go help him anyway? I mean, when has one of his orders ever stopped you?"

Crimson sat up, her eyes falling upon the controls for the Thunderquack. "A very good point, Tech." she unstrapped herself from her seat and hopped into driver's seat. "So why don't we?"

Techno started to look worried as the Crimson started the jet's engines. "Oh no, Crimson!" he said, turning to look at her as she closed the hatch. "Crimson, you can't! You don't know how to fly!"

"Maybe so." Crimson admitted, as Techno quickly moved himself to the passenger seat. "But if Launchpad can do it, why can't I?"

Techno opened his mouth to argue that point, but found that he couldn't. "Okay, I'll give you that." he said. "But still..."

"Good enough." Crimson argued, strapping herself. "Look, it'll be simple. We'll just take off, go around that corner from and go from McAllister Lane to Blume Street, where Dad's probably battling Nanite, lob a missile or two at Nanite, give Dad the upper hand, he'll do the rest, and we're all happy." she gripped the controls in her hands. "Nothing to it."

She pulled up on the controls, and the jet took to the air, a little faster than Crimson expected and nearly crashed into a building. Techno yelped, and Crimson quickly banked the plane so it followed the road and turned onto the next street, Blume Street. As Crimson had predicted, there was the fight. Nanite stood out in the open, firing some kind of rapid firing weapon, while Darkwing and Launchpad sought shelter.

"See, what did I tell you, Tech?" Crimson asked gesturing to the battle. "They need our help!"

"So help them!" Techno said, anxious for this plan of Crimson's to get over with. "Fire the missiles like you said!"

"Right!" Crimson said, and scanned the dashboard. "As soon as I find the right button."

"Crimson!" Techno exclaimed, helping her search.

"Sorry, I thought it would be obvious!" Crimson exclaimed, searching the control panel. "You'd think LP would have something like that labeled..."

She let go of the controls, and the jet started to dive on it's own accord.

"Crimson, you drive, _I'll _search!" Techno said suddenly, pushing Crimson back into her seat.

"Oh, right!" Crimson said, and quickly grabbed the controls and gave them a yank.

The jet righted it's dive, cruising along just about a foot off the ground. It headed straight towards Nanite, who was watching them closely. Crimson didn't like the look he was giving them.

"Techno, fire a missile, please." Crimson said.

Techno looked up to watch Nanite, transforming his weapon into another, different one, and pointed it at them.

"Crimson, do something, he's going to shoot us!" Techno exclaimed.

Crimson quickly threw on the throttle. "I'll ram him!" she declared as the Thunderquack picked up speed.

But it was too late for that. Nanite fired the weapon, and a flash of blue light engulfed the Thunderquack. The next thing either Techno or Crimson knew, they were flying towards some kind of flat, metal surface.

"Pull up!" Techno exclaimed.

Crimson yanked on the controls, and brought the nose of the Thunderquack up to come level with the metal surface. It was then that Crimson realized it seemed to be some kind of cliff, for she could see the sky up past it's top. Fearing they were going to stall out, and seeing some kind of alcove in the cliff, Crimson quickly turned the plane into it, reducing throttle. Within the alcove, the Thunderquack stopped, hovered for a moment, then landed.

Techno immediately popped the hatch and hopped out. "Crimson, you are NOT going to fly that plane again!" he proclaimed, breathing heavily.

Crimson hopped out of the plane as well. "It was a good plan!" she persisted. "And it would've worked if we knew where the stupid 'launch missile' button was!"

"We should've tracked it down _before _we tried this stupid plan of yours, Crimson!" Techno said angrily. "And now we're stuck who _knows _where all because _you_ couldn't..."

But then the ground suddenly shook violently, cutting Techno short. They both toppled to the ground as it tilted and shook.

"What's going on?" Techno asked.

Crimson looked back out the alcove in the direction they had come, and blinked. "Techno..." she said.

Techno looked, and did a double take. Outside, they could see the same street they had been on. It just looked a great deal...bigger.

Techno and Crimson looked at one another.

"The gizmos from SHUSH Nanite stole..." Crimson began.

"...one of them had to be that shrink ray that crazed mini-golf course owner had, what was his name...Liliput Goony?" Crimson continued.

"After we defeated him all those years ago, the ray went to SHUSH for safe keeping." Techno went on.

"So went Nanite went there today, probably thinking it was a weapon." Crimson said.

"And used it against us just now..."

"...and shrunk us down to a super small size..."

"...allowing us to end up here..."

"...which must mean we're..."

"...inside Nanite."

The two looked at each other again. Crimson made a face.

"Ick." she said.

"Hey, the nanites have made him a robot, I'm sure it'll be nothing like what your thinking." Techno assured her.

"Whatever the case, we are getting out of here." Crimson said, hopping back into the driver's seat of the Thunderquack. "Besides, Dad's probably worried sick about us, thus is probably letting his guard down and getting his butt kicked..."

"No wait, hold a second Crimson." Techno said, rushing over to stop her. "We actually have a great chance to stop Nanite here."

Crimson froze. "We do?" she asked.

Techno nodded. "The control nanite." he explained. "We're small enough that we might be able to track it down."

"So?" Crimson said.

"Crimson, if we can shut down that control nanite, we could put Nanite out of commission for good." Techno said. "Maybe even reverse the transformation process."

Crimson thought about it for a moment. "All right, I'll admit that's it's a good idea." she admitted.

"There's just one catch." Techno said. "Right now we're not very far inside Nanite. Now, in order to reach the control nanite, we'll have to..."

"...go...even...deeper, oh Techno..." Crimson said.

"C'mon Crimson, this is the kind of stuff you live for." Techno said, pulling her out of the Thunderquack. "Now look, I've been using my visor to take a few scans. I've discovered that the control nanite produces a unique energy signature. All we got to do it track it down, give me a few moments to work with the nanite, and then we can get out of here."

Crimson thought about it for a moment. "We get in, mess with the control nanite, we get out." she recapped with a sigh. "Cake."

* * *

It didn't take long to find a way to move onward, heading deeper within Nanite. Unlike normal skin, Techno noted, Nanites skin was more like plates, allowing them to slip between them and moved deeper still. Techno decided that because Nanite was essentially a robot now, his skin didn't need to be nearly as impenetrable as before.

Crimson didn't care, just so long as they got this done. She was still convinced this was going to be an unpleasant experience. But she was about ready to forget that once they grew closer to the center of Nanite. Stepping out on a kind of ledge, Crimson and Techno were amazed at the site of all of Nanite's internal organs, all of them metallic.

"Amazing." Techno said. "It seems all of Nanite's organs have been robotizied by the nanites! Lungs, heart, stomach, everything's still here, though."

"Yeah, amazing." Crimson said, peering over the edge at the long drop beyond. "So where do we need to go now?"

"Uh, there." Techno said, snapping out of his reverie and pointing towards Nanite's metallic heart, next to his left lung. "That's where the control nanite is. Kind of makes sense, actually, seeing that it..."

"Yeah, yeah, right." Crimson interrupted. "Now how are we going to get over there?"

Techno realized there was a large gap between where they stood and the next closest thing, one of Nanite's metallic ribs. "Uh..." he said, thinking it through.

It was then that Nanite's body suddenly shook every hard. Techno and Crimson lost their balanced and stumbled. Techno managed to just fall to the ground, but Crimson toppled off the edge of the ledge they stood upon and started to fall with a loud yell.

"Crimson!" Techno yelled.

Crimson thought fast, however, pulling out her gas gun and firing off the grappling hook. It shot upward and hooked onto something above where Techno stood on the ledge. Crimson stopped with a jolt, and swung forward. She bounced off something, then crashed down onto something solid enough to stand upon. Nanite's body shook again, and whatever the grappling hook had latched onto came free, and fell back down to where Crimson stood.

"Techno!" Crimson called.

"Crimson!" Techno's voice came echoing down to her. "Where are you? I can't see you!"

Crimson looked around. "I think I'm standing on Nanite's stomach." she replied with a grimace.

"But you're safe?"

"Yeah."

"Then get up here fast, before you _aren't _safe!"

Crimson fired her grappling hook back upwards again, feeling it hook onto something. "What do you mean, before I'm not safe?" she asked as she did so.

"I think you triggered Nanite's body's defense systems when you fell." Techno said.

"So his immune system thinks I'm a germ, or something?" Crimson asked, tugging on the rope to make sure the hook wasn't going to come free suddenly.

"In a biological sense, yes." Techno replied. "But in a technological sense, replace the white blood cells you're thinking of with nanites."

It was then that Crimson heard something coming towards her, and looked behind her in time to see a whole mess of small, spider-like, robots coming towards her.

She gasped. "Nanites, I presume!" she said, and quickly thumbed the retract command on her gas gun, starting to reel in the rope and grappling hook, lifting her off Nanite's stomach and up back to were Techno waited.

In doing so, Crimson left the nanites that were swarming her far behind. But when she got back up to where Techno was on the ledge, she saw that Techno had his own swarm of nanites to contend with. He was using his sleeping gas on them, which of course didn't truly affect them, but did seem to confuse them. Crimson quickly halted the recoiling of the rope, and swung towards Techno.

"Techno, grab on!" she yelled.

Techno turned, blinked as he saw her there, and quickly grabbed onto her as she swung towards him. With a yell, they both swung back, away from the ledge and towards one of Nanite's ribs. Quickly, Crimson tried to grab it and stop their swinging, but she missed. They started to swing back towards the swam of nanites, still gathered there, but Techno quickly intervened by firing his own grappling hook at another rib. It hooked on, and Techno used it to stop their swing, and to pull them back to their intended landing spot.

They quickly stepped down onto it, retracting their grappling hooks. Crimson peered over to where the nanites still swarmed the ledge.

"Dang it, this just keeps getting worse and worse." she muttered. "Techno, you are never talking me into doing something like this ever again."

"Oh shush, we're nearly there." Techno said, carefully moving along the rib to where it joined the others at the sternum.

Stepping around that allowed him to reach Nanite's metallic heart, beating away in rapid thumps. Implanted upon it was a square-like structure that was easily identified as the control nanite. Crimson looked around nervously, knowing it wouldn't be long before more of Nanite's nanites showed up.

"Hurry up Techno, I don't want to stick around here for much longer." Crimson urged. "Let's trigger a reverse transmutation to go back from robot to duck and get out of here."

Techno, however, had a rather shocked expression as he studied the control nanite. "Crimson." he said slowly. "I think that if anyone was to try and remove this control nanite would...kill...Nanite himself."

Crimson shot him a glance. "Why would that happen?" she asked.

"Nanite's become too dependant on the nanites and has overall become too robotic." Techno explained. "Without the control nanite, the other nanites are useless, and can't maintain the body."

"Meaning..." Crimson said, still not making the connection.

"It'd be like yanking the CPU chip out of a computer." Techno said. "The computer would cease to work without it."

Crimson stared at him. "So if we were to carry out our plans..." she began.

"We'd be murdering Nanite." Techno said. "And, despite being the fact that he's a bad guy..."

But before he could finish, the sound of several nanites coming their way was to be heard. Crimson looked around, saw them coming from all directions, and started shooting her gas gun in various directions, trying to slow them down.

"Keen gear, now I know why NegaGos carries that P90 around everywhere." she muttered, wishing she had such a weapon at the moment. She turned to glance at her sidekick. "Techno, do it anyway! If you don't, we're all dead!"

Techno, however, was thinking of something different now. "I have a better idea." he said, and reached into the control nanite and yanked on a group of wires within.

It sparked, then shut down. The nanites that were approaching Techno and Crimson suddenly changed paths and headed for the control nanite, beginning to cover it with themselves. Crimson watched with fascination at this, while Techno headed towards her, getting out of the way of the nanites.

"What did you do?" Crimson asked.

"I only damaged the control nanite." Techno said. "Should put things here out of commission for awhile while the smaller nanites work to repair it. Now let's get out of here!"

He wrapped his arms around Crimson and activated his rocket boots and with that downward thrust, they rocketed across the gap to the ledge, now void of nanites, and crashed to the ground.

Crimson grunted as she picked herself up. "Nice landing." she muttered sarcastically.

"Sorry, but that wasn't exactly a commercial flight." Techno pointed out as he picked himself up as well.

They were nearly knocked down again when Nanite's body suddenly shook violently, and titled to one side.

"That would be Nanite starting to feel the results of what I did!" Techno said, hurrying back to where they left the Thunderquack. "We need to get out of here, or things are _really_ going to get rough!"

They hurried back to the waiting jet and hopped inside. Closing the hatch, Crimson switched on the engine and brought the jet into a hover. She then hit reverse, full throttle. The shrunken jet shot out of the alcove in Nanite and zipped backwards at a very fast rate. As they moved backwards, they could better see the results of their handiwork.

Now able to see Nanite full figure, they could see he stumble about dizzily, then finally fall to the ground and was still. Shooting backwards further still, they could see that they were still on Blume Street, but during the time they were inside Nanite, it was clear that a real battle had occurred, for the street was greatly battered, and filled with colored smoke, evidence that Darkwing and Nanite had been fighting pretty hard.

Finally, Crimson stopped the Thunderquack, and had it just hover there. Sitting there, they watched Darkwing and Launchpad hurry over to the fallen form of Nanite, looking down at it in puzzlement.

Crimson turned to Techno. "So, now what?" she asked.

Techno thought about it for a moment. "I believe I have another idea." he said.

* * *

Darkwing scratched his head in puzzlement. "This is really weird." he said.

"What do you think made Nanite fall like that, DW?" Launchpad asked. "I mean, we didn't do it, did we?"

"No, we didn't." Darkwing admitted. "Everything we threw at this guy he easily shook off. Not even the flame retardant worked on him this time around."

"Yeah, he said that the nanites he has had adapted to that or something to that extent." Launchpad said.

"Right, he said that was what had taken so long for him to get out of prison." Darkwing said. "He was busy upgrading himself." he scratched his head. "Then what happened that stopped him so effectively?"

Launchpad thought for a moment. "Maybe Techno and Crimson have something to do with this." he said.

Darkwing paled. "But you saw what happened, they hijacked the Thunderquack flew it at Nanite, and he...he..." he trailed off, unwilling to face the facts and state that they could be gone.

"Yeah, he shot them." Launchpad said, then pointed. "With that thing."

He pointed at the weapon Nanite still bore on his arm. Darkwing squinted at it, recognizing it.

"Why, that looks just like that shrink ray thing..." Darkwing began, then gasped, and straightened up with realization.

It was then, at that moment, that the miniaturized Thunderquack flew into his vision. From within the cockpit, Crimson and Techno waved at him. Darkwing stared at them for a moment, then looked around. Seeing the shrink ray on Nanite's arm, Darkwing grabbed it, yanked it off, then pointed it at the tiny Thunderquack and fired. With a burst of light and a roar of sound from the jets engines, the Thunderquack was restored to normal size.

"Whoa!" Launchpad exclaimed, surprised by this sudden event, staggered back several steps. "Didn't see that coming!"

Crimson landed the Thunderquack and hopped out of it. "Darkwing!" she exclaimed, running into Darkwing's arms for a hug.

"Crimson!" Darkwing exclaimed back, returning the hug. "Thanks goodness, you're all right!" he glanced at Nanite. "What did you do?"

"We damaged Nanite's control nanite." Techno explained, climbing out of the Thunderquack. "He'll be inactive while the other nanites repair the damage. In the meantime, we should get him back in prison and into a higher security cell than the one he was in last time."

"You're absolutely right, Tech." Darkwing said. "But first things first." he turned back to Crimson. "Young lady, you are grounded for the rest of the month!"

Crimson blinked. "What?" she said. "What did I do?"

"You hijacked the Thunderquack, that's what!"

"I stopped Nanite, and saved you!"

"Doesn't change the fact that you disobeyed my commands and tried flying the Thunderquack on your own, which you know you not only can't do, but aren't allowed to do!"

"But I saved the day!"

"_I_ was planning to save the day!"

Techno rolled his eyes as they continued to argue. "I suppose some things never change." he said to Launchpad with a grin.


	34. Friendly Fire

Summary: The gang's working on finding a way to defeat The Elements now that the odds are now more in their favor. It could turn out to be easier than they first thought...

Rating: T (cause someone dies an unpleasant death in this)

Author's Notes: Today, you get to read about the origins of The Elements, better revealing some of those unanswered questions about them. Few other important things happen as well, such as an explanation as to what happened to Sally. I really like this chpt, as it flows so smoothly, transitioning so well from the dramatic, to the comedic, to the action, and back again. As such, I was able to do lots of things with this chapter, and get it to fit. Some fun facts are included at the end of the chpt.

34.

Friendly Fire

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Then, where __**are**__ the records?"_

"_There aren't any, sir, they've all been wiped."_

"_Wiped? Ya mean deleted?"_

"_Yes sir, done according to clause three-two-two-alpha in the original FOWL regulations."_

"_Clause three-two-two...ya mean t' say that FOWL __**abandoned**__ this facility?"_

_--_

"_Don't ya remember?"_

"_No, n-not really. I remember entering a FOWL laboratory, I'm presuming this one, for some experiment and seeing a bunch of armed Eggmen, and after that...It's blank."_

_--_

"_It was a project funded by FOWL t' create a kind of serum. A serum capable of enhancin' the performance's of one's body! That's what it's done t' you guys! Only it's unexpectedly gone and enhanced a little further!"_

_--_

"_So why destroy all the data? If they were so sure they were going to come back to it..."_

"_Maybe they didn't lock this place down because they thought they were going to come back to this place. Maybe they locked it down to keep whatever was here from getting out."_

_--_

"_But if they are a failed project, why not just destroy them? Why keep them around where they were still a threat, regardless of how slim?"_

_--_

"_Apparently, there was a fifth test subject in addition to the other four, a kind of prototype."_

_--_

"_Something went wrong. The test partly worked. Whatever it was supposed to do worked, but in the extreme, and additionally turned the test subject crazy and violent, causing a great deal of damage, and costing FOWL a fair sum of money. The test subject was then destroyed."_

_--_

"_But the project leader found out the problem, and was confident he could fix it."_

_--_

"_The document doesn't say exactly. But it does say that before the project was completed, SHUSH disbanded FOWL. The project leader knew that the project could not continue without FOWL's support, so he wiped the computer core of it's records, put his test subjects, still unconscious, into stasis, and __**killed**__ the work team, so that word of the project wouldn't leak out."_

"_Killed 'em? This really must have been important."_

"_Whatever the case, sir, all the project leader did after that was take the hard copies of the records, burned most of them, locked the facility down, and vanished, taking all the evidence he could with him. The project has been left like that ever since."_

"_So this guy, the project leader, is the only guy left who knows a thing about this project."_

_--_

"_SHUSH has learned that a member from The Elements has gone rouge."_

_--_

"_She?"_

"_Just who are we talking about, here?"_

"_Sally McHare, Darkwing."_

_--_

"_Mutiny time, luv."_

_--_

"_She's awake. And according to Dr. Bellum, she's physically fine."_

"_But..."_

"_Sally doesn't seem to remember what has occurred, or much of anything, for that matter. Just mere snippets. Furthermore, she has lost control over her powers, and according to Dr. Bellum, there was no evidence they had even existed in the first place."_

_--_

"_What's Sally opinion about all of this?"_

"_Or rather, what does she want?"_

"_All she wants is to go home and rest, Darkwing."_

"_Then let her."_

* * *

"There." Techno announced suddenly, replacing the cover to the tower's computer core. "That should do it."

Darkwing stood over him, watching. "You sure that installing Dr. Bellum's Elemental Tracker..."

"ET." Launchpad abbreviated suddenly.

Darkwing shot him a glare, but otherwise ignored the interruption. "...will allow us to track down what remains of The Elements?"

"From here, we can tie in the system to the network of satellites the computer core already has contacts with." Techno explained, wiping his hands on a cloth. "By doing that, we can expand the range and efficiency of the system to cover much more than St. Canard, like in the past."

"But couldn't SHUSH have done the same thing?" Crimson asked, from where she sat, very relaxed, in a chair sitting next to one of the more minor computers in the tower.

"Yes, but it would've been a much more massive undertaking for them to do, and would've drawn a lot of unwanted attention to the project." Techno said. "By doing it here, we can have all the benefits of it without the attention and in half the time."

"So will it work now, or not?" Darkwing asked, impatient.

"It works." Techno assured him, motioning to the command chair as a silent offering for Darkwing to try it himself. "At least, it should."

"Should." Darkwing repeated, unconvinced. He sat down in the chair anyway, and started the system.

"Well, you never know." Techno admitted as he watched Darkwing work. "I might have overlooked something."

Crimson and Launchpad came over to watch as well. A status bar appeared on the big screen monitor that hung above the command chair and started to fill. Just as it was about to load completely, though, the process was interrupted when an error message appeared on the screen. Darkwing shot Techno a glance.

"I guess this means you overlooked something, hmm?" he said flatly.

Techno, however, was busy reading the error message. "'Network busy?'" he read in puzzlement. "Why should the network be busy already? It wasn't doing anything before hand, so the only thing it should be busy with is the system. Unless..." he snapped his fingers. "Mr. Darkwing, could you close ET for a moment?"

Puzzled, Darkwing obeyed. Once he had done so, a new message appeared on the screen, one they all knew well.

"Incoming message from SHUSH!" Darkwing realized.

"Well, there you go." Techno said. "Never try to run a resource-hungry program like ET and receive a message from SHUSH at the same time."

"Whatever." Darkwing said, opening the transmission.

Hooter's face appeared on the screen a few moments later. "Ah, Darkwing ol' boy." he said with a grin. "I assume that you were about to test ET, weren't you?"

"That's right, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "You kinda interrupted that, though."

"Sorry." Hooter apologized. "However, a somewhat related issue has come up, and has made that test not quite as required as before."

"Huh?" Crimson said. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Hooter said.

"How so?" Techno asked. "I mean, the goal of installing ET here was to track down the remaining members of The Elements..."

"A goal that has not changed." Hooter assured them. "But the urgency of the matter has."

"Then spit it out already, J. Gander." Darkwing said.

"SHUSH has captured one of those remaining members." Hooter said.

Darkwing and the others blinked in surprise.

"Gee whiz." Launchpad muttered. "Which one?"

"Jack O'Hara."

* * *

It was one of those situations in which Darkwing had to come and see it for himself in order to believe it. Well, now he was at SHUSH Headquarters, seeing it for himself, and he still couldn't believe it was all true. Standing by himself in a sealed off cell, looking completely and utterly bored, but still curious, was Jack O'Hara, wearing the usual uniform, trademark to The Elements. He was making no attempt to try and escape. In fact, no resistance of any sort. He didn't even look like he was planning anything either.

Crimson eyed that expression through a one-way window for a moment. "He looks so..." she trailed off for a moment, searching for the right word, "...blank."

"There is a very good reason for that, Miss Crimson." Hooter assured her.

"What I want to know is how you nabbed him." Darkwing said, eyeing the fox suspiciously. "I mean, grabbing the leader to FOUL's top team of agents so effectively and quickly, and with so little resistance..." he shook his head. "How did you do it, J. Gander?"

"SHUSH didn't do a thing." Hooter explained. "He came to us."

"He did _what?_" Techno exclaimed, surprised.

"Then it has to be a trick." Darkwing said with a glare.

"No, we do not believe so." Hooter said. "Allow me to show you." he leaned over to a microphone that sat just before the one-way window. "Hello Jack." he spoke into it.

Jack, hearing Hooter's voice, spun around to look at the window. As it was one-way, he couldn't see who it was on the other side, but he seemed to recognize the voice. "Hello." he said cautiously. "John, wasn't it?"

"That's right." Hooter said in reply. "We spoke earlier, remember?"

Jack nodded.

"Who's John?" Launchpad whispered into Darkwing's ear.

"That's what the "J" in "J. Gander" stands for." Darkwing explained, eyeing Jack suspiciously still. "Now be quiet."

"Jack, I have some friends that are here with me." Hooter went on, speaking clearly into the microphone. "Can you tell them a little bit about yourself?"

Jack was silent for a long moment. "Would if I could." he admitted with a depressed shrug.

He then fell silent and spoke no more.

Crimson's beak came unhinged. She pointed at Jack. "Doesn't he..."

"No, he doesn't." Hooter said. "He has no memory of his job, FOUL, his powers, and very little about who he is. And all he knows about SHUSH is a vague memory that didn't tell him much to begin with. Only that he thought we could help him."

"So he came here." Techno summarized

Hooter nodded. "Dr. Bellum has run some tests on him." he went on to explain. "She can confirm that Jack's memory loss is genuine."

Darkwing shook his head. "This is too eerily familiar to be a mere coincidence." he said. "This is exactly like what happened to Sally."

"Exactly why this is so important, Darkwing." Hooter said. "I believe Sally losing her memories and her abilities when she did had more to deal with than over-straining herself."

Crimson caught on. "You think there's more to all of this than meets the eye." she said.

"And that the other members of The Elements will follow suit to Jack and Sally, if they haven't already." Hooter added.

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that The Elements have their powers at all." Techno reasoned.

"Speaking of which, what is the status on Jack's powers?" Darkwing asked.

"Jack has no memory of them, nor any apparent control over them." Hooter said. "But, Dr. Bellum's preliminary tests found some oddities with Jack's body that could be evidence of his powers. The tests need to be analyzed further before we can know for sure, though."

"Sally didn't have anything like that when she was examined, did she?" Launchpad asked.

Hooter shook his head. "No, she didn't." he admitted. "And SHUSH has been keeping tabs on her since the incident, and the situation doesn't seem to have changed. Regardless, I'm having Agents Lupis and Mia bring Sally in for more testing."

"Ah yes, Lupis and Mia." Darkwing said, remembering the names. "Those two agents who went with us on that one mission where Steelbeak announced he had founded FOUL."

"Speaking of which, has FOUL mentioned anything about this to you guys?" Crimson asked. "I mean, the last time one of their agents went missing like this, Steelbeak came and told SHUSH what he knew."

"Mostly." Darkwing added under his breath.

"Not directly, no." Hooter admitted. "Though, there has been increased jabber on all of the monitored FOUL frequencies. Which brings me to the next matter of importance." he paused for a moment before continuing. "Most of the messages we intercepted were coded, and we've been unable to decode them as of yet." he said. "Nothing new there. However, we did get word of the location of a FOUL data retention center located in the Rockies. Darkwing, I want you to go and raid the center."

"Certainly, J. Gander, but why?" Darkwing asked.

"Because, even to this day, we know very little about The Elements and their origins." Hooter said. "If we have any hope of getting to the bottom of this, we need to know everything FOUL knows about these guys. And if that information is anywhere..."

"...it's at this data retention center." Crimson concluded.

"Then consider that information yours, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "I'll be back with the information before Steelbeak even knows what hit him."

* * *

Edward was never one to like being on the top of a mountain. It was too cold, too high, and the air was too thin. But he did have to admit that the view from up here was spectacular. Turning away from the window over looking the Teton Mountains, he looked at the two Eggmen sitting at a computer console while sipping the hot chocolate he had requested to fight the extreme chill that surrounded the data retention center.

"Are you finished yet?" Edward asked, stepping over to the console. "President Steelbeak wants all the information on Project 22-C, posthaste."

"We're transferring the files now." one of the two Eggmen reported. "Simple, really. Our new search engine found it pretty quickly."

"New search engine, huh?" Edward said, wrapping the coat around him a little tighter.

"Yeah, not much happens around here, so we spend a great deal of our free time working on improving the systems and stuff." the other Eggman said.

"I suppose being stuck out in the middle of nowhere will do that to you." Edward admitted. "Still, I hope you guys are ready for anything."

"Oh, absolutely, sir." the first Eggman said. "We would never get caught unawares, ever!"

It was then that a hatch leading up to the roof of the facility opened and something dropped into the room. It rolled towards the three slowly, hissing softly.

Edward paled. "Gas!" he exclaimed. "Quickly, get some gas masks!"

They all rushed to a nearby storage closet, but they weren't fast enough. The gas spread quickly, and very soon, all three had fallen to the floor, lulled into a deep sleep. A few moments later, Darkwing dropped into the room through the open hatch, wearing a gas mask and waving his gas gun around.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" he exclaimed. "I am..."

"Oh hush Dad, there's no one around to hear it." Crimson said, dropping into the room as well, wearing a gas mask as well and had her gas gun drawn.

Quickly, they went about disarming the fallen Eggmen, and Darkwing closed the only other hatch that led in and out of the room.

"Area secure!" he proclaimed.

"C'mon in, Tech!" Crimson called back through the open hatch.

Techno dropped into the room, also wearing a gas mask, and went right to the computer console. Plugging in a thumb drive, he quickly went to work, typing fast.

"Found it!" he announced. "All the information FOUL's got on The Elements! The facility's remarkable search engine led me straight to it."

He quickly started downloading the information to the thumb drive. As this was going on, an alarm sounded somewhere in the facility. A pounding rang out on the hatch Darkwing had locked.

"We've got company!" Darkwing said, bringing his gas gun to bear on the door. Crimson did likewise, waiting to open fire the moment the door opened.

It never came to that, as Techno finished what he was doing fairly quickly.

"Got it!" he said, holding up the thumb drive, then went to exit the facility the way he came in.

Darkwing and Crimson quickly followed, keeping their weapons trained on the closed door up until the moment they were out of the facility. Stripping off their gas masks, they quickly ran across the roof to where the Thunderquack waited behind a radio tower.

"Take us away, LP!" Darkwing said to Launchpad as he quickly hopped into his seat.

With a roar, the plane's engines started and the craft shot into the air and quickly was gone from sight.

* * *

Back at SHUSH, Darkwing and the others found that Jack had been joined in his cell by Sally, and the two were chatting lightly. Watching them from the other side of the one-way window was Dr. Sarah Bellum, who was taking notes on a clipboard as she watched and listened.

"Who's idea was this?" Darkwing asked as he and Crimson entered the room.

Bellum looked up from her notes. "Mine." she said. "The director approved it. I decided it wouldn't hurt to let Sally and Jack talk with each other, to see if that sparked the return of any memories."

"And?" Crimson asked, looking at Sally. The hare looked very different now, dressed in casual, civilian, clothing, and carried a purse. It seemed that despite having lost her memories, Sally was successfully finding a second chance at life.

"Well, they recognize each other, but they didn't remember each other's names." Bellum replied. "Both got dim and vague deja vu about stuff that could be FOUL or their line of employment. But beyond that, nothing." she watched the two chat for a moment. "It's kind of interesting, though. They've rapidly become friends. You'd never think they were once superpowered agents of a rouge, larceny-seeking, agency and once our enemies." she sighed, then turned to Darkwing. "I trust the raid went well, then?"

"Yeah, Hooter, Techno, and a team of analysts are sorting through the data now." Darkwing said.

"And Launchpad went to get lunch." Crimson added. "Leaving us with nothing to do but wait until something comes up."

"Mm." Bellum said, returning to her notes. "I hope there's something there that will clue us in about this whole mess. I imagine that it's no fun losing your memories and not being able to get them back."

"Still, there is a bit of a window of opportunity here." Crimson said, thinking out loud. "If neither of them can remember who they are, then maybe we can use to turn them to good, in a manner of speaking."

"Very true." Bellum said. "Sally is already on the right track to that. She lives in a townhouse across town and has gotten a job at an ad agency. She's starting to live a normal life of the ideal citizen."

"And I bet Jack could end up the same way, if given enough time." Crimson added.

"There's just one problem, though." Darkwing said. "In order to ensure that they live the life of a good person, they would need to know what to avoid. And in order to do that, one would have to tell them everything about what they've forgotten." he turned to look at the others. "Including their ties to FOUL."

They were silent for a moment.

"There's a risk to that." Bellum said finally, stating their thoughts. "If we tell them who they were before all of this happened, they might decide to go back."

"And then we're right back to square one." Crimson added.

They fell silent once more, and remained so until someone arrived to announce that the needed data had been found.

* * *

"It took some doing and a lot of searching." Techno said as he, Hooter, Darkwing, and the others gathered around the computer. "Most of the information were merely mission reports, and told about what The Elements, as a team, have done. Stuff we already know."

"However," Hooter said, picking up the conversation, "We did find this."

He motioned to the document displayed on the screen.

"Project 22-C?" Crimson said, reading the title. "Is that the project that essentially created The Elements?"

"Yes." Techno said. "But it doesn't reveal as much as we had hoped."

"It turns out that FOUL doesn't know as much about The Element's origins as we first thought." Hooter explained.

"And why's that?" Darkwing asked.

"Because it wasn't FOUL that created the means for bringing The Elements to existence, but rather their predecessor, the other FOWL." Hooter said.

Crimson blinked in surprise. "But how could that be?" she asked. "FOWL was disbanded nearly eight years ago, and yet we've only heard of The Elements earlier this year."

"All of which is still true." Hooter said. "According to the document, SHUSH disbanded FOWL before the project was finished. It was put on an indefinite hiatus until Steelbeak's FOUL found it seven years later."

"I still don't understand, though." Launchpad said, chewing on a sandwich in-between comments. "Did Steelbeak continue the project when he found it?"

"No." Techno said.

"No?" Crimson repeated. "What do you mean, no?"

"Steelbeak found the facility with it's computer core almost completely wiped and all hard copies concerning the project gone." Techno said. "There wasn't enough left to even consider continuing the project at that point."

"Then how did Steelbeak create The Elements?" Darkwing asked.

"That's what we're trying to tell you." Techno said. "He didn't. FOWL did, or rather, the project's leader did. Jack, Sally, and the others, were the test subjects for it."

"So you're saying that The Elements was really created seven years ago?" Crimson asked.

"Then where have they been for all of those years?" Darkwing demanded.

"Nowhere." Hooter replied. "When FOWL was disbanded, the project leader put the four into cryogenic sleep, where they stayed for seven years until Steelbeak found them."

"They were in stasis?" Crimson repeated. "Why? If FOWL was disbanded, then why preserve the project? The game was over for them."

"That's the mystery." Techno said.

"You see, the project was kept unusually secret by FOWL, hence why SHUSH has never heard of it before now." Hooter explained. "The project leader destroyed most of the information to prevent a security leak. He's also the only person who participated in the project that is still alive and knows anything about it. That didn't leave much for the rest of us to recover."

"Wouldn't The Elements themselves know the rest?" Crimson asked. "Excluding Sally and Jack, of course."

"No." Techno said. "According to the records, they were sedated for the tests, and thus couldn't remember a thing of it. They didn't even know they had powers until Steelbeak uncovered them and discovered the truth."

"The rest after that, we know." Hooter added.

"How did The Elements get their powers?" Darkwing asked. "Does it say?"

"Yes and no." Hooter said. "It states that FOWL was testing a kind of serum that kind of...patched...one's DNA to give them superpowers. It was still being tested when it was used on what we now know as The Elements."

"It was far from perfect, too." Techno added. "The document speaks of a prototype test subject predating The Elements that...put simply...went very bad. Very costly for FOWL. In fact, it was only due to the project leader's confidence in correcting the matter that the project was even allowed to continue."

"Anyway, we've sent what little information there was on the serum to Dr. Bellum." Hooter said. "Maybe she can find the answers in there."

"It seems clear, though, that what we're witnessing with Sally and Jack is yet another side effect of this serum." Crimson said.

"But where does it get us?" Darkwing asked. "We're not that much closer to figuring things out, now are we?"

"Actually, we might be, Darkwing." Hooter said, and scrolled down the document a little ways. "Now, according to this, Steelbeak tried to find the project leader, the only person left who knew anything about the project, by searching through FOWL's personnel databanks. He found nothing, and it was presumed that records were lost in the takeover of FOWL, or were among the documents destroyed by the project leader before he disappeared. But, he did find this."

He scrolled down the document until a picture appeared on it, portraying a graying and slightly overweight duck in a lab coat.

"That's the guy?" Darkwing asked.

"All the data seems to point to it, yes." Hooter said. "FOUL tried to locate him by going off of this picture, but the trail led to a dead end. We, however, have gotten further." he typed in a few more commands into the computer. "The trail FOUL followed was planted, and thereby false. However, if one worked past it, you would find the real trail, which leads us directly to the present location of the leader."

A map appeared on the screen, portraying a forest. Cross hairs marked out a small, brown, square that looked to be a small house. Darkwing leaned forward to squint at it.

"His name is Cornelius Jones, and he has lived in a cabin in the mountains for seven years now." Hooter explained. "No one knows what he does there, and he is seldom seen outside his home. What few glimpses of him people have gotten match his appearance in the picture."

"So, you want to bring him in, then?" Darkwing asked, rubbing his hands in anticipation of doing it himself.

"Yes." Hooter said. "However, I want you to stay here, Darkwing. Call it a gut feeling, but I'd feel better if you'd stay here."

"I want to stay here, as well." Techno added. "I can help further analyze the information and look for anymore clues."

"Guess that leaves me and Launchpad." Crimson concluded.

"Oh no, no way you're going on your own, young lady." Darkwing objected.

"Agreed." Hooter said. "With your permission, Darkwing, I would like to send her with Agent Mia, who has volunteered to help." Seeing Darkwing's unsure expression, he added, "Mia is very capable agent. It is time she was given command over a mission such as this. Besides, I believe little could go wrong."

Darkwing was silent for a moment longer. "All right." he finally relented, then jabbed a finger at Crimson. "But just this once, got it?"

Crimson grinned. "Got it, Darkwing." she said.

* * *

"This is a bit different." Agent Mia said while en route to the Jones's cabin in the Thunderquack. One could tell from the posture of her feline body that she was a little nervous. "This would be the first mission I've gone on without Agent Lupis."

"Right, your superior." Crimson said, sitting in the passenger seat and enjoying the chance to do this mission without Darkwing watching her every step.

"Where is Agent Lupis?" Launchpad asked.

"Back at SHUSH." Mia replied. "He's standing guard over Jack O'Hara. He doesn't trust him."

"That's understandable, considering Jack's background." Crimson admitted. "I get the impression that Hooter's starting to suspect something as well."

"But what?" Mia asked aloud.

"Who knows until we get there?" Launchpad asked. "So let's talk about something else." he paused for a moment, almost dramatically trying to come up with a subject change. "Uh, tell us a little about yourself, Miss Mia."

Mia hesitated. "That's c-classified." she said cautiously.

Crimson glanced back at her. "Even your personal life?" she asked.

"Well..." Mia began. "...no."

"So...do you have any hobbies?" Crimson began.

"Well...I...er...collect buttons." Mia offered weakly.

"Really?" Launchpad exclaimed, turning around so quickly it jerked the Thunderquack to the right. "So do I!"

"LP, eyes on the road, eyes on the road!" Crimson cried out pointing ahead of them.

"Huh? Oh, right." Launchpad quickly twisted back in his seat. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Mia said, heartened by all of this. "It's good to meet someone who collects buttons. Most people think that it's just dumb."

"Heck, no!" Launchpad said. "I find it very relaxing."

"Me too!" Mia said. "Which button brand do you like best? Is it..."

"Okay, okay, that's enough!" Crimson said quickly, not wanting to have to listen to a lengthy discussion on buttons. "LP, are we there yet?"

"Huh?" Launchpad said, a little distracted. "Oh er, nearly there, Gos...I mean Crimson."

The rest of the trip was spent in silence, but Crimson sensed there could be a newfound friendship in the works, here.

* * *

The cabin was nothing special. It was a one-story structure and was probably only big enough to house one or two people. It was entirely surrounded by woods. An underused, blue, Oldsmobile sat parked in a earthen driveway. Smoke floated out of an insignificant brick chimney, indicating a fire. It was odd, though, for even the mountains didn't usually get that cold in late April.

All in all, though, it seemed to be the perfect place to hide from the world.

Which, Crimson now suspected, was exactly what this Cornelius Jones was trying to do.

Having parked the Thunderquack some distance away from the cabin so to not alert Jones of their presence, Crimson, Mia, and Launchpad now all stepped up to the front door. Calmly, Mia rapped lightly on the door. A long pause followed. For a moment, Crimson thought that Jones wasn't here, but then the door opened a crack, and a face peered out at them.

"Who are you?" the person demanded.

"Cornelius Jones?" Mia inquired.

"Who wants to know?"

"I'm Mia Gingivere, an agent for SHUSH, and we wish to..."

She got no further. The person at the door suddenly slammed it shut. Crimson heard the click of a lock, and then the pitter-patter of running feet.

"He's making a break for it!" she announced pulling out her gas gun. "Mia, LP, you go around and I'll go over! We'll try to cut him off at the back!"

"Go over?" Mia repeated, puzzled.

Crimson fired off her grappling hook and rope, and quickly climbed up onto the cabin's roof, and running across it to the cabin's backside, where it was presumed Jones would exit and try to flee. Her question answered, Mia quickly moved to run around one side of the cabin, drawing her weapon, mostly just to show force, and not to use. Launchpad trailed in her wake, huffing and puffing as he struggled to catch up to her.

He finally did catch up to her, but in doing so, accidently stepped on Mia's long, golden, tail. Mia yelped, and in the process tripped and fell forward. Launchpad then tripped on Mia and fell down on top of her.

Launchpad chuckled, and grinned sheepishly. "Heh-heh." he said nervously. "Oops."

Mia shot him a glare. "Kindly get off of me." she said.

"No problem-o." Launchpad, quickly hopping up, then bending over to help Mia up as well. "Sorry about that. I tend to do silly stuff like that occasionally."

Mia continued to give him a glare, but found she couldn't stay angry at him and finally rolled her eyes and permitting herself to grin.

"Guys?" Crimson's voice suddenly echoed out from behind the cabin. "Where are you?"

"We're coming!" Mia called back in reply.

Hurriedly, they ran on around the cabin and into the back. There stood Crimson, who had her gas gun drawn and pointed right at Jones, who stood with his hands raised, his expression neutral. Except for the fact that his hair had gotten even greyer and that he wore a plaid shirt and jeans instead of the professional lab coat, he looked identical to the picture Hooter had shown them.

Jones, however, decided to be defiant. "I don't know what this is about, but I assure you, you have the wrong man." he said flatly.

Crimson merely shot him a look. "That's where you're wrong."

* * *

"I don't know anything." Jones persisted, now locked into a cell at SHUSH HQ. "Nor can you prove that I know anything."

Hooter, sitting across the table from Jones, merely frowned. He slid the photo of Jones in the lab coat across the table. "Then explain how we managed to find your photo in FOUL records." he challenged.

Jones took the picture and studied idly. He shrugged. "You tell me."

"Fine." Hooter said. "I will. You were involved with the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny seven years ago, operating from a base in the Sahara, working on a project codenamed Project 22-C."

He said most of this in hopes of getting a reaction from Jones, but Jones remained completely neutral.

"You seem very sure of yourself, Director." Jones said snidely. "But tell me, where's your proof? Or is this all of it?" he held up the picture.

"I'll ask the questions, Mr. Jones." Hooter said.

"Which answers my question." Jones said, dropping the picture and leaning back in his seat confidently. "You don't have enough proof."

Hooter thought for a moment. "Yes I do." he finally said, and stood. "Come. There's someone I'd like you to meet."

He walked out of the cell. Perplexed, Jones followed, flanked by a guard. Hooter led him down the hall, and to a locked door, identical to the door of the cell Jones had just left. Two agents stood guard by it.

"Agent Lupis." Hooter greeted one of them, a male wolf.

"Director." Lupis replied.

Hooter unlocked the door, and pushed it open, stepping inside. Jones followed, looking into the room. His face finally betrayed that of shock at what he saw. Jack O'Hara, sitting within the cell, was also shocked, standing up suddenly.

"You!" Jack exclaimed in surprise.

"I take it that you know him, then." Hooter deduced.

"Well..." Jack said, hesitating. "I-I think I've seen him before."

"Think?" Jones repeated, letting his guard fall. "Jack, it's me! The guy who got you into the project!"

"P-project?" Jack repeated, puzzled.

"Yes, the project!" Jones persisted. "Don't you remember?"

"He _doesn't_ remember." Hooter said to Jones. "He's lost nearly all of his memory. Only mere fragments of his memory remain."

Jones sighed, rubbing his face, realizing there was no getting out of this now.

"And you know why, don't you?" Hooter challenged.

Jones was silent for a moment. "All right, I'll tell." he said, turning to leave. He glanced back at Jack. "I wouldn't want to cause any _trouble_."

Jack, overhearing, frowned, and looked confused. Hooter either didn't notice or didn't care as he escorted Jones back out of the cell, and closed the door.

* * *

"I wondered when this would happen." Jones said once back in his cell. "I knew it was going to happen eventually, it was just a matter of when."

"What would happen, Mr. Jones?" Hooter inquired. "Start from the beginning, please."

"Well, first off, I suppose I might as well admit that I am who you say I am." Jones said. "I was involved in said project, and was working with FOWL."

"This," Hooter said, "I already knew."

He glanced back at the one-way window, knowing that Darkwing and the others were watching and listening from the other side.

"Yeah, well, now you've got confirmation." Jones said. "I'm sure that'll look good in the paperwork later, won't it?"

"Tell me more about the project, Mr. Jones." Hooter said. "And explain to me exactly what is happening to Jack."

Jones snorted. "That project was my life's work, Director." he said. "I never gave up on it. As far as I'm concerned, it's still in progress, and thereby a work in progress. As for Jack, that's simple. I take it that by now, you know that it was a serum that gave him his abilities."

"Yes." Hooter replied.

"Well, you can blame everything on it." Jones said. "It effects don't last, especially the more the subject's special abilities are used. Think of it like the fuel for your car. Eventually, that fuel runs out. The same goes for the serum. It's presence in the body is what allows the superpowers to exist. It's what binds the old genes with the new superpower genes. But as this is done, it gets used up. The body breaks it down as that serum is put to use. It eventually has to run out. And once it does, the changes to the subject's DNA undoes itself. The memory loss is merely a side effect of this."

"Yes, Dr. Bellum's research indicated as such." Hooter admitted. "Jack still has some of the serum left in his system, but not much."

"I'm not surprised. Jones said. "The break down began almost immediately. I knew it was going to happen almost immediately after Jack and the other three were injected. I knew eventually that the serum was going to run out and undo what I had done. And with FOWL on the verge of collapsing, I worked to slow the process until the project could continue."

"That's why you put them into cryogenic stasis." Hooter concluded. "You planned on coming back, and didn't want to start over from scratch."

"I was going to come back...with a cure." Jones corrected. "I was working on a way to make the serum's effects permanent. Once I had done that, I would administer the changes to Jack and the others, and then put them to real use."

"Helping FOWL, or by that point, rebuild it." Hooter deduced.

Jones, however, shook his head with a laugh. "This has nothing to do with FOWL, no matter how you spell the acronym." he said. "That project was mine until FOWL came along and stole control of it from me. I never supported FOWL, and I never will. Then Steelbeak came along and messed it up further by uncovering what I had unburied and allowed the serum to run out like this. That made my dislike for the organization grow even more."

"Steelbeak didn't know all of this would happen." Hooter pointed out. "You didn't leave nearly enough information for that."

"I did that on purpose." Jones said. "You agencies always are trying to get mixed up with this kind of stuff. Think it's dangerous, and want a hand in it so you can control it. I did what I did to try and keep this project from falling into the wrong hands."

"Well, you didn't succeed." Hooter said. "Your project has ultimately just caused all of us trouble, and will shortly render all four of your 'test subjects' without memories."

"That isn't my fault." Jones persisted. "And maybe it'll be for the best."

"So you can continue your work without the involvement of outside sources." Hooter said.

Jones nodded. "Exactly." he said.

* * *

"Well, that explains that." Darkwing said later in Hooter's office. "We now have a firsthand account of what happened."

"Yes, but we're no closer to resolving the serum's effects on Jack and Sally than we were before." Hooter said.

"Did Jones ever discover the cure?" Techno asked.

"He wouldn't say." Hooter said. "Seeing how dedicated to this project he is, I would presume he's been working on it for all this time."

"In that case, he probably hasn't." Crimson said. "Which means there is no cure."

"Not that's a bad thing." Darkwing said. "Remember, Jack and Sally were our enemies."

"_Were _our enemies." Hooter said, added emphasis to it. "They aren't anymore. And no matter how you look at it, Darkwing, getting them to loose their memories wasn't the way to do it."

"But now we don't really have a choice, do we?" Launchpad asked.

"No, LP." Darkwing admitted. "We don't."

* * *

Dr. Bellum entered Jack's cell without knocking. Startled, Jack looked up, quickly hiding his hand behind his back.

"Doctor." he said calmly. "You startled me."

"Sorry, I just came in to ask a few questions and to share the results of the tests." Bellum said, flipping through a notepad. She looked up and noticed Jack was hiding one hand. "Something wrong with your hand?"

"N-no." Jack replied.

Bellum paused, not buying it. "Can I see it, then?" she asked.

"Er..." Jack said, not immediately replying.

Bellum didn't wait for a reply, and gently grabbed Jack's and pulled his hand out where she could see it.

It was completely engulfed in flames.

Surprised, Bellum glanced up at Jack, who winced.

"Sorry." he apologized, and then grabbed Bellum and banged her head into the one-way window. Bellum then fell to the floor unconscious.

The guards outside heard the struggle, and flung open the door, drawing their weapons. They saw Jack standing, looking stunned, over Dr. Bellum and presumed the worse.

"Freeze!" Agent Lupis ordered.

Jack, however, didn't freeze, and instead turned to face them head on, looking saddened.

"Sorry." he said again.

He then threw up his hands, and shot two columns of flames at the two guards, looking away as both were quickly consumed by the flames...

* * *

Alarms went off quickly after that. Learning that there was danger within the building, Hooter was quickly hurried to the safe room. Darkwing and the gang quickly hurried down to Jack's cell and found the charred remains of the two guards. All four of them stared in shock at the remains.

"Keen gear." Crimson murmured.

"Jack..." Darkwing muttered with a glare, and quickly ducked into the cell.

Jack, of course, wasn't there, but Bellum was, regaining consciousness and picking herself up. The four moved to help her, but she shooed them off.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" she said, holding a hand to the bump on her head. "Go get Jack!"

Darkwing and Crimson obeyed, racing back down the hallway, leaving Launchpad and Techno to help Bellum.

"Let's spilt up!" Darkwing said. "We'll cover more ground that way!"

Crimson nodded, and went right as Darkwing continued forward. Darkwing hadn't gone far, however, when something suddenly wrapped around his ankle and tripped him.

"What the..." he said, rolling over to look at it.

He saw some kind of synthetic rope wrapped around his ankle, and was sticking to his flesh. The rope was fairly long. Darkwing's eyes followed it to where Jack O'Hara gripped the other end in his hand.

"You." he said, pointing at Darkwing. "Lead me to a window."

Darkwing had little choice but to obey, hoping that someone else found him before Jack got the chance to flee. He didn't dare get on Jack's bad side, as he didn't know what he would do. In fact, he wasn't sure what Jack was up to, but it wasn't because Jack's memories suddenly returned. He still seemed very confused and blank about everything, but seemed closer to remembering than before, albeit not by much. Darkwing wondered if Jack's memory loss had turned him paranoid, but decided there would hopefully be time to figure that out later.

There were no windows in the hallway, and Jack didn't know his way around the SHUSH building. So Darkwing took him to the closest office he knew had a window. Hooter's office. Once there, he stepped to one side to allow Jack to do whatever he needed to.

Jack surveyed the windows, then nodded. He went to untie the rope that allowed Jack to have control over Darkwing from where he had tied it around his waist.

"Jack, you don't have to do this." Darkwing said.

Jack looked blankly at Darkwing. "The man said I did." he objected.

"Man? What man?" Darkwing asked.

"That fat man with the grey hair." Jack replied.

"You mean Jones?" Darkwing said. "What did Jones say that made you think that?"

Before Jack could reply, however, Crimson suddenly burst into the room.

"Darkwing!" she exclaimed.

Darkwing started for her, but then Jack suddenly flamed on completely, and rocketed off the ground, shooting through the window. However, Jack had forgotten the rope which was still tied to his waist and thus tied to Darkwing. Darkwing realized with fear that the rope was fireproof when Jack's sudden motion yanked Darkwing off his feet and through the window as well.

Outside, Jack started to rise up and gain altitude, but then the flames surrounding him suddenly went out. With a yell, he toppled backwards, dragging Darkwing along with him. They fell down the length of the SHUSH building, until Jack smashed into a row of lamps that illuminated the SHUSH logo printed on the side of the building. Darkwing then crashed down onto the lamps as well, losing his hat in the process. He watched it flap the rest of the way to the ground.

Gulping, Darkwing started to pick himself up. He yelped as the lamp he was perched upon suddenly sparked and started to sag. They weren't going to hold up something as heavy as Darkwing and Jack for long.

"Jack!" Darkwing called. "Flame on, get us to safety!"

"I-I can't!" Jack said, holding on for dear life to the lamp he was perched upon. "Besides, what makes you think I should help you? I don't even know you!"

The lamp Darkwing was perched upon suddenly collapsed, forcing Darkwing to jump to the next one.

"You did, once!" Darkwing said. "Granted, that was before you lost your memory, and that we were enemies even then, but that doesn't matter now!"

"How?" Jack cried out.

The fox yelped when the lamp he was on suddenly jerked and sank downward.

"You don't have to be the bad guy anymore!" Darkwing said. "Look, do you even remember any of that?"

Jack shook his head.

"Then forget it!" Darkwing proclaimed. "You losing your memory actually has done a good thing for you! It's given you a chance to repent of all the bad things you've done in your life! A chance to start life anew! Now do you want that? To get away from this crazy life?"

Jack sat there, looking undecided.

"Darkwing!" a voice called out suddenly.

Darkwing looked up and saw Crimson poking her head out the window they had exited it from, roughly about two stories up from them.

"Crimson!" Darkwing called back up. "We need help!"

"Use your gas gun!" Crimson called back.

"Oh, right!" Darkwing said, having forgotten he had it.

He quicky pulled it out and fired off the grappling hook. It latched onto the windowsill Crimson was at and the rope went taunt. He quickly hung onto the rope, then looked back at Jack.

"You coming, or not?" he asked, holding out a hand to the fox.

Jack looked undecided for a moment longer, then finally grabbed Darkwing's hand. The moment he did, the lamp he had been hanging onto collapsed. Jack fell a foot, but no further, thanks to his holding onto Darkwing's hand. Slowly, the two started up the rope, heading up to the window.

"Hey." Jack said suddenly. "Thanks."

Darkwing looked down at him. "You're welcome." he said.

* * *

Once things were back under control, everyone re-gathered into Hooter's office.

"How's Jack?" Darkwing asked.

"Fine." Hooter said. "Though the tests indicate that the serum has finally depleted itself. He no longer has his powers anymore."

"And Dr. Bellum?" Crimson asked.

"Also fine." Hooter said. "She'll just have a nasty bump on his head." he paused. "It doesn't change the fact that Jack has killed two of my agents, one of a particularly high rank."

"There's no denying that the deaths of Lupis and his cohort shouldn't have happened." Darkwing said, dusting off his slightly tattered costume. "But I don't think Jack really wanted to do it, nor did I think he really realized just what he _was _doing. All I knew was that Jones had told him to do it, and Jack felt compelled to do it, no matter how much he disliked it."

"Yes, Jack has revealed that Jones relayed a code sentence to Jack, meaning to get out of here in anyway possible." Hooter admitted. "Jack perceived that it meant the worse, and acted accordingly. Regardless, I can't just let Jack go."

"Here's the thing _I _don't get, though." Techno said. "Why did Jones tell Jack the code sentence? What did he think he'd get out of it?"

At that moment, the power suddenly went out.

Techno slapped himself. "Ask a stupid question." he muttered.

Hooter went to his computer, and saw it was completely shut down. "The whole system is down." he announced.

"Not surprised." Crimson said. "Jones used Jack as a means to escape."

"Jack was merely a distraction." Launchpad added.

Hooter pulled out a walkie-talkie. "Director to Jones guard." he said. "Prisoner still there?"

"Director, this is Agent Todd." came a reply. "The guard for Jones's cell is unconscious, and Jones himself is gone."

Hooter cursed. Then the power suddenly came back on. Hooter's computer clicked back on.

"I presume that Jones has successfully escaped the building, then." Crimson muttered.

"He did more than that." Hooter said, who was reading a message that had appeared on his computer screen. "Come take a look at this."

The others gathered around the computer to read the message. It read:

"Dear SHUSH and all other affiliated people reading this message. By now you've no doubt figured out that the whole incident with Jack was a distraction. For me, this is a good thing, and I had been hoping that Jack would remember enough to know what the code sentence meant and react as he did.

Do not bother searching for me, as it will be pointless. I may not have liked or supported FOWL, but I did learn a great deal of things during my time with them. I have a means of disappearing, and disappear I will. Hopefully, this time for good, or at least until I'm in a better position to fight back.

There is also a reason why I have done what I have done. The serum. I cannot let you have it, it's plans, or any other related information, nor can I let any other agencies have this information, such as the new FOUL, and other agencies that I know exist. Only I will have this information, as I believe I'm the only one who can truly put it to good use. You will know what I mean when the time comes.

Although that time will not come for some time now, so do not worry yourself over it. Just know that Project 22-C is now in it's rightful hands once again.

Sincerely, Cornelius Jones."

For a moment, everyone was silent.

"What does he mean, 'when the time comes'?" Launchpad asked.

"That's the mystery." Techno said. "There will be questions about all of this that will have to remain unanswered for now."

"Jones must be very dedicated to this project to go through such lengths to get control over it again." Darkwing muttered.

"So what will he do if and when he finishes it?" Hooter asked rhetorically. "Present it to an agency, such as FOUL?"

"No, he doesn't seem to like agencies, particularly FOUL." Crimson said.

"Unless he lied." Darkwing said. "He could've lied about the whole thing."

"But whatever the case, it seems we will never know." Techno repeated.

"For now." Hooter said.

They all stood silently, staring at Jones's message, wondering what will eventually become of Project 22-C...

* * *

_Fun Facts: There are two deleted scenes from this. First and for most, was another scene that involved Sally, which I really wanted to have one last chance to write a little bit about the character and have fun with her accent. It might of involved Sally explaining her life now that she was out of The Elements to Darkwing, and shown to Darkwing that the maybe the memory loss could be a good thing, thus setting the scene with DW and Jack later. It got cut because I couldn't figure out where to put it and maintain that smooth flow the whole chapter had._

_The other scene would've involved Agent Mia feeling shocked about Agent Lupis's death, and Launchpad coming along and somehow comforting her (probably untentionally). It would've built upon the little relationship I introduced between the two this chapter, and nothing more. Like the last scene, it was cut because I couldn't find a good place to fit it in besides the very end. And I felt putting it there would've left the chapter feeling...unfinished. I felt that it was a much better idea to end the chapter with everyone brooding upon Jone's message, as, despite it being a bit of cliffhanger, it left the chpater somehow feeling complete. In a way, I'm not sad to see it go, because it'll allow me to slowly build upon this relationship over the space of many chapters at my own speed, and probably allow the reader to learn to savor that relationship more when something goes wrong much more this way._

_The whole Mia/LP relationship, by the way, was just a crazy idea I decided to run with that I came up with when brainstorming for this chpt, trying to figure out a way to get bot characters slightly lager roles than the ones they've had in the past._

_In this chapter, I reveal Mia's last name to be Gingivere. The name comes from the name of another cat character from the book, "Mossflower." He is in no way similar to Mia (minus species), it was just a neat little homeage I decided to throw in._


	35. FOUL Play

Summary: After investigating what seems to be a grave situation rapidly turns into one that could be even graver...

Rating: T

Author's Note: A chapter that some of you have been hoping for. Ties up a loose end from chpt 32, and continues to shroud NegaGos in mystery, particularly in the end.

35.

FOUL Play

"You know, when you really think about it, this universe isn't as identical to the Negaverse as it used to be anymore." NegaGosalyn pointed out as she and Negaduck trudged through the barren land.

"Really." Negaduck remarked in reply.

"Yeah." NegaGosalyn said. "I mean, think about it. First off, there's the obvious fact that everyone and everything is the polar opposite of each other in both universes. Physically speaking, the negatron count in the Negaverse is higher than it is here in the Posiverse."

"I know that." Negaduck grumbled.

"Then there are the things that aren't so obvious." NegaGosalyn continued. "Different building locations, different organizations and fractions, varying levels of technological superiority, different world leaders, or in the case of the Negaverse, lead_er_."

"And that's not obvious?" Negaduck asked, looking offended.

"My point is that there are more differences between these two universe than we really think about." NegaGosalyn summarized.

"And this is important..." Negaduck began slowly, "...how?"

"Well, it could explain a few things." NegaGosalyn admitted. "Like how it was easier for you to assume command of the Negaverse than it has been to do the same here in the Posiverse."

"Well, as you should already know, the path was already paved for me to takeover in the Negaverse." Negaduck pointed out. "And besides, difficulty isn't a matter of importance when it comes to taking over the Posiverse. One way or another, I will do it." he frowned. "Just got to get rid of that pesky Darkwing first. Him and that little gang he's got now."

"You know, we know who he is." NegaGosalyn said. "We can always use that to our advantage."

"I know." Negaduck said. "But that's too easy. Where would the fun be in that? Besides, we've got like...an unspoken deal...about that. He leaves my private life in the Negaverse alone, and I leave his alone."

"But he's encroached on not only your private life in the Negaverse, but everyone else's several times." NegaGosalyn objected.

"But always on the professional level." Negaduck pointed out. "He always treats me with the mask on, not off. Therefore, we will do the same. For now."

"If you say so." NegaGosalyn grumbled.

They continued walking in silence for a few moments.

"You know, it's been a little while since we've been to the Negaverse." NegaGosalyn spoke suddenly, changing the subject. "Maybe it's time to pay it a little visit."

"Sorry Gos, but so long as SHUSH has a means of tracking our interdimensional portals, we can't run the risk of doing those little visits anymore." Negaduck said. "We only visit during emergencies only."

"Or to resupply." NegaGosalyn added.

"Right." Negaduck said. "In which case, we stay mostly in the Posiverse, while we have the others get the stuff we need."

They reached the top of a small embankment, and quickly walked down the other side where their equipment and mode of transportation resided.

"All right, let's get this over with." Negaduck said, slipping on a pair of dark-tinted goggles and handing a pair to NegaGosalyn. "This should be far enough for us to stand, right?"

"That's what we were told." NegaGosalyn said, slipping on her pair of goggles, and looking out at the barren horizon.

"All right, then." Negaduck said, and pulled out a remote control from his pocket, flipping the safeties off. He, too, looked out at the horizon.

"Adios Liki." he said, then flipped a switch.

An echoing bang rang out, and a flash of light flooded the horizon. A gust of wind rushed past both them, and they both instinctively brought their hands up to shield their eyes, despite the shielding goggles they wore. A few moments later, the bright light finally started to fade, revealing a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke ascending into the sky, typical of a nuclear blast...

* * *

Hours later, SHUSH was in a total fury, trying to get to the bottom of the event.

"Someone detonated a nuclear bomb on US soil?" Darkwing exclaimed in surprise as he, Crimson, Techno, Launchpad, and Hooter entered Hooter's office. "Who did it?"

"Well, at first, we had a whole list of possible suspects." Hooter said, taking a seat behind his desk. "There are hundreds of countries out there besides our own who currently possess nuclear weapons and would have a want to attack. But none of our satellites or spies detected a launch. And then there's the fact that this bomb went off in the middle of nowhere, miles from any kind of civilization. Most civilians in the area didn't even know a bomb had gone off so close to home until they say the news today."

"So, you're not bothering to hide the fact that it happened, then?" Darkwing said.

"Couldn't help it, Darkwing, even if we wanted to." Hooter said. "While SHUSH was among the first to detect the detonation, everyone else quickly followed, almost within seconds of each other. Everyone in all the agencies and government positions know it's happened, and the rest of country is already in the mist of finding out themselves."

"So, if you didn't detect a launch of a nuclear weapon, does that mean there's someone out there with nuclear weapons that can evade detection?" Techno asked, frightened.

"There's that." Hooter said, "But we are now beginning to believe that the detonation wasn't an attack against this country at all."

"It wasn't?" Launchpad asked, surprised.

"No." Hooter said, working with his computer for a moment. "All because one of our satellites caught a glimpse of the detonation site just a little before the bomb actually went off." he turned the screen of his computer around so the others could see what was on it. "See anything familiar there?"

The others looked at the screen. Mostly all one saw was a aerial view of barren land. But in the center of the picture was a missile-like object lying on it's side. Clearly the nuke. Sitting right next to it was a metal box of some sort. What was most interesting about the picture, however, was the fact that there were two people just beginning to walk away from the site, the red, yellow, and black garb both wore clearly visible.

Crimson's eyes widened. "Negaduck and NegaCrimson?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Negs had a nuke, and he detonated it in the middle of nowhere?" Darkwing exclaimed, looking surprised, but doubtful.

"We believe he had a reason, Darkwing." Hooter said. "And it wasn't for his lust for destruction and crime." he zoomed the picture on the black box that sat next to the nuke. "Note that they left that box behind. Notice anything about it?"

Launchpad scratched his head for a moment. "It's a box." he finally stated plainly.

"A very heavily reenforced box, by the looks of it." Techno remarked, squinting at the picture. "Looks like it has some kind of circuitry, too."

"Indeed it does." Hooter acknowledged. "In fact, we've identified the box as one used to withstand great deals of aquatic pressure from both outside...and inside."

"Withstand great deals of aquatic pressure?" Techno repeated, puzzled.

"With a few modifications, of course." Hooter omitted.

"But they're in the middle of a desert!" Crimson said. "There's hardly any water around, and certainly not enough to need a box designed for deep sea diving."

"Maybe it's for surviving the nuclear blast." Launchpad suggested.

"No, it would've been vaporized instantly." Techno dismissed. "Maybe there's water_ in _the box."

"But then, why the box?" Darkwing asked. "Seems to me that you couldn't put enough water in the box to put it under the kind of pressure you'd even need it for."

"Unless that water has the ability to change size, shape, and mass at will," Techno reasoned, "thus increasing the water pressure being exerted on the inside of the box."

The last piece to the puzzle suddenly came to Darkwing. "Liki." he murmured.

Hooter nodded. "We have reason to believe The Liquidator was in that box, and probably was still there when the bomb went off." he said.

"Negaduck _nuked _Liki?" Launchpad asked in amazement.

"Well, I suppose betraying the Fearsome Five like Liki did would get Negs mad enough to do it." Darkwing reasoned.

"But wouldn't Liki, by being water, survive something like that, regardless?" Crimson asked.

"You forget how much power a nuke has, Crimson." Techno said. "And with Liki being right next to the nuke itself when it went off, much more happened to him than mere evaporation. More like disintegration of the molecules. It's highly unlikely there'd be anything left of him."

"Got any proof of that, J. Gander?" Darkwing asked.

"Not as of yet." Hooter admitted. "We still have clean-up crews at the site, and the whole area is still quite layered with residual radiation and unsafe for a proper investigation. But Dr. Bellum has been running some of the numbers, and it seems quite likely we've seen the last of The Liquidator."

Techno rubbed his beak for a moment, deep in thought. "What I want to know, though, is where did Negs get the nuke?" he asked aloud suddenly. "And more importantly, does he have more than the one?"

"That's why you're all here." Hooter said. "The nuke Negaduck detonated today was of a lower yield than expected, and possibly a test. But if Negaduck has more nuclear weapons even at that yield, he could use them wherever he pleased. Next time could be an even more dangerous location."

"So you need us to go and find out if he does, and if so, prevent him from making use of any of those nukes." Darkwing concluded , adjusting his hat.

"Yes." Hooter said. "As well as determining exactly where and how Negaduck obtained the nukes."

"Great." Darkwing said, standing. "A search is in order then."

Techno, however, stood up suddenly. "Actually, maybe not." he said. "Darkwing, sir, I think I have an idea."

* * *

Back at the Tower, Techno worked feverishly at the main control console.

"Lately, I've working on enhancing our copy of Dr. Bellum's Elemental Tracker, or ET, to try and find the remaining two members of The Elements by adding several new search parameters to the program." he explained as he worked. "By doing so, however, it will allow us to search for people _other _than The Elements, or at least what remains of them."

"People such as members of the Fearsome Five." Crimson concluded, catching on.

"Right." Techno said. "In addition by looking for anomalies that the Fearsome Five could create like, using Megavolt as an example, power surges, ET will also scan the Internet and government files to track sightings of these guys, or evidence that they've been in a certain area and stockpile it all together." he typed in one final command onto the console and looked up to see the results. "The idea is that all the data grouped together will cluster around a certain area." he continued as they waited for the results to appear on the big screen. "Thus cluing us in to search those areas as the most likely places to find the Fearsome Five."

"So who are we searching for?" Darkwing asked.

"Everyone." Techno replied. "That is, minus Negaduck and NegaGos, as they'd probably throw off the results."

"Yeah, there are some people out there who think me and NegaGos are one and the same." Crimson muttered.

"Which you aren't." Launchpad added, then frowned. "Right?"

"Here we go." Techno said, as the results finally appeared on the screen.

It was, as usual, a map of St. Canard. On it were many, many, clusters of red dots. There were at least four large groups. They all studied the results for a few moments in silence.

"Which group is biggest?" Darkwing asked finally.

Techno worked with the controls for a moment. "That one." he said, pointing at the group that near the center of town. "Easily a thousand hits all grouped together there."

"Then that's probably the place we want to go and get our answers." Darkwing said. "But, to play it safe, we'll do a reconnaissance mission first. LP, ready the Thunderquack."

"Right-o, DW!" Launchpad said, and hurried off.

"Crimson, Techno, stay here." Darkwing said. "If we're right, and the Fearsome Five really are hiding out here, then we'll be back to get you."

"We'll stay in touch with the radio." Techno said, holding up a headset. "Keep us informed of your progress."

"Will do." Darkwing said. "Be back in a flash."

* * *

A short while later, the Thunderquack shot out of the Audubon Bay a short distance from the bridge, and soared over the city, heading straight for proposed location of the Fearsome Five's hideout.

"Almost there, DW." Launchpad reported.

Darkwing nodded, and began pressing buttons on the jet's control panel. "Engaging SHUSH eavesdropping device." he reported. "Adjusting to the right frequencies, and...."

A cacophony of voices was spat out of the speakers. Launchpad winced at it, but Darkwing strained his ears against it, trying to pick out any familiar voices.

"There!" he exclaimed, "I heard Negaduck's voice!" he adjusted the controls a few more times. Negaduck's voice began to stand out among the mixture of others. "Hold it here, LP!"

Launchpad brought the Thunderquack to a hover. He listened as Darkwing narrowed down the voices, eliminating the ones that didn't belong. Finally, only the voices of what was clearly the Fearsome Five could be heard.

"C'mon, grow plant, grow..."

"Don't worry my lovely lightbulb, I won't let anyone hurt you..."

"Good day for a swim, eh, mate?..."

"It's playtime!..."

"Keen gear, you'd think it'd be easier to clean this thing..."

"If this doesn't work, I'm holding you personally responsible, you knob..."

"There." Darkwing said, adjusting the controls. "Centering in on Negs's voice."

Finally, only Negaduck's voice, and whomever he was speaking with came through.

"Though, I must admit, the nuke was a nice gift and certainly a great way to confirm your loyalty to this deal." Negaduck was saying in the hideout somewhere down below. "Just make sure _you _uphold your end of the deal."

Then Darkwing heard the very last voice he expected to hear.

"Don't ya your pretty liddle head, Negsy. FOUL will stand beside th' Fearsome Five through better or worse, ya have my promise as president on that, heh-heh-heh."

* * *

"FOUL's in league with the Fearsome Five?" Crimson repeated, in awe.

"It seems so." Darkwing said, back at the tower once more. "I heard Steelbeak talking with Negaduck as clear as day."

Techno was thinking the whole matter through. "You know, in a sense, it makes sense." he said. "With FOUL's top team of agents, The Elements, crumbling, it's probably left Steelbeak forced to find something to replace them."

"So he hires the Fearsome Five?" Crimson asked, still not quite believing it.

"It's a temporary alliance, as I understood it." Darkwing said. "Steelbeak just needed help pulling off an evil scheme. Help, it seemed, he could only get with the Fearsome Five."

"What is the scheme, then?" Techno asked.

"They didn't reveal it." Darkwing admitted. "I think we missed the details by the time we started listening in on the conversation. One thing is clear, though. Negaduck only had the one nuke, which we all know he promptly made use of. From what I understood, the one was merely a gift from FOUL to prove that they are taking the alliance seriously, and that it's unlikely Negaduck will get anymore from them."

"That'll put SHUSH at ease." Crimson remarked, wiping her brow in relief. "But the situation hasn't really changed, has it? We know they're planning something, but we have no real leads as to what they're planning."

"And there's more." Darkwing said. "The conversation indicated that they still needed one detail sorted out, something neither of them have been successful in pulling off. It sounded like they were going to need help themselves in that regard."

"So they could be looking for yet another ally." Crimson summarized.

Darkwing nodded.

"What did they need help with, Mr. Darkwing?" Techno asked politely.

Darkwing shrugged. "They didn't say." he said. "But it sounded complex and technological."

"Hmm." Techno said. "Who do we know who'd be good with technology?"

"Nanite?" Crimson suggested.

"Still in jail, inactive." Darkwing said. "I presume whatever you did to his control nanite hasn't been fixed yet."

"We know it's not the Fearsome Five or FOUL, the next most likely candidates." Techno said.

"Maybe some new villain we don't know about?" Launchpad offered.

"Negaduck wouldn't go for it." Darkwing said with a shake of his head. "I have to wonder if Jones is involved in this somehow."

"Jones, from last week?" Crimson asked. "I'd highly doubt it. He said he didn't want to get involved with the likes of FOUL or the Fearsome Five."

"So far as we know." Darkwing pointed out.

Techno thought for a moment. "I think I might know who it is." he said. "But we'd better pray I'm wrong."

* * *

"You sure about this, Steelbeak?" Negaduck asked as he lounged in his desk chair, waiting.

"I'm sure." Steelbeak said, standing next to Negaduck's desk. "We need the help, and you know it. And he's the only one who'd have the knowhow."

"Only because he has a slight technological advantage over us, where he comes from." Negaduck pointed out. "And besides, he doesn't like either one of us. Why should he help us?"

"He agreed to the meeting, that much should say enough." Steelbeak pointed out. "Besides, I think I've got an offer he can't refuse." he patted the pocket of his white tuxedo.

"Well, here's hoping then." Negaduck said. "Assuming he gets here."

"Oh, he said he'd be here at nine o'clock sharp." Steelbeak said, glancing at his watch. "Which it will be in four...three...two...one."

A sudden burst of purple smoke appeared in the doorway, spilling out in all directions. As it cleared, a figure was left standing there.

"I am the terror that hunts in the night. I am the raging volcano that buries your city! I am..." the figure stepped out where he could be clearly seen, his red eyes glowing, "...Darkwarrior Duck."

He surveyed the scene quickly. "It seems you truly have upheld your promise, Steelbeak." Darkwarrior remarked. "No tricks that I can see."

"Well, I said I would, didn't I?" Steelbeak asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"All right, let's get this over with." Negaduck grumbled, examining his nails. He was completely uninterested in Darkwarrior.

"Right, please have a seat, and we'll get right to it!" Steelbeak said, motioning to the seat before the desk.

Darkwarrior simply kicked it over. "I prefer to stand, Steelbeak." he said harshly, ignoring Negaduck. "Now tell me why I should be helping the likes of you two. Really, I should be _arresting _you guys, not helping you."

"We need your techno brains, ya knob." Negaduck remarked. "And besides, you're just as much a villain as we are."

Darkwarrior pressed his beak into Negaduck's making even Negaduck look a little uneasy. "I resent that." Darkwarrior remarked. "All it is, is a case of having enough guts to do what it takes. I have the guts. And it seems no one else in any of the three universes we know of does."

Negaduck scowled. "Whatever."

"Yeah, whatever." Darkwarrior said, and returned his attention to Steelbeak. "You've got five minutes to convince me this is worth my time Steelbeak, then, presuming you have not, I start arresting you."

"Well, Darkwarrior, I've been doin' my homework on ya." Steelbeak said, reaching into his jacket pocket. "I happen t' know that ya've been driven underground 'cause ya can't get the manpower, or in this case, robot power, ya need t' achieve yer goals. So, I'm presentin' ya with the solution."

He pulled out a small data card and held it aloft. "Presentin'..." Steelbeak said dramatically, "...the cure t' SHUSH's anti-Darkwarrior robots computer virus, the one thing holdin' ya back."

Darkwarrior's eyes sparkled with interest. "And you'll give it to me?" he asked.

"Assuming ya help us, first, of course." Steelbeak said, pocketing the device. "And of course, it's real. Nearly cost me a whole bucket full of Eggmen and many long hours workin' t' get that. I hope you'll treat it with respect."

Darkwarrior was silent for a moment. "All right, I'll do it." he agreed. "Now what do I have to do?"

* * *

"Darkwing, if you're right, then we could have three some of the most powerful villains currently at large joining forces." Hooter exclaimed on the big screen. "We'll need to figure out some way to stop them, and quickly!"

"Fortunately, Tech believes he has things figured out." Darkwing said, motioning to where Techno sat in the big chair.

Techno nodded. "Using the information me, Darkwing, and ET has gathered, I've been able to pinpoint the exact location of the Fearsome Five's hideout." he reported. "An old warehouse in the middle of town, at the address of 179 Hoeye Street."

"179 Hoeye Street..." Hooter repeated, thinking. "Why, that's the location of the cargo storage facility! No one really sees it do much, but last I checked the records, it was still operational."

"The data doesn't lie, Director." Crimson said. "Clearly, Negaduck's been maintaining that ruse if he's been using it for the gang's hideout."

"Whatever the case, whatever they're working on is likely to be here." Techno empathized. "And if all three of them really are working together, then it's bound to be big."

"But what could it be?" Hooter asked. "That's what _I_ want to know."

"We know it's big, evil, and so technological that Negs and Steelbeak could be asking Darkwarrior for help, someone we know to be technologically ahead by a couple years." Crimson recapped. "Enough to presume the worse."

"Which brings me to the point of the call, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "We're probably going to need SHUSH to back us up on this one."

"Done." Hooter said. "I'll have a special ops team waiting at the location when you arrive."

"Much obliged, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "Darkwing out."

* * *

Darkwarrior peered into the open hatch, glaring at the circuitry within. "How you guys have managed to get this far with this kind of circuitry is beyond me." he muttered. He turned to Rowe, who stood nearby. "Get me a power converter, otter."

"Aye-aye, mate." Rowe said, saluting and turning to go get it.

"I'm not your mate." Darkwarrior grumbled under his breath, as he reached into the hatch.

Rowe stopped. "That's _my _line!" he whined.

"Rowe!" Negaduck exclaimed loudly, who stood with Steelbeak, supervising everything.

"Oh, right mate!" Rowe said, and got back on task.

He walked along the side of the large device they were building. He stepped past Megavolt, arch wielding parts into place, a group of Eggmen arguing over details about something, and Edward, Steelbeak's 2IC, studying one of Quackerjack's toys curiously while Quackerjack proudly stood nearby. Finally, Rowe arrived at a stack of many crate, where Bushroot stood, handing out parts.

"Need a power converter, mate." Rowe explained.

"Coming up." Bushroot said, and sorted around in the mess of crates, looking for the one that held the right parts.

Rowe watched him for a moment. "Y'know, this is all pretty odd, the way we're all teamed up like this." he remarked.

"It won't last." Bushroot said confidently. "We could never get along permanently. I'm surprised the plan hasn't crumbled yet."

"And then there's Darkwarrior." Rowe said. "Who'd love to see us all behind bars."

"Or worse." Bushroot said with a shudder. "I'll be glad to see him go."

"I could make him leave sooner, mate." Rowe offered mischievously.

Bushroot shook his head. "Not a good idea." he said. "Darkwarrior would then just go against his word, and mess everything up. Besides, Rowe, this is a prime time for you. With Liki gone, Negaduck's going to need someone to take his place."

"I'm on probation still, mate." Rowe pointed out.

"Yes, but if you get on Negaduck's good side, maybe he'll change that and have _you _fill Liki's spot." Bushroot said, finding the right part and handing it to Rowe. "Just behave and see what happens, okay?"

Rowe was silent for a moment, fingering the part. "I dunno, I still can't see it happening, but I'll give it a shot." he said.

With a word of thanks, he took the part and walked back to give it to Darkwarrior, who was working carefully with the machine.

"You know, you guys could help too." Darkwarrior growled, seeing Negaduck and Steelbeak standing there, just watching.

"We're supervising." Steelbeak said.

"Making sure none of you knobs goof off or mess up." Negaduck added.

Darkwarrior merely smirked at that, snatching the part from Rowe as he approached. "Typical villains, never wanting to get their hands dirty." he said, attaching the part to what he was doing. "You do know, though, that despite what I'm doing, this doesn't change anything, right? I'm still have every intention of giving you guys exactly what you deserve."

"Maybe so." Negaduck said. "But we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

Darkwarrior rolled his eyes, and connected one last thing, returning the panel to it's place. "There." he said. "That should do it."

"About time." Steelbeak said, stepping forward. "Finally, after months of hard work, this baby is ready t' rock and roll!"

He jumped when the warehouse door suddenly banged open.

"Not on my watch, it won't!" Darkwing exclaimed. "For I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the..."

He was cut off when the SHUSH commandos Hooter had provided squeezed past him and rushed into the room, quickly followed by Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad. Rolling his eyes, he allowed the statement to remain unfinished and followed in the charge.

Steelbeak, Negaduck, and the others all turned to watch, but all of them didn't seem panicked, and made no attempt to run and hide. Darkwing even caught sight of Negaduck grinning. Smelling a trap, Darkwing quickly stopped, stopping Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad in the process, but it was too late to stop the SHUSH commandos.

They continued onward, until suddenly, a net cleverly camouflaged with the floor snapped up and wrapped all of them up. They then hung there, unable to do anything. Darkwing watched this happen, winced, then lowered his gaze to see that he and the others were surrounded by a mix of Eggmen and members of the Fearsome Five.

Negaduck laughed as he watched Darkwing and the others quickly surrender. "Boy, did you knobs ever fall for that one!" he said.

"Yeah, I certainly hope that wasn't your plan A, heh-heh-heh!" Steelbeak added, joining in.

* * *

"I knew we should've gone for plan B." Darkwing muttered later, he and Crimson tied up, back-to-back, unable to do anything but watch as Steelbeak, Negaduck, and Darkwarrior all worked to prime the device they had built, which looked like some kind of weapon. It reminded Darkwing somewhat of a certain Waddlemeyer Ramrod but he wasn't thinking too much about it. "I shouldn't have let those SHUSH guys talk me out of it."

"Personally, I think my plan C was better." Crimson muttered, squirming against her bonds, but not getting much leverage. "At least it beat Launchpad's plan D."

"Hey, I was hungry!" Launchpad complained, who sat nearby, tied to Techno in a similar manner as Darkwing and Crimson. "Lunch is always very high on my list of priorities at those times!"

"Oh, give it up you guys, it's too late to worry about it now." Techno said. "Besides, if any plan was going to work, it would've probably been my plan E."

"Oh, would you all shut up, mates?" Rowe exclaimed, who was standing guard over them. "I don't need to listen to your gobs chattering away!"

Crimson shot him a glare. "Fine..." she said, "...mate."

"I ain't your mate!" Rowe exclaimed at her, but Crimson ignored him.

Meanwhile, Steelbeak, Edward, and Negaduck stood on a little control platform that jutted off the machine. Darkwarrior and the rest of the Fearsome Five, minus Rowe and NegaGosalyn, who was oddly absent, stood below, patiently watching.

"All right, we need t' enter a security password in order to turn this puppy on." Steelbeak said, waving his hands over the control panel before him. "Let's see, it was...was..."

"Avalon, sir." Edward provided quickly.

"Ah, yes, thanks, Edward." Steelbeak said, typing it in. "A-V-E-L..."

"It's actually A-V-_A_-L, sir." Edward corrected.

Steelbeak glanced at him for a moment, then pressed backspace a few times. "As I was sayin'." he said. "A-V-A-L-O-N. There."

The machine started to hum. Negaduck quickly shoved Steelbeak to one side and took over the controls.

"All right, we need to get into a better position." he said, and pulled a lever.

The device started to raise, smashing through the roof of the warehouse, rising above it. Debris rained down for a few moments, sending up a cloud of dust. Steelbeak brushed dirt from his suit, then looked down at the damage they had caused.

"Wouldn't have been better t' just open up the roof, or cut a hole in it, or somethin'?" he asked.

Negaduck simply shrugged. "It was time to blow that popsicle stand anyway." he said, then refocused his attention on the weapon. He grinned as he heard the screams of terror the pedestrians outside were making as they all ran away in terror. "Look, they're all running, and I haven't even fired off the heat ray yet." he said happily.

"Heat ray?" Darkwing repeated, overhearing.

If Negaduck heard him, he ignored it. Pressing a few controls, the machine hummed louder. Then Negaduck threw another lever, and a red beam shot out of the device, lashing at the street below, carving a long line into it.

"Ha ha! It works!" he cried. "My device actually works!"

"_Your _device?" Steelbeak repeated, elbowing Negaduck in the ribs. "Forget about it, this device is my brainchild! FOUL's been workin' on this thing for months! It's property of FOUL, all the way!"

"Says YOU!" Negaduck said, hand going for his pistol.

"Yep, says me." Steelbeak agreed, unconcerned. "EGGMEN!"

The Eggmen who had been idling around during all of this suddenly wiped out their weapons and surrounded the three members of the Fearsome Five standing below. Startled, they quickly raised their hands in surrender. The Eggmen ignored Darkwarrior, who merely stepped aside, coming to stand near a ladder that led up to the heat ray's control platform. Rowe was also ignored, but despite looking a little uneasy, he remained standing guard over the prisoners, as he was requested.

Negaduck surveyed the situation briefly. "So, betrayal, is it?" he said, glaring at Steelbeak. "Well, two can play at that game. Now Gos!"

A large cloud of red smoke suddenly appeared in the middle of the formation of Eggmen, alarming them and disorienting them at the same time. Before it had cleared, NegaGosalyn suddenly dropped down, an Uzi in each hand, and started firing. Yelping loudly, the Eggmen started to scatter, desperate to escape the shooting. However, the Uzi's seemed to be loaded with blanks, for none of the Eggmen were actually injured by the gunfire. In the chaos that followed, though, the surrounded members of the Fearsome Five quickly reacted, working to take down the nearest Eggmen.

Up on the control platform, Negaduck shoved Steelbeak and Edward to one side, trying to get at the controls. Steelbeak quickly grabbed the railing to keep from falling over and rushed to keep Negaduck from the controls, but Edward was pushed off the platform all together. He quickly stopped his fall by latching onto the ladder that led up to the platform, and dangled there. Darkwarrior also seized this chance to start climbing up the ladder, clearly with his own plan in mind.

Darkwing blinked at how quickly the situation had broken into chaos, but saw a chance here. "Now would be a great time to break free of these ropes." he whispered to Crimson.

Crimson nodded, and sought for a means to do so. She finally saw that Rowe, still standing guard despite everything, had a small knife tucked into his belt.

"Hey Rowe!" she said, jerking her head to indicate to Rowe to come closer. "Got a secret for you."

"Huh? Oh...er..no thanks." Rowe said, who was busy watching the battle.

"It involves salmon." Crimson bribed.

Rowe was at her side instantly, bringing his ear close so to hear. "What is it? Tell me, mate!" he pleaded.

But Crimson didn't say anything. She just head-butted Rowe with a loud crack. The otter went cross-eyed, then collapsed into Crimson's lap, unconscious. Crimson's head spun for a few moments, as she recovered from the head butt for a few moments.

Meanwhile, bangs rang out as Negaduck's pistol accidently fired twice in the fight Negaduck and Steelbeak were doing. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly off the side of the device, and the fight continued. Meanwhile, Darkwarrior was continuing on up the ladder, pushing Edward aside and to the floor as he climbed down, and was rapidly on the platform. Pulling out a pair of handcuffs, he went to put them on Steelbeak.

"You're under arrest, both of you!" he exclaimed.

Steelbeak simply twisted away from the handcuffs quickly, and went to grab Darkwarrior by the throat. Darwarrior dodged the attack, and bumped into Negaduck, and soon all three were fighting one another. The controls on the device were bumped, and it started to spin, it's tip smashing into the unbroken portion of the roof and shattering it, adding to the chaos.

"Crimson, if we're going to get out of here, now would be the time to do it!" Darkwing urged.

Crimson quickly shook her head to clear the remaining ill-effects of head-butting Rowe, and wiggled her legs out from under the otter's heavy body. "Okay, we need to turn so I can get my fingers around Rowe's knife!" she told Darkwing.

Nodding, the two quickly did an odd shuffle-like hop to get them turned to one side. Crimson fished her fingers into Rowe's belt, and wrapped them around the handle of the blade. Pulling it free, she quickly used it to saw through the rope that bound them. The rope snapped, and they pulled it off of them, standing.

"Okay, first, let's take care of that heat ray!" Darkwing said, hurrying through the mist of the battle to the device. Crimson followed.

"Hey, what about us?" Techno called, still tied to Launchpad.

"Just sit tight, we'll be back for you guys!" Crimson called back, as she and Darkwing started up the ladder.

Up on the control platform, the fight got more intense. Steelbeak got knocked from the platform, and flipped over the railing, falling to the floor. Fortunately for him, he landed on two Eggmen, cushioning his fall. Looking up to see Negaduck and Darkwarrior continue to viciously duke it out, Darkwing and Crimson climbing up the ladder to where the two were at, and his Eggmen slowly being overpowered by the Fearsome Five, Steelbeak quickly got up and ran for it, declaring the fight a lost cause. Seeing this as a retreat, the Eggmen started to follow.

Darkwing and Crimson arrived on the control platform and joined in the fight. Darkwarrior was getting very beat up from the fight, with blood dripping from his nose and beak, and upon seeing Darkwing and Crimson arrive, bailed from the fight and jumped down to what remained of the roof and vanished from sight.

This just left Negaduck, who quickly turned his attention to Darkwing and Crimson. He grinned. "Two, for the price of one." he said cruelly, and launched himself at the two.

Both heroes went to block the blow, but were barreled over and onto the control panel. Several buttons were pressed at once in the fight that ensued, and it was more commands than the heat ray could handle. The control panel exploded suddenly, knocking Darkwing, Crimson, and Negaduck backwards and into the railing that wrapped around the other side of the platform. A low whine rang out from the heat ray that started to rise in volume and pitch.

The three looked at one another.

"Last one off is buttered toast!" Negaduck exclaimed, and fought to get off the platform first.

Finally succeeding, he jumped off the platform and fell to flow, rolling behind a crate in the process. By this point, nearly all the Eggmen had fled or were knocked unconscious, leaving the Fearsome Five, all of which were rapidly seeking shelter from the explosion that was soon to happen.

Launchpad and Techno, still bound, had scooted their way over to where Crimson had left Rowe's knife on the floor, and Techno used it to free their bonds. They quickly left to try and free the SHUSH commandos still trapped in the net, as Rowe slowly and painfully regained consciousness nearby.

Bushroot stopped and helped him up. "Rowe, are you alright?" he asked quickly.

Rowe's head bobbed around for a moment. "Aye, some tea an' muffins would be nice, Father Abbot." he murmured, still a little loopy.

"I'll take that as a yes." Bushroot said, and quickly led Rowe to shelter behind some crates.

Up on the platform, Darkwing was working vainly to try and stop the overload the heat ray was building, pushing buttons at random.

"Forget it, dad, they're dead!" Crimson quickly said, stopping him and pushing him to the ladder. "This thing's going to blow no matter what we do, so let's make like Negaduck and JUMP!"

They both vaulted off the platform and into the air. Before they and even started to fall downwards to the ground, the entire control platform exploded in a large blast of fire and smoke. Both Darkwing and Crimson were hidden from view for a moment, then both reappeared out of the cloud of smoke, gently falling to the ground by using their capes like parachutes. As they touched the ground, the heat ray gave one last shudder, then crumbled into a heap.

Darkwing turned and surveyed the damage. "Well, I guess that settles that." he said. He turned to the doorway in time to see most of the Fearsome Five rush out of it. "But what do we have to show for it?"

Crimson then saw something lying on the floor, and picked it up. It was the data card containing the anti-virus program Steelbeak had promised Darkwarrior. When Steelbeak fell, the card fell unnoticed from the rooster's pocket.

"I wonder what it could be." Crimson asked as she held it up to show Darkwing. "Maybe something of value?"

"Oh yes, it's something of value!" someone said as they suddenly slipped past Crimson, snatching the data card from her. "But I'm not about to let you guys have it!"

It was Darkwarrior.

"On this card is the secret to my rise to power once again!" he proclaimed, laughing manically. "Good will now finally triumph over evil!"

Then a loud bang rang out, and the data card seemed to explode in Darkwarrior's fingers. Gasping, he whirled around to see who had caused this, as did Darkwing and Crimson. Standing behind Darkwarrior, her P90 still smoking slightly, was NegaGosalyn.

"That depends on how you define good, Darkwarrior." she growled cryptically.

Darkwing and Crimson quickly used the distraction to try and grab Darkwarrior from behind, but he vanished suddenly and angrily in a cloud of dark red smoke. Darkwing kicked some debris in frustration, but Crimson turned to look questioningly at her double.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"Darkwarrior is just as much a threat to the Fearsome Five as he is to you guys." NegaGosalyn said, lowering her P90. "I simply prevented that threat from becoming worse."

"Ha, that's not true, and you know it!" Crimson interjected. "I know you better than that, and you know it! Why did you _really _do it?"

NegaGosalyn paused for a moment. "Let's just hope that you'll never get to find out, Crimson." she replied.

Crimson hesitated for a moment, then, coming to her senses, rushed forward to try and apprehend her, but NegaGosalyn simply vanished without a trace in a cloud of red smoke, similarly to Darkwarrior.

Crimson punched at the smoke in frustration. "She's as good at that little trick as I am!" she muttered in frustration.

There was a sudden snap and thud as the net entrapping the SHUSH commandos suddenly hit the floor and released it's prey.

Launchpad looked at the lever he had pulled. "Oh, so _that's _the release!" he exclaimed. "Heh, I thought it was up."

Techno hurried over to join Darkwing and Crimson. "There's nobody left here except us." he reported. "Everyone else got away."

"Drat." Darkwing muttered, then pointed accusingly at a SHUSH commando that was approaching. "It's all because of your stupid plan A that everything went so badly."

The commando sighed, not denying the claim. "True enough." he said. "I've sent for a clean up team, sir. SHUSH will probably handle all of that, so there's little reason for the rest of us to be here."

Darkwing sighed, but grinned, rubbing his sore tailfeathers as he realized just how sore all over he was. "Admittedly, that's good." he said. "Now I can go home and treat my injured bottom to a rest. And my hand...and my foot...and my elbow...and my favorite neck..."

* * *

The Fearsome Five regrouped on the other side of town in a backup hideout that had been prepared. By this point, Rowe had finally regained his senses fully, and was personally happy to get out of that mess. But as he walked into the hideout with Bushroot and came beak to snout with a very angry Negaduck, Rowe decided he'd rather take his chances with the mess at the warehouse than this.

Negaduck, however, wasn't going let him escape, and grabbed him roughly by the fur, pressing Rowe's face into his.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shoot you for letting those prisoners escape like that." he growled.

"Heh, it's really kind of a funny story, mate..." Rowe began nervously, then gulped. "Whatever the case, boss, I won't let it happen again, cross me heart an' hope t' die, or so help me and...and all that." he stared into Negaduck's angry eyes for a moment, and gulped again. "By the fur, mate."

Negaduck released Rowe suddenly. "See that you don't!" he said, turning to stomp off. "You're taking Liki's spot in the team, after all."

Rowe blinked and stopped trying to smooth out his fur in surprise at this sudden announcement.

"Well, what do you know!" Bushroot exclaimed from beside the otter, also surprised. "Welcome to the gang, Rowe."

Rowe blinked for a few moments, then frowned, continuing to smooth out his fur. "Doesn't feel any different." he muttered.

Bushroot just grinned and clapped him on the back. "So, now that you're officially a part of the Fearsome Five, how do you feel?" he asked.

Rowe thought for a moment. "Hungry, mate." he said, stepping forward. "Think I'll go track meself down a salmon..."


	36. The Epicenter

Summary: It has been some time since St. Canard was rocked by an earthquake. But now, aftershocks are unexplicably rocking the area, and are continuing to get worse...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: First off, I want to apologize for the later than usual update. It's been a really hectic week for me, with constant snowstorms hitting that require me digging out of, last minute Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, being out of town for most of a day and thus away from my beloved laptop, one of the computers in my household getting some spyware (due to a mixture of an ad on FanFiction ( :( ) and Internet Explorer), and my place of work suddenly announcing that they were to train me for a new assignment and that I thus needed to work more hours. And there's probably more to all of that which eludes my mind. Whatever the case, that's why this is so late to be posted.

Now, to the chapter. This is a DW/Duck Tales crossover, and in more ways than one. It's also a continuation of The Elements storyarc and is a sequel of sorts to chpt. 26 (Earthquake). It dragged on for a bit longer than expected, but I think will be a warmly recieved chapter. Some fun facts are included at the end.

Happy Holidays!

36.

The Epicenter

"Where the heck is that bus?" Drake grumbled as he stood, tapping his foot, at the bus stop. "You sure he's supposed to arrive at ten?"

"That's what Mr. McD said, DW." Launchpad replied with a shrug. "He said that the bus bringing him will arrive in St. Canard at ten o'clock sharp."

Drake checked his watch. "That bus must be running late then." he said. "It's already five minutes after."

"Just who is it exactly that's coming, Launchpad?" Gosalyn, standing nearby.

Launchpad shrugged. "Mr. McD didn't say." he said. "Said it was going to be a surprise. All I know is that it's a he, and he's coming here to St. Canard from Duckburg to do some research on some business subject."

"Humph." Drake grunted in annoyance. "I've never thought of Scrooge McDuck to be the kind of person who'd care." he muttered.

"Anyway, Mr. McD asked if we could give him a place to stay for a few days as he does his studies." Launchpad concluded. "And, of course, I agreed."

"Yes, and so did I." Drake added. "Now if he'll only get here."

"C'mon, dad, lighten up." Gosalyn said, nudging her dad in the ribs. "He won't feel very welcome if you're all grumpy like that."

"I'm sorry Gos, but I'm on a schedule today." Drake said. "See, Christine's got the whole week off from work, and we have plans for this week. We're supposed to get together for a picnic at noon. If this bus is much later, or this guy doesn't come at the right time, I'm going to be late to get ready for that date."

Launchpad suddenly cupped a hand around his ear. "Well, put your mind at rest, DW, because I do believe that's a bus I hear coming." he said with a grin.

Sure enough, the low roar of a bus approaching rang out into the air, and a few moments later, the bus itself appeared, coming over a hill. Moving towards the bus stop, it slowed, and finally came to a halt, it's double doors swinging open. The passengers all started to file out. As they did, the trio waiting for one watched for the mysterious person to appear.

And appear he did, the very last one to exit the bus. Drake and Gosalyn both titled their heads as they looked him over. He was dressed in a light blue polo shirt with blue jeans and wore a blue baseball cap to match. He appeared to be about a year older than Gosalyn currently was, and while he blankly looked at Drake and Gosalyn, he immediately recognized Launchpad.

Launchpad recognized him as well, his eyes widening in surprise. "Dewey?" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Launchpad!" the teenager, Dewey Duck, exclaimed, rushing forward to embrace the pilot in a hug. "Oh, it's been too long since we last seen each other!"

* * *

"So this is the Mallard family you've been staying with for all these years, Launchpad." Dewey remarked after they had piled into the Mallard family car and had started for home. "Nice to finally meet you guys."

"Pleasure's all ours, Dewey." Gosalyn said from the front seat.

"Sorry if my stay is going to cause any trouble." Dewey went on, holding his suitcase tightly. "See, I'm learning to be a businessman like Uncle Scrooge, and I needed to learn a bit more about macro economics. Uncle Scrooge couldn't spare the time to each me, he's busy wrapping up an international business deal, Uncle Donald's all thumbs when it comes to this sort of thing, and all the books I could have used were checked out from Duckburg's only library. So, Uncle Scrooge provided a way for me to come here, in St. Canard, to find the materials I needed, and well, here I am!"

"Well, you aren't going to cause us much trouble." Drake said as he drove, not mentioning the fact that Dewey could've had his bus not arrived when it did.

"Where are you, school-wise anyway, Dewey?" Launchpad asked from where he sat beside his friend. "Let's see, you're about a year older than Gos, so I imagine you've just about finished high school by now."

"Yeah, graduated last week." Dewey said proudly.

"Congratulations." Drake offered. "So what's next?"

"Me and Huey are working at applying to the Duckburg Business Vocational College." Dewey replied. "As such, we need to brush up on a few subjects if we expect to be accepted." he grinned. "But anyway, enough about me. What are you up to these days, Launchpad? I heard you've had a lot of success from your partnership with Darkwing Duck. Heck, you've even got Uncle Scrooge liking him now."

"It's going great." Launchpad said. "I couldn't be happier."

"Tell me, what's it like to be helping a crime fighter like Darkwing?" Dewey asked out of sheer curiosity.

Drake winced, and looked into the rear view mirror to see Launchpad's reaction to the question. The pilot winced, clearly looking for the right way to reply without giving too much away.

"Kind of like being around Gizmoduck." Launchpad finally answered. "Only with no Gizmosuit and Darkwing's not so popular."

"From what I've heard, though, he should be." Dewey said. "Uncle Scrooge keeps mentioning the time Darkwing saved his mineral mine last year. He's really changed his opinions about him."

"What do you think about Darkwing, Dewey?" Drake asked suddenly.

"Darkwing?" Dewey repeated, and frowned. "I dunno, actually. I hear about him in the news every now and then, but I don't really know much about him, or his new sidekicks, the Crimson Avenger and Techno." he shrugged. "I don't really think I could really form a very good opinion about him from just that, though."

Drake looked like this answer satisfied him enough, and did not say more on the subject.

"What about you guys?" Dewey asked, leaning forward so Gosalyn and Drake could hear him. "Seeing that Launchpad's Darkwing's sidekick, you probably know all about him. In fact, while I'm on the subject, have you met him?"

"Who? Darkwing?" Gosalyn asked quickly, and laughed weakly. "No, of course not!"

"I'm sure he's much too busy to visit with perfectly ordinary people such as us!" Drake said, also laughing nervously. "Right, LP?"

"Uh, yeah, DW." Launchpad replied.

"Oh." Dewey said, a little crestfallen. "I was kinda hoping I might get to meet him while I'm here." he shrugged, though. "No big deal, though. Besides, I probably should be focusing on my studies, anyway." he then changed the subject. "So, Gosalyn, Launchpad's told me a little about you. You'll still be in high school for another year, right?"

"That's right." Gosalyn said, glad for the subject change. "I'll be finishing my junior year later this month."

"So what will you do when you're done?" Dewey asked.

Gosalyn started to reply, when a tremor suddenly shook the car. Drake slowed a little, then came to a stop as the rest of traffic. The skyscrapers around them wobbled slightly. Then, as quickly as it happened, the tremor stopped. There was a pause, the traffic started to move again as if it hadn't happened. Everyone exchanged puzzled glances.

"What was that?" Dewey asked. "Was that an earthquake?"

Drake nodded. "I do believe so." he said, and shot a glance to Gosalyn. She discreetly nodded, silently understanding.

"That doesn't happen here often, does it?" Dewey asked Launchpad.

"No, it doesn't." Launchpad replied, also puzzled. "But if it was a problem, we would now it by now."

"Yeah, it only seemed to be a little one, hardly did any damage." Gosalyn added, surveying the streets as they passed them. "In fact, it looks like most people are really ignoring it."

"I'm sure that's what will probably be encouraged." Drake concluded. "So we should do the same."

Dewey nodded, and dropped the subject. However, the others were still thinking about it, as that was their jobs...

* * *

They arrived at the house in short order.

"Here we are!" Drake announced as he pulled the car into the drive. "I know it's not much, but it's what we call home."

Dewey climbed out of the car and looked the house over. "Actually, it reminds me a little bit of Uncle Donald's home." he remarked.

"Then you should feel right at home." Launchpad said, nudging Dewey playfully.

They entered the house in silence. Dewey stopped to look around. "Yeah, nice enough place." he remarked.

"Uh-huh, that's great." Drake said, glancing at his watch, and seeing it was nearing time for Christine to come over. "LP, why don't you show Dewey where he'll be staying while me and Gos take care of some...'business'" he gave Launchpad a wink.

Launchpad caught on. "Uh, right away, DW!" he said, giving Drake a salute. "C'mon Dewey, you'll be staying in my room. I hope you don't mind."

"Launchpad, I've shared one room with Huey and Louie for my entire life." Dewey said as they marched up the stairs. "I think I can handle this."

Drake and Gosalyn watched to two vanish upstairs, then quickly rushed across the living room and sat down in the two armchairs. Hitting the head of the figure sitting on the table between them, they vanished as the two chairs spun rapidly, and then reappeared in Darkwing Tower.

Sitting in the command chair was Honker, who looked up as they arrived.

"Honker!" Drake exclaimed as he climbed out of the chair. "I see you're one step ahead of me already."

"Yes, Mr. Mallard, sir." Honker replied. "I'm investigating that tremor earlier. I presume you're here to do the same?"

"Yep." Drake said, as he and Gosalyn joined him at the chair. "We felt it on our way here from the bus stop."

"So have you found anything, Honk?" Gosalyn asked, studying the data Honker currently had pulled up on the big screen.

"Um, not a whole lot." Honker replied as he used the mouse to sort through some of this data. "You'll be interested to know that the tremor's epicenter is the same as that earthquake's that hit back in February."

"The one that The Elements artificially caused." Gosalyn summarized.

"Right." Honker replied.

"Well, that's odd." Drake said, scanning through the data to double-check. "Could've that pone tremor been artificially created as well?"

"Possibly, but I'm starting to doubt it, sir." Honker said. "The tremor's qualities are more natural looking, but..." he paused, pulling up a few diagrams, "there are still a few inconsistencies. For instance, this one tremor originated miles underground. Nowhere near the usual places for a naturally occurring earthquake to occur."

"Maybe it was just a freak of nature." Gosalyn suggested.

"That's what I thought at first." Honker said. "But then I started picking traces of more tremors, hardly registering on our devices, originating from the source of the earthquake. Every now and then, a strong wave is made."

As if to prove his point, another tremor struck, rattling the tower slightly. It was over quickly, but it caused the three to look puzzled at one another.

Honker checked a few things real quick. "That one was stronger than the last one." he reported. "Everything else about it matches the last one. It even has the same epicenter."

"Could it be somehow related to the earthquake in February?" Drake asked.

"I think it likely, yes Mr. Mallard." Honker said. "I think these tremors are mere aftershocks of that one major earthquake months ago."

"But then, why are they only turning up now?" Gosalyn asked.

"That earthquake was caused artificially by The Elements." Honker explained. "I have to wonder if these tremors are some kind of unforseen side effect that are just now making themselves apparent." he paused, looking back at the data. "Whatever the case, these tremors are only getting stronger. I think we should report our findings to SHUSH, see if they can figure out a solution."

"Sounds good." Drake said. "And in the meantime..."

A low buzzing noise suddenly rang out in the tower, followed by the sound of Launchpad's voice. "DW, Christine's here at the door." he said over the intercom.

Drake leaned over and pressed a button on the control panel. "Thanks, LP, tell her I'll be there in a moment." he said. "Where's Dewey?"

"Upstairs unpacking still." Launchpad replied.

"Make sure he stays out of the living room for a few moments." Drake said. "We'll be coming right over."

"Got it." Launchpad said, and then the intercom went out.

"Right." Drake said, turning to go. "While I'm gone, Honker I want you to get that data to SHUSH, and monitor for anymore tremors." he said.

"You'll feel them if anymore strike." Honker replied.

"Gos, you stay here and help." Drake went on. "Bring up ET while you're at it, and search for Garth Miner. He was behind the earthquake last time, right?"

"Right." Honker said. "But we haven't proved he's behind these tremors, either."

"If there's one thing I've learned over the years, Honker," Drake said, as he sat down in one of the armchairs, "it's to always play it safe."

And with that, he activated the chairs, and spun rapidly, arriving back at the house. Christine stood in the entry way, dressed in casual attire. She turned when she heard Drake arrive.

"There you are, Drake." she said with a grin. "And just what were you doing?"

"I was doing some business." Drake replied, approaching her and grinning back. "Little stuff, I've got Gos and Honker watching it."

"So we're still set to go ahead with our plans?" Christine asked. "You know, it was hard for me to get this week off."

"Looks like it." Drake said. "And besides, I don't want to have to put off our plans. I will do my best to make sure Darkwing stays out of our planned activities as much as possible."

"Good." Christine said, and then lifted up the picnic basket she carried. "Ready to go on a picnic, then?"

"Yes." Drake said, leaning past her to open the door. "Let's not wait any..."

"Um, Mr. Mallard, could I interrupt real quick?" a voice came from the stairway.

Drake paused, sighed, then closed the door again. He turned around to face Dewey standing up on the stairs, looking annoyed.

Dewey winced. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?" he asked apologetically.

"No, of course not." Drake said flatly.

Christine glanced at Dewey. "Who's this?" she asked curiously.

"This is Dewey Duck, a friend of LP's." Drake said. "He's going to be staying here for a few days. Dewey, this is Christine Merriweather. Anyway, what is it, Dewey?"

"Um, I finished unpacking." Dewey said. "I'd like to go to the city library now and look for the books I need for my studies. I was hoping I could get a lift there?"

Drake sighed. "No problem." he said. "Me and Christine are heading out, so we can drop you off..."

He was interrupted when another tremor struck, shaking the house.

"What the..." Christine muttered, placing a hand on Drake's shoulder. "That's the third time that's happened today." she glanced at Drake.

It was then that Launchpad appeared. "DW!" he said. "Honker just called! He..." he trailed off when he saw Dewey, "...uh...he needs your help."

Drake sighed, and rubbed his eyes. "Today's not my day." he muttered.

"Look, I can wait to go to the library." Dewey offered quickly.

"No, it's all right, you can still go." Drake persisted. He turned to Christine. "Though, it looks like..."

"Hey, we can postpone our plans for a day." Christine assured him, cutting him short. "Maybe while you're busy doing that, Launchpad can drive us to the library. There's a book I've been meaning to check out from there anyway."

Drake grinned slightly. "I'll make it up to you, Chris." he promised, then turned to Launchpad. "LP, alright if I have you do that?" he asked.

"No problemo, DW." Launchpad said, heading out the door. "C'mon, Christine and Dewey, let's go to the library!"

Dewey followed. Christine gave Drake one last comforting grin, then followed. The three all climbed into the car. As Launchpad pulled the car out of the driveway, Dewey watched the house.

"Mr. Mallard seems to be a busy person." he noted.

Christine and Launchpad exchanged glances. "More than you know." Christine replied, still grinning.

* * *

Drake arrived at the tower seeing Techno and Crimson conversing with Hooter. Quickly slipping into costume, he joined them.

"J. Gander, this is a surprise." Darkwing said as he arrived. "Tech, you called SHUSH?"

"Actually, they called us." Techno replied.

"That's right Darkwing." Hooter said. "It concerns the tremors that have been shaking the city as of late."

"Yeah, we've been monitoring them, too." Darkwing said.

"Yes, young Techno was just telling me this." Hooter said. "I've been looking over your data and been comparing it with SHUSH's."

"He's found something we haven't." Crimson said. "He was about to transfer the files to us."

"Director, we are ready to receive." Techno said, pressing a few controls.

Hooter nodded, and pressed a few buttons on his end. "I'm sending the information now." he said. "It should be immediately apparent what SHUSH has found that you have not."

A status bar appeared briefly on the big screen, and then Hooter's face was replaced with a diagram of three dimensional ground. Two dots were on it. One was deep in the ground. Every now and then a set of red waves would rush out from it, often fading from sight before it reached the top of the ground. Then, suddenly, it released an extra strong one that went all the way to the surface.

The same time it did, another tremor struck, briefly rattling St. Canard. Like the ones before, it was gone quickly, but it was clear that it was stronger than the ones past.

"As you can tell, the waves are tremors, and the dots are their point of origins." Hooter explained once the tremor had subsided. "The first one is the same as the one you've been tracking. However, the other dot..."

The second dot was releasing shockwaves downward to the first, and was above ground.

"...seems to be generating focused tremors down to the first, as if to try and stabilize it." Hooter finished. "At least, that's what has been theorized."

Crimson frowned. "What would have that kind of control?" she asked.

"Not what, who." Hooter corrected.

Darkwing caught on. "Tech, did the ET search turn up anything?" he asked.

"No, there was too much interference." Techno replied. Then he figured it out as well. "You think that the second dot is Garth."

"It stands perfectly to reason." Hooter said. "He knows what's happening, and is apparently trying to prevent it."

Crimson frowned. "Do you think he still has his memories and control over his powers, or has he lost both like Jack and Sally have?" she asked.

"It's impossible to say." Hooter said. "Which is why I want you to go and track him down. Assess the situation, and act accordingly."

"Where is he?" Techno asked.

"On the boundaries of St. Canard and the neighboring forest." Hooter replied. "He doesn't seem to be going anywhere currently, but it is not clear if he will stay there for much longer, so it you could hurry..."

"Will do, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "We'll get Garth and get to the bottom of this."

* * *

A short while later, they were speeding along in the Ratcatcher, Darkwing driving, Crimson sitting behind him, and Techno in the sidecar, monitoring the position of Garth.

"He's still there." Techno reported as Darkwing drove the motorbike along the edges of the forest. "He either doesn't know we're coming, or doesn't care."

"He clearly doesn't know we're coming just yet." Crimson said. "What difference does it make?"

"Well, I dunno." Techno admitted. "It just seems that whenever we're dealing with The Elements, they've got some sixth sense that alerts them that they have intruders."

"Nah, no sixth sense." Darkwing said. "They're just well trained at what they do. It's possible to get the jump on them, and they are only human."

"To a certain extent." Crimson added.

"We're almost there." Techno said. He pointed ahead at a fringe of bushes. "He's right behind there."

Darkwing stopped the Ratcatcher and hopped off. "Right, we better sneak up on him from here on out." he said.

He snuck towards the ridge of bushes. Crimson and Techno hopped off the Ratcatcher and followed Darkwing carefully. As they drew nearer to Garth's position, they could feel the ground shudder under their feet. At first, Darkwing thought it was another tremor, but then the ground suddenly jolted hard. Darkwing thus corrected himself. The hard jolt was a tremor. The light shudders were Garth trying to counteract the tremors or whatever.

Finally, they pushed their way through the bushes, revealing Garth, in the process of stomping his foot on the ground and creating a mild quake. He looked up when he saw the bushes part, saw Darkwing, Crimson, and Techno, and quickly turned and ran.

"Oh, no you don't!" Darkwing exclaimed, rushing forward, pulling out his gas gun.

He fired off the grappling hook and rope at the fleeing Garth. It hooked onto his uniform, and the rope quickly wrapped itself around him. With a growl of frustration, Garth was brought up short in his attempt to flee and toppled over with an 'oof!' Darkwing came over to stand over him. Garth looked up at him with a glare.

"Darkwing!" Garth said. "Someone should fine you for interfering!" he exclaimed.

"Ah, so you _do _have your memories still." Crimson noted, joining Darkwing.

"For now, yes." Garth admitted, struggling against the rope that bound him. "Although I don't know for how much longer."

"So why are you here, Garth?" Darkwing asked. "Did FOUL send you?"

"FOUL's disbanded The Elements, I'm acting on my own." Garth hissed.

"You know, the last time you told me that, it was a lie." Darkwing pointed out. "How can I trust you?"

"You're just going to have to." Garth admitted. "FOUL's cut off all ties to me, Elizabeth, and the others. So far as Steelbeak cares, we don't exist anymore. We're no use to him without powers, and he hasn't found a cure for our...our...aliment or whatever."

"So Jones never went back to FOUL, then." Techno said. "Otherwise Steelbeak would've hung onto these guys."

"Jones?" Garth asked. "Jones who? Who the heck is Jones?"

"Never mind him." Darkwing said, leaning down. "So if you really aren't with FOUL, then why are you here?"

"It's the earthquakes." Garth said.

"Are you creating them or stopping them?" Crimson asked.

"Neither, you dolts, I'm trying to pinpoint the source of them." Garth growled.

"Of course!" Techno exclaimed, slapping his head. "You're using the vibrations of your counterquakes as a kind of sonar!"

"Smart kid." Garth remarked. "But yes, that's exactly what I'm doing."

"Why?" Crimson asked.

"'Why?'" Garth repeated with annoyance. "Oh well, clearly because these tremors aren't supposed to happen, you dolt!"

"And why do you care?" Crimson asked.

"I'm trying to stop them." Garth said.

"Oh, a bit of a good streak in you, is there?" Darkwing asked.

Garth shot him a glare. "It's more than that, I assure you." he said, then upon taking a deep breath, went on to explain. "When I created that earthquake three or four months ago, I think I may have triggered a chain reaction. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I created such a massive earthquake artificially or what. But if I'm right, and these tremors keep happening, then it'll eventually led to a really, really, big earthquake."

Techno's eyes widened as he understood what Garth was getting at. "An earthquake large enough to cover the globe, quite possibly destroying everything on it's surface." he said.

Darkwing shot him a worried glance. "Is that even _possible_?" he asked.

"Theoretically, yes." Techno said. "And it might not even stop there. Such a quake has the potential of destabilizing the core of our planet. And if it does..."

"The whole planet could tear itself apart." Garth concluded.

Darkwing and Crimson exchanged worried glances.

"Now do you see why I was trying to stop the tremors?" Garth asked in annoyance. "For once, I'm on your guys's side!"

"It certainly sounds like it." Darkwing admitted.

"So will you let me go now?" Garth exclaimed.

"Oh, right!" Darkwing said, and quickly retracted the grappling hook and rope.

Free from his bonds, Garth stood up, dusted himself off, and stretched. He looked like he was about to say something when another tremor hit, the strongest yet. All four of them lost their footing and fell to the ground. Something could be heard shattering in the distance, back within the boundaries of St. Canard. It was over quite suddenly. They all picked themselves up.

"Is it just me, or are those tremors getting stronger?" Crimson asked.

"Of course they are." Garth muttered harshly.

"And they'll only continue to get worse if we don't find a way to reverse the damage we've done." Techno added.

"Okay." Darkwing said. "So how do we do that?"

"If you leave me in peace, maybe can I figure out where the source is." Garth said.

"I don't know if we've got the time." Techno said. "These tremors are getting stronger exponentially. It won't be much longer before each tremor that strikes will cause severe damage each time."

"We still have to find the source, you know." Garth said pointedly.

"Done." Techno said.

"Done?" Darkwing repeated.

"Done." Techno confirmed. "We know where the epicenter, the point at which the shockwaves reach the surface, is at. The source of these tremors is somewhere below it."

* * *

"In-between 246 and 245 South Lasky Path." Darkwing repeated as they drove to the destination in the Ratcatcher. "That would be right in the middle of traffic. And it's rush hour!"

"I know." Techno admitted, who was squeezed into the sidecar with Garth. "But as that's the location of the epicenter, that's where the tremors would be the strongest. I would think that most people would be avoiding that area by now because of it."

"Look on the bright side, Darkwing." Crimson added, from where she sat behind Darkwing. "There'll be lots of people there to see you being a hero."

Darkwing brightened up at that thought.

"You all seem to be forgetting that we haven't figured out how to get to the source once we're at it." Garth pointed out.

"I was thinking you'd use your powers to get us there." Darkwing said. "Can't you?"

"Oh, I can." Garth said. "But I'm trying to converse my powers. They aren't going to last forever, and as soon as they go, so will my memories, which I'm rather fond of."

"Well, we'll think of something." Crimson said. "At least nobody's going to be around to distract us."

* * *

"You sure it's on South Lasky Path?" Launchpad asked as he turned the car onto the road in question, finding it mostly deserted.

"I'm pretty sure the library was on this street." Christine said, leaning forward in her seat. "But then again, it has been awhile since I've visited."

"I wish I could help." Dewey said longingly. "But I've hardly ever been to St. Canard."

"It's okay Dewey, we'll figure it out." Launchpad said, looking at the addressed. "Chris, you said the library address is 251 South Lasky Path, right?"

"Only if my memory's right." Christine said.

"Well, let's look at the buildings as we pass them, match them up to their addresses." Launchpad suggested. "When we find 251 South Lasky Path, maybe we'll find the library."

"Actually, maybe we should stop and ask..." Dewey began, but Christine cut him short.

"Good idea, LP." Christine said. "Let's see, there's 239 South Lasky Path, there's 241, 243, 245..."

It was then that the tremor struck. The car instantly began to buck as the ground below it started to shake none too nicely. A couple of windows in some nearby buildings shattered. Christine yelped as Launchpad quickly stomped on the brakes and bring the car to a stop. But the shaking was preventing it from doing so. Their panic increased when the road ahead of them suddenly spilt open, forming a very large crack.

"Look out!" Dewey exclaimed.

Launchpad tried to veer the car away, but despite the car moving back and forth in quick jerks, the tremor's shaking forced it to continue onward. But just as the car was about to go off the edge of the crack and fall in, two grappling hooks shot out and latched onto the car's rear bumper, bringing it to a halt.

Darkwing quickly threw the Ratcatcher into reverse, it's tires squealing as it worked to try and keep the car in place with it's hooks and rope it had fired at the car.

"Just keep it there for a little longer!" Techno urged, yelling over the din. "The tremor should stop soon!"

Just as he said it, the shaking stopped. Darkwing relaxed, and parked the Ratcatcher.

"Tremor?" Crimson repeated as she hopped off the motorbike. "Fat chance! That was a full fledged earthquake!"

"It's like what me and the kid said." Garth said, pointing at Techno as he climbed out of the sidecar. "The tremors are getting worse. And they're only going to continue to get worse until we figure out a way to stop it."

Meanwhile, Launchpad, Christine, and Dewey were all climbing out of the car, a little frightened, but no worse for wear. Christine instantly saw their rescuers.

"Dr...I mean, Darkwing!" Christine exclaimed. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Saving your skins for one thing." Darkwing said hotly, but his temper quickly melted. "You all right, Chris?"

"Just a little frightened is all." Christine assured him.

Dewey then butted in. "Quack-a-rooney!" he exclaimed. "You're Darkwing Duck! I was hoping to meet you! See, I don't know if you know, but Launchpad's a friend of mine, so I've learned from him..."

Darkwing grinned. "I know." he said. "LP's told me a lot about you, as well, Dewey."

"D-Dewey?" Dewey repeated. "You know my name?"

"Launchpad told me." Darkwing said, which was completely true.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Dewey admitted.

"But why are you here, DW?" Launchpad asked. "It couldn't be more than a coincidence you turned up here of all places."

"It's not LP." Darkwing said. "We're here because the epicenter of the tremors is here. Techno tells me that the source of these quakes is somewhere below it, although how we'll ever get to it, I don't know."

"Oh, I think I know." Garth interrupted suddenly, who had broken off from the rest of the group and was now peering down the crack in the roar. "And I think this crack is just the thing to do it."

Everyone came over to peer down the crack.

"Keen gear." Crimson remarked. "It seems to go down forever."

"Actually, no." Techno said, tinkering with the controls for his visor for a moment. "My sonar scans indicate that the crack stops somewhere around thirty kilometers underground, and then opens up into some massive structure, perhaps a kind of cave."

"That would explain a bit." Garth admitted. "If this cave has begun to collapse..."

"We have to get down there and find out." Crimson said. "But...how?"

Darkwing, however, was gaging the crack's width. He turned to Launchpad. "LP, think you could fly the Thunderquack down that thing? Without crashing?"

* * *

A short while, the Thunderquack was at the site, ready to give it a shot.

"Alright, all board who's coming aboard!" Launchpad called, opening the canopy once he had landed.

Darkwing, Crimson, Techno, and Garth, who had stayed behind and waited for Launchpad arrive, all moved to climb in. They were followed by Christine and Dewey.

"Hey, where do you two think you're going?" Darkwing asked as he saw them coming.

"We're coming along." Dewey said simply.

"Ha!" Darkwing scoffed. "And whatever gave you that idea?"

"Hey, Launchpad's my friend, and we've both been through adventures like this before." Dewey said simply. "I can handle it. Besides, it's not like I have anything else to do."

Darkwing seemed undecided.

"Oh, c'mon, DW, let him come." Launchpad pleaded. "He really can handle it. He could even be of help. You don't know how many hands we'll need down there."

"Oh, alright, you can come." Darkwing said. Dewey grinned and climbed into the Thunderquack. Darkwing turned to Christine. "Though, I don't know about you."

"Oh c'mon, Darkwing." Christine said. "You always go on these adventures, but I don't."

"For good reason." Darkwing said. "You have any idea what I have to go through sometimes?"

"No!" Christine replied. "Which is why letting me come along would give me a better idea of what it is you do. Besides..." she looked around and lowered her voice, "...you said you wanted to make things up for me for putting our plans on hold, right? Well, this will be a good way to do it."

Darkwing rolled his eyes in exasperation, but couldn't say no. "Oh all right, get in." he said.

Christine grinned, and then climbed in as well. It was a bit of a tight squeeze as the Thunderquack didn't normally have that many people inside of it at one time, but they all managed. Once they were safely (or as close as they could get to safely) strapped in, Launchpad closed the canopy and turned on the engines.

"Here we go!" he said, pulling up on the steering wheel, and pulling the Thunderquack up into the air.

It shot upward, looped over, and then dove nose-first into the crack. It was just big enough to permit the jet to enter. Switching on the jet's headlights, Launchpad navigated the jet down the crack. As they went, Techno measured how deep they were.

"Ten kilometers." he reported. "We're making good progress."

"Sheesh, I've never been this deep underground before." Crimson remarked.

"I think I have, once." Dewey said. "Long story, though."

"We've still got a long ways to go, though." Techno said. "We'll have to travel just about through the whole thickness of Earth's crust. We'll be pretty close to the mantle."

"LP, we have the heat shields on this thing in place and checked the warranty for it, right?" Darkwing asked.

"Yeah." Launchpad replied. "Why?"

"Just curious." Darkwing said.

They flew on.

"Twenty kilometers." Techno said. "We're about halfway there."

"Now I _know _none of us have been this deep underground." Christine remarked.

"I haven't even, and that's saying something." Garth said.

"How did this crack form, even?" Dewey asked.

"This is right over Funderman Fault." Techno said. "It's possible this crack has been in the works for some time, and this last tremor was just the thing to force it open all the way to the surface."

"But is there any kind of crack anywhere in the Earth that goes this deep?" Garth asked.

"The closest is the Mariana Trench, and it only goes to about eleven kilometers deep." Techno replied, then added, "We're almost there. Twenty-nine kilometers."

Everyone waited.

"Thirty kilometers." Techno announced.

The Thunderquack quite suddenly exited the crack. Everyone looked around in surprise.

"Keen gear." Crimson muttered.

The jet was now cruising through a massive cavern, easily large enough to hold a city the size of St. Canard a thousand times over. Scattered around, seemingly at random were tall and very thick columns, looking to be naturally formed. They were clearly what was holding the cavern up.

"Amazing!" Techno said. "This cavern is huge! And it doesn't seem to end! It could encircle the entire planet!"

Dewey was wide-eyed. "I know where we are!" he said.

Darkwing spun around to look at him. "You do?" he asked.

Dewey nodded. "I _have _been down here before, years ago, with my two brothers and Uncle Scrooge!" he explained. "See, Uncle Scrooge was worried about an earthquake hitting his money bin, and upon learning that it sat right over Funderman Fault, decided to find a way to protect it from any earthquakes that might hit."

"How so?" Christine asked.

"With a giant-sized shock absorber." Dewey said, holding out his arms to empathize how big it was.

"And did it work?" Crimson asked.

Dewey shrugged. "We never found out, because we never did install it." he said. "As we were digging a tunnel to the fault, we started getting reports of some pretty fishy things going on down there. Uncle Scrooge went to investigate, but the car he was riding in went out of control. Me, Huey, and Louie then went down after him, and eventually found him down in a cavern just like this one."

"It probably was the same cavern!" Techno proclaimed. "That at least confirms it's big enough to stretch from Duckburg to St. Canard, a stretch of easily a mile!"

"That wasn't all we found down here, either." Dewey added. "We also found out...well...at least _one _cause of earthquakes."

"And what's that?" Garth asked, curious.

"Terra Firmians." Dewey replied.

Techno frowned. "What the heck are Terra Firmians?" he asked.

"Well, they're kinda hard to describe." Dewey admitted. "They're round, multi-colored, roll around a lot, they have squeaky voices, and every now and then participate in what they called the 'great games', something like the Olympics, I think."

Garth rolled his eyes. "That is simply the most absurd thing I've ever heard." he muttered.

"It's true!" Dewey said, offended. "Really, it is!"

"Well, I've seen plenty of weirder things in my time." Darkwing admitted. He peered out of the Thunderquack at the cavern that was passing by. "But I'm not seeing anything living out there, Dewey."

Christine looked around as well. "Well, Techno did say that this place was pretty big." she said. "Maybe they're nearby."

"They'd have to be." Dewey said, getting another thought. "Because their games could what's causing the tremors we've been feeling. See, their games work by them rolling into balls and then slamming into these stone columns in groups. By doing so, they create their own earthquakes."

"Believe it or not, that makes sense." Techno agreed.

"I still don't believe it." Garth muttered.

"Launchpad, can you confirm Dewey's story?" Crimson asked Launchpad, finding it all a little hard to swallow herself.

"Can't say that I can." Launchpad admitted. "I don't remember any of this."

"I don't think you were there for it, Launchpad." Dewey admitted.

"Well, you'll have to come up with a different way to prove your story, kid, and fast!" Garth said, pointing a finger at Dewey. "Because if you don't in the next five minutes..."

"There!" Christine exclaimed suddenly. "Over there!"

Everyone turned to look where Christine was pointing. Launchpad quickly turned the Thunderquack around so everyone could get a better look. Sure enough, grouped around one of the many stone columns were thousands of multi-colored ball-like beings. As they came closer to the gathering, they were able to make out better details about the Terra Firmians, making out rounded heads and small arms. They had no feet, just a rounded body in place of feet.

Crimson grinned. "They look kind of cute." she admitted.

"Enter a holding pattern, LP." Darkwing urged the pilot. "I want to get a good look at this before we make our next move."

Launchpad nodded, and turned the Thunderquack so that encircled the gathering of Terra Firmians. None of the underground beings seemed to have noticed the jet just yet.

"This is definitely one of their great games." Dewey said confidently. "See that they have paths cleared leading up to the column?"

"Speaking of which, I can see that column has seen better years." Techno remarked. "It's starting to crack." he adjusted his visor for a moment. "I want to get a good scan of it, to see if it's integrity has been compromised."

They continued to watch the games as the Thunderquack circled them. Dewey then caught sight of a group of Terra Firmians standing away from the rest.

"Uh-oh, that group is about to roll and crash!" he exclaimed, pointing.

"Roll and crash?" Darkwing repeated.

The group of Terra Firmians rolled into balls, then rolled forward to the column. They hit it with tremendous force, and when they did, the whole cavern seemed to shake.

"Whoa..." Launchpad said as the shaking caught him off guard. The Thunderquack suddenly swooped off course. It veered towards the column.

"Turn, LP, turn!" Darkwing exclaimed. "We're going to crash!"

Launchpad quickly jerked the controls, and the jet veered to the left, circled about, then started to dive into the crowds of Terra Firmians, all of which were pointing at the jet in awe.

Launchpad leaned on the Thunderquack's horn. "Get out of the way, we're going to crash!" he exclaimed, as if he could be heard from here.

The Terra Firmians caught on, and scattered, just as the jet smashed into the ground, skidding along for several feet before coming to a halt.

Groaning, Darkwing picked himself up. "Is everybody all right?" he asked.

There were several replies of yes.

"Could've done _without _that crash landing, though." Garth muttered.

"Hey, Launchpad can't land a plane any other way." Dewey remarked in the pilot's defense.

"You get used to it, too." Crimson added.

Launchpad popped open the canopy. Christine was the first one to climb out. But then she climbed right back on in.

"Yipes!" she exclaimed. "Angry mob coming our way!"

And sure enough, several Terra Firmians rolled over to them, making several exclamations as they went.

"You ruined our games!" one of them exclaimed.

"Nearly killed us!" another added.

"Who do you think you are, anyway?" a third said.

Then one gasped, and pointed behind him. "Here comes the king!" he exclaimed.

"King?" Darkwing and Launchpad repeated together.

Sure enough, a blue Terra Firmian with a crown-shaped stone on his head made his way through the crowd to the Thunderquack. His eyes quickly skimmed over the jet and it's occupants, before falling on Dewey last of all. Those eyes then widened with recognition.

"You!" the king exclaimed, pointing at Dewey. "You helped steal the crackpot all those years ago! Arrest them! Arrest them all, before they steal our new trophy too!"

He held up a very tattered top hat. Dewey recognized it.

"That's Uncle Scrooge's!" Dewey exclaimed. "So that's what happened in the end!"

"Head's up!" Crimson exclaimed, hopping out of the jet as a party of Terra Firmians armed with spears approached, drawing her gas gun.

Darkwing did likewise, and both fired canisters of sleeping gas into the crowd. The smoke billowed around, adding to the chaos, but the sleeping gas didn't seem to affect the Terra Firmians, for they kept coming. Seeing they were outnumbered and pretty much defenseless, Darkwing and Crimson threw their hands into the air in surrender, urging the others to follow.

"Still think they're cute?" Christine asked Crimson.

Crimson eyed the angry Terra Firmians ganging up on them.

"No." she admitted.

* * *

"Y'know, when I said I wanted to come along on this adventure, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind." Christine remarked idly.

They were all now locked into a cell closed off by stone stalagmites, stalactites, and small columns. Two Terra Firmians stood on guard outside the cell. Darkwing stared at them helplessly.

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, either." he admitted. "But at least we solved the mystery. Clearly, it's these Terra Firmian guys that are behind those tremors we've been feeling on the surface."

"The dolts." Garth muttered, leaning against one of the wall. "Don't they realize that their so-called games are causing problems up on the surface?"

"Garth, they probably don't even _know _there _is _a surface." Crimson remarked. She then turned to Dewey. "But what I want to know is what the story behind that king is. He seemed to recognize you, Dewey."

"I think I recognized him as well, though he was much younger back then." Dewey admitted. "He was a Terra Firmian we met last time I was down here. Friendly guy, really wanted to roll in the great games, but wasn't old enough or big enough to do it. He helped me and my brothers track down Uncle Scrooge, but when Uncle Scrooge, fearing for the safety of his money bin, decided to steal their trophy for the great games, a pot with a crack in it, to try and prevent the earthquakes from continuing, he tried to stop us. Ultimately, he failed, and we got away with the crackpot, as they called it."

"But clearly, they use that hat as a trophy now." Darkwing said.

"You said that was Mr. McD's, didn't you, Dewey?" Launchpad asked.

Dewey nodded. "Uncle Scrooge lost it as we were escaping." he explained. "The Terra Firmians must have found it and used it to replace the crackpot. Which explains why the earthquakes didn't stop like Uncle Scrooge had hoped. Nearly cost him his fortune as a result."

"They're causing a great deal of trouble now, in fact." Garth muttered. "If their games keep up, St. Canard is going to be in a whole boatload of trouble."

"More than you realize, actually." Techno said, who had been fiddling with his visor during all of this. "I managed to get that scan of the column. It's weakening. And it won't withstand many more of those 'roll and crashes'. If they keep it up, it'll collapse, bringing all thirty kilometers of ground above it down on them."

"That'll leave St. Canard in a sinkhole!" Crimson realized.

"It gets worse." Techno added. "All that weight crashing down will punch a hole through the remaining five kilometers to the mantle below us. As the mantle is under constant pressure, all that hot rock will push out that hole and come billowing to the surface. And worse still, if that one column goes, it'll most likely take the whole cavern with it, collapsing the entirety of the surface above, and punching many more holes into the mantle. And then we get into the whole thing about the Earth's core being destabilizing and tearing itself apart again."

"That's terrible!" Christine exclaimed. "We'll _all _die if we let that happen!"

"Then the answer is simple." Garth said. "We get out of here and stop them."

"How?" Darkwing asked. "I don't suppose you've got some good ideas, do you?"

Garth grinned. "I was hoping you'd ask." he said, and then stomped his foot once.

The floor shook, and the stone bars to their cell shattered. The guards wobbled in the quaking, and eventually bounced away from their posts, leaving the path clear. Garth stood up, still grinning.

"A Terra Firmian isn't the only one who can cause an earthquake." he said proudly. "Now let's go!"

Quickly, they all made a break for the exit. The guards, picking themselves and seeing them flee, pursued them.

"Stop!" they called, but their orders fell on deaf ears.

Soon they reached the stadium for the games, just in time for a team of rollers to strike the column and the ground to shake. The crowd cheered loudly, not noticing the intruders.

Darkwing spied the Thunderquack, having been pushed out of the way and into one corner. "LP, think we can get the Thunderquack flying again?" he asked his sidekick quickly.

"In two shakes of a leg, I sure can!" Launchpad said.

"Great!" Darkwing said, grabbing Launchpad's hand and dragging him to the jet. "We'll get the Thunderquack up and running! You guys stop the games!"

"Got it, Darkwing!" Crimson called, then motioned to everyone else to pick up the pace. "C'mon, let's be quick, before the next team rolls. We don't know how much time we've got!"

Reaching the edge of the crowd, they started pushing their way through. Pretty soon, the attention of the crowd shifted to the intruders, and the two guards that were trying to clear a path to reach them. And yet the games still continued.

"Someone grab them!" one Terra Firmian called out.

Several moved to comply, throwing themselves on the intruders at once. Dewey and Christine were quickly pinned to the ground. Crimson tried to escape by firing off a grappling hook at the ceiling, but it was much too high and the hook fell far short, tumbling back down to the ground. She was quickly overwhelmed by Terra Firmians himself. Garth was on the verge of being overwhelmed himself before he suddenly changed course and vanished from sight.

Only Techno was left, who managed to push his way through the rest of the crowd and to the column. Standing in front of it, he extended his arms into the air,

"STOP THE GAMES!" he exclaimed as loud as he could.

It was enough. Everyone in the stadium turned their attention to Techno.

"Your games are going to be your undoing if you keep doing them!" Techno went on. His comment drew many murmurings from within the crowd. "Your rolls and crashes are weakening the columns that hold up the roof of this cavern, such as this column! If it collapses, then this whole cavern will be filled in with dirt and rock! None of you will survive! And there are people, like me, who live up on top of this cavern! _We'll _die with you if that happens! You have GOT to stop!"

Someone in the crowd exclaimed that he was crazy. Others quickly agreed, but Techno saw that he had gotten through to some of them, for they weren't so sure anymore. Then Techno saw the king, standing at the far back of the crowd.

"Arrest him!" he ordered. "Again! He's plotting to destroy our kingdom! Continue the games!"

"No!" Techno exclaimed, starting forward, only to be stopped by the two guards as they finally caught up with him.

Techno fought with them for a moment, then finally broke free. He surged forward, heading up the path that had been cleared for the rollers. "Stop the games!" he called. "Stop them now!"

He skidded to a halt when a team of rollers appeared at the top of the stadium and started to roll towards him. Gulping, Techno turned around and started to run back. He wasn't going fast enough; the team was rapidly gaining on him. Seeing he had no other choice, he quickly activated his rocket boots and shot into the air, just as the team was about to run him over. They continued onward and crashed into the column, just like the teams before.

The cavern shook, but otherwise, nothing happened. Techno landed again, and held his breath. A moment of silence suddenly fell, for reasons not exactly known. The cavern suddenly started to shake again, then the column started to crack and crumble, the cracks spreading on up to the roof of the cavern, raining down debris.

The Terra Firmians started yelling in panic and started to scatter, running (or rather, rolling) in all directions as debris rained down on them and the cavern started to shake harder.

"It's collapsing!" Techno exclaimed, fearing they were too late.

The Terra Firmians who had recaptured Crimson, Christine, and Dewey scattered, leaving them unguarded. Crimson rushed forward to join Techno, perhaps with a plan to help. Dewey saw the king fleeing, and rushed to join, thinking it might not be too late. Christine was left standing in the middle of the chaos, lost.

Elsewhere in the cavern, the Thunderquack started with a jolt, and shot into the air at a low altitude. Launchpad was desperately trying to keep it's flight journey as it skimmed the ground. Darkwing stood in his seat, surveying the chaos. A loud crack rang out, and several boulders started to rain down from the ceiling, the column beginning to lean at an unhealthy angle.

Quickly, Darkwing traced the course of those boulders, and saw that Christine was in their way.

"Christine!" Darkwing exclaimed, jumping from the Thunderquack and rushed to her.

He quickly threw himself at her and pushed her clear, just as a very large boulder embedded itself into the ground where Christine had stood a moment earlier.

Christine picked herself up, and turned to Darkwing. "Drake, you saved me!" she said.

Darkwing grinned, but trembled as the cavern shook even harder. "I just wish I could save everyone else." he said, watching the chaos and pulling Christine closer to him.

Crimson reached Techno, silently giving him a look to come up with a plan to stop it. But Techno shook his head, saying there wasn't one. Crimson stared at Techno for a moment, then, getting jostled around in the quaking, grabbed each other. The Thunderquack, meanwhile, was still flying along at it's low altitude. Launchpad as about to turn her around to go back for Darkwing, when Garth suddenly clambered onto one of it's wings.

"Fly for the column, now!" he said to Launchpad. "The side opposite from the side those jerks crashed into it from!"

Launchpad nodded, and quickly flew the Thunderquack in the right direction, gaining altitude finally. The jet circled around the column, then slowed at the side Garth had requested, the duck still perched on the wing. As the column came near, Garth launched himself off the wing, and planted his foot as hard as he could on the column, releasing as big a earthquake as he possibly could. Rebounding off the column, he quickly hooked his arms onto the jet's wing and hung there.

The earthquake doubled in ferocity, but then quickly subsided. Quite suddenly, everything was still, the cavern still intact. Crimson opened her eyes and looked around.

"It stopped." she said. "It actually stopped."

Techno watched the Thunderquack swing around, having saw Garth enact his plan. "Of course." he muttered. "Garth released a counter earthquake that stabilized the column again. He just saved us."

Crimson grinned for a moment, but then frowned. "His powers..." she muttered. "How much of the serum in his blood do you think he used up?"

Techno thought for a moment before biting his lip. "Most likely..." he began, "...all of it."

Sure enough, Garth had fallen unconscious by the time Launchpad had landed the Thunderquack, and it was a miracle he had managed to stay latched to the wing. Crimson and Techno walked over to his limp form and pulled him free from the wing and stretched him out on the ground. Techno scanned him with his visor.

"Not a drop of the serum left in him." he muttered. "He's powerless, and most likely memory-less, just like Jack and Sally."

Darkwing and Christine came over to join them. Darkwing was surveying the damage. "Despite a few cracks in the wall, and these Terra Firmian guys being in an utter panic, everything's all right." he reported. "Our job here is done."

"But what if the Terra Firmians start up their 'great games' again?" Crimson asked.

"I don't think that'll happen, Crimson."

They turned, seeing Dewey approach, along with the king, both arm in arm and looked like old friends now.

"Me and his exalted terra firminess have been talking about the situation, and I explained a bit to him what the great games do." Dewey explained. "Not only has he forgiven us for acting as we did, he's agreed to end the games forever."

"It's really you strangers we have to thank." the king said, grinning. "We would've never realized what was happening had you not come along. Sorry for being an old stick in the mud, though, and trying to arrest you guys."

"Oh, don't worry, we completely understand." Crimson said.

"We do?" Darkwing repeated. Christine jabbed him in the ribs.

"Yes, we do." Crimson repeated. "Those great games were one of your oldest traditions, and one of your most favorite. Even if you knew exactly what they were doing, you still would've been hesitant to end them."

"And indeed I was." the king admitted. "Particularly after the last time we Terra Firmians met up with you strangers. But I think what has happened today will resolve the matter once and for all."

"I have to ask, though." Christine said. "If you can't do the great games anymore, just what are you guys going to do?"

"Oh, don't worry about that." the king said. "We Terra Firmians are very resourceful. Besides, Dewey here has given me some great ideas, such as something called baseball. We'll come up with something." he bowed. "Thank you again for what you have done, however."

"And thank you for being so agreeable in the end your highness." Darkwing said, returning the bow. He adjusted his hat. "But now I think it's time for us to leave."

"I've got Garth safely moved to the Thunderquack, DW." Launchpad said, joining them. "We can go home at any time."

"Then, if it's all right with the king..." Darkwing said, giving the king one more respectful bow, "...let's go home. I'm ready to see the sky again."

_Fun Facts: Scrooge McDuck was originally supposed to be the guest starring character for this chapter instead of Dewey, as at the time, I didn't like the idea of working with a teeaged Huey, Dewey, and Louie. But after chpt. 13 (Mr. McDuck) many of you liked what little I had clued in about the triplets and wanted more. I, too, admittedly, wanted to do more, so I decided to swap out Scrooge with one of the triplets. Dewey was randomly selected as a result._

_Christine wasn't supposed to appear in this chapter originally, but as it had been awhile since she appeared, I squeezed her in this chapter, and as an added bonus, had her come along for the adventure._

_I didn't get to do nearly as much as I wanted to with the Terra Firmians because it took far longer to introduce the situation than I had expected, so there was some stuff I wanted to do that I ultiamtely didn't. One such thing was better establishing that the Terra Firmian king was the same Terra Firmian kid (he is never named) that Huey, Dewey, and Louie met. I also wanted a scene in whic Dewey got to sit down with the king and talk about that past and smooth out the wrinkles. This scene doesn't appear, but it is alluded to regardless._

_I was also going to establish that the reason the Terra Firmians were there, beneath St. Canard, was because they had been drawn there by the earthquake Garth had created some months previous, and thus it was Garth's fault this mess ocurred. It was cut for length reasons, and that it seemed to be mere excess info in the end.  
_


	37. Mirrorism

Summary: When Gosalyn goes on a camping trip with the Muddlefoots, it takes an unexpected turn for the worse when NegaGosalyn decides to have some "fun"...

Rating: K

Author's Note: Had a wild idea one day about the Muddlefoots meeting their Negaverse doubles, which is where this chpt come froms.

And sorry again for _another _late chapter. By all accounts, it should've been up yesterday, but I had to leave for work before I could finish uploading. :|

37.

Mirrorism

"Gosalyn, are you sure about this?"

"Dad, I've never been more sure about this in my entire life."

"But you don't have to go."

"I know. But I want to."

"But I don't!"

"It's too late to make amends, dad. I'm going, and that's that."

Gosalyn placed the last item into her suitcase. "I'm going camping with the Muddlefoots." she said decisively.

"Drat." Drake muttered, kicking at the doorframe of the bedroom. "Really, what's wrong with going camping with me, like we always have?"

Gosalyn thought for a moment as she closed her suitcase. "Well, it's too...too..." she began, looking for the right word.

"Natural?" Drake offered, having a good guess why.

"Yeah, that's it." Gosalyn said. "The Muddlefoot's style of camping is much better."

"_Their _idea of camping is packing up everything they own into a motor home, drive out into the wilderness and then do everything they would normally do at home _there._" Drake pointed out.

"There's the charm that I like about it." Gosalyn said with a grin, picking up her suitcase. "Look, Honk invited me to come, and I couldn't say no. Besides, school's only just ended. There's still plenty of time for me to figure out other ways to get out of camping with you."

Drake rolled his eyes. "So there's no way I can talk you out of this." he said.

"Yep." Gosalyn said, taking her suitcase and stepping out her bedroom door. "Besides, we're only going to be gone for a couple of days. I'll be back before you know it."

Drake sighed as he followed her downstairs. "I don't know Gos." he said. "I just think there's something wrong with one's adopted daughter wanting to go camping with her neighbors that her adopted father."

"Oh, you'll live, dad." Gosalyn said as she stepped out the front door. "If it makes you feel any better, go camping with Launchpad, or maybe Christine."

"I was hoping to go camping with you, Gos." Drake said as he followed her over to the Muddlefoot's driveway where their large motor home was parked. "Besides, what do you _see _in the Muddlefoots anyway? They are _so_..."

"Hiya neighbor!" Herb Muddlefoot said, seeing Gosalyn and Drake approaching. "Fine day t' go campin' ain't it?"

"Sure, Herb." Drake said, sticking his hands into his pockets. "Whatever you say."

"You all packed and ready, Gos?" Herb asked Gosalyn.

"Yep." Gosalyn said, holding up her suitcase. "Where's Honker?"

"Right here." Honker said, poking his head out the door of the motor home. "But um, Gos, there's something you should know..."

"Hey bro!" a voice called out suddenly. "I wasn't done with the knuckle sandwich I was making you!"

Gosalyn and Drake's faces both paled as they saw Tank Muddlefoot join Honker in the doorway. Gosalyn blinked. It had been several years since she had seen Honker's bully of an older brother. He hadn't really changed much. He was still taller than Honker, still had the long and messy brown hair, still had the oversized gut of his father's, and still had the perpetual sneer of annoyance. All that was really different about him was size, and clothing. He currently wore a black t-shirt with the words "The Call of Death" written on it in blood red letters, which Gosalyn presumed to be the name of the band Tank was allegedly in over at Duckburg.

Gosalyn gulped. Tank glanced at her. "Oh, it's you." he said. "I heard you were coming."

"And I didn't hear you were coming!" Gosalyn exclaimed, shooting a glance at Honker.

"Is he...?" Drake began to ask Herb.

"Coming?" Herb finished. "'course he is, Drakey. Tank arrived from Duckburg last night, surprised us all! See, we gave him an invite t' this little event weeks ago, but he turned it down, saying he needed to be at some rubber band concession stand somewhere..."

"It was rock band convention, dad." Tank corrected flatly, and with a annoyed glare.

Herb didn't notice. "Somethin' like that." he said. "Anyway, plans fell through the floor due to an electrical fire the other day, and Tank suddenly had nothin' else t' do so he came t' be with his favorite family!"

He wrapped one arm around Tank's neck, who squirmed under it. "Sorry we didn't tell yeh yet, Drakester, but we hardly had the chance t', and I figured ya wouldn't mind either way." Herb finished. He laughed.

Drake nervously joined in for a moment. "Um, Herb, I feel I should remind you about those leash laws I keep telling you about..." he said quickly. He turned to Gosalyn. "Gos, are you so sure about going, _now_?"

Gosalyn didn't reply. Currently, she and Tank were staring each other down.

"Oh, don't worry about a thing, Drake!" Binky Muddlefoot said, suddenly arriving. "Gosalyn will be perfectly safe in our hands."

"It's not your hands I'm worried about." Drake said.

Tank pressed his face into Drake's. "Wanna make somethin' of it, old man?" he growled.

Drake gulped.

"Don't worry Dad, I can handle Tank." Gosalyn said.

Honker looked relieved at this. He and Tank never were exactly the closest of brothers.

"You sure, Gos?" Drake asked.

"I said I was going to go, right?" Gosalyn said.

"Atta girl!" Herb said, taking this end of the matter, and grabbing Gos in a one armed hug. "Then it's settled. It's time t' hit the road! See ya in a couple of days, Drakester!"

"Um, yeah, sure." Drake said, as he watched them all climb aboard the motor home.

What none of them knew was that they were being watched themselves...

* * *

"Let's see here..." Herb said once they were on the road and heading through the streets of St. Canard. "To get t' Great Falls National Park, we need t' head east..." he started to turn the steering wheel to head east.

"Actually, dear, I think it's to the west." Binky said, reading a map.

"Binky, m'dear, I know where I'm goin' here." Herb said. "I've gotten us there loads of times, haven't I?"

"Only after we stopped and asked for directions, sweetie." Binky said politely. "Now turn right at Cooper Ave."

In the back of the motor home, sitting at the table, was Gosalyn and Honker, playing a game of checkers. After a moment's hesitation, Gosalyn moved her red piece and took out one of Honker's black ones.

"Ha." she said with a grin. "It takes lot of thought to make moves like..."

Honker suddenly moved one piece all over the board, taking out half of Gosalyn's pieces.

"...that." Gosalyn said, leaning forward to try and figure out how Honker did that.

"Ha, he's got you beat, Gos." Tank laughed from where he watched nearby.

Gosalyn shot him a look. "I don't see _you _rushing forward to beat him at this game." she said hotly.

"Checkers is a sissy game." Tank said, putting on some earphones and switching on his G-Pod. "My idea of a great time is leaning back and listening to some tunes."

The sound of hard rock blaring in Tank's ears could be clearly heard even from where Gosalyn and Honker sat. The two shared annoyed glances.

"Your move, Gos." Honker said, trying to ignore Tank.

"You sure we need t' turn here, Binkie dearest?" Herb asked as they drove down the road. "I don't even recognize this road."

"Herb, this is the road Honker goes to school on." Binkie said.

"You sure?" Herb asked, having his doubts.

"That's what it says on the map." Binkie said, pointing at it.

"Lemme see that map." Herb said, taking the map from his wife.

"It's upside down, dear." Binkie said.

"No it ain't, Binkie, now let me drive." Herb said, trying to drive as he read the map at the same time.

"At least let me help." Binkie said, leaning over to look at the map as well, both of them taking their eyes off the road.

Far above the moving motor home, however, someone was eyeing it closely, waiting for the two people sitting up front to take their eyes off the road. Grinning, the figure pulled out a remote and flipped a switch. While Binkie and Herb argued over directions, a flash of light appeared in front of the motor home. Catching sight of it, both Gosalyn and Honker jerked their heads up to look at it. Seeing them move, Tank followed their line of sight.

"What the..." he said, staring into the multicolored light Honker and Gosalyn knew all too well.

The motor home surged into it, and then the light suddenly vanished. They were still driving down the same road, in the same city of St. Canard, but the road and city looked vary different from what they were used to. Gosalyn gasped.

"All right, maybe it was a good idea t' turn onto that road." Herb admitted finally, handing the map back to his wife and returning his attention back to the road. He blinked. "Now, where are we now?" he asked.

"I don't know dear." Binkie admitted, looking at the road again. "It _looks _familiar..."

Herb frowned, then jerked the steering wheel. "I'm gettin' us off this road." he said. "I'm pretty sure this is the wrong road we need t' be on."

In back, however, Tank was awestruck. "What just happened?" he asked slowly.

Gosalyn and Honker, however, were giving each other startled glances.

"That was a transdimensional portal we went through just there." Honker said softly.

"And the only people who have the kind of technology to create portals like that wherever they want are Negaduck and NegaGosalyn." Gosalyn replied in the same soft tone.

"Which stands to reason." Honker said, looking out the window. "Because unless I'm greatly mistaken, we're in the Negaverse."

* * *

"Where the heck are we?" Herb muttered as they drove along down the battle worn and dirty streets of NegaCanard. "I don't think we've ever been here before."

"I'm not sure, Herb darling." Binkie admitted, scanning the map. "According to the map, we should be on Jacques Street, but this certainly doesn't _look _like Jacques Street."

"Maybe we're in another town already..." Herb muttered.

"I don't think we could go from St. Canard into another city so quickly and without knowing it, dear." Binkie suggested. She laid the map down on her lap. "One thing is for sure, though, this map isn't of any help."

"There's a gas station." Herb said, pointing. "Let's stop and get some directions."

Gosalyn and Honker, who were in back silently trying to figure things out as well as a plan of action, looked up.

"Yes, lets!" Gosalyn said, standing. "Maybe then we can figure things out."

"Then it's settled." Herb said, turning the motor home into the gas station and parking it.

They all climbed out. Tank gagged and coughed when he took a breath.

"Gee whizz!" he muttered in-between gags. "The pollution here is worse than back home!"

"I don't like the look of this place, honey." Binkie said, moving closer to Herb.

"Neither do I, Binkie." Herb agreed. "Lets get those directions and get out of here."

He moved to the door of the gas station and pulled the handle. The door didn't open. Herb tugged at it a few times, then pressed his face into the window, trying to look through the dirty glass.

"I'm not sure anyone's here." Herb said suddenly.

"That's weird." Tank noted. "It's after ten now. Normally all these businesses are open by now."

"Maybe it got closed down." Binkie suggested. "Maybe we should try somewhere else."

"Hmm, let's look around first." Herb said, looking around as he started to circle the station.

Gosalyn elbowed Honker. "Honk, don't look now, but there's a certain someone watching us from the roof of that neighboring building." she whispered to him.

Honker resisted the urge to turn around and look. "Which one?" he asked.

"The one with the pigtails."

"Ah."

"I'm going to confront her. Cover for me, will you?"

"Got it."

The figure standing on the nearby building continued to watch the group down below, suddenly realizing that Gosalyn had vanished from view. Frowning, the figure looked around for the missing figure.

"Oh, realized you lost sight of me, did you?"

NegaGosalyn whirled around, seeing Gosalyn standing behind her in casual attire.

"No costume?" NegaGosalyn inquired, surprised.

"I figured I didn't need to confront you on the professional level." Gosalyn said, stepping towards her double. "Besides, you're the one in costume. If anybody sees us, I'd doubt they'd put two with two."

"Bit of a risk, isn't it?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"What I want to know is what you're up to." Gosalyn pressed. "Why have you teleported me and the Muddlefoots to the Negaverse?"

"Who said I did?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"Don't lie to me, we both know each other too well for that." Gosalyn said.

NegaGosalyn rolled her eyes. "If you really must know, I needed something to have fun with." she replied.

Gosalyn frowned and furrowed her brow. "Bringing us to the Negaverse is your idea of fun?" she asked.

NegaGosalyn nodded. "Negs is out of town currently, and the Fearsome Five are all taking some time off." she explained. "I was left with nothing to do. But I did have a portal remote, so I made use of it."

"What on earth for?" Gosalyn asked.

"So I can do something like this." NegaGosalyn said, and suddenly pounced on her double.

Yelping, Gosalyn tried to roll out from under her double, not making much progress, for when she rolled, NegaGosalyn rolled with her. So Gosalyn tried to use that to her advantage by rolling them to the edge of the roof. Once there, halfway dangling off the edge, Gosalyn looked down at the Muddlefoots, hoping to draw Honker's attention. But Honker was looking in completely wrong direction, as he stood conversing with Tank.

"I don't get it." Tank said as he watched his father search the seemingly abandoned gas station. "This place, wherever it is, seems so much like St. Canard in so many different ways."

"Really?" Honker said, out right lying. "I didn't get that impression. Maybe you haven't been in St. Canard often enough these days."

Tank glared at his little brother for the comment. "You wanna make something of it, little brother?" he growled, jabbing a finger into Honker's chest.

Gosalyn tried everything she could in her predicament to try and draw Honker's attention to her short of shouting to no avail. NegaGosalyn eventually prevented any further attempts by rolling them back away from the roof edge and more into the middle of the roof. Fed up, Gosalyn decided to turn the tables.

Pulling out her gas gun, thankful she had it on hand, she pointed it at NegaGosalyn's chest and fired a canister of normal colored gas at point-blank range. NegaGosalyn was blasted off of Gosalyn and vanished from sight in the smoke that plumed out from the canister. Coughing, Gosalyn quickly stood up, a plan coming to mind.

"I am the heir to the cape!" she exclaimed loudly, hoping Honker would hear. "I am _not_ the sidekick who packs up his family and flees! Yadda-yadda-yadda!" and with that, she surged forward and pounced on NegaGosalyn.

Honker turned when he heard the exclamation, seeing the smoke plume upward on the roof. Tank heard as well, and looked up.

"What the..." he muttered.

Herb then returned from his search, unaware of what was going on. "Looks like there really isn't anybody here." he announced, as if there was any room to doubt.

"Then let's get out of here." Honker said, having caught onto Gosalyn's cryptic message, though he didn't know why Gosalyn wanted them out of here. "I...uh...don't like this place."

"But what about that Gos..." Tank began to say, but Honker cut him short.

"Really, I don't think we should stick around here." Honker pressed.

"I'm inclined to agree with Honker, dear." Binkie said to her husband. "Besides, there's no point in staying here any longer. Let's go find another place we could get help from."

Herb shrugged, indifferent about the matter. "Alright, we can do that." he said. "Everybody aboard!"

They all started to climb aboard the motor home, Herb and Binkie not noticing that Gosalyn was absent. Up on the roof were the fight was taking place, NegaGosalyn noticed they were leaving.

"They're leaving." she noted in puzzlement. "Why did you have them do that?"

"So I can do _this._" Gosalyn replied, tackling NegaGosalyn and pushing her off the roof.

They toppled down onto the roof that overhung the abandoned gas station's pumps. Once there, NegaGosalyn threw her double off of her, taking a few steps back. Hearing the motor home start in preparation to leave, she got an idea.

"Well, maybe it's time to end this fight, then." she said.

"Yes, let's." Gosalyn said, and charged her double, gas gun drawn and at the ready.

NegaGosalyn, however, pulled out an Uzi with a silencer on it, and fired it at Gosalyn's feet, the bullets ricocheting everywhere. Gosalyn jumped back to avoid getting hit. NegaGosalyn then pulled out a hand grenade, pulling the pin.

"Catch!" she said, hurling it at her double, then vanished in a cloud of red smoke.

The grenade clattered to Gosalyn's feet, it's timer ticking down. Gulping, Gosalyn saw the motor home pull away from the gas station and begin to move to safety. It drove under a street lamp as it did so. Getting a quick idea, Gosalyn pulled out her gas gun, and ran for the edge of the gas station's overhang.

Knowing time was short, Gosalyn quickly leapt off the edge of the gas station, simultaneously firing off her grappling hook at the same time. The hook latched onto the street light, and swung Gosalyn over to the motor home. She dropped down onto it's roof, next to it's sunlight, with a soft thud. A moment later, the grenade went off, igniting a chain reaction as the blast mixed in with the blast of igniting gasoline that was apparently still within the station's pumps. Very quickly, the whole station was up in flames.

In the motor home, both Tank and Honker whirled around and looked out the back window as they heard the roar of the explosion, and the shockwave briefly shuddering the motor home. Herb and Binkie blinked and glanced at each other, oblivious to the explosion.

"Did you hear somethin' Binkie dear?" Herb asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Herb." Binkie said. "Honker, did you hear anything?" she called behind her.

"No, mom." Honker quickly replied, still watching the flaming gas station as they drove away from it.

"How about you, Tank dear?"

"Mom, don't call me dear!" Tank wined, not answering the question. "I'm NOT a little kid anymore!"

"How about you, Gosalyn?" Herb asked, getting back on subject. "Did ya hear anything? Gosalyn? Ya there, Gos?"

Gosalyn then suddenly dropped into the motor home through the skylight she had opened, startling Tank and Honker, both turning to look at her with surprise.

"Right here, Mr. Muddlefoot!" Gosalyn said, breathing heavily, but otherwise unharmed.

Herb turned to look at her. "Ah, so you are!" he exclaimed. "Good! For a moment there, I thought we had left ya behind! And Drake certainly wouldn't have been t' pleased with that."

"Oh, no, I course you didn't leave me behind, I was there the whole time." Gosalyn said, and looked back at Honker and gave him a wink.

She then turned back, and saw Tank giving her an odd look, not fooled at all...

* * *

The Muddlefoots drove their motor home aimlessly around NegaCanard, trying to figure their way back on the right route. Naturally, they didn't make any progress. Neither did Honker and Gosalyn, as they couldn't plan what they needed to do very well with so many ears listening. Gosalyn couldn't even relate her encounter with NegaGosalyn with Honker.

Fortunately, they didn't run into any trouble. The streets were virtually empty, and NegaGosalyn didn't reveal herself again during all of this, though Gosalyn was sure she was somewhere close by, watching them go on. Eventually, they arrived at a littered, but still usable, park, and since it was lunchtime, Herb decided they could stop here and have a picnic.

"We were gonna eat on the road, but since we've been kinda delayed, I figure we can turn lunch into somethin' fun." he explained as he parked the motor home near a picnic table. "'Sides, I think better on a full stomach."

So they sat down and had an actually fairly decent and peaceful meal, despite the fact that they were currently in the Negaverse. Gosalyn and Honker ate their lunch quickly, and then wandered off a few feet from the others to sit at a tree, and discuss what had happened at the gas station, and what they should do now.

"She brought us here simply because she's _bored_?" Honker repeated after Gosalyn had completed relating the tale.

"Yeah, I know, but consider who it is we're talking about here." Gosalyn pointed out. "The point, though, is that we will probably have to get at her before we can get back."

"Right, she's got the remote, and thus the only means of getting in and out of the Negaverse." Honker said. "But that's easy said than done."

"If worse comes to worse, we can always go to the UIO and the Friendly Four, and ask them open a portal back to the Posiverse." Gosalyn said.

"But if we do that, there's no way we could hide the truth from _my _family." Honker said.

"I know, which is exactly why we're not trying that first." Gosalyn stated.

"So what's the plan?" Honker asked.

"First, we need to loose your folks for awhile." Gosalyn said. "NegaGosalyn seems uninterested in them, so I think they'll stay safe."

"This is the Negaverse, Gos." Honker pointed out.

"I know." Gosalyn said. "It's a risk, but I can't see any other way to do it. Second, we need to track down NegaGos. She's bond to be nearby. And I think this time, when we confront her, we need to be in costume. I have mine, do you?"

"Yes." Honker replied, having learned that keeping it on hand at all times was a wise practice.

"Good." Gosalyn said. "Next time we meet up with...well...me...we'll be ready."

A loud snap rang out that made Honker jump. "What was that?" he asked nervously.

Gosalyn looked around. "I think it was nothing, Honker." she said. "Not every twig snapping in the Negaverse means we're about to be attacked."

She turned around and came face to face with NegaGosalyn.

"You sure about that?" NegaGosalyn asked with a smirk.

* * *

Herb finished off the last of the lunch with a gulp. "Well, that settles lunch!" he proclaimed. "Let's pack up and hit the road."

"Tank, dear, could you go get Honker and Gosalyn, please?" Binkie asked nicely as she packed things up.

Tank rolled his eyes, grumbling, but obeyed, walking off in the direction he had last seen them at. Only they weren't there. Frowning, Tank looked around for them for a few seconds.

"Honker? Gos?" Tank called out. "Where are you twits? We need to be going, so lets GO!"

No response. Already suspecting that the two were up to something, particularly Gosalyn, Tank increased his search for them. The deeper into the park he went, the more trees that started to crop up. At first Tank didn't think anything about them, but then saw the bark for one of the trees had been torn up.

Frowning, he came over to study the torn bark, peeling it back with his hands. Eventually, he found a bullet.

"A bullet?" he repeated to himself. "How did that get here? And when?"

Suddenly that more leery about this odd place he was in that was the Negaverse, Tank moved deeper into the mass of trees, not quite thick enough to become a forest. He then heard a faint popping sound, followed by distant voices. Thinking he was close to finding Honker and Gosalyn, he moved towards the sounds.

He heard the popping sound again, followed by a faint hiss. A voice then rang out, this time loud enough for Tank to hear.

"You missed me!"

"Gos?" Tank said, thinking he recognized the voice.

He moved towards it, listening to the conversation as he went.

"Yeah, well, you didn't get to sneak up on me that time!" another voice, or possibly the same voice, said.

"Bet you're still kicking yourself for that one time, though!"

"I should've seen it coming, I admit it, but nothing came out of it for your advantage. In fact, I daresay we got the jump on _you _after you revealed yourself like that."

"Yeah, I should've just shot you, rather than make the witty remark, but the chance was too good to ignore."

"Yes, well, it would've been a lot easier for you had you resisted temptation."

Tank heard more popping sounds, and the sounds of someone running around.

"I notice you're in costume now." the voice continued, which Tank determined was really two voices talking together, sounding similar enough to mistake as one. "Something wrong with the no-costume policy of before?"

"Our last encounter brought things up to the professional level, like that wasn't obvious."

Tank started to run around a tree, only to duck down when a gas canister smashed into the tree next to him, spreading crimson-colored gas everywhere. He stayed ducked down when he saw a figure run through the colored gas, looking to be armed with some kind of weapon with a silencer on it. The figure suddenly stopped and fired it a few times in one direction, confirm it was a gun of some sort.

Wondering just what the heck was going on, Tank watched for a few moments what was going on. Then, two shadows appeared in the fading smoke. One looked like the first figure, only armed with a different weapon with a larger barrel. The other figure Tank hadn't seen before. The two appeared to converse for a few moments, then the figure Tank recognized ran off and vanished and the other moved towards him.

Deciding he wanted to get to the bottom of this, Tank waited until the figure came close, then stuck out his foot suddenly, tripping the figure. He crashed to the ground with a yelp. Tank quickly jumped on top of him and rolled the fallen figure over. Tank then stopped, believing he had seen this guy on TV before.

The figure, however, recognized Tank immediately.

"Tank!" Techno exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing herrrAHHH!"

Tank picked up Techno and slammed into the truck of the tree. "How do you know my name?" he demanded. "What's going on here? Do _you_ know where my idiot brother and his bratty friend are at?"

"Uh..." Techno began, unsure how he should address this.

"There, I think I lost her." a voice near Tank said suddenly, and Crimson suddenly materialized through the smoke that still hung in the air. Seeing Tank, she immediately went on the defensive again.

"All right, you...you." Crimson said, more cautious to not address Tank by name than Techno had been. "Put my sidekick down."

"No!" Tank said. "I want some answers first! Something really strange has been going on here, and I want to know what!"

Crimson hesitated for a moment. "I can't tell you, not all of it, anyway." she said.

"Oh, but you will!" Tank said. "I know you, you're that...that...Crimson person from TV. You're a real goodie-goodie-two-shoes. You can't stand it when someone hurts or threatens another."

"Well, actually, that depends on the person..." Crimson admitted, thinking of a half a dozen people she would stand someone hurting or threatening.

"Well, I pretty sure this guy isn't one of those people." Tank said, holding up Techno. "Now, start talkin' or I'll start hitting!"

"You wouldn't!" Crimson said.

But Tank, to prove his point, punched Techno in the face. In the process, Techno lost his visor, and it fell to the ground, revealing Techno's face to Tank. Tank immediately released his hold on Techno.

"Honker?" he said, backing up into Crimson. He froze, and then suddenly whipped around and snatched Crimson's hat from her head.

"Hey!" Crimson exclaimed and quickly grabbed back the hat and placed on her head, but Tank had already seen the red pigtails underneath.

"Gosalyn!" Tank exclaimed. "Alright, now what's going on here?"

Techno and Crimson glanced at one another.

"Well, it's kind of a funny story, really." Crimson admitted. "But can we explain it later? I'm after us, and I could catch up with me at..."

"'I'm after us'?" Tank repeated. "What?!"

"Me, as in my evil twin!" Crimson said. "Look, we'll explain later! But we should really get out of here, I think NegaGos went to go get help..."

"Hold on a moment." Techno said, picking up his visor and putting it back on. "I know this'll seem a bit of topic, but did you feel something?"

Crimson and Tank were about to reply that they didn't, when they felt the ground suddenly tremble beneath them. Then, without warning, the patch of ground they stood upon slid away, letting them drop into the hole beneath, and then the ground slid back into place after them like nothing had happened...

* * *

Herb looked around impatiently. "Where do ya think those three got to?" he asked.

Binkie looked around, worried. "I don't know dear, but I need to find them." she walked off. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dearie me. Herb, you go that way, I'll look this way."

"Got it." Herb said, standing up and walking in the designated direction. Studying the ground for any trace of the missing threesome, he wasn't watching where he was going, and eventually bumped into someone.

"Oh golly, I'm sorry!" Herb quickly apologized, straightening and taking a few steps back from the person he had bumped.

"Oh, don't worry about it, there, bud, no harm done." NegaHerb replied, taking a few steps back as well. He rubbed his chin, looking at Herb standing before him. "Gee, you look mighty familiar..."

"Y'know, I was just gonna say the same thing about you." Herb replied, looking over NegaHerb's outfit consisting of gangster-like clothing. "Mighty fine outfit you've got there, though."

"Well, if it's any constellation, I like your shirt." NegaHerb said, pointing at Herb's Hawaiian shirt. "Might have t' get me one of those." he shrugged. "Oh well, nice meetin' ya, sir."

"You too." Herb replied, and the two went on their separate ways.

A little while later, Binkie returned and found her husband searching in some bushes. "Oh dear, I can find any trace of them!" she said worriedly. "Have you, Herb?"

"Nah." Herb admitted, straightening and popping his. "But I did meet an interestin' fellow a little while ago. Which reminds me, Binkie, how do you think I'd look in a shredded white t-shirt with a black leather jacket and a hat t' match?"

Binkie thought for a moment, picturing the proposed outfit on her husband. "Actually, it might look rather dashing on you, dear, but I'd think you'd need to grow a goatee in order to pull it off fully."

"Really?" Herb asked, as they continued searching. "You really think so? Gee whiz, I might actually have t' try it then."

* * *

Crimson was the first to pick herself up, looking around the dark tunnel she found herself in. "Keen gear." she muttered, dusting herself off. "Where are we?"

"Ya mean you don't know?" Tank growled, picking himself up. "I thought this was _your _doing."

"No, Tank, not in the slightest." Techno said, also getting up. "We had no idea this was going to happen."

"But then, who _did _do that?" Tank asked.

"That would be us." a voice said suddenly.

The tunnel was suddenly lit when a row of electric lights flared on and flooded the room with light. Standing there before them was the Friendly Four.

"All right!" Crimson exclaimed. "You guy's timing is _great!_ NegaGos is after us up there, and..."

"We know, we watched the whole thing from down here." NegaBushroot interrupted. "We waited until you were alone like this, and then dropped you into our little underground network here."

"You mean you guys built this?" Techno asked.

"Yes and no." NegaMegavolt, the unofficial leader of the group, said. "It was, uh, the UIO's idea, and they helped make it a reality, of course."

"Either way, it's absolutely cool!" NegaQuackerjack said. "See, now we've got a whole network of these tunnels stretching all over St. Canard! We can spy on Negaduck and his minions wherever they go! And better yet, they don't even suspect a thing yet!"

"And that's only the beginning!" NegaLiki added. "As we speak, these tunnels are being expanded to cover other key locations Negaduck has control over!"

"So it's like Elemental Underground back home, but on a bigger scale." Techno noted.

Crimson, however, was looking at NegaLiki. "Gee, Lik, it's been awhile I've seen you." she noted.

"Why, what happened?" NegaLiki asked, suddenly worried. "Haven't you seen my Posiverse double recently?"

"Actually, no." Crimson admitted, biting her lip. "See, in our universe, you're...kinda...dead."

NegaLiki paled.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Tank interrupted suddenly, completely lost. "UIO? Posiverse? Elemental Underground? Will somebody explain what's going on here?"

"Who's this?" NegaBushroot asked.

"Tank, from our universe." Techno explained, then grinned. "Hey, Tank, we should have you meet NegaTank. I'll bet you two would get along _real _fine."

"So, how will the Friendly Four be helping us today?" Crimson asked, changing the subject.

"Actually, it's Friendly _Five _now." NegaMegs said, and stepped aside to reveal...

"Rowe!" Techno exclaimed, seeing the otter step forward, no worse for wear. "You survived!"

"Just barely, mate." NegaRowe admitted, taking Techno's hand and shaking it. "It's really thanks to you guys that I even had a fighting chance against that poison."

"It was nothing." Crimson said, as she shook NegaRowe's hand as well, grinning. "Glad to see you're alright."

"I'm glad to see you alright as well, Crimson." NegaRowe greeted as well.

"Will somebody please explain what's going on here?" Tank asked again.

"Here, maybe I can explain a few things to you." NegaQuackerjack said, throwing an arm around Tank to Tank's discomfort. "And while we do that, the rest of you can explain to Tech and Crimson our plan."

"Sounds good." Crimson said, slapping her hands together. "So, what's the plan, NegaMegs?"

* * *

NegaGosalyn wandered around the woods aimlessly, searching for her prey. "They were here a few minutes ago." she muttered, perplexed. "Then I went to call for your help, and meet you at the park's edge..."

"Not t' sound disrespectful or anythin' your awfulness, but couldn't they get pretty far in just a few minutes?" NegaHerb offered, trying to be helpful.

"Yes and no." NegaGosalyn replied, searching for clues with a magnifying glass. "See, if they had left, they would've met up with the party they arrived with, and their party's still here. So if that party hasn't left, then neither has Crimson and her brat of a sidekick."

"Party, what party?" NegaHerb asked, misinterpreting NegaGosalyn's words. "I sure like a party. Was there any duck burgers being served there?"

"Oh, forget it, Herb!" NegaGosalyn interrupted, then continued searching for clues. "I just wish you could've brought more help beside yourself."

"Sorry, but Binkie is away visitin' her sister, Trudy, y'know the one that got sent t' jail for helpin' an elderly lady across the street without a license?" Herb said.

"Right, and I need Honk to stay at Canard Tower to supervise things while I'm busy with this and Negs is away." NegaGosalyn agreed. "And LP's...I don't think I want to _know _where he is."

"So, what should we do?" NegaHerb finally asked.

"Figure out where they went, that's what!" NegaGosalyn snapped. "They have to be around here somewhere! So start looking, Herb!"

NegaHerb jumped, and quickly started searching for clues. Some distance from where they were doing this, the ground suddenly opened, and Tank poked his head out. Looking around carefully, and seeing that they weren't looking in his direction, he climbed out of the hole, closed the entrance, and hurried off back to where the rest of his family still resided.

Binkie saw Tank coming first. "Tank darling, there you are!" she exclaimed, rushing over and grabbing her son into a hug, despite Tank's discomfort. "We were searching all over for you!"

"Where were ya, son?" Herb asked, coming over to join them.

"Out looking for Honker and Gosalyn, duh!" Tank snapped.

"And did you find them?" Binkie asked.

Tank shook his head.

"Oh dear." Binkie said, biting her lip. "I wonder where they could be."

"Betcha they ran off somewhere." Tank said. "Cause they certainly aren't in this park."

"Oh no, Honker and Gosalyn have more sense than that." Binkie said.

"I dunno, Binkie m'dear." Herb said, thinking about what Tank had said. "We certainly ain't findin' 'em anywhere around here. I think Tank's right, they must have wandered off somewhere."

"Then we better go looking for them!" Binkie said, jumping up and rushing for the motor home. "They could be anywhere by now!"

"Now Binkie, let's not panic..." Herb said, following her.

Tank paused for a moment, looking back into the throng of trees that lined one side of the park. "Honker, you owe me big for this." he muttered, then followed his parents, continuing the ruse.

Back at where NegaGosalyn and NegaHerb were searching, Crimson and Techno exited the underground hideout, being careful to not be detected.

"Here's hoping this plan of the Friendly Five's works." Techno muttered.

"It'll work, these guys haven't failed us yet." Crimson said confidently. "Now remember, you take on NegaLard while I get the portal remote from NegaGosalyn."

"Right." Techno said, then sighed. "Here's hoping."

They quickly and stealthily wandered to the appropriate positions to do their designated tasks. All the while, NegaGosalyn and NegaHerb were constantly searching for their prey.

"Hey, your naughtiness," NegaHerb said suddenly. "How do you think I'd look in a Hawaiian shirt?"

"You, in a Hawaiian shirt?" NegaGosalyn repeated, mocking the idea. "Herb, I'll level with you. If you ever wear such a shirt, I'll shoot you on sight."

NegaHerb, crestfallen, continued searching in silence. As NegaGosalyn walked along a row of bushes, Crimson quietly followed from the other side. Seeing a possible clue, NegaGosalyn turned suddenly, turning her back towards Crimson. Grinning, Crimson poked her head out from the bushes and spied the portal remote poking out from NegaGosalyn's pocket. Very carefully, Crimson reached out to try and slowly pull it from the pocket.

But the moment her finger touched the remote, NegaGosalyn suddenly whipped around and grabbed Crimson's wrist. A moment later, NegaHerb suddenly whirled around himself and grabbed Techno, who was sneaking up on him. NegaGosalyn smirked at her double.

"Seriously, couldn't you have come up with a better plan than that?" she asked mockingly.

* * *

"Maybe we're here, honey." Herb said, pointing at their map as they drove. "It says there's a Hamburger Hippo here on that street corner, and we just pasted one."

"I don't know, Herb." Binkie said, leaning over to look at the map. "Maybe we should just forget the map and just keep an eye out for Gosalyn and Honker as we're driving along."

"Honey, I know these kids, and they've most likely just wandered off to find a place that interests them." Herb said. "They shouldn't have, but that's probably what they did. If we can figure out the place that interests them the most, then we've found them!"

"Shouldn't you two be watching the road?" Tank interrupted suddenly, grabbing the map from them.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot." Herb said, turning his eyes back onto the road.

"You know, maybe you should let me drive." Tank offered suddenly. "I can, you know. And while I drive, you guys and go in back and work with that map."

"What a good idea, Tank!" Binkie exclaimed.

"Then it's settled." Herb said, stopping the motor home and getting out of the driver's seat, vacating it for Tank. "There ya go, Tank. C'mon Binkie, let's figure out that map of ours."

"Coming dear!" Binkie said as they both moved to the back of the motor home.

Tank quickly hopped into the driver's seat and put it into gear. "Time to rock and roll." he said, pressing down on the gas pedal.

* * *

NegaGosalyn gave the rope one final tug. "Alright, that should be tight enough." she said, taking a step back to survey her handiwork.

Tied together, back to back, was Techno and Crimson, dangling off the ground from another rope strung over a street lamp. Chortling, NegaHerb spun the tied up pair around.

"Pretty good tyin' there your evilness." he commented, watching Techno and Crimson lazily spin.

"Yes, you would be envious, wouldn't you be, Herb?" NegaGosalyn said, pulling out her P90. "All right, here's how things are going to work, Crimson." she pointed her weapon at her double. "You see, you've been a nuisance to me and Negaduck's cause for sometime now. And now it's going to come to an end."

"The games are over then, in other words." Crimson guessed.

"Oh, most assuredly." NegaGosalyn agreed. "Now, normally what I'd do in a situation like this is interrogate you for information that I could use to help gain control over the Posiverse. But, seeing that I already pretty much know everything you do already, I think I'll just cut to the part where I shoot you and end the whole matter."

She raised her P90 to aim at Crimson's head. She put her finger on the trigger, but didn't squeeze it. A long moment passed.

"Well?" Crimson asked impatiently. "Or are you just trying to savor the moment?"

NegaGosalyn didn't answer, nor did her aim waver. Regardless, she still did not fire. Now even NegaHerb seemed puzzled.

"There a problem your nastiness?" he asked quite innocently.

"'Your nastiness?'" NegaGosalyn repeated. "Herb, I don't like that name, don't use it again."

"Okay." NegaHerb replied. "But is there a problem? The location perhaps?"

"No, no, the location's fine." NegaGosalyn admitted. "It's just...just..."

Crimson waited expectantly. "Well?" she asked again. "What's the hold up?"

NegaGosalyn glared at her, gripping her weapon tightly. She still didn't fire. Crimson was just beginning to wonder just how long this was going to take when a manhole cover suddenly moved aside, and five people climbed out. NegaGosalyn and NegaHerb whirled around to face them.

"It's the Friendly Five!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed, surprised.

"Seriously, did you really think we couldn't come up with a better plan than the one we thought we were doing?" Techno asked, smirking himself.

NegaGosalyn shot him a glance, then turned back to the Friendly Five, pointing at her weapon at them. "Herb, attack!" she ordered.

NegaHerb launched himself at the five. They merely sidestepped him and he fell flat on his face. NegaQuackerjack then rolled over him and started jumping on NegaHerb's large belly.

"Hop on Pop! Hop on Pop!" he chanted.

The remaining four surged towards NegaGosalyn. NegaGosalyn readied her P90 to fire, but a well placed bolt of electricity from NegaMegs knocked it from her hands. NegaGosalyn went for one of her Uzis, but by that point, NegaLiki was on her, decking her with a watery fist, throwing off her aim. NegaRowe then slipped past them and to where Techno and Crimson were tied up.

"Hey mates, need a paw?" the otter asked as he worked to untie them.

"Yes we do, Rowe, yes we do." Crimson said, wriggling against her bonds.

Meanwhile NegaGosalyn had liberated herself from NegaLiki, and took a few steps back, looking for away to get on the higher ground. Something tapped her on the shoulder as she did so. She turned to look at it, and saw a vine growing there. When she turned, it coiled itself up and bopped her in the face. NegaGosalyn was whirled around to find NegaBushroot, who attacked her as well, knocking her backwards once more.

She landed in Crimson's hands, now free from the rope.

"Oh, fancy seeing _you _here." Crimson said, and pulled the portal remote from NegaGosalyn's pocket. "I'll take that."

She then pushed NegaGosalyn into NegaBushroot and MegaMegs's hands, then turned to Techno, tossing him the portal remote.

"Think you can get a portal open back to the Posiverse, Tech?" she asked.

Techno studied the remote for a moment. "Easily." he replied, and started working with the controls.

Crimson pulled out a walkie-talkie. "Tank, you in position yet?" she asked into it.

Turning the motor home around a corner on the other end of the street the group was on, Tank pulled out the walkie-talkie he had been given. "Getting there." he said into it. "Just be patient!"

"Does Mom and Dad suspect anything?" Techno asked, taking Crimson's walkie-talkie for a moment.

"Is that a trick question, Honk?" Tank asked. "_Of course _they don't."

It was then that chaos suddenly broke loose. Pressing a control for a concealed device up her sleeve, NegaGosalyn was able to zap NegaBushroot and NegaMegs into releasing her. Once she was free, she pulled out her Uzi, and pointed it at the closest person.

"Nobody move!" she exclaimed.

"Tank, pedal to the metal!" Crimson shouted into the walkie-talkie.

Tank slammed the gas pedal to the floor, the motor home surging forward to it's top speed. Binkie and Herb were caught off guard by the sudden surge of speed.

"Whoa there, little man, don't go over the speed limit!" Herb called to his son, not looking up from where he and his wife were studying their map.

"I'm not!" Tank assured them, and tried to get the motor home to go faster.

Back where everyone else was gathered at the other end of the street, Techno got the transdimensional portal to flare into existence. NegaGosalyn still didn't back down, however.

"Nobody move!" she ordered. "I've sent out a signal to engage an alert! Everyone one under Negaduck's command will be coming straight here to help me out!"

Crimson and Techno exchanged alarmed glances, and the Friendly Five audibly gulped. NegaQuackerjack stopped jumping on NegaHerb, allowing NegaHerb to brush the clown from off of him and stand up.

"But..." NegaGosalyn continued, "...I'll be willing to let you _all_ go on one condition."

The motor home continued to surge towards the location, heading for the open portal. Tank reached out and opened it's door, letting it flap open. Crimson watched it approach for a moment.

"Decided things weren't fun anymore, huh?" she remarked to my double.

"Things are getting out of hand, yes." NegaGosalyn admitted. "And I'll be royally punished once Negs finds out about it. But let's not get off subject here."

"All right, what's this one condition?" Crimson asked with a frown.

"I get the portal remote." NegaGosalyn said.

"That's it?" Techno asked. "You're willing to let us all go home free if we just give you the remote?"

"You don't know how much that remote is worth." NegaGosalyn said. "Now, will you hand it over, or will things get dangerous?"

Techno turned to Crimson. Crimson hesitated, watching the motor home come even closer, and knowing that trouble was on it's way here as well. Finally, she nodded, taking the remote from Techno.

"Here." she said, tossing it to NegaGosalyn. "Keep your stupid remote!"

NegaGosalyn caught it nimbly, and smirked. "Have a nice day." she said, moving over to NegaHerb and creating a cloud of red smoke the pair vanished behind.

"NegaMegs, you better get out of here." Crimson said to the Friendly Five's leader. "I wouldn't trust NegaGos to keep her word."

"Right!" NegaMegs agreed, and motioned to his cohorts. "Everybody scatter!"

The group ran off in random directions. The motor home surged closer. Crimson took Techno's arm.

"Hang on." she said.

The motor home then surged past them and into the portal. But as it went, Crimson quickly threw herself and Techno into the motor home as it went by, and they landed with a thump safely within. A split second later, they were cruising down the bright and sunny street of St. Canard of the Posiverse.

"Hey, mom, dad!" Tank called out, slowing the motor home to more normal speeds. "I think I managed to get us to familiar territory!"

Herb and Binkie looked up from the map, oblivious as always to what had happened, and saw the familiar streets of St. Canard.

"Hey, good work, Tank!" Herb said.

"Now we just need to find Honker and Gosalyn." Binkie said.

"Somebody say our names?" Gosalyn said, as she and Honker revealed themselves from their hiding places, now back in their casual outfits.

"Hey, there you are!" Binkie exclaimed, relieved. "You were here the whole time!"

"Well, I'll be!" Herb said, then suddenly looked thoughtful. "Y'know, we've had a lot of excitement today. Let's forget goin' campin' and lets go home. Tank, if you could?"

Tank nodded, and turned the motor home to head home.

"Besides, there's somethin' I want t' do." Herb said. "Wait till y'all hear my good idea..."

* * *

The motor home finally arrived back at the Muddlefoot home, and once there, everyone clambered out. As Tank climbed out, Honker stopped him.

"Tank, about what happened today, with the Negaverse, and you finding out our secret identities..." he began.

"What are you talking about?" Tank said.

"Huh?" Honker repeated.

"I have no clue what your talking about, Honker." Tank said, walking off. "When you're ready to star making sense, _then _come to talk with me."

Honker watched him go, a little surprised. Gosalyn joined him.

"So, think he'll keep the secret safe?" she asked.

"Somehow, Gos, I think he will." Honker said, with a grin.

Gosalyn grinned as well, then motioned for Honker to follow. "C'mon Honk, let's go surprise dad with our early return." she said.

As they walked over to the Mallard home, Drake just so happened to step out the front door, carrying a bag of trash. He noticed the pair instantly.

"Gos? Honker?" he said. "You're home early?"

"Yeah, something came up, so we decided to call of the trip." Gosalyn explained as she and Honker went to step into the house.

"So what happened?" Drake asked, puzzled.

Gosalyn paused for a moment. "You're better off not knowing." she replied.

She then walked into house, followed by Honker. Drake stood there, stunned.

"Now I really want to know." he said to himself.

"Hiya neighbor!" Herb suddenly called out from the next house over.

Drake turned, and was quite surprised to see Herb standing there dressed in NegaHerb attire.

"How do you like my new look?" Herb asked, gesturing to the outfit.

Drake stared at him for a few moments. "Then again," he said, "Maybe I really _don't _want to know."


	38. Negawing Duck

Summary: A new Darkwing double is on the loose, and he is proving to be quite a foe. But as the gang works to unravel the secrets behind him, will they like what they find?

Rating: T

Author's Note: A very dark chapter today, particularly towards the end. You have been forewarned. On another matter, I am now working more hours at my place of work, which is going to sap more of my time. I don't know how regular new chapters will be coming, but never fear, come they will, one way or another. :)

38.

Negawing Duck

"Comin' up on SHUSH HQ, DW!" Launchpad reported as he banked the Thunderquack around for a landing.

"All right, LP." Darkwing said, peering out the glass canopy at the building below. "Put 'er down LP. Slowly, and let's not crash, please?"

"I'll do my best, DW!" Launchpad said, saluting.

"Wonder what SHUSH wants us for." Crimson wondered out loud from the backseat.

"Dunno." Darkwing admitted. "Hooter was all excited about it, regardless. He said it wasn't a case, though. Just something he wanted to show off."

"That's a bit of a twist." Techno remarked. "Usually, we're only called by SHUSH to help with a problem."

"Must be something, then." Crimson remarked.

"Please fasten your seatbelts, we're making our final approach." Launchpad announced suddenly as the plane started to tilt, heading rapidly for the rooftop landing pad on what would clearly be a crash course.

"Launchpad, pull up!" Darkwing said quickly.

Launchpad obeyed, looking puzzled.

"On second thought, LP, maybe we should do a hover landing." Darkwing suggested.

Launchpad shrugged. "Okay." he said, bringing the jet into a hover over the landing pad.

"Remember to lower the landing gear first." Darkwing added quickly.

"I know." Launchpad said, and pulled the lever that lowered the gear.

"Now, you may land the plane." Darkwing said.

Launchpad nodded, and killed the power to the Thunderquack. The plane fell the remaining ten feet to the landing pad with a jarring jolt.

"Whoops." Launchpad said.

Darkwing said nothing, he just popped open the canopy with a glare.

Agent Grizzlikof was there waiting for them. "Ah, Darkwing." he greeted as the group climbed out of the jet. "Director Hooter has been expecting you. Follow me please."

He led the way into the building.

"So what's this about, Grizz?" Darkwing asked as they went.

"You shall see, Darkwing." Grizzlikof said.

"What, no clues? No hints?" Crimson asked, annoyed. "Nothing to help us figure out the puzzle?"

"Ooh, I love puzzles." Launchpad remarked.

"Patience." Grizzlikof said. "A true SHUSH agent knows when to wait."

"Betcha that's one of their zany regulations as well." Darkwing added, whispering to Techno.

"It is." Grizzlikof said, overhearing. "Not that I'd expect you to know that, Darkwing. When was last time you looked at SHUSH regulations manual?"

"I haven't ever looked at the SHUSH regulations manual." Darkwing replied.

"Case and point." Grizzlikof said, leading the way into a lab.

Hooter and Dr. Bellum were present already, standing around a gun-like device standing on a tripod, pointing towards a target. They were quietly discussing something. They stopped and turned when they entered.

"Ah, Darkwing ol' boy, thank you for coming so quickly." Hooter greeted.

"A pleasure as always, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "Though, I can't understand why you wanted us here."

"Yes, you would be understandably curious." Hooter agreed. "Well, I'll leave it to Dr. Bellum to explain."

Bellum nodded and gestured to the device. "Presenting what currently has SHUSH all abuzz." she said gleefully. "A Tron Transceiver."

Techno blinked. "A Tron Transceiver?" he repeated, astonished.

"What's a tron?" Darkwing asked.

"Think negatron, Darkwing." Crimson said.

Darkwing's eyes widened slightly. "It emits negatrons?" he asked, a little leery of it.

"And positrons." Bellum explained proudly. "And it transmits them into natural objects."

"What good does that do?" Launchpad asked, not understanding.

"It means that we can use this device to transfer as many trons as we wish into any given object, living or non-living." Hooter explained. "We can turn anything with a high positron count to evil, or turn anything with a high negatron count to good."

"Okay..." Darkwing said, still not understanding. "I'm still with you."

"Darkwing, suppose we could capture someone like Negaduck." Hooter said. "With this device we could turn him from bad to good."

Darkwing blinked, understanding now, but glanced at the device with hesitation still. "I dunno, J. Gander." he said. "I still think it's not big of a deal."

"I think it's great." Techno said, eyeing the device with respected awe. "We could really change things around here in St. Canard."

"We could take any villain and adjust their tron counts so they will be good." Bellum went on. "We could turn all of our villains into our best allies. We could make the world crime free with this device."

Crimson's brow furrowed. "So we could _make _them be good?" she asked.

Bellum nodded.

"Cool." Crimson said.

"N-n-n-n-no." Darkwing said, agitated. "There's no _choice_ in that. They can't choose what they want to do. And furthermore, if everybody's good, where does that leave me?"

"Darkwing, you would still have a role as a crime fighter." Hooter said. "By capturing all the villains long enough for us to turn them good. All the Tron Transceiver will do is to get these crime waves better under control."

Darkwing still didn't look convinced.

"Maybe we should demonstrate." Bellum suggested.

She went an grabbed a clear plastic box, moving it to stand on top of a small podium some feet in front of the transceiver and just before the target on the wall. Inside of it was a small squirrel, looking a little nervous, particularly now that all eyes were on it, and curled into a ball in the middle of the box. Darkwing stepped over to the box and peered inside of it.

Bellum then grabbed an upright and flat device on wheels, and moved it in front of the box. On the device's screen was the squirrel. At first glance, it looked like an x-ray device, but instead of showing the squirrel's skeleton, it showed an outline of the creature, which was filled with a large mass of sparking blue dots, packed so close together that they almost overlapped each other.

"This is the squirrel's tron count as of right now." Bellum explained. "Blue means positrons, and as you can see, the squirrel's positron count is very high at the moment." she then moved the device away from the squirrel and walked over to the transceiver. "But, that will change." she started to warm up the device, but paused for a moment. "Darkwing, you'd better step back a few feet. The trons I am about to transmit to that squirrel are not compressed into a tight beam. I wouldn't want you getting any stray trons."

Darkwing nodded, and took a step back. Bellum then activated the device. It's tip glow with a red halo for a moment. In the box, the squirrel froze, and twitched a couple of times. It remained like that even after the transceiver had powered down. Bellum moved the tron scanner back in front of the squirrel. The same mass of dots could be seen on it's screen, but instead of blue, they were all now red.

"Now the squirrel's high positron count has been replaced with a high negatron count." Bellum explained.

At this point, the squirrel suddenly snapped out of it's dazed state and suddenly rammed the side of the clear plastic box facing Darkwing, and clawed at it viciously. Darkwing jumped, and stepped back to join the others standing behind the Tron Transciever. Bellum moved the device away again and stepped back to the transceiver.

"But with a flip of a switch..." Bellum began, throwing a switch. The transceiver's tip glowed again, this time with a blue halo. The squirrel quickly calmed down again. Bellum pulled the device back in front of the squirrel. "...I can restore things back to normal." she concluded. "The process is completely harmless, and very foolproof."

"I dunno, I still stand by what I said earlier." Darkwing said.

"Regardless, Darkwing, the success with this device has led me to change your primary objectives." Hooter said. "Instead of focusing your attention on The Elements and FOUL, your primary goal is to now track down and capture all the members of the Fearsome Five, starting with Negaduck, if you can manage it."

Darkwing narrowed his eyes at Hooter. "Is that an order, J. Gander?" he asked.

"It will be, if it absolutely must." Hooter said, slightly puzzled by Darkwing's dislike for the mission. "But I rather not make it that, and you know it."

"Personally, I think this is a great idea." Crimson said, stepping in. "I'm up for the mission."

"Me too." Techno added.

"I guess that includes me, too." Launchpad said as well, raising a hand.

They looked at Darkwing. He shook his head.

"Fine." he said. "But I still stand by what I said, J. Gander. Using this device will be a mistake. Both morally and physically."

And with that, he stomped out of the room. Perplexed, the others bid their farewells to the SHUSH group and followed Darkwing back to the Thunderquack.

"Get us out of here, LP." Darkwing said once they were all safely strapped into the jet.

Launchpad nodded, and they took off. Once they were in the air, Crimson spoke.

"Dad, don't you think you're getting a little worked up over this?" she asked.

"I know." Darkwing admitted. "But Crimson, think about it. I thought one of the goals of liberty is to choose for yourself. We may not always like the choices one makes, yes, but we still have that right. By using that device of SHUSH's we're revoking the true meaning of that right."

"True." Techno agreed. "But don't we have a right to have a safe and crime-free community as well?"

"Of course we do." Darkwing said. "But this isn't the way to get it."

Crimson opened her mouth as if to say something, but apparently thought against it. The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

* * *

Later that night, Crimson and Techno drove the Ratcatcher through town while on patrol in a similar state of silence. Techno was busy working on scanning for any criminal activity while Crimson drove, and thought about what had happened that day.

"Tech, what do you think about this new Tron Transceiver of SHUSH's?" she asked suddenly.

"I'm for it." Techno said. "Why?"

"I've just been thinking about what Dad said about it earlier." Crimson said. "What if he's right, and it is morally wrong? Will we even know it?"

Techno frowned. "Crimson, I thought you were all for using the device as well." he said.

"I was." Crimson admitted. "But now I'm not so sure."

"What changed your mind?" Techno asked.

"Dad." Crimson said. "You saw how mad he was over it."

"Yeah, but what's special about that?" Techno asked. "He gets mad over a lot of things."

"I know, but not like that." Crimson said. She was silent for a moment. "Tech, what if this device leads Darkwing to become another Darkwarrior?"

"What?" Techno said, caught off guard by the question. "Whatever makes you think _that_?"

"The Darkwarrior I encountered in that alternate timeline when I accidently traveled years into the future became bad because of two things." Crimson said. "Me vanishing, and then I suspect the fact that he had succeeded in making St. Canard crime free. He was left with nothing to do. So he went for the extreme."

"Right, I know all of that." Techno said. "But what are you afraid of? Darkwing's not about to let any of that happen, not by using the Tron Transceiver, anyway."

"But that's what I'm worried about, Techno." Crimson said. "SHUSH seems determined to use it like that. And if so, and Dad maintains his opinions about the device, that'll turn him against SHUSH. And if he turns against SHUSH, one of his greatest allies, who knows what he could turn against next?"

Techno thought that through for a moment. "I see your point." he admitted. "But you'll still be here, shouldn't that be enough to keep him from going over the edge?"

"No." Crimson said. "Because the Darkwarrior from the Warriorverse still had his Gosalyn, and he still became who he is." she shook her head. "Tech, you know how much the prospect of Dad turning into Darkwarrior scares me. What do _you _think I should do?"

Techno thought for a moment. "I think you should tell all of this to your dad." he replied.

Crimson sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say that." she said.

All further conversation was cut off when Techno's visor bleeped. "Looks like someone's broken into a jewelry store on main street." he reported, reading the display on his visor. Confirmed that there is at least one person involved. Police have been notified."

"We're nearby, bet we could beat them there." Crimson said, turning the Ratcatcher suddenly to turn onto main street. "Call dad and LP, tell them what's going on."

Techno nodded, activating his helmet radio. "This Techno to Thunderquack, come in Thunderquack." he said into the device.

There was a pause, then Launchpad's voice came onto the radio. "This is Launchpad." he said, sounding a bit tired.

Techno didn't think much of it, though. "We've got a burglary in progress at a jewelry store on main street." he said. "We're moving to intervene, requesting you join us. Where are you?"

"Me?" Launchpad asked, then said, "I'm at the tower."

Techno paused. "Say again?" he asked.

"Me and the Thunderquack are at the tower." Launchpad repeated. "See, I'm not feeling too good at the moment. I think I came down with something, maybe something I ate. DW said I should go home and rest."

"Okay, so where's Darkwing?" Techno asked.

"I dunno, he had me drop him off somewhere." Launchpad said. "Said he'd go on patrol on foot tonight. I think he's got his radio with him, though."

"Okay, I'll give him a call." Techno said, and adjusted the frequency on his radio. "Darkwing, this is Techno, come in please."

"Darkwing here."

"Darkwing, sir, we're heading to stop a jewel store burglary on main street." Techno explained. "Care to join us?"

"Sure." Darkwing said. "But I'm currently on Rowling Road and without a quick mode of transportation. It might take me a few moments to get there."

"Got it." Techno said. "We'll assess the situation and try to work without you in the mean time. Techno out." he turned off his helmet radio. "Looks like we're on our own for the moment, Crimson."

They arrived at a dark building. Crimson looked inside through one of the windows and didn't see much of anything.

"You sure this is the right place?" she asked, hopping off the motorbike.

"That's what the report said." Techno replied, climbing out of the sidecar. "Maybe the criminal, whoever it was, got what he wanted and left already."

"Hmm." Crimson said, rubbing her bill. "Well, we should still investigate, search for clues, assess the damage, all that jazz."

Techno nodded, and opened the door and entered. Crimson followed, drawing his gas gun in the process. Switching on a flashlight, Techno shined it around the store. The beam finally fell upon a broken display case. They wandered over to it.

"Well, looks like there really was someone here." Crimson noted, examining the broken glass. "Broke in with a blunt object, it looks like. Maybe a club or the butt of a gun. Any fingerprints?"

Techno scanned the case with his visor. "I'm not picking any up yet." he said. "Give me a moment."

"No hurry." Crimson said, taking Techno's flashlight and shining it around the room. "Looks like nobody's here now."

The moment after she said this, she heard the familiar whoosh of a gas canister going off. Thinking it was Darkwing, Crimson turned around to look at the door. But the cloud of gas she saw wasn't the familiar blue she was used to, but rather a deep, blood red color.

"I am the terror that grips your heart!" a very Darkwing-ish voice echoed out. "I am the murderer in the dark!" a figure stepped out of the smoke. "I am...Negawing Duck."

Crimson blinked, and stared at the newcomer. At first glance, she thought she was looking at Negaduck, but the costume was all wrong. Instead of the annoying yellow and black tones, this guy's costume was colored a bright red with yellow trim. Crimson looked up into the guys face, and saw it was identical to Darkwing's. At first, Crimson though this was some kind of joke Darkwing was pulling on them, but then saw that this Negawing guy's eyes were void of the good sparkle Darkwing's had. And he was very serious.

"Techno..." Crimson said, nudging her sidekick.

Techno had heard Negawing enter, and half-turned to eye him. "I see him." he said, then asked, "Who are you, anyway?"

"I just told you." Negawing replied, stepping towards the pair. "You don't need to know a shred more."

"Good, I think I know enough anyway." Crimson said, pointing her gas gun at Negawing. "Now freeze."

"You freeze." Negawing said with a smirk, pulling out a 9mm pistol and pointing it at Crimson's head.

Crimson looked at the gun, then dropped her gas gun, raising her hands over her head. Neagwing looked at Techno, who seemed stunned.

"Don't try anything, egghead." he growled at the sidekick. "I know what you've got, too." he held out his hand, wiggling the fingers.

Techno got the hint and handed over the small supply of chemical bombs he had by giving Negawing the wristband they were kept in. Negawing figured it for a moment.

"Good." he said.

He then struck both of them with his fists, knocking them out like lights.

* * *

"Crimson, wake up!"

Crimson felt something gently slap her face, and she came to again, groaning with pain. Opening her eyes, she saw the caring eyes of Darkwing hovering over her head.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Crimson nodded, and sat up. She saw Techno sitting nearby, also in a dazed state. "What happened?" she asked.

"You tell me." Darkwing said. "When I got here, I found you both on the floor, unconscious. Did someone attack you?"

"Yeah." Gosalyn said, putting two with two. "Dad, we've got another Darkwing double on the loose."

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Darkwing said as they returned to the tower on the Ratcatcher, "There's yet _another _guy out there that looks like me, dresses like me, has the same mannerisms as me, yet is bad, and calls himself Negawing Duck?"

"That pretty much covers it, yeah." Crimson said as they pulled the Ratcatcher into the tower and parked it.

"So where, pray tell, did this guy come from?" Darkwing asked, annoyed.

"He didn't say." Techno admitted, climbing out of the sidecar. "But if he came from another parallel universe, wouldn't SHUSH have detected the portal?"

"Maybe he only _just_ got here." Crimson suggested. "We could call and find out if they saw anything like that."

"Launchpad, are you still here?" Darkwing called out. He then spied a note taped to the wall and yanked it off to read it. "'DW, went home to go to bed, sincerely LP.'"

"Yeah, we heard he fell ill." Crimson remarked.

"Yeah, with stomach cramps." Darkwing said. "I think it's just the twenty-four hour flu though, so I think he'll get over it soon." he stuck the note back on the wall. "Anyway, about calling SHUSH. That sounds good, let's try it."

He walked over to the command chair and plopped himself into it, typing out a few commands. On the big screen, the SHUSH logo appeared as a connection was made. A few moments later, Hooter's face appeared on the screen.

"Darkwing!" he exclaimed, looking surprised. "You're timing is perfect; I was just about to call you."

"Really." Darkwing said. "And what was it about? A transdimensional portal?"

"No." Hooter said, looking puzzled. "I was going to call to report that the Tron Transceiver has been stolen."

"Stolen!" Techno exclaimed. "By who?"

"Not sure." Hooter admitted. "Whoever it was scrambled our security cameras, and we're still trying to get liable data from them. However, one of our agents did encounter the thief in the act, and learned the name the thief goes by."

"Which is?" Darkwing asked wearily, already having a good idea.

"Negawing Duck." Hooter replied.

Darkwing rolled his eyes and sighed. Crimson bit her lip.

"We've already met up with him." she explained.

"I see." Hooter said. "No doubt you were calling, then, to report it to me."

"That among other things." Darkwing said. "Do we have _any _clues on this guy?"

"No." Hooter admitted. "But Dr. Bellum assures me that he can't be from an alternate reality, because we haven't detected any portals opening, save one that we can confirm was opened by the Fearsome Five."

"Then where the heck did this guy come from?" Darkwing asked.

"Perhaps some other means of teleportation between universes?" Techno offered.

Crimson was thinking hard. "What if it's not a new double, but one we already know of in disguise? Like Negaduck or Darkwarrior? Particularly Negaduck, as I could see Negaduck doing this kind of thing."

"I dunno, this Negawing guy didn't seem to have the right personality to be Negs." Techno remarked.

"And it's not Darkwarrior's kind of thing." Darkwing added. "Still, it's something to investigate."

"SHUSH will investigate further on our end." Hooter said. "Perhaps we will find a clue. However, it is clear what this Negawing, or whomever he is, wants the Tron Transceiver for."

"Enlighten me." Darkwing suggested.

"He wants to use it to turn anyone good to bad." Techno said. "The exact opposite of what we planned to use the device for."

"I told you only trouble will come from that device." Darkwing said.

"And perhaps you were right, Darkwing." Hooter agreed. "But now we must get the transceiver back before Negawing carries out his plans."

"If that's what they really are." Crimson said. "We only have a theory that fits."

"Very true." Hooter said. "We've been proven wrong before. It can always happen again."

"Well, we'll investigate too, see if someone else could be posing as Negawing." Crimson said.

"Okay, sounds like a plan." Darkwing said. "Thanks J. Gander."

"You're welcome, Darkwing, and good luck." Hooter said, and then the screen winked off.

"Gos, you want to investigate Darkwarrior or Negaduck?" Darkwing asked, turning to look at her.

"Negaduck." Crimson replied without hesitation.

"I'll help." Techno offered.

"That leaves me with Darkwarrior." Darkwing said. "Good, I have a score to settle with that guy. Now let's go."

They went back out to conduct their investigations. But they didn't find any new clues, or anything to prove that Negawing was a different double in disguise. They didn't even see Negawing again that night.

* * *

The following morning, Honker came up with an idea while reading a book at home, confident that it would allow them a chance to have a face-to-face interview with Negaduck regarding the matter of Negawing Duck.

"It's foolproof." Honker explained after he tracked Gosalyn down, outside and enjoying the early June weather. "He won't be able to turn it down. And when he shows up...snap! We have him trapped."

"I don't know Honk, I could see Negaduck not buying it and thus messing everything up." Gosalyn said, looking over the slip of paper Honker had given her.

"Do you have a better idea?" Honker asked.

"Well, no." Gosalyn admitted. "Alright, I guess it's worth a try."

So they went straight to the office building of the Canard Times. After having been inside for several moments, Honker stepped back out to join Gosalyn outside on the sidewalk.

"Well, it's done." he said.

"Really think this will work?" Gosalyn asked.

"Trust me Gos." Honker said. "Negaduck won't turn the chance down."

* * *

Night fell again, and the gang went out on patrol again, save Launchpad, who was still ill. Darkwing was still looking for any clues of Darkwarrior, and him possibly being Negawing Duck, but was coming up dry on both ends. He was confident he'd find a lead sooner or later, though, and went off on his own to search for it.

As for Crimson and Techno, their plan wouldn't be ready until tomorrow, so they went on a regular patrol, searching for any regular crime, as well as any new clues to the Negawing mystery.

"You think Negawing has used that Tron Transceiver yet?" Crimson asked as she drove the Ratcatcher around town.

"Hard to know at this point." Techno admitted. "Though if we don't catch up with him soon, we'll probably have more problems on our hands soon enough."

"Why do you think he was robbing that jewelry store anyway, if he was going to steal the Tron Transceiver?" Crimson asked.

"I think it was bait for a kind of trap." Techno said. "Because he didn't appear until we showed up. And then he attacked us."

"True." Crimson said. "Which means he could try it again."

At that moment a loud bang rang out, and the Ratcatcher suddenly spun out of control. Tipping over on it's side, it skidded along the road for several feet before coming to a stop and depositing it's riders on the ground. Groaning, they picked themselves up and looked around.

Techno looked at the Ratcatcher's popped rear tire. "That would explain why we went out of control." he said. "We must have hit something sharp."

"Or something sharp hit us." Crimson remarked, staring back up the road.

Techno followed her gaze, and saw Negawing Duck standing there, armed with a machine gun.

"Surprise!" he exclaimed, and brought the weapon to bear on the pair.

"Duck!" Crimson said, dropping down behind the overturned Ratcatcher, pulling Techno with.

Negawing fired his weapon. The bullets ricocheted loudly off the underside of the Ratcatcher, blowing holes in it. A couple of yells rang out as the few pedestrians who were on the street at this late hour ran in terror at the sounds of the gunshots.

Finally, Negawing stopped. "Come out and play, guys!" he cried out.

Crimson carefully peered over the top of the Ratcatcher. "What do you want?" she called out.

"Terror!" Negawing replied. "And your heads on a platter!" he opened fire again.

Crimson tried to return the fire with her gas gun, but what few shots she could risk getting off all missed or fell short of their target. Growling, she turned to Techno.

"Tech, think you could rocket out of here?" she asked quickly.

Techno shook his head. "I'd be shot down in a heartbeat!" he said.

"So, too dangerous." Crimson summarized. She winced as she heard more bullets strike the underside of the Ratcatcher. "Though, if we don't do something soon, we're going to have to get dangerous no matter what."

"What's with this guy?" Techno asked. "He's so violent! I'm not even sure Negaduck is that violent!"

"Oh, I don't know." Crimson said. "I bet he could, we just never let him get the chance."

"If we're right, and that is Negaduck in disguise out there, then he's breaking several of his own policies." Techno said. "Negawing wants us dead, but he doesn't care what it takes to do it. Nor does he seem to plan things out. He just wants us dead. Negs is more crafty, he'll think out a plan first. He wouldn't just jump out and start attacking for no real reason."

"Still, Tech, it's the best lead we've got." Crimson said. " And besides, maybe Negs is using the Negawing ruse to get away with what he normally wouldn't as Negaduck."

"Presuming we're right." Techno added.

"Of course." Crimson said.

More bullets struck the Ratcatcher.

"C'mon, you scaredy cats!" Negawing exclaimed. "C'mon out and face me!"

He then heard sirens behind him, and turned to see a whole armada of police cars arrive. Overhearing, Techno and Crimson peered out from behind the Ratcatcher.

"Someone must have called the police!" Techno exclaimed.

"Thank heavens, we're saved!" Crimson exclaimed, relieved.

Negawing, however, merely grinned cruelly, and turned his fire on the police cars, the machine gun tearing the cars apart. Police officers were forced to run and seek shelter. After this for awhile, Negawing stopped and shouldered the weapon.

"Now you see me.." he said, pulling out what appeared to be a gas gun, "...now you don't!"

And he vanished in a cloud of smoke. Crimson and Techno came out from hiding.

"Crimson! Techno!" A voice rang out from among the police officers also revealing themselves.

"Officer Matthew!" Crimson exclaimed, running to meet him. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, and no one else over there was hurt." Matthew said, gesturing behind him. "Are _you _alright?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Techno said.

Matthew shook his head. "We got a call saying that there was a gun fight going on here." he said. "But I expected two crooks fighting over loot with pistols, not one guy armed with a full-fledged tactical machine gun! Who _was _that guy?"

"Someone who's rapidly proving himself to be a very deadly enemy." Crimson said.

* * *

After things were brought back to order, Crimson and Techno went right back to the tower, feeling safer there. There they contacted Darkwing about the situation. His reaction was angry, but controlled. He didn't even ask if they were all right before he hung up. Crimson feared that Darkwing was going on a vendetta after Negawing. But as the night drew to a close and Darkwing returned, it was revealed Darkwing hadn't seen hair or hide of Negawing anywhere, and was no closer to resolving the mystery of the double than Crimson and Techno were.

The next day, however, was filled with some hope. Today, Crimson and Techno's plans to see if Negaduck had answers to the mystery and possibly confirm their theory could be carried out. As it was summer now, and two had no school, they went off to get ready, going in costume. All the while, Techno was confident their plan would work. And sure enough, it did.

Negaduck arrived at an empty and abandoned old factory, alone, and upon arriving, saw Darkwing standing there, waiting for him. Letting out a roar of rage, Negaduck charged Darkwing. Halfway there, however, a net sprang up and ensnared Negaduck, lifting him up into the ground. Crimson and Techno then revealed themselves.

"Well, well, two really can play at this game with nets." Crimson remarked.

Negaduck glared at them. "What do _you _guys want?" he asked. "This is just between me and Darkwing!"

"You mean this guy?" Techno asked, pointing to Darkwing standing there.

He walked over to the figure and pushed. Darkwing toppled over, revealing that he was nothing more than a cardboard cutout.

"Dad's got a whole bunch of those things stashed around." Crimson explained. "I didn't really think you'd think it was real so effectively, though."

Negaduck seethed at himself for a moment. "I should've know that ad in the paper saying that Dipwing wanted a death match just between him and me was too good to be true." he muttered, earning pleased looks from Crimson and Techno. "So what is it you want?"

"We want to know what you know about Negawing Duck." Techno said.

Negaduck's face went blank. "Who?" he asked.

"The newest Darkwing double on the streets." Crimson said. "It was all over the front page of the Canard Times, the same paper you found that planted ad in. Don't tell me you didn't see it!"

"Oh, _that _guy." Negaduck said, struggling against his bonds. "So you're after the guy too, huh?"

"Huh?" Crimson asked, not expecting that answer. "Well, of course we are, but why are you?"

"Didn't you know?" Negaduck asked. "He stole some stuff that belongs to me and the rest of the Fearsome Five a couple of nights ago! I've been hunting him to try and get them back, but he's proving to be more slippery than a bar of soap!"

"What did he steal?" Crimson asked, puzzled.

"Weaponry." Negaduck said. "My pistol, for instance. That article that spoke about him that you mentioned said he had a machine gun that night. That gun's Gos's."

"You mean NegaGos." Techno clarified.

"Right." Negaduck said.

"So you have nothing to do with it?" Crimson asked.

"What, did you think I was helping him?" Negaduck asked.

"More than that, we thought he was _you_." Techno said.

"Ha!" Negaduck said. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Did you really think I'd do everything that Nega...thing...guy has done?"

Crimson and Techno glanced at each other. "I guess so." Crimson said. "Drat, there goes that lead."

"So are you done with me, or are you going to hand me over to the cops, now?" Negaduck asked.

"Actually, we're letting you go." Techno said. "We had agreed to offer you that in case you were unwilling to give us all that information."

"Turns out you were anyway, but we follow through on our word." Crimson said, then turned to go. "C'mon Tech. The day's still young."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Negaduck exclaimed. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh, right!" Crimson said, turning back around and pulling something from her pocket. She slapped it on Negaduck's sleeve. "There!" she said. "That tracking device should lead the Fearsome Five straight here. Eventually, anyway. Might take a day or two."

Smirking, Crimson and Techno then left, leaving Negaduck dangling in that net, enraged.

* * *

"I can't believe that turned out to all be for nothing, though." Crimson remarked later, as they drove for home on the Ratcatcher.

"I guess we should've seen it coming, though." Techno said. "We already had our doubts that the theory was wrong."

"Yeah." Crimson agreed.

"And our plan to interrogate Negs _did _work, and we _did _learn that Negawing is _not _Negs." Techno pointed out. "That has to get us somewhere."

"I suppose so." Crimson said.

A light suddenly started to flash on the dashboard of the sidecar. Techno glanced at it. "SHUSH is calling us." he reported. "Priority call."

"Really?" Crimson asked, a little surprised. "Maybe they found something; put it on, Tech."

Techno pressed a button, and Hooter's face appeared on a little screen.

"Ah, Crimson and Techno!" Hooter said. "Sorry if this message is inconvenient but I need to speak with you two."

"What's up J. Gander?" Crimson asked.

"We've learned more about Negawing Duck." Hooter reported. "And it's urgent."

"Can you relay it to Darkwing, then?" Crimson asked. "We're not really in a position to..."

"Actually, I would prefer that Darkwing stay out of this." Hooter interrupted. "Hence why I specifically called you two and not him."

Techno and Crimson glanced at one another.

"What are you getting at, Director?" Techno asked.

"I will show you, but you must come here, to SHUSH Headquarters, first." Hooter said. "You'll understand why then."

* * *

Once they arrived at SHUSH Headquarters, Crimson and Techno were taken straight to the lab where the Tron Transceiver used to be. There they found, gathered around a computer screen, was Hooter and Dr. Bellum.

"Crimson, Techno, thank you for coming." Hooter said, and hung his head. "I'm afraid the news isn't good."

"What happened?" Crimson asked.

"We unscrambled the security cameras, finally, that's what." Bellum said, gesturing to the screen. It showed video of the same lab, currently rewinding.

"How is that bad news?" Techno asked.

"It's not." Hooter said. "It's what we found on the recordings that is."

"See, I had started to think that maybe somebody from SHUSH got in this lab without permission and accidently used the Tron Transceiver on themselves, resulting in Negawing Duck." Bellum explained. "Unlikely, yes, but we weren't coming up with anything else, so we viewed the footage taken during the time the transceiver was stolen."

"And?" Crimson asked.

"Nothing." Bellum admitted. "All we got were visuals of Negawing stealing the device."

"But it did indicate that maybe whoever Negawing is perhaps got his negatron count boosted sometime earlier, so we rewound and looked at the footage from times earlier." Hooter explained.

"And?" Crimson said again.

"That would be something you had better see for yourself." Hooter said.

"Right here." Bellum said, stopping the tape quickly, and playing it.

They watched it for a few moments, then Bellum pointed. "Right there." she said.

Crimson's eyes widened. "No." she said. "It can't be."

* * *

With an abrupt halt, the chairs stopped spinning. Closing her eyes for a moment to stop her spinning head, Gosalyn stood, and walked away from the chairs, looking around the hideout.

"Dad?" she called out. "You here? Launchpad told me you were up here working with something all day."

Drake's head poked up into view, revealing he was standing in front of the big screen.

"Indeed I am, Gos, but it's going to be a surprise." Drake said, turning back around so that his back was towards her.

Gosalyn stepped towards him. "Thought you'd like to know that I was back." she said. "Lead didn't end up anywhere."

"Okay." Drake said.

"Also stopped by at SHUSH." Gosalyn went on.

"Oh?" Drake asked, sounding unconcerned.

"Yeah, they think they might have a clue." she continued, now climbing up the stairs to join Drake. "I'm not sure if I buy it though."

"Yes, they haven't been exactly too helpful these days." Drake agreed, still keeping his back to Gosalyn. "At this rate, they'll never find that Tron Transceiver on their own."

"Oh, but I think they might." Gosalyn said, jabbing her gas gun into Drake's ribs as she finally reached him. "Which is why you're now under arrest by order of SHUSH..."

She paused, perhaps for dramatic effect. Drake hadn't reacted to this announcement yet. Finally Gosalyn finished her statement.

"...Negawing Duck."

Drake's complexion changed completely. His eyes narrowed, and he straightened upwards. He did not panic.

"So, they figured it out?" he asked flatly.

"Yeah, they figured it out." Gosalyn confirmed, narrowing her own eyes. "They figured out that when Dr. Bellum demonstrated the Tron Transceiver for us the other day, that the negatrons used to turn that squirrel bad covered a much larger area than she expected, and turned one other thing bad at the same time who happened to be nearby. You."

Drake did not deny it. "So how did they realize it?" he asked darkly.

"As everyone exited the room, you stepped in front of Bellum's tron scanner." Gosalyn went on. "The security camera in the room got a clear view of your trons. And they were red."

"Hence why I scrambled the security cameras in the first place." Drake replied. He paused. "So, now what?"

"Now you're going to tell me where the transceiver is, Negawing." Gosalyn said.

Drake smirked. "I don't think so." he replied.

And then he whirled around, firing NegaGosalyn's P90 in the process. Gosalyn ran away from the bullets, forcing Drake to fire in a complete circle as his aim followed her. The missing bullets instead hit all the computer stations and controls panels on the platform they stood upon. Finally, at the end of the circle, Gosalyn threw herself over the edge of the platform and landed on the floor.

Drake hurried to the edge of the platform and fired again at Gosalyn as she ducked behind one wing of the Thunderquack. Once safely behind there, Gosalyn fired off a gas cartridge in Drake's direction. Drake dodged it, and fired again. But Gosalyn had moved again, heading for towards the chairs.

Drake raced after her, shooting at the chairs quickly. Gosalyn quickly threw herself to the floor upon hearing the P90 discharge again. The bullets tore the chairs and it's activation mechanism apart. Drake approached Gosalyn where she lay on the floor, and rolled her over with his foot.

Once rolled over, Gosalyn fired her grappling hook up at a platform that bridged across the room, and zoomed up to it. Drake's firing followed, taking out one of the tall windows in the room, but ultimately missed. Gosalyn took point up on the platform.

"Give it up, I have the high ground!" Gosalyn called down.

"Maybe for now." Drake admitted, pulling something from his pocket and threw it up at the platform.

Gosalyn saw it was a grenade, but it was too late to do anything about it. It struck the platform and blew it up, tearing it in two. Gosalyn hung on to her portion as it tilted downward, the flames from the explosion nearly reaching her. Drake fired his P90 at the railing Gosalyn hung onto and forced Gosalyn to let go. She slid down the platform and to the floor with a crash. Moaning in pain, Gosalyn was in no mood to move again, but Drake forced her to, firing at her once more.

Rolling and dodging the bullets, Gosalyn slid to one side, and then stood, pointing her gas gun at Drake. But Drake was one step faster and fired once at Gosalyn. The shot hit her in the chest, and she toppled over.

Drake smirked, and lowered the weapon. He walked over to stand over Gosalyn's fallen form, grinning as he stared into her closed eyes.

"Did you really think you could take me on and win?" Drake asked tauntingly.

Gosalyn was suddenly up in a flash, and before Drake could react, she had fired a canister of sleeping gas point-blank into his face. He was out like a light.

"Did you really think I'd get into this battle without a bulletproof vest?" Gosalyn asked wearily, patting her chest and feeling the vest under her shirt and sighed in relief that this little battle was over.

* * *

Tied to the command chair and wearing his mask now, Darkwing struggled nosily against his bonds.

"You can't do this!" he screamed. "You'll all die for this! Let me go!"

"You aren't going anywhere until you tell us where you hid the Tron Transceiver!" Crimson demanded, also wearing her mask.

"How do you know it's not here?" Darkwing demanded.

"We've searched." Techno replied, the only one in full costume.

"Besides, we were pretty confident that if you were taking the time to create a new identity for yourself to hide what had happened, we figured you were hiding the loot somewhere else as well." Hooter remarked, his face on the big screen.

"Well, you aren't getting it!" Darkwing exclaimed, still struggling. "You aren't getting that info from me!"

"We _will _figure out a way, Darkwing." Hooter said. "SHUSH has means of getting information from prisoners, though none of it pleasant, and I would rather not have to use it on you."

Darkwing snorted at the idea. "You wouldn't dare." he scoffed.

Crimson turned to Techno. Techno nodded, and lifted a taser-like device. Darkwing looked at it, and merely smirked.

"I'm not afraid of that little thing." he persisted.

"This is your last warning, Darkwing." Hooter said. "Tell us where the transceiver is."

"No." Darkwing replied.

Techno responded by jabbing the device into Darkwing's ribs. Darkwing yelled out in pain as the electric current rushed through his body, not as strong as a normal taser would've been, but still painful, nonetheless. Crimson winced, and looked away.

"Tell us, Darkwing!" Hooter persisted, not looking to be exactly thrilled to have to resort to this.

"Never!" Darkwing replied.

Techno zapped him again, also looking like there were many other things he would rather be doing. Darkwing yelled out, but stood by his answer.

"Never, you hear me? Never!" he cried out.

Techno only tazered him again.

"I'll kill you all for this!" Darkwing roared in-between the shocks.

Then suddenly Crimson stepped forward and yanked the device from Techno. "Tell us." she said flatly.

Darkwing stared defiantly at her. "Nev...er." he said slowly and with added emphasis on each syllable.

Crimson then jabbed the device into Darkwing's ribs, and held it there, shocking Darkwing for a very, very, long time. Techno, getting worried, went to intervene, but Crimson, eyes filling up with tears, shrugged him off and kept at it.

"ALL RIGHT!" Darkwing yelled. "I'LL TELL, I'LL TELL!"

Crimson removed the device and threw it away, her expression neutral. "We're all ears, Darkwing." she said flatly.

* * *

Crimson and Techno later arrived at an old warehouse in the depths of town.

"Warehouses." Techno muttered. "Why do the villains always hide out in warehouses?"

"Because there are plenty of abandoned ones all over St. Canard." Crimson replied, climbing off the Ratcatcher, in full costume now.

A group of SHUSH agents were already at the site, examining the large sliding door that provided for the warehouse's entrance. Among them was Agent Mia. Seeing Crimson and Techno arrive, she broke off to come over and join them.

"We've searched the area." she reported. "It's clear. We're currently checking for any booby traps on the doors."

"It's safe!" an agent called out suddenly, stepping away from the door.

"Open it up." Crimson said, coming to stand in front of the door. "Let's get this over with."

With a nod, Mia confirmed the order. The other agents quickly opened the door, sliding it upwards. Mia pulled out her sidearm in case there was something inside to combat with. There was nothing of the sort inside the warehouse, but that still didn't change how stunned they all were at what they saw.

Standing on it's tripod on the far side of the room, unharmed, was the Tron Transceiver, as was expected. But the group was completely stunned at everything else they saw. Sitting on a table to one side of the room were the two Uzis, pistol, machine gun, and ammunition for all of them that Negawing had swiped from Negaduck and party. A row of bottles with complicated and frequently misspelled chemical names sat near that. Next to the transceiver was a patched together computer that was displaying a fuzzy picture of the spinning trademark letter "D" the Darkwing Tower's screensaver sported, indicating that Negawing had hacked his way into the computer systems there.

A modified gas gun and a walkie-talkie sat next to it. On one wall was a picture of Darkwing himself that Negawing had been using as a target, as several knives protruded from the picture. Then finally, on the lefthand wall was an easel with a canvas on it, violently splattered with paint, mostly of a red color. Taped to the wall behind it where several illustrations drawn in pencil in which Negawing could be seen quite graphically killing key figures in his life as Darkwing. Crimson recognized herself appearing in many of these pictures.

Mia swore, her weapon nearly dropping from limp fingers. "What is going on in that head of his?" she asked aloud.

"I don't want to know." Crimson said flatly. "Let's just get the transceiver and go."

* * *

An hour later, the transceiver was set up in Darkwing Tower, with Gosalyn at the controls. Drake sat in the command chair, still tied to it, and very angry. No one else was present. Hooter wasn't even watching via a video feed. Gosalyn said this was probably would be best done in private, and no one disagreed.

Having familiarized herself with the controls, Gosalyn flipped on the power to the transceiver. "You ready for this, dad?" she asked flatly.

Drake shook his head with a glare.

"Don't worry, you'll thank me in a moment." Gosalyn said, and then flipped the switch that activated the transfer of trons.

The tip of the transceiver glowed blue for a long moment, then faded away. Drake's glare remained until the end of it, then slowly melted away. Drake then broke down and wept. Fighting back tears herself, Gosalyn hurried over and untied Drake and hugged him tightly.

"Don't worry dad, it's over, it's all over." she assured him.

"I tried to fight it, Gos, I really did." Drake muttered in-between sobs. "I was screaming at myself to stop, but I couldn't..."

"It's okay dad, it's all over." Gosalyn repeated.

"It was me behind it all." Drake went on to explain, even though Gosalyn knew all of this. "Me that slipped Launchpad some kind of chemical that gave him those stomach cramps, me that conspired against SHUSH, me that tried to kill you, and Honker, and..."

"It's okay dad, you had your negatron count doubled, no one is going to blame you for anything." Gosalyn said, hugging her father closer.

They remained like that until both had calmed down significantly, and then were just silent for a long moment, still hugging each other.

Gosalyn wiped at her eyes. "You'll be pleased to know that, in light of recent events, SHUSH intends to destroyed the transceiver." she said to Drake. "They agree that this proves it has too much potential in being abused."

"What a heck of a way to convince them of that." Drake muttered. "I hope it never has to come to that again."

They were silent again for a very long moment.

"I'm sorry for having to torture you like that, Dad." Gosalyn apologized.

"Completely understandable, Gos, you did what you had to, and that's what counts." Drake said. "I'm sorry I tried to kill you."

"Like I said, Dad, no one will blame you for any of that." Gosalyn repeated.

Again they fell silent.

"It's good to have you back Dad."

"It's good to be back, Gos."


	39. The Air Engine

Summary: Titan Laboratories has developed a new type of engine that will change the world of transportation in the state of Calisota. Naturally, though, someone bad takes an interest in it.

Rating: K+

Author's Note: It's kind of hard to describe this chapter, as it's more talk and description than it is action. Although the action's still there, it's just not the primary focus of this chpt. Regardless, a lot of things in this chapter turned out great, particularly at the beginning here. Since we recently had a chpt. where all the major baddies joined forces, I thought it'd be fun to get all the major goodies to join foces for a chpt. I also reveal Agent Mia's backstory, and her relationship with Launchpad is expanded somewhat. Finally, the air engine described in this chapter actually exists, but unlike Titan Laboratories's version, it's not commercially avalible yet. :(

39.

The Air Engine

On your average day in the mist of the month of June in St. Canard, the city is usually quite alive with business, filled with people heading from one location to another. The summer heat did nothing to slow any of that down either. In fact, some came purely to enjoy the summer heat, although St. Canard isn't always the greatest place for that, what with it's crime rates and everything. As such, it's sister city, Duckburg, was the one that got most of the tourism business.

But most of the citizens of St. Canard didn't mind that too much, because the city got it's attention in it's own special ways, causing spurs of excitement.

Today was such a day. And as such, the city's busyness levels were lower than usual. And as one person wandered the mostly empty streets, she knew it was for a good reason. Either they were all at the location of today's excitement already, or were at home to watch the live news coverage that was due to begin airing shortly. This meant she was at risk at being late, but she didn't mind.

There would be less eyes watching her this way.

Turning onto Rowling Road, the person made her way down the street. About halfway down on the other side of the road was a large collection of vehicles gathered around one building with more arriving all the while. Many people were trying to press their way into the building, but it had gotten so crowded, people were almost spilling back out.

Again, this would work to the person's advantage, allowing her to slip into the masses of crowds generally unnoticed. She could probably slip all the way inside and back out again with no one being the wiser, but she had taken guarantees to play it safe. That was important in her line of work, particularly as of late. To conceal herself, she wore a long, tan, overcoat with a matching hat positioned so to hide her face. As she approached the doors, she produced a ticket from her pocket and handed it to one of the ushers positioned there.

The usher looked the ticket over, ripped off the stub, and handed it back to the figure. "Welcome to Titan Laboratories, ma'am." he said kindly.

The person did not reply, but she did grin, thankful that at least someone in this world was still nice to her, even if it was brief and under special circumstances. The usher probably said that to everyone, anyway.

Once inside, the crowd thinned out thanks to the efforts of the combined forces of ushers and some police officers. The person was able to make her way quickly and effortlessly towards the large room that had been arranged for this press conference that had the city all abuzz. And, more importantly, she did it unnoticed. She simply _had _to keep her presence her secret. She knew who would be at this press conference, and if any of them recognized her, the whole plan was shot. And she couldn't afford that, not now. If she blundered this, all would be lost.

The room was filled with citizens, news reporters, camera crews, employees of Titan Laboratories, lots of important people, and various others, all looking to the front of the room, where an empty podium stood in front of a row of windows. To it's left were a party of people sitting in chairs, but they couldn't be seen over the masses of heads gathered in the room. For the person this didn't matter. She had a good idea who it would be anyway.

What got her attention was sat to the podium's right. A large box-like object stood there, big enough to fit several people in, all of which standing up. It was covered by a thick, black, cloth, so it was impossible to see what was under it per say. But everybody already had a good idea, and it was because it that they were all here today. Word of what was under that cloth had been going around for almost a full year now, and today was the day that everyone would finally see the results of it.

Seeing the conference was to begin at any moment now, the person worked her way to the front of the room to get a better view, pushing if she had to. No body really cared; it seemed all attention was on the object and not who was there to see it too. Finally, a person stood up to the podium and motioned for silence.

"Good morning." he greeted. "And welcome to Titan Laboratories. I'm Brian Mannheim, CEO of this facility. Today is a very exciting day for all of us, because today we unveil a project that has easily been years in the working, and all of you are eager to see it. So I'll make my comments short." he paused, adjusting his tie quickly as he gathered his thoughts. "As many of you know, Titan Laboratories has had some real bad publicity as of late due to some projects that, quite frankly, went wrong. There are several reasons for that, but I am pleased to state that the employees that work here are not to blame. And they, in addition to me, have been working day and night to clear our good name. And, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have succeeded. Today will be the day that Titan Laboratories is put back on the map once again!"

A cheer rang out, and the crowd applauded to show their support. The person joined in to maintain her image, but was rather indifferent about the whole matter. Of course, it was true that this project was going to give her a chance to make amends herself if she played her cards right.

"So now I'll turn the rest of the time over to the mastermind behind this project," Mannheim continued, "who I daresay has earned herself a promotion after all of this..."

A few laughs. The person blinked, though. Knowing the background on the "mastermind," she was honestly surprised the "mastermind" hadn't gotten a promotion already yet.

"...introducing Dr. Connie Lovell!" Mannheim concluded, and stepped aside for the lady dressed in her trademark lab coat to take the stand.

"Good morning again to all of you." Lovell greeted curtly, gripping the sides of the podium. "And thank you for coming. Your show in support for this project means a lot to me; to all of us here at Titan Laboratories. We've been a bit under the weather as of late, particularly me, finance-wise, as Mr. Mannheim already alluded to. And I'm sure you've read the papers and thus already know the stories, so I won't bother repeating them."

Which was a pity, the person thought. She wasn't familiar with most of those tales; only in the vaguest of senses. Events in her recent life hadn't permitted that. That among other things, but those "other things" were things she was trying to not think about.

"What's great, though, is that despite all of those stories and events, you all still trust us enough to produce inventions that will change the world!" Lovell continued. "And it's your support that really matters. And today we're paying you all back." she grinned, then motioned to the large object standing to her right. "Presenting...the air engine!"

The cloth covering the object suddenly whisked away to reveal a flashy and sleek sports-like car, painted silver. It looked new, almost like it had rolled out of the manufacture's plant just moments ago. But it wasn't the car everyone was interested in. Everyone leaned forward to see what was under the car's hood, which was currently propped open. Inside the car was an engine of unique design, much smaller than expected for a car of it's size, and clearly not an internal combustion engine of old.

The crowd oohed and ahhed over the engine. Lovell motioned to the vehicle

"As we all already know," she went on, "gas prices for this country have been outrageously high as of late, injuring our pocketbooks, and hurting our economy. Not only that, but the fumes produced from our vehicles are polluting our air, damaging the environment. The search for something else besides traditional gasoline to run our cars on has been going on for sometime now, hoping that someday the day marking a better future will come. That day is today."

"There have been many ideas for an alternate fuel, and thus alternate engines, but none can quite compare to the air engine. This remarkable device literally runs on compressed air. And no special kind of air, just the kind of air we are breathing right at this moment. Just plain, old, ordinary, air ladies and gentlemen. Air, by itself, is non-combustible, as well, and thus no burning is required, and thus _no _pollutants are released whatsoever. How the air engines is not unlike CO2 powered materials, like the propellants in a paintball gun. This engine uses the large amounts of kinetic energy air has when under pressure, using that pressure to turn the engine's pistons, and thus propel the vehicle forward."

"As you can tell, the air engine is much smaller than an ordinary engine, and that is because it doesn't need things such as a radiator, spark plugs, or anything of the sort today's internal combustion engines use. Not only that, but the air engine itself is _inherently _smaller on it's own, and the amounts of air needed to propel the vehicle can be stored in much smaller places that many other alternate fuels."

"And the advantages don't end there. The air engine is amazingly fuel efficient is ten times cheaper to use as a fuel than today's fossil fuels, and unlike other proposed alternate fuels, such as hydrogen fuels, it would be _very _easy to convert _all_ of our cars to run on air. And a bonus, this particular design of car will refuel itself_ as you drive!_ The car is lighter weight than normal cars, _and _can and _will _be mass-produced with the greatest of ease, in addition to cheaply!"

"Which leads us to our next big announcement! Titan Laboratories has signed a deal with Calisota Car Manufacturers. This prototype car will be heading to their plant tomorrow afternoon, and they will immediately begin to replicate this car, and mass-produce it to sell on the market. In a matter of a year _or less_, the entire state of Calisota will be driving air-powered cars instead of the cars of old, _including _all of you, thus making us the first state in the country to have left the use of gasoline in the dust."

Lovell paused momentarily, as if savoring the dramatic effect of all of this. "Ladies and gentlemen, the future of tomorrow, has come." she concluded.

The crowd instantly erupted into a fury of questions, all asking at once. Finally, after a moment of indecision, Lovell pointed at one reporter to speak, and motioned to everyone else to fall silent.

"Doctor, it is rumored that tanks of compressed air can explode under the right circumstances." the reporter said. "Car crashes, I'm told, could create these circumstances, and thus makes the air engine more dangerous to use. Is this true about this engine?"

"Yes and no." Lovell admitted. "While the risk is still there, Titan Laboratories has worked a great deal to minimize the threat, and minimize it we have. The air engine store's it's air in carbon-fiber tanks, which, unlike steel tanks, is very brittle. It cracks, but does not shatter, and thus create shrapnel. The air would all be released harmlessly, and not as explosively as you'd think. The danger, then, is not very extreme." she then pointed at another reporter.

"Tells us, doctor." the next reporter said. "Is this vehicle capable of working in all environments, or only just some?"

"Well, I will be the first to admit that our air engine will ice up easier that other engines, but we have done as much as is possible to prevent it." Lovell admitted again. "And we are constantly getting new ideas to improve on that, so while the prototype car may not withstand very well to the colder temperatures, newer models undoubtably will."

"So in other words, this car _sounds _perfect, but it still has it flaws." the reporter summarized.

"Very much so." Lovell said. "It will be impossible to achieve the perfect car, but even if it was, I would say that the air engine is a huge step in the right direction." she pointed at another reporter.

"Doctor, my question is not so much about the air engine, but rather it's safety." the reporter said. "Reports indicate that until the car leaves for Calisota Car Manufacturers tomorrow, it will be kept and stored here. Do you consider this to be a wise choice? This car is no doubt very valuable, and now that you have announced it all to the entire state, there will be those of the criminal element here in St. Canard that could take interest in it and try to steal it. Do you agree?"

"I do." Lovell said. "As we all know, St. Canard is not exactly crime-free, now is it? And the risk _is _there. Therefore, Titan Laboratories has taken precautions to ensure this vehicle's safety. First off, some of you may have noticed that the vehicle is currently and completely encased in glass."

The person had not, and now looked closer to see the faint outline of the box that encased the vehicle.

"This glass is bulletproof, not to mention fireproof." Lovell said. "And the car will _not _exit that case until it is ready to be moved tomorrow. But the box alone will not be enough. Therefore Titan Laboratories has hired some people to help guard and protect the vehicle until tomorrow. And those people include a team from the organization, SHUSH..."

Lovell motioned to her left where the unseen people sat. Three on the end stood up, revealing Director Hooter, his second in command, Agent Grizzlikof, and another agent, a feline, that the person was not familiar with.

"...an entire squadron from the St. Canard Police Department..." Lovell continued.

A party of SCPD officers stood up to join the three from SHUSH. The person saw Officer Matthew being among them, having learned about him in the papers. He had credit for solving for some of St. Canard's most perplexing cases, and the young officer was quickly rising up the ranks of command. He was also known as being a "Darkwing nut" for his constant support in the masked vigilante. Which told the person that if ol' Mattie was here, then a someone else should be here, by the name...

"...and finally, Darkwing Duck and company." Lovell concluded.

Darkwing Duck quickly hopped up at the end of the row of seats, in full costume. His cohorts, the Crimson Avenger, Techno, and Launchpad McQuack quickly hopping up after him, Launchpad stumbling on the leg of his chair as he stood. The person had to snort in laughter. Is that all? This could actually be easier than she first thought.

"They will stand guard, day and night, until the air engine has safely left the building, _and _St. Canard's city boundaries." Lovell said, then went on to add other details about security, such as the fact that a police escort would follow the engine wherever it went until it reached it's final destination, but the person didn't stop to listen, as she adjusted her hat, and turned to leave.

"My employers will pay through the nose to get that car all to themselves." Elizabeth Guire said to herself as she left. "And I will see to it that they will."

* * *

"Y'know, I'm missing the series premiere of _Jumpgate: Universitas_ for this." Crimson muttered as she sat in a chair and stared at the air-powered car still in it's glass case, now late at night. "You all know that, right?"

"Yes, Crimson, you've told us that several times now." Techno muttered, and he worked on one of his gadgets to try and pass the time. "It's not like you're not recording it, though."

"True, but I should be at home, watching it as it airs, not missing it for some stupid engine!" Crimson said, gesturing at the car they were to guard.

"Crimson, that engine is liable to change the world, and change it will, presuming no bad guys get their hands on it." Techno explained, not for the first time. "If they get on their hands on it..."

"...they'll sell it to the highest bidder, and not share, I know." Crimson finished. "But still...it's a _car_! Does a _car _really need this much people to guard it?"

"Well..." Techno said, pausing in his work for a moment to think of an advantage to all of this, "...it is a very _nice _car."

Crimson looked the sporty-looking car over. "Okay, I'll give you that much." she admitted.

Officer Matthew then walked by the pair, stopping to glance at them. "Hey guys, anything new to report?" he asked.

"Hey Matt." Crimson replied glumly. "Nope, nothing new."

"That's actually good, that means we might have nothing to worry about, and I'd rather have that than the alternative." Matthew remarked. He continued walking for a moment, then paused and leaned closer to Crimson.

"Just so you know..." he began quietly to Crimson, "...I'm missing the premiere of _Jumpgate: Universitas_ for this myself. Just so you don't feel alone."

He walked off. Crimson grinned.

"And another known fan of the genre to add to my list." she remarked happily.

* * *

"Darkwing Duck stalks the corridors carefully, deducing with his delectable deductive skills that his perilous prey is somewhere close by. He pauses to gauge the villain's position in comparison to his own, readies to spring into action, and then..."

Darkwing jumped out from around the dark corner in the hallway and pounced on Launchpad standing on the other side, tackling him to the ground.

"And Darkwing Duck terrifically triumphs over terrible turpitude and towers triumphant!" Darkwing exclaimed, sitting on top of Launchpad's middle. He nudged his sidekick. "C'mon, LP, you're making this too easy! If I'm going to be ready for anything, you need to be more tenacious than that! Ooh, there's another t-word I can use, tenacious...better take note of that..."

He pulled out a notebook, and started scribbling down notes. Launchpad sat up and sighed.

"DW, I've been helping you practice for seven hours now." Launchpad said, trying to carefully work Darkwing off of him. "Can I take a break now?"

"Not now, LP." Darkwing said distractedly. "I'm on the verge on a record breaking alliteration here! So shush, and ask me after I finish."

Launchpad decided to take that as a yes, and gently pushed Darkwing the rest of the way off of him, leaving the crime-fighter sitting on the floor. Darkwing didn't seem to notice, too busy writing down notes. Launchpad used the chance to slip away, heading down the dark hallways to the break room, hoping to find two things there.

First off was the donuts SCPD had promised to provide. And upon peering around the door, Launchpad instantly saw them sitting on the break room table. The second thing he hoped to find there was present as well. Agent Mia, who had been left in charge of the team of SHUSH agents who were helping to guard the air engine, stood next to the table, her feline tail swishing around as she briefly conversed with a fellow agent, another feline, this one with grey fur that contrasted Mia's golden fur. Taking a deep breath, Launchpad entered the room.

"Isn't it true that the concept of the air engine has been around for years now?" the agent Mia was talking with asked.

"Very much so, easily been around for fifty years." Mia agreed, biting into a jelly filled donut. "The military and SHUSH have even used it as a kind of fuel or propellant many times over the years. However, this is the first time it's been applied to powering a common vehicle enough to be mass-produced and used on the market, hence what makes Titan Laboratories's air engine so special."

They continued talking, seemingly unaware that Launchpad was now present. The pilot was just about to announce his presence, when the unknown agent Mia was conversing with suddenly pressed her finger to the earpiece radio in her ear, listening.

"Someone heard something in one of the corridors." she reported to Mia. "Probably just tensed up nerves imagining things, but should I go investigate further?"

"Yes." Mia said, licking her claws as she finished the jelly donut. "Never hurts to double check."

The other agent nodded, and then left, pushing past Launchpad absentmindedly as she went. Launchpad watched her exit, then turned back around, once again to announce his presence.

Mia cut him short. "Hello Launchpad." she greeted, not turning to look at him.

Launchpad was flabbergasted. "How did you know I was here?" he asked.

"It is my duty as a SHUSH agent to be aware of everything." Mia explained, examining her claws. "Besides, you wear a very distinctive deodorant."

"Oh, you mean my ham sandwich scented one?" Launchpad asked, sitting down.

"Bingo." Mia replied.

They were silent for a moment. Launchpad sought a conversation starter.

"Well...whatcha been up to as of late?" he finally asked.

"That's classified." Mia replied.

"On what security level?" Launchpad asked instantly. "Y'know, by being DW's sidekick, I get pretty high security clearance for stuff. I...don't know exactly _how _high, but it's still pretty high."

Mia sighed, but grinned. "I got promoted." she said, deciding it couldn't hurt.

"Really?" Launchpad asked, surprised. "Why? Bet it was for excellent work, right?"

"Yes and no." Mia replied flatly. "I think it was more of a case that Agent Lupis's spot needing to be filled in wake of his death."

"Oh." Launchpad said, feeling a bit embarrassed by going to such a touchy subject. "You know, I'm really sorry about all of that."

"It's okay." Mia said softly, fingering another donut, but not picking it up to eat. "Lupis was a real stickler for obeying the rules anyway. Not much fun to be around. But still, it was him that helped train me for being a SHUSH agent."

"So a kind of father figure in your life, huh?" Launchpad guessed.

"Not really." Mia replied. "More of a mentor. Really, he was probably holding me back, but he will be missed nonetheless." she paused for a moment. "But enough of that. I don't want to dwell on that."

"Okay." Launchpad said, perking up. "What else is new?"

"Well, by being promoted, I get my own partner." Mia offered. "Working on finding the right one still, but I'm getting there."

"Oh, so was she..." Launchpad asked, pointing behind him in reference to the other agent who had left.

"Yes, she's my current partner." Mia said. "Agent Sandingomm. Better known as Sandy for short."

"And how's she working out?" Launchpad asked.

"Okay." Mia admitted. "Still, I feel there's something...missing." she shrugged. "I'll work it all out in the end." she paused, eyeing Launchpad for a moment. "You know, you really seem interested in all of this stuff." she noted. "Any particular reason why?"

"Well, it just seems we have so much in common." Launchpad offered. "For instance, we both collect buttons. You're an agent for SHUSH, and I'm...well, technically not an agent, but I once had the chance to be a secret agent."

"Did you really?" Mia asked, semi-interested.

"Uh-huh." Launchpad said. "Years ago. The Duckburg Intelligence Agency found me during a little mixup once and asked me to go undercover to help finish a mission that had nearly gone wrong. Once that was done, they offered me a full time job. But I ultimately turned it down."

"And why's that?" Mia asked.

"Too dangerous."

"Your line of work now is certainly anything but safe."

"Yeah, I know. Which makes me wonder if I missed out on a real opportunity there."

Mia was silent for a moment. "Curiously enough, I once had a chance to work for the DIA as well." she said suddenly.

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm. See, back when I was younger and looking for a career back home in Duckburg, I tried to be come an investigator in Duckburg's police force. Ultimately, it didn't work out, but word of my attempt reached the powers that be and they took interest in my skills. The DIA and the Secret Service both came and offered jobs for me. I ultimately went with the SS because they offered the bigger paycheck, and I really needed the money at the time." Mia paused for a moment. "I suppose it's for the best though, because it was through my brief time at the SS that ultimately landed me in SHUSH and where I am now." She stopped, and looked over at Launchpad. "Since you know everything about me now, how about you compensate by telling me everything about you?"

"Oh, well, let me tell you now that I've had a pretty interesting life..." Launchpad began.

* * *

"S-s-suppose someone's down there." the police officer said nervously, trembling.

"We'll never find out if we don't go and investigate, now will we?" Agent Sandy remarked, tugging at the officer's hand. "Now let's go investigate."

The officer refused to move. Sandy glanced back at him in puzzlement.

"Just what exactly did you hear?" she asked.

"A low moaning noise." a SHUSH agent replied, who had been standing guard with the officer. "Like something from a horror movie."

Sandy narrowed her eyes. "And you're _sure _you didn't imagine this?" she asked.

"P-positive ma'am." the officer replied.

Sandy stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "Well, I suppose I've heard of stranger things." she admitted. "But get the lead out you two. We need to go investigate."

"B-but what if we find s-s-something terrible d-down there?" the officer trembled, pointing down the hall.

"Or possibly nothing at all?" the agent asked.

"We won't find out at all if we don't go investigate!" Sandy said, losing patience, and gave the officer's hand one last tug. "Now c'mon!"

She finally got them moving forward, and they started moving on down the hallway. The further they went, the trembling the officer was producing got worse. The two agents remained calm, but Sandy could tell that the officer's fellow agent was on edge as well, and wondered what could possibly frighten them so much. They finally reached the end of the hallway, where it turned to the right. Sandy started to go around it, but the officer stopped her.

"D-don't you th-think we've gone f-f-far enough?" he asked.

"Oh c'mon!" Sandy exclaimed. "Anybody could've shone a flashlight down here and found nothing! What we're looking for, if anything at all, has to be around this corner!"

"B-b-b-but I-I-I d-don't w-want t-to g-g-go..." the officer tried to stutter out.

"Oh, grow a backbone, will you?" Sandy exclaimed, and went ahead and stepped around the corner. Seeing there was no stopping her, the agent and the officer followed.

All they found was a statue on a small podium on one side of the hall, and a open window on the other, a breeze whisking through it.

Sandy grinned. "Well, there you go!" she said, gesturing to the window.

"A w-window?" the officer stuttered.

"Yes, the wind blowing across it must have made the noise we heard." the agent reasoned.

"Still, it's odd that this window is even open." Sandy remarked, walking over to shut it. "They should be all closed and locked, for security reasons."

"M-maybe someone got too hot." the officer said nervously, walking forward still.

"Whatever the case, you can start to relax now." the agent assured him, following alongside him. "There's absolutely nothing..."

It was then that something jumped out from beside the statue and plowed into the officer and the agent, pushing both of them aside. Once they were out of the way, the intruder ran on down the hallway. Sandy, hearing the noise started to whirl around in an attempt to help, but was merely elbowed out of the way, and she fell to the floor. Sandy looked up in time to see the figure swing around the corner, but Sandy still recognized the uniform the figure wore.

"Intruder alert!" Sandy exclaimed into her earpiece radio, picking herself up and giving chase. "Southern wing, corridor connecting nanotechnology to gathering room! Target is heading for gathering room, and is wearing attire of The Elements! Repeat, target is member of The Elements!"

* * *

Sandy broadcasted the message on all frequencies, so everyone who had a radio on and at hand heard the message. Techno and Crimson were among them, and looked up and glanced at each other as they listened to the last part of it, knowing of only one person they knew of who could fit with the description Sandy described.

"Elizabeth." they said together, and quickly moved into action.

"Everyone, group around the car, now!" Crimson ordered to everyone in the room, mostly SCPD officers, while heading up for the vehicle herself.

"Elizabeth." Techno muttered, as he and the others hurried to follow. "We knew she was going to try something like this sooner or later, it was just a matter of when."

"And to think I could've been home watching _Jumpgate: Universitas _by now." Crimson muttered, pulling out her gas gun and loading it. "Everybody, stand by! Shoot to disable only, and only as a last resort! Tech, stand by with those chemical bombs. Liz maybe no where near as powerful on her own, but she's still a serious threat."

* * *

"Treacherous!" Darkwing exclaimed suddenly, still sitting where Launchpad had left him, writing notes. "I don't think I've got that one yet!" he quickly jotted it down. "And I've got a whole list of d-based alliterations, too! Listen to this one! The daring Darkwing Duck defies death yet again, and defeats the dastardly denizens of darkness! What do you think of that one, LP?"

He looked up from his notebook and realized for the first time that he was alone.

"Launchpad?" he asked, standing up and putting away his notebook. "Where did you go? I wasn't finished practicing! C'mon, LP, this isn't funny! Give me answer of some sort!"

And an answer he got, but it wasn't Launchpad who said it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Darkwing." Elizabeth said from behind Darkwing.

Startled, the crime fighter whirled around. "Liz!" he exclaimed. "How...what...when...who...why...?

He got no further than that. Elizabeth suddenly lashed out with her hands and smacked Darkwing in the beak, knocking him back. He was further knocked back when Elizabeth took over with her powers and blew Darkwing to the end of the hall with a gust of wind, slamming him into the wall.

He then sank to the floor and didn't move. Elizabeth kept on running, going around and past him in a hurry. Sandy was next to reach Darkwing, who swooped down long enough to make sure Darkwing was still alive. Satisfied that he was, she quickly continued on her way. Next to arrive at the scene was the officer and the agent, but in their hurry, it was doubtful they even noticed Darkwing, and if they didn't, it didn't occur to them to stop and check on him.

Finally, Launchpad and Mia, rushing from the break room to join in the action, found Darkwing next.

"DW!" Launchpad exclaimed, and quickly went to the aide of his friend, examining him all over.

Mia knelt down next to Launchpad. "Is he all right?" she asked.

"Yeah." Launchpad said, removing Darkwing's fedora and seeing a large welt rising out of the back of Darkwing's head. "But I imagine he won't wake up anytime soon, and when he does, he'll have a bit of a headache."

Mia bit her lip for a moment. "Launchpad, I'd stay and help, but I need to go help the others." she said quickly, getting up and running after everyone else. "You stay here and stay safe, got it?"

"Hey, wait!" Launchpad exclaimed, but Mia was already on her way.

Launchpad remained there for a few moments, looking torn between choices, then stood up to follow.

"Sorry DW." he said, turning to run after Mia, "But I'll be back in a few moments, promise!"

* * *

They heard Elizabeth coming before they saw her, not bothering to conceal her approach as her pounding footsteps echoed down the corridor.

"Everybody get ready!" Officer Matthew exclaimed, as everyone gathered a tad closer to the car.

Crimson raised her gas gun and brought it to bear on the door Elizabeth was to come through. The moment the duck came skidding through the door, turning instantly to face the gathering of people, Crimson fired off a canister of sleeping gas at her. Elizabeth merely blew the canister away with her powers, where the gas could spread at a safe distance.

This done, Elizabeth charged the group.

"Open fire!" Matthew exclaimed, not thinking of anything else they could do.

The same time this happened, Elizabeth released a huge gust of wind, surging at the group at hurricane speeds. They were all bowled over by the wind, clearing a path to the car in it's protective case. Most of them didn't even have a chance to carry out Matthew's order, but one or two did get a shot off, and Techno managed to hurl a chemical bomb in Elizabeth's direction.

The bomb was merely blown entirely off course in the gust of wind, as well as many of the fired bullets, but one did whisk past Elizabeth's arm, cutting it open. Elizabeth winced, but continued forward, stepping up to the glass case. She was contemplating on how to get the case open, when another bullet whizzed past her head and embedded itself in the bulletproof glass.

She whirled around and saw Sandy standing there in the open doorway.

"Stay right there!" the agent ordered, adjusting the aim of her weapon.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, and with a wave of her hand, created a gust of wind that blew Sandy to one side, knocking her weapon from her in the process. Elizabeth then focused her attention back on the case.

"Forget it, you'll never get it open!" Sandy said, sitting back up. "It's bulletproof _and _fireproof!"

"But not air proof." Elizabeth pointed out, and used her powers to increased the air pressure on one side of the case.

It quickly shattered, spraying glass around, creating a hole large enough for Elizabeth to slip through. Elizabeth was about to do so when she was interrupted again.

"Freeze!" Mia exclaimed, skidding into the room, weapon drawn.

Elizabeth, getting really annoyed now, swooped down and picked up one of the fallen weapons, and whirled around to fire it at Mia with deadly precision. And the bullet would've hit Mia had Launchpad not suddenly dived into the room and knocked Mia to the floor. The bullet whizzed over the pair of them and ricocheted off the doorframe. Satisfied, Elizabeth slipped into the case, shut the car's hood, hiding the air engine within, and climbed into the air-powered car, turning on the engine and revving it.

Meanwhile, outside the case, Matthew was picking himself up, helping up others as he did so."Is everyone all right?" he asked.

It was then Elizabeth stomped down on the gas pedal for the car. It lurched forward, smashing through the glass case and slamming into Matthew, knocking him over. Matthew flopped onto the hood, and clung onto the car as it speed a few feet across the room, staring at Elizabeth in the driver's seat. Then Elizabeth stomped on the break pedal, letting inertia slide Matthew off the hood of the car and onto the floor.

Promptly turning the car around, Elizabeth started to drive it for the bank of windows that stood behind the glass case. As she did so, Matthew whisked out his pistol and tried to shoot at the intruder, but missed. Forcing more people to scatter to avoid being hit, Elizabeth drove the car straight through the windows and onto the street outside. Turning, she quickly started driving it down the empty streets of St. Canard, the full moon shining brightly down on the stolen car.

Matthew was up in a flash. "Somebody radio dispatch!" he exclaimed, hurrying forward. "Tell them to get every patrol car we've got and have them surround the city, cut off any escape route that vehicle can take!"

"Agents, regroup!" Mia exclaimed, also getting up and moving forward. "We'll have to chase after that car if need be!"

"C'mon, Tech, let's get to the Ratcatcher and follow her!" Crimson said, grabbing Techno's arm and dragging him out the door. "Lizzie isn't going to get away from us that easily!"

* * *

Elizabeth drove the car wildly down the streets. She had to get this car to FOUL. They'd thank her in anyway possible, and that was exactly what she wanted. She needed their benefits anyway she could get. But first, there was something else she needed to do, and turned in the right direction. Grinning to herself for her success thus far, Elizabeth glanced in the rear view mirror briefly, then had to do a double take.

Trailing behind her was the Ratcatcher, containing both Techno and Crimson. Elizabeth frowned and applied more pressure to the gas pedal.

"If it's a chase they want, it's a chase they'll get!" Elizabeth said, turning around a corner, heading for the Audubon Bay Bridge.

Only to find that the entrance to the bridge had been barricaded off with police cars, cutting off the path completely. Police officers stood there, ready to fire if she got too close, but even Elizabeth knew there was no hope. Quickly turning the car around, she turned off that road and sped on down a new one. Behind her, the Ratcatcher kept up with her, gaining on her.

Elizabeth scowled into her rearview mirror because of this, and began to swerve and weave across the road, trying to loose them. It was too no avail, the Ratcatcher kept after her. Just when Elizabeth was about determined to try drastic measures, the Ratcatcher finally stopped gaining on her, coming no closer. Elizabeth at first thought they were going to back down all together, but then Techno suddenly shot out of the sidecar he rode in and shot into the air.

With a flip, he came back down, landing on the hood of the car, staring right at Elizabeth. Caught off guard, Elizabeth jerked the wheel and suddenly turned the car into a corner with a yell. Techno, with having nothing to grab hold of, toppled off and fell to the ground, rolling several feet before getting back up again. The Ratcatcher whizzed past him and then continued onward after Elizabeth, gaining on her again.

Desperate to find a way out of this, Elizabeth looked for a solution, and saw a stack of boxes sitting on the curb of the street. Quickly pulling the car onto the curb, Elizabeth shot straight for it, hoping Crimson would follow on the Ratcatcher. She did, gaining ever closer, which was exactly what Elizabeth hoped would happen.

She continued towards the boxes until the very last possible moment, then suddenly turned away from them, heading back onto the road, dodging them completely. But as she had hoped, the Ratcatcher didn't have enough time to react and slammed right into the stack, bringing the motorbike to a halt.

Elizabeth grinned victoriously, and then turned onto a new street, leaving her foes behind. The most direct path to her destination might be cut off now, but she knew more than one way to get there.

* * *

They said her name was Sally. Sally McHare. And as that just sounded right to her, she never disputed it. She wished she could remember well enough to know for sure though. But alas, all the memories of her past life were mere bits and fragments that wasn't enough to piece things together again. Nowhere near. Far too many pieces were missing to even see the complete picture.

However, SHUSH had been nice enough to explain a bit about herself. At first it was little things, like her name, her nationality, and what had happened that caused her to loose her memories in short. They claimed she had lost them being a hero. But she couldn't remember it. She did remember vague snippets of working in a group that she somehow thought as heroes, but SHUSH claimed otherwise, saying that up until that point, Sally had been a villain, and a member of an organization called FOUL.

The name rang bells in her head, but that was about it. A few more were rung, however, when she met up with a fox named Jack, who seemed very familiar. Like her, he faced a similar situation in which he lost all of his memories, and the two were brought together to try and see if the combined fragments of their memories helped give them something to build off of. And in a sense it did, both remembering more about their alleged career as villains in FOUL.

And Sally hadn't liked how her past life had looked. It was very dark and unpredictable, and she couldn't see herself doing anything like that. She had pictured herself having a simple life of living in a simple home, having a simple job, and no complexities like this. So, after it was all over, that was what she sought, and she was fairly confident she had found it, moving into a small townhouse home and getting an insignificant job in an ad agency. The only complexities was that SHUSH wanted to keep their eyes on her.

It seemed everything was working out. And yet Sally wondered if somehow her past life was going to come back and haunt her.

She received her answer when her doorbell rang repeatedly late one night, waking her from her sleep. Bleary-eyed, she made her way downstairs to her front door, wrapping a robe around her as she went. The doorbell continued to ring.

"I'm a'comin', I'm a'comin'!" Sally exclaimed, unlocking the door and throwing it open. "Now wot d'you..."

She trailed off when she saw the black-haired duck standing there, and immediately had a flashback of several instances in which Sally remembered seeing this person.

"Elizabeth!" Sally exclaimed, the name just coming to her suddenly. "W-wot..."

"Oh, good, you remember!" Elizabeth exclaimed, then grabbed Sally's hand and dragged her towards a car that stood waiting at the side of the road. "C'mon, we need to get out of here!"

"Wot?" Sally asked, dragging her heels into the ground. "Go where?"

"Back to FOUL!" Elizabeth said. "I've got a way for them to accept us back! They can help us there, I know it!"

"FOUL?" Sally repeated, "Whoa wait, start from th' beginnin' here."

"I wish I could, but we're short on time here, Sally!" Elizabeth pressed, trying to drag Sally further. "I'll try to explain everything as we go along!"

"But...but...they told me FOUL was..." Sally began.

"That's only what they want you to think!" Elizabeth said. "Look, FOUL can help us, I know it can!"

"Then why haven't done so already?" Sally asked, yanking her hand out of Elizabeth's. "If they really can help like you claim, then don't you think they would've helped us by now?"

"Sally, this is FOUL we're talking about." Elizabeth said. "Remember? Remember their rules and policies?"

"All I remember of this FOUL is a lot of flippin' bad memories." Sally said. "Memories I don't like. I barely remember you, even! How do I know you haven't been hired by 'em t' get me back?"

"Because, FOUL disbanded The Elements and threw us out on the street!" Elizabeth said. "You were lucky, because you were the first to fall victim, and no one knew we would all follow!"

"All right, all right!" Sally said. "But why d'you think they did that?"

"Because they thought there was no point in keeping us around anymore!" Elizabeth said, losing patience. "All we have to do is convince them that we still have some worth, and they'll take us back, I know it!"

"Well, wot if I don't want anythin' t' do with FOUL anymore?" Sally said. "I jolly well not remember much of it, but I don't like wot I _do _remember! How I could've ever gotten mixed up with the likes of FOUL is beyond me!"

"You just don't remember it!" Elizabeth insisted. "You just don't remember what is was like! But if you come with me, maybe we can fix that!"

"Maybe doesn't guarantee one bloomin' thing, and you know it!" Sally exclaimed, her ears twitching indignantly. "And maybe it's not a case of me not rememberin' but rather a case that, deep down, I never wanted anythin' t' do with FOUL t' begin with, and all of this has led me t' realize it! Liz, I want a second chance at life! Can't I have it?"

"You don't want this life!" Elizabeth said. "Going around with only a vague understanding of who you were, trying to find a life to replace it with SHUSH constantly watching over your shoulder! Don't tell me you really want that?"

Sally was silent for a moment. "Don't tell me you actually want t' stay with FOUL." she countered. "You remember wot we've done much better than I can. Don't tell me you like everything you see."

Elizabeth fell silent for a moment.

"Why are you here anyway, hmm?" Sally asked. "Why did you come t' me of all people, particularly when you knew I couldn't even remember wot you're tryin' t' get me back to?"

Elizabeth hesitated. "Because you were my friend, Sal." she replied softly. "Before all of this happened, you were my best friend. And right now, you're all I have left." she sighed. "Sally, I've lost everything. Can't you see that I want to try and get it all back? And this is the only way to do it!"

"No it's not!" Sally said. "I saw what happened t' me as a chance t' start over at life! To go back and try again, t' do things differently, and not make th' same mistakes I did before!" she paused. "Not that I can remember 'em."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"But there is one I know of that I regret immensely." Sally said. "And that was ever gettin' involved with FOUL."

"It's because of FOUL that we had our powers, and had power over our enemies." Elizabeth said.

"It's because of FOUL we've lost all of that, too!" Sally said. "Can't you see the bloomin' facts about that?"

Elizabeth fell silent again, and didn't reply.

Sally sighed. "I suppose you can't understand." she decided. "But at least you still have your memories."

"But for how much longer?" Elizabeth asked. "I can already feel my memories start to slip away, Sally! I'm already losing control over my powers! And I don't want that! I don't know what will happen when that happens!"

"You're frightened, then." Sally realized. "You're terribly frightened over wot you can't control, and are tryin' t' find a way t' stop it."

"And FOUL can do that!" Elizabeth said.

"No, they can't!" Sally said. "FOUL only cares about itself, and you know it! They're no closer to' findin' a cure than anyone else, anyway, and for some of us, it's already too late! Liz, I can see that you're frightened and desperate, but this isn't the way t' set things right! You're only gettin' yourself into worse trouble, and you know that too! Elizabeth, there's nothin' you can do t' set things right! Wot you can do is give up tryin' and move on, rediscover life again, like the rest of us have!"

Elizabeth whipped out the pistol without warning and pointed it at Sally's head. "If you're not with me, you're against me." she said.

Sally was taken aback for a moment, but she recovered, glaring at Elizabeth. "Then shoot me." she said. "Prove me wrong. Make those blighters at FOUL proud for you spillin' innocent blood. But look at yourself Elizabeth. If you're really the friend you claim t' be, you know you won't. That deep down you never wanted the life you led either."

Elizabeth's aim didn't waver, but it was clear her mind was torn over her choices...

* * *

"How much closer to the air engine, Tech?" Crimson asked as she drove the Ratcatcher down the street along side a brigade of police cars, no worse for wear from their earlier encounter with Elizabeth.

"We're nearly there." Techno said, monitoring a blip on his visor. "The tracking device SHUSH discreetly planted on the car was a clever idea. It's leading us straight to Elizabeth."

"Any signs of her continuing the chase?" Crimson asked.

"None, the car isn't moving at the moment." Techno said. "And I doubt Elizabeth is in it at the moment." he looked around at their surroundings. "You realize where we're going, right?"

Crimson nodded. "We're going straight to where Sally lives." she said.

"Garth indicated just before he lost his memories that FOUL had disbanded The Elements and sent the remaining members away." Techno said. "I think Elizabeth is trying to get the group back together on her own."

"And is going to use the air engine as bait to get FOUL to take them back." Crimson added. "She's not likely to let us take it back without a fight."

Yet, when they arrived at the scene, they found the exact opposite. The air-powered car sat at the curb of Sally's townhouse, parked and vacant. Sitting on the steps of the house was Elizabeth, her head in her hands. Sally sat next to her, comforting her. The pistol lay on the ground in front of them, unfired.

Somewhat amazed, the Crimson, Techno, and their escort of police officers gathered around the pair in silent surprise. Sally watched them gather to watch for a few moments then grinned.

"Good evenin' everybody." she greeted. "Would the of lot of you like some tea? I was just about t' go make some."

* * *

"She gave up?" Mia asked, amazed, once she had caught up with everyone.

"Sally talked some sense into her." Techno explained. "She made Elizabeth realize that she, like Sally, apparently never liked or wanted the life they had at FOUL."

"Looking back, I don't think any of them did." Crimson said. "But they all thought it was too late to turn back, or too self-absorbed with their powers that they didn't want to stop and think about it. They simply just buried the feelings and didn't think about it."

"So why now the change of heart?" Mia asked.

"Because they lost enough of their memories of their time at FOUL to allow their misgivings about that life resurface." Techno said.

"That explains why every single one of them has gone good once they lost their memories." Crimson said.

"Save Elizabeth, who still has them." Techno pointed out, then turned to Mia. "What will happen to her, anyway?"

"First, she'll sign an agreement to not use what remains of her powers in any circumstances." Mia said. "SHUSH's hope is that she'll eventually forget they're there. After that, the same opportunities the rest of them had will be open to her as well. And I think she'll take them."

"And the air engine?" Techno prompted.

"Already on it's way back to Titan Laboratories." Mia said. "Though, I think we won't have anymore trouble with it until it leaves tomorrow."

"And Darkwing?" Crimson asked. "Is he all right?"

"Perfectly." Mia said. "Just got a call from Launchpad. He's awake and disappointed he missed everything."

"That's Darkwing." Crimson agreed.

"So now what do we do?" Techno asked.

"We move on." Mia said. "We go back to the lives _we _love best."


	40. Seeing Double

Summary: Drake has been acting odd, and it's made Launchpad and Gosalyn slightly suspicious. Their suspicions grow when they discover there is actually two Drake's running around...

Rating: K

Author's Note: This chpt. may actually seem a bit tedious because it takes place so close to chpt. 38 "Negawing Duck" which focused on an admittedly somewhat similar idea, but hey, I think I made the most of it. Charlie, a patient Christine was treating briefly in chpt. 25 "Transmutation", makes a reappearance, and I hope to bump him up to recurring character in future chapters, for good reason. Yes, I realize I leave a few things blank at the end of the chapt. which admittedly wasn't intended at first, but works out great suspense wise. So I'll fill in the blanks in a future chpt. :)

40.

Seeing Double

"Gosalyn Lynn Mallard! Front and center!"

Gosalyn jumped up from her desk chair in her bedroom and winced. She didn't like that tone Drake had used to call her. Worse still, he used her seldom spoken middle name. That made things ten times worse. As the middle name happened to be her late mother's as well and tended to bring up bad memories, Drake usually only saved the middle name for when Gosalyn was _really _in trouble.

Gulping, Gosalyn stepped out her bedroom door and made her way over to the staircase landing, wondering what it was she had done, _now_. Standing downstairs waiting for her was a very grumpy looking Drake. He looked up at Gosalyn with narrowed eyes as she arrived on the staircase landing a floor above him.

"Yes?" Gosalyn asked, trying to sound sweet and innocent, hoping that this tactic would silence the raging beast below.

It didn't. "I said front and _center_, Gos."

Gosalyn sighed in defeat, and marched downstairs to stand in front of the angry adopted parent. Once there, and seeing that she probably couldn't get in any worse trouble, she made a mockery of the request by snapping to attention like a solider and giving Drake a stern faced salute to match.

"Yes _dad_?" she asked flatly.

Drake's eyes narrowed even further. "Cut the attitude young lady." he growled. "I have a bone to pick with you."

"Yes?"

"You know the kitchen?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Remember that I've been spending most of the day today cleaning it?"

"Yeah."

"And that I asked everybody help keep it that way?"

"Yeah."

"So just what was it you did during lunch?"

Gosalyn paused, confused. "Ate lunch?" she offered, not really thinking of anything else it could be.

"No, you made a mess!" Drake said, and almost melodramatically threw open the door to the kitchen.

Gosalyn looked inside the room, and blinked. It looked spotless. She told Drake this. Drake rolled his eyes in annoyance, grabbed her arm, and dragged her over to the kitchen counter next to the sink, and pointed.

"What's that?" he asked.

"A glob of jelly." Gosalyn replied flatly. "Only about an eight of an inch long, if we want to get technical."

"Where do you think it came from?"

"Clearly, from the jar of jelly in the fridge."

"Har har. No, it came from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And who had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today?"

"Me."

"So you see the problem now, don't you?"

Gosalyn stopped to think. "So you're getting all worked up over a glob of jelly." she said sarcastically.

"It's a glob of jelly that's ruining my previously spotless kitchen counter!" Drake exclaimed. "It's not easy keeping these things clean!"

"Sure it is." Gosalyn said, grabbing a rag from the nearby sink and wiping up the glob in a single swipe. "See? All done."

Drake fumed for a moment. "Point is that you didn't obey my requests, Gosalyn." he said through clenched teeth. "And for that, I'm grounding you from the TV for a week."

Gosalyn blinked. "All because of a glob of jelly?" she asked.

"Yes, all because of a glob of jelly!" Drake exclaimed. "Do you want to make it _two _weeks?"

"No."

"Then may this be a lesson for you."

And with that, he stomped off into his study and slammed the door.

Gosalyn watched him go with a furrowed brow. "It's a glob of jelly!" she repeated. Shaking her head, she walked out into the living room.

Launchpad was sitting there sorting through his button collection. "Hey Gos." he greeted. "Bad break about the TV, huh?"

"I suppose." Gosalyn admitted, flopping down into an armchair. "Still, that's a bit extreme, don't you think LP?"

"I dunno." Launchpad admitted. "I don't remember my parents ever grounding me for anything, so I can't relate." he shrugged. "Still, I think DW's just in a bad mood, and you know what he's like during those times."

"True, it's not like this isn't anything new." Gosalyn admitted. "But still, there's one thing I don't get about all of this."

"What's that?"

"I may have eaten the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I did it in my bedroom." Gosalyn said. "It was Dad who made it and took it up to my bedroom for me. If anyone is at fault for that glob of jelly, it's him." she sighed. "Oh well. He'll probably will have forgotten the whole thing in an hour or so."

* * *

Gosalyn was proven right when Drake exited his study about an hour or so later in a much better mood, and seemed to have forgotten everything about the glob of jelly. So Gosalyn and Launchpad, the punishment seemingly lifted, sat down and watched episodes of _Jumpgate_ on DVD for the next few hours. Meanwhile, Drake was elsewhere, working on various chores in and around the house.

Having come in all sweaty from mowing the lawn, he fanned himself with his hand and approached Launchpad.

"Hey, LP." Drake said. "Shall we go and work on the Thunderquack now?"

"Sure, why not?" Launchpad asked, standing up. "I'm doing anything at the moment."

They both sat down in the two armchairs at the end of the room, activated the hidden switch that triggered them and were off to Darkwing Tower. Arriving there, they clambered out of the chairs and walked over to the jet in question where it sat, Launchpad stopping long enough to get a toolbox.

"Time for your annual tuneup, ol' friend." Launchpad said to the plane, patting the jet's beak-like nose.

Drake rolled his eyes and gathered a few tools from the toolbox. "I'll start the oil change." he said. "You clean the radiator."

Launchpad nodded, and they both set to work. They were at it for several minutes, Launchpad standing over the Thunderquack's open hood, while Drake was under the craft conducting the oil change, when Drake stuck out his hand from under the craft.

"LP, hand me a wrench, will you?" he asked. "I can't get this bolt off."

"Sure thing, DW." Launchpad said, and reached over and grabbed a wrench from the toolbox, tossed it to himself and started to hand it to Drake.

But at the last moment, he fumbled with the wrench and it fell from his hand on Drake foot. Drake yelled out, which was quickly followed by a bang as Drake knocked his head on the underside of the Thunderquack. Favoring both his hurts, Drake slid out from under the jet and whirled around to confront Launchpad.

"Just what was that about?" he demanded angrily.

Launchpad shank back a little. "Sorry DW, it slipped." he said softly.

"It slipped!" Drake repeated indignant. "Somehow I doubt it, Launchpad!"

"D-doubt it?" Launchpad repeated.

"Yes!" Drake said, pointing an accusing finger at his pilot. "And don't act dumb about it either! I know what you're...wait."

He trailed off, suddenly calming down. "That's right, I suppose you wouldn't know about all of that, would you?" he asked himself.

"Know about what?" Launchpad asked.

"None of your business!" Drake exclaimed in Launchpad's face. "Besides, it doesn't concern you after all!"

"But you just said it did." Launchpad objected. "At least, that was what you implied."

"Are you saying I made a..." Drake began to rage again with a glare, but caught himself, and looked to be forcibly trying to calm himself down. "Never mind!" he proclaimed, sliding back under the Thunderquack. "Just forget the whole thing!"

He vanished under the jet once more. Launchpad stared at his webbed feet, the only thing still visible for a long moment, then shrugged, and got back to work, promptly forgetting the event as requested.

* * *

"Darkwing, I'm glad you came." Hooter greeted later that evening as Launchpad and Darkwing arrived at SHUSH Headquarters. "I really wondered if you were going to follow through with your promise."

"It would not be first time he has broken it." Grizzlikof added, standing behind the group as they walked like a shadow.

Darkwing grumbled something inaudibly for a moment.

"Come again?" Hooter asked politely.

"I said a superhero always keeps his promises." he muttered. "Even if it is willing submit himself for torture."

"I would hardly call it torture, Darkwing." Hooter said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, DW, it's just a monthly checkup." Launchpad said. "Y'know, the ones SHUSH always does on us to keep their records up to date."

Darkwing shot Launchpad a glare that kept him from saying anything more.

"It's just for the records, Darkwing." Hooter repeated.

"Oh, how would I like to take those records and..." Darkwing began to muttered.

"Yes?" Grizzlikof prompted, his face brightening, hoping Darkwing would cross the line.

Darkwing caught himself, though. "Never mind." he said.

"It won't take all that long." Hooter assured him, opening the door to the SHUSH infirmary. "Only about an hour at most."

"That's a whole hour from crime-fighting." Darkwing pointed out as he grudgingly entered the room.

"I'm sure St. Canard can live without you for a whole hour, Darkwing." Hooter said, trying to be friendly. "Besides, Crimson and Techno are on patrol, aren't they? Can't they handle things for an hour or so while we get this done as quickly as possible?"

"Well, we are expecting a slow night." Darkwing admitted as he and Launchpad sat down on two identical cots. "With the last of the members of The Elements accounted for, FOUL not having any evil plans on the blackboard that we know of, and Negaduck on leave, it probably will be a slow night filled with petty crimes like a convenience store getting robbed."

"You see?" Hooter said, as two, nondescript doctors entered the room and began examining the pair. "You're not missing anything."

Darkwing grumbled for several moments.

"You know, we should think of this as a stroke of luck." Launchpad said, looking around the doctor examining him to look at Darkwing. "I mean, even Negaduck being on leave is almost too good to be true."

"Exactly what I think." Grizzlikof agreed. "Not like Negaduck to do such thing and announce it to world."

"Yes, the very professional looking note he sent SHUSH stating he was taking some leave and that the Fearsome Five wouldn't be doing anything for awhile because of it is a bit out of character for him." Hooter agreed. "Perhaps it's something we should investigate. Thoughts, Darkwing?"

"Only that it'd be a waste of time." Darkwing muttered as he grudgingly let the doctor examine him. "Clearly, Negaduck needed a break. He's human too, you know. I'm sure all those terrible crimes he commits wears down his nerves as well. And as for the note, that's more like him than you think. Just be glad he didn't decide to attach a bomb to it or anything like that."

"Still, something just doesn't sit right about it all." Hooter said. "For instance, I would think that if Negaduck were to really take some downtime, he'd do it at his home in the Negaverse. Yet, SHUSH has not detected any transdimensional portals opening in some time now."

"Granted, that may be odd." Darkwing agreed. "But you have to keep in mind that he _knows _we can track him, and he doesn't want to risk getting caught just by opening a portal so he could have some time to himself."

"Yes, but if he were to just travel from one universe to the other, the portal would be open and closed before SHUSH could ever mobilize it's troops." Hooter pointed out. "Negaduck would be gone long before we ever got there, and furthermore..."

"The fact that Negaduck sent a note to SHUSH saying what he was going to do is proof that he has no intention of going to the Negaverse!" Darkwing said, raising his voice. "Think about it, J. Gander! He's _announced _he's going to take time off! He _knows _that's going to be the perfect time to capture him! He _knows _that SHUSH will no doubt be on the lookout for where he'll be, and he _knows _that the Negaverse will be the most obvious place for him to go! So, to save his own skin, he's not going there!"

"But suppose he..." Hooter began.

"Hooter!" Darkwing exclaimed, pushing the doctor who had been in the middle of taking his blood pressure aside, "You hired me as a SHUSH vigilante and freestyle agent so you could have a distinct outlook at this world from _beyond _the paperwork filled world of SHUSH! That's what I'm doing! _Don't _ignore it!"

"But what if you're wrong?" Hooter asked.

"I'M NOT WRONG!" Darkwing roared.

Silence fell, as everyone was too stunned to move. Darkwing fumed heavily for a few moments, calming down somewhat.

"DW, are you okay?" Launchpad asked. "That's the third time..."

"Shut up Launchpad!" Darkwing said, and then turned back to Hooter. "Are we _done _with this yet?"

"Well..." Hooter began, a little hesitant, "...we need to finish getting your blood pressure, and then..."

Darkwing grabbed the cuff from the doctor next to him, strapped it to his arm, then held it out for the doctor to take over. A little apprehensive, the doctor obeyed, squeezing the black bulb thing to apply pressure, reading the gage all the while. Then, with a hiss, he let the pressure go. Drakwing tore the cuff off of him, and jumped off the cot.

"Darkwing, we're not..." Hooter began to object.

"C'mon LP!" Darkwing interrupted. "Let's go."

Launchpad hesitated a moment, gave Hooter and Grizzlikof an apologetic smile, then hurried after the hero. As they later flew away from the building in the Thunderquack, he was admittedly puzzled over this persistent bad mood of Darkwing's. He also sensed that Darkwing was hiding something. But why?

Launchpad had a hunch, but it hoped it was very much wrong.

* * *

"Gos, you remember Negawing?" Launchpad asked the next day.

Gosalyn froze so suddenly, Launchpad instantly regretted saying it.

"What about Negawing?" Gosalyn asked, sounding worried.

"Nothing, forget I said anything." Launchpad said quickly, turning back to the episode of _Jumpgate: Universitas_.

"Tell me, Launchpad." Gosalyn persisted.

"No, it was probably nothing." Launchpad said. "Probably just me being an idiot, so let's sit back and watch the show, and..."

Gosalyn whipped out the remote and shut off the TV in a heartbeat.

"...or not." Launchpad said.

"What about Negawing, Launchpad?" Gosalyn repeated. She was taking the subject much more seriously than Launchpad has suspected.

The pilot rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Well, have you noticed DW acting a little...odd, lately?" he asked.

"Define odd."

"Just a little vexed, is all."

"'Vexed?'"

"Yeah. Means angry, annoyed, that kind of thing. Learned that on _Are You Smarter Than a Fourth Grader _last week."

"Dad's always a bit vexed over something."

"I mean more than usual. Last night he practically exploded in front of Director Hooter. I don't see he that mad very often. And the last time DW got that mad in front of the director..."

"...he kept his anger in check." Gosalyn said pointedly, rubbing her beak in thought. "Still, I think I see your point. Last time he was really Negawing in disguise by that point."

"I'm worried DW might still have a bit of Negawing in him." Launchpad said. "He's not acting like himself."

"Launchpad, I personally made sure that Dad's negatron count was restored back to normal." Gosalyn said.

"I know, but maybe the Tron Transceiver glitched or something, and it missed a few." Launchpad suggested. "All I know is what I see, Gos. And I don't like what I see."

"Now that I think about it, Dad has been a little hot tempered lately." Gosalyn agreed. "But what can we do about it? SHUSH destroyed the transceiver, I even saw the remains. If Dad's negatron count really has been imbalanced somehow, there's no way for us to fix it."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Launchpad agreed. "But we can't let this go on for much longer. It seems to get worse with each passing day."

Gosalyn thought for a very long moment. "Maybe Dad's under a lot of stress." she reasoned. "Maybe the recent events of Negawing is affecting him."

"So what should we do about it?" Launchpad asked.

Gosalyn's face suddenly brightened. "Maybe he should see a doctor..." she suggested with a grin.

* * *

"Really, Charlie, we need to stop making a habit out of this." Christine muttered as she finished treating the cut the six-year-old duck had on his head. "You needed three stitches this time. And you're lucky that bookcase didn't fall on you."

"I'm sorry Dr. Merriweather." Charlie said softly, squeezing the stuffed otter in his hands tightly. "I didn't mean to fall."

"Just like all the times previous." Christine said, placing a band-aide over the stitched up cut and smoothing out the wrinkles. "You don't mean to do any of this, Charlie, but you do anyway. Why?"

Charlie was silent for a moment. "Because no one stops me." he finally replied.

Christine sighed. "Charlie, the caretakers at the orphanage are extremely busy." she explained. "They don't have time to deal with this kind of stuff everyday. You really need to work to stay out of trouble so this can be prevented in the future."

"But..." Charlie began, then trailed off, hanging his head. "Yes, Dr. Merriweather."

"Now, look, Charlie." Christine said, lifting the duckling's beak. "I don't want to seem mean. And you know I always like to see you. But can we try and use your head and not get into such troublesome and dangerous situations?"

Charlie nodded. "But I feel left out sometimes when I do that." he admitted.

"Well, it can happen." Christine admitted. "But that'll all change when you get adopted, I promise."

"How would you know?" Charlie asked softly. "You were never adopted."

"No, but I know someone who was, and she's more trouble than you ever will be." Christine said with a grin. She handed Charlie a lollipop. "Now cheer up. See you another day."

Charlie nodded, took the lollipop, said a quick thank you, then slipped out the door to where the orphanage caretaker was waiting for him. Grinning, Christine turned around to clean up. She didn't notice someone sneaking up on her until the person suddenly grabbed her, making her jump.

"Boo." Drake whispered with a grin in her ear.

Christine grinned. "Drake!" she exclaimed. "You startled me! What are you doing here?"

"To see my favorite doctor." Drake said, releasing her with a grin. "And besides, Gosalyn talked me into coming here. She claims I've been getting to stressed, and practically demanded that I ask you out on a date."

Christine laughed. "Sounds like Gos." she agreed.

"Indeed." Drake said with a nod. "So how does tomorrow night sound?"

Christine's smile faded. "Oh, Drake, I'm sorry, but I can't." she said apologetically. "I'm working late that night, you know that."

"I know." Drake said. "But you said nothing usually happened on those hours."

"Maybe so, but I still shouldn't shirk my duties as a doctor." Christine persisted.

"Oh, don't worry about it, and let's just go and have a fun night together." Drake said dismissively.

"Drake, suppose an emergency case comes in, and they need my help?" Christine said.

"Since when does that happen?"

"It could happen at any time of the night, and you of all people should know that!" Christine exclaimed, frustrated at Drake's unnatural lack of understanding. "Now I'm sorry, but we just can't do that on that night. Perhaps another night we could..."

"No, it has to be tomorrow night!"

"And may I ask why?"

"Because I have everything set and ready already!"

"Drake, you prepared for a night out that you knew I couldn't do for you?"

"I figured it wasn't that big of a deal, that I could you talk you out of working that night!"

"_Talk me out of it_?" Christine repeated, ludicrous. "Drake, we could be talking about people's lives here!"

"It's not that important!" Drake exclaimed, starting to turn red with rage. "Now you will go with me tomorrow night or so help me..." he trailed off, and suddenly looked like he was trying to calm himself down. Clutching his head in his hands, he started for the door. "Forget it, forget it!" he exclaimed. "Sorry to have bothered you, Chris."

Christine watched him go, wide-eyed. Then, shaking her head, went over to a phone and dialed a number, waiting anxiously for a reply.

"Hello?"

"Gos?" Christine said. "Look, I'm sorry, but it didn't work. I think I may have even gotten him madder, and quite possibly doesn't want anything to do with me for the moment."

"Dang it." Gosalyn cursed. "I thought for sure that would work."

"You're right, though." Christine continued. "Something's not right with Drake. I just wish we could figure out what it is..."

* * *

As they all got ready for patrol that night, Crimson watched Darkwing closely, looking for clues. Techno, who had been informed of the situation, watched Crimson watch Darkwing.

"Really, Gos, I think you're overreacting." Techno said, pulling on a boot. "He hasn't done anything wrong. He's just been a little angry lately. It could happen to anyone."

"But it's not like him." Crimson persisted.

"I say we just leave him be for a few days." Techno persisted, strapping the boot and standing up. "He'll snap out of it on his own, you'll see."

Crimson glanced at Techno, wishing she could feel so confident.

The tower's landline phone suddenly rang. Darkwing, being the closest, answered it.

"Hello?" he said into the receiver. "Yeah?...we're just about to head out now...okay...sure thing, we'll be right there." he hung up and turned to face the others. "That was Officer Matthew at the police department." he explained. "He's asked we hurry on over to help him with a prisoner."

"Who do you think it is, DW?" Launchpad asked.

"Dunno, LP." Darkwing replied, as they headed over to the Thunderquack. "But we're going to find out."

* * *

"Sorry about calling you guys for this." Matthew explained once the gang had arrived at the station. "But we're short a few hands around here because we're investigating a convenience store robbery across town. Besides, he specifically asked for you guys, and this guy just really wants to go home. Figure it wouldn't hurt either way, but I worry about this guy's mental health. He was talking about some very odd things earlier."

"Don't worry, Matt, we deal with the odd every day." Crimson said. "This should be a piece of cake."

"Well, he's in here." Matthew said, opening the door to lead into the station's in-house jail. "Hey, you! You're ride's here!"

The prisoner in the cell looked up from where he sat on a bench. But long before that, Darkwing and the gang stopped dead in their tracks in the door, staring at the figure in the cell.

It was Drake Mallard.

"It's about time!" he exclaimed, standing up. "Took you long enough to get here! I just about had to..." he trailed off, his eyes falling upon the stone-faced-but-stunned Darkwing. He narrowed his eyes and fell silent.

Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno all exchanged puzzled glances. Matthew blinked, sensing their surprise, but not understanding why.

"Is there something wrong?" the officer asked.

"Oh yes, Matt." Darkwing said flatly. "Something's very wrong indeed."

He glared at Drake, who merely glared back.

* * *

"You know, you guys didn't have to blindfold me." Drake muttered as they plopped him into the command chair back at the tower and started tying him to it. "I know perfectly where the hideout is."

"I'm not taking any chances." Darkwing replied, as he watched the others work, letting them do it all.

"Your loss." Drake muttered.

Crimson gave the rope one final tug, then stepped back to join Darkwing. Launchpad joined them. Techno whipped off the blindfold over Drake's eyes before following them. Drake blinked a few times, then leveled his eyes at his captors.

"All right, you." Darkwing began. "I want some answers from you, and you're going to give them to me."

"No, I won't." Drake said flatly. "I'm going to refuse, and you know I will too."

Darkwing's glare narrowed. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Shouldn't you know?" Drake asked.

"Answer the question." Darkwing demanded.

Drake did not reply.

"Why are you here?" Darkwing asked next.

Drake still did not reply.

"What did you tell Matt?"

Silence.

"How do you know what you know?"

More silence.

"Answer me, dang it!" Darkwing exclaimed.

Drake still did not reply.

"I think he's really not going to answer." Techno said, looking mildly surprised.

"Something's not right about this." Crimson said, her brow furrowed.

"Oh it _isn't_." Darkwing agreed. "On _so_ many levels." he stopped to think. "But, there's more than one way to get the answers we need, and I just know how to do it." he started off for the Thunderquack. "LP, come with. We're going to SHUSH to get something."

"Um, okay." Launchpad said, and followed.

"So...we're staying here to watch him, then?" Crimson asked, as this hadn't been made clear.

"Like a hawk." Darkwing said as he climbed into the jet. "And if he for any reason starts talking while I'm gone, contact me _immediately_."

"I highly doubt he'll do anything of the sort." Techno said. "He's too tightlipped at the moment."

"Just do it, Tech." Darkwing said, as Launchpad started the jet and lowered the hatch. "We'll be back shortly."

The floor under the jet suddenly opened, and the plane vanished into the gap, sliding down to the bottom. The floor closed back up after it. A few moments later, the jet could be seen shooting out of Audubon Bay several feet away from the tower. The moment this happened, Drake started struggling at his bonds.

"Oh good, I thought he'd never leave." he muttered as he struggled, wiggling the seat. "Crimson, Techno, quick, untie me."

Crimson and Techno looked at one another, then back at Drake with contemptuous expressions.

"Why?" they asked together.

"Oh, you mean to tell me you haven't noticed yet?" Drake bemoaned as he continued to struggle. "I would've thought it would've been obvious by now! _I'm _Drake Mallard!"

"That's what you claim." Crimson said. "You told Matthew that back at the station."

"It's true!" Drake said. "And if you'll free me, I'll prove it, too!"

"So who's Darkwing then?" Techno asked, not buying this.

"Well..." Drake began, pausing for a moment. "He's Drake Mallard too, I guess. Just of a different sort."

"Uh-huh."

"Look, let me try it another way." Drake said, and stopped to think. "Has Darkwing been acting any different lately? Y'know, odd in any way?"

"Define odd." Crimson said.

"Like, getting really vexed over silly stuff."

Crimson paused, and frowned. "Have you been talking with Launchpad?" she asked.

"Not for several days, no." Drake said, grinning as he saw he was getting through to them. "Look, I can tell that I'm right, so just play along for a moment. Now, about when do you think all of that odd behavior began?"

"Oh, I dunno, sometime earlier this week." Crimson said.

"Right when Negaduck sent the note that he was going on leave, right?"

Crimson and Techno exchanged glances again.

"What are you getting at?" Techno asked.

"I'm getting at the fact that something happened at that time!" Drake said. "Me, the _real _Drake Mallard you know and love, was swapped out with _another _Drake Mallard, who's almost perfectly identical, who's been filling the spot ever since."

"Almost perfect, because the double has a temper problem." Techno said.

"You know, this is oddly starting to make sense." Crimson admitted.

"Of course it is, because it's all true!" Drake said.

"So who's the Drake Mallard look-alike who has a temper problem?" Techno asked. "Someone we know?"

"Yes!" Drake said.

"So Darkwing who just left isn't who he claims to be." Crimson stated.

Drake nodded. "That's what I'm getting at!" he exclaimed. "Darkwing's not Darkwing at all! He's Negaduck!"

* * *

The Thunderquack landed on the rooftop landing pad at SHUSH with a bump. Popping open the hatch, Darkwing climbed out and started across the roof. Launchpad started to follow.

"No, you stay here, LP." Darkwing ordered. "I shouldn't be long."

"Okay, DW." Launchpad said, staying in the jet. "I'll just keep myself busy here. I have some string I can play Cat's Cradle with."

Darkwing rolled his eyes and then entered the building. He hadn't gone far when Hooter and Grizzlikof hurried over to greet him.

"Darkwing!" he exclaimed. "I must admit, we weren't expecting you here!"

"Why are you here?" Grizzlikof growled.

"A bit of a situation, J. Gander." Darkwing explained, continuing onward. "Tonight we encountered a new Darkwing double."

"_Another_?" Hooter repeated. "This seems to becoming a bit of a tradition."

"A very annoying one at that." Darkwing said. "The situation's under control though. He went down without a fight. Currently, me and the gang has him tied up at our hideout, and we tried getting answers out of him, but he's not talking."

"So you need our help?" Hooter guessed.

"To a certain extent, yes." Darkwing admitted. "I believe I already know who or what he is, but I need to check something first, and the answer's in the SHUSH data core. I need private access to it so I can find out if my theory's right."

"I wish you had called ahead first, but we can do that." Hooter said, clapping Darkwing on the back. "Follow me, and we'll get you set up."

He lead Darkwing into a room filled with computers. It was already empty, so Hooter merely typed in the master password into a computer, then headed for the door, motioning for Grizzlikof to follow.

"We'll leave you to your work, Darkwing." Hooter said, grinning. "Call us when you're finished."

"Will do, J. Gander." Darkwing said cheerfully, saluting Hooter as the door closed.

The moment it had, Darkwing sat down to the computer and started to work. He had the system search for all materials relating to transdimensional portals. Skimming through the results, he opened up files at random, until he found one titled "transdimensional portal tracking system." Grinning, he opened it and looked over it's contents breifly.

That done, he pulled a thumb drive from his pocket and shoved it into the USB port on the computer, and started downloading files directly into the tracking system. Darkwing grinned again. Everything was going according to plan...

* * *

"Negaduck's plan was devilishly clever." Darkwing explained, dressed in costume now and rode behind Crimson as she drove the Ratcatcher to SHUSH HQ. "In the dead of night, he slipped into our house out of costume, tracked me down in my study, where I was doing some late-night reading, and then quietly attacked me, subduing me, tying me up, and throwing me into our own car and drove me off to a warehouse that _could _be the Fearsome Five's current hideout to leave me. He presumable then went back and took on the role of Drake Mallard."

"It's so obvious!" Crimson exclaimed, mentally kicking herself. "Why didn't we see it sooner?"

"So did Negaduck just leave you, by yourself, at the possible Fearsome Five hideout?" Techno asked, sitting in the sidecar as always.

"I wish." Darkwing said. "No, Negs is too smart for that. He locked me up in a cage, and then left Quackerjack to guard me. Boy, that laugh of his got annoying real fast."

"But you weren't in costume." Crimson stated. "Did Quackerjack know who you _really _were?"

"No, just that I was some poor schmuck that had gotten on Negaduck's bad side." Darkwing replied. "He had no clue I was Darkwing when in costume."

"How do you know for sure?" Techno asked.

"Quackerjack's constant taunting pretty much gave it away, Tech." Darkwing assured him.

"You said that this warehouse was possibly the Fearsome Five's hideout." Crimson said. "Did you see anyone else of the gang while you were there?"

"No, not one." Darkwing said. "That's why I have my doubts. And after we're finished here, it'll probably be pointless to go look, and no doubt the group's gone and cleaned up any and all evidence of them being there."

"So how did you escape, Darkwing, sir?" Techno asked.

"Oh, well, that was easy." Darkwing said. "Quackerjack had been...'playing', with me all week, but because I was in a cage, I wasn't 'much fun.' So he eventually got bored and finally fell asleep, leaning against the side of the cage. I stole the key from him, opened the cage door, and hightailed it. Since I had already figured out that Negaduck had taken my place back home, I went to the police instead, and tried to explain to Matt, being careful not to reveal too much, what had happened. As you know, he didn't believe a word of it, and locked me in that cell. After raging on for several moments over that, I calmed down and asked if he could call in you guys. Which he did, and, well, you know the rest."

"So what's Negaduck's plan?" Crimson asked.

"I'm in the dark about that one." Darkwing admitted. "A whole mess of theories immediately come to mind, but most likely Negs wanted to spy on us all."

"Subterfuge doesn't seem like Negaduck's style." Techno commented.

"No, it isn't." Darkwing agreed. "So there's probably a bigger objective underlying all of that."

"So what's _our _plan?" Crimson amended.

"Stop Negaduck, and reveal him as fraud." Darkwing said. "You said he's at SHUSH. No doubt he's there trying to convince J. Gander that _I'm _the fraud, at the very least. We'll have to rip off his false feathers."

"But how?" Techno asked. "He and Launchpad took the Thunderquack, and that's on the roof. By the time we get up there, Negaduck could've figured out what's happened and hightailed it himself."

"Don't worry, I've got a way around that." Crimson said, turning the Ratcatcher into an alley suddenly and up a fire escape.

"Oh no." Techno said, realizing what Crimson planned to do as the Ratcatcher reached the roof of the building neighboring the shorter SHUSH building...

* * *

"Well, Darkwing, I hope you found what you were looking for." Hooter said as he walked with Darkwing back to the roof, Grizzlikof silently following in their wake.

"I think I might've, yes." Darkwing replied. "We'll have to see."

"Well, keep us informed, and call is if you need help." Hooter said as they reached the roof.

"I will, thank you." Darkwing said, and then turned to walk towards the Thunderquack.

He motioned to Launchpad to start up the engine, but Launchpad wasn't watching, and was instead looking across the street. Puzzled, Darkwing turned and looked in time to see the Ratcatcher jump off the roof of the building that sat across the street from the SHUSH building, sail across the air, and land with a thump on the roof of the SHUSH building, skidding to a halt.

Another Darkwing hopped off the motorbike while it was still in motion and pulled out his gas gun, pointing it at the first Darkwing.

"Hold it right there, Negaduck!" the armed Darkwing exclaimed.

A moment of silence fell. Hooter and Grizzlikof, dumbfounded, simply stared at the sight of two Darkwings. Launchpad, sitting in the Thunderquack, stood up. Crimson and Techno climbed off the Ratcatcher and joined the second Darkwing.

The first Darkwing grinned. "Should've known you'd show up." he said.

"Cut the act, Negs, we know it's you under that mask." Techno said flatly.

"Oh really?" the first Darkwing said. "How do you know that I'm the real Darkwing, and the Darkwing you're with is Negaduck pretending to be Darkwing?"

Crimson and Techno glanced at each other, realizing that they didn't.

"Oh, you won't fool them, Negs." the second Darkwing assured the first. "I've got them wrapped around my finger."

"Which is a pretty dubious comment coming from someone professing to be a crime fighter." the first Darkwing said with a smirk.

The second Darkwing blanked out for a moment, then scowled, and marched towards the first. The first moved to intercept him halfway there.

"Darkwing...er...whichever one you are." Hooter said suddenly. "The last time we encountered this problem, things weren't exactly sorted out on the best of terms. Besides, if _you're _Darkwing, then why is this Darkwing here on peaceful terms, and done nothing to attack? I'm sorry to say that I'm more inclined to believe the first Darkwing to be the real one."

The two Darkwings walked towards each other, and simultaneously pointed fingers at each other.

"Don't you believe it, J. Gander." the two remarked at the same time. "This fiend is my arch nemesis Negaduck!"

The two stopped for a moment, looking at each other, then both jointly frowned.

"Not again!" they exclaimed together. "Look, _you're _the venomous villain known as Negaduck!"

Again, the two stopped, realizing this wasn't getting them anywhere.

"I beg to differ!" they both started saying again. "_You're _the erroneous executor of evil known as Negaduck! Ooh, would you cut that out?!"

The two stopped and glared at each other for a long moment. The others watched on, suddenly unable to tell who was who anymore. Suddenly, one Darkwing pointed behind the other.

"Look!" he exclaimed. "It's a fuzzy-wuzzy bunny!"

The other Darkwing had his gas gun out in a flash, and started waving it around behind him. "Where? _Where?_"

Everyone quickly pulled out their weapons, including Hooter and Grizzlikof, and pointed them at the Darkwing they now knew to be Negaduck.

Darkwing grinned. "Works every time." he said.

Negaduck looked back at his double and grinned. "Very clever." he remarked.

He then whirled around and fired a gas cartridge at Darkwing, knocking him back and engulfing the two in smoke. Hooter and Grizzlikof fired blindly into the smoke, but their shots didn't hit anything. Darkwing, meanwhile, surged forward and tackled Negaduck, and knocked both of them backwards and out of the cloud of smoke. They started rolling around fighting, but once again, no one else knew who was who.

All they could do was stand and watch the two fight it out...that is until they both toppled off the edge. Down they fell, until Darkwing quickly lashed out and grabbed the edge of a windowsill halfway down the building. Negaduck dangled from his leg.

"Must you always mess things up for me?" Negaduck called out as they dangled there.

"Like I've said before, it's all part of the job description!" Darkwing called down to him. "Must be in yours, too, because you're always messing things up for me!"

"You got that right!" Negaduck said, enraged, and tugged on Darkwing's leg.

Darkwing struggled to hold on, but Negaduck finally pulled them both into a free fall again, tumbling all the way down into a neighboring alley. Smashing into a pile of shredded documents disposed of from the SHUSH building, the two pulled themselves free from each other, and started fighting again with their fists.

Meanwhile, the front doors to the building banged open, and the Ratcatcher surged out of them with Crimson driving, bounced down the steps, and skidded around, turning to head to the side of the building Darkwing and Negaduck were at. Techno, Launchpad, Hooter, and Grizzlikof were chasing after the bike on foot.

Rearing around the corner and seeing the two doubles fighting, Crimson knew that the only way to sort this out was to get the pair separated. Taking aim, Crimson fired a claw like device on a rope from the nose of the Ratcatcher. It grabbed what would later be revealed to be Negaduck around the middle, and dragged him off his feet as the Ratcatcher zipped past the repair. As he was dragged off, Negaduck latched onto Darkwing, and dragged him along with him. Taking Darkwing's gas gun, he fired a single cartridge of smoke, and all three of them and the Ratcatcher vanished in the resulting cloud of smoke.

The Ratcatcher was heard coming to a stop. Techno and the others skidded to a stop outside the edges of the cloud of smoke, and waited anxiously for the smoke to fade. Finally, it did, and Crimson and only one Darkwing were revealed to be standing there, dusting himself off. Everyone pointed their weapons at him, unsure if he was the real deal.

He threw up his hands in defense. "Hey, hey, hey!" he exclaimed. "It's me, the real Darkwing!"

"Prove it." Grizzlikof growled.

Darkwing turned to Crimson. "Remember the incident with the peanut butter, the sealing wax, and my VCR?" he asked her.

Crimson lowered her weapon with a grin. "Good enough, Darkwing." she said.

Everyone relaxed, lowering their weapons.

"But I don't get it." Launchpad said. "Where's Negaduck?"

"Escaped, apparently." Darkwing admitted. "Clearly, he used the smoke as cover. It's safe to say that he's not going to be causing much more trouble tonight, though."

Hooter was shaking his head. "I feel like an idiot." he said. "I let Negaduck have access to the SHUSH computer core in it's _entirety_."

"_That's _what he was here for?" Crimson asked.

Hooter nodded. "Who knows what he could've done to out systems?" he asked rhetorically.

"Will take months to find out." Grizzlikof added gravely.

"Well, at least we've revealed Negs for who he truly is, that's what's important for now." Darkwing said, dusting off his fedora and placing it on his head.

"I'm still not so sure." Techno said. "Negaduck's Darkwing's double. He could easily know everything Darkwing does. How do we _truly _know you are who you say you are?"

Darkwing thought about that for a moment. "You don't." he admitted. "I guess you'll just have to trust me."

Grinning jokingly, though, he walked off, leaving everyone else a little unsure about all of this.


	41. Mission File 24

Summary: Something is happening that has caused the unlikeliest of people to join forces to confront the common enemy...

Rating: T

Author's Note: There's a lot I could say about this chpt., but because I love building the suspense, and this chpt. is full of that, I'm not saying a thing. Some fun facts are included at the end, however. :)

41.

Mission File 24

"Gos, I'm not so sure about this." Drake remarked, sitting on the couch and idly staring at the TV screen where an animated DVD menu played, awaiting someone to start it playing.

"Dad, you need to see this." Gosalyn said from within the kitchen, where the popping sound of popcorn could be heard. "And since you've been refusing to watch it on your own time, you've forced me to take drastic measures." she walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. "Hence why we're doing a _Jumpgate _marathon tonight."

"C'mon, Gos, I have no interest in the show." Drake persisted, not for the first time. "I don't mind you and LP watching it, but really, why must I have to watch it?"

"Because you're my dad, and I'll be darned if I ever let him not watch the best sci-fi show in human history." Gosalyn said, leaning back and snuggling herself into the couch.

"That's pushing it." Drake grunted.

"C'mon dad, we'll start slow." Gosalyn promised. "We'll just start with season one of _Jumpgate _and work up from there. By tomorrow morning, we should have finished season ten, and be ready to start season four of _Jumpgate: Avalon_, in perfect chronological order."

"That'll take all night." Drake pointed out.

"So what?" Gosalyn asked. "We're all night owls here, with our line of work and all. Besides, July's just beginning. It's not like there's school or anything like that."

Thunder boomed and lightning flashed outside as the rainstorm that had been pouring down rain on St. Canard for most of the day continued on, full force.

"Besides," Gosalyn said, pointing out the front window, "who'd go cause crime in this weather?"

"Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll knock out the power." Drake muttered.

"Oh, dad, quite being so negative." Gosalyn said. "Just give the show a chance. You'll like it, I promise. We'll begin as soon as the popcorn's ready."

"Which should be any moment now!" Launchpad called from within the kitchen, the sound of the popcorn popping still audible. "I'm almost done here!"

"Now remember, LP, don't burn it this time!" Gosalyn called.

"I won't!" Launchpad replied. "I think I've got it down this time!"

The doorbell suddenly rang. Drake and Gosalyn turned to look at the front door.

"Now who would be here at this time of night, at this hour?" Gosalyn asked, perplexed.

"I dunno, but I'll get it!" Drake said, quickly jumping up and hurrying to the door, thankful for an excuse to getaway.

"All right, but you come right back, Dad." Gosalyn said, leaning back to watch the animated menu on the TV play. "Don't go making any escape attempts, you hear?"

"Gos, if I really wanted to try and escape, there's nothing you could do to stop me." Drake called back as he opened the front door. "Not right away anyway." He turned to look out the door at the rainy night, and instantly froze.

Negaduck was standing there on his front porch, in full Negaduck attire, dripping wet due to the heavy rain. He gave Drake a half cruel-half amused grin.

"Good evening, Drake." he greeted softly.

* * *

Drake was floored, and simply stood there for several long moments, staring at Negaduck with wide eyes, his beak hanging loosely. He seemed to be unable to speak. Negaduck was clearly enjoying it, because his grin grew a bit bigger. Finally, Gosalyn, who was trying to eavesdrop and sensed something was wrong, came over to join Drake.

"Who's at the door, Dad?" she asked, as she approached. She stopped when she saw Negaduck standing there, and for a moment, reacted like her father had. Finally, she snapped out of it. "Launchpad!" she called.

"Yeah?"

"Get in here. The party's over."

Soon, a very puzzled Launchpad joined the group. He, too, froze at the open door when he saw Negaduck. For several long moments, no one spoke. Lightning flashed behind Negaduck, outlining his figure momentarily. Finally, Negaduck shook his head, and broke the silence.

"Well, are you guys going to be the goodie-goodies you are and invite me in, or are you going to leave me out in this accursed rain?" he asked flatly.

Drake moved to block Negaduck from entering, even though Negaduck made no move to. "Give me one good reason, Negs." he said.

"Well, it's no big deal, really." Negaduck said, acting innocent. "Clearly, I'm not here to attack, otherwise I would've done so by now, wouldn't I? Besides, you have me out-numbered. And I'm not armed." he held up his hands to signify this. Drake still made no move to let him enter. "I'm not going anywhere until you hear me out, Drake." Negaduck went on. "But, if you aren't going to be agreeable, I wonder what your neighbors will think if they look out the window and see Darkwing's arch nemesis standing out here in the rain on _your _doorstep. Maybe, while I'm out here, I'll mime out a few clues to them, so they can put two with two, and..."

"All right, all right, get in here!" Drake said, unblocking the way. "But you better have a dang good reason."

"Oh, I believe I do, Drake." Negaduck said, stepping inside, closing the door behind him, and shaking water off of him. "Oh, and before I forget, be warned. I may have been followed."

"Followed?" Launchpad repeated, puzzled.

"First things first." Drake interrupted, folding his arms. "Gos, frisk him."

Gosalyn nodded, and started giving Negs the pat-down.

"I'm unarmed." Negaduck repeated again.

It didn't take Gosalyn long to find the 9mm pistol hidden at Negaduck's waist. Pulling it out, she held it in front of Negs's face.

"Then what's this?" she asked, giving him a contemptuous look.

Negaduck glanced at the pistol for a moment, then shrugged, not acting like he cared. "I wasn't going to use it on you guys." he said. "Scout's honor."

"Ha, that'll be the day." Gosalyn said, handing the weapon to Drake, and resumed frisking.

Drake thought for a moment. "You wouldn't happen to have a certain portal remote on hand, would you?" he asked curiously.

Negaduck gave him an 'are-you-serious?' look. "I'm not that stupid, Drake." he said.

"Cut it out with this Drake business, it's creeping me out." Drake said with a shudder. "It makes you seem...well-mannered."

"I assure, that's the very last thing I want." Negaduck said.

Gos finished her frisking and turned to Drake. "Save the pistol, he really is unarmed." she announced.

"All right, now we get down to business." Drake said, and jabbed a finger into Negaduck's chest. "Why are you here, Negs?"

"Well, it's not because I want to be here, I'll grant you that much." Negaduck said, pushing Drake's finger off of him and wiping his yellow jacket. "But I have a problem that's right up your alley."

"And since when have you ever come to me with your problems?" Drake asked, glaring at Negaduck.

"Since I got a problem that could be a problem to the both of us." Negaduck said, and ventured further into the house, looking around as he did so. "Y'know, this place really is kind of nice. All it needs is a mess here, an axe there, maybe some blood spilt on the carpet and some splattered on that tacky wallpaper, a few broken windows..."

"Stay on topic, Negs." Gosalyn interrupted as they followed Negaduck into the living room. "Why are you here?"

Negaduck turned and looked back at the group, and grinned. "Well, I'll make it simple." he said. "I believe the Fearsome Five has been compromised."

"Compromised? By who?" Drake asked, a little surprised.

"That's the mystery." Negaduck said, slapping his arms against his sides in defeat.

"So how does this involve us?" Gosalyn asked, frowning.

"You guys are going to figure it out." Negaduck said.

"Oh, we are, are we?" Drake asked sarcastically.

"Oh yes." Negaduck said. "Because I know that whoever's compromised the Fearsome Five isn't going to stick with the Fearsome Five. Sooner or later, they'll spread, and eventually they'll be after you guys too."

* * *

"As far as I can tell, it started simply." Negaduck said, flopping down on the vacant couch, and putting his webbed feet on the coffee table. "But there isn't any real way to tell for sure. I happened to be away on business at the time I believe it happened. Working on an evil scheme I'm saving for a later date."

"Which is?" Drake prompted.

"Like I'd tell you." Negduck grumbled, then went on. "But when I got back to the gang, something was off. Something had changed. I wasn't sure what at first, but then I finally realized Bushroot was acting odd. No big deal at first, the veg head always acts odd every now and again. But then it spread to Rowe, almost like a disease."

"Is it?" Launchpad asked, looking alarmed.

"No, I assure you, that was the very first thing I checked out." Negaduck said. "Then I confronted both of them, demanded they tell me what was going on. But they only told me answers I wanted to hear."

"In other words, lies." Drake summarized.

Negaduck nodded. "Complete bullcrap. I think they knew I didn't buy it, too." he shook his head. "They started being more careful after that, and for awhile I convinced myself to think everything was fine and dandy again. But then I noticed Megavolt starting to act odd, and Quackerjack and even my own Gosalyn quickly followed. It was then I decided to get out of there while I still could, because I _know _I'm next. They're out to get me, I know it."

"Hence why you think you could've been followed." Gosalyn summarized.

"So you led them straight here?" Drake asked loudly, angered at the idea.

"I didn't have anywhere else to go!" Negaduck exclaimed, standing up. "You should be flattered, Drake. I'm coming to you, of all people, for help. And if it helps any, I don't want, whoever these guys are, getting at you either. We can both agree that would be a _very _bad thing, indeed."

"So your saying we need to unite to face the greater enemy." Launchpad guessed.

"Because they must truly be the greater enemy." Negaduck said. "They've infiltrated my gang with the greatest of ease, and leaving little to suspect. And they're keeping their plans perfectly secret. All I know is that they intend to spread and infiltrate other groups, if not all of St. Canard."

He held out his hand to Drake, expectantly. Drake sighed in exasperation.

"You in or out?" Negaduck asked.

Drake stared at the offered hand for a moment, then finally put his in and shook.

"I'm in." he said with a glare. "But just this once, you hear? And don't make me regret it, either."

Negaduck grinned. "Promise." he said.

Drake nodded once, and headed for the chairs that led to Darkwing Tower. "Right, if we're going to do this, we're going to need to get into costume. Oh, and place a call with a friend, and get his opinion."

"I'm not sure if that's wise, Drake." Negaduck interrupted. "You don't know who to trust. These guys could be anywhere."

"Oh, but we can trust this guy." Drake said with a grin as he placed himself in a chair in preparation to leave.

* * *

"This is really weird." Techno muttered as he sat in the command chair at the tower's supercomputer.

"Define weird." Negaduck asked.

Techno turned to face him. "I've never had to work with the likes of you before, Negaduck." he said flatly. "I don't want to make a habit out of it, either."

Negaduck gave him a glare, and stuck out his tongue at Techno. Techno did likewise in response.

"All right you two, act like grown men here." Darkwing said, stepping up onto the platform, adjusting his hat as he did so. "What have you got, Tech, anything?"

"Well, I've been analyzing the data Negaduck has provided and crunched a few numbers." Techno said, turning back to look up at the big screen. "And I see two possible course of actions."

"Which are?" Crimson prompted, standing nearby.

"Well, plan A is to go and raid the Fearsome Five's hideout, and see if we can grab someone and get some answers out of him." Techno said, scrolling through the data.

"I like that idea." Negaduck said. "Has some dramatic flare to it."

"But there are several drawbacks to it." Techno went on. "There's only a chance we'll get what we need, and not a very good one at that. More likely, the attack will be done in vain, and the Fearsome Five will simply scatter upon our arrive. It will also ruin our element of surprise."

"Right, we show up and attack, and we reveal that we're onto them." Crimson said.

"And possibly force them to step up on their plans, something we don't want to do just yet, as we don't know what their plans are yet." Darkwing added.

"So a no go on the raid?" Negaduck asked, looking put out.

"Yes, Negs, that would be a no." Darkwing agreed with a sigh of exasperation.

"So what else can we do?" Launchpad asked.

"We go for the stealth tactic." Techno said. "Try and get more information before we make our next move. Maybe once we have a better idea of what we're dealing with, we can move on and attack."

Negaduck moved to object, but Darkwing quickly moved to cut him short. "I like that idea better." he agreed quickly. "Where do you think you should start?"

"Where Negaduck says it all began." Techno said, turning around and pulling up a map of St. Canard, and zooming in at a certain location. "With Bushroot."

* * *

Bushroot's green house stood out on the hill it sat upon, all alone. Lightning flashed from the rainstorm that was still going on, and cast the structure in a bath of light. Getting reflected through the glass walls of the structure, it made the building to almost seem to glow, giving it a very eerie look.

Regardless, Darkwing and the gang approached the building while suppressing their fears. Carefully opening the greenhouse's door, Darkwing, who was leading the group, looked inside, up and down, and all around.

"All clear, save the plants." he whispered, opening the door all the way to permit everyone to enter and get out of the rain.

Techno gave the room a sweep with his visor. "I'm not detecting any sign of Bushroot, either." he reported. "He must be elsewhere."

"So, in short, the plants are safe." Negaduck said, pulling a leaf from one such plant and crumpling it up in his hands. "They're ordinary plants if Bushy's ain't around."

"Giving us the perfect chance to do some snooping." Darkwing said. "Everybody spilt, and start looking for clues. Crimson, keep an eye on Negaduck for me."

"Hey, I thought we're allies." Negaduck objected.

"No, we're enemies unwillingly working together for a change." Darkwing said, pulling out his magnifying glass and beginning his search. "I don't trust you in the slightest."

"Then I guess I won't feel as bad about not trusting you, either." Negaduck grumbled.

"Good." Darkwing said, and the search began.

For a long while, they found nothing but the usual things you'd find lying around Bushroot's greenhouse. A couple of projects the mutant plant-duck had been working on lay about, but there was nothing suspicious about them. Crimson did find the plans for some kind of genetic project, though.

"Think it might have any bearings on this case?" she asked upon showing Darkwing.

"Not likely." Negaduck muttered, listening. "Most of those projects are ones I ordered him to do."

"But not this one." Darkwing said, folding up the plans and putting them in his pocket. "Still, you could be right. Better keep it on hand just in case, though."

"Whatever." Negaduck said, and resumed searching.

Techno pulled out his seldom-used remote controlled probe from his wristband and activated it, remote controlling it with his visor, making it fly around the greenhouse. He was searching for anything out of the ordinary. Finally, it detected animal life, an odd item to find here, behind a closed, heavy metal door. Returning his probe to his wristband, Techno examined the door, touching and tapping it. He was surprised to find it was very cold.

"A walk-in freezer?" he muttered, puzzled. "Why would Bushroot need a freezer?"

"The knob does all sorts of projects, ya twit." Negaduck said, overhearing and coming over to investigate. "More than some of those undoubtably require a freezer."

"You think you found something, Tech?" Darkwing asked, coming over and bringing Crimson and Launchpad with.

"I might, Mr. Darkwing." Techno admitted. "Because there's life behind this door."

"Life?" Darkwing repeated.

"Animal life to be specific." Techno went on.

"Now that's even weirder." Crimson agreed. "Bushroot's a plant guru, he doesn't do much of anything with animal life."

"Then why is it behind the door?" Negaduck asked, annoyed.

"Maybe some kind of experiment?" Launchpad offered.

"Maybe the source to all of this trouble." Crimson said.

"Then we need to figure out what's behind that door." Darkwing said, unlatching it, and giving it a tug.

It swung open slowly to reveal it's contents. Everyone gasped at the sight, at a loss for words for several moments, even Negaduck. Finally, it was Launchpad who summed it up best.

"Holy frozen bad guys, Darkwing!" he exclaimed.

Standing in the freezer, frozen solid, was every member, save Negaduck, of the Fearsome Five...

* * *

Slowly, the group entered the chilly freezer and started examining the frozen figures.

"This is only getting all that more puzzling." Crimson remarked, circling the petrified form of Rowe, the otter covered with a thin layer of ice.

"Yeah, where does this get us?" Darkwing asked, examining Megavolt. "I mean, why would anybody put these guys in here to freeze?"

"Well, it's not Bushroot." Launchpad said, approaching the frozen mutant plant-duck.

Negaduck found NegaGosalyn among the group, as frozen as everyone else. He brushed the figure's cheek with one finger. "Whoever it is, they'll pay." he muttered.

"Well, frozen they are," Techno admitted, scanning each figure in turn with his visor, "but they're still alive."

"They are?" Darkwing said, squeezing past Quackerjack to get at Techno.

Techno nodded. "I don't know how, but they are." he said. "Their hearts are still beating at least once every minute, just enough to keep them alive. It's more like they're in cryogenic stasis, or something like that."

"Keen gear, just like in the movies." Crimson remarked.

"But that doesn't make any sense." Negaduck grumbled. "Why freeze them if you're going to keep them alive, still?"

"Because, they clearly want to keep them alive." Darkwing replied calmly.

"But why?" Launchpad asked.

"Well, one thing is for sure." Techno said, patting the arm of Megavolt. "These guys are the Fearsome Five. And they've been here for more than a week."

"So the question is..." Negaduck began, "if these guys are the _real _Fearsome Five, then who the heck are the guys who are running around St. Canard?"

"I'm working on it, give me a few moments." Darkwing said, looking around for more clues.

Techno regarded the frozen group of bad guys curiously. "Why keep them here?" he asked suddenly. "Whoever's behind us should know that this will be one of the first places we'll search."

"Maybe Negaduck really was followed." Launchpad offered.

"Then they'd know exactly what we're doing!" Negaduck exclaimed, alarmed. "They could be gathering right at this moment to attack!"

"I'll cross that bridge when we come to it, thank you." Darkwing said hotly, as he continued searching for clues.

Crimson looked around the rest of the freezer, noticing a whole plethora of other objects lining the walls on shelves.

"Keen gear." she said again. "Looks like Bushroot kept a lot of stuff in here."

Her eyes suddenly fell upon one object in particular in the back, and turned several shades paler.

"Darkwing..." she said slowly.

"What?" Darkwing grunted as he walked by searching for clues.

"You remember mission file 24, right?"

Darkwing froze, and turned to follow Crimson's gaze.

"What?" Negaduck asked. "What the heck is mission file 24?"

"Never mind that now, we need to get out of here, NOW!" Darkwing said urgently, quickly turning everyone for the exit. "We're all in danger here!"

"What?" Negaduck protested as he was dragged out the door of the freezer. "Why?"

"You could be right, Negs, the enemy could be gathering right at this moment to attack!" Darkwing said. "And if you are, _we do not want to be here_! Because this enemy just got ten times worse." he took one glance back into the freezer at the object in the back before shutting the freezer door behind them.

* * *

They didn't stop until they were safely back at the tower again. Urgently, Darkwing headed straight for the supercomputer, and, without bothering to sit down, began typing in commands. Negaduck followed, annoyed by all of this.

"So just what the heck _is _mission file 24?" he asked again.

"A case I haven't had to think about for a very long time." Darkwing admitted. "You wouldn't know about it, though, because you weren't there."

"Then how is it important?" Negaduck demanded.

"Because Bushroot was there." Darkwing said, as everyone else grouped around behind him. "I'll explain in a moment."

"Okay, then." Negaduck said. "Next question. What the heck did you see that got you so gosh darn antsy?"

"A cabbage." Crimson replied.

"A cabbage." Negaduck repeated.

"Big one." Crimson added, motioning with her hands.

At this announcement, both Techno and Launchpad grew antsy themselves, indicating that they all knew something Negaduck certainly didn't.

"It was frozen in the back of the freezer." Crimson went on. "And for good reason, too, I'll bet."

"But what's so bad about a _cabbage_?" Negaduck asked, bewildered.

"Because it was no ordinary cabbage." Darkwing said, bringing up mission file 24 on the big screen, and took a few steps back to explain while everyone else skimmed through it. "Eight to nine years ago, me and LP were called away to the St. Canard Jail where Bushroot was being held at the time."

"Heh, figures the knob was in jail at the time." Negaduck muttered.

Darkwing shot him a glare for interrupting. "Anyway, the warden wanted us to check out Bushroot, because he had been acting odd. We arrive there, and check him out. I skillfully deduce that he has in fact, died. But Launchpad, who, by the way, was blundering about searching for stupid auras..."

"Hey, they weren't stupid!" Launchpad interrupted, objecting. "They helped us many times, even helped us solve the case!"

"IT WASN'T AURAS WHO HELPED US!" Darkwing exclaimed. "There wasn't a _shred _a truth to all of that! All it was were aliens were sending you telepathic messages from deep space..."

He trailed off when he noticed Negaduck giving him an odd look.

"Okay, backing up a bit." Darkwing said. "Anyway, while Launchpad was doing all this stupid stuff, he _accidently _stumbled across evidence that Bushroot had not died, but had actually managed to escape by growing out the wall and creating a new body, leaving a dead one behind. Unable to do anymore, we head home, where then young Techno arrives and states that his folks have been acting weird. No real surprise there."

"I hear ya." Negaduck agreed.

"But upon investigating further, it was discovered that they had been acting even weirder than before." Darkwing went on. "_And _they had vanished without a trace. Their house was a mess; it turns out Binkie had been gardening inside the house. We found several clues, including a gardening video that pointed to the country town of Twin Beaks, that Bushroot was there, and a very, very, big cabbage."

"I'm still waiting to see a connection, here." Negaduck muttered.

"Will you be quiet, and let him talk?" Crimson interrupted, elbowing the villain in the ribs.

"So, naturally, we went straight to Twin Beaks." Darkwing went on. "Launchpad went on spouting about auras and stuff, as well as things such as cows and logs giving him advice. We ignored it, and moved on. At Twin Beaks, however, we found things were weird here, as well. The people were _obsessed _with cabbages, and there were hundreds of the monstrous things everywhere! I was convinced Bushroot was behind it all, but LP claimed he was innocent."

"No I didn't, the log did." Launchpad objected.

"Quit interrupting!" Darkwing exclaimed. "Anyway, in a diner, we meet up with Tech's aunt, who confirms that the Muddlefoots are here, and directs Techno out to meet them. Last we see of him for a little while."

"For good reason." Techno added.

"Then Launchpad suggests listening to the log, and I humor him, and agree." Darkwing went on. "We start wandering around in the woods, and finally _I _find another dead body of Bushroot, which, admittedly, blasts my theory about Bushroot being behind it all out of the water. Crimson then runs off to find Techno. Last I see of _her _for awhile."

"For good reason." Crimson added. Negaduck shot her an odd look.

"Meanwhile, LP finally talks me into trying his way and try and solve the case using auras and subconscious minds and all of that crazy stuff." Darkwing proceeds to tell. "Frankly, though, it didn't get me anywhere. Then Crimson and Techno turn up, and then I meet up with...well...a cow."

"A _cow_?" Negaduck repeated, skeptical.

"She was an alien cow from the planet Larson on the far side of galaxy!" Crimson interrupted. "And she was here working to stop an invasion of mutated cabbages coming to Earth to duplicate everyone and take over the planet and recapture them all."

"_Ohhh_, that makes _perfect _sense." Negaduck said mockingly.

"Well, it's also perfectly true." Darkwing said, picking up on the story again. "That was exactly the case. They were waiting on reenforcements to come, though, and in the meantime, had been sending subconscious messages about the danger to simple-minded people like LP, and had hired Bushroot to spy on the cabbages, who was also the log Launchpad was going about giving him directions and stuff. They needed us to keep the invasion from spreading out from Twin Beaks until the reenforcements arrive, which we did. And a spectacular battle later, the plants were all back under control. The cow aliens explained that their food getting an accidental heavy dose of radiation caused the mess, and then took the cabbages and left, cleaning the mess up. And everybody lived happily ever after, the end."

"What a zanily stupid story." Negaduck remarked.

"I couldn't agree with you more on that, Negs." Darkwing said. "But the point is that happy ending is now coming to an end, several years later! Because those cabbages we encountered at Twin Peaks..." he pushed a button on the control panel, and a picture of said cabbage appeared on the big screen, "...is identical to the one we saw in Bushroot's freezer tonight!"

Negaduck rubbed his beak in thought, sorting through all of this. "Okay." he said. "Let's presume for a moment that this crazy story is actually true. Now, if the cow aliens took all the cabbages back with them, then how did one of them end up in Bushroot's freezer?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Darkwing asked. "Clearly, not all of the cabbages made it off the planet!"

"See, Bushroot was mad that the cabbages were originally food for the Larsonians." Launchpad explained. "He made a big fuss over it once it was all said and done."

"He was also quick to vanish without a trace." Crimson added.

"Right." Darkwing agreed. "As the mission file will say, we thought it was only because he didn't want to risk ending up in jail again. But, clearly now we have proof that he _really _made off with one of the cabbages! And now that cabbage has gotten loose and is trying once again to duplicate everyone and take over the world!"

"Which also means that the Fearsome Five were acting odd because they weren't really the Fearsome Five." Techno added. "They were really duplicates."

"And now they're going to want to duplicate us all." Crimson asked.

"But I don't get it." Launchpad said. "If Bushroot's really had this cabbage for eight to nine years, then why is all of this only happening _now_?"

"I was just going to ask that." Negaduck agreed. "Bushroot's a total knob. He wouldn't have been able to keep these cabbage things under control for so long by himself."

Darkwing suddenly remembered something, and yanked out the plans he had pocketed back at Bushroot's greenhouse and studied it for a moment. "Because Bushroot knew the danger." he replied, laying the plans out on the control panel for everyone to see. "He was trying to figure out a way to recreate a good version of the cabbage, so he would have a friend."

"And kept the original frozen, so it couldn't do anything." Crimson said, catching on. "This explains all of these genetic experiments Bushroot's been working on over the years. It's him trying to succeed at his goals."

"Then the invasion that's happening now isn't being caused by the original cabbage, but by one of his failed experiments!" Negaduck exclaimed, also catching on. "But, if they really are going to go about replacing everybody, then why keep them alive? Why not kill the originals?"

"I dunno, but they did the same thing back at Twin Beaks." Darkwing said. "They put all of the originals into a kind of stasis to keep them out of the way."

"The whole freezer thing must be them trying to do the same thing." Crimson offered. "But why?"

"Maybe they need the originals on hand in case something happens to the duplicate and they need to replace it." Techno suggested.

"I buy that." Negaduck said. "But who knows how far this invasion could've gotten by now? The Fearsome Five have been on their own for several hours now! They could've done lots by now!"

"And they could be onto the fact that we're onto _them_." Darkwing added. "They're probably going to try and duplicate us next."

"And last time we had the help of the Larsonians!" Launchpad added. "We don't this time! They don't even know what's going on!"

"They couldn't; they're on the other side of the galaxy now." Techno said. But he paused, thinking. "But maybe, we can contact them using our links with the Galactic Federation's satellite network. Hopefully, they'll be able to send some help."

"Right." Darkwing agreed. "Tech, you get right at that. I'll stay here and help. The rest of you, rally the forces, and figure out ways to stop this invasion from spreading! We have to keep the cabbages at bay until the Larsonians get here!"

"I can run over to the hideout and keep the Fearsome Five busy." Negaduck offered. "Duplicates or not, they should still fear my wrath."

"Me and LP can go to SHUSH and explain what's going on." Crimson added. "We should have reenforcements at our side almost instantly!"

"Good, now get going!" Darkwing said. "And be on the lookout! These guys could be everywhere by now. Don't let them sneak up on you."

And everyone left to carry out their assigned tasks. Little did they know that they were being watched...

* * *

"Good heavens, an extraterrestrial situation!" Hooter exclaimed later once Crimson and Launchpad had done as promised and related the tell to the SHUSH director. "Never in all my days of having this job would I have thought it possible!"

"Complete nonsense to me." Grizzlikof stated flatly, finding the whole story a little hard to swallow.

"Maybe so, but the threat is still there." Hooter said. "We must get this situation under control, and quickly, before it's too late!"

"So you're going to send out the troops?" Launchpad asked anxiously.

"So we can have help fighting these guys?" Crimson added.

"Every last agent I have available." Hooter said, picking up his phone. "And a little more, as well."

"What do you mean?" Crimson asked, curious.

"In case an event such as this ever came up, I have recently arranged for a very special team of experts to come together and be ready to fight at the slightest call." Hooter said, dialing. "All I have to do is give the word."

"Team of experts?" Launchpad asked.

"Keen gear, like who?" Crimson asked.

"Someone you know already." Hooter said cryptically, but didn't say a word more on the matter.

* * *

"All right, you knobs, front and center!" Negaduck exclaimed as he entered the hideout.

Five villains quickly hurried out and lined up in front of him. "Yes boss?" they all chorused together. It was very like what the real Fearsome Five would do, and if Negaduck didn't know better, he'd say they were the Fearsome Five.

Fortunately, he _did _know better.

"Just what have you idiots been up to while I was gone?" he demanded, pacing back and forth in front of them. "I leave for a few hours, and look at it all!"

"Look at what, Negs?" the Bushroot duplicate gulped, playing his role well.

"At this hideout!" Negaduck roared. "It's a complete mess! What have you guys been doing, partying?"

"Well," NegaGosalyn's duplicate began, "As a matter of fact..."

"Oh, I get it." Negaduck said. "I leave to run a few errands, and you all think you're free to do whatever it is you want, is that it?"

The group cowered for a moment.

"Actually," Megavolt's duplicate began, "We thought you..."

"Never mind what you think!" Negaduck interrupted. "I want you guys to all clean up this mess, NOW! And don't stop until everything is spotless!"

"B-but Negaduck, we thought you liked messes!" Quackerjack's duplicate stuttered out.

"Well, aren't I entitled to changing my opinion?" Negaduck growled. "A lot can happen when you were out for a walk!"

"Is that what you were doing, mate?" Rowe inquired.

"What else would I be doing, otter?" Negaduck asked, sticking his face in to the duplicate's. "Hmm?"

"I d-dunno, maybe causing chaos?" Rowe's duplicate replied nervously.

"Well, you're wrong, I was out for a walk! A very long one!" Negaduck exclaimed.

"In this weather?" NegaGosalyn's duplicate asked, gesturing to the rain that was only now starting to let up.

"In this weather!" Negaduck yelled in confirmation.

"Well, I say he's bluffing." a voice interrupted suddenly.

The Fearsome Five then parted, to reveal...

"You!" Negaduck exclaimed.

Darkwarrior Duck grinned, and approached Negaduck. "How about it, Negs?" he asked. "That wasn't what you were doing, now was it?"

Negaduck stared down the extremist double. "What are you doing here?" he growled.

"Watching out for these guys backs." Darkwarrior replied, not backing down. "Because I saw with my own eyes what you're doing with Darkwing."

"You did?" Negaduck asked.

"Oh yes." Darkwarrior said, and then turned to face the Fearsome Five, not so cowering and afraid now. "He's onto our plans, guys."

Negaduck felt the color drain from his face. "They got to you, too." he realized.

"Oh yes, Negaduck." Darkwarrior's duplicate said, turning back to look at Negaduck. "And that's not all."

He pointed with one finger. Negaduck turned and bit back a gasp.

"Well, well, well, look what blew in from the rain." Negaduck's duplicate said, stepping into the light.

Negaduck froze, and looked around for an escape route, only to see he had been surrounded. He gulped.

"I should've known things were going along too easily." he muttered.

All of the duplicates then jumped him...

* * *

"Techno, last time you did this, it was to demonstrate how it worked by opening a communication to planet Mertz, and that happened too quickly to stop." Darkwing said as he anxiously paced back and forth. "So what's the hold up _this _time?"

"The mere fact that I don't know the exact location of planet Larson." Techno replied as he worked at the controls for the supercomputer. "Just that it's on the far side of galaxy. I have to have a better idea of where it is before I can connect any communications to it."

"And what's your progress on that?" Darkwing asked.

"Actually, pretty good." Techno said. "I've already got a good idea where the planet is."

"So, patch through a transmission!" Darkwing said.

"It's not that simple." Techno said. "I can't get a clear line to the planet."

"Oh great, there's always something to mess things up." Darkwing muttered.

"I have a pretty good idea why, though." Techno went on. "The Galactic Federation's network of satellites stops at the borders of known Larsonian space."

"Why?" Darkwing asked, annoyed.

"Well, apparently, according to the chatter I'm getting about them, they're not a part of the Federation." Techno explained, adjusting the earphones he wore to listen to transmissions. "The Larsonians are actually a very secretive race, probably why they told us to keep everything that had happened a secret after what happened at Twin Beaks. They try to keep and to themselves, and therefore, don't have much contact with the Federation."

"So now how are supposed to contact them?" Darkwing asked.

"Well, I have an idea." Techno said.

"I was hoping you would."

"There happens to be a Federation satellite pointing at planet Larson." Techno explained. "I can use it to send a signal out to the planet. It won't engage a communications link, but if they're listening, they'll receive our transmission and hopefully send a reply back. It may take a few moments, presuming they even get the message."

"Right now, I'm willing to try anything." Darkwing said. "Give it a shot, Tech."

Techno nodded, and began transmitting the message he had prepared. That done, he slumped back in the command chair.

"So, now we wait?" Darkwing asked.

Techno nodded. "Now we wait."

So they waited, for several minutes at that. Finally, Darkwing sighed, checking his watch.

"I don't know how much longer we can wait, Techno." He said. "Because the longer we do, the less likely we're going to be able to..."

But he was cut off when a bright light suddenly flashed outside the tower window. Both Darkwing and Techno turned to look at it. A moment later, the light intensified, drowning out everything. The next thing either of them knew, they were still in the tower, but it felt...off. The lighting was dimmed significantly, you couldn't see anything outside the windows, and all of the computer screens were in static.

Techno was able to put two with two. "I think they're replying." he said. "Remember how they talked with Launchpad using subconscious messages?"

"That must be what this is." Darkwing remarked, taking a few tentative steps forward. "A subconscious message."

"Yes." a voice said from the darkness in front of them, and the curious shape of a Larsonian, a walking, talking, cow with a space helmet, stepped forward. Darkwing recognized her as the same alien they had encountered at Twin Beaks. "And didn't we tell you to act like what had happened last time we met didn't happen?"

"Sorry." Darkwing said, stepping forward. "But there's a very good reason why we've...er...bothered you."

"See, our planet's in trouble again." Techno said, stepping forward. "The incident at Twin Beaks wasn't as completely resolved as we all first thought. One of the cabbages never got off the planet."

"Impossible." the Larsonian said. "I was assured they were all accounted for before we left."

"Well they aren't." Darkwing said. "One's still left. You remember Bushroot? Well, it turns out he stole one of the cabbages while no one was looking, and used it to experiment on over the years."

"And now one of his experiments has gotten out of control." Techno added. "What happened at Twin Beaks is happening again, but this time it's already out of control. We already have duplicates of Bushroot and all of his cohorts on the loose, and those numbers are no doubt increasing every minute."

"If we don't do something soon, all of St. Canard will be overrun with these guys, and then we're all doomed." Darkwing said. "We have to stop them."

"And you need our help." the Larsonian said.

"We can't stop them on our own, and you know it." Darkwing said. "Only you guys can."

"Hence why we called you." Techno said. "We can try to hold them back for awhile, but..."

"I understand." the Larsonian said. "Fortunately for you, we have a ship not far from your planet. It can be diverted, and be there to aide you in less than an hour. But consider this a mere favor on our part. Should this happen again, we will not step up to help you resolve your problems. It is time you and your planet started looking out for yourselves." she paused. "You'll owe us after this, as well."

"If and when we can ever repay you guys, we will." Darkwing said. "But don't hold your breath for that repayment anytime soon. We haven't gotten very far from our planet yet."

The Larsonian grinned, tilting her head. "And that's where you're wrong." she said.

And with that, another flash of light appeared, drowning out everything yet again. The next thing Darkwing knew, he was picking himself up off the floor, feeling light headed, everything back to normal.

"Well, that was easier than I expected." Darkwing admitted.

Techno picked himself off the control panel, rubbing his head. Darkwing turned to him.

"What do you think she meant, 'that's where you're wrong?'" he asked.

Techno shrugged. "You got me." he admitted. "What I want to know was how much time will it take for that ship to get here? She said less than an hour, but she didn't say if that was in Earth hours, or Larsonian hours."

"Whatever it is, I'll take it." Darkwing said, turning to leave. "C'mon Tech. Now that we've got that done, we better make sure we can live up to our word and hold those mutated vegetables back."

* * *

"You sure it was a good idea to stop and get those guys?" Agent Mia asked Crimson as they drove along in a SHUSH issued van.

"Trust me, we're probably going to need all the help we can get." Crimson said. She turned to look behind her in the back of the van. "How's it going, LP?"

Launchpad looked away from where he was using a hair blower to slowly thaw out the frozen members of the Fearsome Five that they had stopped and picked up from Bushroot's greenhouse. "Slow." he said. "These guys are really frozen. I could use something better to thaw them out with."

"Unfortunately, that's the best I've got at the moment." Mia said as she drove the van down the street, the leader of a fleet of more SHUSH-issued vehicles, all loaded with SHUSH agents. "And be careful with that hair blower, too. I want to still be able to use it after you're done with it."

"Got it." Launchpad said, and resumed melting the ice off the villains.

"How much longer until we meet up with one of those plant duplicates, anyway?" Mia asked Crimson.

"Hard to say." Crimson admitted to the feline. "But it can't be too much long-ah!"

Her sentence was cut short when Mia suddenly stomped down on the brakes, jerking them all forward. Launchpad toppled over in back, as well as several of the frozen members of the Fearsome Five. The screech of more brakes could be heard as the vehicles following the van skidded to a halt themselves.

Standing the road before them, blocking the path, were the duplicates of the Fearsome Five, plus Darkwarrior's duplicate, who seemed to be leading. Negaduck's duplicate held onto Negaduck himself, who was grudgingly tied up and gagged. Behind them was a whole army of mutated cabbages, waiting to evolve into a duplicate themselves.

Quickly the SHUSH agents hopped out of the vehicles and took point, drawing weapons. Mia hopped out of the van and did likewise. Crimson turned back to Launchpad.

"Pick up the pace!" she urged. "We're going to have a war here!"

She then hopped out to join everyone else in the wet street. Darkwarrior's duplicate stepped forward.

"Greetings, Crimson." he said snidely.

"Darkwarrior." Crimson greeted flatly. "I see they got to you as well."

"And we aren't stopping there." Darkwarrior said with a grin. "We're going to go on and take over the rest of your pitiful planet."

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Mia growled, pointing her weapon.

"Oh, and neither will we." Darkwarrior said with a chuckle.

And with that, the first few ranks of cabbages sprang up, and doubles of everyone present arose to join the ranks. Waves of shock rippled through the collection of SHUSH agents. Some lowered their weapons in their shock. Darkwarrior's grin grew bigger.

"Let's party!" he roared.

And the battle began. It was quickly revealed that whatever abilities the people the cabbages duplicated remained the same for their duplicates. Megavolt proved this by firing off several bolts of energy, and all of the SHUSH duplicates were armed. Quickly, the originals all ducked to avoid the first wave of the attack, then returned fire. Several of the duplicates went down, including Darkwarrior, who still stood at the front, but replacements were quickly provided and took their places.

Slowly, the duplicates began to press towards the originals.

Just when it seemed the originals were about to get overwhelmed, a wall of energy suddenly sprang up, dividing the originals from the duplicates. The wall then started to push them back. The next thing Crimson suddenly knew, there were two more people standing next to her, people she recognized.

"Morgana! Bob!" Crimson exclaimed, surprised to see the witch and warlock here.

"Hi, Gosalyn." Morgana greeted sweetly, her hands held up to reenforce the magic wall she had conjured.

"Heard you needed some help, and we hurried right on over." Bob added. "Looks like we were just in time."

Crimson was about to say something in reply, when something heavy crashed down onto the roof of the van and surged into the ranks of the duplicates. Several agents cheered at the sight of him, though Crimson knew that it was probably a good thing that Darkwing wasn't here yet.

It was Gizmoduck.

"All right, you evil-doers!" he exclaimed at the duplicates, surging through them. "Stop that evil-doing!"

A loud stomping noise rang out, and several of the cabbages and duplicates alike ran away to make room for Steggmutt.

"Hey!" he complained as the duplicates ran away from him. "Where's everybody going?"

The duplicates didn't get far, however, when a cover to a sewer popped off the hole it covered, and out crawled Neptunia, who, despite her size, quickly engaged the doubles in hand-to-hand combat. Crimson watched all of this shock.

"It's the Justice Ducks!" she exclaimed.

"Back together for one last fight, yes ma'am!" Bob confirmed, zapping a duplicate with some magic. "Hooter arranged for us getting back together as a team in an event something like this happen, and as a team we will remain until this is all over!"

"But there will be time to discuss all of this later, gizmobuddies!" Gizmoduck said, as he came skidding to a halt in front of them all. "First, let's protect our planet!"

The battle continued, the tables momentarily turned in the favor of the originals. Crimson quickly broke away for a moment to peer into the back of the van, where Launchpad was still hair blowing the frozen popsicles that was currently the Fearsome Five.

"Any progress, LP?" Crimson asked urgently.

Launchpad pointed at the floor, where Rowe, completely thawed, lay curled in a ball, shivering, and apparently unconscious.

"That's it?" she asked.

"I'm going as fast as I can here, Crimson!" Launchpad said in his defense.

"Well, move faster!" Crimson said. "We've got thing going in our favor, but I don't know for how much longer! We need more help!"

And then, as if on cue, Darkwing arrived in a cloud of smoke, accompanied by Techno.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing exclaimed, flapping his cape. "I am the supernova that destroys your planet! I am Darkwiii-whoa!"

Crimson pulled him over and then shoved him towards the battle. "No time for theatrics, Dad, we need to fight!" she said.

And the battle continued on. And as Crimson had predicted, the tables were starting to turn back to favor the duplicates. There were simply too many of them. And their numbers adjusted accordingly to recent events. When the Justice Ducks and Darkwing and Techno, arrived, duplicates for each of them quickly arose, all of them armed with the same abilities.

And very quickly, the originals began to be overwhelmed. Techno's duplicate used his rocket boots to take to the air and drop a seemingly inexhaustable supply of chemical bombs down on the originals. Gizmoduck's duplicate couldn't seemed to be downed, no matter what was thrown at him. He was taking all sorts of hits, yet survived everyone.

Morgana and Bob's duplicates seemed to be immune to every attack save magic, leaving it to their originals to take them out, and they weren't having much success. There were too many duplicates of SHUSH agents, who were firing with a fury at their targets. Morgana's magical barrier finally broke down, and the duplicates began to spill into the ranks of the originals, mixing up with them. The duplicate's were using this to their advantage by making others fooled into thinking they were the original, and then striking back.

Rowe's duplicate broke the pattern by very acrobatically jumping upon onto the collection of parked vehicles, and jumping from vehicle to vehicle, avoiding attacks from the originals. Very soon, the originals began to fall back and scatter.

Crimson quickly went to grab Launchpad and drag him out of the van.

"Wait, wait, wait, I'm not done!" he exclaimed as Crimson dragged him out.

"It's too late, we've got to go!" Crimson exclaimed.

And then, salvation arrived. Shooting down from the sky above, a large ship hovered over the street, and began firing pink beams of light at the duplicates. In quick flashes, they all started reverting back to the ordinary cabbages they were to begin with. Cheering, the originals began to regroup to drive the duplicates back, and finally, the battle began to end.

Crimson and Launchpad watched it happen. They were quickly joined by Darkwing and Techno.

"We did it." Crimson said, relieved. "We stopped them. Again."

"Yep, yep, yep, all in a day's work for Darkwing Duck." Darkwing said proudly.

Techno was looking at his watch. "Earth hours." he suddenly announced. "She meant Earth hours."

Crimson looked at him blankly for a moment, then grinned. "So, how did the Larsonians react to our request?" she asked. "Did everything go well?"

"Well, yes and no." Techno admitted. "We, uh, apparently owe them for getting them to do this."

"Oh really?" Crimson asked. "Well, I hope they know we probably aren't going to be able to repay them anytime soon."

"That's what I said!" Darkwing agreed. "But then the Larsonian we spoke with said we were wrong about that!"

"What?" Launchpad asked, surprised. "What does she mean by that?"

"I dunno." Darkwing admitted. He turned back to watch as the last of the duplicates were defeated. "But I think someday we're going to get to find out."

* * *

A day later, after everything was cleaned up and back to normal, Director Hooter put the final touches on his report on the whole issue and slipped it into an empty folder he had sitting on his desk.

"I should probably savor the moment." he remarked jokingly to himself. "It's not everyday I get to file a report about an alien invasion."

His intercom beeped suddenly, and he leaned over to answer it. "Yes?" he asked.

"Director Hooter?" the voice on the other end said. "Sorry to bother you sir, but this is secretary in the lobby. We just had someone enter the building, flash his ID at me, and then hurry on up the stairs to head for your office, sir."

Hooter paused. "Who is it?" he asked.

"I don't know sir, he didn't stop long enough for me to ask. Should I send for security?"

Hooter paused. "What did his ID say?" he asked.

"Again, I don't know, I didn't get a good look at it. Sorry sir."

"Don't be. Hold down the fort for now." Hooter said, then changed channels. "Agent Grizzlikof?"

"Yes director?" came the reply.

"Could you come down here to my office for a moment?" Hooter asked. "I could have a potential security issue down here, and..."

"That won't be necessary, director." a man said as he suddenly entered Hooter's office. "I'll only be a moment."

Hooter paused for a moment, staring the duck that stood before him up and down. "Security please, Grizzlikof." Hooter repeated, then cut the link. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not at liberty to say, director." the duck said, dusting off the black jumpsuit he wore. "So I'll make this quick. I'm here for one thing, and one thing only. The report on the recent event with the Larsonians."

Hooter thumbed the folder sitting on his desk for a moment. "I would need authorization before you can take it anywhere, you know." he said.

The duck pulled out a paper and handed it to Hooter as he said this. Hooter skimmed through it. It was indeed authorization, but it was the vaguest one he had ever read.

"This is hardly sufficient." Hooter said. "I don't even know who authorized this."

"That is all classified." the duck said. "You don't have permission to know any of it, unfortunately."

"I'm the director of SHUSH, the most secret agency on the planet!" Hooter objected.

"Ah, but there are bigger things going on in this world that SHUSH, director." the duck said. "Now please, I need the report. There's nothing you can do to stop me from taking it. I can use force if I need to, but I'd rather not."

Hooter hesitated for a moment, then finally surrendered the folder containing the report. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this." he vowed. "I have contacts, you know."

"Not like mine." the duck said, tucking the folder under one arm. "So you can try, but you'll ultimately fail. Now, everything regarding the Larsonian event is now very strictly classified. You are to not relate it to anyone. Nor can anyone else who knows of it, whether it be SHUSH agent or Darkwing Duck. Understood?"

"Yes, but..." Hooter began, but he didn't get the chance to finish.

"I bid you good day, director." the duck said, turning to leave. "Maybe we'll have the chance to meet again under better circumstances."

"I'd hope I'd be kept better in the loop, that time." Hooter grumbled.

"Oh you will, director." the duck promised as he exit. "You will."

* * *

_Fun Facts: Could of scenes from that could be considered deleted, but it's more of a case that they simply just didn't make it in. First and foremose, I want to address the Justice Ducks's reappearance in this chapter. One of these deleted scenes would've had the gang meet up with the Justice Ducks after everything was said and done and comment on how it was nice to have them here, and ask if they were getting back together again to be a full-time team again. The scene would've had the Justice Ducks comment that they were for it, but state that they have different lives now, and that reforming the Justice Ducks permanently wasn't a good idea at the time. In short, their appearance for this chapter isn't permanent. They just got together for the greater good._

_There was also going to be a scene in which Negaduck was freed from his bonds and the Fearsome Five revived and that after some talk with Darkwing and co., were allowed to go home free in some kind of deal. I was also going to reveal where Darkwarrior's duplicate was, and how he got free. I also thought about throwing in an Launchpad/Mia moment and a DW/Morgana moment in there, but none of these scenes happened to save page space for the last scene of the chapter (with Hooter and the unknown duck)._

_Speaking of which, that scene and few other details presented in this chapter are little cookies for future chapters, so it would be a plus on your guy's parts to remember them. ;)  
_


	42. The Wanderer

Summary: Earth receives a visit from a Pinnatel Wanderer named Trellis, who's first duty is to protect the planet from a threat, and second, to help Darkwing resolve a little mystery of his....

Rating: T

Author's Note: This is a sequel of sorts to chpt. 10, "Origin". This chpt is intended to give the matter from "Origin" more closure, as well as present a few more cookies for future chapters, and is overall a fun chapter. Runs a bit longer than usual, because there was too much I didn't want to cut out. I don't think you'll mind, though. :) A couple fun facts at the end.

42.

The Wanderer

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Just testing out a few new gizmos and accidently slipped on the controls. But it won't happen again, won't it?"_

_--  
_

"_Oh well, I guess it's for the better. Mertz has a special visitor visiting, and it's my turn to guard him. He's a refugee, see. Historian too, one of the Galactic Federation's finest."_

"_That's great Comet Guy. Really. But we need to get back to our tests and stuff, so we'll be seeing you..."_

"_Ekard? Excuse me young sir, but are you Ekard?"_

"_No, I'm Darkwing Duck, crime fighter extraordinaire! Uh, why?"_

"_You are from Earth, correct?"_

"_Yes..."_

"_Have you met Ekard?"_

"_I've never heard of Ekard. What's Ekard?"_

"_Not what, who. He's a refugee from the planet Pinnatel, like me."_

_--  
_

"_It was a planet that was destroyed in it's own civil war several years ago. Zekekal here is among the few survivors who escaped. He's a wanderer, see. Travels in space, heading in aimless directions."_

_--  
_

"_There are two reason Darkwing. One, was that I thought you might be him."_

"_Me?"_

"_The resemblance is uncanny."_

"_Darkwing's not an alien. Are you?"_

"_So far as I know, I'm not."_

"_What was the other reason?"_

"_The fact that I knew that Ekard had family there on Earth. I thought that perhaps that you might know them."_

"_Maybe we do, but they must be keeping it secret. Because we don't know anything about it."_

"_That is possible as well. Ekard did say he had changed his name, taking on an Earth-born identity so to lead a private life. He had become well known on Earth, and on Pinnatel."_

"_He was famous? How?"_

"_For Earth, it was because he saved the planet. For Pinnatel, he was the son of a hero. Clearly, he lived up to his late father's name."_

_--  
_

"_Okay, now why do those things he found sound familiar?"_

"_Because it does."_

"_Wait, you think I'm the alien?"_

"_It's a possibility."_

"_But that can't be, because I built that gas gun! More than once, too!"_

"_But then explain the purple outfit."_

"_And the martial arts training!"_

"_Yeah, you said you learned it at a monastery before!"_

"_Not all of it! Only parts! And it wasn't even anywhere near a mountain, or a desert!"_

"_But if you didn't learn all of it there, then where did you learn the rest?"_

"_From my father, I'll have you know! He learned it all in the orient! I've seen pictures! The mountains that were nearby are really...quite...beautiful...uh-oh."_

"_Maybe this Ekard isn't you after all, Mr. Darkwing. Maybe it was your father."_

_--  
_

"_But what about Ekard? Have you figured out how he fits in?"_

"_Not exactly. All we've got are more questions."_

_--  
_

"_Back in my wandering days, I came across Earth, and detected the same DNA signature that lead Negarian here. In secret, I tracked down Ekard and quietly inquired about it. And he told me his story, but asked me to keep it secret, at least while I was on Earth. He also said he had a son now. and while I wasn't told his name, it is pretty safe to assume that Ekard carried on the family tradition and named his son after him."_

"_But he couldn't use the name 'Ekard', could he?"_

"_Then he probably used his new name this secret agency gave him. Drake."_

_--  
_

"_It can't be true. It could be a sheer coincidence. Drake is a very common name here. Zekekal, thank you for telling me all this, but I think I'm unrelated to all of this. I'm sorry for wasting your time."_

"_Think nothing of it, Darkwing. I was a good experience for me. It helped fit a few things together for me. But I understand. There is room for doubt, isn't there?"_

_--  
_

"_I'm not sure if I should be excited or weirded out by the fact Dad could be half-alien."_

"_We could check for this gene Zekekal spoke of."_

"_But what if he didn't inherit it?"_

"_And what about 'The Agency'? Do you think that was SHUSH?"_

"_Can't be SHUSH. It was already going by that name at the time in question and was well known for it already. It must be some other organization, one we don't know about."_

"_They would be the only ones who would have the answers. Too bad we can't find them and ask them. Clearly, they're more secret that SHUSH is, and that's saying something."_

_--  
_

"_But, alien or not, the one thing we have to keep in mind is that Darkwing is still Darkwing, the hero we know and love. And no matter what, that's all that matters..."

* * *

  
_

"Whew, what a night." Crimson muttered as the gang all arrived at Darkwing Tower after a long night of fighting crime. "I'm dead tired."

"Yeah, who knew stopping Darkwarrior from trying to hack into the SHUSH database would be so _hard?_" Launchpad agreed, wiping his brow.

"Darkwarrior's an inventive little bugger." Darkwing said, pulling off his fedora hat and hanging it up, sitting down to rest. "That much we at least share."

"The important thing is that we stopped him." Techno said, sitting down to change out of his costume as well, pulling off his visor. "The computer virus SHUSH is using to keep Darkwarrior from building another armada of robots is safe."

"Yes, that would be what he would be after, wouldn't it?" Crimson asked, pulling off her hat, and starting to unbutton her black double-breasted jacket. "He is must certainly bent on getting around it, isn't he?"

"It's the only thing stopping him from continuing with his plans to take over our universe, Gos." Techno replied, reaching down to start pulling off his boots. "He's powerless without those robots, and he knows it."

"Whatever the case, the guy still gives me the creeps." Crimson said, shuddering as she shrugged off her jacket.

"I just wish we figured out where his hideout is." Darkwing muttered as he worked to change out his costume as well. "Then maybe we could stop him once and for all." he stopped to yawn. "But we can save all of that for another night. I'm ready to call this particular night done."

"Me too." Crimson said, wearily blinking her eyes. "All I want to do is go home, crawl into bed, and get some sleep..."

She was cut off suddenly when a flash of light suddenly engulfed all four of them briefly. By the time it had faded, their surroundings had completely changed. The group froze suddenly. Then, slowly, they started to look around. Techno dropped the boot he had in his hand with a thud.

"...Or not." Crimson finished, standing, only half in costume. "Keen gear...what just happened?"

"It would seem we have been teleported somewhere." Techno said, standing up and crossing the brightly-lit room they were in.

"But where?" Crimson asked, her eyes following Techno as he went.

"I don't know, but something tells me we're not in St. Canard anymore." Launchpad remarked, turning around and around again, trying to take in the room all at once.

"Something tells me we're not on Earth anymore." Techno added suddenly, looking out a nearby window.

Everyone moved to gather at the window and peered out it. Both Crimson and Darkwing gasped. Floating outside the window, filling up most of it as it spun lazily on it's axis, was the planet they were on just moments ago...

* * *

"Oh boy." Darkwing muttered, quickly working to put his costume back on.

"I would estimate from our distance from the planet that we are in Earth orbit." Techno noted, slipping his visor back on. "High Earth orbit, at that."

"This must be some kind of spaceship then." Crimson noted, looking back around in awe. "Keen gear, I would love to get a good look around at this place!"

"Then get it now!" Darkwing said, finishing slipping his costume back on. "Because I don't intend on sticking around here much longer. Crimson, Techno, get your costume back on, we're..."

A swishing sound ringing out suddenly cut him short. Quickly, the group whirled around to look at it's source just in time to catch a door finish opening. A figure then stepped through, a normal looking duck, but one none of them recognized. He saw the group and immediately grinned.

"Oh good, everything worked out perfectly!" he exclaimed, stepping towards the group. "Now, I'm sure you have lots of questions at the moment, so let's get things started off right now, and on the right foot." he extended his hand to Launchpad, who was the closest, to shake. "Hello, I'm Trellis, and welcome aboard the _Mossflower_."

Launchpad stared at the hand for a moment, then hesitantly accepted it to shake. Trellis shook it warmly and friendly. Crimson goggled at him for a moment.

"The _Mossflower_?" Techno repeated, perplexed. "There's a country on our planet named..."

"Yes, I know." Trellis interrupted. "I know a great deal about your planet. And you as well."

"Oh really?" Darkwing asked, suddenly snapping out of his daze and moving into the defensive mode. "Well, then you should know just what kind of opponent you just picked! C'mon duck, put up your dukes!"

"I am not your enemy." Trellis said, holding up his hand to indicate to Darkwing to stop. "Now, just calm down Drake."

"Oh sure, a very likely thing for a villain to say, and..." Darkwing began, getting ready to swing his fist at Trellis, but then paused, once again stunned. "D-Drake?" he repeated.

"How do you know his name?" Techno asked despite himself.

"I know more than just his name." Trellis said. "And for now, let's just say that I learned it because I have friends in high places. Besides, I've been visiting Earth a great deal lately, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I know a bit about Darkwing Duck and all associated material."

"You've been here before?" Crimson asked, gesturing downward in reference to the planet below them.

"In secret, of course." Trellis said. "Actually, it all started after meeting up with someone I'm told you've met. His name is Zekekal."

Launchpad grinned, remembering the elderly duck. "Hey, yeah, we've met him!" he exclaimed.

Crimson also made a connection. "You're a Pinnatelian!" she exclaimed.

"Well, I'm of Pinnatelian blood." Trellis admitted. "My father was actually from the planet. Me, I was born and raised in space on this very ship."

He gestured to their surroundings with outstretched arms. The others looked around the room once more.

Then Techno made another connection. "You're a wanderer." he said. "Like Zekekal."

"Bingo." Trellis said, pointing a finger at Techno. "So was my father. I just continued what he started. Wandering around, exploring space with my crew, that sort of thing. But I also help out with other things, which brings us to the matter at had."

"Which, I presume, has something to do with the fact that we're even here." Darkwing guessed, stepping forward.

"Yes." Trellis said. "And it's really two matters." he turned to face Darkwing. "First off, which name do you prefer? Drake or Darkwing?"

"If I'm in the mask..." Darkwing began, pointing at his purple mask with one finger.

"Darkwing, then." Trellis said, catching on, and continued. "Darkwing, you should know that Zekekal has told me all about your encounter a little less than a year ago."

"The whole ordeal that he thought I was half-alien?" Darkwing asked, grinning in mockery of the idea. "Ha, yeah, I remember that. Complete nonsense."

"Maybe not." Trellis said, very serious. "That's part of the reason I've been coming here, to research your family tree. To see if you really are related to the great Ekard."

"And?" Crimson prompted nervously. "Do you know the answer?"

"Not yet." Trellis admitted. "But I'm close. I'm very close. I need to run a few tests on Darkwing, with his permission of course, in order to know for sure. I figured that since you were going to be here anyway, I figured I might as well see if I could do this at the same time."

"So that's not the main reason we're here?" Crimson asked.

"Unfortunately, no." Trellis admitted. "You're here, because your planet is currently in great danger. And I need help in order to prevent it from happening. The help from the four of you."

Darkwing and the gang glanced at one another.

"Okay." Launchpad said. "But what are we in danger of?"

"Probably the universe's worse nightmare." Trellis said gravely.

* * *

"They're called Teryx, and they have been a scourge to the Galactic Federation for sometime now." Trellis explained as he led the foursome down the halls of his ship, Darkwing and the others now fully back in costume. "They're a race of biological aliens from another sub-universe."

"A sub-universe?" Techno repeated, intrigued.

"Yes." Trellis said. "See, our universe is composed of different parts we call sub-universes. There's roughly nine that we know of, and they're all stacked together kind of like a loaf of bread. We occupy a sub-universe that sits, so far as we know, towards one of the far ends of the universe. The Teryx come from a sub-universe that sits somewhere in the middle of this stack, at least as we know it."

"Interesting." Techno said, in awe. "On Earth, we have a theory that sounds something like that. It says that our universe is actually one among several all grouped together, possibly connected, possibly not. I don't anyone has ever theorized that they might actually be parts to a much bigger universe, though. Which interests me, what is the standpoint on the theory of multiverse and the such out here in..."

"Techno." Darkwing interrupted flatly.

Techno blushed. "Sorry." he said, and fell silent.

Trellis grinned at Techno's eagerness to learn more. "Anyway," he continued, "the Teryx's sub-universe is not at all like ours. Unlike ours, which is mostly just a void of nothing, the Teryx sub-universe is completely biological, to the point the sub-universe itself might be a living being. The Teryx live within this sub-universe in a very balanced, very adaptive ecological system, and actually are virtually harmless in their sub-universe. However, through a freak event we have yet to full comprehend, a 'hole' has been formed that has joined our two sub-universes, and has allowed the Teryx to spread into our sub-universe, and have begun creating havoc. They'll take over ships, crews, peoples, even whole planets, converting it into biological matter to more closely match their sub-universe. We think that they know they're in foreign space, and are trying to convert it to match their sub-universe. Which would be bad news for us, because we wouldn't survive long in their sub-universe."

"Huh." Crimson remarked suddenly.

"What?" Trellis asked. "Is there something you don't understand?"

"Oh no, I understand it well enough." Crimson said. "I was just thinking about how similar these Teryx are to an enemy that appear on a TV show on our planet, called _Jumpgate_."

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing." Techno agreed. "It lacks the whole sub-universe thing, but other than that, they sound almost identical."

"It must just be a coincidence, though." Crimson said. "I mean, there's no chance any of that stuff's true, right?"

Trellis gave a knowing grin, and didn't answer. Crimson took it as his way of saying that he agreed.

"So how does this affect us?" Darkwing asked, as they slipped past a group of odd-looking aliens he presumed to be part of the crew onboard the _Mossflower_. "These Teryx haven't come here, have they?"

Trellis sighed. "Unfortunately, Darkwing, that's exactly the case." he said, turning a corner. "Allow me to show you."

A door ahead of them slid open as they approached. Slipping through it, they entered a very large room, lined with control panels. Aliens sat at every one of them, and they weren't nearly as odd looking as expected. One looked like he could be a cousin to Bushroot. Another was an anthropomorphic kangaroo in a blue jumpsuit. There was a pair that looked like otters, conversing quietly with each other, another alien that had a long bushy tail like squirrel, and one that sat in a hammock at a control panel in the front that looked like a cat, and was the only one not standing on two legs present.

At the front of the room, however, was a massive window that appeared to open directly out into space, giving an excellent view of the starry horizon. Earth could be seen spinning on one side of this window. Crimson suspected this was the bridge of the _Mossflower_.

She was proven right when a multi-legged alien noticed them enter and stood at attention.

"Captain on the bridge!" he exclaimed loudly, for all to hear.

Everyone glanced at Trellis, gave him a nod or salute, then returned to what they were doing, more busy there. Trellis grinned and moved to sit in a large chair that sat in the center of the room. His four guests followed, all the more in awe.

"It's like something out of _Star Trek_." Darkwing noted. Crimson giggled.

After getting a brief report from a passing alien, Trellis turned to the group that were watching. "Impressive, yes?" he asked.

"Very." Techno said. "I didn't realize you had such a large crew."

"Well, a large ship requires a large crew." Trellis said, alluding to the exact size of the _Mossflower_. "I don't really know if crew is a good word for it, though. It's really more of a term that was just coined for us over the years. No, they're more like...cohorts. Friends and acquaintances I've met over the years, and have all banned together for one reason or another. Some are like me, who don't really have a planet to call home. Others are rejects from their planets and societies and are really just out to make a living. Mostly, though, we're all here for the adventure, the danger, the discovery that comes with what we do." he paused, his grin fading. "Anyway, it's that there that we are gathered here today." he said, pointing out the large window.

The four noticed a large but slightly smaller than the _Mossflower_, saucer-like, ship, with engines and fins protruding from it's aft portion that they hadn't noticed earlier. It chugged along slowly like it had all the time in the world. The lights in it's viewports were glowing an odd green color.

"That's a Teryx ship?" Darkwing asked, pointing at it.

"It is now." Trellis said gravely. "It used to be a standard science and research ship for the Galactic Federation before the Teryx came along and invaded it. They already have control over it, and have led it here, where they will eventually land on the planet and take it over as well."

"What about the ship's crew?" Darkwing asked. "Can they get back control of the ship?"

"It's pretty safe to assume that the crew is already dead, Darkwing." Trellis said, turning in his chair to face him. "It would be among the first things the Teryx do when they take a ship."

"So then we shoot down the ship, and not have to worry about killing any allies." Crimson remarked.

"Um, no, we can't do that either." Trellis said, and then turned to the cat-like alien sitting in the hammock. "Kislee, fire off a few pop shots at the ship, if you could."

The cat-like alien nodded, and danced her forepaws over her control panel, clearly built for the clunkier appendages. A moment later, two bolts of blue energy shot out at the ship. They were cut short when they hit an invisible bubble that sparkled for a moment. There was a pause, then the infected ship fired one shot back at the _Mossflower_, making her rock for a moment, then all was silent.

"Shields are holding." the cat-like alien said. "No damage to target."

Trellis turned back to his guests. "You see?" he said. "We can't penetrate their shields."

"So if they aren't getting any resistance, then why haven't they landed on Earth, and started taking over?" Techno asked, thinking.

"Because they're breeding." Trellis replied.

"Breeding?" Launchpad repeated.

Trellis nodded. "The Teryx are slowly converting the ship into biological matter, but they're also using the time to breed more separate, independent, Teryx creatures. They're building an army, see? There's power in numbers."

"So they think they can just sit there and do all of that?" Darkwing asked. "Do they think they're invulnerable, or that we won't attack?"

"No, just that we aren't a serious threat at the moment." Trellis explained. "The Teryx don't think like we do. They'll ignore anything that simply does not harm or endanger them. And right now, we haven't done much of anything to threaten them."

"So what's the plan for stopping them?" Darkwing asked.

"Well, the plan's fairly simple." Trellis said. "Their shields will stop our weapons, but not our teleporters. We're going to beam in a couple parties of people onboard the ship, and then they'll move about the ship and rig it to blow from the inside. The problem we face, however, is that we're short a few hands to go inside, and we're not going to get backup from anybody in time for the Teryx to land on the planet."

"This is where we come in." Crimson guessed.

Trellis nodded. "I figured that since it's your planet, you guys wouldn't mind helping eliminate the threat." he said.

* * *

"To quote a phrase you commonly say, Crimson," Techno said as he studied the schematics for the Teryx ship, "Keen gear! I mean, just look at this ship! It's lightyears more advance than anything we've got on Earth!"

"Oh yeah." Crimson agreed flatly, studying a similar schematic on the screen at the console Trellis had set her up at. "Lightyears. Regardless, we're going to blow it up, so let's focus on that. If we're going to join the two parties that's heading over to that ship, we need to memorize the ship's layout, and know where everything is."

"Right, right, right." Techno said, getting back on track. "Still, it's such an impressive ship, it's a real pity we have to blow it up."

"The ship may be impressive, but what's on it isn't." Trellis said, suddenly appearing behind them, along with Darkwing and Launchpad. "We're back, too, and with Darkwing's help, we finished the modifications to your gas guns."

He handed Crimson back her gas gun, and to Techno, Darkwing's. Techno studied it for a moment, seeing that now both devices sported an additional attachment that was clearly of alien origin.

Crimson waved her weapon around dramatically. "So I take it the new attachment is a weapon to kill Teryx, right?" she asked.

"Heck, no, Crimson, we're crime-fighters, not murderers." Darkwing grumbled. "That attachment that Trellis has so kindly provided for us is not a destructive weapon."

"So what does it do?" Techno asked.

"It's a specialized teleporter that beams any target it hits directly back into the Teryx sub-universe." Trellis explained. "So it'll be a chance to teleport all of those Teryx back home. We can't get all of them in time this way however, which is why we still need to destroy the ship."

"Cool." Crimson said.

"Okay, that makes sense." Techno agreed. "But why did you give me Darkwing's gas gun?"

"Because I'm not going on this little expedition." Darkwing said. "We discussed it while we were preparing the gas guns. Me and Launchpad are going to stay here with Trellis while you and Crimson go and stop the ship from landing."

"What, why?" Crimson asked.

"Because, Trellis is anxious to get started on determining my true heritage." Darkwing said. He paused, then added, "And so am I. I want to know if my father really was an alien." he paused, then grinned. "Besides, I figure you two can handle the Teryx, easy. You two seem to be the leading experts when it comes to aliens and fighting them, anyway."

Techno seemed hesitant. "You sure, Mr. Darkwing?" he asked. "You may be not giving the Teryx enough credit."

"I'm very sure, Techno." Darkwing said.

"Besides, time's running out, and I can only keep you guys here for so long either way." Trellis said. "It could take awhile to figure out Darkwing's heritage, so getting started on it as quickly as possible. Besides, I think you two can handle the Teryx as well, so long as you stay alert, and it's not like you'll be on your own, without someone to guide you."

"What?" Techno asked, however, thinking back to the beginning of Trellis's statement. "You mean you had _permission _to take us here?"

"Who's permission?" Darkwing asked, this being news to him as well.

"Betcha he's not going to tell us." Crimson muttered as she turned back to fiddle with her console, exiting out of the diagrams displayed on it.

"She's right, I can't tell you." Trellis said, looking awkward. "Furthermore, there's a limit on what you're supposed to know about all of this, anyway. Not that I agree to it..."

"What the?" Crimson said suddenly, having brought up what appeared to be a scan of the general area on her screen. The two ships would be clearly seen on it, and were labeled. But there was a third object that wasn't so clear. Crimson started to read it's label out loud. "Project: Bluebook? Approach with caution? Property of The A..."

Trellis quickly reached over and cleared the screen. "You probably shouldn't see that." he said. "Like I said, there are limits, and whether I like them or not, I have to enforce them."

"But who applied those limits?" Launchpad asked.

"You'll have to take that up with your planet." Trellis replied.

"So is it some kind of national secret?" Darkwing asked. "Because I have top security clearance with SHUSH..."

"There's more going on at your planet than any of you know." Trellis said. "And while I disagree, everyone says it's for your own good. So please, I must ask you to drop the subject."

Darkwing looked ready to press the subject and so did Techno, but both wisely obeyed.

"Now, as I said, time's running out." Trellis went on. "Techno, Crimson, I'd better get you to the teleporter. The two parties will be leaving soon."

* * *

"All right, listen up everyone!" the appointed leader of both boarding parties, a squirrel-like alien by the name of Swayner, said loudly. He pointed to a screen displaying the infested ship. "This is the ship we're boarding. You should all be familiar with the layout. This ship is common within the Galactic Federation. In fact, I believe some of you have even served on such a ship."

There was a couple of nods from the gathering of aliens present. Crimson and Techno stood at the front of them, feeling a bit out of place.

"Well, what you'll see on this ship will defy what you know of it." Swayner continued pointing at the screen. Parts of the ship, a good half of it, even, was filled in with red. "The red parts indicate parts of the ship the Teryx have successfully infiltrated and transformed to suit their needs. We'll beam in here, just outside of those parts." he pointed at a blinking dot set just on the edge of the red mass. "Our target, is here. The central power reactor, which distributes power to the whole ship. We are to spilt into two group and head here from different directions, defeat any Teryx that oppose us, plant some explosives on the reactor, then get out. We'll then remotely detonate the bombs, which will destroy the reactor and cause a chain reaction that will tear the ship apart." Swayner paused. "Any questions?"

An otter-like alien raised his hand. "Just how bad is the Teryx infestation, Swayner?" he asked.

"So far as we know, moderate." Swayner said. "But only in specific areas. We've dealt with the Teryx before, this shouldn't be anything different about it all, and thus nothing we can't handle. We're just short a few people, which is why we have the Earthlings here."

He gestured to Crimson and Techno.

"What about them, anyway?" the cat-like alien from the bridge, Kislee, growled, pacing back and forth on all fours like a real cat. "I am not sure they can handle it."

"We've gone up against aliens before and beaten them." Crimson assured them. "Let's see, there was Wackko from years back, um, help me here Techno."

"Bad Guy." Techno offered,

"Yes, Bad Guy from planet Mertz!" Crimson said.

"Hey, I've been there!" a humanoid alien in the back exclaimed suddenly, whose muscular build and dramatic voice suggested he might actually be Mertzian.

"And then just a few weeks ago, there was those mutant cabbages from the far side of the galaxy!" Crimson concluded.

"That seems to me to be enough experience." another alien said from beside the pair.

At first glance, she seemed like a centaur, but she wasn't a cross a horse and human. While her lower part of her body was like a horse's, her tail was too long, too bushy, and she had paws instead of hooves. The upper part of her body clearly wasn't humanoid either, for it was completely covered with the thick black fur she sported over the rest of her body, and she had a short snout and pointed ears.

"They certainly have the will." the otter-like alien added.

"But the Teryx aren't quite like anything else anybody's come across." Swayner said, stepping over to face the pair, twirling his bushy tail back and forth as he did so. "You'll need to be very alert, and don't hesitate to shoot. In fact, when in doubt, shoot, just so long as it's not one of our own you're shooting. You'll be in my group, so I also want you to follow my lead, and stick close. Trellis would kill me if I let anything happen to you. So am I clear?"

"Very." Techno said, who looked to be having doubts about all of this.

"Good." Swayner said, and pulled out his weapon. "Then let's get down there and get this over with."

He turned and nodded at an technician that stood at a console. The technician nodded, and pressed a few buttons on his console. A flash of light engulfed the group that had gathered, and in less than a heartbeat and whisked them away to the infested ship. Crimson found herself standing in the middle of a vacant and dark hallway. Disoriented by the suddenness of the teleportation, Crimson blinked a few times, trying to adjust.

Swayner pulled out a flashlight, and shined it around the hallway. Crimson noticed that only half of the group was in the hallway with them. The other half must have been teleported to another location, as planned. Their half was composed of, in addition to herself, Techno, and Swayner, but also Kislee, the otter-like alien, the possible Mertzian, and the not-so-centaur-like-but-couldn't-think-of-a-better-way-of-putting-it alien.

Something clattered in the distance ahead. Swayner shone his light and saw nothing, but he didn't look convinced.

"Stay alert." he said to the others. "Now c'mon, follow me."

They started forward. At one point, they passed a viewport and Crimson got a chance to get a glance at the _Mossflower _from the outside. Swayner, however, wasn't going to let them stop and admire the sleek, almost boat-like, spaceship and so they pressed on. Eventually, they arrived at a closed, circular, door. Unlike the doors on the _Mossflower_, it did not open on their approach.

Swayner approached the door's controls, his finger hovering over the button that would open the door. "Beyond this door is the start of the conversions the Teryx have done." he said. "Be ready to shoot."

The others in the group nodded, and raised their weapons. Swayner pressed the control, and the door spiraled open, giving Crimson and Techno their first look at what the Teryx were capable of. The hallway beyond the door was lit, but with an eerie green light that wasn't too incredibly bright. A light flashed from somewhere further down the hall from an unknown source. Dangling from the roof in loops, almost like vines, were pulsing, wet, objects that Crimson could only describe as veins. Above it, there was a slimy, fleshy, substance visible through the grating in the ceiling that seemed to pulse like it was alive.

Kislee noted Crimson and Techno soaking this all in. "It only gets worse from here." she said.

Swayner nodded. "Let's go." he said, leading the way as always.

But there was suddenly another clatter, and then two spider-like aliens, easily as big as home plate on a baseball field, appeared and surged towards them. Crimson and Techno, being closest, quickly trained their gas guns on the aliens. They didn't shoot fast enough, though. Swayner fired at both aliens before they had a chance to react, and both aliens vanished in brief flashes of light, no doubt teleported back to their own sub-universe.

Crimson found herself panting, slightly shocked.

"Were those..." Techno began to ask.

"...Teryx?" Swayner asked. "Yes, they were. And not all of them crawl. Some fly."

"Joy." Crimson murmured.

"We're wasting time." the otter-like alien urged. "We need to get going."

Swayner nodded, and they were quickly on their way again.

* * *

Back on the _Mossflower_, Trellis sat Darkwing down in front of a device while Launchpad stood nearby, looking on.

"Sit here." he commanded. "It's going to scan you for a certain gene that all Pinnatelians have."

"I know." Darkwing said. "Zedekal explained it to me. I figured that would be the first thing you'll look for."

Trellis nodded, and sat at the other end of the device, tweaking the controls. Then he paused.

"You sure you want to do this than stop the Teryx?" he asked Darkwing. "I wasn't joking about the threat. If any of them get to your planet...really, you sure you want to be doing this instead?"

"I know it may seem like I have my priorities mixed up." Darkwing admitted. "But I really do want to get this done. Do you realize what it'd be like for me to realize one day that I might actually be part alien?"

Trellis sighed. "Probably no where near as much as you do." he admitted. "I suppose that would be a bit intense on the nerves, wouldn't it?"

"More than a bit." Darkwing said. "Ever since that discussion over the matter with Zedekal, I've been trying to ignore the situation, or pretend it's not true. But I can't. Not until I really now for sure, and not just suspect."

Trellis nodded. "Then let's find out." he said, and began working with the console some more. "This will scan you momentarily, and you'll see a light, but it won't hurt."

Darkwing nodded in understanding. A moment later, a beam of light washed up an down Darkwing's figure. Like Trellis had indicated, Darkwing hardly noticed. As quickly as it had started, it stopped, and the console beeped as the results appeared on Trellis's screen.

Trellis rubbed his beak for a moment. "Well, according to this, the gene we're looking for is not in you." he announced.

"Yes!" Darkwing said, cheering silently to himself. "That means I'm prefectly normal, and not half-alien, right?"

"Not necessarily." Trellis said, bringing Darkwing's joy to a halt. "All we proved is that you didn't inherit the gene from your father, Ekard, presuming he is your father."

"Oh." Darkwing said.

"What we'll do now is a very thorough scan that will take each and every one of your genes and compare it with others, to see if anything Pinnatelian pops up." Trellis went on to explain. "It's a very complex one. It'll take some time to conduct, and then even longer to sift through the results."

"Okay." Darkwing said, and waited.

Again, the beam of light returned, and this time sticking around for a longer period of time that the first. Darkwing watched it move up and down his body, then glanced at Trellis.

"Now we wait?" he asked.

"Now we wait." Trellis confirmed.

* * *

The group made good progress towards the central reactor. But the further they went, the more Teryx they encountered. Swayner was proven right when they did indeed encounter flying Teryx, hanging out of sight on the ceiling, dormant, until they ventured too close and then they'd swoop down on them in a flurry of leathery wings. Although somewhat smaller than the Teryx that crawled, they were speedy little devils and came dangerously close to reaching a member of the group many times before they were zapped away back to where they belonged.

Crimson didn't know what would happen if any of them reached them, but seeing that the flying Teryx had long fangs, claws, and a scorpion-like tail with a long stinger, she knew it wouldn't be anything pleasant.

The further they went, the less recognizable the ship became, as well. Very soon, whole sections of the walls, ceiling, and even floor, had been stripped away to reveal smooth and slimly biological flesh. It pulsed and shuddered on it's own it seemed, and little veins could be seen running through it. With permission from Swayner who was also curious, Techno even cut one of these portions of flesh with a pocketknife to see if it would bleed. Bleed it did, but it also triggered another wave of Teryx to come at them. Swayner recommended they not do that again once the attack was over, and everyone agreed.

Pretty soon, the ship had more biological flesh than it did technology. Crimson worried that once they got to the reactor, it wouldn't really be a reactor anymore. The not-so-centaur-like-but-couldn't-think-of-a-better-way-of-putting-it alien (which Crimson had learned through the light conversation the group of aliens had as they went that the alien's name was Aurora) agreed when Crimson voiced her concerns, and feared that blowing the reactor wouldn't help any.

Swayner discounted the idea as preposterous, though, saying that biological or not, it would still have to be the central reactor, and thus the plans hadn't changed. Besides, he reasoned, it wasn't really like they had a better idea at the moment.

In passing, they found other altercations that the ship had suffered. In one room, the floor had been completely dropped away to open into the deck below, and had been filled with some kind of biological device that glowed an evil looking purple in it's core. It was revealed to Crimson and Techno that it was a self-made Teryx teleporter that worked something like the weapons they were using to send the Teryx back to their sub-universe, but in reverse, bringing Teryx here instead. They steered clear of it, fearing getting too close would trigger it to activate, but they did drop a bomb on it while they were there. Swayner said that blowing the device could make for a good distraction should they need it, but it was clear they really put it there for reassurance.

They also found a tall room that housed a big, upside-down urn-shaped thing that hung from the ceiling. It's opening was closed off with a foggy gel, and something was squirming within. Aurora revealed it was a Teryx breeding room probably one of many, not likely to be the biggest, and that there was young in the cell, as she called it. They assured by Swayner that the young were nothing to worry about, but pointed out that where there was young, there was probably a mother, and that they didn't want to meet up with her, so they left the room alone as well.

They also found a room that had a pit of a murky chemical pooled in it, and a single flying Teryx guarding it. Kislee remarked that the chemical was a powerful acid, which Techno confirmed with his visor. He asked Swayner what the Teryx needed the acid for, but the alien refused to answer, saying they were better off not knowing.

They didn't have much contact with the other half of the group that had infiltrated the infected ship. Kislee, being the only one not to have a weapon because she didn't have hands, was the only one who had a radio, and would occasionally use it to keep tabs on the other group's progress. They generally kept radio silence so to not risk alerting the Teryx, but Kislee was kept up to date enough to report that the other group was making just as much progress as they were, which was good.

Finally, Swayner announced they were getting close to the entrance to the central reactor.

"We should enter a very large room with a big bridge stretching across it's center." Swayner explained, ducking under a large vein that dangled lower than most. "In the center of that bridge will be an elevator shaft that leads straight into the reactor core. Once in there, we'll have to be quick, because the Teryx are going to be swooping down on us from all angles very quickly."

"So this will be the hard part." Crimson said, eyeing the fleshy substance that pulsed behind an open panel in the wall as she moved past it.

"Probably, but it should be over quickly." Swayner said, then pointed at the corner they were coming up to. "The door leading into the room should be right around there."

And so it was, but the door was already open. In fact, it looked like the thick metal door had been forced open. They stepped into the room beyond, and looked around. Two flying Teryx were flapping around in circles like they were standing guard, and with a screech, hurtled themselves at the intruders. They were quickly eradicated, giving them the chance to give the room a good lookover.

Swayner was right that it was big, it's roof towering out of sight in the dimly lit room. But it just about ended there. The elevator shaft he had spoken of no longer existed, and the bridge that was supposed to lead to it had been destroyed, leaving only small parts jutting out from either edge. They were completely cut off from the other side of the room. Just below the bridge, though, the rest of the room had been filled in with more fleshy biological matter, slowly slanting downward until it all came together in the center. In the center was a large sphincter big enough to permit something the size of Aurora through.

Techno did some calculations and realized that the sphincter sat in the same spot the elevator shaft should've. "Guess the Teryx don't need an elevator." he remarked.

"Or they just don't like elevators." the otter-like alien remarked, reaching the same conclusion.

Swayner and Crimson peered over the edge of the broken bridge at the sphincter. Crimson gulped, and looked a little green.

"Something tells me getting past that won't be easy." Swayner remarked.

"Or pleasant." Crimson added.

Aurora had pulled out a scanner. "This isn't good." she said, her four paws rustling as she moved closer. "My scans of the reactor core indicate that any of the normal entrances in and out of the room have been cut off."

"Which only leave the Teryx ones." Techno remarked.

"Well, at least there's still a way to get in there." Kislee said, looking like she was getting ready to jump out to the sphincter.

"We're not going down there at all." Aurora interrupted. "The room's atmosphere has been replaced with carbon monoxide, toxic to all of us. We're not equipped to go down there. And besides, _this _route..." she gestured to the sphincter with her scanner, "...is likely only one way. We'd get down there just fine, but we won't be able to get back up."

"Great." Swayner said. "Just great. We're probably going have to abort..."

Just then, the other half of the group appeared on the other side of the broken bridge, skidding to a halt as they saw what the first half had already seen. And quickly after that, a whole squadron of flying Teryx swooped down from the ceiling, more than any of them had seen at once than before.

Firing began, quickly teleporting the opposing Teryx back to their home sub-universe in bright flashes, and decreasing their numbers rapidly. They were quickly beginning to win, but it didn't change their problems about getting to the central reactor any. Swayner must have decided there was nothing they could at the moment, and turned to Kislee.

"Kislee, call the _Mossflower_, have them beam us back!" he exclaimed urgently while simultaneously zapping a Teryx in the face.

Kislee nodded, and quickly sent the request. A moment later, both of halves of the party were whisked back to safety in bright flashes of light.

* * *

Meanwhile, Darkwing and Trellis were still waiting on the device to finish. Launchpad had gotten bored, and left in search for something to eat. They didn't say much, and hadn't said much since the wait began. Probably deciding this didn't need to be, Trellis searched for a way to pick up the conversation.

"So, let's presume for a moment that it's all true." he said suddenly. "That you really are half-Pinnatelian. What will you do?"

"That's just it, I don't know." Darkwing admitted. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I can handle it. To know that I'm just not like everyone else on that planet below us, no matter how much I try, no matter how much I want it. I'm not sure I could take being Darkwing Duck any other way, nor am I sure I could be the ideal father for..."

He trailed off. Trellis understood what he was getting at.

"I can see the problem." he admitted. "I wish there was something I could do if we do prove it's all true to change it."

"Thanks." Darkwing said. "But whatever the case, I'll probably just have to live with it."

The beam of light scanning him stopped suddenly, and Darkwing watched as the device powered down. Data began scrolling across Trellis's screen.

"Is it done?" Darkwing asked aloud.

"Not yet." Trellis said. "Now it has to process the data. It'll be awhile still before it gives us the results. In the meantime, we can go see how the others are fairing with the Teryx..."

And then Launchpad suddenly barreled in through the door, tripping and falling over as he entered.

"DW!" he exclaimed. "Trellis! They aborted the mission! Something went wrong! They want you both on the bridge, now!"

* * *

"They completely got rid of the elevator?" Trellis asked, surprised.

"And replaced it with their own means of getting in and out of the room." Crimson confirmed.

"And the atmosphere in the room has become toxic." Techno went on. "And it's spreading very quickly. Very soon the ship will be completely filled with it, and be completely unbreathable for the likes of us."

"Well, that's an easy fix." Darkwing scoffed. "Put on some space suits, and _then _go down there."

"But what about getting into the reactor core?" Swayner asked, the only one of the group present, as he was the leader.

"Maybe we could just beam right in there, and then beam right back out." Techno suggested.

"No, there's a dampening field in place, blocking our teleporters." Trellis said. "You'd have to get in there another way."

"But how?" Launchpad asked. "Besides the obvious."

"I think the obvious is all we have left to go for, LP." Crimson remarked with a shudder.

"Trellis!" Kislee suddenly exclaimed from her station. "That ship is doing something!"

All eyes went to the window to watch the infected ship. The green aura the lights onboard produced had increased, and a brown smear was now visible on the ship's hull. It was clearly more of the Teryx's trademark biological flesh.

"Keen gear." Crimson remarked. "You can see it from here even."

Then, without warning, the thrusters on the ship suddenly flared, and it started to drop away.

"The ship is dropping altitude!" Kislee exclaimed alarmed. "It's entering a low orbit! Trellis, it's preparing to land!"

"Okay, whatever we're going to do, we need to do it now!" Darkwing exclaimed alarmed.

Techno suddenly had an idea. "Trellis, do you have a rope or cable onboard?" he asked.

"Sure, lots of it." Trellis said.

"How about a means of recoiling it automatically?" Techno asked.

"What are you getting at, Tech?" Crimson asked.

"I think I have an idea." Techno said with a grin.

* * *

"Oh no, this is _not _a good idea!" Crimson said from within her space suit, peering over the edge of the broken bridge at the sphincter below, back on the infected ship.

"Crimson, we don't have time to come up with a better idea!" Techno said from where he hovered above them with his rocket boots, installing the coil of cable and a device capable of recoiling it and whatever was on it up on a support beam. "This will work, I promise!"

"We must hurry." Aurora said, the only other one present, also in a space suit. "The atmosphere's toxicity levels are spiking, and the ship's altitude is dropping ever more in preparation of landing."

"Hopefully this won't take long." Techno said, landing beside the alien and tying the end of the cable around the middle of Aurora's lower half. "All we have to do is get down there, plant the bombs, and then get back up here where the _Mossflower _can beam us out. Easy."

"Easy for you to say!" Crimson said, turning to her friend. "You're saying we're actually going to have to go _through _that thing?"

"Yes." Techno said, making sure the cable he had tied around Aurora was secure.

"Don't you realize how utterly _gross _that'll be?" Crimson asked, disgusted.

"Crimson, you _live _for the disgusting." Techno said, pulling himself up onto Aurora's back to ride her like a horse. "You've watched whole movies that had stuff worse than this."

"Yes, but watching it and actually doing it are two completely different things!" Crimson pointed out, climbing onto Aurora's back to join Techno.

"Well, like I said, we don't have a choice!" Techno said. "Now, are you ready, Aurora?"

"As I'll ever be." Aurora admitted reluctantly, and started forward to the edge of the bridge, her two companions riding on her back.

Slowly, she stepped off the edge and onto the smooth flesh underneath, walking across it carefully, making her way towards the sphincter.

"Oh, I'm _so _glad I'm wearing a space suit for this." Crimson muttered as Aurora poked her forepaws into the sphincter.

Wincing, but biting back any comments, Aurora pushed both feet through, and then her back feet, allowing herself as well as her riders to slip through. The cable tied around her trailed along behind her loosely. Inside, it was pitch black and impossible to see anything, but only Techno was the one who was annoyed at this.

"Hmm, peristalsis." Techno remarked as the fleshy substance moved them along on it's own power.

"Techno!" Crimson exclaimed in annoyance, not wanting to hear a running commentary on the matter.

Finally, they were spat out another sphincter and onto a hard, metal, surface with a thud. All three were covered with a sticky goo.

"Eeewww." Crimson muttered, disgusted, shaking the goop off of her. "This is wrong on _so _many levels!"

"But it worked, look!" Techno exclaimed, having wiped the goo off his helmet and pointed ahead of them.

All three of them looked forward and saw the reactor standing several stories tall, only a few feet away from them. It was cover with a biological shell, but was otherwise the same reactor.

"Yes, but that is not the only thing I see." Aurora said, and pointed above them.

Hanging from the ceiling, so thick you couldn't see said ceiling, where hundreds upon hundreds of flaying Teryx. There were also more Teryx cells containing young, totally to be no more than six in the room. The three froze as the realized the enormity of the danger they were in. For several moments, they didn't dare move. But it was clear that the Teryx were not moving to attack them.

"They aren't doing anything." Crimson whispered softly to her friends.

"They don't consider us a threat." Aurora said. "Now's our chance."

"Okay, but go slowly." Techno said. "We don't want to give them any chance of them changing their minds."

Aurora nodded, and moved cautiously towards the reactor, her riders still on her back. Crimson and Techno had their gas guns out and at the ready should they need them, but they didn't dare fire them until they had cause to. They arrived at the reactor without event. Reaching into a pack hanging from the back of Aurora's upper body, Crimson and Techno pulled out the bombs, and slowly started pressing them against the reactor.

They instantly stuck, and started blinking, indicating they were armed. Going slowly, they continued to attach bombs to the reactor.

* * *

On _Mossflower_, they watched the infested ship continue to dip.

"Projected reentry in five minutes, present speed." Kislee reported.

"Follow for now." Trellis said. "But keep your distance."

Kislee nodded. It was then that things started to go wrong. Without warning, the infested ship suddenly veered to the right, plunging into the atmosphere of the planet without warning. Instantly, the air around it started to burn in long fiery trails, growing longer the deeper into the atmosphere the ship traversed.

"Trellis!" Kislee exclaimed in alarm.

"I see it!" Trellis said, jumping out of his seat. "Stay with them!"

"Anyway to let Crimson and the others know what's happening?" Darkwing asked, springing forward in alarm at the sight.

"None, there's too much interference!" someone else exclaimed.

Trellis moved to stand in front of the window. He then turned back to Darkwing, grim faced. Darkwing came and joined him, and together, they watched the ship moved deeper into the atmosphere.

* * *

They had just finished placing the last charges when the whole room suddenly shook, nearly knocking them down.

"Whoa!" Crimson said, tightening her hold on Aurora.

"That can't be a good thing!" Techno said.

"The ship must be entering the atmosphere!" Aurora exclaimed. "It's the only explanation I can think of!"

"We gotta get out of here!" Crimson said. "Aurora, we've placed the last of the bombs! Head back to the sphincter!"

Aurora nodded, and broke out into a gallop, racing back to where they had entered. Above them, the Teryx shuddered and stirred, but still did not move to attack. It was clear it wasn't going to last for much longer, however.

Aurora reached the sphincter. "Okay, we're here." she said.

"Tech, time for you to work your magic!" Crimson said to her friend.

Techno nodded and pulled out a remote, pressing it's only button. Above them, the coil of cord started to recoil. Within moment, the cord wrapped around Aurora's middle went taunt, and started to pull them back towards the sphincter and back out of the reactor core.

It was then that the Teryx labeled them as a threat. Almost all at once, the flying Teryx awoke and swooped down at them. Yelping in alarm, both Crimson and Techno fired blindly into the swarm. It wasn't good enough, quickly they were surrounded by the creatures, trying to claw at them. Fortunately, the space suits were protecting them from the worse of the damage. Then, one of the Teryx managed to snap the cable, releasing Aurora from it's pull.

With a yell, Aurora yelped forward to try and grab the cord as it zipped away from her, going so far as sticking her hand into the sphincter to try and grab it. But the cord was well lubricated with the slimy goo and slipped out of her fingers.

"So much for that plan!" she exclaimed.

Then the ship lurched again as the ride into the atmosphere grew rougher. As if frightened, the Teryx suddenly broke off their attack and flew away. The trio was thankful for the reprieve no matter what.

"But where does this get us?" Crimson asked. "We're stuck here!"

"We should still blow the reactor." Techno said.

"With us still on this blasted ship?" Crimson exclaimed. "Have you gone _crazy_?"

"Crimson, we can't let this ship land!" Techno said. "No matter what!" he pulled out the remote trigger for the bombs.

"Don't forfeit our lives just yet." Aurora said, who had pulled out her scanner. "There might actually be another way out of here!"

"Where?" Crimson asked.

"There!" Aurora said, pointing across the room to where another sphincter, slightly smaller, lay, almost hidden by the reactor. "It leads to the hanger bay! There might be a fighter ship in there we can use to get to safety!"

"Better than nothing, go for it!" Crimson said.

Aurora nodded, and started galloping for it. Meanwhile, the Teryx seemed to regrouping, getting ready to try again. Techno was also going through the numbers, and saw that no matter what, they needed to blow the bombs now. So he threw the switch.

One by one, the bombs they had planted on the reactor exploded, blowing holes into the structure. It shuddered, then collapsed, creating yet another, bigger, explosion as Aurora raced for the other sphincter. Then chaos broke loose. The Teryx let out screams of fury, and then started to fly around in circles. The three started to raise their hands up to protect themselves, but the threesome was the least of the Teryx's concerns. With a crack, one of the cells fell from where it hung and crashed to the ground with a smash. Another explosion bleached out one of the walls, and the room started to shake harder.

"The chain reaction's started!" Crimson said, and slapped the side of Techno's helmet. "Techno, you idiot!"

"Hey, it'll keep the Teryx off our tails for the moment, and gives us a chance to get out of here!" Techno said in his defense. "The ship isn't going to blow up for another few seconds, maybe more! That might be time enough to escape!"

Aurora nodded, and threw herself and her riders into the sphincter...

* * *

From outside, the ship appeared to start to list. Then, without warning, an explosion erupted out of it's side, sending it into a flat spin.

"Gosalyn!" Darkwing exclaimed, lunging forward as if there was something he could do to help. Trellis quickly moved to hold him back.

"The ship's losing control!" Kislee exclaimed. "It's burning up in reentry, starting to tear apart! The central reactor has destabilized as well! The chain reaction has started _as well_!"

"Pull us back!" Trellis said. "Get us to a safer orbit, away from the debris that thing's going to produce."

_Mossflower _pulled back, and moved higher up to a higher orbit. The infested ship continued in it's flat spin, really flaming now, pieces started to fly off of it. Then, without warning, the whole ship suddenly exploded, spraying debris in all directions.

"No!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"Scan the debris!" Trellis said. "Search for anything out of the ordinary!"

But Kislee's face suddenly broke out in a large grin. "No need, Trellis!" she said. "I'm picking up a four-person craft trying to pull out of the atmosphere. It's relaying a distress signal, and I'm picking up three lifeforms onboard, and they _aren't _Teryx!"

"Teleport them onboard!" Trellis said, also grinning. "Straight here will do!"

There was a flash of light, and then Crimson, Techno, and Aurora all materialized on the bridge, looking exhausted and panicked, but otherwise no worse for wear. Darkwing let out a cry of joy and quickly rushed forward and grabbed all three into a hug.

"Ack, Dad!" Crimson exclaimed. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but there's people watching!"

Darkwing merely laughed, and hugged tighter.

Trellis grinned. "All's well that ends well." he remarked.

* * *

"So the Teryx all went down with the ship?" Darkwing asked later, both he and Trellis back at the scanner, awaiting it's results still.

"According to every scan, yes sir." Trellis said. "I'm not surprised, really. The Teryx may be resilient, but I'm pretty sure they can't survive an explosion _and _an uncontrolled reentry. We'll probably stick around to run some scans, just to play it safe, but I think planet Earth is safe once again."

Darkwing grinned, then looked back at the scanner. "Now we just gotta get this one last issue resolved." he muttered.

Trellis nodded. "It should finish soon." he said. "And Darkwing, no matter what it says, just know that is doesn't change who you are, and I hardly doubt it'll change what people such as me or your cohorts think of you."

"But it will change how I think of myself." Darkwing pointed out. "And that makes all the difference."

They were silent for a moment. Then suddenly, the scrolling data on Trellis's screen stopped, and with a beep, displayed the results.

"Oh good, it's done!" Darkwing said, anxious to know the results. "Well, what does it say?"

Trellis didn't reply right away.

"Trellis?" Darkwing asked.

"Negative." Trellis said. "The results are negative."

"Yes!" Darkwing said, hopping up. "Yes! That puts my mind _so _much at ease! Oh, thank you Trellis!" he grabbed Trellis's hand and shook it rapidly. "Oh!" he said, getting an idea. "I better go tell Crimson the good news! Thanks again!"

Trellis numbly nodded, then turned to the screen, rereading what it said, sighing. He knew what it said. And it said the complete opposite from what he told Darkwing.

"Positive." he muttered, then sighed. "I should've told him. But perhaps he's better off not knowing the truth anyway."

With a moment's hesitation, he reached over and shut the scanner off, erasing the results...

* * *

"Well, I guess it's time for us to go." Crimson said, as they all regrouped back in the room they had originally arrived in.

"Yes, though I feel it's too soon." Trellis said. "We should meet up with each other again."

"And maybe we will." Darkwing said. "But in the meantime, good bye, and thanks again for all of your help."

"And thanks for your help as well." Trellis said. "Oh, and one more thing before I forget."

He pulled out a data chip and handed it to Techno. Puzzled, Techno accepted it.

"Remember the object Crimson found on the sensors that I wouldn't let you see?" Trellis asked. "Well, the data on this chip will allow you to find out. I think the modifications will fit nicely with your aircraft, the...Thunderquack, right?"

"But I thought you couldn't tell us what that thing was." Launchpad objected.

"I can't _tell _you." Trellis agreed. "But that doesn't mean I can't help you guys figure it out for yourselves. Like I said before. There are something that aren't meant to be secret. This is one of them. And maybe you finding it will get things rolling to make it happen."

Crimson took the chip from Techno and grinned. "Now you've got me curious." she said, then looked at Trellis. "Thanks. For everything."

"Your welcome." Trellis said, then took a step back. "Until next time then."

And with a flash of light, Darkwing and the gang was whisked back to Darkwing Tower. Grinning, Trellis turned and left the room, going up the bridge, sitting down in his chair.

"We're ready to disembark." Kislee reported from her console. "Course and heading, Trellis?"

Trellis thought for a moment. "There." he said, pointing out the viewport at a star. "I don't think we've been there yet."

Kislee grinned, and set in a course. Gracefully, the _Mossflower _left Earth orbit, and headed on it's way.

* * *

_Fun Facts: This is the first chapter to have a recap at the beginning since chpt. 34, "Friendly Fire."_

_With the exception of Trellis, and the referneces to Zedekal and Ekard, all of the aliens that are mentioned by their names appearing in this story had their names pulled from my Redwall fanfiction. This most likely happened because I dubbed Trellis's ship "Mossflower" (another refenence to the Redwall world) and that was because I thought it would make for a good name for a ship, particularly one of peace.  
_


	43. Neither Good Nor Evil

Summary: There's a new Darkwing double loose in St. Canard. And the threat he presents includes more than Darkwing and the gang...

Rating: T (to play it safe)

Author's Note: It seems that I've been visiting the idea of another Darkwing double alot lately. Not intentional, I assure you. But hey, that's how it's worked out. There's a few ideas in here that were spur of the moment ideas, such as Darkwarrior's whole involvement in this chapter. I wrap up a loose detail from last chapter, and as such leave a couple more cookies for future chapters (you're all working at putting the clues to the puzzle togther, right?). In this chapter I also introduce Hooter's boss for the first time (and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner). You only get a taste of him this chapter, but hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of him soon. Agent Mia makes an appearance. She wasn't supposed to originally, and her role is minor, but there she is. The villain introduced in this chapter was going to be a one-time character, but after thinking ahead (I mean really ahead, so not any time soon) I think I can fit him in again. Hence the semi-cliffhanger ending.

I also reveal a little about the history of St. Canard, mostly because I had a chance to do so, and took it.

43.

Neither Good Nor Evil

On the outskirts of St. Canard's suburbs was a dark street that branched away from the last row of houses and eventually connected with the nearest highway. Currently, the street was mostly abandoned, as it was still the early hours of the morning. The row of houses that ran along one side of the street were all dark, and their backyards facing the road were all empty and void of anyone watching.

Which actually made it the perfect location for something to occur.

With a flash of multi-colored light, a portal opened. And as portals go, it was a fairly small one, hardly large enough for a person to step through. Fortunately, it didn't need to be so big, as the object that flew out of it wasn't a person at all. Instead, it was some sort of ball-like object that floated in the air under it's own power. Colored white with black trim, the object opened a small slot to reveal a camera lenses, looked around, then flew off into the dawn, the portal closing behind it.

It was a probe, and it had a mission to conduct. Gaining altitude, it rose over the suburbs below it, traveling slowly as it passed over house by house. Finally, beeping suddenly, it swooped down at one house. It glanced briefly at the address, 537 Avian Way, then continued to the house. Being careful to not be seen, the probe peered in through the house's front window for a moment, then not immediately seeing anyone, flipped on a light to shine through the window.

The house appeared to be empty. Undeterred, however, the probe moved on to it's next objective, flying even higher now as it turned to fly across Audubon Bay and straight into St. Canard's metropolis section. Avoiding skyscrapers as it flew, it searched for a certain target, but it was clear it didn't know exactly where to find it.

Finally, it glanced in one direction, then quite literally did a double take and rushed towards the five-story building in question. It paused at the large sign that hung on the building, reading "SHUSH", but that wasn't it's main focus. It flew along the side of the building, peering into windows at random, before finally arriving at the roof of the building, and while skimming along the surface below it, headed straight for a large device that was used to relay information and provide for wireless communication.

Extending a little arm that inserted itself into an open socket on the device, the probe quickly hacked into the system and began sifting through the data. After awhile, it found what it was looking for, and disconnected, and flew away from the building. Rising back up in altitude, it started back the way it came, but this time on a slightly different course, heading for the Audubon Bay Bridge.

Or, more specifically, one of the bridge's four towers.

Approaching it, it scanned for life within the tower's top, then upon finding none, switched on it's light for a moment, and flew past the tower's row of windows, shining the light within. Not long after that, it found a way inside the tower, and entered through a air vent, large enough for it to fit.

Now inside, it scanned the tower in it's entirety. It didn't find much, just that the tower was empty, and that the two major vehicles that were usually within the tower were currently away. But for the probe this was a good thing, as it was less likely to be disturbed. It turned it's attention to the supercomputer that sat in the tower, and like the device it found back at the building, connected with it and hacked into the system, sifting through the data. As it did, said data appeared in brief flashes on the encirclement of screen on a raised platform.

Finding what it needed, it erased all traces it had hacked into the system, and then left, exiting the tower and zipping back out into the dawn, sunlight from the rising sun glinting off it's metal skin as it flew back across the bay and into the suburbs. Returning back to the street it originated from, it paused, opened another portal, and zipped into it, and vanished from sight...

* * *

On a lonely street, a car sat at a streetlight, waiting for the light to turn green. The driver inside was heading to the office early today, and was in no real hurry. He sat there humming to the tune that was playing on the radio as he waited for the light to change. Finally, it did, and the driver started to move his car into the intersection.

But he was brought to a sudden halt as a motorbike suddenly ran the red light and shot into the intersection as well, craftily jumping over the car's nose as it zoomed past. The driver honked his horn, then started forward again, only to stop again as another motorbike of similar construction, this one with a sidecar, rushed into the intersection, moved around the car to avoid hitting it, and pursued after the first motorbike.

"He's getting away!" Techno warned as they chased after the first motorbike on the Ratcatcher.

"Not if I can help it." Crimson growled, and added more fuel to the engine.

Their target knew his pursuers were gaining on him, and sped up even more. Moving across the empty street to jump onto the sidewalk, he rode along there, hoping to loose his pursuers even more. But Crimson kept right on his tail, chasing him the whole way.

Getting desperate, the person on the fleeing motorbike tried every evasive move in the book, but to no avail. Crimson knew ever move in the book, plus some of her own invention, and simply could not be shook. Finally seeming to accept this, the person simply stopped trying to evade them, and continued moving forward, perhaps hoping an opportunity to save himself would open up, or was waiting for the inevitable to happen, and Crimson and Techno on the Ratcatcher would finally catch up with him.

But that wasn't what ultimately happened at all. Without warning at all, the Thunderquack suddenly swooped down out of the sky in front of the fleeing motorbike, and fired a single missile at the bike. It purposely missed, the missile hitting right before the bike, but in the biker's attempt to avoid the shot, he overbalanced and crashed, falling off his bike as it skidded on down the road without him.

The Ratcatcher shot past the fallen biker, and then turned around to come a stop beside him cutting off any escape attempts. On the other side, the Thunderquack gently landed, cutting off the biker's escape route in that direction. The glass canopy on the jet started to open, and Darkwing started to climb out to apprehend the villain, but Crimson was one step ahead of him.

Hopping off the Ratcatcher, she pulled out her gas gun, slapped the weapon the biker was in the process of drawing out his hand, and pointing the gas gun right between the biker's two glowing eyes.

"You're under arrest, Darkwarrior Duck." Crimson growled menacingly. "Techno, read him his rights."

"I _know _my rights!" Darkwarrior objected, trying to squirm away from Crimson angrily, only to have Crimson pin him down with one foot. "I'm the crime fighter here!"

"We've been over this before, Darkwarrior." Darkwing said, joining the group. "It's only in your head." he held out a pair of handcuffs. "So who wants to do the honors?"

Crimson snatched the handcuffs and hauled Darkwarrior up to his feet, snapping the cuffs to his wrists. Darkwing watched on with glee.

"Well, that's one Darkwing double down!" Launchpad announced happily.

"Yep, and only one more to go after that." Darkwing said, polishing his nails on his jacket. "Good ol' Negaduck. Hmph, but with Darkwarrior out of the way finally and The Elements disbanded, I'll be able to focus all of my attention on him and the Fearsome Five once again! Mark my words, LP, Negaduck's days are numbered, and soon a crime-free day will dawn on St. Canard once again!"

Seeing Crimson shove Darkwarrior into the sidecar of the Ratcatcher and Techno taking post beside him to act in case Darkwarrior tried anything, Darkwing patted Launchpad on the back, and the two turned back to the Thunderquack to follow the Ratcatcher as it went to deliver Darkwarrior at the St. Canard supervillain prison...

* * *

But elsewhere, trouble was brewing.

Gosalyn Mallard stood at the window of the penthouse apartment sipping a drink as she overlooked the war-torn, polluted, and corrupted version of St. Canard the Negaverse housed, and grinned. Everything was going great here. Brushing off her red jersey, and sitting down in a beanbag chair with a flop, NegaGosalyn leaned back to begin what she hoped would be a day to simply kick back and relax.

But it was not meant to be. Without warning, something suddenly smashed through the window NegaGosalyn had been looking out of just moments earlier and crashed to the floor, spraying glass everywhere. NegaGosalyn yelped and spilled her drink all down her front in surprise, while in the same motion flinging the cup aside and reaching for her P90 sitting nearby.

The 'something', which turned out to be a person, moved quickly, rushed forward to pin NegaGosalyn down. NegaGosalyn managed to grab her weapon and start to point and aim, firing off a few blind rounds that all missed their target before the person grabbed her around the neck and slammed her to the floor, knocking the P90 from her hand.

It was then that NegaGosalyn got a good look at her attacker. At first she thought it was Darkwing, but then realized that while this person's movements and overall appearance mirrored that of Darkwing's, he had Negaduck's glaring eyes. And the costume he wore wasn't Darkwing's, Negaduck's, nor any other double she had ever encountered. This outfit was pure white, with black buttons and a matching black trim. He wore a black mask over his eyes, but NegaGosalyn knew without a doubt that it was a Darkwing double of some sort she was looking at.

His hand squeezed NegaGosalyn's throat lightly, not quite enough to choke her, but enough to cause discomfort, and narrowed his eyes at his prey. "Where's Negaduck?" he demanded in a Darkwing-like voice.

"Why do you care?" NegaGosalyn asked harshly. "Furthermore, what makes you think I'll even tell you?"

"Because no matter what you do, I'll figure it out." the double said. "I have an uncanny way of doing that. And as for why I care, you'll find out about that soon enough. Now spill it, little lady. Where's Negaduck gone?"

"He's not here!" NegaGosalyn said. "And search for him all you want, you aren't going to find him here!"

Which was true, because currently it was only NegaGosalyn in the Negaverse. Negaduck was still in the Posiverse conducting business with the Fearsome Five. Once he was done with that, they were to switch, and Negaduck would come to the Negaverse to relax, while NegaGosalyn went to supervise things in the Negaverse. But she highly doubted that...whomever this was...would know any of that, or that the Posiverse even existed.

But the smile that played across the double's face quickly told her she was wrong, and had thereby just told him exactly what he wanted.

"Good enough." he said, and released her, racing back for the broken window while pulling out a very enhanced version of a gas gun, holding it up in preparation to fire a grappling hook.

NegaGosalyn paused long enough to get a good breath of air, then grabbed her P90 and fired quickly at the double. She was just a second too slow. The double fired off a grappling hook up to the roof of Canard Tower, just a floor above them, and swung out the window and upward in a full loop. NegaGosalyn's shots missed the target and instead shot out another window.

Ignoring the damage, however, NegaGosalyn quickly picked herself up and raced across the penthouse and to the stairs that led up the roof. Vaulting up them two at a time, she felt she was quickly gaining on her prey. But as she neared the door, she saw a light flash beyond it, and when she finally arrived on the roof, the double had vanished, leaving no clue as to where he went.

NegaGosalyn stood on the roof, P90 in hand, for a moment, then sighed in annoyance. She turned around and marched back downstairs to retrieve a certain portal remote and relay a message to Negaduck...

* * *

When Drake entered the living room, flipping through a folder of papers, he stopped at the sight of Gosalyn standing on her head on the seat of the couch, watching TV.

"Gos," he began, "what are you doing?"

"Trying to admit not how completely and utterly bored I am." Gosalyn admitted, as she continued to watch TV.

Drake glanced at the screen. "But you're watching _Jumpgate_." he noted. "I thought you never got bored with that."

"True, but this is the episode "Arch-Enemies," the finale for season three in which the team first encounters the Terras for the first time." Gosalyn said. "You know, the aliens I remarked were kind of like the Teryx?"

"Ah yes, I supposed after the adventure on the _Mossflower _with Trellis a few weeks back, you would be excessively interested with that stuff." Drake admitted with an understanding nod. "But then...why the headstand?"

"I've watched the episode so many times, it's gotten dull, so I'm trying to watch it from another angle." Gosalyn replied flatly.

"I take it this where we get to the 'completely and utterly bored' part." Drake guessed.

"Yep." Gosalyn said. "It's one of those summer days in which you don't feel like doing anything."

"I can relate with that." Drake admitted. "But still, Gos, there must be _something _you can do."

"Not really." Gosalyn admitted. "At least, not that I can actually do."

Drake was one step ahead of her. "Gos, I've told you, Honker's told you, and LP's told you." he said, exasperated. "The modifications to the Thunderquack Trellis provided on the data card are going to take a little while to build and implement, possibly a month or more. None of us are going to find out what thing is Trellis is hoping we'll find is anytime soon. You're just going to have to accept that."

"But I'm just _dying _to know what it is!" Gosalyn exclaimed, letting herself fall out of her headstand and turning to face Drake head on once her feet were on the ground. "C'mon, there must be someway to speed it up! Maybe if we sought help from SHUSH..."

"Trellis indicated that whatever it is he wants us to find, it's a government secret." Drake said, moving to walk into the dining room and placing the file in his hand on the table. "SHUSH is the most secret agency on the planet, so they could possibly be in on the secret. If we let them know we know something about it, they'll work to stop us, I know it. Getting help from SHUSH isn't an option at the moment."

"But suppose this goes deeper than SHUSH?" Gosalyn asked, following him. "Trellis indicated as such."

"Ah yes, your theory that the ever illusive and mysterious organization known as The Agency somehow has a hand in all of this." Drake muttered, sitting down to the table to work.

"Honker's convinced it actually exists now." Gosalyn said.

"Well, he can think what he will." Drake said, opening the folder and reading the first page. "Right now I'm not going to worry about it, and work at reading this file SHUSH just set me. J. Gander was a little vague about it."

"Oh joy, paperwork." Gosalyn muttered. "The very last thing I want to do."

She started to turn and leave, going back to watch the TV. But then Drake suddenly blinked at the paper he was reading, and held up a hand to stop her.

"Gos, you may want to take a look at this." he said.

Gosalyn came back, and peered down at the paper. She frowned, and then picked it up. Clipped to the paper, which Gosalyn now saw was a standard inquiry form of SHUSH's, was a news paper article. It's headline read: "Darkwing Duck Adopts New Look." Below the headline was a slightly blurry picture of someone who clearly looked like Darkwing Duck. But the costume he wore was the purest of whites.

"That's not you." she said bluntly.

"And SHUSH knows it too." Drake agreed, holding up the folder. "This paperwork is their way of quietly asking me about the matter, seeing if there's any truth to it."

"But then who is it?" Gosalyn asked. "Surely not someone like Negaduck. White's not his color. Too good looking."

"And it can't be Darkwarrior, because he's in jail." Drake said. "Which only means one thing."

"We have yet another Darkwing double on the loose." Gosalyn concluded.

* * *

"_Another_?" Launchpad asked later at Darkwing Tower, once he had been told about the situation.

"Now are we sure this is a real Darkwing double?" Techno asked. "The last few we've encountered the past few times was either Darkwing posing as someone else, or Negaduck in disguise, not actual new doubles."

"Right now we don't have any evidence to suggest otherwise, young Techno." Hooter remarked from the big screen above them. "We don't even have evidence of transdimensional portals opening. In fact, we haven't for several weeks now, nearly a month. So until we have evidence to suggest otherwise, we are going to presume that he is a new double, and our goal now is to learn more about him, where he came from, and what he intends to do."

"Understood, J. Gander." Darkwing said, standing up to leave. "We'll get right on it. Any clues on where to look first?"

"According to the article, this Darkwing double was seen on the corner of Jacques Street and Duncan Avenue." Hooter reported. "I imagine it would be best to search for clues there, first. I'll notify you if SHUSH learns anymore, however."

"And we, of course, will keep you notified of our progress, J. Gander." Crimson remarked. "Leave it to us, we'll get to the bottom of things."

"Good luck, Darkwing." Hooter said, reaching for the button to deactivate the transmission. "J. Gander out."

He cut the transmission, watching the group vanish from his screen, then sighed, reaching under his glasses to rub at his eyes. "So much for only being down to one double." he remarked wearily. "If Darkwing's right, and this is a new double, then we're right back to dealing with two again. And just when today was looking to be a good day. What else can go wrong?"

Then the intercom sitting on his desk buzzed, and the tinny voice of his secretary was broadcasted through the device.

"Vice President Norrin on line one, director." she announced, sounding a little apologetic at the same time.

Hooter sighed, and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, and reminded himself that nothing was ever so bad that it couldn't get worse. "Oh dear, just the very _last _person I wish to speak with." he muttered. "Today is turning out to be a very bad day indeed."

"I'm sorry director." the secretary, overhearing, replied. "If you want, I could maybe tell him that you're busy and to call back later...?"

"No, I'll take the call now." Hooter said with a sigh. "No use trying to avoid the inevitable. Thank you Julie." he turned off the intercom, then picked up his phone. "Director John Gander Hooter." he said flatly, trying to keep the dread out of his voice.

"Director, answer me truthfully." the stern, neutral, and somewhat monotonous voice of Jonas Norrin, the current vice president of the nation, spoke on the other line. "I've got word of a rumor saying that there's another double of Darkwing Duck on the streets. Is it true?"

"Yes, unfortunately, Mr. Vice President." Hooter replied. "We're still working on finding out more."

"No doubt it's Darkwing himself you've sent to do it." Norrin guessed, sounding less happy than usual.

Hooter hesitated. "Yes." he admitted. "But sir, he is the most qualified person I have to..."

"Director, you know my opinion about Darkwing." Norrin interrupted. "Particularly as of late. I would feel much better if you sent one or more of your agents to conduct this mission."

"With all due respect, sir, seeing this is directly related to Darkwing, shouldn't Darkwing be the one to lead the mission?" Hooter asked tentatively. He knew it wasn't going to do much good.

He was right. "Director, there have been several reports of someone posing as Darkwing breeching the security of this nation in recent months." Norrin said sternly. Hooter could almost imagine his disapproving glare. "He simply cannot be trusted, now more than ever. Yet you've allowed him come far too close to sensitive matters, matters that will eventually jeopardize everything if you allow it to continue."

"Mr. Vice President, while I am director of SHUSH, Darkwing will be the first person I turn to for matters such as this." Hooter said. "He is the perfect face for the public when things get out of hand."

"I disagree, director, and let me remind you that I outrank you." Norrin said. "And the only person who can outrank me is the president himself."

"Who probably doesn't know a word of this." Hooter remarked despite himself, knowing that Norrin would've kept the matter secret so to maintain his jurisdiction over it.

Norrin used the remark to his advantage. "He won't need to if you will follow my advice for once, director." Norrin stated. "Don't force me to make it an order, director."

Hooter sighed, and thought for a moment. "Perhaps I can send out some agents to address the matter, _in addition _to Darkwing." he suggested. "Will that satisfy you, Mr. Vice President?"

"I suppose it will have to." Norrin said with a sigh. "See to it, though. Now good day."

And with that, the line went dead. Hooter stared at the phone for a moment, then leaned over to the intercom and paged Grizzlikof.

"Agent Grizzlikof, could you send Agent Mia up here?" Hooter asked. "I have a mission for her."

* * *

"Ah yes, Duncan Avenue." Crimson remarked to herself as they drove along in the Ratcatcher. "The street filled with vintage 1920's stuff."

"This street is filled with a great deal of historical landmarks, Crimson." Techno remarked from the sidecar, annoyed. "Besides, it was after the first world war that St. Canard really started to grow into the metropolis it is today, especially thanks to the construction and completion of the Audubon Bay Bridge."

"I'm not complaining." Crimson said. "Actually, I like what the 1920's were like back then. If it wasn't for the fact that it would lack several decades worth of technology, I wouldn't mind living during that time."

"I think it's because of the lack of technology that we even had the 1920's, Crimson." Techno remarked. "That, and the Prohibition Era." he paused. "There's the corner of Duncan and Jacques." he said, pointing.

Crimson pulled out a radio. "Darkwing, we're approaching the corner." she reported.

"Acknowledged." Darkwing replied from the Thunderquack. "We already arrived and have been doing a minor search around the area. We're not coming up with anything, so we'll meet up with you there shortly."

"Got it." Crimson said, coming to a stop at the corner and getting off. "We'll be waiting."

Techno exited the sidecar and used his visor to scan the area. "I'm not getting anything significant." he reported. "You know, we'd be really lucky to find any clues here."

"I know." Crimson said. "But it's a place to start, and as dad would always say, 'criminals always return to the scene of the crime.'"

"Only no crime was committed here." Techno remarked. "The article said the double was only seen here briefly, and was gone again just as fast. Furthermore, we haven't proven this double is even a villain. He could be an ally."

"That would be a first." Crimson said, rolling her eyes. "Though, I suppose it would be welcome, wouldn't it?"

A low hum announced the arrival of the Thunderquack, which landed on the roof of a nearby three-story building, positioned so that one wing hung over the edge. No doubt a mistake on Launchpad's part, but Darkwing decided to make the best of it.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" he exclaimed, hopping out onto the overhanging wing, flapping his cape dramatically in the breeze that fluttered by. "I am your double from another universe! I am Darkwing-OOF!"

Something yellow suddenly slammed into Darkwing, knocking him from the wing. Quickly, he twisted around and fired off a grappling hook from his gas gun as he fell. It latched onto the wing he had fallen off of, and brought him to a halt. Crimson and Techno gathered below him, wide-eyed, and Launchpad raced to the roof's edge above him. Darkwing however was more concerned with who was hanging onto his feet at the moment.

Negaduck dangled there for several moment, growling viciously. He started to swing, taking Darkwing with, in an attempt to shake Darkwing loose.

"Come down and fight, you knob!" Negaduck roared. "We have a score to settle!"

"What did I do _this_ time?" Darkwing demanded. "Besides the obvious and usual things, like me being first on your hit list!"

"You attacked NegaGosalyn on _my _territory!" Negaduck exclaimed, still trying to get Darkwing to let go of his gas gun and let them fall to the ground.

"You mean the Negaverse?" Darkwing repeated, surprised, so much so he let go of the gas gun anyway, and the two toppled the remaining floor and a half to the ground.

Negaduck was on his feet in a heartbeat, and was about to lunge on Darkwing when Crimson and Techno grabbed him and worked to hold him back.

"Let me go!" Negaduck demanded. "Let me at that purple peacock!"

"Not until you give use some answers, Negs!" Darkwing said, hopping up. "Who attacked NegaGosalyn in the Negaverse?"

"_You _did, you're the only person who could've gotten access to the Negaverse!" Negaduck roared. "You're the only one who even knows it exists! The only one who wasn't preoccupied with other things at the time in question!"

"Well, it _wasn't _me!" Darkwing said. "I've been busy right here in this universe!"

"Liar!" Negaduck roared. "Don't think you could've fooled me by putting on that white outfit and convincing NegaGosalyn that..."

"Wait, _white?_" Crimson interrupted. "You've seen this double as well?"

"Double? What double?" Negaduck demanded.

Crimson quickly filled him on the details. Negaduck was still mad and struggling by the end of it, though.

"Can't you let me just pommel him a little bit, so I can feel better?" he pleaded, still trying to get at Darkwing.

"No!" Crimson and Techno replied together.

"Now you made a big mistake coming to me to seek your revenge without thinking, Negs." Darkwing said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs. "You've walked straight into my hands, and it's to jail for you as well. Told you his days were numbered, Crimson..."

He got no further. A bolt of energy suddenly lashed out from behind Darkwing, and smashed into the side of the building they stood beside, spraying debris at them. Darkwing quickly ducked for cover, and Crimson and Techno braced themselves. Negaduck used to moment to tug his arm free from Crimson and swing around to deck Techno. Now free, Negaduck vaulted over Darkwing, and went to grab him by the throat.

It was then that Launchpad suddenly toppled down to the ground holding Darkwing's gas gun. He apparently had been in the process of retrieving it when he lost his balance and fell. Him hitting the ground startled Darkwing, allowing him to avoid Negaduck in the same moment, and quickly ran for it. Negaduck chased after him, yelling threats.

It was then that three things happened at once. Crimson, in the process of helping Techno up, caught sight of someone standing amongst the thinning cloud of smoke that had been kicked up, and Techno saw a flux of energy suddenly flash onto his visor's sensors. Then, a column of green energy sprung up around Negaduck and Darkwing as they ran, completely enclosing them inside of it. Not being able to stop, Darkwing slammed into the wall of energy, quickly followed by Negaduck, revealing that the wall was impenetrable.

By that point, the figure Crimson spied stepped forward. It was the white-suited double, wearing a look somewhere between cruel and satisfied.

"You two are so predictable." he said. "Constantly fighting with each other. Good thing I'm here."

Everyone looked at him.

"Who are you?" Crimson asked.

"I'm Neutraduck." the double replied. "And like Negaduck over there, I'm from a parallel universe I refer to as the Neutraverse."

"Neutraduck, huh?" Negaduck grumbled from within the cylinder trapping him and Darkwing. "Well, pray tell us why you're here Neutraduck, unless you're only here to just be a _real pain in the neck!_"

"How do you know so much about either of us?" Darkwing asked.

"I did my research." Neutraduck said. "A good thing, too, because I'm here on a very important mission."

"What kind of mission?" Techno asked, a little apprehensive. Beside him, Crimson went on the defensive, but hadn't attacked yet, as she hadn't had much reason to.

"Well, in my universe, things are one or two centuries ahead of both of your universes." Neutraduck said, holding up one arm to reveal an advanced device strapped to is wrist and the other to show off his equivalent of a gas gun, which was narrow-barreled, and very sleek. "So we know a few things about the multiverse, and have traveled a great deal throughout it. And one of the things we learned was that the tron count of each universe was different. The higher the negatron count, the more deadly it was. The higher the positron count, the more likely it was to interfere with the other universes. Your two universes are like that. The Negaverse is a danger to other universes, and itself, while the Posiverse has a problem staying in it's own universe."

"Huh." Launchpad said, impressed.

"How do you fit into this?" Crimson asked Neutraduck.

"Well, the Neutraverse stands out from the others, because it is the only universe that has been encountered that has a perfect balance of negatrons and positrons." Neutraduck said, idly walking forward. "Exactly fifty-fifty percent of each. And because there's such a equal amount, they ultimately cancel each other out."

"So you're saying you're neither good nor evil." Techno guessed.

"Essentially, yes." Neutraduck said. "And it's become my job to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong in the multiverse."

"But what does that have to do with us?" Crimson asked, narrowing her eyes. "Nothing's quite that wrong here."

"Not yet." Neutraduck said. "But after observing both of your universes for about a month now, I've come to see that if your two universes are allowed to continue to interfere with each other, you'll eventually destroy not only each other, but draw other universes into your little war. You're a risk to the multiverse, and your universes cannot be allowed to continue to exist."

"I knew it, you..." Crimson growled, surging forward to tackle Neutraduck.

Neutraduck whisked out his gas gun variant and fired it at Crimson. Instead of firing a canister of smoke, it fired a beam of light that stopped suddenly halfway between him and Crimson. From there, another wall of green energy spread out, stopping Crimson, and went on to completely cut off the rest of the street, cutting off Neutraduck from the others. The wall also went through the cylinder trapping Darkwing and Negaduck and spilt it into two, Negaduck on one side, and Darkwing on the other.

"Don't interrupt." Neutraduck scolded. "Besides, nothing you can do can stop this from going through. I'm going to rig your universes to pull each other together, and by doing so, cancel each other out."

"You mean destroy each other." Negaduck growled.

"But that means two whole universes of life destroyed!" Crimson exclaimed. "Don't we get a say in this? Don't you care what happens to us?"

"Of course he doesn't." Techno said. "By being neither good nor evil, he has no means of figured the two out."

"Besides, he's living up to his name." Darkwing went on. "He's doing both good and evil at the same time. Sounds neutral all the way."

"But just how are you going to pull this off?" Negaduck asked skepically. "Hitch a tow rope to the Posiverse and drag it into the Negaverse?"

Neutraduck grinned. "No." he said, raising his weapon once more to point at Darkwing and Negaduck.

He fired once, and a blue aura engulfed the two briefly before it faded just as fast. The cylinder then vanished, but the wall that cut the street in two remained. Negaduck was on Neutraduck's side, and Darkwing was on Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad. Negaduck quickly threw himself at Neutraduck, but Neutraduck side-stepped Negaduck's reckless lunge.

"What I've done here is lace both Negaduck and Darkwing with a special kind of energy that will draw them together." Neutraduck explained. "The forcefield is blocking the effects at the moment, but you get the idea. As they come together, so will their separate universes, since one hails from the Negaverse, and the other the Posiverse."

"Why are you telling us this?" Darkwing asked, as Crimson and the others moved to stand by him.

"Because you can fight it all you want." Neutraduck said. "There's nothing you can do to stop this now."

"Oh, we'll figure out a way." Techno assured him. "We always have."

"Besides, you're wrong about our universes." Crimson went on. "We'll fight and bicker, but all-out war isn't going to erupt between us. We wouldn't let it."

"Would you?" Neutraduck asked, then shrugged. "Guess we'll never get to see and find out, now will we?" he grinned again. "The forcefield lowers in five minutes, and once it does, it'll stop blocking the effects of the energy you two have been laced with. If you think you have _any _fighting chance to stop me, better get as far away from each other as possible. The closer you are, the worse things get."

Darkwing glanced at the others, then at Negaduck, who seemed annoyed, but determined nonetheless.

"Four minutes fifty seconds until the forcefield lowers." Neutraduck said, glancing at his watch.

"C'mon, Mr. Darkwing, we'd better do as he says." Techno said, leading Darkwing away. "We'll take the Thunderquack back to the tower, it's faster."

"You won't get away with this, Neutraduck!" Darkwing promised. "You'll be stopped, I guarantee it!"

Neutraduck merely grinned as he watched them go. "Four minutes forty seconds." he continued.

He watched the group pile into the Thunderquack and take off, leaving the Ratcatcher behind. Once they were gone, Negaduck tried to attack Neutraduck again, but the double merely zapped him with his gun.

"Now, now, behave Negs." Neutraduck said after a moment. "Behave for the sake of the multiverse, please."

Negaduck glared at him. "You might as well be named Darkwarrior." he muttered. "What makes you think stopping this so called threat we present makes you all high and mighty, anyway?" he asked. "What makes you so sure you can even pull this off?"

"Because I've done it time after time after time again, Negs." Neutraduck said to Negaduck's surprise. "With many other universes. They all reacted the same as you have, and it didn't do them any good."

Negaduck blinked a few times, then narrowed his eyes again. "Then maybe we'll break the trend." he said, regaining his cool.

Neutraduck glanced at his watch, then back at Negaduck. "Let's find out, shall we?" he said.

The forcefield dividing the street suddenly lowered. Negaduck turned around to look at the empty space, then suddenly felt an invisible force pull at him. Quickly, he reached around for something to grab, digging his heels into the ground as he began to be pulled backwards. Finally, he toppled over, and slid backwards across the street several feet until he crashed into the parked Ratcatcher. The bike tipped over, and Negaduck started backwards again, starting to fly up into the air with a yell.

Neutraduck watched all of this for a moment, then turned and started to walk away, thinking to himself. "Darkwarrior." he repeated to himself. "I wonder who he is?"

* * *

By this point in time, the Thunderquack had started to arrive at the tower. Plunging the plane into the bay to enter the secret entrance, Launchpad looked worried as he piloted the plane.

"Just to be sure," he began, "but do we really have any idea how to reverse this?"

They all glanced at one another, then they all glanced at Techno.

"Oh, of course, you all turn to me for the answer." Techno said grumpily.

"Well, Tech, you really are the smartest one among us." Darkwing remarked. "It seems you're the one who..."

He trailed off suddenly, an odd look coming across his face.

"Dad?" Crimson prompted.

Then Darkwing started to slide across his seat towards Launchpad, the only thing keeping him in his seat was his seatbelt, which wasn't likely to hold for too long.

"The forcefield must have lowered!" Crimson said, jumping up to try and keep Darkwing from going anywhere. "LP, hurry it up!"

Launchpad nodded, and piloted the Thunderquack into the secret entrance, landing it on a small platform, it's wings folding up. A hydraulic lift then started to bring the plane up to the top of the tower. As this occurred, part of Darkwing's seat beat started to tear. Crimson grabbed at the tear, trying to hold the seatbelt together.

"As soon as we're in the hideout, get out of the plane, and then close Mr. Darkwing inside!" Techno said urgently. "That should keep him in one spot for a little while."

"A _little _while?" Crimson repeated with a glare.

"You heard Neutraduck, the effects get stronger the closer Negaduck and Darkwing get together!" Techno said. "Negaduck's probably getting dragged here himself! The closer he gets, the harder the pull on Darkwing will get! Eventually, nothing but Neutraduck's forcefield is going to keep them apart!"

"Well, whatever we're going to do, be quick about it!" Darkwing said urgently, his voice coming out harsh as the seatbelt cut into him.

Finally, the plane arrived at the hideout with a gentle thump. Launchpad opened the canopy, and everyone quickly hopped out save Darkwing, who was trying to keep his seatbelt together on his own now. Techno rushed off to the supply closest to get a scanner. Quickly Launchpad closed the hatch, and the moment it sealed and locked, Darkwing's seatbelt snapped, and he was pulled into the canopy with a smack.

Crimson and Launchpad jumped and backed up. Techno returned at a run and waved the scanner over Darkwing within the Thunderquack a few times. He frowned at the results.

"What? What is it, Techno?" Crimson asked urgently.

"These readings don't make any sense!" Techno said. "I don't even recognize the energy signature I'm getting from him! And his molecules are in a state of constant flux, completely unstable! I don't know what's holding his molecular structure together!"

"So how do we reverse it?" Crimson asked urgently.

"I don't know!" Techno said. "This is _way _over my head! M-theory can't even compare to this!"

Across the room, the screens to the supercomputer suddenly flickered, then went into static. Somewhere far off, something groaned. Curious, Crimson, Launchpad, and Techno moved towards the source of the sound.

"What's happening?" Launchpad asked.

"Possibly a side-effect of the universes beginning to combine." Techno muttered. "They might tear each other apart before they cancel each other out."

"Oh great." Crimson said sarcastically. "We'll get shredded before someone presses the interuniversal delete button on our two universes. Somehow I feel a _lot _better, Techno."

"Sorry, but it's true!" Techno said in his defense.

They were cut off when the Thunderquack behind them tipped over and started to slide across the room. They whirled around to watch. Crimson moved forward like she intended to help, but Launchpad held her back.

"No, keep your distance, no telling what might happen next!" he said.

The glass canopy groaned for a moment, one of it's windows shattering, then it's seal snapped, and it flung open, releasing Darkwing. With a yell, he flew up and into one of the tower's windows with a smack.

"DW!" Launchpad exclaimed.

"Dad!" Crimson also yelled.

Quickly, they all hurried over to the window. Darkwing watched them come, unable to do much of anything else. Already the window had started to crack.

"We need some way to hold him down!" Techno said, grabbing some rope. "Launchpad, help me!"

Quickly, the two took the rope and tied one end to Darkwing, and then the other to the railing nearby. All the while, Crimson worked to try and reassure Darkwing.

"Don't worry Dad, we'll figure this out, I promise!" Crimson vowed. "Just hang in there!"

Darkwing gave her a look as if to ask what else he'd be doing. At that moment, the window suddenly gave way with a shatter. Darkwing jerked forward about a foot before the rope stopped him again. The rope squealed under the stress.

"Techno, we need a plan, and we need it now!" Crimson said urgently.

"We have to figure out a way to keep Darkwing and Negaduck apart for now!" Techno persisted. "It's the only chance we've got at the moment!"

The railing the rope was tied too suddenly groaned. A ripping noise rang out as the rope started to fray where it had been tied to the railing. Launchpad grabbed at it.

"Maybe we can use the Thunderquack!" he suggested as he did this. "If we put it between DW and Negs..."

But he never got to finished the thought. The rope snapped suddenly, and slapped Crimson in the face, knocking her down. With a yell, Darkwing started to fly away from the tower again, taking the rope with it. Hanging onto the rope was Launchpad, and with a jerk, he was yanked out the window and zoomed away with Darkwing, knocking Techno over in the process.

Launchpad braced himself against the whistling wind as he was pulled along behind Darkwing into the city. He watched as the buildings started to shoot past, their lights flickering. He looked up at Darkwing, and saw the hero's terrified face, and winced.

"Don't worry DW, I'll think of something!" he called up, then looked around for a means to do just that.

But he got distracted when Darkwing suddenly plowed into an office building with him in tow, smashing through a window and several cubical walls before slamming into another window. This one withheld the strain and didn't shatter right away, but it instantly started to crack.

Now that Darkwing wasn't moving anymore, Launchpad was allowed to fall to the floor with a thump. He groaned, then picked himself up, flexing the fingers he had used to hold onto the rope. Getting a better idea, he tied it around his middle, then looked around the room.

"Don't worry DW, I'll think of something!" Launchpad repeated, going about the room like he'd find someway to stop this among the wreckage. "I'm your sidekick, right? It's my job to help you!"

Darkwing couldn't reply, the mysterious force prevented him from doing so, it was pulling on him so hard. The window continued to crack, but it still held. Launchpad wondered who made it, and made a mental note to thank whomever it was for making such a strong window.

A metallic groaned suddenly rang out from outside. Alarmed, Launchpad went to the window, and peered out of it. Across the street on the next building over was Negaduck, holding onto a lightning tower to dear life, slowly and carefully working his way down to the bottom. It was groaned under the strain of Negaduck hanging onto it, and had started to bend. Then, without warning, it suddenly snapped off at the base, and toppled to the ground.

It's weight outweighed that of the pull on Negaduck, and dragged Negaduck down to the ground, where both hit with a resounding crash just in front of a passing van, the road shattering from the impact.

"Whoa." Launchpad said in awe, leaning over to get a better look.

Then the window holding Darkwing there finally gave way and shattered, pulling Darkwing through, dragging Launchpad along with a yank. Both shot down to the ground where Negaduck was. As they shot together, though, Launchpad grabbed a hold of the fallen lightning rod, bringing himself and Darkwing to a halt. Darkwing's fingers stopped an inch away from touching Negaduck's.

But both now started to glow, and their images wavered like a picture on an out-of-focus TV screen. Arches of green energy shot out of them both, either zipping back and forth between each other, or lashing out at surrounding objects, heavily scorching them. The temperature around them started to rise, and power all over the city went out suddenly. Launchpad stopped to wonder for a moment if anything like this was happening in the Negaverse at the same time when the rope tying him to Darkwing suddenly snapped again, allowing Launchpad to fall to the ground with a grunt.

Darkwing and Negaduck slammed into each other, and the effects grew worse. The blurring increased so much the two almost seemed to blur into one. The arches of energy started to flash even more, so much so the light was almost blinding. The ground started to shake and crack. It was clear Darkwing and Negaduck were struggling to pull themselves apart again, but it was impossible to tell who was who anymore.

It was then that Launchpad saw the driver in the van that had nearly gotten crushed by the falling lightning rod step out of the vehicle. While shielding his or hers eyes, the figure raised what looked like a weapon, and pointed it at Darkwing and Negaduck. Once obtaining the right aim, the person fired once.

There was a resounding zap, and then Darkwing and Negaduck suddenly shot apart and fell to the ground unconscious, no longer getting pulled towards once another. The other odd effects such as the shaking ground and the arches of energy vanished. The power to the city was suddenly restored. Launchpad realized that whatever was happening had suddenly stopped. He turned to get a good look at the person who was responsible for it for the first time.

Uncovering her eyes hesitantly, Agent Mia peered at the pair, and slowly lowered her weapon, eyes wide with shock.

"Mia!" Launchpad exclaimed, also surprised. He picked himself up with a groan. "What the heck did you shoot them with?"

Mia glanced at the weapon, then held it up. "A stun gun?" she offered, just as surprised. "I figured I had to do something, and this was the first thing that came to mind."

"Well whatever you did, it worked!" Launchpad said, grinning. "You just saved us all."

Without having to think about it, he zipped over and embraced Mia in a hug. Mia was too shocked to resist. After a moment, Launchpad released her and looked at her.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked.

"Director Hooter gave me orders to find the new Darkwing double." Mia explained. "That's what I was doing, but I wasn't really getting anywhere. I did find the Ratcatcher left abandoned in a street, so I wondered if you guys had more luck than me. I was just about to return to base when you three suddenly came crashing down in front of me." she paused, looking at Darkwing and Negaduck as the effects of the stun gun wore off and they started to reawaken. "So, what just exactly have I missed?"

Launchpad grinned. "It's a long story." he admitted.

"But first things first." Darkwing grumbled, picking himself up. "We gotta find Neutraduck."

"Before he repeats this little stunt somewhere else." Negaduck added, coughing as he got up. "He's done this kind of thing before to other universes."

"Other universes?" Darkwing asked, shocked. "Why, that guy really is heartless! He's gotta be stopped!"

"Or at least chased away from our two universes." Negaduck said.

"But who's to say he hasn't already left our universe?" Launchpad asked. "He thinks he's done his part here, and I'd doubt he'd stick around to see things go through."

"Actually, oddly enough, during all of that weird stuff back then, I thought of something." Negaduck said. "If he hurried, there was one other universe Neutraduck could get rid off that fits in on his hit list."

Darkwing nodded in understanding. "Darkwarrior." he realized.

"The question is, does he know Darkwarrior's here, and where to find him?" Negaduck asked.

There was a long paused. Then Agent Mia slowly raised one hand.

"Who's Neutraduck?" she asked.

* * *

Darkwarrior sat on his cot staring at the wall on the other side of his cell. So, this is what it all came down to. Complete and utter defeat, and possibly humiliation at the same time. But none of this would've happened had SHUSH not come up with that pesky computer virus of their's. It was the only real thing that was holding him back. If he could find a cure to it...

He was interrupted suddenly when he heard a distant yell. He straightened, puzzled. His two guards turned to look down the hallway, hands going for their pistols. Another yell rang out, closer this time, and Darkwarrior stood to prepare himself for whatever was going to come. A crash then followed, then something at the end of the curving hallway smashed. A green barrier of energy suddenly surged up the hallway and smashed into the two guards and swept them away, yelling.

Darkwarrior blinked in surprise, and turned to face the entrance to his cell. A moment later, a figure stepped into view.

Darkwarrior looked at him suspiciously. "Who are you?" he demanded.

The figure grinned. "Neutraduck." he said.

The white-suited figure then pulled out a gun-like device and pointed it at the lock to Darkwarrior's cell. It zapped it, and then the lock came undone, and the door swung open slowly. Darkwarrior stared at it in surprise.

"You're freeing me?" he asked.

"For one purpose only." Neutraduck replied, and then shot Darkwarrior again with his weapon.

A green aura splayed over Darkwarrior, making the extremist watch it. Then suddenly, something else shot Darkwarrior, zapping him with something, and making him fall over, reversing the effects of Neutraduck's weapon. Alarmed, Neutraduck whirled around in time to see a cloud of purple smoke fill one end of the hallway.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing exclaimed as he, Negaduck, Launchpad, and Agent Mia all stepped out of the cloud. "I am the unexpected item that you didn't expect! I am Darkwing Duck!"

"Yadda, yadda, yadda." Negaduck added at the end.

Neutraduck seemed almost dumbfounded. "How...?" he began to ask.

Negaduck and Darkwing glanced at each other, and oddly enough, shared a grin.

"Sheer dumb luck." Darkwing admitted.

"Who would've thought?" Negaduck added.

Neutraduck looked at the pair of them, then narrowed his eyes. "No matter." he said, and raised his weapon. "I can still sort this out."

Everyone went on the defensive to evade the shot they were sure Neutraduck was going to shoot, but he surprised them all by creating another forcefield that swept his opponents back down the hallway. Neutraduck grinned that walked forward, following them. It was then, once he was alone, that Darkwarrior awoke. Standing up, he grinned as he realized now was his chance to escape, and took it he did...

* * *

With a crash, the doors to the supervillain prison popped open and spat Darkwing and the others out on the street outside, the forefield dissipating. Quickly, they all hopped back up.

"So just to be sure," Launchpad began, as they waited for Neutraduck to reveal himself, "we know how to stop him, right?"

"Um..." Darkwing said, trailing off.

"I was just kinda making it up as we went along." Negaduck admitted.

"I'm just following you guys." Agent Mia remarked.

"Mia!" Darkwing said, remembering the agent was there an idea coming to him. "Quick, take point!"

Mia blinked, then quickly did, ducking down and aiming the stun gun, the only weapon she had, at the open doors, waiting for Neutraduck. When the double finally appeared, she fired. But it didn't do any good, the shot just seemed to bounce off Neutraduck's costume. Mia's shot having given her position away, Neutraduck fired his weapon, this time the shot some kind of laser burst, and blasted into the ground in front of Mia, knocking her back and to the ground in a fiery explosion. Launchpad quickly rushed over to her side, dodging a shot that was meant for him that slammed into a nearby building.

Negaduck lunged at Neutraduck, but was merely slapped aside by the double. Neutraduck pressed on. Darkwing fired a canister of gas at Neutraduck as he headed for Darkwing, but it didn't slow Neutraduck down in the slightest. Puzzled, Darkwing started firing attachment after attachment at Neutraduck, even the alien attachment that teleported all hit targets to the Teryx sub-universe. But nothing seemed to affect, much less stop, Neutraduck. Finally, the double was upon Darkwing. Slapping aside Darkwing's gas gun, Neutraduck grabbed his opponent by the neck and started to squeeze.

Then Negaduck suddenly tackled Neutraduck from behind, wrapping his arms around the double's throat. Neutraduck released Darkwing, and the pair stumbled back a few steps. Finally, Neutraduck got leverage and threw Negaduck off of him. Pulling out his weapon once more, he whirled around to point it at Darkwing.

"Let's try this again." he said.

The gun shot rang out without warning and bored a hole into Neutraduck's weapon, crippling it. Going wide-eyed, Neutraduck turned back around to see Negaduck, his pistol still smoking slightly.

"Nearly forgot I had this thing." he admitted, then narrowed his eyes. "Neut, you've got five minutes to hightail it out of here before I shoot."

Neutraduck stared at Negaduck, then noticed Darkwing rise behind him, pointing his gas gun at him. Neutraduck saw he was outgunned, and tapped a few buttons on the device strapped to his wrist. A transdimensional portal flared into existence beside him. He turned to face it, but then paused, looking back at his opponents.

"This isn't the end of it, you know." he said. "You got lucky and scored a victory today. But next time...next time you won't be so lucky. Next time I will carry out my plans, and..."

The next bullet Negaduck fired skimmed along the side of Neutraduck's face, drawing blood. Stunned, Neutraduck slapped a hand to his cheek, and stared at Negaduck's scowling face.

"You've got five seconds to shut your face get through that portal before I shoot again." Negaduck growled. "And that time I won't miss."

Neutraduck glared at Negaduck, at them all, in fact, and then stepped through the portal and vanished from sight. Negaduck fired a bullet through the portal as it closed anyway before lowering the weapon.

"Idiot." he muttered, then stepped forward to retrieve his hat from where it had fallen in the fight.

Launchpad was helping Mia up. "Are you all right?" he asked.

Mia nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." she said, and purposely moved away from Launchpad, feeling uncomfortable suddenly.

Darkwing half-grinned, then heard pattering feet behind him. He turned in time to see Crimson and Techno run up, panting heavily.

"We (pant-pant) came as soon (pant-pant) as we heard (pant-pant) there was trouble here." Crimson gasped. "Are we (pant) too late?"

"Unfortunately so." Darkwing admitted, then frowned. "How did you guys get here?" he asked. "You didn't have the Ratcatcher on hand, and neither of you can fly the Thunderquack."

"We (pant-pant) ran (pant)." Techno breathed.

"The whole way?" Darkwing asked amazed.

"Yeah, thank (pant-pant) goodness for PE." Crimson said with a grin. "So are we done (pant) here?"

"Yeah, Neutraduck's gone back to wherever he came from." Darkwing said. "I guess I should at least tell Negaduck thanks for his help before we go, though."

"Uh, a little late for that, DW." Launchpad remarked.

Darkwing turned to see that Negaduck had vanished without a trace. He frowned.

"Figures." he muttered. "But at least we managed to keep Dark...Drat! Darkwarrior! We left his cell open, he's probably miles away by now!" he swung his foot to kick at a trash can nearby, but missed completely, so he slapped it with one hand instead.

"At least we stopped Neutraduck." Agent Mia remarked. "In the long run, that's probably even better. I mean, he was out to cancel out our two universes."

"Maybe so." Darkwing said, turning to the agent. "But you heard him. He intends on coming back." he paused, frowning. "The question is...when?"


	44. Revelations

Summary: When NegaGosalyn lays siege to the St. Canard High School and takes Gosalyn as her prisoner, the two get a chance to talk, and it's surprising what they dig up...

Rating: T (playing it safe as usual)

Author's Note: Upon on her original conception, NegaGosalyn was supposed to be Gosalyn's perfectly evil-twin. But as the chapters have gone by, I've started to leave her loyalties in doubt. Now I intend to resolve that doubt, by throwing in a new twist to the character. I've also been dying to get NegaGosalyn and Gosalyn together and talk for an unpresidented amount of time, and see where I end up. That's what I generally have done with this chapter, and as such, these two are the primary characters and no one else. Agents Mia and Sandy pop up, though, to spice things up.

44.

Revelations

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Wait, what did you say?"_

"_Your true name is Gosalyn Mallard, is it not?"_

"_I...I don't know anybody by that name."_

"_Do not deny it. SHUSH knows very well your identity."_

_--  
_

"_What's happened?"_

"_I believe there are some side effects to having all the negatrons drained out of your body."_

"_Then why isn't it affecting her?"_

"_Clearly, she doesn't have as high a negatron count as everyone else in the Negaverse."_

"_Shouldn't that mean she'd be good?"_

"_I'm far from good!"_

"_You are now. But you weren't originally, were you?"_

_--  
_

"_Nervous about something?"_

"_Nothing that concerns you."_

"_Well, maybe I can guess, seeing we're so much alike. I'm willing to bet it has to do with Negaduck...no?"_

"_You be quiet."_

"_So, maybe you two aren't as close as you seem. That actually makes sense, seeing your good-natured past."_

"_Look, I know you weren't always bad. I know you used to be better behaved than I was. But something changed, and I'm willing to bet it involves Negaduck, doesn't it?"_

"_Negaduck wanted the perfect daughter."_

"_But you don't have to be the perfect daughter. Heck, you don't have to be Negaduck's daughter at all. He's not your biological father."_

_--  
_

_Then a loud bang rang out, and the data card seemed to explode in Darkwarrior's fingers. Gasping, he whirled around to see who had caused this, as did Darkwing and Crimson. Standing behind Darkwarrior, her P90 still smoking slightly, was NegaGosalyn._

_--  
_

"_What was that all about?"_

"_Darkwarrior is just as much a threat to the Fearsome Five as he is to you guys. I simply prevented that threat from becoming worse."_

"_Ha, that's not true, and you know it! I know you better than that, and you know it! Why did you really do it?"_

"_Let's just hope that you'll never get to find out, Crimson."_

_--  
_

_She raised her P90 to aim at Crimson's head. She put her finger on the trigger, but didn't squeeze it. A long moment passed._

"_Well? Or are you just trying to savor the moment?"_

_NegaGosalyn didn't answer, nor did her aim waver. Regardless, she still did not fire. Now even NegaHerb seemed puzzled._

"_There a problem your nastiness?"_

"'_Your nastiness?' Herb, I don't like that name, don't use it again."_

"_Okay. But is there a problem? The location perhaps?"_

"_No, no, the location's fine. It's just...just..."_

"_Well? What's the hold up?"_

_NegaGosalyn glared at her, gripping her weapon tightly. She still didn't fire._

_--  
_

"_Now c'mon. Listen to reason. Deep down, you don't like the life you're leading, do you?"_

"_That's where you're wrong."

* * *

  
_

"You know, it should be against the law to have to go to school while it's still the summer break." Gosalyn remarked into her cell phone as she took her tray of the lunch that had been provided, and walking across the cafeteria.

"It's not school, Gos." Honker replied on the other end of the cell phone.

"It's in the same building." Gosalyn said, motioning to her surroundings like Honker could see them. "And we're here to learn something! By all definitions, it's school! And therefore, it's wrong to be here before the school year has begun!"

"Gos, it's the yearly intro to the new school year." Honker explained calmly over the phone. "They do it every year, to get the students all back into the school and re-familiarize themselves with the place, the teachers, and how things work. The faculty also uses the chance to announce any changes from last year. It also use the time to get kids enrolled and registered for the new year. Besides, it's August now, the new year will be starting at the end of the month. And for us, it'll be a very important school year."

"Yes, the ever important senior year of high school." Gosalyn muttered melodramatically.

"At least you're not alone." Honker pointed out. "Every other kid in St. Canard had to come for the intro."

"Except you, clearly." Gosalyn remarked, working around a group of girls about her age to reach an empty table and sitting down to it.

"You know why." Honker said. "My family planned our annual visit to Uncle Bert for this week. They didn't realize the two events were going to conflict until it was too late to reschedule."

"So you get to miss out on this intro simply to go to England for a week." Gosalyn muttered, amorous.

"It's not as cracked up as it sounds." Honker said over the phone. "It's not exactly an easy trip getting there. And besides, Uncle Bert is nobody special. Just basically my dad with a sweater vest, a bowler hat, and an accent. I sometimes wonder if the two are really twin brothers instead of just plain brothers, they're so identical."

"How is the trip so far?" Gosalyn asked as she nibbled at her food. "Where are you now?"

"We've arrived in Cape Suzette without event." Honker replied. "We're now just waiting for our flight to London to arrive."

"Lucky." Gosalyn muttered, having heard lots of Cape Suzette, but having never actually been there. "What's it like over there?"

"Well, it's certainly pretty." Honker replied. "I don't really know, I haven't taken the time to look around."

"What are you doing then?" Gosalyn asked.

"Sitting here in the airport's waiting room, working at building a clock." Honker replied.

"A clock?"

"Yeah, after having watched Mr. Bantamock build one, I decided to give it a try myself." Honker said. "It's not an easy process, I assure you."

"I'm sure it isn't." Gosalyn said. "Still, I'd rather be on the other side of the country doing that than sitting here for a stupid school intro that I really don't need."

"Well, at least they let you take a break for lunch." Honker offered.

"True." Gosalyn relented. "With pepperoni pizza to eat, too." she held up the piece in her hand as if making a toast and bit into it. "But still..."

"I get it, Gos." Honker said over the cell phone. "But your dad would kill you if you didn't go."

"I know." Gosalyn said. "Though, technically speaking, I don't _have _to stay here. Dad wouldn't catch on. He's on a picnic with Christine and are apparently no where near any phones, and since the man _still _doesn't own a cell phone..."

"What about Launchpad?" Honker asked.

"What about him? He went out to go flying. Might have had something to do with the fact that you and your parents went to Cape Suzette."

"This isn't our final destination, you know. We just stopped here to change flights."

"I know. But still...the city's almost legendary. Back in it's day in the 1930's, the place was practically the center of all modern flight! And all the historic things that happened there, as well! Important international relations, battles with air pirates, the country's distribution center for _half _of all it's imported goods!"

"Not now. Things have kind of toned down since then."

"The world moved on to focus on other things, yes. But still, the place is historic. I would love to get a chance to visit."

"Knowing you, Gos, you'll get your chance soon enough." Honker said over the phone. "Now, about the intro, anything new I need to know about?"

But Gosalyn didn't answer as she suddenly saw someone very familiar make her way to the center of the room and hop up onto a table. Drawing a weapon, the person fired multiple shots into the ceiling. Startled, the crowd of students gathered in the room eating their lunch jumped in fright, many yelled in terror, as all turned to face the person.

Grinning, the person turned her weapon into the crowd, and began firing. More yells rang out, and everybody got up and ran. Gosalyn jumped up with them, but instead of running for the door, she ran for the person shooting. The cell phone still gripped tightly in her hands was still broadcasting Honker's inquisitive calls for Gosalyn, asking what was going on, but Gosalyn had all forgotten it as she surged towards the shooter, intending on attacking while her back was turned.

But NegaGosalyn caught sight of her double approaching far sooner than Gosalyn had hoped.

"Oh no you don't!" NegaGosalyn said, taking her P90 and slamming the butt of it into Gosalyn's forehead.

Everything then went dark.

* * *

When Gosalyn awoke again an unknown amount of time later, she was aware of two things. First and foremost was the fact that her head was throbbing hard, like something had decided to use her forehead for a drum. Next, just as important, was the fact that her arms and legs were tied to the chair she was sitting in, which she didn't remember sitting in before.

Weakly, she opened her eyes, and looked around. She recognized the room she was in as the school office. She sat in the chair that sat behind the receptionist's desk, a nicely padded revolving chair of a maroon-ish color. Sitting on the desk beside her was a computer, but it wouldn't do her any good. It wasn't turned on, and even if it was, she wouldn't be able to use it, with her arms tied like they were.

The room appeared to be empty; for the moment, she was the only one here. Gosalyn tried to use this to her advantage by looking for a means to escape or get help, and worked to try and get the chair she was in wheel across the room towards a window. But all she managed to do was get the chair to wobble dangerously on it's five wheels, and it didn't help her headache any.

Moaning, she simply leaned back in the chair, and waited for something to happen. She had nearly dozed off again when the door to the office suddenly swung open and NegaGosalyn, fully in costume and carrying her P90 in one hand entered the room undramatically.

"Well, that sorts that." she said to herself as she entered. She noticed Gosalyn was awake and shot a grin in her direction. "Well, finally regain consciousness, hmm?"

"No thanks to you." Gosalyn muttered with a scowl. She winced as her head continued to throb. "Did you _really _have to hit me so hard?"

"Trust me, it looks worse than it really is." NegaGosalyn said, continuing across the room.

"What do you mean by that?" Gosalyn demanded.

"Well, you've got a huge bump on your head, and you got hit hard enough that it drew blood." NegaGosalyn said, tracing an imaginary line of blood down the side of her face with one finger. "Not exactly very pretty looking. But I had to stop you from attacking me like that."

"I had to stop _you _from shooting everybody!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"Hey, I didn't shoot anybody." NegaGosalyn said in her defense, leaning against a table that sat below the window. "At least, not to kill, anyway. I just wanted to scare them off, I only needed one prisoner."

"Me."

"Bingo."

Gosalyn leaned her head back for a moment, taking a deep breath before continuing. "So everybody else all got away unhurt?"

"Mostly."

"It's just the two of us?"

"Yep."

Gosalyn thought for a moment, thinking this might actually be a good thing. "How long was I out?" she asked curiously.

"Long enough for them to get here." NegaGosalyn replied, moving the drapes covering the window back far enough to reveal the flashing lights of police cars.

Gosalyn blinked in mild surprise. "They outnumber you." she muttered, frowning. "Ten to one. Why haven't they come in and nabbed you yet?"

"Oh, that's easy." NegaGosalyn said, pointing a finger at her double. "You're my hostage. Told 'em I'd kill you if they didn't meet my demands."

"Which are?"

"Haven't decided yet." NegaGosalyn admitted with a shrug. "A lifetime supply of ice cream crossed my mind. But I have all the entrances in and out of the place covered. They haven't come storming in here yet because they know your life is in jeopardy. They're trying to figure out how to get in here and get me without hurting you."

"But they still outnumber you." Gosalyn noted. "You're just one person, you couldn't possibly hold them all back on your own, and they know it."

"Oh that." NegaGosalyn said, and idly pulled a device from her pocket. "Told them I had rigged the whole place to blow if they infiltrate the place without my okay."

Gosalyn somehow doubted this. "Do you?" she inquired.

"Maybe." NegaGosalyn said. "Whatever the case, they aren't willing to chance it just yet."

"They could just get a sniper in here and shoot you through that window." Gosalyn said, nodding to the window.

"They could." NegaGosalyn admitted. "But they think I've holed up in the windowless cafeteria in the very middle of the school, nowhere near any exits, and not in here. They haven't thought to look here yet."

"They still could."

"Which is a bridge I'll cross if and when I come to it." NegaGosalyn said, pulling an empty chair towards her and sitting in it. "In the meantime, though, it looks like we've got some time to kill, just the two of us."

"And why's that?" Gosalyn asked.

"I'm in no hurry." NegaGosalyn said. "And since I haven't come up with my demands yet, I told them I'd get back with them and tell them what they are in an hour. So, until then, we find ways to pass the time."

She set her P90 aside and leaned back in the chair, looking at Gosalyn mischievously. There was a moment of silence.

"So, is there a reason you're doing this, or are you just bored again?" Gosalyn inquired.

"Oh, there's a method to my madness." her double assured her. "I'm sure you'll figure it out in due time."

Gosalyn gave her double a puzzled look, but said nothing. She didn't really have anything to do but work at figuring things out, anyway.

* * *

"So, can we confirm who's in there?" Officer Matthew asked, peering at the school building that was under siege.

"NegaCrimson has been identified as the attacker, sir." a fellow officer reported. "As for her prisoner, everyone had been accounted for except a certain Gosalyn Mallard."

"Specs on her?" Matthew asked, eyeing the doors to the school, wishing he and the others could storm through those doors already and end the matter.

"A seventeen-year-old red head, female." Matthew's cohort reported. "Has a turbulent history, according to our records. All of her living biological family is reported as dead. She lives with her adopted father, Drake Mallard."

"That name rings a bell." Matthew muttered, searching his mind for clues.

"It should sir, he went missing for several years only to return just last year." the fellow officer said.

"Has been contacted, notified of the situation?" Matthew inquired.

"No sir, we can't seem to reach him on his home phone, and he doesn't seem to have a cell phone." the fellow officer said, flipping through some papers. "We're not turning up any other contacts we could notify."

Matthew rubbed his beak for a moment, staring at the doors to the school building. "Any ideas why NegaCrimson would want this Mallard kid?" he asked.

"None, sir." the fellow officer said. "Could just be pure chance she landed Mallard. NegaCrimson's motives for this attack and what she wants are also in the dark. She's scheduled to reveal a bit more about her plans in less than an hour, though."

"She's just one person, we could take her." Matthew muttered to himself.

"Yes sir, but she reportedly has a bomb somewhere in the building, and has rigged it to blow in case anyone infiltrates without NegaCrimson's explicit okay." the fellow officer said. "We're unsure how, but we think she may have strung trip wires over the entrances. She was seen moving around the entrances earlier, but we've since lost sight of her. Where in the building she is now is unknown."

"Have you called the bomb squad?" Matthew asked.

"I have. They're on their way."

"And the press? No doubt they've gotten word of this."

"We've blockaded the school. No one can get in or out without our okay."

"Good." Matthew said, looking over the high school once more, then sighed. "So, any ideas?"

"No sir." the fellow officer said. "You know more about NegaCrimson than I, anyway."

"True enough." Matthew said. "But NegaCrimson's crafty; we can't take her down until we have a better idea of what she has done and what she plans. We simply don't have the equipment to try anything else."

"Exactly why we are here, Officer Matthew." a voice said suddenly behind him.

The two officers turned to see to female felines standing behind them, wearing plain grey suits and sunglasses. The first one, apparently the leader, pulled out a badge.

"Mia Gingivere, agent for SHUSH." she said quickly and in a business-like tone. "This is my associate, Agent Sandingomm. We are here by order of Director J. Gander Hooter, and as of now are taking control of the situation. Understood?"

Matthew blinked, but nodded. "Understood." he said. "And by all means. We've met before, and I've seen you SHUSH agents in action before." he paused, biting his lip for a moment. "Though, I must admit that I _was _expecting Darkwing Duck to turn up."

"Darkwing Duck is currently indisposed and cannot be contacted." Mia replied flatly. "His assistants cannot be reached as well. Until that changes, we are the best available."

"Okay." Matthew said. "But just what the heck has Darkwing and the gang tied up with? He's never failed to turn up for me before."

"Part of it is classified." Agent Sandy replied. "Mostly, though, SHUSH is just as much in the dark. Regardless, though, we need to take action now, rather than later."

"We need to know everything you know about the situation, so we can work to stop NegaCrimson as quickly as possible." Mia said. "Sandy and I are going to attempt a rescue."

"But there could be a bomb in there rigged to blow the moment you enter!" the fellow officer protested.

Mia and Sandy shared knowing glances. "We have our ways." Mia replied knowingly.

* * *

To pass the time, NegaGosalyn pulled out everything she had pulled off of Gosalyn and started looking through them. Finding Gosalyn's cell phone among them, she pulled it out, flipping it open.

"You're friend hung up on you, by the way." she said to her double.

Gosalyn glanced over at NegaGosalyn. "I'm sure he sensed something went wrong." she said confidently.

"Actually, I think he, whoever he was, just thought he lost the signal and hung up, either with the intent of calling you back, or waiting for you to call back." NegaGosalyn said. "I don't know either way. He hung up just as I retrieved the phone from where you left it."

"I'm pretty sure you would've played innocent if he hadn't, though, so he wouldn't catch on to your plan, whatever they are." Gosalyn said.

NegaGosalyn grinned. "We really do think alike." she noted, then turned her attention back to the cell phone, looking at the picture displayed on it's background. "Hmm, a _Jumpgate _fan, huh?"

Gosalyn didn't reply.

"You know, we don't get shows like that in the Negaverse." NegaGosalyn said, tossing the phone aside. "There's no market in it. People only watch TV for the news or, oddly enough, soap operas."

"If you and Negs weren't so bent on ruling the Negaverse with fear and violence, I'm sure it'd be different." Gosalyn pointed out, then sighed. "Just out of curiosity, what do you think about the show?"

"Me?" NegaGosalyn asked, flipping through a notebook that was in Gosalyn's backpack. "I haven't really taken the time to watch it. Too busy with other things."

"Such as whatever it is you're doing today." Gosalyn said.

"Right." NegaGosalyn said, stopping to read a page in the notebook. "I didn't know you liked daffodils."

Gosalyn turned to watch. "That's my journal, you know." she said.

"So?"

"It's kind of private."

"Not like you can stop me from reading it."

"True, but it was worth a shot." Not for the first time, Gosalyn tried to liberate herself from her bonds. As before, they didn't give.

NegaGosalyn continued to flip through the journal. She then blinked, and grinned. Gosalyn noticed.

"What?" she asked in an exasperated tone. "What did you find?"

"Just that you have a certain interest for a certain someone." NegaGosalyn replied, turning the notebook around so Gosalyn could see.

Gosalyn leaned her head back with a moan. "Go mess with your own Honker." she said.

"Tried that." NegaGosalyn said in a sing-song voice. "You know, you should really consider yourself lucky you've got your Honker. My Honker's no fun. A total brat who thinks of only himself. Not at all for me."

"What's wrong with NegaHonk?" Gosalyn asked, snorting at the idea. "Seems to me two bad people such as yourselves would fit together without a hitch."

"There is such a thing about a person being too bad." NegaGosalyn remarked.

Gosalyn blinked, a thought coming to mind. "Or maybe you're just too good." she said.

NegaGosalyn rolled her eyes, chucking aside the journal like she had the cell phone. "Oh, that topic again." she groaned.

"You have yet to deny whether it's true or not." Gosalyn pointed out. "Usually you just shirk the matter until it's dropped."

"Isn't all of this proof enough of my loyalties?" NegaGosalyn asked, holding her hands out to indicate their present situation.

Gosalyn thought for a moment. "No." she said. "It's not."

NegaGosalyn rolled her eyes again and turned away from a double, nibbling at a slice of pizza she had managed to obtain in her plunderings. A moment of silence fell.

"I've given all of this some thought, and I actually think I've figured out how you've got this bomb set up, if there really is a bomb." Gosalyn announced suddenly.

"Oh?" NegaGosalyn asked, feigning curiosity.

"Trip wires." Gosalyn said flatly. "At least something of the sort. You've placed them in front of all the entrances into the building, hence why the police can't just storm the place."

NegaGosalyn shot her double a grin. "Now you're thinking like a villain." she said, tapping her forehead for emphasis. "But it's not trip wires. Too impermanent. You're close though."

* * *

Carefully, Agent Sandy pulled open the door while Mia stuck her head inside and waved her sidearm around.

"Clear." she announced softly. "Now, before we move forward, we need to check to make sure it's safe."

Sandy stepped around the open door and examined it's frame. "Hmm, nothing seems to have been tampered with." she remarked. "I don't see any trip wires or anything of the such."

"But that still doesn't mean they're there." Mia pointed out.

"Yes." Sandy said, seeing something, and standing. "And no." she pointed at the item she saw.

Mia half-grinned. "Ah. That would be like NegaCrimson." she said, holstering her sidearm and fishing in her pocket for something.

"I've got some too, if you need it." Sandy offered, reaching into her own pocket and pulling out a small canister of something.

Mia nodded and accepted it, taking a similar canister from her pocket, and taking off it's stop. Crouching down, she sprayed a smoky substance at the ground, which was heavier than air, and spread out in all angles. Caught in the substance, glowing brightly, was a previously hidden laser beam.

"She's gone high tech for this." Mia said. "Laser beams. The cops probably wouldn't have thought to stop and check."

"But there's more of them." Sandy said, taking the canister from her superior and sprayed more of the substance around.

As it sank to the ground, more laser beams appeared, crisscrossing each other to form a grid like pattern. And as the substance spread, it revealed that the beams covered most of the floor of the entry way into the school.

Mia whistled. "NegaCrimson must have been planning this for months." she said. "No way she could have gotten all of these lasers set up, without anyone noticing, just today."

"That suggests there is a motive to all of this." Sandy observed. "But the question is, what?" she shook her head. "Too bad we don't have Darkwing on hand. He might have a theory."

"Unfortunately, Director Hooter can't seem to contact him, by video feed or Flashquack." Mia said, carefully stepping over the first beam and cautiously making her way into the room, working to not disturb any of them. "Nor can Launchpad be reached."

"And we already had heads-up that Techno would be unavailable today." Sandy added, following Mia.

"Which leaves the Crimson Avenger." Mia remarked, stopping to spray more substance and reveal more lasers.

"Who we can't ask for help, because we also know she's Gosalyn Mallard, who happens to be NegaCrimson's single hostage." Sandy stated.

"Which leaves it to us to resolve the matter." Mia concluded, stepping over the last beam and onto open floor. She turned and helped Sandy over the last beam, then turned her attention back to the matter at hand. "Now, the police indicated that NegaCrimson has holed up in the cafeteria." she said. "But, that room is much too open for a single person with a single hostage. Not only that, but there are far too many places to enter. There simply isn't any way for NegaCrimson to monitor them all at once. I think she's holed up somewhere else, and probably right in plain sight."

"That narrows things down a bit." Sandy admitted.

"Indeed it does." Mia said, heading on down the hall. "So let's go. And stay alert."

* * *

"Y'know," NegaGosalyn remarked in-between bites of pepperoni pizza, checking her watch, "I never thought this would be so easy. To be perfectly honest, I would've thought the police or somebody would've tried something by now."

Gosalyn was forced to agree, but she didn't let it show. "Maybe they are, and they just don't know it." she suggested.

NegaGosalyn scoffed the idea. "Trust me, Gos, I'd know." she said. Thought she did blank out for a moment, as if mentally double-checking that statement was true. "You know, I'm surprised Darkwing hasn't turned up." she went on, changing the subject.

"Why, is that what this is all about?" Gosalyn asked. "An attempt to lure Darkwing into a trap?"

"Nah, this technically has nothing to do with Darkwing." NegaGosalyn remarked, waving her hand dismissively. "It's all about you, actually."

"Why me?" Gosalyn asked. "What do you want with me?"

"It's not what I want, it's what Negaduck wants." NegaGosalyn said.

"So you are under orders to do this by the head duck himself." Gosalyn guessed.

"Yeah." NegaGosalyn said.

It was the simplest sentence in the world, but Gosalyn immediately detected the underlining message.

"And you're not happy with that, are you?" Gosalyn said.

NegaGosalyn shot her a look. "Why are you so bent on trying to find good in me?" she demanded, figuring out where this was going and standing up. "_Look _at me! _I am not good_! Face it, Gos, you can't get me to change who I am!"

"But that _isn't _who you are!" Gosalyn exclaimed, also going to stand up, only to remember that she couldn't, not while she was tied down. "You were originally the very opposite of what you are now!"

"And you want to know why, don't you?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"I already know why!" Gosalyn said. "You did it to please Negaduck! He wanted you to be an evil daughter, and so you made yourself be just that!"

"It's more complicated than that!" NegaGosalyn persisted.

"But you don't like being Negaduck's ideal daughter, it goes against your nature!" Gosalyn continued on like NegaGosalyn hadn't spoken. "Deep down, you're still good!"

"I am _not!_" NegaGosalyn persisted.

"Then prove it!" Gosalyn challenged. "Because I certainly can! You've done lots of things that are good! Remember when Darkwarrior almost got the cure to the virus infecting his robots? You shot the data card right out of his hand, yet you never said _why!_ And what about the time you had me all tied up in the Negaverse? You had the perfect chance to bump me off, yet you waited until too late! That all _screams _that there's unfound good in you!"

"What do you care?" NegaGosalyn asked. "We're still enemies. I've done nothing but hurt you. Why don't you treat me the same way?"

"Because I see you are hurting yourself." Gosalyn said. "By trying to please someone whose opinion you think makes all the difference."

They fell silent for a moment. And as it turned out, that may have been a good thing, otherwise they may have never heard the soft clatter outside the office. Blinking, NegaGosalyn turned and grabbed her P90, switching off the safeties, and moving towards the office door. Unable to do anything but watch, Gosalyn worked to keep her eyes on her double.

Reaching the door, NegaGosalyn slowly opened it, poking her P90 out in front of her, ready to fire. Slowly opening the door fully, she peered around outside. Then without warning, fired her P90 at an unseen target in a rapid ratatat. Someone or someones could be heard moving to dodge the fire outside. Then, a group of bangs rang out as the intruders returned fire, their singly shot bullets whizzing dangerously past NegaGosalyn. The double quickly ducked to one side as more shots followed.

Two of the bullets slammed into the receptionist desk, startling Gosalyn. She quickly worked to try and duck her head, but only succeeded in overbalancing in the chair and toppling over with a painful crash. Unable to watch from here, Gosalyn could only listen as the gunfight continued on for several moments. Then, without warning, NegaGosalyn let out a frustrated yell.

"This isn't getting me anywhere." she muttered, and holstered the P90.

Reaching behind her, she pulled out the fully loaded machine gun she had strapped to her back, and fired it out of the office with gusto. When she stopped firing for a moment, there was no returning fire.

"That mean you give up?" NegaGosalyn asked after that momentary silence.

"No, actually, just reloading." came the reply. Gosalyn identified the voice as Agent Mia's and grinned. SHUSH pulls through again.

"Yeah?" NegaGosalyn said. "Well, eat lead!"

She fired the weapon a few more times, then slammed the door shut. Once that was done, she pushed something heavy in front of the door, and walked over to Gosalyn, slinging the machine gun back onto her back. Grabbing the chair with both hands, she righted it with one simple jerk.

"We're getting out of here." she said. "Still have an assignment to finish."

She cut the bindings to Gosalyn's feet, then untied Gosalyn's wrists from the arms of the chair long enough to bind Gosalyn's wrists together a moment later. With a jerk, NegaGosalyn brought her double to her feet, and brought her across the room. Something heavy thumped against the closed door, blocked with a large bookcase. Mia and whomever was with her, probably Agent Sandy, were trying to enter.

Bringing Gosalyn to stand near the window, NegaGosalyn hopped up onto the table that sat in front of it, reached up, and yanked out the cover to a large vent in the ceiling, big enough for someone to fit through. Throwing the vent cover aside, NegaGosalyn grabbed her double and dragged her up onto the table.

"In." she ordered.

"No." Gosalyn said flatly.

Another heavy thump bumped against the door, and the bookcase nudged forward a little bit. NegaGosalyn let out a frustrated noise, and pulled out one of her two Uzis, pointing it at Gosalyn's head.

"I don't have all the time in the world, now get going or I _will _shoot you!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed.

Gosalyn stared at the weapon, then turned and indignantly jumped up to clamber into the air vent. NegaGosalyn shot one glance back at the door, then quickly followed.

"C'mon, c'mon." NegaGosalyn said, jabbing the Uzi at Gosalyn. "Keep moving."

Gosalyn, as best as she could with her wrists bound together, crawled forward and down the vent. NegaGosalyn brought up the rear, constantly looking back in case they were followed.

* * *

They crawled for sometime, quickly getting disoriented and lost in the maze of vents.

"I hate crawling through vents." Gosalyn muttered as she trudged along.

"Oh hush, you don't hear me complaining." NegaGosalyn said.

"Easy for you to say, your wrists aren't tied together." Gosalyn complained, holding up her wrists. "Besides all that, do you even know where you're going?"

"Of course not, you're blocking my view!" NegaGosalyn said.

"So is there still method to your madness, then?" Gosalyn inquired.

NegaGosalyn hesitated. "Not as much as I'd like." she admitted. "Dad is going to kill me if I don't pull this off, though."

"Which is?"

"When that time comes, you'll know!"

"Which I sense is coming closer." Gosalyn said. "And you don't like that."

"Not this me being good stuff again!" NegaGosalyn said. "Would you drop that already? You're not exactly in the best position for that, you know! _I'm _the one with the gun!"

"A fact I'm well aware of." Gosalyn said. "But face it, you don't like it."

NegaGosalyn was silent for a moment. "All right, I'll admit it, I don't." she said. "But there are a lot of thingsI do that I don't like. I do them anyway."

"But that's my point." Gosalyn said, stopping suddenly and turning to look at her double. "You don't _have _to do them."

"Yes I do!" NegaGosalyn said. "Do you have any idea what Negaduck will do to me if I don't?"

"Nothing pleasant." Gosalyn stated. "But that's another thing you don't have to deal with. If you don't like what Negaduck puts you through, then why stick with him?"

"He's my adopted father, the only family I really have!" NegaGosalyn pointed out. "And I never said that I didn't like what I do for Negaduck!"

"You haven't said you did, either." Gosalyn pointed out. "And getting back to my first point, just because Negaduck is your adopted father doesn't mean your stuck with him. I'd doubt there's even paperwork to that adoption!"

"Well, no, there isn't." NegaGosalyn admitted. "Negaduck got stuck with me out of an agreement with grandpa just before he died. But while he could've ditched me or gone back his word, he kept me around."

"And made you what you are now." Gosalyn said. "And don't deny that you aren't proud of it, either."

"Keep moving." NegaGosalyn growled, jabbing Gosalyn to get moving again.

Gosalyn obeyed, but she shot her double a glare. "You realize that you aren't going to escape Agent Mia and Agent Sandy, right?"

"You wanna know what I'm going to do to your agent friends?" NegaGosalyn asked, and then whirled around and fired her Uzi down the vent repeatedly and viciously at an imaginary target. She whirled back around. "That! Now move!"

They continued crawling. Gosalyn wasn't done yet, though.

"Gos, you once told me that we have more in common that I thought." Gosalyn said. "Well, now it's your turn to realize we have more in common. The more I think about it, the more I see that you _do _have a good streak in you. You've just been taught to ignore it. But you don't have to! You don't like your life, so _change _your life!"

NegaGosalyn shot her double an annoyed look, but didn't reply.

Gosalyn let out a sigh of frustration. "Fine, be that way." she said hotly, continuing onward. "I don't know why I bother."

They moved onward in silence for a few moments. Then NegaGosalyn suddenly spoke.

"You wanna know how I got like this?" she asked venomously. "Just this little thing called _brainwashing_."

Gosalyn froze, and turned around to look at her double. "_That's _what Negaduck did?" she asked, bewildered. "He _brainwashed _you?"

"What wrong with that?" NegaGosalyn demanded. "He's Negaduck! It shouldn't come as any surprise."

"I know, in fact we occasionally theorized this would be the case, but..." Gosalyn shook her head. "_Brainwashing_? He actually brainwashed a ten-year-old kid?"

"Actually, I was eleven at the time." NegaGosalyn replied coldly. "But yes. He brainwashed me to be evil, like him, using your personality as something to work with. At least he tried to. As you've been so _nice _to remind me of, it didn't quite work. That annoying goodness still bleeds through at through worse of times. Brainwashing isn't even effective enough to squeeze the good out of me."

"Or is simply just didn't take." Gosalyn said, her face brightening. "This actually explains a whole lot, when you really think about it. Why you're acting bad most of the time, and then acting good some of the time. It's the programming from the brainwashing and you're true self conflicting with each other."

"So what would that make me?" NegaGosalyn asked mockingly. "Gad? Or Bood?"

"I'd say duel personalities." Gosalyn said. "Clearly, the bad personality is much more predominate, but the point is that the good is still there! If you really work at it, you can get it back out again!"

"But that's the part you just don't get, Gos!" NegaGosalyn objected. "The two personalities _conflict!_ They don't mix! They're constantly fighting with each other to be on top of the other! Do you _realize _what kind of turmoil that creates in my head? It's like I'm two people in one! One's good while the other isn't! The bad side doesn't like the good side, and the good side doesn't like the bad! The end result is that I'm stuck between the two, not happy with either one!"

"No, you're trying to stay in the middle!" Gosalyn said. "But sooner or later, you're going to have to pick a side. It's up to you to make that choice, yes, but once it's made, you're stuck with it. You have to be _sure _which side you want before you pick it."

"But that's just it!" NegaGosalyn said. "I'm _not _sure, and I don't I'll ever be!"

"You'll have to be!" Gosalyn said. "Making that choice won't be easy, but you can do it! You have to! Sooner rather than later."

"Well, right now, I'm stuck where I am, so you're just going have to deal with it for now!" NegaGosalyn yelled, her voice echoing up and down the vent. She jabbed her Uzi into Gosalyn again. "Now get moving again! I think we're getting close to the end of this stupid vent."

She was right. It wasn't long before they reached another grate, cutting short their path. Peering out through the grate, Gosalyn could see they had arrived at the central heating and cooling system for the whole school, a room filled with metal and whirring equipment. Removing the grate, Gosalyn clambered out, and then stood to one side to allow NegaGosalyn to follow.

They both then turned around to come face to face with Agent Mia and Sandy, their weapons drawn.

"Surprise." Sandy quipped.

Both agents then fired at NegaGosalyn. But NegaGosalyn was one step ahead of them, quickly grabbing her double around the middle and forcing both of them to roll to one side, the fired bullets bouncing harmlessly off the piping behind them. Coming out of the roll to land on her knees, NegaGosalyn brought her double up to kneel beside her, wrapping one arm around her double's neck, and then took her Uzi and pressed the tip of the barrel into Gosalyn's temple, her finger on the trigger.

"Hold your fire, now!" NegaGosalyn roared at the agents.

Both Mia and Sandy withheld from firing their weapons. Regardless, they kept their weapons trained on NegaGosalyn.

"Now just calm down." Mia prompted. "No one needs to be killed here."

"Yes there is!" NegaGosalyn said, and nodded at her double. "_She _needs to die!"

"What?" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"That's what this was all about!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed. "Negaduck's at his wits end with you guys! Someone needed to go, and it was decided you would be it!"

"But why?" Sandy asked, puzzled. "Why her?"

"Because Negs was convinced if she died, the rest of her goodie-goodie gang would crumble!" NegaGosalyn said, sounding to be on the verge on panicking.

"Negaduck sent you to come here, capture Gosalyn, and then kill her in cold blood?" Mia repeated.

"He couldn't do his own dirty work." Gosalyn mumbled.

"No, it's a test, and you know it!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed at her double. "Our conversation during all of this confirms it! If I do it, then I pass! If I don't do it, who knows what he'll do to me! You have _got _to die, no matter what!"

Gosalyn, however, was very calm. "Fine then." she said plainly. "Kill me."

Mia's eyes widened. "But.." she began to object.

"Mia, shush." Gosalyn said. "It's not a big deal. Let her kill me. If she can pull it off."

NegaGosalyn gave her double a panicked look, realizing that Gosalyn was onto her.

"You've had the chance to kill me before, and you couldn't do it then." Gosalyn said. "You never could. Maybe someone else, but you could never kill your own double. The good side in you won't let you. It's doing that now, isn't it?"

NegaGosalyn didn't answer, but she had started to sweat profusely. Sandy glanced over at Mia and mouthed 'good side?' questioningly.

"In fact, ever since you shot me mostly by accident back in October of last year, I notice you've been fairly careful to not hurt me." Gosalyn said. "Every time you point a gun at me, you either miss the target or wait to fire until too late. You don't have the gall to shoot me, particularly in cold blood such as this."

"Yes I do!" NegaGosalyn persisted.

"Then prove it!" Gosalyn said. "To everyone! Prove once and for all just how _evil _you really are."

A tense moment of silence fell, broken only by NegaGosalyn's quick and sharp breathing. She continued to sweat, and her trigger finger trembled, but she did not shoot. Thinking that NegaGosalyn was going to give up, Mia made a tentative step forward, towards the pair. but she quickly stopped when NegaGosalyn pressed the Uzi tighter against Gosalyn's temple, apply pressure to the trigger. Not enough to shoot, but enough to get one nervous.

The waiting continued, all eyes on NegaGosalyn, to wait to see what she would do. Knowing this, NegaGosalyn's breathing slowly began to quicken. Surprisingly, she began to tear up, but exactly for what reasons couldn't be made clear. Again, NegaGosalyn went as if to fire, but again hesitated.

Then, without warning, she pulled the Uzi away from Gosalyn and pointed it in the direction of the agents, and fired blindly. The agents quickly ducked to avoid getting shot. Then, releasing Gosalyn suddenly, NegaGosalyn turned tail and ran, vanishing into the darkness of the dimly lit room. Agent Sandy managed to fire off a shot in the double's general direction, but missed completely.

All was suddenly silent.

Mia picked herself up and went straight to Gosalyn's side. "Are you all right?" she asked breathlessly.

Gosalyn nodded, a little stunned.

"What was all that about a good side?" Sandy asked.

"NegaGosalyn has one, apparently." Gosalyn replied. "It was what kept her from shooting me, and maybe the pair of you as well."

"She still used it to her advantage, though." Mia pointed out. "She used it to get away."

"What about the bomb she has somewhere in the building?" Sandy asked.

"I don't think there is one." Gosalyn said. "There never was. It was merely another one of her bluffs, to keep us in line. We simply didn't have the nerve to call it."

"So where is she going?" Mia asked. "She failed her mission."

"Maybe so, but that's not going to stop her." Gosalyn said. "She'll go back to the Fearsome Five like before, and there I imagine she'll stay for as long as she can."

"So she's got a good side, but she's trying to stay bad?" Sandy guessed, trying to sort things out.

"She's trying to be neither." Gosalyn said. "Right now, she doesn't like either choice, and is trying to avoid them altogether." she turned and looked into the darkness her double had vanished into. "But she won't be able to avoid it forever..."


	45. Prove Me False Part I

Summary: Someone is going about posing as Darkwing and trying to tarnish his good name. But while the gang goes about trying to stop this fellow, they realize their problems are just beginning...

Rating: T

Author's Note: First off, sorry this is a little late, but FanFiction's annoying glitch with the log-in system prevented me from posting until now. Second, sorry this is yet another chapter with a Darkwing double in it. I _really _didn't mean to line them all up like that. All thins considered, though, I think I manage to keep the idea fresh and new once again, but it's an idea I'm definitely going to try and hold off on for awhile. Today's chpt is the next two-parter adventure, part two should be posted next week at the usual time with a little luck. The recap for this adventure features parts from last chpt ("Revelations") but it ended up having no baring on part one. It will in part two, though, hence why it's still there. So might as well note it now.

45.

Prove Me False Part I

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_The moment it had, Darkwing sat down to the computer and started to work. He had the system search for all materials relating to transdimensional portals. Skimming through the results, he opened up files at random, until he found one titled "transdimensional portal tracking system." Grinning, he opened it and looked over it's contents briefly._

_That done, he pulled a thumb drive from his pocket and shoved it into the USB port on the computer, and started downloading files directly into the tracking system. Darkwing grinned again. Everything was going according to plan..._

_--  
_

"_Vice President Norrin on line one, director."_

"_Oh dear, just the very last person I wish to speak with."_

_--  
_

"_Director, answer me truthfully. I've got word of a rumor saying that there's another double of Darkwing Duck on the streets. Is it true?"_

"_Yes, unfortunately, Mr. Vice President. We're still working on finding out more."_

"_No doubt it's Darkwing himself you've sent to do it."_

"_Yes. But sir, he is the most qualified person I have to..."_

"_Director, you know my opinion about Darkwing. Particularly as of late. I would feel much better if you sent one or more of your agents to conduct this mission."_

"_With all due respect, sir, seeing this is directly related to Darkwing, shouldn't Darkwing be the one to lead the mission?"_

"_Director, there have been several reports of someone posing as Darkwing breeching the security of this nation in recent months. He simply cannot be trusted, now more than ever. Yet you've allowed him come far too close to sensitive matters, matters that will eventually jeopardize everything if you allow it to continue."_

"_Mr. Vice President, while I am director of SHUSH, Darkwing will be the first person I turn to for matters such as this. He is the perfect face for the public when things get out of hand."_

"_I disagree, director, and let me remind you that I outrank you. And the only person who can outrank me is the president himself."_

"_Who probably doesn't know a word of this."_

"_He won't need to if you will follow my advice for once, director. Don't force me to make it an order, director."_

_--  
_

"_Deep down, you're still good!"_

"_I am not!"_

"_Then prove it! Because I certainly can! You've done lots of things that are good! Remember when Darkwarrior almost got the cure to the virus infecting his robots? You shot the data card right out of his hand, yet you never said why! And what about the time you had me all tied up in the Negaverse? You had the perfect chance to bump me off, yet you waited until too late! That all __**screams**__ that there's unfound good in you!"_

"_What do you care? We're still enemies. I've done nothing but hurt you. Why don't you treat me the same way?"_

"_Because I see you are hurting yourself. By trying to please someone whose opinion you think makes all the difference."_

_--  
_

"_So she's got a good side, but she's trying to stay bad?"_

"_She's trying to be neither. Right now, she doesn't like either choice, and is trying to avoid them altogether. But she won't be able to avoid it forever..."

* * *

  
_

All was quiet at the Last National Bank that sat deep within St. Canard. Which was definitely a good thing. With the cities crime rates were it was, the bank generally saw lots of action, and not of the good type. Robberies of all sorts had occurred here. And the bank had gone to great lengths to try and prevent them.

Hence the bank's small armada of security guards, that were to stand guard at the bank all night long. The job actually wasn't that dull, for usually something exciting happened every night, even if it was a mere false alarm. It was still exciting. But tonight it had been a very quiet night.

A party of guards sat in the lobby of the bank, sitting around, and trying to look busy, but a mixture of the late night and the boredom was beginning to take it's toll. Two guards sat separate from the others in folding chairs, sitting around and looking around in a vain attempt to keep themselves busy.

One guard glanced at the clock. "One o'clock and all is well." he muttered sarcastically.

"Too well." the other agreed. "Some action would be nice right about now."

"Or a TV, or a board game, or a book." the first guard added. "Heck, I'd even settle for a coffee break."

"Though I suppose it's a good thing, isn't it?" the second guard said. "A quiet night means no one attempting to rob the bank."

"Or that it's getting robbed from right out from under our noses." the first guard stated.

He had meant it to be a mere joke, but after glancing at each other for a moment, the two guards quickly looked around to peer at the bank of monitors they had set up on one side of the room, where all the feeds from the security cameras came in. The three than showed the inside of the vault showed everything was calm there, and that the large piles of money still calmly sat there. Satisfied, the two guards turned back around.

"Maybe I should keep a deck of cards on hand for nights like this." the first guard said. "At least then I could play a card game, like maybe solitaire or something."

"If you're going to bring a deck of cards, you might as well bring enough to get everyone involved." the second guard said. "Then we could play poker."

"Don't know how to play poker." the first guard said.

"Well, what games do you know how to play?"

"Solitaire."

"I mean that involve multiple players."

The first guard thought for a moment. "Go Fish."

The second guard stared at him for a long moment. "Forget the deck of cards, in that case." he said.

"Okay."

There was a moment of silence. Then a clatter was heard somewhere above them. The two guards turned to look in the direction of the sound. The heads of a couple other guards who sat in the room turned as well. One stood.

"That sounded like that came from the roof." the first guard remarked.

"Possible thief?" the second guard asked hopefully.

"It's at least something to check out." the first said.

They both stood, and started forward, but then something smashed through the roof's skylight and landed with a hard thump on the floor in front of them. Both guards jumped in surprise, and backed up a few steps, staring at the figure before them.

It was Darkwing Duck.

"Darkwing!" the second guard exclaimed. "What is it, is there something wrong?"

"Why did you have to break the sunlight?" the first guard asked, looking up at the broken fixture. "I liked the skylight!"

Darkwing said nothing, he simply rose to stand at his full height. Reaching with one hand behind his cape, he suddenly whipped out his gas gun and pointed it at the guards. The guards reacted swiftly, pulling out their own sidearms and pointing them at Darkwing, but as fast as they were, it wasn't fast enough. Darkwing was already in motion.

Firing off two canisters of smoke at the floor, Darkwing and the two guards were suddenly engulfed in purple smoke, hiding them from view from the other guards that were starting to hurry over. A gunshot rang out, but the twang that followed a moment later indicated that the bullet missed it's target.

The two guards were then suddenly hurled out of the cloud of smoke, tumbling to the floor. Before they hit the ground, however, a burst of energy shot out and lashed out at the row of teller booths and exploded, knocking over the party of guards that were hurrying over to help the first two. Darkwing then emerged from the cloud of smoke and fired his gas gun again, firing a dart-like object that hit the row of monitors and short-circuited them.

Recovering from the initial attack, the guards all swarmed at Darkwing to try and subdue him, but as they all came at him, Darkwing took each one out with a well-placed karate move. Very soon, all the guards lay on the floor disabled and/or unconscious. Darkwing surveyed the situation and then grinned.

He turned his attention to the vault. With great speed and precision, Darkwing worked with the complicated vault for a moment before finally succeeding in unlocking it, and throwing it open wide to reveal the money within. Taking as much as he could carry, Darkwing then turned and ran across the lobby and out the door. The alarm finally going off with a loud clanging sound, Darkwing ran for a few feet, and then fired off a grappling hook and swung up to a roof to escape, laughing wickedly...

* * *

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the stuck key on your typewriter! I am Darkwiiiing-YIPE!"

Darkwing froze in the entrance to the Last National Bank as a dozen police officers suddenly spun around and pointed their weapons at him. Stunned, Darkwing quickly threw his hands into the air. A cloud of crimson smoke suddenly gushed out beside him and Crimson appeared.

"I am...the...heir to the cape?" Crimson remarked hesitantly, seeing officers surrounding them.

Techno and Launchpad also materialized out of the cloud of red smoke and looked around in alarm.

"What the?" Techno said.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Launchpad exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air as well. "I thought we were friends!"

"Stand down!" Officer Matthew exclaimed as he suddenly appeared on the scene. "They're the real deal!"

The officers quickly lowered their weapons. Darkwing glanced at them hesitantly for a moment, before clearing his throat. "Y-you called, Matt?" he asked, trying to sound bond and daring again.

"Or are we just here for target practice?" Crimson asked harshly.

"Sorry about that, but at the moment, we needed to play it safe." Matthew said, and motioned with one hand. "Come follow me, and I'll show you what's going on."

He led the way across the bank's lobby, Darkwing and the others following.

Launchpad noted the vault door hanging open. "So was the bank robbed?" he asked

"Yes it was." Matthew said, approaching a computer than had been plugged into the row of burned out security monitors and working at the controls for a moment, rewinding a security camera video on it for a moment. "And not just by anyone."

He paused the video suddenly, and pointed at a purple-suited figure standing in the middle of the screen, poised to attack. Darkwing groaned.

"Oh no...." he muttered, then after a brief moment of silence, jabbed a finger at the figure. "First off, that's not me."

"Oh, I already know that." Matthew assured him. "There was no smoke and entrance, no witty catch phrases, no flapping of the cape, and this guy got right to the point."

Darkwing frowned. Matthew noticed, and cleared his throat.

"Point is that there's somebody going around dressed like you, committing crimes." Matthew summarized.

"Not _another _Darkwing double to contend with!" Darkwing bemoaned. "What is this, the summer of Darkwing doubles? I _know _I've got good looks, but can't a guy keep them to himself these days?"

"Well, not all of the doubles we've encountered this past summer were doubles." Crimson offered, trying to be helpful. "Only Neutraduck was a true double. The other two times was you going bad and becoming Negawing Duck, and Negaduck taking over your identities for a week."

"Negaduck!" Darkwing repeated, narrowing his eyes. "I'll bet he's behind it, he's tried this stunt before! Posing as me and polluting my good name so perniciously to the point that it's practically preposterous!"

"If that's true, then it's not working." Matthew said. "We caught on to the fact that the guy pictured here isn't who he appears pretty quickly, and of course, we're going to announce our findings to the public. No one's going to buy into that plan, if that's what it really is."

"Then why would Negaduck even do it?" Crimson asked. "I mean, think about it. He's tried that stunt so many times now that he must see that no one's going to buy it. And he's cleverer than that to try and recycle old ideas anyway. He's always gotta come up with some new twist."

"Yeah, and it wasn't that long ago since he tried this last, only a couple months ago." Launchpad added. "That's too close together. If Negaduck was going to try and recycle a plan, he'd wait months and months, nearly years, before he tried it again."

"Right, so the memory of it wouldn't be so fresh." Crimson agreed. "And besides, you said yourself, Darkwing. This past summer has just been filled with people posing as you, or like you. The idea's gotten _dull_."

"There has to be more to all of this than meets the eye, then." Darkwing said, tapping the image of the double as he started to pace. "Because we can't deny that we've got evidence that _somebody _is giving it a shot."

Techno suddenly wandered over to the rows of burned out screens that the computer was hooked up to, and yanked an object out from where it had embedded itself and examined it. "Well, whoever it is, he's fully loaded with our stuff." he remarked, holding up the dart-like object.

Darkwing snatched from him and examined it for a moment. "We've got darts like this loaded into a certain attachment to our gas guns." he said. "The darts release quick but extreme bursts of energy upon impact with an object, and are designed to short-circuit offending technology. I call 'em shock darts." he grinned proudly for a moment, but it didn't last. "Whoever our double _really _is, he's done his homework, and is trying to keep true to the role."

There was a moment of silence.

"So, do we have any clues?" Techno asked.

"Not much more than this." Matthew said, gesturing to the image on the computer screen. "The guards who witnessed the attack are all unconscious and on their way to the hospital at the moment. I'm told they won't be waking up soon. And the security cameras cut out about a minute into the attack and stop recording. This is all we've got to work with."

"It'll have to do." Darkwing said, pocketing the dart and adjusting his fedora. "All right, here's the plan. Matt, you keep up your investigation here, just like you'd normally do. If you find anything, tell me first. I'll be staying within radio contact until we've got a few leads. Meanwhile, _we'll_..." he motioned to himself, Crimson, and the others, "...will be investigating possible candidates for a Darkwing double and following any leads we'll get from that. We'll also send a report to SHUSH, and get them involved. Whoever this guy is, we're going to get to the bottom of his plans."

* * *

"So there's a Darkwing double out there with the plans of starting a crime wave while posing as you?" Hooter asked a little later in his office.

"I'm afraid so, J. Gander." Darkwing said on the screen. "We're thinking at the moment that it's just an attempt to tarnish my good name, but the idea getting so old now, we're wondering if it's not something more."

"I'm inclined to agree, Darkwing." Hooter said. "Do you have any suspects?"

"Not really, but I've got a sneaking suspicion Negaduck's behind all of this." Darkwing said.

Hooter sighed. "That could be true." he said, reaching for a report that sat on his desk. "Because I'm afraid I've got more bad news. Remember back in June when Negaduck gained access to the SHUSH computer core?"

"Yeah, we figured he messed with something in there."

"I've just gotten the report that it has been determined just what he messed with." Hooter said, holding up the report for Darkwing to see, and then throwing it down onto his desk with a flap. "It was our transdimensional portal tracking system that he messed with. Completely scrambled the system so it couldn't tell a portal from a potato. It's why we haven't detected a portal activating for _months_."

"So _that's_ it!" Darkwing exclaimed. "And no doubt he instantly used that to his advantage and has been going back and forth from the Negaverse more than ever!"

"And it's going to take months to repair!" Hooter added. "Bellum tells me she'll have to completely rebuild the system! And once that's done, we'll be right back to same old problem of not being able to tell which portal is coming or going."

"Drat, that complicates things!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"You have no idea." Hooter said, dreading the moment his superiors will find out about all of that.

"Still..." Darkwing said, looking like an idea was coming to him on the screen, "...that could fit in with now. Maybe disabling the tracking system is in relation with his plan to pose as me and ruin my name."

"Presuming, of course, that's really his plan, and it's really Negaduck who's behind it." Hooter pointed out.

"Well, I'm going to get to the bottom of it, J. Gander, you can count on that." Darkwing promised. "I'll keep you posted on our progress."

"Please do." Hooter said. "Meanwhile, we'll do a bit of investigating ourselves. J. Gander out."

He switched off the screen and sighed, leaning back in his chair for a moment, savoring the moment to relax.

It didn't last.

"Attention, Director, sir." the intercom sitting on his desk suddenly buzzed. "Vice President Norrin wishes to speak with you, sir."

Hooter sighed, clamping his hands over his eyes and rubbing them for a moment. "Very well, Julie." he said, sitting up and reaching for his phone. "You'll put him through on which line? Line one?"

"Actually, sir, he's requesting to hold a video conference with you." the secretary said, sounding apologetic as always when it came to the vice president. "He says it's urgent, too."

"Of course it is." Hooter muttered, and sighed. "Very well, put him through."

A moment later, an image of Vice President Jonas Norrin appeared on Hooter's computer screen, to fill the blank void Darkwing's face had left when he disconnected. Hooter could tell right away that the dark-grey furred feline wasn't happy. He was wearing his grey suit, and was currently wearing the most neutral expression known to man, peering at Hooter through his wireframe glasses. Which also doubled in some odd way as the most disapproving glare known to man as well. Somehow it was both. Not that it was a good thing.

"Good evening, Mr. Vice President, what can I do for you?" Hooter greeted, trying to be polite.

"I have just gotten word, director." Norrin said, holding up the report before letting it fall to his perfectly organized desk. "I understand that your transdimensional portal system is inoperable at the moment."

"Yes." Hooter said with a sigh. Norrin certainly found about that fast. Hooter had hoped to have some time not worry about the vice president confronting him about the matter for a little while. Like at least a half hour, tops.

"And that the system will not be operable again for a projected four months." Norrin continued, thumbing through the report lying on his desk.

"Yes." Hooter said, but added, "Dr. Bellum has been known to work miracles before, though."

"I'm sure she has, but that still doesn't change the fact how the system got into this state in the first place." Norrin said, shoving the report aside and steepling his fingers together. "Which brings me to the next issue I wish to discuss with you."

Uh-oh, Hooter thought. This doesn't bode well.

"Am I to understand correctly that there has been reported yet _another _double of Darkwing Duck running loose in the streets?" Norrin asked accusingly.

"Yes, Mr. Vice President, I regret to tell you that there is." Hooter said reluctantly. "But we believe it could be Negaduck trying an old stunt."

"A stunt he pulled off over a month ago and managed to breech SHUSH security and was the very person who disabled a very important piece of technology used in your operations." Norrin said pointedly. He narrowed his eyes at Hooter. "That's unacceptable, director."

"I know, sir."

"I want to know what you plan to do to rectify this situation."

Hooter hesitated again. "SHUSH will-_has_ begun an investigation regarding the situation, and we intend to get to the bottom of the situation, posthaste." he replied, knowing that would be what Norrin wanted to hear.

Norrin didn't buy it, though. "Who's leading the investigation?" he asked calmly.

Hooter bit his lip.

"Darkwing Duck, I suppose." Norrin said flatly, his eyes narrowing even further. It wasn't a question.

Hooter nodded. "I still stand by the fact that he is the most qualified person to handle the situation." he said confidently. "And we can prove that Darkwing can be trusted."

"Maybe so." Norrin said. "But trust isn't the issue here anymore, director, and you know it. Far too many people have been taking advantage of Darkwing's ties to SHUSH and have as such been _blindly_ permitted to access _very_ sensitive SHUSH material and projects. Now we're at risk of it happening again. I simply cannot permit that. Director, I am formally recommending you apprehend Darkwing for the duration of this mission, or longer, if need be, until we can come up with a solution."

Hooter's eyes widened. "But sir, with all due respect..." he began to object.

"Note that I said it was a recommendation, director." Norrin interrupted. "I am not forcing you to carry out that plan as of yet." he leaned closer, to the point that his face filled Hooter's screen. "But if I hear you have done nothing by the next time we meet, let me be the first to assure you that there _will _be consequences."

And with that, the video conference ended.

* * *

"Dawn's almost here." Techno noted, glancing out at the brightening horizon. "Maybe we should call it a night."

"No, Dad asked us to help him get to the bottom of this, and we won't stop until we do." Crimson remarked as she turned the Ratcatcher sharply around a corner and onto the Audubon Bay Bridge, heading out to St. Canard's suburbs.

Techno looked longingly up at Darkwing Tower as they drove past it. "But we're so very close, and I'm so very tired..." he wined.

"Fine, quit." Crimson said harshly. "I'll just carry on by myself, all on my own, facing unknown dangers while I singlehandedly fight the evils of crime."

Techno winced at the harshness of the comment, and sank lower into his seat in the sidecar. "You're mean when you're tired, Crimson." he remarked.

"Thank you for noticing." Crimson said, as they reached the end of the bridge. "Now quit yapping and give me clues."

"Well, it was reported that there was a string of household robberies that took place here just tonight." Techno reported, looking at the data scrolling across his visor. "There weren't any witnesses, nor any real clues to who it was, so it could've been anybody, but there's a fair chance it's our Darkwing double, seeing these robberies took place after the robbery at the Last National Bank."

"Which road?" Crimson asked.

"Southsward Lane." Techno said. "It's the road that branches off of Avian Way, and..."

He got no further when something heavy suddenly slammed into the side of the Ratcatcher and the whole vehicle was engulfed in a cloud of purple smoke. Crimson slammed on the brakes and the vehicle spun around sharply. Gunning the throttle once again, they shot back out of the cloud in time to see a purple cape flutter by as the culprit made a break for it across the bridge on foot.

"It's him!" Crimson said, applying more throttle, burning rubber as she turned the Ratcatcher to chase after the double.

As the double was on foot, it wasn't hard to catch up with him. Crimson almost looked like she was going to run over the criminal, then at the last moment, let up on the throttle to trail just behind the fleeing double. Almost nervously, the double glanced back at the Ratcatcher, his hold on the bag of stolen items he had slung over his shoulder tightening.

Techno was surprised at just how identical to Darkwing the double seemed to be. Even the mask was identical. But the eyes gave away just how false the image was. There was an evil look behind them, one that Techno could've sworn right there and then he'd seen before.

Crimson either didn't notice or didn't pay attention. "He's not going anywhere, not while he's weighed down with those stolen goods." she said.

As if he had heard her, the double suddenly took the bag of stolen goods and threw it over the edge of the bridge to fall into the bay below, allowing him to pick up his speed surprisingly significantly. Techno yelped, seeing the bag sail over the edge and without thinking switched on his rocket boots and shot out of the sidecar and flew after the goods, nearly slamming into one of the steel cables that held the bridge up in the process.

The bag continued to fall for the bay. Techno added more speed, and was finally able to wrap his fingers around the bag and pull up just before both of them slammed into the water. Meanwhile, Crimson continued chasing the double in the Ratcatcher and was just about to grab the villain when he suddenly grabbed the railing that ran along the edge of the bridge and heaved himself up onto it with great agility, avoiding the Ratcatcher entirely as it zipped past him. Once it had past, he jumped down and ran across the bridge to the other side.

Crimson quickly brought the bike to a halt, turned it around, and zoomed after him. Quickly avoiding a passing car in the process, the only other vehicle on the bridge at the moment, Crimson readied to grab the fleeing villain once again when the double did the unexpected once again, and jumped up onto the railing on the other side of the bridge and lept right off the bridge, vanishing from sight.

Startled, Crimson ground the motorbike to a halt right at the edge and peered over the side down at the bay below. She saw nothing but water, not even the evidence of a splash. Frowning in disapproval, Crimson turned the bike away and drove away.

Unbeknownst to her, dangling from the underside of the bridge, was the double...

* * *

"So, are there any patterns to all of this, Techno?" Darkwing asked, as he circled the pile of stolen goods sitting on the table, early morning sunlight now streaming through the tower's windows on it.

"Not really." Techno admitted, scratching his helmet. "There's no pattern to what he stole here other than it's all valuable, and the string of robberies on Southsward Lane was on the other side of town from the Last National Bank."

"It looks like it really might be a mere attempt to ruin your name, DW." Launchpad remarked.

Darkwing rubbed his beak and didn't reply.

"He's still out there, too." Crimson said. "He jumped off the bridge to escape, I know it. He'll strike again, and soon."

"Sounds like something Negaduck would try." Techno said.

"But that guy was moving like lightning." Crimson objected. "And I know Negs is quick, but he's not that quick."

"Not only that, but I can't find any trace of Negaduck, nor the Fearsome Five, anywhere." Darkwing remarked. "Me and LP spent hours in the Thunderquack searching the city for some trace of them, but we found nothing."

"Maybe, presuming Negaduck is behind this, he had the Fearsome Five lie low for a little while." Crimson suggested.

"True, but something still doesn't add up about this." Darkwing persisted. "We_ do _know that Negaduck has the ability to go from the Posiverse to the Negaverse and back undetected now."

"Right." Techno agreed. "Maybe it's not Negaduck, and he's merely hiding in the Negaverse at the moment, doing whatever it is he does best."

"But if it's not Negaduck behind all of this, then who could it be?" Launchpad asked.

"Maybe another double we know of?" Crimson suggested hopefully.

"The only one that comes to mind is Darkwarrior, and this isn't up his alley at _all_." Darkwing said. "We might have to face facts and see that we're dealing with an entirely new double here."

"Or fear the worse," Techno began, a thought coming to him, "and wonder if Negawing's back."

All eyes fell on Darkwing.

"I stopped by at SHUSH last night, and they ran a scan on my trons to play it safe." Darkwing said, pulling out a manilla folder. "Here's the official report. Everything checks out, I promise."

Techno examined the report, and nodded in confirmation. Crimson let out a sigh of relief.

"But where does this get us?" Launchpad asked. "Are we any closer to figuring things out?"

"No." Darkwing admitted. "And when I met up with him last night, Hooter seemed anxious that we turn up something, and soon. He understands that this situation is urgent, apparently. But there is some good news." he held up a newspaper. "No one else is buying this double's apparent scheme either."

He slapped the paper onto the table. Crimson picked it up.

"'New Darkwing double on the loose.'" she said, reading the headline. "'Police claim masked vigilante Darkwing Duck not to blame for recent string of robberies.'" she skimmed through the article that followed. "People are pretty convinced this guy's a fake. They even asked a professor guy about it, and he believes the double is a fake, too. He even lists the possibilities of who it could be."

"And?" Techno asked hopefully. "Did he turn up anything?"

"Nothing we haven't already come up with." Crimson said dejectedly, setting the paper aside. "Keen gear, this is real frustrating."

"Well, we aren't stopping our investigation until we've got this guy." Darkwing said. "His plans to ruin my name may not be working, but he's still a threat, and I most certainly won't let him get away."

* * *

"Agent Mia." Hooter greeted the face on his screen as he sat down in his desk. "I'm sorry for the delay, I was preoccupied elsewhere with a political matter. I came as soon as I got Agent Grizzlikof's call."

He glanced at the burly bear standing beside him, who did not comment.

"Understood, sir." Mia replied on the screen. "Just wanted to report sir that we've searched Canard Woods from top to bottom. Unfortunately, we don't have much to report."

"What do you have to report?" Hooter asked hopefully.

"We did find a structure out here that was probably one of many of Darkwarrior's hideouts." Mia offered. "We searched for clues to see if he was behind any of this double business, but the place has clearly been abandoned for months. Sandy and I checked the computer core, but it had been wiped. No new leads to report, sir."

Hooter sighed. "Thank you, Agent Mia." he said. "Keep at it, and expand your search to include the surrounding areas. This double must be holed up somewhere."

"Yes, Director Hooter." Mia said with a nod. "Over and out."

The screen went blank. Hooter sighed again.

"Not a good night?" Grizzlikof asked.

Hooter nodded. "First there's this double business, and then Vice President Norrin pounding me on the back to arrest Darkwing, as if that will really fix things." he said "Now we aren't turning up much of anything, and I have to put _something _into that report I was working on in the other room."

"We will keep at search until we find something." Grizzilkof vowed.

"Thank you, Grizzlikof, but we're pressed for time." Hooter said. "If we don't turn up something soon, we may be forced into a situation we won't like."

It was then that the intercom buzzed.

"Director Hooter, it's the vice president again." the secretary said apologetically. "He wants another video conference."

Hooter groaned. "Speak of the devil." he muttered.

"Would you like me to take call?" Grizzlikof asked.

"No, I'll take it." Hooter said. "But you'd better stick around and listen, just in case."

He opened the video link. "Hello again, Mr. Vice President." Hooter greeted.

Norrin merely glared at Hooter with a disapproving look, his hands clasped together on his desk.

"You remember my second in command, Agent Grizzlikof, right?" Hooter asked, gesturing to Grizzlikof, who was only half in the picture.

Norrin still didn't say anything.

"We're still working on the investigation, if that's what you're calling about." Hooter said.

Norrin's glare narrowed.

"Is there a problem here?" Hooter finally asked.

"Have you taken my recommendation and have placed Darkwing Duck into custody?" Norrin asked.

"Not as of yet."

"Then there's a problem."

"With all due respect, Mr. Vice President," Hooter began, "Darkwing believes he..."

"You have no intention of arresting him, do you?" Norrin asked.

"I'm at least hesitant."

"Director, you leave me no choice then." Norrin said, removing his glasses briefly to pinch at his nose. "You are hereby ordered to arrest Darkwing Duck and keep him in SHUSH custody until further notice."

Grizzlikof glanced at the screen in surprise. "Sir, do you think that to be wise?" he asked.

"The president does." Norrin said, holding up a sheet of paper. "He just signed this document granting the okay for me to make the order."

"Ah, but does he know the whole story?" Hooter asked defiantly.

"He knows enough." Norrin said, slapping the paper down angrily. "Director, you have been given a direct order."

"Sir, I have to be honest." Hooter said. "Doing this will be a terrible idea. Darkwing is the very person who can help the most with this matter. Taking him out of the picture will only make the matter worse."

"I disagree."

"To be frank, sir, I don't care."

Grizzlikof now shot Hooter a surprised look.

"Are you saying you'll defy a direct order?" Norrin demanded. "Because if so, I can relieve you of command in a heartbeat for insubordination."

"I'm aware of this."

"Then I suggest you carry out my order _to the letter_." Norrin said. "You have one hour to make the preparations to carry out the order. If, by then, I see that you have continued to do nothing..." he made a slashing motion across his throat. Hooter wondered suddenly if Norrin kept a pistol in his desk drawer so to shoot anybody who defied him.

The screen went dark. A moment of silence fell. Hooter sighed, but this time pleasantly.

"If only I _really _could give _him _a piece of my mind." he said to himself. He turned to Grizzlikof. "Thoughts?"

"It was...unexpected, sir." Grizzlikof remarked. "But sir, what about his orders? Should I give word that they are to be carried out?"

"Can't carry out an order we didn't hear." Hooter replied with a wink. "Those long range video feeds can get a lot of interference you know."

Grizzlikof looked blank for a moment, then grinned as he caught on. "I see, sir." he said. "_Your _orders then?"

"You are to first get Agent Mia on the line." Hooter said. "Tell her she is to take what evidence she has and present it straight to Darkwing and then return to base. Maybe Darkwing can find something with that evidence that we haven't. Then, should Vice President Norrin call back, you are to tell him that I'm not available and keep him entertained until we've got something to present to him. Hopefully we'll finally turn something up soon."

* * *

Officer Matthew signed the bottom of the document with a flourish and slipped it into his out box. "There, that solves that." he remarked, leaning back in his chair.

"I'm sure the chief will be pleased." the officer sitting the next desk over, remarked.

"I'm pretty proud of the report myself." Matthew remarked. "Given the circumstances, of course. It has a bit of a cliffhanger ending, so to speak."

"You'll figure it out." the other officer said flatly. Matthew always did.

"Yeah. I know." Matthew agreed. "But still, I wish we could've figured out more. You didn't see that footage of that Darkwing double in action, Frank. Whoever he is, he's deadly. And quick. Inhumanely quick almost, I would say."

"Aren't supervillains supposed to be like that?" the officer, Frank, remarked.

"You've gone up against the Fearsome Five before." Matthew said. "You tell me. Are they fast?"

Frank looked up from his report. "No." he admitted. "But there is one villain I know of who is. One you should know very well, Matt."

Matthew paled at the thought of what Frank was suggesting. "Well, it's not him." he said confidently. "I don't think, at least."

"You don't, do you?"

"He's in jail after all!" Matthew said. "We would've known if he'd escaped long before he started trouble like this! Besides, it wouldn't be like him to cause all of this! Not unless..."

Matt suddenly trailed off, and jumped to his feet, a realization coming to him. But he didn't get to reveal it before all chaos suddenly broke loose.

Without warning, the lights suddenly went out, plunging the office into darkness. There were a couple surprised murmurings from the office. Matthew was the only one who drew his weapon, however. He was later thankful he did, however, for the door to the room was suddenly bashed down and the Darkwing double stormed into the room, firing in gas gun in all directions.

Matthew turned his head as a canister of smoke hit the floor near his feet and fired twice at his target out of the corner of his eye. The first shot he knew missed. But the second shot had to have hit. Yet Matthew saw with astonishment that the double didn't even slow down as he surged forward into the room.

After that point, Matthew lost sight of everything as the whole room was flooded in smoke. He heard several yells and crashes, as well as punches being thrown as a battle went on all around him. A gun fired, but it was unknown if it hit anything. It was quickly followed by a yell and a clatter. Then, quite suddenly, silence fell.

Matthew stood rooted at his desk, not daring to move. His weapon was raised, but he had nothing to shoot at it with. Seeing movement in the smoke, he turned to face it in time to see the double lunge at him, rip the gun from Matthew's hands, and slam him up against the wall behind him, wrapping a hand around the officer's throat.

"Well, well, well!" the double said in Darkwing's voice. "If it isn't Officer Matthew! I see you've been promoted since we last met."

Matthew didn't reply as he struggled to tear the double's vice-like grip off his throat.

"Oh c'mon, at least tell me you've figured out something." the double said.

"Oh, I've figured out _everything_." Matthew said harshly. "I know you're L-"

The double cut him short as he slammed Matthew roughly against the wall again. "Well good!" he said.

It was then that everything about the double changed.

"That means I no longer have to maintain my little ruse for you." he said in a voice that was very much not Darkwing's...

* * *

Within the hour, the police station had been completely shut down and being treated as a crime scene. Crimson slowed the Ratcatcher down as she and Techno arrived.

"Keen gear!" she exclaimed. "They weren't kidding when they said things were serious!"

"What do you think happened?" Techno asked in amazement as they nosed their way through the crowds of watchers, news reporters, EMTs, SCPD officers, before Crimson brought the Ratcatcher to a suddenly halt as someone stepped in their path.

"They were attacked, Techno." Agent Sandy said, having overheard Techno's remark. "By the Darkwing double."

Crimson and Techno shot each other a look.

"Now, I need you to follow me, we don't have much time." Sandy said, motioning to the pair to follow her. "Agent Mia and I were looking for you before all of this happened."

Hopping off the bike, they followed the agent to the entrance of the police station, where police officers were helping paramedics carry their own injured out of the building. All of the officers looked very worn and beaten. Standing at the door was Agent Mia, and with her was Darkwing and Launchpad, the Thunderquack parked not far from them.

"The attack was quick and effective." Mia was explained as they arrived. "No one had much chance to react, and it seems no one really seemed to have seen enough to figure things out."

"The attack was unprovoked." Darkwing muttered. "What do you think made that double decide to do this?"

"Perhaps he realized his previous tactic wasn't working, and moved to take drastic measures." Sandy suggested as she moved to stand next to her superior.

"Whatever the case, his attack was successful." Mia said. "Fourteen injured, seven of them in critical condition, and one dead. Judging from what little we can get about all of this, we should be glad it wasn't worse."

Darkwing watched as an officer was carried out on a stretcher, moaning. "Who would do this?" he muttered. "This has gone far beyond doppelganderism."

"There must be something we can get from this." Launchpad remarked.

"Yeah, there must be some kind of clue to be learned from this." Crimson agreed.

Techno peered inside the building, wincing at the mess he found. "We should at least look." he said, entering.

"Agreed." Mia said, following. "But I don't think we'll find much."

"We have to try, Mia." Darkwing said. "All we have to work with could be here."

Crimson suddenly gasped as she recognized the face of the next officer that was carried out of the building.

"Officer Matthew!" she exclaimed, rushing towards him, but was stopped by Agent Sandy.

"He's got a bad concussion." she told Crimson. "And he might have lapsed into a coma. But he'll live. It's a pity though."

"And why's that?" Launchpad asked.

"We're told that Matthew might be the only one here who might be able to tell what happened, and who attacked, per say." Mia said. "He could at least give us another clue. Speaking of which, Darkwing, we had orders to track you down before this happened." she handed Darkwing a folder. "This is all the evidence we've been able to gather on the investigation. It's not much, but Director Hooter thought you could use it to piece things together."

"Good ol' J. Gander." Darkwing said with a grin, flipping through the folder.

Meanwhile, Techno was searching for clues, and found a piece of blue title with a yellowish stain on it. Puzzled as to why there would be a stain on it, even if it didn't have any real bearing on the case, he collected it, sealing it in a plastic bag.

"I guess there isn't much for us left to do here." Crimson announced suddenly, giving up on searching for clues.

"Not with all these people around, anyway." Darkwing said, looking out at the crowd that had gathered outside.

"We need to return to HQ and make our report, anyway." Mia said. "You'll keep us posted?"

"Try and stop me." Darkwing said. "We'll head to the hideout and try and put together what we've got." he gave the battered room one last lookover. "C'mon guys, let's go. This place is giving me the creeps."

* * *

"Darkwing got the evidence, then?" Hooter asked as he, Mia, and Grizzlikof walked down the hall to his office.

"Yes sir." Mia said. "He said he'll take it to his hideout and work out a solution. But I don't understand why you needed me back here."

"I've been getting a lot of trouble from the powers that be, lately, Mia." Hooter replied as they arrived at his office door, and they all entered the office. "Recalling you to base would've made it seem like I was breaking in to their commands. But I assure you, we will continue what we're doing."

"Not anymore." a voice said suddenly.

All three of them froze. Hooter's chair sitting behind his desk swivelled around to reveal Vice President Norrin sitting there.

"Things are changing as of now." he said sternly.

For a moment, no one said anything. They simply stared at Norrin sitting behind Hooter's desk. Finally, with a glare, Hooter jabbed a finger at Norrin.

"That's my chair." he complained softly.

Norrin made no comment on the matter.

"What are you doing here?" Hooter went on.

"You weren't answering my calls." Norrin replied simply. "As such, action had to be taken. I flew straight here, and found that you had not, as I suspected, carried out my orders."

Hooter gave Norrin a glare. "I have good reason to, sir." he said.

"Maybe you believe you do." Norrin said, "But it doesn't matter now. Director, you are, as of now, relieved of command. I will be taking control of SHUSH for the remaining duration of this investigation and until you are reappointed, if and when that ever happens."

Hooter's eyes went wide with surprise. So did Grizzlikof's and Mia's.

"Agent Grizzlikof, you are hereby ordered to gather your agents and track down Darkwing Duck and arrest him on sight." Norrin went on, turning his attention to Grizzlikof. "That is SHUSH's top most priority from here on until that objective has completed. All other projects are to be put on hold until it is done."

Grizzlikof folded his arms. "No." he said plainly.

"What do you mean, no?" Norrin asked, scowling.

"As much as I dislike Darkwing, I answer only to Director Hooter." Grizzlikof explained. "You are not Director Hooter. I will not answer to you."

"Fine." Norrin said, clearly annoyed. "You're under house arrest." he turned to Mia. "Agent, escort Agent Grizzlikof to his quarters."

Mia blinked a few times, surprised at this sudden turn of events, and then turned to Hooter. "Sir?" she asked questioningly.

"Go ahead, Mia." Hooter said. "You'd better play along for now, otherwise you'll end up in an undesirable situation, a situation I would not want to see you get in."

He shot a look at Norrin, which Norrin returned. With hesitation, Mia escorted Grizzlikof away, although Grizzlikof came very willingly.

"Once you are done with that, rally everyone together." Norrin continued. "I want every agent in this building out looking for Darkwing within the hour."

Mia did not acknowledge the order, and continued on out the door with Grizzlikof, leaving Hooter alone with Norrin. Hooter turned to face the vice president.

"You really will stop at nothing to get what you want." Hooter remarked.

"I shouldn't have to." Norrin said. "I outrank all of you. You should obey the _first _time."

"But you aren't the person who knows everything about everything." Hooter said flatly. "Despite what you think, you don't always know what's best. Darkwing needs to be out there to get to the bottom of this. We have a serious threat out there wandering around, yet you plan on capturing the one person who could stop him!"

"I have already explained why Darkwing needs to be stopped." Norrin said. "Since you refuse to listen to the voice of reason, I will not repeat myself."

Hooter glared at him for a long moment. "You're making a mistake sir." he said warningly.

"As I recall, Director, that is no longer your call." Norrin said, and leaned back in Hooter's chair. "You may leave now."

Hooter didn't move for a long moment, then finally turned and opened the door. Pausing long enough to give Norrin one last glare, he exited the office, thus leaving the vice president in total control of SHUSH...

* * *

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Darkwing grumbled, flipping through their scanty evidence. "Even when we do combine our evidence with SHUSH's we aren't getting anywhere!"

"There has to be something here we can use!" Crimson said, sorting through all the evidence.

"Yeah, DW, don't give up until we've looked at it all." Launchpad said, helping.

"We have looked through it all, LP." Darkwing grumbled. "Twice."

"Um, not anymore." Crimson remarked, as she set aside the last piece of evidence once again.

"Thrice, then." Darkwing amended.

"Mr. Darkwing!" Techno suddenly called from above them, working at the supercomputer. "Incoming message from SHUSH! Unsecured transmission!"

"Unsecured?" Darkwing repeated, puzzled.

He glanced at Launchpad and Crimson, then started for the stairs, going to join Techno at the supercomputer, the others following.

"Put it through, Tech." he said. "But keep your hand over the disconnect button, just in case."

Techno let his hand hover over the red button as he pressed another to connect with the transmission. A moment of static appeared on the screen. Then, quite suddenly and without the traditional displaying of the SHUSH logo, Hooter's face appeared on the screen.

"Darkwing!" he exclaimed, looking relieved. "Good, you received my transmission. Do you have news?"

"I wish I did, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "We haven't given up though. How about you? You got any news?"

"Nothing good, Darkwing." Hooter admitted. "I fear I must report I am no longer in command of SHUSH."

"What?" Crimson said, alarmed.

"What about Grizz?" Darkwing asked.

"He's been placed under house arrest for defying orders." Hooter explained. "Everyone else here is at risk of following the same fate if they don't obey."

"But...how?" Techno asked, standing.

"I was relieved of command by Vice President Norrin." Hooter explained. "He's taken command in my place."

"Vice President Norrin?" Launchpad repeated. "_The _Vice President Norrin?"

"He is the head chairman of SHUSH, and my superior officer." Hooter said. "He has his own ideas about how this investigation should be carried out, and I felt I should warn you he intends to begin by arresting you, Darkwing."

"What?" Darkwing exclaimed.

"Wait, you mean to tell me he's the only person on the face of the planet who believes Darkwing's responsible for all of this?" Crimson said.

"Well, indirectly anyway, or so he says." Hooter said.

Darkwing muttered something unintelligible for a moment.

"It's complete nonsense." Hooter said. "I really think he just doesn't like you, Darkwing. But the point of the matter is that he intends to capture you, and now he has all of SHUSH at his command. You need to be on the look out for him. In fact..." he trailed off for a moment, sighing. "Darkwing, I really hate getting you into this mess, but you cannot let Norrin capture you. I've gone to great lengths to get this transmission open to you without Norrin knowing to warn you. Now I'm going to give you some advice. Darkwing, I must admit that SHUSH has some archived files about you that could breech your security. You hideout might not even be safe. You cannot stay there. If we have _any _hope of resolving things, I need you to disappear and go on the run."

"Say _what _now?" Darkwing repeated.

"I know, I don't like the idea either." Hooter said. "But you have little choice. Doing anything else, and you run the risk of getting captured, and we can't afford that, not now."

"What about me, Techno, and Launchpad?" Crimson asked.

"Norrin hasn't explicitly said he's going after you three as well, but if he doesn't turn up Darkwing right away, he'll go after you three next, because he'll know you'll know where to find Darkwing." Hooter said "It'd be best if you all avoid him. But right now, the priority is that Darkwing gets to safety."

"But...but...but..." Darkwing stuttered.

"Darkwing, this double that is running around is a big threat." Hooter said. "I just know it. And right now, you are our only hoping of figure out who he is and how to stop him. All of you are. And the only way you're going to be able to stop him, whoever he is, is if you avoid Norrin and his forces at all costs." Hooter looked around suddenly. "Look, I can't stay connected any longer, or I risk giving us all away. But tell me you'll do this, Darkwing. As friends and coworkers. Tell me you'll keep away from Norrin and go into hiding."

Darkwing hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "I will J. Gander." he vowed.

Hooter grinned, nodded, and then was seen flipping an unseen switch. The transmission then ended. A moment of silence fell.

"Well." Darkwing said, clapping his hands together. "Guess I better get going."

"Dad..." Crimson started to object, but Darkwing held up a hand for silence.

"I promised J. Gander." Darkwing said. "And I don't against my word. I'm going. Now, if I keep moving all over the city, I should be able to continue working on the case and avoid Norrin's attempts to find me. Give me a an hour to get going, and then I want you guys to follow suit."

"Follow suit?" Techno repeated.

"You heard Hooter, he said not even Darkwing Tower could be safe from the vice president's attempts to find us." Crimson said.

"Exactly" Darkwing said, and then pointed at Launchpad. "We'll leave in stages. LP, you leave an hour after me. Take the Thunderquack with you." he turned to face the teens. "Crimson, Techno, I want you guys to lock the tower down, computers, equipment, the chairs, everything. Gather all the evidence we've got, and then leave an hour after LP in the Ratcatcher. As of now, we'll be in radio silence. No contact with anybody unless it's an absolute emergency, like the world's going to end, or something of the sort."

He paused for a moment. "Don't worry about me." he said. "I'll fend for myself. Worry about you guys." he hopped into the window. "Remember, whether he's in charge or not, we take our orders from Hooter. We've got them, now we need to carry them out." Opening the window, he pulled out his gas gun and readied it to fire, his figure silhouetted in the late morning sun.

"Goodbye dad." Crimson called.

Darkwing turned to look at her and gave a comforting grin. "Bye Gos." he said. "Be back soon."

And with that, he fired a grappling hook, swung out the window, and was gone from sight.

* * *

"Techno, you gather the evidence!" Crimson ordered, taking charge. "LP, ready the Thunderquack for a long flight. I'll lockdown the tower."

They quickly went about their assigned tasks, Crimson staying at the supercomputer, Launchpad hurrying over to the Thunderquack, and Techno heading down to the table where they left all the evidence. Quickly, he collected it and repackaged it back into their bags and boxes, staking them carefully on one side of the table, ready to be moved.

He then found the plastic bag containing the broken title with the yellow stain that he had collected at the police station. Only now, the tile had crumbled into a pile of yellowish grain. Techno stared at it for a moment, frowning. Unless something really heavy had been dropped on it, there was no way that tile could have gotten like that on it's own.

Techno hesitated for a moment, then took the bag and hurried over to where a microscope sat. Opening the bag and putting a small amount of the dust onto a slide, Techno slipped it into the microscope and then peered into it. On the slide he saw the granular specks of tile as predicted, but nothing more. Techno switched to the next highest magnification, only to get similar results.

Upon going to the next highest magnification after that, Techno spied little speaks moving about on the remains of the tile. Curious now, Techno switched straight to the highest magnification the microscope had to offer, and got a good look at the moving specks. They were microscopic, spider-like, robots, crawling around on the grains of tile, breaking it into pieces. And there was only on person he knew of that had access to this.

Looking up from the microscope with a glare, Techno uttered the culprit's name with a growl.

"Nanite."

**To Be Continued...**


	46. Prove Me False Part II

Summary: With Darkwing and the gang on the run and SHUSH currently under new management, the gang's going to have to pull double duty to beat the enemy, Nanite. But will things get better, or go from bad to worse?

Rating: T

Author's Note: Here's part 2! Some twists and turns in this chapter, several familiar faces reappear, and a couple new are presented. Me thinks you'll like it all. Some fun facts are concluded at the end.

46.

Prove Me False Part II

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_It's a control nanite. It will be released into the necessary environment, and then begin to make even smaller service nanites. Together, they will all make a large control structure to house themselves in, and await further orders."_

_--  
_

"_You might think that I'm totally insane to like this...enhancement, with the control nanite. But I'm totally lovin' it. I'm better, stronger, smarter, and these nanites in me give me such an advantage. As you've already seen, I can command them to create the forms of others."_

_--  
_

"_What did you do?"_

"_We damaged Nanite's control nanite. He'll be inactive while the other nanites repair the damage."_

_--  
_

"_Deep down, you're still good!"_

"_I am not!"_

"_Then prove it! Because I certainly can! You've done lots of things that are good! Remember when Darkwarrior almost got the cure to the virus infecting his robots? You shot the data card right out of his hand, yet you never said why! And what about the time you had me all tied up in the Negaverse? You had the perfect chance to bump me off, yet you waited until too late! That all __**screams**__ that there's unfound good in you!"_

_--  
_

"_Point is that there's somebody going around dressed like you, committing crimes."_

"_Not __**another**__ Darkwing double to contend with! What is this, the summer of Darkwing doubles?"_

_--  
_

"_We've got darts like this loaded into a certain attachment to our gas guns. The darts release quick but extreme bursts of energy upon impact with an object, and are designed to short-circuit offending technology. I call 'em shock darts."_

_--  
_

"_Far too many people have been taking advantage of Darkwing's ties to SHUSH and have as such been __**blindly**__ permitted to access __**very**__ sensitive SHUSH material and projects. Now we're at risk of it happening again. I simply cannot permit that."_

_--  
_

"_You are hereby ordered to arrest Darkwing Duck and keep him in SHUSH custody until further notice."_

_--  
_

"_Oh c'mon, at least tell me you've figured out something."_

"_Oh, I've figured out __**everything**__. I know you're L-"_

"_Well good! That means I no longer have to maintain my little ruse for you."_

_--  
_

"_Officer Matthew!"_

"_He's got a bad concussion. And he might have lapsed into a coma. But he'll live. It's a pity though."_

"_And why's that?"_

"_We're told that Matthew might be the only one here who might be able to tell what happened, and who attacked, per say. He could at least give us another clue."_

_--  
_

"_Director, you are, as of now, relieved of command. I will be taking control of SHUSH for the remaining duration of this investigation and until you are reappointed, if and when that ever happens."_

_--  
_

"_Darkwing, this double that is running around is a big threat. I just know it. And right now, you are our only hoping of figure out who he is and how to stop him. All of you are. And the only way you're going to be able to stop him, whoever he is, is if you avoid Norrin and his forces at all costs."_

_--  
_

_Curious now, Techno switched straight to the highest magnification the microscope had to offer, and got a good look at the moving specks. They were microscopic, spider-like, robots, crawling around on the grains of tile, breaking it into pieces._

_--  
_

"_Nanite."

* * *

  
_

Agent Mia stepped up to the door of Hooter's office, hesitated a moment, then lightly rapped on the door.

"Come in." a monotonous voice called from inside.

Mia twisted the doorknob and stepped inside. Only one person was inside, and it wasn't Director Hooter. Instead, standing at the bank of windows that ran along one wall was Vice President Norrin, peering out the windows at the city outside. He had taken off his suit jacket at some point and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt as if he was hot. He wore a grey vest over the shirt now.

Mia paused again, and then moved towards the vice president. Under normal circumstances, she would appose someone else using Hooter's office while Hooter was not present and did not have Hooter's explicit instructions to be there. But at the moment, there was nothing she could do about it.

Norrin was currently in command of SHUSH until further notice.

"You have a report, then?" Norrin said, not turning to face Mia.

"We're still searching for Darkwing, sir, but he's a very illusive duck when he wants to be." Mia reported confidently. "You really think you'll find him?"

"_We'll _find him, you mean." Norrin corrected, being politically correct. "And yes, we will find him. One way or another."

"We know very little about Darkwing sir." Mia said, trying to find some way to reason the vice president out of this plan of his. "We don't know where to look for him at all, and seeing that he's all but vanished, I think he's caught on to the fact that we're after him."

"Possibly." Norrin said, turning to look at Mia for the first time. "But you're wrong about SHUSH not knowing much about Darkwing." he walked over to Hooter's desk where a stack of folders and reports sat neatly. He took the one off the top and held it up. "I've been doing some research on Darkwing, and it turns out we have several things we can use against him. Such as this."

He handed the report to Mia. She took it and skimmed through it, her brow furrowing.

"This is just a theory." she objected once she was done. "No one ever proved if we were right, and after Darkwing returned to active duty last year, Director Hooter called of the search."

"I know." Norrin said. "But we have enough evidence to support it. And better still, it gives us a place to start."

"You forget that this report is over a year old." Mia continued to object. "Darkwing could've moved since then to avoid exactly what you're proposing!"

"A risk I'm willing to take." Norrin said.

"Sir, you can't..."

"Are you going to defy my orders, Agent Mia?"

Mia hesitated, remembering Hooter's request to play along. "No sir." she said.

"Good." Norrin said. "Get your partner and a technician and ready a helicopter, a fully crewed one. We are to raid the southeastern tower of the Audubon Bay Bridge within the hour."

* * *

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Crimson said not for the first time as she and techno worked at moving items of all sorts into the back of the Thunderquack. "I should've thought of Nanite hours ago! He's so _obvious _a choice that I can't believe....how could I have not thought of him?"

"Maybe because of the glaringly obvious fact that he's still in jail?" Launchpad offered from the pilot's seat of the Thunderquack, attempting to be helpful as he powered up systems.

"The evidence doesn't lie, Launchpad." Techno said, holding up the plastic bag that contained what remained of the tile he had examined. "These nanites could've only come from Nanite! We know of no one else who could've left these!"

"But we were just at the supervillain prison last week!" Launchpad objected. "We saw for ourselves, Nanite was still there! We would've been the first people notified if he had escaped since then, right?"

"He's got a point, Tech." Crimson said, placing a heavy box into the Thunderquack. "How did Nanite manage to escape without anybody noticing? Last time, he practically tore the prison apart getting out."

"I don't know how he did it." Techno admitted. "We'll have to investigate that further, but clearly, he used more stealth in his escape this time. But don't you see? This is what this is all about! Nanite's still trying to get revenge on Darkwing, and he's doing it by posing as Darkwing and trying to ruin him!"

"I believe you, Techno." Crimson assured her friend. "But his plan _isn't working_. Nanite has to have seen that by now."

"Oh, I dunno, he certainly has the vice president convinced." Launchpad remarked.

"We'll deal with Norrin later." Techno said. "Right now, we need to focus on beating Nanite. Maybe we do that, and we can clear Darkwing's name."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Crimson said as they jointly heaved one final box into the Thunderquack and took a few steps back. "There, LP, that's all we're going to fit in there. You're all set to go."

Launchpad nodded, and started the jet's engine. "Where will we meet again at?" he asked.

"We'll find you!" Techno promised. "Meanwhile, you can look for Darkwing, get his position pinpointed. He needs to know who's behind all of this as well!"

Launchpad nodded, and closed the canopy. With a jolt, the jet suddenly dropped into the floor and vanished. Turning to the window, Crimson and Techno watched as a few moments later as the jet burst out of the bay and into the sky, rapidly fading from sight in the bright noon light.

Crimson sighed. "C'mon, Tech, let's get things wrapped up here for when we leave." she said, turning away from the window.

Techno nodded, and followed her across the tower and to the supercomputer, where it was still busy locking the systems.

"You sure merely locking the supercomputer will be enough to protect it from anyone who'd want to hack it?" Crimson asked as the watched the task bar finish filling.

"Crimson, I designed the system myself." Techno said. "I've thought of everything. The system won't allow anyone to hack it without being remotely commanded." he held up a little garage door opener-like remote. "I even tested it by locking it down and trying to hack into it myself, and even _I _failed. And I knew exactly what I was up against!"

Crimson glanced up at the big screen, giving the locking mechanism a new look of respect, and whistled. "That's pretty dang good." she admitted.

The task bar finally filled, and all of the windows closed, the spinning yellow logo Techno had come up with for Darkwing taking it's place. It looked for all the world like the system was merely in screensaver. But the one thing that gave it away was the box that sat in the middle with the word "locked" flashing in it in big red letters. It was like that on not only the big screen, but on all of the six smaller screen that encircled the platform as well.

Techno made a satisfied nod and turned to leave. "C'mon, let's finish loading the Ratcatcher." he said. "We've got roughly fifty minutes and thirty-eight seconds before we're scheduled to..."

"Shh!" Crimson suddenly interrupted, cupping one had around her ear. "Do you hear something?"

Techno fell silent and listened for a moment. He frowned. "That sounds like the rotor blades of a helicopter..." he muttered.

As if to confirm this theory, a shadow suddenly passed over the windows outside as a helicopter flew past, and came to stop to hover outside one of the windows. There was a moment of relative quiet, then an shattered bang rang out as something was shot at the window and it splintered, scattering shards of glass everywhere. A moment later four people entered. Two of them were Agents Mia and Sandy. The third was a new agent neither Techno or Crimson could recall meeting before.

And the fourth, leading the party, was Vice President Norrin.

His eyes immediately fell upon Crimson and Techno who were rooted to their spots with shock. "There!" he exclaimed. "Capture them!"

The three agents, with the briefest moment of hesitation, surged towards the two heroes. Crimson gasped, and backed up. Techno quickly whirled around to the master control panel behind him, yanked out something from under it, and then pushed himself and Crimson off the platform and to the floor, going out of sight from the invading agents. A gunshot rang out as they did this, and ricocheted off a wall.

Another moment of calm fell, the agents adjusting their aim to point at the new location of the two heroes, but did not move forward. Norrin yet out a frustrated sigh, and moved forward to join the agents.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked. "Get them!"

But before anyone could do anything more, the Ratcatcher suddenly shot out from behind the platform, skidded across the room, and then started to turn about in search of an exit, Crimson and Techno riding within it. Mia and Sandy moved to shoot out the motorbike's tires, but missed, perhaps on purpose.

Crimson saw that they couldn't stick around and turned the bike around again to head for the closest path to escape, a closed window.

"Brace yourself!" she shouted to Techno, then ducked her head.

The motorbike smashed through the window, sailed into the air for a moment, then thudded down heavily on the long and thick suspension cable that bridged the tower with it's twin on the other end of the bridge. Crimson increased the throttle and surged the bike on down the cable.

The agents quickly gathered at the broken window to watch, Mia and Norrin ending up in the front. Mia raised her weapon as if to shoot at the fleeing bike, but didn't, hesitating. Norrin waited a moment for her to snap out of it, but when she didn't, he wrenched the weapon away from her.

"Give me that!" he exclaimed, and took aim and fired.

The first bullet missed, whizzing through the air somewhere over Crimson's head. The second ricocheted off of the Ratcatcher's tailpipe. Crimson chanced a glance behind her before returning her eyes back to the front.

"We can't stay here." she muttered, and turned the Ratcatcher hard to the right suddenly.

"Crimson!" Techno exclaimed in terror as the bike twisted around, smashed a light placed on the cable, and then soared off the cable entirely and out into open air.

With Techno yelling in terror the whole way, the bike sank down into the traffic-filled street below, it's nose slowly rising up into the air. Then, with a gut-wrenching crash, the rear tire smashed into the road in-between lanes of traffic, bringing the front tire down with it and the whole bike safely back down on the ground.

With the sidecar scratching against the side of a passing truck, Crimson moved past the two nearest cars and then swerved into an empty lane and sped on across the bridge and into the very heart of St. Canard.

Up in the tower, Norrin pounded his fist angrily and ran back to the window the helicopter still hovered outside of. "Go after them!" he ordered the helicopter's pilot. "Don't loose them!"

The helicopter surged forward and over the bridge to hover just behind the Ratcatcher from it's perch several feet in the air. Even as Crimson maneuvered the bike into the skyscraper filled section of the city, the helicopter stayed with them.

Techno looked up at it with a glare. "We're being followed." he announced.

"I know." Crimson said, glancing up at it for a brief moment. "Think you can hit 'em from here?"

"I can give it a shot." Techno said, pulling Crimson's gas gun from her holster and pointing it up at the helicopter.

After taking a moment to get his aim, he fired one canister of gas up at the tailing aircraft. It burst into a cloud of red smoke immediately upon impact and quickly hid the chopper from view, and the Ratcatcher from them. Grinning, Crimson turned the Ratcatcher into an alley drove through it to join traffic in the street it connected with. After a few moments, it was clear that they had lost the helicopter.

"Yes!" Crimson cheered. "We lost control of the tower, and have got nowhere to go, and are on the run, but we lost them!"

"I wish I could share your enthusiasm." Techno admitted.

"So, where should we go now?" Crimson inquired. "After Nanite?"

"We don't know where to look." Techno said. "No, let's focus our attention on getting more clues." he paused to think. "We run a chance doing it, but there is one place we can find a clue. And possibly a very good one."

"Where?" Crimson asked.

"With Officer Matthew." Techno said, and then pointed at a passing street corner. "Turn here. We should get to the hospital within moments this way."

* * *

Out of all the warehouses they had commandeered for their use, it was this one that Negaduck probably liked the most, and hoped he'd get to maintain control over it for a good while longer than in the past. So far he was having some luck. He and the Fearsome Five had managed to maintain control of the warehouse for a month and a half now, which was promising.

Which was good, because he really did like this warehouse. It was big. It was loaded with boxes of forgotten supplies that they could use. And it had a little office that was placed where the roof joined with the north wall, and overlooked the whole warehouse. From here, Negaduck could oversee everything the knobs he called his partners did, while they couldn't. Provided for a great Big Brother effect.

Negaduck looked out the large windows of his office, watching Fearsome Five sort boxes downstairs, for a moment, then turned away with the shake of head. Regardless, he had other issues to address, and it was time to do it. Glancing at his watch quickly just to double check, Negaduck pulled out his portal remote, and thumbed in the command for it to open a portal.

With a flash, a portal opened just in front of his desk, forming a tantalizing whirlpool of colors. It's beauty was lost on Negaduck, though, as he pulled out a walkie-talkie and switched it on.

"You knobs ready like I asked?" he growled into the radio.

"Ready as requested." came NegaLaunchpad's reply from the other side of the portal.

"You've got her, then?"

"Absolutely, Lord Negaduck. She's all set to go through."

"Good. Send her through now."

There was a momentary pause, and then NegaGosalyn stepped through the portal to stand before Negaduck. She was dressed in her costume, and was fully armed with her typical miniature arsenal of weaponry. But Negaduck didn't let that fool him. Just earlier today, he knew she was still locked away in solitary confinement, where she had been for the past two weeks. Now NegaGosalyn showed no signs of it, having been cleaned and dressed for her first trip back to the Posiverse. Her neutral expression added to the illusion, but Negaduck knew she wasn't happy with him at the moment.

But then, he wasn't happy with her.

With a flourish, Negaduck switched off the portal, and started to circle NegaGosalyn.

"I hope you've learned your lesson by now." he spoke.

"I have." NegaGosalyn assured him, staring straight ahead as Negaduck circled her.

"I only have your word for that, you know." Negaduck said. "This hasn't been the first time we've had to go through with this.

"I know." NegaGosalyn said. "I'll do better next time."

"You had better." Negaduck said, jabbing a finger at her. "You've gotten off your game, Gos. You haven't been nearly as successful as in the past, and the incident earlier this month is the cream of the crop!"

"I'm sorry." NegaGosalyn flatly apologized.

"Not good enough!" Negaduck said. "I gave you a mission, and you failed to carry it through!"

"The odds were against me."

"That doesn't change the fact that you had the chance to complete the mission, and you didn't! You had orders to kill your double, and yet you didn't!"

"I was at risk of being shot."

"Risk is part of the game, Gosalyn! _Our _game. If you can't play by the rules, you'll have to forfeit."

NegaGosalyn gulped slightly, and shifted her position. "You won't have to." she promised.

"Next time I give you an order, you'll carry it through?"

"Yes."

"Regardless of the circumstances?"

"Yes."

Negaduck grinned, and sat down behind his desk. "Good." he said. "Now let's talk business."

* * *

Rowe peered up at the office he knew contained Negaduck and NegaGosalyn. "I wonder what they're up to, mate." he muttered to Bushroot, who was stacking boxes in a pile.

"Something evil." Bushroot said as he set his load down. "A tantalizing and terrifying dish of lying, cheating, and dirty fighting with the sweet taste of revenge and seasoned with the blood of death."

Rowe gave him a questioning look.

"Heard that on TV." Bushroot admitted with a shrug.

"Ah." the otter glanced back up at the office. "Really though, I think something's up. I think our leaders are having problems between each other."

"I suppose it wouldn't be the first time." Bushroot said, unconcerned.

"I wonder what they do in the Negaverse, those two." Rowe muttered thoughtfully.

Bushroot shuddered. Neither of them had seen much of the Negaverse, but they didn't like what little they had seen. "Nothing good." he remarked.

"Or are they?" Rowe murmured. "You know, I have to wonder sometimes about NegaCrimson."

Bushroot shot him a glance. "That's not our place to wonder, Rowe." he said.

"I know mate, but think about it." Rowe said. "Don't you think has been acting a bit...I dunno...nicer...than usual?"

Bushroot never got the chance to reply when a row of windows on the south side of the building suddenly exploded, raining glass down on them all. There's was yells from Megavolt and Quackerjack across the room as a grappling hook and rope shot through the broken window to latch onto the section of wall just above the window's of Negaduck's office. In the office, both Negaduck and NegaGosalyn jumped to their feet in surprise.

Then, a figure could be seen rapidly scampering across the rope, a very familiar purple caped figure.

"It's Darkwing!" Quackerjack suddenly exclaimed.

In the office, gunshots rang out as Negaduck and NegaGosalyn fired off their weapons through the glass and at their target. Several of the bullets hit, but they all just seemed to bounce off. Darkwing pressed onward undeterred, reaching the halfway point in the rope. Megavolt fired a bolt of energy up at the intruder, nearly hitting him, but Darkwing merely swung around on the rope and dodged it.

He then did something unexpected and fired an energy weapon of sorts down at Megavolt. Megavolt quickly jumped to one side as the bolt struck a stack of boxes and exploded. Darkwing was then allowed to reach the other side of his rope and swing down into the office, smashing through the bullethole riddled window and stand before Negaduck and NegaGosalyn.

Both fired repeatedly at the intruder at near point-blank range, but the bullets didn't even scratch Darkwing. Seeing this, both stopped shooting and stared at the intruder. Negaduck's eyes narrowed.

"You're not Darkwing." he realized.

"Very good, Negaduck." the fake Darkwing said, and the image of Darkwing suddenly faded away to form a very robotic figure.

"Nanite!" both Negaduck and NegaGosalyn exclaimed together, and both moved to attack.

Nanite merely slapped their weapons away, shoved NegaGosalyn into a corner of the room, and then grabbed Negaduck and rammed him into the wall.

"Pleasure to see you again, Negs." Nanite remarked in his eerie and robotic voice.

"I thought you were in jail." Negaduck said.

"I got out."

"Clearly. So what is it you want _this _time?"

"Just a friendly reminder to stay out of my way while I seek my revenge."

"Friendly, hah!" Negaduck squirmed against Nanite's hold for a moment, but didn't budge. "All right, you've proved your point. Now let me go!"

Nanite grinned, his red eyes twinkling evilly. "Sure." he said, and threw Negaduck into NegaGosalyn as she got up again and turned around.

Quackerjack by that point took out a toy gun that wasn't much of a toy gun at all and fired a stream of bullets into the office, backed up by the occasional bolt of energy from Megavolt. They succeeded in tearing up the office further, but still weren't stopping Nanite at all.

"You knobs, you aren't helping!" Negaduck roared, picking himself up.

"Don't worry, boss, we're coming to help!" Rowe called out suddenly, and was seen climbing up the staircase that led to the office, Bushroot hot on his heels.

The shout gave away his position, though, and Nanite whirled around to face them. Transforming one arm into a cannon, he fired another bolt of energy at the staircase. Rowe and Bushroot grabbed onto the railing as the stair shook from the impact, then buckled, folding into two. Both crashed back to the floor.

Negaduck used the chance to lunge at Nanite, only to get thrown off again and swept over the top of his own desk before crashing to the floor. Nanite then effortlessly picked up the desk and hurled it at Negaduck. Negaduck ducked, and the desk smashed into the far wall of the office. Nanite was grinning again, and did so just in time for NegaGosalyn to suddenly pop up in front of him and drive the butt of her P90 into the robot's face.

Surprised, Nanite stumbled backwards and crashed into a second door in the office that led out onto a balcony that ran along the inside of the warehouse. The flimsy wooden door buckled under Nanite's weight allowing the heavy robot to crash to the floor of the balcony, which sagged under his weight as well. With a mad yell, NegaGosalyn jumped out to land on top of him, which was too much for the balcony to hold, and it gave way under them.

They both careened to the floor. As they did so, NegaGosalyn managed to pry Nanite off of her before she crashed into a pile of empty cardboard boxes, breaking her fall. Nanite wasn't so lucky, and landed heavily to the cement floor, but managed to land on his feet regardless, and his legs absorbed the jolt of the landing.

NegaGosalyn whipped out her P90 and tried again to shoot Nanite. As before, the bullets merely bounced off, and only succeeded in annoying Nanite. Rolling his eyes, Nanite fired his arm cannon at NegaGosalyn. It missed, but hit so close, NegaGosalyn was knocked over by the blast. Firing the cannon again at Megavolt and Quackerjack to hold them at bay, Nanite fired off another grappling hook and rope and pulled himself back up to the very window he had originally entered through.

Once there, he glanced back at the Fearsome Five, particularly at Negaduck, who wasn't looking too happy at the moment.

"If you guys leave me alone, I promise to stay out of your guys's way." Nanite promised suddenly. "Think about it."

And with that, he jumped through the window and was gone.

* * *

Agent Todd was a very nervous junior agent that did tasks such as carrying out classified garbage and guarding insignificant prisoners. His species was canine, and had floppy ears and a short and stiff tail. There was a patch of brown fur over the upper right quarter of his face, covering over his right eye and ear. He also had one hand that was colored with brown fur, unlike the other, which was colored white like the rest of him. He was very young, and fairly new to SHUSH.

The only real thing outstanding about him was that he was a pretty good technician who had the honor of having Dr. Bellum's blessing. Never before had the fellow been out in the field before, and he was hardly ready for it. Just watching him sitting in that chair at the computer was like watching a cell phone on vibrate go off. The poor guy couldn't stop shaking.

He was the very last person Agent Mia would've brought along for this, but he was here at Norrin's insistence, who figured beforehand that they would need a technician of some sort to hack into Darkwing's supercomputer, and saw that Agent Todd could just be the agent for the job. And of course, Agent Todd was giving it all his best.

Which was, of course, not good enough for the vice president.

"Agent, you've been working on this for more than an hour now." Norrin hissed dangerously, staring up at the big screen that hung on the wall, still flashing the word "locked" on it. "And yet you haven't made any progress, _yet_?"

"S-s-sorry sir, but its...its...not easy." Agent Todd stuttered anxiously, focusing on his laptop that he had hooked up to the supercomputer. He gulped. "Whoever made this system knew what they were doing."

"I want this system hacked, and it's contents accessed!" Norrin yelled.

"I-I can't, sir!" Agent Todd said, putting his hands to his head, his floppy ears wiggling as he continued to vibrate with fright. "It's too well protected! We can't even a-access it physically, b-because they took the backup hard drive before they left, s-s-sir. The main hard drive is embedded and built into the system."

"Then tear this thing apart and get at it!" Norrin ordered angrily.

"No sir, you don't understand!" Todd said, spinning around. "The main hard drive is part of the computer! You take it apart, and you're destroying the hard drive!"

"Then we'll take it apart, transport it back to HQ..." Norrin began to say.

"That won't fix the problem, sir!" Todd interrupted. "The lockdown will still be in affect no matter where the computer is!"

It was a mistake to cut the vice president short, as Norrin suddenly spun around and pressed his face into Todd's. Todd pulled his face away, and sank very low into his chair, wide-eyed with fright.

"You mean you won't carry out my order?" Norrin said in a harsh, but quiet, tone.

"No." Todd replied, his voice nothing more that a soft squeak.

"Then do as I have asked." Norrin said, and turned away from Agent Todd, and to Mia. "Agent Mia, report!"

Agent Mia tore her eyes from looking around the impressive hideout of Darkwing Duck and company and focused them on the vice president and gave her report.

"We've secured the area." Mia said. "Wasn't hard. Everything here is pretty much shut down or locked out. Nearly everything of value is missing, though. Clearly, Darkwing and the others at least suspected we would try to infiltrate the tower and were prepared. Except for an emergency exit and a hydraulic lift for the Thunderquack, there doesn't seem to be any way in or out of the hideout. Oh, and I just got word from Agent Sandy. The helicopter's back from going to refuel and is now patrolling the area."

Norrin nodded, and opened his mouth as if to give an order, or at least give his approval for Mia's work (like that would really happen) when Todd suddenly regained his courage and once again interrupted.

"Uh, excuse me sir, but I do have one thing t-to report." he said hesitantly.

Mia saw with some amusement Norrin work at ignoring the fact he was interrupted and spun around to face Todd.

"Well?" he demanded. "Spit it out!"

"I, uh, got to thinking about where Darkwing and the others would go, and, uh, have been monitoring th-th-those locations." Todd said, and moved so the screen of his laptop could be easily seen. "And I got a hit, sir."

Norrin leaned closer as Todd started the play back of some security footage, probably one for a traffic light, and showed, in jerky motions, the Ratcatcher speeding by, occupied by Crimson and Techno.

"They're heading towards the hospital, sir, where all the officers injured in the attack on the police department went." Todd went on.

For the first time ever, Mia saw Norrin grin, and it wasn't a pleasant sight.

"Good work, Agent Todd." he praised, and then turned and walked off, giving orders as he went. "Agent Mia, call back the chopper. We're to leave immediately."

* * *

"Matt's down the hall." Christine said as she led Crimson and Techno down the hall of the hospital, which was mercifully mostly empty. "You're in luck, he regained conscious just a few moments ago, but I should warn you; he's been acting a bit scatterbrained."

"Understood." Crimson said, then sighed. "Thanks again for letting us in, Christine. Today hasn't exactly been our day."

"I've heard." Christine said, turning and motioning for them to stop for a moment. "Which leads me to the next thing I want to warn you about. I don't know what's going on, but SHUSH has issued a warrant for your arrest, and have sent orders to the SCPD to arrest you on sight. There's an officer guarding Matthew's room, a fellow named Frank, but he's Matt's friend apparently, and he'll let you two slide. But you can't stay here for long. If the wrong person sees you..."

"Don't worry about us, Ms. Merriweather." Techno said. "We'll handle it. We always have, and for better or for worse, we always will."

"And if you see anybody out of place, we'll have you to give us the heads up." Crimson added confidently.

Christine grinned, but she didn't look reassured. "Right." she said, then pointed. "This way."

They approached a door that was guarded by a single rat, who was tall, and was dressed with a white shirt and black pants that were held up by suspenders. He had a small cut on one cheek that was bandaged by a pair of butterfly band-aids. He glanced curiously at the trio approaching him. It was safe to presume this was Frank.

"It's okay for them to enter still, right?" Christine asked cautiously.

Frank looked Crimson and Techno over briefly. "Sure." he said flatly, and looked away.

Good enough for Christine, she opened the door and permitted Techno and Crimson to enter. Matthew lay inside on a cot, his head heavily bandaged. He looked to be getting some well-deserved sleep, but when Christine closed the door behind them, he opened his eyes blearily and looked towards the door. He blinked when he saw Crimson and Techno, then grinned.

"Oh, there you two are." Matthew said. "Always quick to come when I call."

"But you didn't..." Techno began to object, but was silenced quickly by Crimson.

"You know about Lewis, then?" Matthew asked next, calling Nanite by his real name.

Crimson and Techno glanced at each other, then Techno spoke. "We know he's loose." he said. "It was him that attacked you?"

Matthew nodded gingerly. "Me and everyone else." he said. "He wants revenge, just like before."

"Right, against Darkwing." Crimson said. "But why did he attack the police station? Did he want something?"

"Just more revenge." Matthew replied. "Against me."

"Why you?" Techno asked. "I mean, no offense, but he's never seemed to care about you before."

"Everything Lewis lost, I've gotten." Matthew said. "He's jealous because I'm everything he wanted to be before he turned bad."

"Makes sense." Crimson said.

"But how did Nanite escape?" Techno asked. "All the reports say he's still in jail, yet he's clearly not."

"I don't know."

"So what's his plan?" Christine asked. "Did he say?"

"Not directly." Matthew admitted with a cough. "But he did leave enough clues for me to figure it out before I lost consciousness. Pretty much, it's what we already thought. He's trying to ruin Darkwing's name."

"But he's failing." Crimson said. "St. Canard isn't believing it's Darkwing who's..."

"It's not St. Canard he's trying to convince." Matthew interrupted. "It's the powers that be."

Crimson and Techno blanked out for a moment, then Techno blinked as the obvious answer came to him. "Vice President Norrin." he said. "That's what this is all about. Norrin's high enough up the chain of command to overrule everyone. Turn him against Darkwing, and that could effect everyone."

"He somehow knew there was tension in the ranks about Darkwing. A disagreement of some sort." Matthew went on. "Lewis is trying to use that to turn all of Darkwing's allies against him. The moment Darkwing's all alone and on his own is when he plans to strike."

Crimson and Techno glanced at each other in alarm, knowing that Nanite was already very close to succeeding already. Anymore questions they had would have to wait, though, for Matthew with a sigh, drifted back to sleep. Christine ushered them back out of the room and some feet down the hall so that Frank, still standing at the doorway, wouldn't overhear.

"All right, you guys got what you needed." Christine said. "You need to leave now."

"All right." Crimson said. "But where are we going to go, _now_?"

"We need to find Darkwing and warn him." Techno said. "Nanite could be going after him at any time now. We also need to find Nanite and stop him."

"But what good is stopping him if we haven't even figured out how he escaped in the first place?" Crimson asked.

"You can figured it out on the way, now go!" Christine said, and pushed them in the direction of the exit. "And good luck!"

* * *

"We're getting close, sir!" Agent Sandy exclaimed over the noise of the helicopter's engine. "Look, you can see the hospital right there!"

Norrin came to look. "Good!" he said. "See if we can go faster!"

The pilot shot the vice president's back an annoyed look, already going too fast for his liking.

"What if Crimson and Techno came here, and then promptly left again?" Mia asked, trying to be hopeful.

"There will be plenty of clues to figure out where they went from there." Norrin said, looking confident he was finally catching up to his prey. "Once we get Crimson and Techno, we'll interrogate them for Darkwing's location. And then there's Agent Todd still working at hacking into Darkwing's supercomputer. One way or another, we'll get him, Agent Mia."

"We'll be at the hospital in five minutes, sir!" Sandy reported. "In the meantime, just sit down and..."

"Look, there they are!" Norrin exclaimed, pointing down at the ground where one could dimly make out Crimson and Techno heading for where they left the Ratcatcher in an alley. "We're not too late! We're going to get them!"

It was then that something suddenly rushed past the helicopter.

"What the...!" the pilot exclaimed, gripping the controls as the chopper jerked in the wake of whatever had sped past them.

"What was that?" Mia asked.

"Something red!" Sandy replied.

"Here it comes again!" Norrin exclaimed, pointing with one claw.

Sure enough, the Thunderquack was coming again for another pass, this time passing by the helicopter and turning right around it before it sped off again, leaving the chopper to ride the turbulent wake the jet left behind.

"Follow him!" Norrin commanded.

"I can barely keep us airborne, sir!" the pilot exclaimed, gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep the craft in the air.

The Thunderquack came surging by again, diving towards ground, and then pulled up and shot up towards the struggling helicopter. It fired it's machine guns once at the aircraft tail, and then shot past it once more, so close it nearly hit the craft. The helicopter then gave an unpleasant lurch and started to spin.

"We're going down!" Sandy exclaimed.

And down they went, but they hadn't gone far before the helicopter roughly landed on the roof of a building, it's runners buckling under the hard landing. Once making sure they weren't going anywhere, and stopping to slow his pounding heart, the pilot shut off the engine.

"What are you doing?" Norrin asked. "We have to go after them!"

"We aren't going anywhere, sir!" the pilot exclaimed. "They hit our tail rotor. We can't fly without it. Sorry sir, but they got the better of you!"

Norrin scowled. "Not yet, they haven't."

* * *

When the Thunderquack fired at the helicopter, the sound of the rounds discharging was heard by Crimson and Techno, and glanced up to investigate, and saw the helicopter go down calmly, and the Thunderquack come down to land.

"I thought you said you were going to come and find me, not the other way around?" Launchpad asked innocently as he set the plane down in the middle of the street and opened the canopy.

Crimson laughed. "We got a little sidetracked." she admitted.

"It's good you found us, thought, Launchpad." Techno praised. "We could use your help."

"Well, you guys aren't the only ones I've found." Launchpad said, and moved to show who was sitting in the passenger seat.

Crimson brightened considerably. "Dad!" she exclaimed.

Darkwing grinned and waved at them.

* * *

"...basically I just wandered around, trying to keep myself busy." Darkwing explained as he, Crimson, and Techno on the Ratcatcher, Launchpad having flown on ahead to their destination in the Thunderquack as it was still loaded with gear and didn't really have too much room for passengers. "Then LP flew overhead in the Thunderquack and I was able to flag him down. After that, we went looking for you two, and you know the rest. Nothing else to report." he shook his head. "You guys were certainly keeping busy though. I mean, you've pretty much figured out who's behind this double mess and why." he shook his head. "Nanite. I should've known. Man, I hate that guy." then he shook his head again. "And SHUSH's figured out where Darkwing Tower is. I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later, but still...I don't know if I like it, particularly if Vice President Norrin gets his way."

"Norrin's the least of our problems, sir." Techno said. "Nanite's out there somewhere causing trouble. I think he's looking for us, because he hasn't tried robbing anything since this morning."

"Which isn't good either." Darkwing said. "Because he could be pouncing upon us at any moment." he looked around anxiously for any sign of Nanite.

"I hope he'll hold off long enough for us to get to the supervillain prison." Crimson said, who was, as always, driving. "We have to figure out how he escaped before we can focus on taking him down."

"That's the biggest mystery here, all right." Techno agreed. "But will the cops let us in, or throw us in? Remember, they've been given orders to arrest us on sight from SHUSH."

"Well, getting in will be easy." Crimson said. "The prison sits under the police station, remember. And the police station shut down temporarily after Nanite's attack. The prison's going to be understaffed at best. And most of them will just be guards who aren't kept in the loop of things and haven't the foggiest idea of what's happening. Getting in will be easy."

* * *

And sure enough, it was. There were very few people stationed at the prison, just enough to keep things running and making sure no one tried to escape. They were all the typical guards, and seemed completely oblivious to any orders saying to arrest Darkwing and gang. Techno even cautiously suggested the idea to one guard, who proclaimed the idea was "preposterous".

Joining up with Launchpad as planned, who arrived at the prison without event, the foursome made their way to Nanite's cell. As a result to Nanite's last escape and recapturing, the cell had been given a major overhaul. In the place of bars now stood a high powered energy barrier that prevented any form of matter from passing through it, at least not without severe damage. It was also more seamless than his last cell, and more heavily reinforced.

Beyond that, it had all the typical enhancements the rest of the prison had, such as earthquake resistant structures, waterproofing, energy absorbent walls, and a special device from SHUSH that was designed to block any attempts to open transdimensional portals within the prison.

When Darkwing and the others arrived, two guards were stationed just outside the cell, to guard Nanite twenty-four seven.

"All's quiet here, sir." one of the guards reported upon Darkwing's inquiring. "He's hardly moved from that spot since he came here, just like last time."

Techno peered through the forcefield at the figure sitting on the cell's floor. It certainly looked like Nanite in there, but unless Nanite could be in two places at once, Techno knew this couldn't be.

Crimson sensed it as well. "Something's not right about any of this." she said, and moved closer to the forcefield. "Hey, Nanite!" she called. "Guess who!"

The figure didn't move. Techno scanned the figure with his visor, and immediately saw he wasn't getting the same readings he normally would get from Nanite.

"That can't be him." he muttered.

"Then who, or what, is it?" Launchpad asked.

"And how did the real Nanite get out?" Crimson asked. "The cell still seems completely seamless, like it should be."

Darkwing rubbed his beak for a moment. "Mind if we go in there for a moment?" he asked suddenly.

The guards looked to be caught off guard by the question.

"You sure that's wise, sir?" one of them asked. "Nanite could be waiting for a chance like that to..."

"Clearly you haven't been listening." Darkwing said. "That's not really Nanite in there. Somehow he got out, and we need to figure out how. The clues are all in there, so _please_ let us in."

The guards hesitated a moment longer, glanced at one another, then one stepped forward and switched off the forcefield. Both then whipped out their weapons and pointed them at Nanite. Crimson did the same, and Darkwing put one hand on his. Carefully, they all stepped into the cell. Techno started circling the Nanite sitting there, examining it with his eyes and visor.

"Something just isn't right about this." he said, and reached out and touched Nanite on the arm.

To his surprise, his fingers sank into Nanite's shoulder. Techno jerked them back, spraying a dust-like substance in the process all around. Nanite's arm fell from his body and crashed to the floor, crumbling into grey dust. Everyone took a step back, and the guards gasped.

Techno blinked. "Nanites." he said. "Of course! Nanite used his nanites to build a duplicate of himself! This is a fake, composed of only trillions of nanites essentially all holding hands."

"Okay, that solves that." Darkwing said. "But then how did Nanite escape?"

Crimson thought for a moment, then gave the fake Nanite a shove. It toppled over and crumbled into grey dust. In the spot it had sat was a large hole.

"Looks to me he dug." Crimson remarked.

"He used the nanites again." Techno said, scanning the hole. "He used them to break down the materials in the floor and slowly dug a tunnel. It must have taken him forever to do it, even longer to do it so discreetly. And he must have been building the fake as he went, so it only appeared like he wasn't doing anything." he paused, still scanning. "These nanites aren't meant to survive outside their control structure, though. That's why the fake is crumbling like it is. The nanites are slowly dying. In a couple of days, the whole ruse would've fallen apart, and we would've figured out he had escaped."

"So just about how long as Nanite been on the loose?" Darkwing asked.

"About a week, maybe more." Techno said. "Clearly, he's been using the time up to now to prepare."

"So if Nanite's not here, then where is he now?" one of the guards asked.

"That's what we need to find out next." Darkwing said.

* * *

Back outside, they prepared to leave again.

"So what should we do?" Crimson asked as she mounted the Ratcatcher. "Should we go looking for Nanite ourselves, or wait for him to come to us?"

Darkwing gave her a look, pausing as he started to climb up onto the motorbike.

"You know he will sooner or later." Crimson pointed out. "He always does."

"Nanite is specifically after you for revenge, Mr. Darkwing." Techno said from the sidecar. "He'll go after you first before he goes after us."

"So I guess I should ask if we should wait for him to come after _you_." Crimson amended.

"Well, I'm more comfortable with the idea of us going after him." Darkwing said slowly.

"So am I." Launchpad said, who had followed the others to the Ratcatcher. "I could look for him from the sky in the Thunderquack."

"We tried that already, LP." Darkwing pointed out. "We didn't get too far."

"We gotta start somewhere." Launchpad pointed out.

"He's right, we can't sit here forever." Crimson agreed.

"Well, fine, but we're not using me as bait to lure Nanite to us." Darkwing said, starting again to climb onto the Ratcatcher.

But he never got that far, when something quite suddenly dropped down from above and jumped over the motorbike, going behind Crimson, and tackled Darkwing, knocking both to the ground. The two rolled away from the bike for a moment, and then they both started fighting. One was obviously Darkwing, the other was another Darkwing. In other words, Nanite.

"Too late!" Crimson exclaimed, and went for her gas gun, only to realize she couldn't tell who was who anymore.

"How do we tell them apart?" Launchpad asked, having the same problem.

"Find the one who's losing!" Crimson suggested.

"No good, got a better idea anyway." Techno said, and pulled out a chemical bomb from his wristband and threw it at the ground between them and Darkwing and Nanite fighting.

It exploded with a flash, knocking both Darkwing and Nanite back, separating them. One of the doubles rolled over to the nearby sidewalk. The other was flung out into the middle of the empty street and quickly jumped back to his feet. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, they were glowing bright red, revealing who he _truly _was.

The false image of Darkwing melting away into his robotic form, Nanite didn't wait for anybody to react to any of this and started running towards the Ratcatcher. "You'll pay for that!" he exclaimed.

As he ran, Darkwing leapt for him, but was actually shoved aside by Nanite as he ran for the motorbike. Launchpad was also shoved aside. It seemed his target was the bike and who was on it. But Crimson wasn't going to let that happen. She started the bike and stomped down on the throttle. It surged forward, avoiding Nanite as he lunged for the bike. Quickly, Crimson turned and started to roar the bike back the way Nanite had just come, the robot swinging his fist and scratching the side of the sidecar in the process, startling Techno.

Nanite turned as if he was going to follow the Ratcatcher, but then Launchpad tackled him from behind, trying to pull him down to the ground. Nanite merely shrugged him off. Darkwing fired off a canister of gas that exploded in Nanite's face, temporarily disorienting him. Converting one arm into a cannon, Nanite fired it off at Darkwing in retaliation, knocking the hero backwards.

By this point in time, Crimson had turned the Ratcatcher around again and started driving back at Nanite with the idea of plowing into him, but when Nanite turned his cannon to point at the oncoming motorbike, she was starting to regret the idea. She quickly started to turn the bike again, and action the probably saved her life, but didn't save the bike. The shot Nanite then fired hit the joint that attached the motorbike to the sidecar.

It hit the joint right on, blowing it away and sending up a small explosion in-between Crimson and Techno. Crimson instinctively pulled the Ratcatcher away from the explosion, and by doing so, ended up leaving the sidecar behind, which kept rolling forward with Techno in it. Several things started happening at once. The Ratcatcher surged onward, shooting past Nanite. As it zoomed past, Nanite swung out his arm at Crimson riding upon it. Crimson yelped and ducked, Nanite's arm merely smashing through the motorbike's windshield.

On the other side of Nanite, the sidecar started to zip past him a little slower. Nanite quickly jutted his foot out to bring the sidecar to a stop, but Techno saw the move coming and activated his rocket boots and rocketed out of the sidecar. The sidecar, now empty, smashed into Nanite's foot and flipped over and rolling for several feet before coming to a stop. Techno grabbed hold of a streetlight as he went up and swung around it once and then started to do it again. By that point Nanite fired the cannon at the streetlight, and the upper part came off in Techno's hands. Both he and the lamp fell heavily to the ground.

Darkwing tried again to get the jump on Nanite, but Nanite, without even looking, grabbed Darkwing and threw him out in front of him where Nanite could see him. Darkwing landed near Techno with a heavy thump. Something rolled out of Darkwing's pocket and came to stop in front of Techno. Techno picked it up, seeing it was a used shock dart. He vaguely remembered Darkwing pocketing the device back at the Last National Bank when investigating the robbery there, but got no further when Nanite came up and kicked him to one side and picked up Darkwing.

"Fine mess you've gotten yourself into this time, Darkwing." Nanite remarked as he held Darkwing by the throat and lifted him up into the air. "Too bad you won't get to clean it up, hmm?"

Without thinking, Techno took the dart and stabbed it into Nanite's leg. Nanite yelled out and jerked away, dropping Darkwing very nearly on Techno's head. Techno yanked out the dart and scrambled away from Nanite, dragging Darkwing with, in case Nanite retaliated. Nanite didn't, however, and clutched at his injured leg.

Techno was surprised. "I injured him?" he asked, and examined the dart still in his hand. A thin coating of a think silver-like goo that had to be nanites covered the top of the dart. Slowly, the nanites were eating it away...except for the dart's tip.

It was then that Techno had a revelation.

Nanite stood there for a moment, then noticed Crimson coming around on the Ratcatcher to attack, and Launchpad moving towards him, and quickly fired off a grappling hook and rope and clambered up it to the roof of a nearby building and vanished from sight.

Darkwing rushed forward. "He's making a break for it!" he exclaimed.

Crimson pulled up in the Ratcatcher. "He won't get far with that leg, though." she noted. "Tech, what did you do to him?"

"I stabbed him." Techno replied, and held up the dart. "With this."

Darkwing took it from him and examined it. "A shock dart?" he asked.

"The tips are diamond plated." Techno said. "So they will penetrate most metals. And apparently that includes Nanite's armor. But better still, it seems Nanite's nanites can't break down diamond. It's too hard."

"So not only do we have an effective way of combating this guy, but we've also found a way to keep him from escaping his cell again!" Darkwing said, catching on. "Line it with diamond!"

"That'll be one expensive cell." Launchpad remarked.

"We'll worry about that later, right now, let's go take down Nanite." Techno said, turning to run down the street to chase after Nanite. "He'll be on the next street over by now!"

He was quickly overtaken by Crimson on the Ratcatcher. "Last one there is a rotten egg!" she yelled.

* * *

Techno was right, Nanite was just arriving in the next street over, and landed with a heavy thump. Breathing heavily, he recoiled the grappling hook, and turned in time to have a bullet ricochet off his chest. Staggering back, Nanite blinked at the sight of the Fearsome Five standing there, Negaduck still pointing his smoking pistol at Nanite.

"Negaduck!" Nanite exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Rejecting your offer." Negaduck replied smartly, and lowered his gun for a moment. "Get him boys!"

Megavolt fired off a bolt of energy that struck Nanite head on, knocking him back. Within moments, the rest of the Fearsome Five was on top of the robot, and the battle was on.

* * *

A moment later, Crimson arrived, skidding the Ratcatcher sharply as she turned onto the road, and grinned at the sight of the battle.

"Well, the reinforcements have arrived!" she exclaimed, and drew her gas gun.

She waited for a moment to get the best aim, allowing Darkwing, Techno, and Launchpad to catch up with her. When Nanite rose up to his full height to throw both Rowe and Quackerjack off of him, Crimson fired a shock dart into Nanite's neck. Nanite yelled out as the dart pierced the sensitive area and let loose a shock of energy into the same area.

He started to sink down to his feet, but before he fell down, both Crimson and Darkwing fired ten more darts into Nanite's back. By that point, Nanite had already lost consciousness, and fell face first to the ground, and didn't move. Everyone, both good and bad, gathered around and looked down at Nanite.

"Well, that settles that." Megavolt remarked.

"Finally, he's beaten again." Techno remarked, wiping his brow. "And may it be for longer this time."

Darkwing looked at Nanite for a moment, then looked up at Negaduck and grinned. "Seems we're helping each other out a lot lately." he remarked.

"Oh hush." Negaduck said. "I had a grudge against the guy today. I didn't know you had already staked claims to him."

"Well, credit for bringing him down does go to us." Crimson said.

"You're welcome to it, mate." Rowe said.

There was a momentary pause.

"So...now what?" Launchpad asked.

Before anyone could answer, a pair of vans drove up with a roar. Agent Mia and Sandy climbed out of one. Vice President Norrin climbed out of the other.

"Uh-oh." Darkwing said.

Negaduck was of a similar opinion and he and the rest of the Fearsome Five started backing up. But Norrin wasn't interested in the Fearsome Five.

"Darkwing Duck!" he exclaimed. "You're under arrest of this moment! Come quietly, and we won't use force."

"Much." Mia was heard muttering, knowing the vice president better than that.

"I'm not to blame, here!" Darkwing said, and grabbed Nanite and hefted him up. "This is the guy you're after! He's the one causing the double trouble!"

Crimson snickered at this.

Norrin wasn't amused. "This goes deeper than that!" he said. "And besides, I only have your word that's the truth! Seeing that you're here with the Fearsome Five, I have to wonder..."

He was cut off suddenly when a cell phone rang. Narrowing his eyes in annoyance at being interrupted, he fished into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

"What?" he barked into it.

He instantly blinked and looked apologetic instantly, proving that it wasn't just anybody on the phone.

"Yes sir." he said. "I understand sir. You sure, sir? No sir, I just...yes sir. I'll head right there."

He put the cell phone away, looking a tad unsure of what to do now, and felt awkward. "Um, something's come up at HQ." he said. "Agent Mia, watch these people while I go address it."

He clambered back into the van and gave the driver some instructions. Quickly, the vehicle drove off and down the darkening street. They all watched it go, then Mia and Sandy glanced at the others and grinned. Darkwing looked around and saw the Fearsome Five had vanished.

"Well, what else is new?" he muttered.

"They slipped away while Norrin was talking." Techno explained. "I figured that since they did...kind of...help, and that we weren't really in a position to stop them that it was okay to let them go."

"I was thinking something along the same lines." Mia said.

"So, can we stay here, or can we go?" Crimson asked.

"Well, we weren't going to try and stop you, and it wasn't likely we could if we wanted to." Sandy remarked. "It'd actually be kind of refreshing to go against one of the vice president's orders for a change. And besides, something tells me he won't be large and in charge for much longer, if that cell phone call tells us anything."

"Good, because this guy needs to be locked away somewhere, and as the supervillain prison is right around the corner, we can take him there." Darkwing said, leaning over to lift up Nanite's limp body. "Can you guys give me a hand here? This guy's a complete deadweight."

Jointly, everybody rallied together and helped move Nanite to the supervillain prison where he belonged.

* * *

Norrin returned straight back to SHUSH headquarters, and returned to sitting behind Hooter's desk in his office, just as he had been instructed. He hadn't been there long when Hooter arrived, stepping through the door and talking on a cell phone himself.

"Yes sir, I agree completely." Hooter was saying as he entered the room. "I'm just arriving there now. Give me a moment to speak with him." he lowered the phone and turned his attention to Norrin. "Mr. Vice President." he greeted. "I see you got our call."

"I did, and it couldn't have been at a more worse time." Norrin said, disgruntled. "What is this all about, director?"

"Well, first off, this call is really for you." Hooter said, holding up the cell phone, and handing it over to Norrin.

Norrin accepted it, and with annoyed look, put it to his ear. "Hello?" he asked. He blinked at the reply. "Yes sir. No sir. Absolutely not, sir. Whatever gave you that idea? Oh. Well, sir, I thought it was in our best interests....he wasn't complying to my requests...I really didn't think we had a...we needed to do _some_....Darkwing shouldn't be...yes sir. No, I understand, sir. Perfectly sir. I leave immediately. Yes, Mr. President. Goodbye sir."

He hung up the cell phone, stared at it for a moment, then gave Hooter a glare. Hooter, in return, grinned satisfactorily.

"Since you didn't cut me off from making phone calls when you relieved me, I called up the president and explained to him what had _really _been happening here." Hooter explained happily. "He instantly reappointed me."

"I know."

"He called off the search for Darkwing."

"I know."

"Declared all agents to vacate Darkwing's hideout out and it's location to be kept completely secret, meaning none of us will get to go babbling it out to the public."

"I know."

"And he said that our goals are to work at capturing the real problem, Nanite, and get him back in jail, which, I understand, Darkwing has already done."

"I..._know_."

"You're also to head straight back to Washington to resume your normal duties." Hooter concluded. Still grinning, he stepped around the desk to stand next to the chair Norrin sat in. "So, I do believe that is _my _chair you're sitting in."

Norrin gave Hooter a contemptuous look for a moment, then roughly got out of the chair and walked out from behind the desk. Hooter promptly took it back as his once again, taking a moment to enjoy the soft chair before turning to address the vice president.

"You may leave now, Mr. Vice President." he said, enjoying every moment of this. "Enjoy your flight back to the White House."

Norrin glared at Hooter, but obeyed, and headed to the door. But once there, he stopped to make one last complaint.

"You'll regret this, director." he vowed. "I'll see to it that you won't get off this too easy. Darkwing is the real threat here, and he needs to be disposed of. And if it means getting rid of you in the process, then so be it."

Hooter was silent for a moment, slowly and deliberately picking up a report and lifting it up to hide his face from Norrin's line of view. "With all due respect, sir," he began, "go soak your head."

Norrin's eyes went wide for a moment at the bluntness of the insult, then quickly narrowed again. Without saying another word, he stomped out of Hooter's office and slammed the door shut behind him. Once he was gone, Hooter let out a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair. He thought for a moment there that Norrin was going to try and make a scene. But it would've been fruitless, there was nothing Norrin could do. Hooter had been in charge again for over an hour now, and had already undone everything Norrin had done. It would be his last act of the day, for this day was finally drawing to a close, but one thing was for sure.

This day ended a heck of a lot better than it had begun.

* * *

_Fun Facts: The fact that SHUSH had a theory about where Darkwing Tower that was actually right refers back to my fanfic "Darkwing Duck Returns". In there, it was indicated that during Darkwing's seven year absence that SHUSH searched for Darkwing 's hideout but never managed to prove exactly where it was, they just had theories. But during that fanfic, Hooter hints vaugely on occasion that he had a pretty good idea where it was already. But as it was already stated, Hooter called the search off once Darkwing returned to respect Darkwing's privacy, and the theories were simply filed away._

_I went ahead and allowed SHUSH to find Darkwing's hideout because in ten or so chapters, it's going to happen anyway. More on that later._

_Due to the context it's used in and the conversation that followed, one might think that Bushroot's little and almost poetic description of Negaduck's evil plans to Rowe is based or inspired from somewhere, but it's really not. I just wrote it on the spot, jotting down ideas as they came to me (and they came quickly)._

_Agent Todd has been referred to by name once before in chpt. 34, "Friendly Fire", and was the agent who found Jones's cell unguarded and empty when Jones's escaped and was the one who reported this all to Hooter. He is not physically described in that chapter, and his character portrayed then doesn't quite fit with his character as it stands now. He has clearly developed some since then. I do not know is Todd will reappear in the future, but it's certainly possible._

_Christine wasn't going to appear in this chpt. originally, but when it came time to write the hospital scene, I realized it made sense to squeeze her in. I'm always glad to find a chance to fit Christine in as often as possible, but her role in this chapter comes off as very weak. Oddly enough, she does not inquire about Darkwing's status when she speaks with Crimson and Techno._

_Frank, Matthew's fellow officer, was only going to make the one appearance in the last chapter, but then I decided that it would be handy to have another established officer around to interact with Matt on occasion, so I went ahead and added him and included a description._

_There was going to be a scene where Darkwing and Nanite duke it out on their own sometime before Darkwing met up with LP, but it was cut because this chapter turned out to be unnaturally long._

_Parts of this chapter were written on the road, inbetween cities. It might show, because it's not easy to type in a moving vehicle, if you catch my drift._

_Vice President Norrin purposely gets off easy in this chapter because I intend on having him come back to haunt the gang at a later date.  
_


	47. The Three Darkwings

Summary: It's a well known fact that Darkwing, Negaduck, and Darkwarrior are enemies. So what will happen when a magician casts a spell on them that binds them together?

Rating: K

Author's Note: A mostly humorous chpt, but it developed a bit of a message along the way. Several old faces, including one we haven't seen in a long while. Brief update on the status on the upgrades to the Thunderquack Trellis provided the plans for in chpt. 42 ("The Wanderer"). Also brief references to chpt. 44 ("Revelations"). Some fun facts at the end.

47.

The Three Darkwings

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Mr. Gideon, as you very well known, the formula hasn't been tested yet. Titan Laboratories needs another week to experiment further in order to make sure it __**is**__ safe for use."_

"_No. You told me that the formula would be ready for use __**yesterday**__. I gave you an extra day to get ready, and now you tell me it can't be done."_

"_Mr. Gideon, you fail to see the problem. Our tests show that the formula has very adverse affects to it's subjects, and possibly doesn't even work as intended at all. We need to test and modify it further, a process that will take time..."_

"_Time you don't have! If you cannot give me that formula tonight, I will be taking my business elsewhere, and Titan Laboratories will loose credit for the formula's invention!"_

_--  
_

"_I don't care. Give me the formula now, or not all."_

_--  
_

"_Well, the formula technically worked, for the cancer is technically gone."_

"_Technically? What's the catch?"_

"_His cells appear to still be mutating, but in a much more controlled and organized manner. It's not cancer, but something is definitely happening that shouldn't."_

"_How is this possible? This looks like the formula altered Keith's DNA directly."_

"_That would account for these events, yes. I'm worried about the fact of how fast it's happening and how extensive it is. In a matter of a few more hours, he won't be Keith Gideon as we know him anymore."_

"_Then, what will he be?"_

_--  
_

"_According the scientist in charge of the experiment, Dr. Connie Lovell, they were doing an unprecedented test with a formula that could theoretically cure all forms of cancer, when their test subject, celebrity Keith Gideon, broke out and escaped."_

"_Whoa, wait, Keith Gideon? __**The**__ Keith Gideon? The sports star, known for participating hugely in sports such as soccer and baseball? __**That **__Keith Gideon?"_

_--  
_

"_Our hero rushes down the dreadfully darkened hallways of the massive mansion. Using his superior skills and inquisitive intellect, he senses that his perilous prey has meandered down this hazardous hallway. But no one can out think the masked mallard, he's more than willing to get dangerous, anyway! No doubt he will soon meet up with the fearful..."_

_At that moment, Darkwing heard a noise from a hallway that branched off the balcony, and whirled around to point his flashlight at it._

"_...frog?"_

_--  
_

"_Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh Frogduck!"_

_--  
_

"_Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm Frogduck!"_

"_Frogduck! Look out behind you!"_

_Frogduck turned and saw he was floating straight for a whirling machine that was actively stirring the water in the pool. He went to jump to safety, but for once wasn't fast enough before the machine caught his raft and pulled both it and Frogduck under. The heroes gathered at the spot, searching the water for any trace of the former celebrity, and found none._

_--  
_

"_I guess he croaked."_

_--  
_

"_Word is that they never found his body. Theoretically, he could still be out there. What he'd be doing, I don't know, but the possibility still remains."

* * *

  
_

It was currently the dead of night in St. Canard. A great number of businesses were closed for the night, and the number of people out in the street had dropped significantly. Very few where out where they could accidently stumble into someone's plans or oversee them.

Which meant it was a perfect night for a stakeout.

Grinning to himself, Darkwing sat in a dark store behind a row of shelves. Sitting next to him was Crimson, who was looking to be very bored. She checked her watch.

"Ten o'clock and all is well." she muttered sarcastically to herself. "I'm am now officially missing _Jumpgate: The Box of Verity _that's showing on TV tonight, just so everyone knows."

"Why would that matter?" Darkwing asked, shooting her a glance. "You _own _the DVD for it already. You could watch that at anytime of the day, _and _not have any commercials!"

"That's not quite like watching it as it's broadcasted on TV, you know." Crimson pointed out. "Besides, tonight they're going to be giving a sneak peek at the _Jumpgate: Avalon _movie that's going to be released sometime next year, and I don't want to miss that!"

"Oh, but you just might, Crimson." Darkwing said. "We're needed here, and you know it. Techno has spent a week trying to figure out where our crook will strike next, and this store is the most likely candidate, and he predicted tonight as the most likely night for him to strike! The crook, whoever he is, has been conducting this string of robberies for days now. The police are baffled, and so it's up to us to stop him!"

"Whoever 'he' is." Crimson muttered.

"Besides, it's not like that sneak peek isn't going to end up on the web tomorrow anyway." Darkwing pointed out.

"I know." Crimson said. "But still..."

"Doesn't change a thing, young lady." Darkwing said. "Now shush, I think someone's coming. This could be our guy."

They fell silent for a moment. A rattling noise rang out, and then something smashed against glass, and someone could be heard slipping through the broken window of the door leading into the small store. Footsteps could be clearly made out as the intruder walked forward, creating the sound of crunching glass, and then later, having cleared the area the shards of glass littered, the padding of feet. The person, whoever he was, was making his way towards the shelves Darkwing and Crimson hid behind.

Darkwing looked to Crimson, and silently signed out instructions to her, and then waited for her to acknowledge that she understood them. There was a moment pause, and then Crimson shrugged, completely lost. Darkwing narrowed his eyes, and motioned for her to wait there, and then started counting down from three with his fingers. When he reached zero, he leapt up out o his hiding place.

"Ah-ha, we've got you now, you crooked crook!" Darkwing exclaimed, pointing his gas gun at the dark shape of the intruder and popping out a flashlight and shining it at the person in the same motion.

He immediately froze in surprise at who he saw. The thief hadn't changed much since the last time he had seen him. He still had that blank, but mischievous look in his eye. He had changed outfits to replace the expensive brown outfit he had last been seen wearing for a completely tacky and ridiculous red and yellow jumpsuit that seemed a tad too small. He also wore a mask around his eyes to match. But it was still quite clear just who it was.

"Frogduck!" Darkwing exclaimed in near disbelief.

"The one and only!" Frogduck replied cheerfully, raising his green, webbed, hands into the air.

"Keen gear, no way!" Crimson suddenly exclaimed behind the shelves and hopped up to see for herself. Her eyes widened almost excitedly. "It _is _you!" she exclaimed. "I thought you were dead!"

"I was?" Frogduck looked blanker than normal for a moment. "Huh. I wonder if I led a good life."

"Oh, good grief." Darkwing muttered, lowering his gas gun for a moment. "Clearly, we were mistaken about you. So, can we cut to the chase now? Are you going to come quietly, or we'll we have to use force?"

"What kind of force?" Frogduck asked curiously.

"Centrifugal force."

"Really?"

"No! Have you gone bananas?"

"Nah, I don't like bananas."

"Oh, for Pete's sake!" Darkwing said, and cut all further conversation short by firing a canister of gas at Frogduck.

Like he was playing tennis, though, Frogduck merely slapped it back with one of his webbed feet. Yelping in surprise, both Darkwing and Crimson ducked to avoid the canister zipping towards them. It flew over their heads and smashed into another row of shelves and burst into a cloud of purple smoke, filling the back end of the store.

While the heroes weren't looking, Frogduck turned and snapped out his frog-like tongue at a bag of pet food for frogs sitting on a shelf. Sticking instantly to the bag, Frogduck's tongue pulled the bag back towards him, where he caught it deftly with his webbed hands. Having gotten what he needed, then jumped forward and crashed through the store's front window, dropping into a roll as he landed.

By that point in time, Darkwing and Crimson popped back up, their gas guns drawn and ready to fire. But then Frogduck jumped once again, and soared through the air in his mighty leap to land safely in the driver's seat of a 1955 Ford Thunderbird convertible that was painted red and yellow to match Frogduck's jumpsuit, parked further up the street. Quickly, he started to engine, and pointed ahead of him dramatically.

"Come, Frogmobile, time to go back to Frog Tower!" he declared, and stomped down on the gas pedal.

The car jerked backwards and bumped into the car parked behind it. Frogduck looked startled at this event, and quickly looked over his dashboard for an explanation.

"Ah! So 'R' means reverse and not radio!" he finally exclaimed as he threw the car finally into the proper gear and drove off, just in time for Crimson and Darkwing to arrive on the sidewalk and watch him leave.

Crimson frowned. "He certainly got away easy." she muttered.

Darkwing, however, wasn't thinking about that. "Nice car!" he exclaimed in admiration. "That was part of Keith Gideon's private collection, wasn't it?"

"Da-ad, let's stay on focus here." Crimson said. "Clearly, Frogduck, despite all odds, is the criminal we're looking for."

"Yeah." Darkwing said. "I suppose it makes perfect sense, too."

"Yeah, I guess breaking into every pet store in town and stealing all of the frog-related things within would be something Frogduck would do, wouldn't it?" Crimson agreed. "Anyway, I suppose there's only one thing left to do now, and that's chase after him."

Heading for where they had left the Ratcatcher, moving in no hurry either, knowing what Frogduck was like and was confident that he wouldn't get away, Darkwing and Crimson prepared to leave.

What they didn't know was that they were being watched.

* * *

"So Frogduck's back?" Techno repeated, amazed. "Wow, to be perfectly honest, I had nearly forgotten about him. Guess he really did get out of that incident at the waterworks alive after all."

"What gets me is that he took so long to return." Crimson muttered as she drove the Ratcatcher down the road along the same path Frogduck was last seen heading. "I mean, it's been...what...little under a year since we saw him last? Where the heck has been all this time, and why is he only coming back now?"

"You've got to remember that Frogduck is now loonier than ever." Darkwing said, riding behind Crimson. "He's probably been doing lots of crazy things during all that time. This is simply the first time he's done something that's announced his presence to the world."

"By turning to crime." Crimson said.

Darkwing shrugged. "It always comes down to that in the end, doesn't it?" he asked rhetorically. "But I wouldn't worry too much about it. Frogduck's a real pushover. Now that we know he's out there, we'll nab him before the night's done. Although," he continued, looking down at the sidecar beside him, "That's no excuse for not being around when we needed you two. You were supposed to be watching out in case this happened."

"It was Launchpad's idea to go get a hamburger from Hamburger Hippo." Techno said in his defense, jabbing a finger at the pilot. "Speaking of which, can you scoot over a bit more? I hardly have any room here!"

"Sorry little buddy, I'm already scooted over as far as I can go." Launchpad replied from where he sat in the sidecar besides Techno. "And about the hamburger; I was hungry, and there was a Hamburger Hippo sitting there across the street, staring me right in the face! I just couldn't resist!" he wiggled around for a moment in his seat. "Although, maybe it's for the best I lay off the junk food for a little while since we're going to all be stuck riding in the Ratcatcher for awhile."

"We've got no choice while the Thunderquack is out of commission." Darkwing pointed out. "You and Techno both said that now that you've got the enhancements presented in Trellis's data chip built, the Thunderquack can't go anywhere while you work to install the parts."

"And getting side-tracked on little cases like this doesn't make the process go any faster." Techno added, again in his defense.

"Well, I personally can't wait for the upgrades to be completed." Crimson said, eyes sparkling with excitement. "I've been dying to see what it is Trellis wants us to find."

"I just hope it won't cause trouble." Techno said. "Don't get me wrong, Trellis is a good guy, but I'm not so sure he's got the right idea in this case. There has to be a reason things, whatever it is has been kept so secret."

"Let's not focus on that for the moment." Darkwing said. "Instead, let's focus on Frogduck."

"Speaking of which..." Crimson said, and brought the Ratcatcher to a stop in a middle of an intersection.

Techno surveyed the situation. "Uh-oh." he remarked.

Sitting on the other side of the intersection was Frogduck's car, rammed into a streetlight. Frogduck himself stood a few feet from the car, but it was against his will, for he wasn't alone.

"C'mon, can't we just be friends?" Frogduck asked hesitantly. "I mean, we've never met, I know, but uh..."

"You can stop your blabbering at anytime now, you knob." Darkwarrior said as he snapped handcuffs on Frogduck. "I stopped listening the moment I placed you under arrest."

"So _I'll _put you under arrest!" Darkwing said, having hopped off the Ratcatcher and stomped towards Darkwarrior. "Besides, _I've _been chasing that convicted criminal! He's mine!"

"_You're _mine, Darkwing!" Darkwarrior said, whipping out his version of a gas gun and pointing it at his nemesis. "Frogduck here is merely an additional award when it compares to catching you. Now put your hands in the air!"

Darkwing refused, and instead folded his arms defiantly.

"Look, this is guy really off his rocker, so I'd do what he says." Frogduck said quickly, struggling against the cuffs that held his hands behind his back to no avail.

Darkwarrior wrapped one arm around Frogduck's throat and roughly pulled him close. "You're one to talk, Frogduck!" he growled. "Now shut up! Darkwing, surrender, now! Or I _will _shoot!"

"Ah, but you're outnumbered, Darkwarrior." Crimson said as she appeared beside Darkwing, gas gun raised. Techno and Launchpad appeared on Darkwing's other side, also ready to fight.

Darkwarrior was unfazed. "I've faced worse odds!" he exclaimed. "Besides, I was going to arrest all of you anyway!"

"But you really _are _sorely outnumbered, Darkwarrior."

Everyone turned to see Negaduck and the Fearsome Five arrive. Darkwing's jaw nearly unhinged in surprise at this unexpected arrival, and Frogduck started to squirm, trying to escape from Darkwarrior's grip. Darkwarrior remained unfazed.

"Negaduck!" Crimson exclaimed.

"What are you guys doing here?" Techno demanded.

"If you really must know, it has nothing to do with you." NegaGosalyn remarked. "It has entirely to do with him."

She pointed at Darkwarrior. Negaduck stepped up to the crime-fighting extremist and pressed his bill into his foe's.

"I've got a score to settle with you." Negaduck growled.

"Well...so do we!" Darkwing said, trying to sound like he still had control over the situation.

"We do?" Launchpad asked.

"I _know _that, Dipwing." Negaduck said, shooting a glance at his Posiverse double. "I mean that Darkwarrior has done something quite _recently _to get under my skin."

"He stole technology from our hideout." Bushroot said accusingly.

"Technology he shouldn't need, either." Megavolt added, folding his arms.

"A lot you guys know, then." Darkwarrior said hotly.

Negaduck grabbed Darkwarrior roughly by the collar, and yanked Frogduck from his grasp. With a shove, he pushed them towards his cohorts, while Darkwing and party hesitantly watched.

"Hold onto him while I hold an anger management session with Darkwarrior here." Negaduck instructed.

Rowe and Megavolt carried out the order by both grabbing Frogduck roughly by the shoulders. Frogduck looked back and forth at his two captors, then grinned.

"Hi!" he greeted enthusiastically. "I'm Frogduck. Who are you, guys?"

"Not someone you want to annoy, mate." Rowe said harshly, already getting annoyed at his prisoner.

Meanwhile, Negaduck took Darkwarrior and slammed him into the post of the traffic light. Techno, watching these events carefully, leaned closer to Darkwing.

"Are we going to keep playing the part of monkey in the middle, or do you plan on doing something?" he whispered.

Darkwing blinked rapidly for a moment as he thought through his options. Finally, he stepped forward towards Negaduck. "Hey Negs, wait!"

Negaduck froze, about to punch Darkwarrior in the face, and turned to glare at his double. "Darkwing, I'm only going to say this once." he said sternly. "Either look the other way, or stick around to fight once I'm done here. But for now, _stay out of my way_. This isn't any of your business. Fearsome Five, make sure they stay in line."

NegaGosalyn, Bushroot, and Quackerjack all moved to surround Launchpad, Techno, and Crimson. Darkwing, separate from the others, continued to move closer to Negaduck and Darkwarrior.

"Look, Negs, I would love to throttle Darkwarrior just as much you would." Darkwing said. "But in the end, what good will it do?"

"I'll make me feel a whole lot better, for starters!" Negaduck exclaimed, still ready to punch Darkwarrior as soon as he got the chance.

"But for how long?" Darkwing asked. "Darkwarrior will only come back to haunt _both _of us once again. What we _should _do is take him to the proper authorities and deal with him _there_, for good."

"That's _your _job, Darkwing." Negaduck said. "Or do you need reminding of that?"

"I know it's my job!" Darkwing said. "But I can't do it unless you let me!"

"Look, if you're trying to get me to stand back and let you take care of things, you can just forget it!" Negaduck said. "We're all enemies here! We can't work together, not for a million years!"

"Well, I dunno, I certainly think we could." Techno remarked without thinking. "We've done it before."

"No, Negaduck's right for once." Darkwarrior spoke up, still looking unconcerned about his unfavorable predicament. "We can never, nor will we ever, work together."

It was like Darkwarrior's statement triggered something, for then a flash of light suddenly engulfed him, Negaduck, and Darkwing. It shone brightly, causing everyone to turn away to shield their eyes. The light then quickly faded to reveal the three once again. They looked perfectly normal, except Negaduck's left hand was latched onto Darkwing's right, and Darkwarrior's right hand was latched onto Darkwing's left.

They all looked at one another for a moment. Then, shooting Darkwing a glare, Negaduck tried to pull his hand free of Darkwing's. But to his surprise, he couldn't. And it wasn't because Darkwing was unwilling, he was trying to pry Negaduck's hand off of his, but couldn't either. Darkwarrior was having a similar problem on his end. It was like their hands were superglued together.

They worked to pry their hands apart, Darkwing getting yanked and pulled in both directions, for several moments while everyone else watched, bemused. Finally, all three gave up at the same time, and stood there panting. Negaduck shot accusing glances at everyone.

"If you've got any wise cracks about this, save it!" he yelled. "I won't hear of it!"

It was then that laughter started to ring out from somewhere. Everyone looked around for the source, before Crimson finally spied a shadowy figure standing on the roof of a building, and pointed up to it.

"Up there!" she cried.

The laughter promptly stopped as the figure, whoever he was, realized he had been seen and quickly turned to leave.

"He's getting away!" Darkwing, Darkwarrior, and Negaduck all exclaimed at once. "After him!"

Negaduck and Darkwarrior both started forward, dragging Darkwing along. They were stopped suddenly when the two unwittingly dragged Darkwing into the street light, jerking the other two to a halt. All three fell to the ground. Crimson hurried over to help Darkwing up, while NegaGosalyn moved to help Negaduck up. The two shot inquisitive glances at each other but were silent.

No one seemed to notice, anyway, as their attention was on other things.

"Someone grab that guy!" Negaduck ordered. "That guy's behind this, I know it!" he scanned his horde of criminals for a moment, then used his free hand to point at his selection. "Rowe! Bushroot! Go after him! Don't come back until you've got him!"

"Right boss!" Bushroot said, and grabbed Rowe's hand and pulled him behind him as both ran after the mysterious figure.

This left Frogduck to be guarded only by Megavolt, but that didn't last for long as Megavolt broke away to help the others untangle the three doubles from the street light, really only succeeding in getting the three that more annoyed and enraged at each other. Frogduck was thus left alone.

"Hey!" he bemoaned on deaf ears. "What about me?"

He stood there for a moment, then realized he needed to be getting away, and quickly started hop-skipping away from the group, the best he could do, handcuffed as he was. His escape didn't go unnoticed, however.

"Launchpad, Techno, go get Frogduck!" Darkwing ordered, trying to turn to watch Frogduck leave and only ended up making matters worse.

Both Launchpad and Techno broke away without hesitation and ran after the fleeing criminal. Meanwhile, Crimson, NegaGosalyn, Megavolt, and Quackerjack all worked to try and untangle the threesome of doubles, all offering suggestions at once.

"Okay, maybe if we tried taking a few steps back..."

"Keen gear, we're getting nowhere fast."

"Negs, step to the left for a moment here. No, _around _the street light!"

"Hee-hee, this is fun! It's like a puzzle!"

Negaduck shot Quackerjack a look. "Having fun at other people's expense, are we?" he growled, and moved to attack Quackerjack, only succeeding in slamming Darkwing into the light post again.

"Dang it, Negaduck, would you stop that?" Darkwing exclaimed, yanking himself back from the post and rubbing his beak tenderly.

"You're not helping, you know!" Darkwarrior shot at him.

"How can I?" Darkwing said. "I'm stuck in the middle here!"

"You're still not helping!" Negaduck said, and moved to swing a punch at Darkwing. Darkwarrior attempted to do the same thing. Darkwing simply ducked, and Negaduck and Darkwarrior ended up punching each other. All three fell to the ground again.

"All right! ALL RIGHT!" Crimson yelled, gaining silence for a moment. "We're not getting anywhere, fighting like this! If we intend on leaving this spot anytime soon, we're going to have to work together!"

"We just agreed it couldn't be done!" Darkwarrior objected loudly.

"Well, encase me in glass and call me a lightbulb, but I think that's exactly why whoever it was that did this did it." Megavolt said flatly.

"So _profound,_ Sparky." Negaduck grumbled.

"Don't call me that." Megavolt wined.

"Megs is right, whoever did this thought the same thing as you three." NegaGosalyn said. "He thought you three wouldn't be able to work together long enough to sort this out."

"Or he did it because it was funny." Quackerjack suggested. "Did you hear the guy laughing? He was eating this up!"

"Shut up, Quackerjack!" Negaduck barked.

"Point is that you're going to have to live with each other long enough for us to figure out how to get you guys unstuck together." Crimson said.

"I intend to have the guy who did this undo it when Rowe and Bushroot come back with him!" Negaduck roared.

"Then work together long enough to step around a stupid street light then, for crying out loud!" NegaGosalyn said. "Can't you guys do that?"

"No!" all three of the doubles said together.

NegaGosalyn threw her hands into the air in despair.

"C'mon, just give it a try!" Crimson urged. "You three aren't going anywhere until you get around that street light!"

The three doubles looked at one another in annoyance, then they nodded, and stood up.

"Good." Crimson said, grinning briefly. "Now Negaduck, step around the street light."

Negaduck did, but instead of going around behind it like what was expected, he went around the front of it, dragging Darkwing and Darkwarrior with. In the end, they were still in the same position.

Crimson slapped her face. "No, I mean...Negs, take a step back and then move towards Darkwing!" she amended.

Negaduck sighed in annoyance, and obeyed Crimson's instructions to the letter, and ended up bumping into Darkwing. Darkwing elbowed him back as a result. Annoyed, Negaduck slapped him, then, for no good reason, slapped Darkwarrior. Pretty soon all three worked to try and get around the street light to fight each other, bickering loudly as they went.

Crimson rubbed at her eyes in annoyance, as Quackerjack stepped over to her.

"So, you wanna give this another shot, or just admit they really can't work together?" he asked.

* * *

Negaduck, Darkwing, and Darkwarrior still hadn't gotten around the street light by the time Crimson called SHUSH and had a party of agents come over to help them. Sitting on the ground grumpily, the three watched while Megavolt, using his fingers and electrical powers to make a make-shift arc welder, he worked at cutting the bolts holding the street light in place while a SHUSH-issued and agent-operated crane held the light in place. The idea was that once the light was unbolted, the crane would lift the light out of place and allow the three doubles to free themselves.

While this was being done, Dr. Bellum studied the three, walking around in circles around them, trying to figure out what had joined their hands together so and why they couldn't seem to be freed, while Hooter, Agent Mia, Crimson, and NegaGosalyn watched the proceedings from a distance.

"This is the queerest thing I've ever seen." Mia was forced to admit. "All of this work to just get a street light out of the way of three of the same people from different universes."

"I hope this isn't too much trouble, Hooter." Crimson said, nervously fidgeting with her fingers. "We certainly weren't getting anywhere on our own, and I was at my wit's end, so..."

"Don't worry about it, Crimson." Hooter said kindly. "I'm sure I'm going to get some griping from Vice President Norrin about using these resources for something like this, but he can just hang it for all I care. There's not much anyone can do to stop me. Besides, we'll put the street light right back when we're done."

Meanwhile, Dr. Bellum straightened suddenly, tapped commands into the sensor she was using, and then stepped over to join the others.

"Well, I've got some surprising results." she reported. "Like I had first suspected, there is a kind of energy holding their hands together, but it was admittedly the very last kind I expected."

"What kind of energy is it, then?" Mia asked.

"Magical energy." Bellum replied.

"What?" NegaGosalyn said.

"Someone cast a magical spell on them?" Crimson repeated. "Who would do that?"

Bellum shrugged. "I don't know, I don't find the reasons why it was used, I just study it." she said, and looked to Hooter for an explanation.

But even Hooter seemed to be at a loss. "I have no idea." he admitted. "The magical community pretty much keep to themselves. SHUSH doesn't know very many magicians, and we know of only two ever being in St. Canard and that's the Macawbers, Morgana and Bob."

"And neither of them would do this kind of thing, would they?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"No, they wouldn't." Crimson agreed.

"Well, maybe, seeing that they're magicians themselves, they know of a spell that can undo this." Mia suggested.

"I already thought of that." Crimson said. "But every time I try and contact them, I get the magical equivalent of an answering machine. They aren't at home at the moment, and I don't have the foggiest clue of where else they could be, and if they can even be contacted there."

"So what are we supposed to do?" NegaGosalyn asked. "Just sit here and hope Rowe and Bushroot can capture a magician on their own and get him to reverse the spell?"

"Do we have any other choice?" Crimson asked her double.

They were silent for a moment.

"Actually," Hooter began, a thought coming to him, "we might. Agent Mia, could you return to base and retrieve item 88-B from our storeroom please?"

"Certainly, director, but why?" Mia asked.

"Item 88-B is a book of magical spells." Hooter explained. "SHUSH obtained it by chance a good thirty years ago, and have hung onto it ever since. Unfortunately, as none of our agents have magical blood, we are unable to use most of the spells, and as such, the book is of little use."

"Then how can it help us?" NegaGosalyn asked skeptically.

"It might not." Hooter admitted. "But it's worth a try, don't you think?"

"I'm willing to give it a shot." Bellum offered helpfully.

"Me too, let's do it." Crimson added.

Mia nodded, and walked off to climb into a nearby van to drive off. Meanwhile, Megavolt cut off the last bolt to the street light and straightened, lifting up his goggles to run at his eyes.

"Okay, we're ready!" he said, stepping away from the light.

"Finally!" Negaduck said, and stood up, dragging the other two up with him. "Let's get this over with!"

Hooter nodded, and motioned to the agent sitting in the crane to begin. Slowly, the streetlight started to rise up, and continued to do so until the base of the light hung well over the heads of all three doubles. The three looked at it for a moment, and then stepped under it, finally clearing the street light and free to walk forward once again.

Crimson, NegaGosalyn, Megavolt, and Quackerjack, who joined the group, munching on a donut from a box of them that had been provided for the working agents, and politely applauded the success, and Hooter grinned. The three continued walking forward, occasionally tripping on each other's feet until they stood before the group.

"J. Gander." Darkwing greeted cordially.

"Darkwing." Hooter greeted back. "I take it you three are all glad we were able to help you out of your little predicament?"

"Yes, thank you very much." Darkwing said.

"Admittedly, so am I." Negaduck was forced to admit.

They looked at Darkwarrior expectantly, who narrowed his eyes.

"I have nothing to say to this criminal." he said, nodding his head at Hooter.

Darkwing glared at him. "He just helped us, and he's going to continue to help us, and that's all you've got to say?" he asked bewilderedly.

"It's all right, Darkwing." Hooter said. "I suppose it should be expected."

"You should also expect that this changes nothing, as well." Darkwarrior went on. "If I were able to, I would be arresting you at the moment. You are my enemy, after all, and that will never change."

"Well, that goes without saying." Negaduck agreed.

"Oh hush." Darkwing said.

"So what's the deal, Hooty?" Negaduck asked. "How are you going to get us separated?"

Hooter and the others looked at one another.

"We're working on it." NegaGosalyn said.

"Somehow I'm not reassured." Darkwarrior muttered.

"It's going to take some time." Hooter said. "You'll have to wait while we prepare."

"Sounds good." Darkwing said, trying to sound optimistic, then nodded his head again at Hooter. "J. Gander."

"Darkwing." Hooter replied.

"Director." Negaduck said, also nodding his head.

"Director." Darkwarrior also said.

Negaduck and Darkwarrior then tried to walk away in separate directions, leaving Darkwing to get tugged at in the middle from both. They continued to do his until both were jerked back, and all three fell to the ground. They groaned.

"This is getting very old, fast." Darkwarrior said.

Crimson grimaced. "I hope Mia gets back quick with that book." she said.

"Or hope that a miracle has happened and that Rowe and Bushroot have at least gotten close to nabbing that magician." Megavolt added.

* * *

They were, of course, not even close. Rowe and Bushroot had managed to keep up with the illusive magician and both alternated trying to grab him, or, on occasion, teaming up to try it together. But the magician, whoever he was, simply avoided them, laughing gleefully at his pursuers's poor attempts.

Being a magician, he could simply just magic his way out of here and escape his pursuers all together, a fact that Rowe and Bushroot did not know yet, but he didn't. He was having far too much fun playing keep away with the pair.

He laughed as Rowe rounded on him and lunged desperately at him not for the first time, only to have the magician quickly slip away, allowing the otter to fall heavily to the ground. Picking himself up and seeing their prey had once again escaped, he pounded his fist on the ground.

"Plagues and pestilence!" he cursed. "Why can't he hold still?"

Bushroot stepped over and helped him up. "Because he's avoiding us."

"And having a blast doing it, too!" Rowe exclaimed, gesturing at the magician as he stood further up the road, waving his hands tauntingly in the air. "Just look at him, mate! Why I'd love to crush his scrawny little neck!"

He squeezed his paws together, envisioning the magician's neck in-between them.

Bushroot sighed. "C'mon, Rowe, let's go try it again." he said, patting his friend on the shoulder.

Rowe sighed himself, and nodded. "I'll attack from the right, you from the left." he said.

"Sounds good." Bushroot said, and they quickly hurried after the magician.

Laughing gleefully, the magician ran away from them, keeping just out of their reach, until he finally stopped and made faces at them. Using the moment to their advantage, Bushroot and Rowe quickly raced forward and lunged at the magician from their assigned directions. The magician laughed and dodged Bushroot as he lunged first, allowing to mutant plant-duck to crash to the ground, then dodged Rowe, who crashed onto Bushroot. Laughing still, he then turned and ran once more.

Rowe pounded the ground with his fist again. "Get back here, you plaguing idiot!" he roared, standing up.

Bushroot moaned as he got up as well. "We need a new plan." he muttered, rubbing at his sore back.

* * *

Interestingly enough, Techno was thinking the same thing.

"We need a new plan!" he said again to Launchpad as they raced after Frogduck.

Frogduck was on foot like them, and was still bound with Darkwarrior's handcuffs, but regardless, he was still able to stay ahead of his pursuers by taking large and long leaps with his powerful frog legs, a feat he seemed to not grow tired of. It took all their effort for Launchpad and Techno to keep up with him, running as fast as they could. A feat they were growing very tired of.

"I'm with ya, little buddy." Launchpad wheezed, panting heavily as he struggled to maintain their pace. "Any ideas?"

"Admittedly, no." Techno said, and shook his head. "We should've taken the Ratcatcher. We could've kept up with him this way."

"Maybe we should just let him go, then." Launchpad said. "We're never going to catch him like this!"

"Sure we can!" Techno said. "Don't be so negative! All we have to do is figure out a way to keep him from making those big leaps!"

"Nah-nah!" Frogduck taunted as he looked back at them as he jumped. "It'd take wet cement to stop me!"

And as luck would have it, he landed his jump in a patch of wet cement, laid there earlier in the evening to make a new sidewalk. This, fortunately, slowed him down significantly as he anxiously worked to try and trudge his way across. Unfortunately, Techno and Launchpad didn't notice until they stumbled into the wet cement themselves.

Going as quickly as they could, they all continued the chase as best as they could, trudging their way through the wet cement, their feet getting weighted down as the cement stuck to them. Finally, Frogduck managed to reach the end and back on solid and dry ground. Stumbling a few feet in surprise at how easy it was to walk again, Frogduck attempted to resume his wide-hopping leaps, only to find his feet were too weighted down with drying cement to permit him to do, and had to resort to running.

Techno and Launchpad quickly worked their way out of the wet cement themselves, and hurried after Frogduck, finding they could keep up to him a whole lot better now.

"Well, that was convenient." Techno remarked.

"Whatever works." Launchpad agreed.

* * *

Negaduck, Darkwing, and Darkwarrior had all gone back to just sitting on the ground and arguing again, not having made any real progress at all, as they all waited for Agent Mia to return with the book of spells. Crimson sat on the ground and wearily watched the three argue.

"They're never going to set aside their differences long enough to work together and sort this out." she muttered to herself.

"Hey, at least you tried." NegaGosalyn said, arriving beside her suddenly and sitting down. "Actually, this might be better anyway. This way, everyone will know where to find them should we need them."

"I suppose so." Crimson said. "But things would go faster if they actually tried to work together. That's there problem, you know. They don't even _want _to work together, claiming they simply can't. Which is completely untrue, because Darkwing and Negaduck have at least worked together long enough to battle the greater evil."

"Maybe it's Darkwarrior then that's throwing things off." NegaGosalyn proposed.

"Maybe." Crimson said. "But our problems don't end there. It's nearly morning, and today is the first day of my senior year of high school for me."

"Ah yes, that would start today here, wouldn't it?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"But I'm not about to go to school until we've got this sorted out." Crimson insisted. "Which is in of itself problematic, because Darkwing and Techno both will kill me if I do that."

"Imagine how it is for me, then." NegaGosalyn said, curling up her legs and wrapping her arms around them.

Crimson glanced at her. "You know, we haven't talked much since that incident at the high school." she said.

"For good reason." NegaGosalyn replied.

"I must have gotten something through to you though, because I noticed you didn't kill me." Crimson remarked.

NegaGosalyn was silent.

"Have you even thought about what I told you?" Crimson asked.

"Plenty." NegaGosalyn answered. "Unfortunately, it's not as easy as you make it out to be, and you should know that."

"I do." Crimson agreed. "But all I'm saying is that the choice is up to you. And I certainly hope you make the right choice in the end."

NegaGosalyn gave her double a curious look for a moment. Then they both turned as a van drove up not far from where they sat, and Agent Mia hopped out, carrying a metal box in her arms.

"Got it!" she called.

Hooter rushed over. "Very good!" he said. "I'll need to enter in an access code. Set it down here, please."

Mia set the box down with a thump. Hooter leaned over and started typing in a password into a keypad built into the box while Crimson, NegaGosalyn, and Megavolt wandered over.

"That's it, then?" Megavolt asked, as he approached.

"Apparently." NegaGosalyn replied, then looked at Megavolt. "Where's Quackerjack?"

"Finishing off the last of the donuts." Megavolt replied with a shrug. "He's completely uninterested in all of this."

"There." Hooter said, as the top of the box suddenly sprang open. He reached in and pulled out a thick, leather-bound book that had a very medieval look to it. "This is the book."

He handed it to Crimson, who started to thumb through the pages. She frowned. "You're right, J. Gander, there aren't very many spells in here we could do. Most of them require someone of magical blood."

"Then we're stuck still, aren't we?" Mia asked.

"Not yet." Crimson said, running her finger down a page. "Let me look up binding counterspells first." she flipped through several pages to a certain spot, and then flipped through a couple more. "Here we go!" she exclaimed suddenly, and held out the book for everyone to see.

They all looked at the open page, reading through it.

"One cup of ravenwood?" Mia repeated. "Two teaspoons of mushroom oil?"

"It's a potion." Megavolt realized.

"Yeah, I can do a potion." Crimson said confidently. "I've done it before."

"You have?" NegaGosalyn asked, surprised.

"Yeah, haven't you?" Crimson asked, a little surprised herself at this statement.

"No!" NegaGosalyn said.

"Well, I have." Crimson said. "This potion is actually a fairly easy one. It's designed to break basic binding spells and the such. Doesn't take long to prepare, nor will it require much from us. We should have things put together within the hour, if everyone helps."

And they did, surprisingly enough. Unlike Darkwing, Negaduck and Darkwarrior, everyone else was able to set aside their differences long enough to all pitch in and help prepare the simple potion. Even Quackerjack helped, by donating the peanut crumbs sprinkled on his donut, which he didn't like, to the potion, as the crumbs were the closest they could get to whole peanuts anyway, and Crimson was confident it would be good enough.

As Crimson had predicted, the potion was ready within the hour, and soon had a caldron full of the amber colored broth. Crimson scooped out three cupfuls and handed each cup to a person.

"On the count of three, we're to dump the contents of these on all three of them at the same time." Crimson instructed Megavolt and NegaGosalyn who were to be her aides. "Agent Mia will do the counting." she then turned to Negaduck, Darkwarrior, and Darkwing sitting nearby. "You three ready?"

"We were ready hours ago." Negaduck grumbled.

Darkwing elbowed him in the ribs, and nodded at Crimson.

"Okay, get ready then." Crimson said, holding her cup over Darkwing's head. Megavolt held his over Darkwarrior's, and NegaGosalyn held hers over Negaduck.

"Are we ready, then?" Mia asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Okay then. One."

"Two."

"Three!"

They poured their cups of potion on the three doubles's heads. They coughed and sputtered for a moment as the potion dribbled down from their heads. It quickly dried though, leaving no trace it had even been present. Crimson waited until it had dried completely before moving on.

"Well?" she asked hopefully. "Can you guys free yourselves now?"

Negaduck, Darkwing, and Darkwarrior all glanced at one another for a moment, then tugged at their joined hands a little bit. Very soon it was pretty clear the potion had not worked after all.

Crimson bit her lip nervously.

"Maybe it just needs a few moments to work." NegaGosalyn offered hopefully.

They waited for a few minutes, but to no avail.

"Maybe one dose wasn't enough." Megavolt suggested. "I mean, maybe this binding spell isn't a plain basic one, and is a little stronger than that."

So they tried again, pouring another cup of the potion on each of the three stuck-together doubles, making them cough and sputter again. It did no good, though. They were still stuck together.

Crimson kicked the caldron of potion, frustrated. "I guess our only hope now is the magician who caused this mess." she muttered.

* * *

Frogduck was still trying to flee, but even he was starting to grow tired and couldn't maintain his original breakneck pace, and was starting to fall back. Unfortunately, Techno and Launchpad fell back with him.

"Pant-pant....slow...down!" Launchpad begged as they wandered into a small tunnel. "I'm gonna faint if we don't stop soon!"

"Never!" Frogduck yelled. "I'm going to keep hopping from you guys! It's not easy being green after all!"

"What does _that _have to do with it?" Techno asked, bewildered.

"I'm green!" Frogduck said.

"He does have a point." Launchpad admitted to Techno.

"Doesn't matter!" Techno panted. "We're still going to get you!"

"If only we had the energy to rocket along to him, though!" Launchpad exclaimed.

"Rocket...oh c'mon!" Techno cried at himself angrily. "Why didn't I think of that sooner?"

With a practiced motion, Techno activated his rocket boots, and shot towards Frogduck with great speed. Frogduck heard the noise this created and looked back and saw Techno speeding towards him and yelped. Quickly, he lashed out with his frog tongue and knocked Techno clean out of the air and into the wall of the tunnel. Something small fell from Techno's wrist when this happened and clattered to the ground in-between them.

His rocket boots winding down from the impact, Techno fell heavily to the ground, the air knocked out of his lungs. Frogduck whooped and did a little victory dance.

"I did it!" he sang. "I did it, I did it, I did it, I did..."

He was cut off suddenly when the chemical bomb lying between them suddenly went off, knocking him clear back and to the ground. Frogduck was back on his feet in an instant, unharmed, though.

"You idiot!" he exclaimed. "You could've killed us both! You could've blasted us both to kingdom come! Why I should..."

He stopped suddenly when he realized that his hands, which he had been waving about animatedly during this outburst, were no longer restrained. The handcuffs had broken in the blast. He eyed part of said cuff that still dangled from his wrist.

"Oh." he remarked, then looked at Techno, still lying on the ground, breathing heavily. He waved. "Bye."

And with that, he ran off once more. By that point, Launchpad had caught up with Techno and fell heavily to his knees, looking about ready to pass out.

"I give up." he said. "Please tell me you give up."

Techno watched Frogduck flee for a moment, then breathed a sigh. "Yeah." he said. "I give up too."

* * *

Elsewhere, Rowe and Bushroot still hadn't given up chasing after the magician. They had tried several tactics, but none of them were working. The magician continued to evade them, laughing hysterically every step of the way. Rowe finally stopped for a moment, doubling over and he breathed heavily in an attempt to catch his breath. Bushroot stopped to stand next to him, also breathing heavily. The magician continued onward until he was sure that neither could get at him, then stopped and taunted them. Rowe watched him in awe.

"How does he keep going, mate?" he asked, bewildered. "We've been chasing him for hours while he leads us in circles, and yet he keeps...on..._going_!"

Bushroot was silent for a moment as he let Rowe catch his breath. "Look, Rowe, I think I've got an idea." he said. "See that corner up ahead? Get him to go around it. I'm going to double back and meet both of you there. Sound good?"

"At this point, I'm willing to try anything, mate." Rowe said. "I just hope your idea works."

"Well, it wouldn't work on Darkwing." Bushroot said, worried about that one detail.

"But he ain't Darkwing." Rowe pointed out.

"True." Bushroot said, and then clapped Rowe on the back. "Wish me luck!"

"Aye, whatever." Rowe said, and forced himself to straighten back up and look purposeful.

He waited for a moment to give Bushroot a head start, and then headed for the magician still standing there taunting him, standing a few feet from the corner Bushroot wanted him to go around.

"Come and get me, otter!" the magician cried.

"Oh, I will!" Rowe said, in no hurry to go after the magician.

The magician was in no hurry either, stepping back every now and then as Rowe grew closer, so to keep some distance between them. Rowe altered the angle he approached as they neared the corner so to try and lure the magician into walking around the corner. He was pleased to see he was succeeding.

"You'll never catch me, mate!" the magician said, mimicking Rowe's own voice.

"I ain't your mate!" Rowe exclaimed.

"Still can't catch me!" the magician said as he stepped around the corner suddenly.

Rowe gave him a challenging look. "You sure, mate?" he asked, and then without warning, charged at the magician.

Laughing, the magician turned tail and ran on past the corner they had turned and on down the street. The magician had only gotten about halfway down this short street when a net of plants and vines suddenly sprang up in front of him. His grin fading for the very first time since the chase began, the magician attempted to skid to a halt and smacked right into the net, quickly becoming entangled. To help, though, several of the plants wrapped themselves around him to guarantee he didn't go anywhere, and Rowe tackled him from behind and grabbed the magician's spotted grey tail in a vise grip.

"Make any attempt to move, and your tail's finished, mate." Rowe growled angrily.

The magician gulped.

Bushroot arrived shortly thereafter from where he had been hiding on the sidelines. "I did it!" he cheered.

Rowe cleared his throat nosily.

"I mean, we did it!" Bushroot amended, and looked at the ensnared magician. "We finally caught you! Whoever you are!"

"Who are you anyway, mate?" Rowe asked, curious. "What's your name? Speak up, now!"

"My name is Loki." the magician replied after a moments hesitation.

Bushroot blinked in surprise. "Really?" he asked.

"What kind of name is Loki?" Rowe demanded.

"Well, according to Norse mythology, Loki was the god for mischief." Bushroot explained.

"Oh." Rowe said, looking again at the magician. "I suppose it's fitting, then. But then, how do you know that, Bushroot?"

"Oh, well, I studied a little bit of mythology in high school." the plant-duck replied. "I was going to minor in that in college before I learned I had a knack for electronics."

Rowe gave him a look. "Tell me Bushroot, is there anything you _haven't _done?" he asked.

Bushroot thought for a long moment. "I haven't ever gone deep sea fishing before." he said.

"Heaven forbid if that's the next assignment Negs gives us." Rowe muttered.

Loki snickered at this. Rowe shot him a glare.

"Aw, shut up." he said, and clubbed the magician over the head, knocking him out.

* * *

"All right, we're all up then? Right, moving forward then. We'll start with the right foot then, shall we?"

"Wait, who's right? My right or your right?"

"I don't care. Mine."

"Well, why yours?"

"All right, your right! Now are you ready? Good. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Le-whoop!"

Negaduck, Darkwing, and Darkwarrior all crashed to the ground.

"All right, who's fault was it this time?" Negaduck demanded angrily. "Who tripped?"

"Me, but it was over Darkwarrior's foot!" Darkwing admitted, glaring at Darkwarrior.

"Impossible!" Darkwarrior declared, slapping his hat back on his head. "I was doing exactly what I was asked. Our feet must be too close together!"

"I know what the problem is! _We're _too close together!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"And who's fault is _that, _Dipwing?" Negaduck accused.

"Oh, let's not start _that _again!" Darkwing exclaimed.

The three quickly started arguing again. Crimson sighed from where she stood watching, leaning on the hood of SHUSH-issued van. Megavolt stood next to her.

"At least they're _trying _now." he reasoned.

"Yeah, but we had better get a solution to this mess soon before they kill each other." Agent Mia muttered as she walked by.

"Then never fear, because the solution has arrived mates!" Rowe declared suddenly as he had Bushroot arrived, carrying Loki between them, all tied up with vines. He was only now starting to regain consciousness.

Darkwing, Negaduck, and Darkwarrior all looked up at the same time, and all three desperately worked to try and get back up, fighting with one another as they did so before all three were finally on their feet.

"You're back!" they declared together.

Rowe dropped his end of Loki and bowed. Bushroot rolled his eyes and grinned at the otter's antics.

"And you got the magician too!" Crimson noted as everyone gathered around.

"Magician?" Rowe and Bushroot repeated, and looked at Loki in puzzlement.

"If you can do magic, then why didn't you use it to stop us from capturing you?" Bushroot asked.

"A mere oversight on my part." Loki said. "Besides, I figured the spell I cast here had just about gone on long enough, anyway."

"What do you mean, long enough?" Negaduck asked as he and the other two awkwardly made their way over.

"Because, sir, just like everything else in this world, this spell had a very specific purpose." Loki replied.

"Purpose?" Agent Mia asked. "What kind of purpose?"

Loki didn't reply right away, giving everyone a chance to look him over. He was a snow leopard, but like most of his species, which were tall and muscular, Loki was quite short and stubby, shorter than Darkwing and his doubles, even. He was dressed in a silken blue cloak, and he wore a small, pointed hat that matched on his head with a floppy tip. His long grey and spotted tail swished back and forth as Loki seemed to search for an appropriate way to answer.

As luck would have it, though, he didn't need to.

"Working together." Hooter realized suddenly. "That's what this is about. The very thing we've been doing here all evening."

"Well, I wasn't going to put it so bluntly, but yes." Loki replied.

"Working together." NegaGosalyn repeated.

"Despite our differences and allegiances." Megavolt added.

Loki nodded. "My task here was to prove to all of you that despite the fact you consider yourselves all enemies, you don't need to be." he said "And it seemed sticking the three who least believed that together for awhile was the best way to do it. I daresay I've at least made progress."

Darkwing, Negaduck, and Darkwarrior all looked away from each other in discomfort, but everyone else was looking at each other in a brand new light, one that could change how everything played out from here on out.

"So let me get this straight." Quackerjack said. "Are you trying to get us to forget sides and be all one happy group?"

"Not at all." Loki said. "The choice is, of course, still up to you. This is really been more of a...'food for thought'...session than anything. But I would hope this all gives you a new look at your lives."

They were all silent for a moment while they sat and thought this through for a few moments.

"So, can we be separated now, or not?" Negaduck asked finally.

Loki gave Negaduck an odd look, then nodded. Quite suddenly, the vines binding him loosened and fell to the ground, and waved a hand almost dismissively at the three. Quite suddenly, their hands snapped apart, and for the first time in several hours, they were apart. The first thing they did after looking at their hands was move even further apart from each other, as if on edge that they would snap back together again.

Loki sensed their discomfort and grinned. "Never fear, the spell will not be reactivated tonight." he said.

Darkwing looked at him for a moment, then straightened. "So, I suppose a thank you is in order." he said.

Loki bowed his head to indicate he accepted the thank you. "You're welcome." he said. "I simply hope my work here tonight has not gone in vain. Now, if you will pardon me, but I need to leave."

"Leave?" Megavolt said.

"Yes." Loki said. "You have your world, and I have mine. And I need to get back to mine. Good morning."

With that last comment, he walked off, lit as the sun started to rise marking the new day. Then, quite suddenly, he vanished with a pop. Everyone stood around for several moments in silence, watching the spot Loki had last stood at.

"So," Negaduck finally remarked, clapping his hands together, "The question now is do we ruin the moment and go back to fighting..."

"...or do we let everything that happened tonight slide and go our separate ways?" Darkwing asked.

Negaduck nodded.

An awkward silence fell between everyone. Finally, it was Darkwarrior who got the ball rolling.

"I have other business to attend to." he said simply, and turned and walked away.

"Yeah, we've got better things to do than hang around with you knobs anyway." Negaduck agreed, rubbing the back of his head. "C'mon gang, let's go."

He left, taking the Fearsome Five with.

"I do need to get back to headquarters, and so does Agent Mia." Hooter said as he and Mia turned to leave. "I wish all of our problems could be resolved so nicely. But in the meantime, I wish you a good day Darkwing."

"See ya, J. Gander." Darkwing said.

"We need to be getting home, too." Crimson said. "Me and Techno need to get ready for school."

"That's right." Darkwing said, then frowned. "Where are Techno and Launchpad, anyway?"

Right on cue, both and Techno and Launchpad came running up, breathless.

"We lost Frogduck." Techno admitted right away as he worked to catch his breath. It was then that he noticed there were several people were missing from the group. "Where is everyone? What did we miss?"

"Quite a bit, actually." Darkwing admitted, pulling Crimson into a one armed hug. "And I wouldn't worry about Frogduck. He's done for tonight, and we can always worry about him another night. Too bad he didn't stick around though. He missed one heck of a lesson in life."

* * *

_Fun Facts: This chapter marks Frogduck's debute as a proper supervillain, and of course, he's made adjustments to take the part, such as the tacky jumpsuit, a mode of transportation, and a hideout (which we don't see in this chpt). His personality has been adjusted slightly too, to be more like a mix of Megavolt, Quackerjack, and Adam West's redition of Batman. He will be making more appearances from now on out (mostly just when I need a supervillain to throw in so to further mess up an already bad situation) and it's great to have Frogduck back, as it's the perfect excuse to just be funny, getting back to the comedy side of Darkwing Duck._

_I knew exactly what kind of car I wanted for the Frogmobile, but it took me forever to track it down on Wikipedia simply because I couldn't recall the car's name or model, both of which I needed to state in the chapter._

_Loki originally started out as a purely annoying magician who likes to make pranks, and it was actually supposed to be Morgana and Bob who captured him, and forced him to unwillingly undo the spell. When Morgana and Bob's parts were dropped in favor for other roles in later chapters, Loki's role changed to adapt, and eventually strayed away to form the wiser and more friendly version he is now. His words spoken about working together spoken before his departure in this chpt are likely to be referred to again in later chapters._

_Like previously stated, Frogduck's new hideout is not revealed in this chapter, despite plans to do so eariler on. But it will be a water tower, just like his old one in his debute chapter._

_The statement that Crimson is capable of doing limited amounts of magic (mostly just potions) will be referred to again, and will eventually go on to play a big role in future chapters. Make note of it.  
_


	48. Fallen Star

Summary: When Crimson and Techno come back from a mission to the Negaverse, they find that something happened to St. Canard while they were gone...

Rating: K+

Author's Notes: Interesting idea that was used for this chapter. A few follow up stuff from past chapters, and sets up for future chapters. Some fun facts at the end.

48.

Fallen Star

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_We've been tracking your portals since the beginning, Negs. Courtesy of SHUSH. In fact, they've refined the tracking system to the point that we can even detect you charging to open the portal."_

"_We would have pulled mission like this sometime ago, But SHUSH did not know which portal was coming or going."_

"_That is until after the little escapade with the Negasphere two weeks ago."_

"_We knew you were in the Negaverse already, so all SHUSH had to do was wait for the first portal to open after that incident. That marked your return to the Negaverse. The portal you were about to open just now would've been the first portal you opened since you returned to the Posiverse."_

"_And of course, with the SHUSH tracking system, it led us straight here."_

_--  
_

_The moment it had, Darkwing sat down to the computer and started to work. He had the system search for all materials relating to transdimensional portals. Skimming through the results, he opened up files at random, until he found one titled "transdimensional portal tracking system." Grinning, he opened it and looked over it's contents briefly._

_That done, he pulled a thumb drive from his pocket and shoved it into the USB port on the computer, and started downloading files directly into the tracking system. Darkwing grinned again. Everything was going according to plan..._

_--  
_

"_I've just gotten the report that it has been determined just what he messed with. It was our transdimensional portal tracking system that he messed with. Completely scrambled the system so it couldn't tell a portal from a potato. It's why we haven't detected a portal activating for months."_

"_So that's it! And no doubt he instantly used that to his advantage and has been going back and forth from the Negaverse more than ever!"_

"_And it's going to take months to repair! Bellum tells me she'll have to completely rebuild the system! And once that's done, we'll be right back to same old problem of not being able to tell which portal is coming or going."_

_--  
_

"_I have just gotten word, director. I understand that your transdimensional portal system is inoperable at the moment."_

"_Yes."_

"_And that the system will not be operable again for a projected four months."_

"_Yes. Dr. Bellum has been known to work miracles before, though."

* * *

  
_

The sun was shining for a change. Which was actually an interesting change for the Negaverse. Usually there was far too much pollution in the air for the sun to be able to shine through. But shining it was. Granted, it was tinged red and wasn't shining very brightly, but it was shining.

Crimson paused for a moment to look up at it, and grinned. "Guess even the weather's on our side today." she said to Techno

Techno, however, was looking around rather nervously. "I don't think our luck's going to last for much longer, Crimson." he said, studying the war-torn empty street. "I just know we're going to have a whole armada of evil twins after us at any moment. Can we hurry and get back to the portal? Please?"

Crimson shot him a humorous look. "Sure, Tech, but you're being a real worrywart, you know." she said. "This mission for SHUSH went perfectly. Nobody suspected anything. Our only real hitch was when NegaHonker very nearly walked in on you while you were talking with NegaLaunchpad, and we all know I stopped that in short order."

"Yes, I heard the noises of the fight." Techno admitted. "And so did NegaLaunchpad. He very nearly went to investigate until I managed to dissuade him. It was a real _serious _situation Crimson! We very nearly had our cover blown!"

"I will admit that one moment was a tense one." Crimson admitted as they walked idly down the road. "But so what? Everything else ran smoothly! We've walked right into the Negaverse and we're about to walk right out again, and no one's even noticed! And by the time they do, it'll be far too late, and even then, they won't be able to figure out what happened!"

"Well..." Techno admitted, "I suppose that's true. But still...I'm on edge about this place. I don't like the Negaverse, and you know it. And I don't feel safe here, even dressed as my Negaverse double!"

He motioned to the NegaHonker attire he had been wearing for the past day and a half. Crimson glanced down at her own NegaGosalyn attire, and shrugged.

"I do." she said confidently. "NegaGos isn't in the Negaverse currently, and neither is Negaduck. NegaHonker's in charge of the Negaverse at the moment, and he should still be tied up in that closet unconscious. Everyone else thinks we're the genuine article, so what is there to fear, but fear itself?"

Techno didn't reply.

"Well, whatever the case, the mission went flawlessly." Crimson went on. "Hooter's going to be pleased. I mean, who's ever going to think to look for a transdimensional portal tracking sensor here in the Negaverse, embedded straight into the lightning rod of the very command center for the whole place, Canard Tower? It was ingenious of Dr. Bellum to come up with this plan!"

"Ingenious, but risky." Techno pressed. "Even for us."

"They picked us two over Darkwing and LP because Hooter was confident we could pull off the ruse the best." Crimson pointed out. "And he was right. We're very nearly home free now, Tech. Look, see? There's our destination!"

She pointed at the abandoned office building that was SHUSH Headquarters in the Negaverse. Techno grinned at the sight of it, and redoubled his pace. Crimson sped up to follow him.

"There is one thing I don't get, though." she admitted as she did this. "Isn't the transdimensional tracking system still offline? How is placing a sensor here in the Negaverse going to help?"

"Because the scrambling to the system Negaduck did only scrambled the codes that were used for scanning for portals in the Posiverse." Techno explained as they entered the building and started down the stairs to the basement. "With some alterations, Dr. Bellum rigged the system to ignore those scrambled codes and to instead refer to a new set of codes that direct the system to scan for portals opening and closing here in the Negaverse via a transdimensional transmitter. This way we can still track Negaduck's movements still while Dr. Bellum finishes repairing the system. And once she does, we can doubly track Negs."

"And no one but us will be the wiser." Crimson concluded, grinning.

They stepped into the bottommost floor of the building and was greeted by the multi-color glow of a transdimensional portal. Crimson motioned to it.

"There's our ride home." she said.

"Finally!" Techno exclaimed, and pulled out his visor from a concealed pocket and slipped it over his eyes.

Crimson rolled her eyes and pulled out a radio and switched it on. "SHUSH, this is Crimson and Techno, calling to announce the mission a success." she said into the radio. "Requesting permission to step through the portal at this time."

But instead of the usual prompt reply granting her permission to come home being broadcasted back, Crimson only got a light haze of background static. Frowning, she tried again.

"SHUSH, this is Crimson and Techno reporting in." she said. "We repeat that the mission was a success and want to come home, please reply."

More silence.

"SHUSH, this is Crimson and Techno, please respond!" Crimson said again, more forcefully this time. "Dang it, J. Gander, this isn't funny!"

"What's wrong?" Techno asked. "Why aren't they replying? Do you think something happened?"

Crimson listened to the static for a moment anxiously, hopefully, and in vain. "Something must've." she said. "Why else wouldn't they respond?"

They both glanced at the portal, wondering what was happening on the other side.

"So...what should we do?" Techno asked. "Go on through?"

"I don't want to step through only to get shot down because of a lack of communications." Crimson said, frowning. She checked her watch. "We are a bit ahead of schedule, though. Maybe they're all getting coffee."

"All at the same time?" Techno asked doubtfully.

Crimson winced. "Point is that the portal generator can sustain this open portal for another hour or so." she said. "I think for now we should just wait, radioing in at regular intervals and hope for a reply."

So they sat down and waited. Techno worked on a few adjustments for his visor to pass the time, while Crimson started a game of tiddlywinks using one of her shoes and some loose change. Every few minutes Crimson would try and call SHUSH and hope for a reply. But after several minutes, it slowly became clear that they were not going to reply.

"This is Crimson and Techno calling SHUSH, please respond." Crimson said into the radio towards the end of their long wait, getting impatient. "Repeat this is..." she trailed off, making a disgusted face and lowered the radio. "They're not going to reply." she announced decisively. She glanced at her watch. "And we've got about fifteen minutes before that portal closes and we're stranded here until we can get in contact with the UIO."

"So we're going home, then?" Techno asked, standing up and slipping his visor back over his eyes.

"Better than sitting around here waiting for a call that clearly isn't going to come." Crimson said, also standing up and preparing to leave. "The only way we're going to find out what's happened, whatever it is, is stepping through that portal. Now let's go."

They both walked towards the portal, and after a moment's hesitation, stepped through the portal. A spilt second later, they reappeared in the Posiverse in sub-level five at SHUSH Headquarters. They were quite surprised at what they found.

Save for the usual equipment for the portal generator, the room was empty, void of any life except themselves. It was also very dark. All of the lights were off, leaving only the glow from the little blinking lights on consoles and the light cast from the portal itself to light the room. Various objects were left lying on the floor every now and then, like they had been dropped and left in a hurry to leave. Crimson and Techno stood for a moment on the ramp leading up to the portal for a few moments in a mixture of awe and puzzlement.

"Hello?" Crimson called, her voice echoing loudly. "Anybody here?" she looked around for a moment, then turned to Techno. "Where is everybody?"

"I dunno, but it certainly looks like they left in a hurry." Techno said, stepping down the ramp.

"You don't think they were attacked from the Negaverse, do you?" Crimson asked, sounding worried.

Techno thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "There's too little damage for a fight of that scale to have occurred here." he said. "But there does seem to have been some kind of conflict here." he glanced at a destroyed console as he passed by it.

"And everybody left too quickly to lock the place down." Crimson noted, looking at the door that led into the room, hanging wide open.

Techno glanced up at one of the security cameras in the room, and getting an idea, sat down at a nearby computer, it's screen dark. It was complete unresponsive, though.

"Computer core's down." he reported. "I can't reboot it from here."

Crimson found a name tag lying on the floor, and picked it up, examining it. She then held it up for Techno to see.

Techno glanced at it. "Dr. Sarah Bellum?" he read. "You think something happened to her?"

"A lot of somethings happened, Tech, and I wanna know why." Crimson said.

At that moment, the portal suddenly flickered, and then winked out of existence, plunging the room into the darkness. As the hum of the portal generator wined down, Crimson and Techno quickly pulled out flashlights and started shining them around the darkened room.

"Well." Crimson said finally. "This doesn't bode well."

"Now I know this is going to sound ironic," Techno began, "but I think I would've felt safer in the Negaverse."

"Too late to go back now." Crimson said, shining her light at the spot the portal had been. "The portal generators are going to need recharging before we can open another portal, and that's going to take some time." she bit her lip for a moment. "In the meantime, we'll just have to investigate and find out what happened." she shined her light around. "Tech, are you picking up anything out of the ordinary with your visor?"

"No." Techno replied.

"No radiation, no nothing?" Crimson asked, shining her light at Techno.

"If there was any radiation in here, it's been drowned out by the residual radiation from the open portal." Techno answered. "And besides, if there was any radiation from anything, it's most likely be coming from outside, which means it'd never get in here. The room's too shielded."

He stopped suddenly as he looked around the room, staring straight at the closed door of a closet. "But..." he continued, "...I am picking up something of interest on my visor."

Crimson shined her light on the door. "What is it?" she asked.

"Heat signature." Techno replied, pointing. "Somebody's in there."

"Friend or foe?"

"Impossible to tell without looking for ourselves."

They glanced at each other for a moment.

"I'll look." Crimson said, pulling out the P90 she was armed with as part of her NegaGosalyn disguise. "You cover me."

Techno nodded, and went over to the door, wrapping a hand around the knob. Crimson went to lean against the wall immediately adjacent to the door. Crimson nodded silently that she was ready to Techno. Techno silently counted to three, mouthing out the words as he went, then throw the door open, ducking behind it as he went to shield himself from any danger. Crimson quickly spun around and looked in the closet, P90 armed and raised.

She didn't fire though, because of two things. First off, she immediately saw that the person in the closet was a SHUSH agent, as one could deduce from his dress and second, because the poor fellow was more scared of Crimson than she was of him. He immediately yelped at the sight of her and pressed himself as far as he could into the corner of the closest, covering his head with his arms.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

"I won't!" Crimson said, her weapon already lowered. "If you'd just _look_, you could see that!"

The agent uncovered his head slowly and looked at Crimson for a moment. "Oh."

Techno peered around the door then, looking at the agent. The agent brightened slightly at the sight of Techno's visor placed on his face.

"You're Crimson and Techno!" he exclaimed with some relief.

"Wasn't that hard to figure out." Crimson said, looking the agent over. He was a bi-colored dog of a particularly low rank. He seemed naggingly familiar. "Who are you?"

"Agent Todd." came the short and quiet reply.

"That's right, you were one of the technicians running the generator." Techno said, pointing behind them at the silent generator.

Agent Todd nodded, his floppy ears bouncing.

"Then maybe you can tell use what's going on." Crimson said. "What's happened? Where has everyone gone?"

"I don't know." Agent Todd said innocently, shrugging for added emphasis.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Techno asked, frowning.

"I wasn't kept in the loop." Agent Todd said. "All I know was that Dr. Bellum was called away to attend another, unrelated, issue that was happening somewhere in town, but said it was going to be a little thing, couldn't take her more than an hour. But she didn't come back. And then, sometime later, a priority one evacuation call sounded and everybody left."

"Evacuation?" Crimson repeated, surprised.

"Priority one." Todd said with a nod.

"Now wait, if everyone evacuated, then where did they go?" Techno asked. "And why are you still here?"

"Well, we couldn't close the portal without Dr. Bellum's authorization codes, so I stayed behind to lock out the controls." Agent Todd said. "As for everyone else, I haven't the foggiest idea where they went."

"Wait, you said you stayed behind to lock out the portal controls." Crimson said. "But that couldn't have taken long. When exactly did this all happen?"

"Yesterday evening."

"But this is mid-afternoon the day after." Crimson said. "Why haven't you left as well, to go join the others?"

Todd hesitated to reply.

"Agent Todd?" Crimson prompted.

"It's because there's something up there." Todd said, pointing above them at the surface nervously. "Something unfriendly."

Crimson and Techno exchanged glances.

"Any idea what?" Techno asked.

Todd shook his head. "Only that I'm scared witless of it." he said.

"And that's why you're in the closet, isn't it?" Crimson asked.

Todd nodded. Crimson and Techno looked at each other again.

"Doesn't get us very far, does it?" Crimson asked.

"We do know a few things now." Techno said. "We know that something bad enough happened that it forced SHUSH to evacuate to an undetermined location. And that, seeing that we left for the Negaverse yesterday morning, that this all started to happen not long after we left."

"But where does that get us?" Crimson asked. "None of this tells us very much."

"We'll have to go up to the surface to learn more." Techno said.

Crimson frowned, then rolled her eyes dismissively. "Well, we can't stay here forever." she admitted. She pointed at Agent Todd. "You're coming with us."

Todd paled at this, not very eager to leave his hiding place. "B-but what about the portal controls?" he asked. "S-s-someone needs to stay behind and g-guard them."

"Well, the computer core crashed, so no one can access them anyway." Techno said. "Not until someone rebooted the core anyway."

"Which, never fear, we won't do without your consent." Crimson told Agent Todd flatly.

"Actually, Crimson, rebooting the computer core may be a very good idea." Techno said. "I'm sure we could find something in there that would better explain what's happened."

"Okay." Crimson said. "Where can we do that then, if not here?"

"Hooter's office readily comes to mind."

"Okay then, to Hooter's office."

"B-but you d-don't know wh-wh-what's up there!" Agent Todd exclaimed, standing up.

"Neither do you." Crimson pointed out. "So how else are we going to find out?"

"B-b-but I'm just a-a-a junior a-agent!" Todd objected. "I've had v-v-very l-little field experience!"

"No better way to learn than to do." Crimson said, heading for the door. "So c'mon! Time's a'wastin'."

They headed up the staircase to ground floor, Crimson and Techno leading, Agent Todd following behind them nervously. Finally arriving at SHUSH's dark lobby, they shined their lights around. They found nothing immediately out of the ordinary. Crimson shot a smirk at Todd.

"See?" she asked. "There's nothing up here. Nothing to worry about."

It was then that something clattered behind them, and something heavy was heard slithering by. Crimson and Techno both whirled around to look, the beams of their light just barely catching sight of something big and scaley slip around the corner and out of sight.

"Crimson..." Techno said warningly.

"I saw it." Crimson assured him. "What _was _that thing?"

"It's what I've been telling you about!" Todd exclaimed noisily, looking ready to panic. "Something _weird _has been going on up here, I tell you! Didn't I..."

Both Crimson and Techno shushed him loudly. Todd promptly fell silent, trembling. Crimson turned to Techno.

"Techno, anything to report?" she asked.

Techno shook his head. "Not really." he admitted, working with his visor. "I only got a glimpse of it. Whatever it was, it seemed to be some kind of four-legged reptile."

"But that thing was huge!" Crimson objected. "What kind of reptile is like that?"

"I don't know." Techno said. "I can't track it very well either. As a reptile, it's cold-blooded, and doesn't show up too well on my infrared sensor. But it _was _heading away from us, so..."

"Okay then, we won't worry about it too much." Crimson said. "Pressing forward."

"Hooter's office is this way." Techno said, pointing, and they continued onward.

During their long walk through the mostly dark hallways of the building, they heard a variety of odd sounds, most of them from afar, and they did catch movement of other things in the empty hallways, but not a thing more. Techno began to wonder if they really weren't alone in the building after all, a fact Todd was convinced off, but it seemed that if this was true, then whatever it was in the building with them was keeping it's distance from them.

They finally arrived at Hooter's office without event. Like everywhere else in the building, it was void of life, and looked like it had been vacated in a hurry. Unlike the rest of the building, though, it wasn't dark, for the office was currently bathed in golden light streaming in through it's windows as the sun sank towards the western horizon. Crimson glanced out them and at the city outside. St. Canard seemed oddly quiet and empty.

Techno hurried behind Hooter's desk, righted the fallen chair, and then sat down at the computer. Within moments, he had it rebooting. "The system is restarting." he announced unnecessarily, for they all could see. "We just need to give it a few moments to start up."

After a moment, though, a window appeared on the screen. Techno read the text contained in it and frowned. "Or not." he admitted. "Apparently, you need an access code in order to start the system up fully." he thought for a moment. "Agent Todd, do you know the code?"

"Are you kidding me?" Todd asked. "That code's only known by top, top, agents!"

"So...no, then?" Crimson asked sarcastically.

"I suppose I could try and hack the system." Techno admitted. "But that could take awhile, and we really don't know if..."

He was cut off when something metallic was heard falling to the floor outside in the hallway. Crimson pulled out her P90 in a flash.

"W-what was that?" Agent Todd asked.

Crimson pulled out her two Uzis, tossing one to Techno and holding up the other to Todd.

"Switch off the safety here, point the barrel at your target, squeeze the trigger to shoot." she directed quickly.

Todd accepted the weapon leerily. Crimson then raised her P90 and stepped out into the dark corridor outside the room. Carefully, she looked down the hall in one direction and saw nothing there. So she turned to look down the other way, and did so just in time for something to come skidding around the corner.

It was a snarling, enraged, creature, looking to be a cross between a tiger and a cheetah only much bigger. It's long and sharp claws left long scratches in the floor as the creature struggled to skid to a stop on the smooth floor, and it's bared fangs glistened brightly in the glow of Crimson's flashlight. A long and narrow spotted tail swished back and forth behind it. Some kind of torn and tattered fabric was wrapped around it's middle, like someone had tried to dress the creature at one point and failed.

Crimson froze instantly at the sight of it. The creature spied Crimson just as quickly, and paused for a moment, it's yellow eyes stared Crimson down. Then, without warning, the creature raced down the remaining portion of the hall to Crimson and lunged. Crimson quickly snapped out of it and went to fire her P90 at the creature, but one of the creature's paws slapped the weapon away, it's shots flying haphazardly away from it's target and slamming into the nearby wall.

The creature then slammed into Crimson full force and knocked her over to skid on her back several feet down the hall, the creature riding on top of her. They had both barely come to a halt when the creature went to plunge it's fangs into Crimson's neck. Crimson quickly lashed out with her hands and forced the creature's snarling head back. She struggled to hold the stronger creature back as she sought a way to escape.

"Crimson!" she heard Techno exclaimed from within the office suddenly, seeming to come seconds too late.

"Shoot it!" Crimson yelled. "Shoot it!"

She heard the pattering of feet, and then a loud crash just outside the door. Crimson had the sneaking suspicion Agent Todd and Techno had crashed into each other in their haste to get here. Meanwhile, she struggled to keep the fighting creatures jaws away, which was still straining to get at Crimson. Just as Crimson's grip on the creature started to weaken, however, she noticed that there was a name tag pinned to the front of the strip of cloth wrapped around the creature's middle, and upon recognizing the name, Crimson suddenly made a connection.

Finally, Agent Todd appeared at the doorway of the office. Yelping at the sight of the creature on top of Crimson, he quickly fumbled with the Uzi Crimson had given him, and quickly fired off a stream of bullets at the creature. His first shot missed completely, so all the other shots missed as well, thanks to the recoil throwing off Todd's aim even more. Regardless, it worked, scaring the creature bad enough that it hopped off of Crimson and ran down the hallway and vanished around the corner.

Todd watched it go in a stunned silence. Techno finally then appeared at the doorway and moved to point his Uzi at the fleeing creature in preparation to fire but Crimson quickly intervened.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" she yelled urgently, stepping into Techno's line of fire. "That creature isn't any ordinary creature! It's Agent Mia!"

* * *

After the encounter with the creature, Agent Todd proposed the idea of continuing their search for answers outside of the building. Since they weren't sure if Agent Mia in whatever form she was in now would come back and if there were any other creatures they needed to worry about, Crimson and Techno didn't object. Once outside in the street that ran in front of the building, they resumed their conversation.

"How can you be so sure that creature was really Agent Mia?" Techno asked, looking up and down the street for any sign of people.

"She still had her name tag." Crimson said, tapping the spot on her chest where a name tag was mostly like going to sit. "And the cloth she was wearing was her usual SHUSH uniform. Whatever happened to her, it happened while she was wearing it, and it got shredded in the process."

"So what did happen to her?" Agent Todd asked, sitting on the curb. "How did she get like that?"

"Some kind of mutation, I would think." Techno said, running theories through his mind.

"So it's safe to bet that the other...creatures...we saw in there were once SHUSH agents themselves." Crimson said.

Techno nodded. "Pretty safe bet." he said. "The question now is how these mutations took place and why? And how are we going to reverse them, if we even can?"

"And why I'm not affected." Todd added. "I mean, I've been in that building during all of this, but for some reason I'm still normal."

"And then there's the question of what we're going to do about all of this." Crimson said. "We've landed smack into the middle of this situation with only the vaguest of explanations to go off of and don't have any good ideas of where to go from here."

"Maybe we should find the rest of SHUSH." Agent Todd suggested. "Clearly, not everyone was in there, all mutated and stuff."

"Yes, but they aren't in the immediate area, and I can't figure out why." Techno said. "I already tried getting into the Elementary Underground, but all the access points are locked. I'm not detecting any heat signatures anywhere in the area, either that could be evacuated agents."

"There could be another problem to all of this, too." Crimson said, looking around the empty street. "But is it just me, or does it seem like this street is a little too quiet and empty?"

Techno and Todd looked around, realizing Crimson had a point. Even for the time of day this behavior was inconsistent with the city of St. Canard.

"Maybe SHUSH evacuated the city block as well, for safety reasons." Techno theorized after a moment.

Crimson thought about it for a moment. "Maybe." she admitted, but she didn't look convinced.

"So, where are we going to go from here?" Agent Todd asked.

"Good question." Techno said, thinking. "Todd, are you sure you've told us everything you know?"

"Yes!" Todd said in his defense. "I don't know much about any of this either!"

"There has to be something more." Crimson said. "We don't have enough to go off of. We need something more."

"Maybe the location of where this all started would help." Techno said. "Todd, did Dr. Bellum say where she was going when she left?"

"Not really." Todd admitted, rubbing at his ears. "Somewhere near Audubon Bay, if that helps."

Crimson and Techno glanced at each other. "It gives us a place to start." Crimson said, moving forward. "C'mon, let's go."

They started walking towards the bay, the light of day slowly starting to ebb away as it changed into evening. The trio walked in silence, each looking out for any trouble. They had good reason to, as well. The further they went, the more they saw that it was more than one street of St. Canard that was silent. The whole city seemed very eerily silent. They also found evidence in passing that the populace of the city had left in a hurry, just like at SHUSH HQ.

"Did they evacuate the city as well?" Agent Todd asked, looking around at the dark buildings.

"They at least tried." Techno noted as they went past a half-loaded truck, which looked like it had been getting loaded in a hurry until it's loaders inexplicably stopped.

"So this mutation thing must be a big deal." Crimson said as they went, stepping around a car that had slammed into a street lamp. "Big enough to evacuate a whole city with such a large population."

"So...what does this mean?" Todd asked.

They heard something clatter in a nearby alley. The three turned to look into the dark passageway and saw the shadowy form of some creature. It's beady eyes looked out at the three for a moment, and then ran off, vanishing from sight. Todd gulped.

"That thing was too big to be an ordinary creature, wasn't it?" Crimson asked Techno.

"Yes." Techno replied.

"Which means that it was another mutated person."

"Yes."

"Which means this mutation issue didn't stay at SHUSH. It spread to the whole city."

"Yes."

"Darkwing? Launchpad? The same for them?"

"Probably."

They were silent for a moment.

"Is it contagious?" Agent Todd asked suddenly. "Are we all at risk of befalling the same fate?"

Crimson glanced at Techno for confirmation. But it looked like Techno hadn't thought of this yet, for he didn't reply right away.

"It's possible." he finally admitted. "But there are a few things that are just plain inconsistent about it all if it's merely contagious. One of the most obvious is the fact that Agent Todd has been here all this time, and yet hasn't gotten infected."

"Maybe he's immune." Crimson suggested.

"Really?" Todd asked hopefully.

"I wouldn't confirm anything just yet." Techno said. "Right now, we only have a theory that _might _fit the facts."

"That's better than nothing!" Todd pointed out, still hopeful.

"For now, let's just continue heading for the bay." Techno said. "That's where we think the trouble started, so let's keep heading there. In the meantime, we can keep looking for more clues."

They continued on. The streets continued to be empty. They saw few other mutated beings on there way. Crimson hoped this meant that most of the people managed to escape the city successfully, but then Techno also reasoned it could just be because everyone was skiddish around strangers, and thus kept their distance.

Of the creatures they did see, it was all from afar, and none of them came to attack like Agent Mia in her mutated state had. They all kept their distance, further enforcing the theory that they were uncertain of strangers such as them. It was also noticed that there didn't seem to be any consistent type of mutation. In fact, each mutation seemed to be unique to the person who had suffered from mutation, each one appearing as a different creature of a whole variety of states.

The levels of mutation seemed to vary as well. Some seemed more mutated than others. This was a good fact according to Techno, because it meant one of two things. First that the transmutation was a gradual process, or that it wasn't a disease at all, and that the mutations were caused by something else entirely, and the amount of mutation depended upon the level of exposure.

By the time they finally reached the shore of Audubon Bay, Techno decided it was probably a mixture of both, because he discovered something during their journey.

"I didn't see it earlier, but I've been keeping my eye on for awhile now." he explained to Crimson once at the bay. "My visor is detecting some kind of radiation that's in the air, one I can't identify. I didn't mention it before because it's so faint. For awhile I thought it couldn't possibly be behind any of this. But it seems to cover the whole city, and I'm not detecting anything else out of the ordinary."

"So you think this radiation is somehow behind these mutations." Crimson reasoned.

"I can't think of anything else it could be." Techno said. "No pathogens, no other unusual energy signatures. Besides, exposure to a type of radiation would explain everything."

"But then, where is it coming from?" Crimson asked.

"I'm more worried about how it might affect us." Techno said.

Agent Todd, who had been standing at the bank of the bay and looking across it during all of this, turned around in alarm to listen better. Crimson winced.

"Nothing has seemed to have happened to us during our entire time here." Crimson said, trying to optimistic.

"That we've noticed." Techno said. "Because this radiation is so weak, it must only affect us at a gradual rate. That's probably why there was such a delay for the call to evacuate. No one saw what was happening until too late. But the radiation is still there."

"So it's affecting us?" Agent Todd asked.

Techno nodded.

Crimson groaned. "How long?" she asked.

"Impossible to say." Techno said. "No more than a day, considering the state everybody is in."

"Then why hasn't anything happened to Agent Todd?" Crimson asked, pointing a finger at the agent.

"Oh, well, that's easy." Techno said. "Agent Todd spent all his time in sub-level five, in a closet."

"So?" Crimson said.

"So, the whole level is shielded." Techno said. "I said that before. No radiation can get in there unless it's being emitted from within. And this radiation I'm detecting is coming from outside."

"Then where is it coming from?" Crimson asked.

"I can't pinpoint it." Techno admitted. "It's too faint."

"But if Dr. Bellum's departure for here is anything to go off of, it's here, right?" Agent Todd asked, motioning to the bay.

"Quite possibly." Techno admitted. "So whatever we're looking for, it's probably here."

"So everybody go look for clues." Crimson prompted motioning around.

They spilt up, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Techno was heading along, thinking that this wasn't a very effective way to do this, and they wouldn't find anything, when he spied the Audubon Bay Bridge, and realized something about it.

"Crimson!" He called. "Come here!"

Crimson and Agent Todd hurried over. "What?" Crimson asked. "Did you find something?"

"I might." Techno said, and then pointed over at the bridge. "Look."

Crimson eyed the structure. Three of the four towers that held the bridge up were dark. But one was very brightly lit. And it wasn't any ordinary tower.

Crimson frowned. "Somebody is in Darkwing Tower." she said.

* * *

"M-m-maybe they just left the l-lights on." Agent Todd said, sounding skeptical, and also a little scared of what they might find.

"Maybe." Crimson admitted, "But I think we're onto something here."

"I'm picking up a strong heat signature." Techno reported. "Someone's in there."

"The question is, who?" Crimson asked.

"Y-you sure about this?" Todd asked.

"Very." Crimson and Techno both replied.

"Well, I'm not!" Todd said. "SH-SHUSH agents require written permission and authorization in...in... in order to get access to Darkwing Tower. D-D-Director Hooter's or-orders."

"Well, Director Hooter isn't around to ask, and besides, you have _our _permission." Techno said.

"Wh-what if th-that's not g-g-good enough for me?" Agent Todd asked.

"Oh, but it is." Crimson said. "You just don't like being up here."

Todd wobbled nervously as they walked across the principle suspension cable that connected the towers. "There has to be a better way!" he exclaimed.

"There is, but that would mean revealing more to you than we'd like." Techno said.

"Besides, this way is faster." Crimson said as she walked along the cable. "Just don't look down."

"I've already looked down five times now!" Agent Todd exclaimed.

"Then _stop!_" Crimson ordered. "And be quiet, we're nearly there. You don't want to alarm whoever's in there with your yapping, do you?"

Todd promptly shut up. They arrived at the window of the tower without event. Techno carefully opened it, and held it open while Crimson and Agent Todd slipped inside before following himself. Inside the tower, things were brightly lit. Everything was in order, and everything was in it's place. Nothing it seemed had been disturbed for more than a day.

Todd frowned and looked around. "I don't think there's anybody here." he said.

"No, someone's here, all right." Techno said, pointing. "I can still see that heat signature. He or she is back there, just out of sight."

"Right." Crimson said, pulling out her P90 just in case. "Techno, you're with me. Agent Todd, stay here."

"Gladly." Todd replied, who was still trembling with fright.

Crimson and Techno slowly walked across the length of the hideout and to the proposed location Techno said their person was at. Techno peered at the area intently through his visor.

"Yeah, it's definitely a person." Techno said. "I don't know how, but it is."

"Let's hope it's an ally." Crimson said, and paused just before stepping into the view of the said person. Taking a deep breath, she then stepped forward and got her first view of the person.

She blinked in surprise. It was a person all right, sitting calmly in a folding chair, looking to be asleep. But he was beakless, snoutless, featherless, and mostly hairless, but there was a large amount on his head. All this left was an unremarkable pink-skinned body, which was otherwise perfectly normal. Crimson's first impression was that the person was an alien, likely a Mertzian. But then she realized this person wore an all too familiar pilot's cap, red sweater, and scarf, and had a very familiar head of red hair.

Crimson's eyes widened. "Launchpad!" she exclaimed.

Launchpad jerked awake with a start, and whirled around to look at Crimson, only to jump again because she was still wearing her NegaGosalyn disguise and thus momentarily startled Launchpad. But he quickly snapped out of it and grinned.

"Crimson, Techno!" he said. "You're back from the Negaverse!"

"Yes, and just in time for a real mess, it seems like." Techno replied, motioning for Agent Todd to come on over.

"Launchpad, what happened to you?" Crimson asked, circling the pilot as he stood up. "Did the same thing that happened to everyone else happen to you?"

"Yeah, at least as far as it was ever figured out." Launchpad said.

"Then maybe you can explain what's happening here." Techno said. "Because you're the first person we've met besides Agent Todd here who still has an intact mind."

"Sure, sure, I can explain everything." Launchpad said, heading over to the Thunderquack. "But we have to hurry. There isn't going to be much time."

"Right, we know, whatever is happening to everyone else is probably happening to us too." Crimson said.

"Not probably." Launchpad said. "It _is _happening to you guys, and you haven't even noticed yet. Techno, your ears come to a point now."

Techno frowned and felt his ears. They indeed came to a point now.

"And you," Launchpad said, pointing at Todd, "I don't think we've ever met, but I'm pretty sure you fur isn't supposed to be that dark."

Agent Todd examined himself, and realized that his fur had indeed darkened a few shades, the white having changed to an ashy off-white and the brown patches were starting to fade.

"What about me?" Crimson asked anxiously.

"I don't see anything wrong with you yet, Crimson, but it won't be long before we do." Launchpad said, throwing open the hood of the Thunderquack and peering inside. "Techno, I need your help installing the major parts to Trellis's upgrades to the Thunderquack."

"Trellis's upgrades?" Techno repeated, puzzled. "But why?"

"Because we have to use them in order to get the meteorite off the planet."

"Meteorite?" Crimson asked.

"Yeah." Launchpad said, remembering the story. "It was a meteorite that started this mess."

* * *

It all started not long after Crimson and Techno left for their mission to the Negaverse. Me and DW went back to the tower that afternoon to try and keep ourselves busy. DW was feeling a bit put out that he was stuck here and not out helping with the mission. I was trying to come up with some way to cheer him up when a meteorite suddenly fell out of the sky. Me and DW saw it fall. It landed smack into the middle of the bay with a great splash.

DW wasn't too concerned about it, and radioed SHUSH to let them know. Turns out they saw it fall too, and had already dispatched a team of scientists in a sub to go and retrieve the meteor for study. Dr. Bellum was on the team. They reportedly got close enough to the meteor to see it, but then Dr. Bellum, detected that the meteorite was releasing a kind of radiation that she had never seen before, and Hooter ordered the team to fall back until they knew for sure the radiation was of no harm.

At first it seemed like nothing, because the radiation didn't seem to be doing anything. But then word started getting around about people having weird things happening to them, like ducks suddenly sprouting hair instead of feathers. One person was even said to have sprouted wings. Then weird things started happening to Dr. Bellum and her team, and quickly they lost their grip on reality, transforming into something else entirely.

Hooter saw he had a problem on his hands, and the order was given to lock down the whole city until we were sure what the problem was. Me and DW helped the SCPD do it all. By that point word was getting around that an epidemic was on the loose, and it seemed to have quickly spread to everybody. Even me and DW were starting to feel the effects.

Then the team that replaced Dr. Bellum and her team figured out that it wasn't an epidemic at all, and that it was really the radiation from the meteorite, having settled like a cloud over the whole city. After a few more experiments, they saw that the radiation was triggering a kind of gradual mutation in everybody exposed, turning them into strange creatures. But they also saw it could be undone, by just taking the exposed person away from the radiation. Eventually, everyone's bodies would naturally undo the damage.

But by this point, it was too late to do anything. There was reports of people all over the city succumbing fully to the effects of the radiation, with several more imminent to follow. Hooter had no choice to order SHUSH to evacuate, and quickly thereafter came the order for the rest of the city to evacuate to a safe distance. Several people didn't make out in time, regardless. Me and DW were going to follow everyone else, but then DW saw that the radiation wasn't affecting me like it was everyone else, and brought this up to Hooter.

Hooter saw that I could be the city's best chance to get the meteor out of here, and asked me to be the one and try and get it away. I, of course, agreed, and me and DW stayed behind to try and get the Thunderquack in ready in time. But then we ran into even more problems. DW went home at one point to make sure everything was locked down and secure for a possible long stay in the tower, but he never returned. I went after him, only to find the house covered with some kind of spider web. DW must've succumbed to the radiation himself and turned into some kind of spider. Dunno for sure, because I didn't actually see him.

But this left me in a jam, because I couldn't finish installing the rest of the needed Trellis's upgrades on my own. But I knew that Techno could, and presuming he and Crimson didn't run into any problems on their mission, I just had to wait for them to come back. Once they were back, they could help me finish the job.

In the meantime, I went and tried to retrieve the meteorite, which turned out to be a good thing I did, because every time I started to get too close to it, I would start falling unconscious. Very nearly crashed the Thunderquack last time I tried, so I gave up and left the meteor where it lay at the bottom of the bay.

I think what was happening was that the radiation is more concentrated around the meteor, and thus affects me more the closer I get to it. Since the mutation was pretty much done with me by that point, I figured it was because of that, that I couldn't get at the meteor. I'm hoping it won't affect you guys just yet, because the mutation hasn't progressed nearly as far as it has for me.

But that's where we stand. Now we got to hurry and pull this off before it's too late, and get that meteor off the planet and out into space.

* * *

"Space?" Crimson asked once Launchpad had finished his lengthy tale, who had started feeling off herself, no doubt due to exposure from the radiation. "Why does it have to be all the way out into space?"

"Because the meteor can't be left on the planet." Launchpad said as they worked. "Nobody could get close to thing without being affected by the radiation, so the only other option is to send it out into space."

"So how are you going to do that?" Agent Todd asked as he tried to help, his fur having darkened in color to a grey color, the brown patches completely gone now. A white stripe did remain though, which ran gracefully down his back. "This jet can't get into space."

"Not yet." Crimson said as she lowered a part into the Thunderquack's complicated interior and fastened it in place. "It can once we install the major parts of Trellis's upgrades."

"Which brings me to my next question." Todd said. "Who's Trellis?"

"A friend." Launchpad replied.

"He gave us the plans for these upgrades." Crimson explained. "And after studying them for awhile, we realized the upgrades would give the Thunderquack enough thrust to propel it out of the atmosphere and into space with the use of some kind of propulsion drive."

"We're going to quickly install this drive so that once we've got the meteor in the cargo hold of the jet, it can fly right out into space and jettison out into orbit." Launchpad went on.

"But the problem we face now is that these are just the major upgrades." Crimson explained as they worked. "Just enough to get the drive to work. There are actually several other, smaller, upgrades that are supposed to be there for safety reasons as well. Reenforced frame for the Thunderquack, more heat shielding, inertial dampeners, power surge protectors to protect the other systems from the boosts of power the drive will provide, and an additional battery."

"But we don't have time to install all of that." Launchpad said. "Besides, some of that stuff isn't even operational yet, like the inertial dampeners."

"So what are we going to do?" Todd asked.

"Play it safe." Crimson said. "Take things one step at a time, making sure we don't go too fast and making sure we don't have too much weight. If we do, and then we won't have enough power to even make it into orbit, and the batteries to the Thunderquack die and we go into a freefall."

"Too much weight?" Todd repeated. "How much weight is too much?"

"Techno's working out the details right now." Launchpad said.

"And I have completed said details." Techno announced suddenly from across the hideout.

He stepped out of the laboratory area of the hideout, a paper clutched in one hand. Crimson glanced at him, and then did a double take. Like everyone else, the radiation was affecting him just as much as everyone else. Unsurprisingly, his ears had continued to come to the sharp point. They had also lengthened a fair bit, and long tuffs of fur now poked out of them. But Crimson's eyes fell upon what trailed behind Techno; a lengthy, bushy-furred, tail.

"Techno!" Launchpad exclaimed in surprise, having also turned to look at him.

"What?" Techno asked, following their gaze. "Oh, that." he glanced at his newfound tail for a moment. "Yeah, that uh, started to sprout about a half-hour ago. I uh, don't really want to talk about it."

They stared at the tail for a long moment.

"So, what do you have, Techno?" Crimson asked.

"Ah yes." Techno said, turning back to his paper. "Well, I think we've determined the exact weight of the meteorite, which is a lot heavier than I expected. So, we're going to have to cut back. We already knew LP couldn't come. But Agent Todd, it'd be better if you stay here."

"Well, the more I hear about this proposed mission, I can't say I'm sorry." Todd replied.

Crimson gave him a look.

"Crimson and I's combined weights are just enough to not push things over." Techno continued. "That should make the Thunderquack just light enough to achieve orbit without using up _all _of it's power. We'll be cutting it real close though. Fortunately, we'll need far less once we've gotten rid of the meteorite and are about to reentry the atmosphere." he folded up the paper. "We can't get it any better than that."

"Well good, because we don't have enough time for that." Launchpad said, making one final adjustment to the upgrade he was uploading and closed the hood to the Thunderquack. "There, the Thunderquack's finally ready. Are you two ready to go?"

"As ready as we'll ever be, I guess." Crimson said, climbing into the pilot's seat of the plane.

"You know how to run the controls, right?" Launchpad asked. "That lever's the throttle, that one's controls the flaps, this one turns the plane left and right, and that one turns the plane up and down, and..."

"I get it, LP, and don't worry." Crimson said, waving him off. "I've flown this plane before, remember?"

"Yes, but you nearly crashed the plane into Nanite that time." Techno said as he climbed into the passenger seat. He shifted uncomfortably as he tried to find a position comfortable enough for his tail. "Oh, I'll be glad to get rid of this tail." he muttered.

Crimson paused for a moment. "I'm refraining from commenting." she said flatly.

"Thank you."

"Okay, I guess that's everything." Launchpad said, taking a few steps back. "Now remember, the closer you get to the meteor, the stronger it's effects are on you. So once you've got it, you'll need to hurry."

"Got it, LP." Crimson said, adjusting the controls. "Wish us luck."

"Wishing you luck!" Agent Todd said, crossing his fingers.

Crimson closed the canopy to the jet, and started the engine. With a final wave to Launchpad and Todd, the hydraulic lift to the jet suddenly jerked the plane downward, carrying it down the length of the tower. A moment later, the jet shot into Audubon Bay. Crimson took the controls and dove the plane deeper.

"We have the coordinates for that hunk of rock, right?" Crimson asked as she worked the controls.

"Yeah, head to the left." Techno said, working with his visor.

Crimson turned the jet to the left, switching on it's headlamps to light the way. She saw several rocks on the bottom of the bay, but before long she saw an extra large one that was different from the others.

"That's it?" she asked.

Techno nodded. "That's it." he confirmed. "Move the plane to hover over it so we can pull it into the cargo hold."

Crimson nodded, and moved the plane to hover over it. So far everything was working out great. Crimson wasn't even feeling any ill effects from the radiation yet. Meanwhile, Techno worked with the controls to the cargo hold. They could hear the bay doors opening, and a claw lowering to pick up the meteorite and pulling it inside. After a momentary pause filled with the sound of shifting stone, the doors could be heard closing again.

"There, done with that." Techno said, and glanced at Crimson. He blinked. "Crimson, you're turning green!"

Crimson glanced at her reflection in the glass of the canopy and saw he was right. She looked at techno, and saw that his ears and tail had grown larger still, and fur was starting to grow from where his feathers should be.

She winced. "The radiation is stronger now that we've got the meteorite." she said.

"Then we need to hurry." Techno said. "Get us airborne, Crimson, and quickly!"

Crimson nodded, and gunned the jet's engines, pointing it upward towards the surface of the bay. Moments later it shot out of the water and was shooting up into the air.

"Now?" Crimson asked, reaching for the control that would activate Trellis's upgrades.

"Not yet." Techno said. "We need to get as high as we can get first."

The Thunderquack shot higher into the sky, beginning to leave St. Canard well behind. The plane was starting to shake from the exertion.

"Now?" Crimson said, worried.

"Not _yet _Crimson." Techno said, his face getting distorted slightly as his bill started to turn into a snout. "We need to get higher."

"Techno, we can't _go _much higher! And much moment we waste wastes more battery power, power that is the only thing keeping us up!"

The jet was really starting to strain now, shaking violently. It was taking all of Crimson's concentration to keep it steady, which was becoming harder and harder the longer she was exposed to the radiation from the meteorite. She glanced at Techno, who was studying a display on his visor intently.

"Okay." he said finally. "Punch it, Crimson."

Crimson slapped a button on the control panel. The thrust from the engines suddenly went from red to bright white, and the jet shot forward. Both Crimson and Techno were pressed back into their seats, getting squeezed greatly by the inertia of their sudden thrust.

"Three minutes of battery power left!" Techno said.

"We're getting there, look!" Crimson said, pointing. Stars could be seen twinkling as the atmosphere outside thinned.

"We need to go higher still!" Techno said. "Two minutes of battery power left!"

"How much further?"

"Another kilometer at least!"

"We're stalling out, Tech, I can't get us to go much higher!"

"Try Crimson! One minute left!"

Crimson groaned as she struggled with the controls for another moment, watching the gage as it slowly started to go up to that one extra kilometer. It didn't make it, though. Without warning, the lights in the cabin suddenly went out, and the engine died. The plane stopped shaking, and started to sink.

"That's it, we're out of power!" Techno said.

"What happened, why didn't we make it?" Crimson demanded.

"I underestimated the weight of the meteorite most likely!" Techno said. "Still, this will have to be good enough." he reached for a lever on the console. "Jettisoning the meteor!"

"Wait, won't it just fall back to Earth at this altitude?" Crimson asked.

"Yes, but it'll hopefully burn up and be destroyed on reentry!" Techno said. "Besides, if it doesn't, it's not likely to hit land. We're no where near St. Canard anymore. But whatever we do, we gotta do it now!"

Crimson hesitated, noting how much more the radiation had affected them both, and then nodded. Techno pulled the lever, and the plane jolted as the meteor was released. It was like an invisible grip was suddenly released on them both, and both suddenly felt all the strain go away. It didn't last, thought, as the jet suddenly jerked like it had slammed into something and spun around, it's nose pointing back towards the planet below, which was rapidly coming closer.

"We're reentering the atmosphere!" Techno said. "Keep us level, Crimson!"

Crimson worked at it, but the plane continued to zoom downward at an alarming rate. Fire started to lash out at the plane's hull as the fiction heated up the craft.

"We're going too fast!" Techno said. "We're going to loose consciousness at this rate, and _then _we'll burn up!"

"I'm trying to slow us down!" Crimson barked as she worked at the controls.

She stopped to watch the planet surge towards them. And then the plane suddenly jerked violently again, and everything went dark.

* * *

The next thing Crimson remembered, she was waking up in a medical cot with an unfamiliar doctor hovering over her. He immediately noticed she was awake, and called to someone outside of her line of vision. He then left. He was replaced a moment later by Director Hooter.

"J. Gander." Crimson said softly with a hoarse voice.

"Crimson." Hooter greeted cheerfully. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired." Crimson replied, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. "What happened?"

"You and Techno crash landed the Thunderquack on the coast of Georgia, very nearly into the sea." Hooter said. "Thankfully, neither to two of you nor the plane suffered much physical damage. The plane landed fairly levelly, so one of you must have stay conscious long enough to keep the plane level enough for reentry."

"Huh." Crimson said. "And the last thing I remember was Techno telling me I wasn't keeping the plane level enough." she grinned for a moment. "The meteor?"

"According to our scans, it burned up in an uncontrolled reentry." Hooter said. "If anything of it survived, it most likely crashed into the sea. It won't be bothering us again."

"And St. Canard?"

"Very nearly back to normal again. We were right. Once everyone was away from being exposed to the radiation, the mutations reversed. Some of the more serious cases are still undergoing the process, but I daresay the worse of it is over now. There are quite of few frightened people out there, but fortunately, property damage during all of this was kept to a minimum and any injuries anyone received were usually self-inflicted, most likely by accident, and none of them anywhere near fatal. Everything will resume to normal as well."

"And me and Techno?"

"Fine. The mutations you both suffered have reversed themselves nicely." Hooter said. "Another day of observation for you both and you're free to go home. Which will be a good thing, because Darkwing is about stark raving mad by now. See, because you landed in Georgia, they have jurisdiction over you while you're getting treated and..."

"Darkwing?" Crimson asked. "Darkwing's okay?"

"Yes he is, and he's very anxious to see you." Hooter said. "Shall I send him in?"

Crimson grinned and leaned back. "Yes, please do, J. Gander."

Hooter nodded, and started to leave. At the door, however, he paused and looked back. "By the way, I understand that I should doubly thank you for your help. For not only your help in the situation with the meteorite, but also your mission in the Negaverse, which I understand went as smoothly as expected."

"Indeed it did, J. Gander." Crimson said, her grin getting bigger. "Indeed it did."

* * *

_Fun Facts: Agent Todd was a last minute addition to this chapter, and it very nearly didn't work out, as having Agent Todd around had the potential of possibly blowing the cover of a certain pair of superheroes. Clearly, though, I got it all to sort out._

_Speaking of which, there were a variety of scenes that were cut out of this. For example, there was going to be a scene in which Crimson and Techno went to the Mallard home only to find Drake in his alluded mutated spider form and the house filled with spider webs. It was dropped for both space, and the addition of Agent Todd. There was also going to be a scene that involved the Fearsome Five in mutated formed, with Rowe being problematic in his form as he was extra vicious and powerful with uncontrolled rage at something. It was again dropped for space, and the details were never quite worked out._

_This chapter is special as it's the first chapter to feature Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad, but not Darkwing, who's referred to frequently, but never actually appeared. This was done mostly by accident._

_It was to be explained at one point in this chapter that the radiation the meteorite emitted activated various residual, recessive, genes in people that triggered the mutations. So, DW turning into a spider is in reference to the time in the original show where he got bit by a radioactive spider. A leftover gene from that incident was triggered in his mutuation, leading him to his spider form. Likewise, there was going to be emphasis that the meteorite was of possible Teryx origin. These were all dropped, as I never found a good spot to bring it all up and maintain a smooth flow to the story._

_The mutated forms of Crimson, Techno, and Agent Todd, had they been allowed to continue, would've been Crimson becoming a mutant plant-duck (a reference back to the residual gene thing and the chapter "Transmutation"), Techno as a squirrel, and Agent Todd as a badger.  
_


	49. Jumpgate

Summary: It's been the gang's favorite show to watch for sometime now. But none of them ever expected to actually get to _live _it...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: This chapter climaxes a few things I've been building up to. Despite like you'd think, though, the chpt. kind of fizzles out in the end and undramatically. I'll explain why in the fun facts section. This chapter also parodies the Stargate universe like nothing else, but if you aren't too familiar with Stargate, never fear. Things are written in such a way that you'll still understand what's going on. At worse, you just won't catch on to a joke or two.

49.

Jumpgate

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Oh c'mon, LP, you know it'll end the same way. They beat the aliens, save the city, and end the episode with some silly joke."_

"_It's more complicated than that."_

"_No it's not, it's just like __**Pelican's Island**__! No matter what they did, they never got off that island! By the way, whatever did happen to __**Pelican's Island**__?"_

"_It went off the air three years ago, dad. Just as __**Jumpgate: Avalon**__ was wrapping up it's second season, and as __**Jumpgate**__ itself was wrapping up it's ninth. __**Jumpgate**__ had a great season finale that season, remember Launchpad?"_

"_Oh yeah. You had no idea if the team survived that alien attack. Really left things hanging."_

"_Special effects were awesome, too."_

_--  
_

"_Dad, you need to see this. And since you've been refusing to watch it on your own time, you've forced me to take drastic measures. Hence why we're doing a __**Jumpgate**__ marathon tonight."_

"_C'mon, Gos, I have no interest in the show. I don't mind you and LP watching it, but really, why must I have to watch it?"_

"_Because you're my dad, and I'll be darned if I ever let him not watch the best sci-fi show in human history."_

_--  
_

"_And you need our help."_

"_We can't stop them on our own, and you know it. Only you guys can."_

"_Hence why we called you. We can try to hold them back for awhile, but..."_

"_I understand. Fortunately for you, we have a ship not far from your planet. It can be diverted, and be there to aide you in less than an hour. But consider this a mere favor on our part. Should this happen again, we will not step up to help you resolve your problems. It is time you and your planet started looking out for yourselves. You'll owe us after this, as well."_

"_If and when we can ever repay you guys, we will. But don't hold your breath for that repayment anytime soon. We haven't gotten very far from our planet yet."_

"_And that's where you're wrong."_

_--  
_

"_Huh."_

"_What? Is there something you don't understand?"_

"_Oh no, I understand it well enough. I was just thinking about how similar these Teryx are to an enemy that appear on a TV show on our planet, called __**Jumpgate**__."_

"_Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. It lacks the whole sub-universe thing, but other than that, they sound almost identical."_

"_It must just be a coincidence, though. I mean, there's no chance any of that stuff's true, right?"_

_--  
_

"_What? You mean you had permission to take us here?"_

"_Who's permission?"_

"_Betcha he's not going to tell us."_

"_She's right, I can't tell you. Furthermore, there's a limit on what you're supposed to know about all of this, anyway. Not that I agree to it..."_

"_What the? Project: Bluebook? Approach with caution? Property of The A..."_

"_You probably shouldn't see that. Like I said, there are limits, and whether I like them or not, I have to enforce them."_

_--  
_

"_Remember the object Crimson found on the sensors that I wouldn't let you see? Well, the data on this chip will allow you to find out. I think the modifications will fit nicely with your aircraft, the...Thunderquack, right?"_

"_But I thought you couldn't tell us what that thing was."_

"_I can't tell you. But that doesn't mean I can't help you guys figure it out for yourselves. Like I said before. There are something that aren't meant to be secret. This is one of them. And maybe you finding it will get things rolling to make it happen."_

_--  
_

"_Who's Trellis?"_

"_A friend."_

"_He gave us the plans for these upgrades. And after studying them for awhile, we realized the upgrades would give the Thunderquack enough thrust to propel it out of the atmosphere and into space with the use of some kind of propulsion drive."

* * *

  
_

"Okay, system check, LP." Techno said, looking at a clipboard. "Inertial dampeners?"

"Check." Launchpad replied, scanning the console in front of him.

"Heat shielding?"

"Check."

"Surge protectors?"

"Check."

"Power levels above optimum levels?"

"Check."

"Artificial gravity?"

"Keen gear, really?" Crimson asked anxiously from beside Techno.

Techno looked up from his clipboard with a sigh. "Yes, Crimson, really." he said. "Please don't interrupt, though. LP, do they check out?"

"Well, the little light says it does." Launchpad said, pointing at the little light on the dashboard of the Thunderquack. "I don't think we'll really know for sure until we achieve orbit though, so will that do?"

"Yes, little light means check." Techno said, checking that item off his list. "Looks like we're set to go."

"All right!" Crimson exclaimed, doing what looked like a dance for joy in her seat.

"I must admit this is pretty exciting." Darkwing said from his usual seat beside Launchpad. "We're finally going to find out what it is Trellis wanted to find, this mysterious Project: Bluebook."

"And what better time to do it on than on the very first anniversary of your official return to the Posiverse after staying seven years in the Neagverse, right DW?" Launchpad said.

"Very true, LP." Darkwing agreed, leaning back in his seat. "I just hope this ride proves to go smoother, not to mention more productively, than the time you and Crimson tried this, Techno."

"Don't worry, sir, there have been several changes made since then." Techno said, strapping himself into his seat. "That incident where Crimson and I tried to achieve orbit to get rid of that meteorite was a rush job. We didn't have everything installed nor adequately prepared. This time, we've got everything installed properly, tested, and ready to roll. This flight should be as simple as flying to Duckburg and back."

"Enough talk, and let's go!" Crimson exclaimed, beyond excited about all of this. "I wanted to do this _months _ago!"

"As you've been constantly reminding us of ever since." Darkwing muttered, rolling his eyes. He gave Launchpad a nod. "Make her fly, LP."

Launchpad nodded, and started the Thunderquack's engine. The hydraulic lift lowered them out of the hideout and down the length of the tower and into Audubon Bay. Shooting some distance under the surface of the water for a few moments, Launchpad then pulled up on the controls, and the jet shot up and out of the water and into the evening sky, ever heading upward.

"Okay, Launchpad, level out at about fifteen thousand feet, and then make the switch to the orbital thrusters." Techno instructed as the jet flew upward. "According to the data on Trellis's chip, this will be the optimal height for activating the thrusters. It will also allow us to be better hidden from prying eyes."

"Which worries me." Darkwing admitted. "This Project: Bluebook, whatever it is, is clearly very top secret. I don't think there are going to be very many happy people out there in the world when we find out just what this project is."

"Trellis indicated as such many times." Techno said. "I'm inclined to agree, Mr. Darkwing, will probably will have to deal with some very unhappy people after this. But Trellis thought we should know this, and we have no reason at present to distrust him. I mean, he did help save the planet, didn't he?"

"I know, I haven't forgotten." Darkwing said. "But still...I have to wonder if we're asking for more trouble than we need."

They were silent for a moment. Crimson turned around in her seat to look back at St. Canard, fading in the distance. It looked like nothing more than a faint cluster of lights surrounding by a small black smear that was the bay. "How much further?" she asked impatiently.

"Almost there..." Launchpad said, eyeing the altimeter. "There. Fifteen thousand kilometers exactly. Switching to orbital thrusters, now."

The Thunderquack's engines suddenly flared brightly and the jet suddenly shot forward with enough speed to escape the pull of their planet's gravity well. But from within the craft, it's occupants only felt a light jerk.

"Wow, already this flight is going a heck of a lot smoother than ours, Tech." Crimson noted, as she watching the jet zoom out of the atmosphere.

"It's the inertial dampeners." Techno explained. "We didn't have them last time. Clearly, they're doing their job, and doing it well."

"Battery power is still very high, too." Launchpad noted, eyeing the right gage. "It's not getting eaten up nearly as fast as I'm told it was when you two flew the plane."

"Yes, that extra battery was a very good idea to add." Darkwing added, watching the blue atmosphere fade into starry blackness. "We in orbit yet?"

"Almost." Techno said, looking at a series of readouts displayed on his visor. "Okay, you can hold it here, LP."

Launchpad pulled back on the throttle, and the jet leveled out to hover miles above it's home planet. They all stopped to look down at it.

"That sight never gets old." Crimson remarked with a grin.

"So where's Project: Bluebook?" Darkwing asked, getting curious.

"Hold on." Techno said as he worked with his visor for a moment more. "Okay. According to the coordinates Trellis provided, it's in high orbit, a hundred kilometers straight ahead from our current position." he glanced out the glass canopy of the jet, and then pointed. "There, that must be it right there."

Twinkling brighter than the stars surrounding it was a little blob of shimmering light. Launchpad maneuvered the jet to fly towards it. Darkwing squinted his eyes at it. Crimson leaned forward in her seat to get a better look.

"What is it?" Crimson asked.

"We'll know when we get closer." Techno said. "I'm scanning it now with my visor. One thing's for sure, it's smaller than I was expecting. Roughly about the same size as the Thunderquack, give or take several inches. It's hard to know from here."

"Probably why no one has ever noticed the thing." Darkwing remarked.

They moved ever closer. Slowly, the light started to take shape into an object. Crimson squinted her own eyes at it.

"Huh." she remarked. "I'm getting a weird feeling of deja vu at the moment."

"Yeah, so am I." Techno remarked. "Launchpad, move closer. Less than a kilometer."

Launchpad shot him a look. "Is that wise?" he asked.

"It's moving away from us, we won't hit it so long as you follow it slowly, LP." Techno said.

They moved ever closer still until they were finally at the wanted distance, the object now clearly visible before them. They were all silent for a long moment.

"Well." Launchpad remarked. "This is a surprise."

"Is it just me," Darkwing began, pointing at the object, "or does that thing look a lot like..."

"Yeah, it does." Crimson agreed, interrupting.

"In fact, I think that's exactly what it is." Techno added.

"No, that's impossible." Darkwing persisted flatly. "Because I was going to say it looked a lot like a Jumpgate."

"And I say again." Techno said, staring at the object. "I think that's exactly what it is."

* * *

There was a long moment of silence as they all stared at the object, orbiting their planet. No matter how they looked at it, they couldn't deny what it reminded them of. It had all the looks of the Jumpgate all four of them knew so well. At it's center was a ring-like object that looked nearly big enough for the Thunderquack to fly through.

Protruding outward from one side of this ring, the side designed for objects to enter through, were three, thick, protrusions that wrapped together to form a rigid tube, but with small spaces between each prong. On the other side another protrusion stuck out from the top of the device, longer than the others, and tapered off to a tip. It looked almost like a tail. Three small antenna-like objects poked out from the device, evenly space from each other, with a little blue light on each one that blinked. It gave the device a strangely captivating look.

Darkwing stared at it for a moment longer, then shook his head. "This can't be." he muttered. "Jumpgates don't exist. It's all fiction, part of some far-fetched sci-fi show that airs on TV!"

"'Far-fetched?'" Crimson repeated, offended to hear her favorite show insulted so.

"Well, apparently they really do exist, because I'm not finding a shred of proof to say otherwise." Techno said. "The device is even producing energy signatures that I would imagine to be consistent with such a device!"

"But even you don't know that for sure." Darkwing pointed out, turning around in his seat to look at Techno. "How do we know that this isn't part of some kind of elaborate joke?"

"That would be one heck of a joke." Launchpad remarked. "Who would go to such great lengths to build a fake Jumpgate a lure us here?"

"Launchpad's right, and besides, don't forget who we got this information from." Techno said. "Trellis. And he is a very sensible and serious person. He's not the kind of person to pull a joke on us. And anyway, what would that get anybody?"

"But then here's something I don't get." Crimson said. "This project is some kind of worldwide secret, right? Then, presuming everything in the show _Jumpgate _is really true, then wouldn't that blow the secret out of the water?"

"Not necessarily." Techno said. "Remember that season five episode of _Jumpgate_ where the team discovers that there's a TV show being made that is based on their adventures due to a security leak? The government allowed the show to go through in the end, because it could give them something to point their fingers at should another security leak happen."

"So you're saying that the show _Jumpgate _and all related media was created for the sole purpose of having something to pin the blame on in case the secret got out?" Darkwing asked, slightly ludicrously.

"Well, I'm sure the show's makers get something out of the arrangement." Launchpad remarked.

"And actually, this explains a whole lot." Techno said. "Remember when we asked for help from the Larsonians last? About the cryptic sentence saying there was more going on than we knew?"

"They _knew _we had a Jumpgate orbiting out planet?" Darkwing asked.

"Trellis and the crew of the _Mossflower_ did." Techno pointed out. "I would imagine it's not so hard to find with their level of technology."

"But this also confirms that everybody but us knew about this Jumpgate, but that it's been actively used at the same time." Crimson said. "And it also explains why the Teryx seemed so familiar when we first met them. All of the things shown on the show are based on real events. So somewhere out there in the galaxy, we've got people from our planet using this thing to go and visit who knows what!"

"All done while us the average citizens are completely clueless about it." Techno said.

Darkwing shook his head again. "This is still just a tad too unbelievable." he insisted.

They all stopped to look at the Jumpgate again.

"You know, there is only one way to find out for sure." Crimson remarked, pointing at the device. "Go through."

"Yes, but the Thunderquack isn't adequately prepared for Jumpgate travel." Techno pointed out. "And besides, with it's wingspan, it's too wide to fit through."

"We can always fold the wings up." Launchpad suggested.

"Trellis's upgrade won't let us while they're still active." Techno said. "And the wings would still get in the way anyway."

They were silent for yet another moment.

"So...now what?" Crimson asked.

At that moment, a beeping sound started to ring out. Launchpad glanced at the dashboard.

"We're picking up a transmission." he said. "From the surface of the planet."

"Uh-oh." Techno remarked. "I think somebody found out we're up here."

Darkwing winced. "Better put it through, LP." he instructed.

Launchpad nodded, and pressed a button. The radio hissed for a moment before an automated, looping, transmission came through.

"-and prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply will result in the shooting down of your vessel." the transmission ran, "Repeat, to unidentified vessel, you have encroached upon restricted territory without authorization. Land immediately at the transmitted coordinates and prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply will result in the shooting down of your vessel. Repeat, to unidentified vessel..."

"We've received a set of coordinates directing us to what I'm presuming to be a secret facility deep in the wilderness of Idaho." Techno announced. "It's broadcasted on all frequencies it seems. Clearly, these guys are prepared for anything."

"And they certainly didn't hesitate to react, either." Crimson noted.

Darkwing had pulled up the coordinates on a screen and was studying them with a frown. "Funny, I don't remember any SHUSH facilities being located there."

Techno and Crimson exchanged glances. "I don't think SHUSH is involved in this, Mr. Darkwing, sir." Techno said.

"But then...who else could it be?" Darkwing asked. "SHUSH is the most secret organization on the planet!"

"So far as we know." Crimson pointed out.

Launchpad listened to the transmission as it continued to repeat itself. "So, uh, guys are we going to obey their wishes, or just wait for them to shoot us down?" he asked hesitantly.

Darkwing sighed, then waved his hand dismissively. "Go ahead and land the jet at the coordinates, LP." he said. "It's not like we've got much choice at this point."

Launchpad nodded, and turned the Thunderquack away from the Jumpgate and towards the planet below. Reentering the atmosphere without event, the jet was flown towards the requested coordinates. Very shortly, the jet arrived at a plain multi-building installation that was clearly military. It also lacked all the usual traits of SHUSH, thus confirming to Darkwing that SHUSH really was uninvolved in this, and probably none the wiser, too.

Launchpad brought the jet about and lowered her to land upon a landing pad just the right size for the Thunderquack. Surrounding the pad, however, was a large regiment of armed gunmen, their weapons all trained on the jet as it slowly came to land. They did not lower their weapons a slightest fraction once the jet was landed and they had it completely surrounded. The four heroes within eyed their guard with nervous eyes.

"So what should we do now?" Launchpad asked, having powered down the jet and left with little to do.

"Surrender, I guess." Darkwing said, opening the canopy, and standing up, raising his hands into the air.

* * *

What happened then happened so quickly and effectively it was a blur. All four of them were quietly taken into custody and escorted into the facility where they underwent a wide variety of tests, most of which were done to confirm identities. Once that was done, all four were pushed into a small, scarcely furnished cell to wait. They had hardly been there for more than ten minutes when they were escorted back out of the cell and taken to an small office, one of many in the building it was housed in.

Except this one housed someone more important than the others.

He was a tall and fairly well-built duck that was starting to show his years. His hair had almost turned perfectly silver, and light wrinkles creased his face here and there. But his obviously carefree attitude suggested something the opposite of old. Leaning back in his chair and resting his feet on his desk, he was busy talking on a phone at the moment. He motioned to Darkwing and the others to wait a moment while he finished his call.

It didn't take long. After saying a curt 'yes sir' or two into the phone, then hung it up. Pulling his feet of the desk and sitting straight in his chair, he turned to face his guests on fully, interweaving his fingers together on his desk and grinned a possibly false grin.

"Well, a comic convention wasn't on my to-do list today, but I suppose it would shake things up nicely around here." he remarked after a moment of sizing Darkwing and his compatriots up.

"Huh?" Darkwing asked, then glanced down at his fairly flamboyant costume and winced. "Oh, well, about that..."

"Mr. Darkwing, do you realize just how much trouble you've gotten yourself into?" the duck asked.

"Um...lots?" Darkwing hazarded to guess.

"Wait, you know who we are?" Techno interrupted suddenly.

"Wasn't _that _hard." the duck remarked, leaning back in his seat again. "The tacky jet was practically a dead giveaway."

"Hey, I designed that jet!" Launchpad wined.

"I know." the duck said, like this explained everything. "I also know you're not that great of a pilot, so I was a bit surprised...and a bit...put out...when I found out you didn't crash land your craft."

Crimson gave the duck an odd look. "Well, you certainly know a lot about us." she noted. "Care to tell us who you are then?"

"How about we focus on the matter at hand, shall we?" the duck asked. "Like, for openers, the _little _detail of all four of you hovering around a very top secret device!"

"You mean the Jumpgate?" Launchpad asked without thinking.

"Oh, so you even know what it is, hmm?" the duck asked.

"Uh, yeah, big fans of the show." Crimson remarked sheepishly.

"Are you really?" the duck asked melodramatically, then went on to add sarcastically, "Well, that changes everything! You're in _really _deep trouble now."

"Well...if it helps any...we all have maximum security clearance from SHUSH, so..." Darkwing began to offer.

"There are some things not even _that_ will get you these days." The duck said harshly. "Besides, not even SHUSH is aware of our operations here."

"I knew it." Techno muttered under his breath.

"Now Darkwing, I'm very familiar with you." the duck went on. "I know what you've all done in your rather dubious careers as masked vigilantes over in St. Canard. And that in of itself is problematic enough. But none of that can even begin to suggest how you all managed to find out the location of Project: Bluebook and much less get _up _there."

"Oh, well, we did have some help." Darkwing admitted.

"From whom?" the duck demanded on the spot.

Darkwing hesitated for a moment. "Someone named Trellis." he finally admitted.

The duck blinked, and then squeezed his face into a scowl, leaning his head forward and pressing a hand to his forehead. "Trellis." he repeated in a harsh whisper. He then sat straight up and shook his fist at the ceiling. "_Trellis!_" he exclaimed as if Trellis could hear him right at this moment. "Are you _purposely _trying to create more paperwork for me?!"

"You know him?" Crimson asked.

"A little _too _well, if you please." the duck said, directing his attention back to the four. "Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy and a great ally, but sometimes his unsurpassable need to go blowing our planet's secrets out of the water _really _grates upon my nerves."

"Well, if it helps any, all he did was give us instructions on how to enhance the Thunderquack so it could achieve Earth orbit, and the general location of where we needed to look, but he didn't actually tell us what it was we were looking for." Techno offered. "We had no clue what it was until we saw it earlier."

The duck sighed. "Regardless, this situation is a headache waiting to happen." he muttered.

"So there really is a Jumpgate?" Crimson asked hopefully.

"Well, since you already know this much..." the duck muttered. "Yes, ma'am, there is indeed a Jumpgate, in fact there's a whole network of them strung all throughout the universe it seems and we've been using them appropriately for the past twelve or so years. Don't ask me the particulars about how they work, as I don't understand it myself, but I'm told it's all explained in our cover story, the TV show."

"You mean where each Jumpgate opens a portal into hyperspace where all the laws of physics are thrown out the window, and using carefully transmitted signals to direct every object that enters a Jumpgate to another Jumpgate almost instantaneously at any given location in the galaxy?" Techno asked all in one breath.

The duck gave him a long blank look. "That was a waste of a perfectly good explanation." he remarked.

"Sorry." Techno grumbled.

"So what's going to happen to us?" Darkwing asked.

"Well, I can't really arrest you four without someone noticing, so you'll have to swear an oath of secrecy and get the heck out of my hair." the duck said.

"That's it?" Crimson asked, looking a bit put out.

"No, we'll give you milk and cookies before you go too." the duck remarked sarcastically. "_Yes, _that's all, what did you expect?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe a tour?" Crimson asked hopefully.

"A tour. A tour she wants!" the duck declared. "Well, pray tell me a tour of _what?_"

"Well, seeing that the Jumpgates actually do exist, it stands to reason so would the city of Avalon." Crimson stated simply.

The duck blinked. "Ohhhh no!" he said, shaking his hands. "Oh no, that is simply out of the question, here!"

"Well, I don't know, you certainly have been known to pull a few strings in the past, General John O'Brien." Crimson said saucily.

The duck shot a surprised look at her.

"Like it was for you figuring out who we are, it wasn't hard for me to figure out who you are." Crimson explained. "Just had to compare you with your television counterpart. The personality was practically a dead giveaway. Techno, I can't believe you hadn't figured this out yet."

Techno, who was looking a bit surprised himself, blinked. "Well, I suspected." he admitted. "But I was waiting for confirmation first before I said anything."

"Well, you've got it!" the general snapped. "I am who she says she is. Not like it'll get her anything, though."

"Oh I don't know, J. Gander Hooter might take an interest into all of this." Crimson said airily, drawing surprised looks from all around.

O'Brien narrowed his eyes at her. "You wouldn't." he said.

"How are you going to stop me?" Crimson asked. "One slip to Director Hooter, and the whole situation is out of your control. I think SHUSH would demand equal knowledge about Project: Bluebook once this happens, and then we all can stay in the loop."

Darkwing stared in bewilderment at her. "Crimson, what are you doing?" he asked. "Are you _trying _to get him mad at us?"

"Oh, I'm already mad!" O'Brien said, standing up. "You're trying to blackmail me!"

Crimson said nothing to confirm or deny the claim.

"Solider, get this lot out of my office!" O'Brien exclaimed at the leader of the party of guards that were waiting at the door.

The guards escorted their charge out of the room, leaving O'Brien to sit heavily in his chair for a moment. After a moment, he left his breath with a whoosh.

"Dang it." he muttered, and went to place a call.

* * *

"General, that is simply out of the question."

"Jonas, I'm not saying I like this anymore than you do." O'Brien said, watching the figure on the screen. "But she wasn't kidding when she said there's nothing we can do to stop them. We can't do anything to keep them from talking except arresting them and throwing them into some deep dark hole somewhere."

"I wouldn't mind doing as such."

"I'll bet you wouldn't, but we wouldn't be able to do it without drawing a heck of a lot of attention to us." O'Brien said. "Whether we like it or not, these guys are famous for what they do."

"Well, that is certainly debatable."

"The point is that we can't just make them vanish off the face of the Earth. Too many people would notice, and then where would that get us? Besides, our problem doesn't lie so much with them but rather Hooter. You know him better than I do. Don't tell me he'll leave the issue alone if they all vanish and everything points at us."

"I do not want SHUSH getting involved in Project: Bluebook. They're causing enough trouble as is with matters here at home, I don't need them adding to our problems on the galactic front, either."

"Then we've got no choice!" O'Brien said. "You know what will happen if they blab out everything to Hooter! Exactly what you're so keen to avoid! Our only solution is to give in and give them what they want!"

Vice President Norrin sat impassively for a long moment on the screen. He gave O'Brien a long and neutral expression through his thin-rimmed glasses, one he knew very well.

"Look, I know you hate Darkwing with a passion, but really, think about it." O'Brien said. "You have to admit that Darkwing will be a heck of a lot easier to control than Hooter would be. Blackmail or not, if we want to keep Hooter out of Project: Bluebook, then we've got to give them what they want."

"You underestimate Darkwing, general." Norrin said plainly. "Given half the chance..."

"Then let's not give it to them!" O'Brien interrupted. "Look, we'll just take them to Avalon for a day, show them around, and then send them home. That would make them happy, right?"

"How can we ensure that they uphold their end of the deal?" Norrin asked rhetorically.

"They're trustworthy, I can tell!" O'Brien said. "Which, with all due respect Jonas, you clearly can't."

Norrin was silent for a moment. He actually looked to be considering it.

"It won't be that much trouble." O'Brien went on to insure. "All's quiet at Avalon at the moment. Colonel Pepper is going to be stopping by a little later tonight to pick up some goods. We can send them along with him when he goes back. What could possibly happen?"

Norrin was silent a moment longer. "All right, fine." he said. "But you will be responsible for them, general. You are to watch that foursome with eyes like a hawk at all times."

"I'll be sure to tell Parting that when I explain things to her." O'Brien said. "But I don't think we'll have anything to worry about."

"Let's hope so, general." Norrin said. "Because trouble has an uncanny knack for finding Darkwing and company."

* * *

"Well, I hope you four are happy now." O'Brien said later as he escorted the foursome of heroes across the facility. "You got what you wanted."

"Oh yes, I'm quite happy, thank you." Crimson said.

"Well, I'm not." Darkwing said. "Crimson, I want you to know you ran a real risk just so you could see some stupid city."

"Avalon is not a stupid city, sir." Techno said, unable to help himself. "This could very well be the opportunity of a lifetime. I think earning us the right to see it makes it all worthwhile."

"Still, he's right." O'Brien said. "And don't think this will work again, either. Next time I'll just lock you away in some deep dark hole."

"Oh, we'll see about that." Crimson said, but otherwise dropped the subject.

They ultimately arrived at a landing pad not unlike the one the Thunderquack landed on. But instead of the Thunderquack, a slightly smaller, wingless, rigidly shaped craft sat there instead. It's back hatch was open, and it was here that a party of three where loading a small stack of crates into the craft. Two of the three where common soldiers found around the base, but one looking to be of a higher rank than the others, stood out as he wore a fairly different uniform with a unique insignia stitched onto it's sleeves.

He spied the general and the others coming, and paused for a moment to watch them. When O'Brien waved him on over, he came without hesitation.

"General." he greeted as he approached.

"Colonel." he greeted back.

The apparent colonel, a duck with messy black hair, glanced at Darkwing and the others. "This them, then?" he asked.

"Yeah." O'Brien replied. "Colonel, meet Darkwing Duck and company, semi-prestigious crime fighters from St. Canard, Calisota. Guys, this is your pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Pepper."

Crimson waved empathically at the colonel, and urged the others to do the same. They did so hesitantly. Pepper only looked blankly at them in response, however.

"Mm." he said. "So in this little mission I not only get to be the errand boy, but also the chauffeur for flamboyant celebrities."

"Hey." Darkwing said, placing his hands on his hips.

"I'll explain the reasons why at a later date, colonel." O'Brien said. "But hey, at least you get to bring me with."

"Yeah, at least there's that." Pepper agreed, giving his passengers to be one last look over, then turned to the craft. "All right then, let's get a move on." he said, waving at the craft. "Everybody on board the jumper that's coming aboard."

"'Jumper?'" Darkwing repeated as they climbed onto the craft, moving past the crates of cargo.

"It's their nickname for the ship, DW." Launchpad explained.

"See, you fly it through the Jumpgate, that's how you go through it, as all Jumpgates are spaceborn." Techno explained.

"And since Jumpgates literally "jump" you from one location to another, the craft earned the name jumpers." Crimson concluded.

"Yes, very fascinating, can we all get onboard now?" O'Brien asked.

The jumper was divided into two parts. The back part was where all the crates had been stacked, taking up most of the space there, so everyone moved to the front where there was just enough seats for all.

"Everyone seated?" Pepper asked flatly, pressing a switch that automatically closed the back hatch and sealed it. Without waiting for a reply, he went on. "Okay, please keep your arms and hands inside the vehicle at all times, and please remain seated until the jumper has come to a complete stop."

And with that, he gunned the jumper's engines and it shot off into the air. It wasn't long before they arrived at the Jumpgate hanging in orbit. Pepper oriented the jumper to fly through the Jumpgate's front side, then reached to press a button on the console.

"Sending activation signal..." he muttered to himself, "...and away we go."

The Jumpgate did nothing apparent when the signal was sent, but that changed when Pepper nosed the jumper into the Jumpgate. There was a sudden flash of light, something whooshing by as the jumper suddenly rushed forward at incredible speeds for less than blink of an eye, and then suddenly appeared on the other side of an identical Jumpgate.

This one orbited a blue and green, friendly, planet not unlike the one they had just left, but the real focus of attention was really on the much larger object that orbited with the Jumpgate.

"Whoa." Crimson said, standing up.

"Hey, I said to stay seated until the jumper comes to a _complete _stop." Pepper griped.

O'Brien however was enjoying their guests's amazement. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the city of Avalon." he said dramatically.

Avalon proved to be more space station than city, but it was certainly big enough to fit perhaps more than one city within it. It was roughly circular when viewed from above, and was easily about a kilometer across in diameter and several, several, floors deep. Jutting out of the side of the station were four pylons all evenly space from each other that stretched out a great length from the main body of the station. Little blinking green lights flashed on the tips of these, but there were also little gun turrets placed on them as well, currently in active.

At the top of the station was a large dome seemingly made of glass, or, more likely, some other transparent material. Through it, the real part of Avalon that was actually city. A small mass of what appeared to be skyscrapers that were housed within the dome. At the top of the dome, however, was a large disk-like object with rows of windows in it. It's location suggested it was a kind of control structure. Within the dome, a tall tower could be seen joining with it's underside.

Little lights where scattered all over the structure of the station that blinked and flashed and shone brightly at them. As the jumper approached, it became clear that it was heading towards a large doorway, which was currently sealed shut. Pepper piloted the craft towards the door without concern, though.

"Avalon, this is Colonel Pepper, requesting permission to dock, if you please." Pepper said into the radio. "Got cargo and passengers here, all of the good sort, or so I'm told. But they all came straight from home, so..."

"We get the message, Colonel, c'mon in." a friendly voice said in reply.

The doors slid open and the jumper inched it's way in. Turning around in the spacious hanger bay inside, Pepper landed the jumper on what appeared to be it's own landing pad. Meanwhile, the hanger bay doors slid closed again, and the bay was presumably repressurized.

Pepper then slapped the control that opened the rear hatch. "Everybody out." he said, standing up.

Darkwing, Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad all filed out, with the general leading them, leaving Pepper behind to unload the jumper. They started to walk across the hanger bay, but they didn't get far before they met up with a cheerful blond haired duck dressed in a uniform similar to Pepper's.

"General, glad you could come." she greeted O'Brien happily.

"Glad to be here, Parting." O'Brien said, then turned to introduce their followers. "This is the guests I told you about. Guys, this is Colonel Amanda Parting, current leader of our little expedition here on Avalon."

"Hello." Crimson greeted.

"Hello to you as well." Parting said in return. "No need to introduce yourselves, I've already familiarized myself with you all."

"I presume the same way the general here found about us." Darkwing said a tad bitterly.

"Hey, I had orders." O'Brien said. "Besides, we already have quite a file on you guys."

"Really?" Launchpad asked. "Whatever for?"

"Launchpad, we've encountered our own share of aliens before." Techno pointed out. "You didn't really think that all went unnoticed, did you?"

"Yes, and I must say you have proven yourselves very effective and dealing with such threats." Parting said. "If it wasn't for the fact that you're busy doing your crimefighting stuff and that you don't have the security clearance and are unlikely to ever get it, I'd ask if you were interested in joining our forces."

"That's actually kind of flattering." Crimson remarked with a grin.

"There is one thing I want to ask before we begin." Parting said. "Are the costumes really necessary? I mean yes, it's important to have a kind of uniform to reflect your line of employment, but really..."

"The costumes protect our identities, and since we are with people who only know us with the mask on, we wear them." Darkwing said.

Parting glanced at O'Brien at this, who just shrugged. "Okay, then." Parting said. "Next question. Why the vibrant colors? And when I ask this question, it's directed mostly at Darkwing."

Darkwing glanced at his purple colored outfit. "What's wrong with purple?" he asked. "I like purple! I think purple is a great color to go..."

"So I understand you four are getting a tour, then?" Parting interrupted. "Shall we get started then?"

* * *

"As you can see, Avalon is massive in size." Parting explained as she lead the party along down a hallway, O'Brien wordlessly walking along beside her. "Our expedition here numbers to fairly large numbers, but even then, it's nowhere near enough to populate the whole station. We in fact haven't even explored the whole city yet. There are still parts completely untouched by us, which is in of itself astounding, because what we _have _found here is simply amazing."

"There's no denying that!" Crimson remarked, running her hand along the hallway wall as they walked along. "Already this is proving to be far better than anything the show had to offer."

Parting chuckled. "That's because the show only has light descriptions and their own imagination to work upon, as well as only one writer who actually knows what's going on." she explained. "The show is designed to dissuade the suspicious, and not be entirely accurate."

"Yes, no real point in that if you're trying to deny it all existed." Darkwing agreed.

"But why keep it secret?" Launchpad asked. "This place is simply amazing! It seems a pity to not share it with the world."

Parting nodded in silent agreement. "So many of us think." she said. "Unfortunately, all this amazement comes with a price. During our twelve years of exploration with the use of the Jumpgate, we've encountered many enemies over the years, and some of them none to pleasantly. In fact, some are downright scary, not so much in appearance, but what they're capable of doing."

"Like the Teryx." Techno suggested.

"Very much so." Parting agreed. "And there's more than the Teryx. There are hundreds of other enemies out there that are out there just to cause problems for the likes of us. If everyone back home knew all of that...well, we're not sure if anybody could handle it."

"We can." Crimson said. "And clearly you guys can. And Trellis clearly thought we could, otherwise he wouldn't have directed us to find the Jumpgate to begin with."

"And maybe he does think he's doing us a favor." Parting said. "But while Trellis means well, that doesn't always mean it's what's best."

They walked on for a few moments in silence.

"Crimson, you seem to be an expert about the show." Parting said suddenly. "Tell me, what do you consider to be the best room in the whole station?"

"Probably the actual city, the part in the dome you could see from outside." Crimson replied.

"So that's where we'll go first." Parting said, leading them to a small and seemingly insignificant little compartment and motioned for them all to step inside. "This room," she explained, "is a teleporter, and will transport us to several locations within Avalon."

"We've been teleported before, we know how it works." Techno said.

"I know." Parting said. "I'm just making sure you guys know."

She pressed a control on a small panel just within the room, and then a flash of light engulfed them all, whisking them to another location elsewhere in the station. Stepping out of the room, the group was quickly in awe as they got their first good look at the interior of the dome Crimson had described for the first time.

Parting grinned at their amazement. Even O'Brien had to share some of the euphoria for a moment and grin as well.

* * *

The tour went on as planned. With Parting leading, she led them through the dome-enclosed metropolis, big enough to hold the metropolis section of St. Canard, and showed them all of the interesting details Avalon had to offer that could be presented during their short stay. It quickly became clear that they could stay here for a month and still not see it all.

The tour was concluded with the command deck, which was probably the most busiest portion of Avalon. It overlooked the operations of the whole city, and was thus the most important. They spent a fair amount of time here. By the time they were done, Colonel Pepper was done unloading the jumper and getting the crates sent to where they needed to go. He was then asked to take Darkwing and the gang to the cafeteria to have a bite to eat before they go while Parting and O'Brien chatted in Parting's office.

"Well, I must say that the tour went very well." O'Brien remarked as they stepped into the office. "I must give you credit Parting, you seem to have a bit of a flare for that."

Parting grinned. "Thank you sir." she said. "It was my pleasure, really. Despite first appearances, Darkwing and his compatriots are actually quite likable. I really meant it when I said it was a pity they couldn't be allowed to participate in what we do."

"Mm, but Vice President Norrin, and a whole boatload of other people with power over us would never go for it." O'Brien said. "For one thing, those four, particularly Darkwing, all seek the spotlight, something we can't allow here. And second of all, they have too much dramatic flare from their work at vigilantism. Clearly, this works well for what _they _do, but not what _we _do."

"I know." Parting said, resting against her desk. "But still, I still stand by it."

O'Brien didn't reply, and instead changed the subject. "So, it's been about a year now since you came here." he said. "You enjoying your new command?"

Parting chuckled. "Well, it's definitely a new experience, and not something I'm used to." she said. "But for the most part it's gone well."

"Well good." O'Brien said. "But you know, I kinda miss having you around. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you got promoted and all of this...but still. I kinda miss the day when it was _us _who went through the Jumpgate and explored the unknown. Me and you and David..."

"Yeah, those were the days." Parting admitted. "But I guess we gotta move on at some point. Growing up, in a sense, even."

"Bah, I didn't want to grow up when I was a kid." O'Brien said. "Guess I still don't even now."

"Well, whatever the case, it was still good to see you." Parting said. "Actually, though, I'm a bit surprised you came, or even arranged this tour at all."

"What do you mean?" O'Brien asked. "Think I can't get away from that stuffy office of mine and come and visit a friend?"

"No, it's kind of the reverse." Parting said. "I mean, we are quite busy here at the moment..."

"What?" O'Brien asked. "But nothing major has happened at Avalon for a few weeks now. I would think you'd all be very nearly sitting around and twiddling your thumbs."

"No." Parting said with a frown. "Didn't you get my report?"

"What report?" O'Brien asked. "I haven't seen any report recently."

Parting bit her lip for a moment.

"Parting, what's going on?" O'Brien demanded. "Don't make me pull rank on you."

Parting looked at O'Brien for a long moment. "Sir, we've found Cassandra." she said.

* * *

"How did you find her?" O'Brien asked urgently as Parting led him to the appropriate lab. "Last I heard, she was declared MIA!"

"In a sense, she still is." Parting said. "In reality, though, she was killed in action on that planet. But the populace took it upon themselves to...revive her."

"I know this part." O'Brien said. "But she was quite strictly on _their _side after that, not ours! So how did you get her?"

"In a chance encounter during a mission with Colonel Pepper's team." Parting said as they approached the appropriate lab. "They stumbled across an outpost of theirs. Cassandra was there. The colonel and his team managed to overpower and bring her here. Since then we've kept her unconscious as Dr. McDonald works on a way to undo whatever it is those blasted aliens have done to her."

The entered said lab. It's walls lined with scientific equipment both belonging to Avalon and Earth, with a handful of scientists wandering around working with them. But in the center of the lab, standing up, restrained, in a transparent tube, was a person, looking unconscious.

O'Brien paused for a moment upon seeing her, then stepped towards the tube. "Dr. Cassandra Pierson, the original leader of this expedition." he said, starting to circle the tube and studying figure within.

Cassandra was a middle aged arctic fox with beautiful pure white fur. O'Brien was well familiar with her background before she became involved in Project: Bluebook, and knew her well. She had been selected as the original leader of the expedition to Avalon because she was an excellent diplomat, and had already proven herself a capable leader. She had been expedition leader for a full three to four years.

Then disaster struck. On a mission through the Jumpgate, they encountered a planet that was populated entirely by robots. The planet had struck tough times, though. It seemed that in some event the planet had hit a stroke of bad luck, and the mostly mechanical planet they lived on blew a circuit. The results were very nearly fatal, and even then, very nearly twelve years later, they were struggling.

It seemed they needed help, and Cassandra was more than willing to give it to them. The robots accepted it with open hands, but it was really a trap to take advantage of them and use that help to try and restore the power over their sector of space that they had lost. The expedition quickly caught on, and moved to thwart the plans, but not without a price. Cassandra, feeling guilty for what she had brought about was the ring leader behind the movement to stop the robots, and in the chaos that followed, everyone lost track of her.

She was declared missing in action as result, but was really presumed dead, as their work at thwarting the robots left them crippled once more. This was when Parting took over. Since then, they saw little of the robots, but recently, it was clear the robots were finally starting to bounce back with a vengeance.

And then it was discovered that Cassandra wasn't as dead as everyone thought.

Circling to look at Cassandra's left side of her face, O'Brien noticed with a wince the large amount of robotic circuitry that covered that side of her face.

"Ah, I see you found the trouble spot already." a new voice spoke suddenly, startling O'Brien. He turned to see one of the scientists, a short-haired goose with a look of pride on his face, standing beside him. "I suppose it'd be too much to hope you're here to help, though, right? Gotta leave it all to the scientists."

O'Brien made an expression that was part a friendly smile and part a grimace. "Ah yes." he said. "Dr. Robert Marion McDonald, if I remember right."

Now McDonald winced. "Actually, just Robert McDonald will suffice." he said, embarrassed by his middle name. "Or just Rob. But again, that's just wishful thinking."

"I hope you're making progress with this." O'Brien said more sternly.

"You mean resolving the impossible?" McDonald asked. "Yeah, so what else is new. I'm Mr. I-can-make-it-possible, at your service."

O'Brien frowned. McDonald got the drift.

"Making some progress, general sir." McDonald said. "As I said, you can see the problem area."

"Why is she like that?" O'Brien asked.

"That was where her injuries were the most centered, it seems." Parting replied. "The robotic parts were put there to act like a kind of patch."

"The drawbacks is that makes her part robot." McDonald said. "And the robots that patched her up naturally programmed things so it'll make her evil like them."

"But she's alive." O'Brien said.

"Oh, very much so, just a very evil alive." McDonald said.

O'Brien looked Cassandra over for a moment. "Why would they do that anyway?" he asked. "Why did they do that to her? If I recall the mission reports right, these robots didn't like us natural life too much and didn't want to mix in too much with them."

"They probably did it to get back at us for messing up their plans for galactic domination." McDonald said. "Which, of course, in the long run is the best thing we've ever done..."

"Robert!" Parting scolded, shocked at McDonald's lack of sensitivity.

"What?" McDonald said. "I mean, sure, it's because of all of that...that...Cassandra ended up like this, but it would've been a lot worse if we did nothing!"

"Can we just remove the robot parts?" O'Brien asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, easier than you'd think!" McDonald said, thankful for the subject change. "Problem is that the robot parts are what keeping her alive. So if we remove them..." he trailed off, not thinking he needed to finish the thought.

O'Brien frowned. "So _is _there anything we can do to get her...at least on our side?" he asked.

"Well, I've pinpointed the location of the device that's tampering with her thinking." McDonald said. "I just can't figure out how to get at it. At least, not without tearing her head apart, which would really be quite messy."

"Spare me the details." O'Brien said. "There must be someway to get at it."

"There might, we actually got the idea of using a kind of computer virus to deactivate the part in question." Parting said.

"We just haven't gotten it made, much less work." McDonald said. "Not to mention the risks that our virus works better than we want it to, or the robot parts have some kind of anti-virus."

"So what's keeping her asleep anyway?" O'Brien asked.

"Oh, well, a kind of sedative." McDonald said. "See, by keeping her biological part unconscious, the robot part can't do squat. At least, so far as we know."

O'Brien shot him an inquisitive glance. McDonald picked up on the unspoken question quickly.

"Well, we've detected that the robot parts are pretty adaptive." he explained. "Adjusting to any given environment as quick as robotically possible, which is pretty dang quick, but it's still won't do it much good. See it can't do anything without the biological part. They're kind of stuck in a symbiotic relationship, or maybe I should use the term parasitical, so all that adaptiveness isn't going to do it much good, unless it can counteract the sedative in some way, but I find the odds of that to be really, really..."

Parting suddenly gasped, and took a step back, her eyes locked onto Cassandra. Both McDonald and O'Brien followed her gaze and took steps back in alarm as well. Cassandra had both her eyes open and was looking straight at the three of them.

"Whoa." McDonald said in a worried tone. "Okay, that doesn't bode well."

Cassandra then jerked free from her restraints in two quick jerks, and swung a fist at the transparent tube containing her.

"Will that hold?" O'Brien asked urgently.

"Like a screen door on a submarine!" McDonald said, on the verge of panicking. "So I think we're going to want to get out of here!"

But they didn't react fast enough as Cassandra finally broke through the tube with a shatter and jumped out of the tube to stand menacingly before them. McDonald yelped and dove behind a nearby control panel. Everyone else in the room made a mad dash for the door, Parting leading them. But moving like lightning, Cassandra outran them all and bet them to the door. Knocking Parting back, she quickly smashed the control panel and began advancing on the party.

"Anyone got a gun?" O'Brien asked urgently, looking at Parting and the group of scientists.

But no one did. No one thought there was a need. O'Brien made a mental note to invent some kind of regulation that said otherwise presuming he survived this.

McDonald, however, did have a radio, and he used it to call the first person that came to mind.

"Colonel Pepper to my lab!" he exclaimed almost hysterically. "STAT!"

* * *

"Mm, this Jell-o's really good." Crimson said as she ate the cafeteria food that had been provided for them.

"You should try the blue stuff they serve on Thursdays." Pepper said. "Delicious."

"You know, for cafeteria food, this is deceptively good." Darkwing as forced to agree. "You guys must have it good."

"Well, actually, the food's not _always _good." Pepper admitted.

"Well, if we find anything we don't like, we can always give it to Launchpad." Techno said, pointing at the pilot, who had twice as much food as everyone else and was too busy eating it all to comment.

It was then that Pepper's radio crackled. "Colonel Pepper to my lab!" it said. "STAT!"

Pepper got up with a hurried groan. "Robert, what did you do now?" he asked himself as he hurried off.

He paused when he noticed Darkwing and the others quickly following him.

"And where do you think you guys are going?" he asked.

"We're coming to help." Darkwing said.

"Ha ha, no." Pepper said flatly. "You're going to stay here."

"But we want to help." Techno persisted.

"Look, you guys don't know Robert." Pepper said. "It's probably nothing. He probably just spilt a beaker of hydrochloric acid again and is too scared to go near it. So stay here."

"No." Crimson flatly announced.

"Hey, as colonel, I'm giving you guys an order!" Pepper said.

"It's lieutenant colonel, and you're assigned to protect us." Crimson pointed out. "You can't do that if you're somewhere else. So if we stay here, you do too."

Pepper fumed for a moment. "Oh all right, come along then!" he exclaimed, waving them along with his hand. "But you do what _I _say from here on out!"

"Got it." Darkwing said.

They hurried out of the cafeteria, Pepper leading the way to Robert's lab. It didn't take them long to get there. Pepper arrived at the closed door first, and pressed his finger on the door control. The door didn't open. Puzzled, he tried again, but in vain. Finally, he rapped loudly on the metal door.

"Robert!" he called. "Is this what you wanted me for? You're stuck in your lab?"

There was no audible reply, but the sound of something getting shuffled around was audible. Darkwing pressed an ear to the door.

"There's definitely someone in there." he commented.

"Yeah, this isn't any big deal." Pepper muttered, popping open the cover to the door controls. "Told you guys weren't missing anything. The guy probably just forgot about the emergency release. He's like that you know. Brilliant scientist, but the slightest thing goes wrong and he panics like nothing else."

He pulled the emergency release, but still nothing happened. Puzzled, he pulled the lever a couple of times, but to no avail.

"Okay, _now _we have a problem." Pepper said, running his hands over the closed door.

Techno was scanning the room with his visor. "About how many people are in this lab, usually?" he asked.

"Usually just Robert, as it's his lab." Pepper remarked, trying to get a good grip on the door so he could possibly slide it open. "But they're working on a special project in there, so I'd imagine there would be a handful of other scientists in there with him."

"Well, I can see about a dozen heat signatures, most of them all grouped together, in that room." Techno said. "There is one that is unclear, though. Like it's half and half."

"Hmm." Pepper said, still tugging at the door. "You know, if you guys really came to help, then why don't you help me get this door open?"

Darkwing and Crimson quickly hurried over to help pull at the door.

"Launchpad, come help!" Crimson urged.

The pilot hurried over and aided at tugging at the door. The mixture of all their tugs slowly managed to get the door to slide open, little by little, until they had a opening big enough for someone to peer through. Pepper motioned for them to stop, and moved to look through the gap. He quickly jumped back when a hand suddenly shot out from the room within and grabbed the edge of the door and shoved it open the rest of the way in one fluid movement to reveal Cassandra.

"Oh, not good!" Pepper exclaimed, hurrying to pull out his sidearm.

Cassandra, remaining silent, ripped his weapon from his grasp before he could shoot it, and shoved him aside, knocking him into the lab itself. She then crushed the sidearm with both hand, rendering it useless. Darkwing and Crimson hurried forward to intervene, but were both knocked back as well, and crashed to the floor. Swinging a punch at Launchpad, who ducked it, Cassandra then tackled Techno and shoved him against the opposite wall of the hallway.

Techno struggled against the vixen's surprisingly good grip, spraying some sleeping gas in her face, to no avail. Launchpad tried to pull Cassandra off of him, but was merely shrugged off. Just as Techno was about to be choked into passing out, a gas canister suddenly bounced off of Cassandra and spun away, spraying erratically.

"C'mon, freakazoid, come this way!" Darkwing exclaimed, waving his arms at Cassandra to draw her attention to him.

It worked. Releasing Techno without a second thought, the partly robotic fox turned and slowly started marching towards Darkwing. Gulping, Darkwing backed up to keep his distance from her, and fired off another smoke canister at Cassandra. Like the one before, it merely bounced off of her, and only succeeded in filling the corridor with more smoke.

Getting desperate, Darkwing started shooting off as many attachments on his gas gun as he could think off, most of which had no effect on the clearly determined Cassandra. Finally, as a last measure, he fired off the attachment that teleported all hit objects to the Teryx sub-universe at Cassandra.

She seemed to have seen it coming, though, because she ducked the shot, allowing it to zip on down the hallway and hit the wall on the other end, where the shot simply discharged, not having enough energy to fulfill it's task. Darkwing gulped, and continued backing up, only to bump into a wall as the hallway turned to the left.

Cassandra continued towards him, preparing to strike. Then suddenly a dart struck the side of her mechanically patched face. Cassandra jerked as the shock dart discharged into her robotic parts, and then toppled over, unmoving. Darkwing turned and looked around the corner of the hallway to see Crimson lowering her gas gun. She looked at Darkwing and shrugged.

"I had to do something." she said. "And it was the one attachment you hadn't used yet."

Darkwing was about to remark about something on the matter when there was a sudden exodus of people from out of the lab, rushing towards the fallen form of Cassandra. Pepper, Parting, and O'Brien were among them.

"What did you do?" O'Brien demanded from the heroes. "We didn't want her dead, we wanted her..."

"She's not dead!" a scientist, presumably Robert, interrupted suddenly. He had bent over to examine Cassandra's fallen form, waving a scanner over her. "Her robotic parts have merely been temporarily overloaded!" he yanked out the offending dart. "Whatever you did, it actually helped!"

O'Brien blanked out for a moment, and then glanced back at Darkwing and Crimson, now being joined by Techno and Launchpad, neither of which were the worser for wear. Darkwing shrugged hesitantly.

"Um...you're welcome." he said, then frowned. "So...just who is she and what's the deal here?"

* * *

"Well, this has been quite a day." Techno remarked as they all prepared to leave a little later. "Discovering a device capable of teleporting objects across the galaxy, getting an exclusive tour of a floating city, and battling with a former expedition leader turned robot."

"We've had more exciting days." Crimson said flatly.

"Actually, we should be thanking you." Pepper said as he prepared the jumper for launch. "We're trying our hardest to try and get Cassandra back to the way she was before, and you're actions here today helped move us closer to that goal."

"Well, it wasn't that big of a deal." Darkwing said. "We've actually gone up against harder stuff, like a full fledged demented robot bent on getting revenge on me."

"Which we most recently defeated in a similar manner as we did today." Crimson pointed out. "With shock darts."

"Oh." Darkwing said. "Right."

"Whatever the case, we're glad to have helped." Launchpad said as he sat down into his seat. "I hope you guys succeed in trying and get Ms. Pierson back to normal."

Pepper nodded in acknowledgment for a moment, falling silent. "You know, I misjudged you guys." he said finally. "When I first saw you guys, I only thought of you guys as flamboyant, self-centered twits who only did what you did for the glory."

"Your exact words were 'flamboyant celebrities'." Darkwing said sharply.

Crimson elbowed him for that.

"But after what you did today, I gotta admit that...maybe...I was wrong." Pepper continued. "You guys are really okay." he was silent for a moment. "Well, we all set to go?"

"Yep!" Launchpad said, strapping himself into his seat.

"Then let's go!" Pepper said, slapping the control that closed the jumper's back hatch.

"Is General O'Brien not coming with us?" Techno asked.

"No, he's gonna stay here and sort through the paperwork." Pepper said, as the jumper took flight and exited the hanger bay. "Dunno what else."

"Well, I suppose he would have other duties to take care of, wouldn't he?" Darkwing asked as they flew towards the Jumpgate.

But at the moment, O'Brien wasn't doing paperwork, but rather standing at a window, watching the jumper leave with Parting.

"You know, in retrospect, I don't think it was a bad choice to let those guys get their tour." O'Brien remarked. "They showed they can handle the truth for one thing, and if they hadn't been here..."

Parting nodded in understanding. "McDonald reports that their shock dart thing sorted out parts of Cassandra's robotic parts. None of it's fatal, those parts will still keep her alive. But because those parts are shorted out, McDonald's confident that we're that much closer to bringing her back."

O'Brien nodded. "Which is exactly why I'm going to talk to Vice President Norrin about letting those four in on all of our secrets." he said. "They could be a big help."

Parting frowned. "Norrin's not going to like that idea."

"I know." O'Brien said, watching the jumper vanish into the Jumpgate. "But it's time they know everything about what we do here at The Agency..."

* * *

_Fun Facts: There was going to be a whole lot more action to this chapter than there ended up being. Originally, there was going to be a situation involvoing a Larsonian cargo ship getting hijacked by alien robots (with Cassandra leading them) and as Darkwing and the gang are the only ones who had any real contact with the Larsonians, they go to help defeat the bad guys, and thus repaying their debt with the Larsonians. This ALL got cut because it took far longer to introduce the situation than planned, and I was already at risk of running the chapter too long. So I cut it all out and instead did the much smaller and weaker situation with Cassandra. :|_

_This could be the longest chapter to date, as the unedited version of this chapter totalled to twenty-one pages in my word processor. The second longest stopped at only twenty pages._

_For those who are familiar with the show Stargate SG-1 and all related materials, you'll know that the Jumpgate doesn't not operate at all like a Stargate, which uses wormholes in contrast to the Jumpgate's ability to open portals into hyperspace. This is because the Jumpgate isn't modeled after a Stargate, but instead a device of the same name that appeared in a mod of a game an aquaintance of mine made. This and other things allowed my Jumpgate universe to kind of 'sing it's own song' and features traits unique to itself. It still heavily parodies the Stargate universe, though.  
_

_This chapter is the first to confirm that the ever illusive organization known as The Agency actually exists._

_At the beginning of the chapter, it is indicated that it is the first annual anniversary of Darkwing's return to the Posiverse, indicating it has been a full year to the characters since the fanfic began. "The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck" as a fanfic however, has not been on the web for a full year just yet, and will not until May. Just so there's no confusion._

_It was actually pretty hard to even get this chapter to work, as Darkwing's world and the Jumpgate world are very different from each other, and contrast so much that the two stood out against each other. Puns were made to kind of point this out (such as Parting's teasing of Darkwing's costume)._

_Cassandra was supposed to die in this chapter, transported into the Teryx sub-universe, but after writing her background, I got too attached to the character and let her live. She could possibly appear again in another chapter because of this.  
_


	50. Adoption

Summary: Christine has gotten fairly close to Drake. But despite it all, their relationship is at risk of crumbling, and it could be her fault. To what lengths will Christine go to rejuvenate their relationship?

Rating: K+ (playing it safe as usual)

Author's Note: Presenting the fiftieth chapter of "The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck"!. Can't say it's an extra special chapter for the occasion, but hey, it's still something to note. Actually, this chapter does change the lives of one or two characters. But otherwise, a more average chapter. It's got Frogduck, so parts of it is pure humor. :)

50.

Adoption

Normally, Drake Mallard secretly enjoyed taking the odd break from crime fighting and having a night on the town. Crime fighting, particularly as of late, was very stress-inducing. It was good to just go and unwind occasionally. This night had promised to be very good, too. It was at his favorite restaurant, the Julep Leaf, which served spectacular dishes, which were very healthy too.

But tonight, the forces of nature were out to get Drake. First off, when he arrived at the restaurant, he was told that due to some hiccup in the system, the restaurant had lost his reservation, and his requested table had gone to someone else. Fortunately, they still had one available in the corner of the store, but it wasn't at all as good a table as the one Drake wanted.

Then, upon preparing to order, he discovered that his favorite dish, the black forest ham with mashed potatoes and gravy and a side dish of green beans, was out. He settled for some cream of mushroom soup instead. By this point, Drake's high spirits were already stalling out, but they didn't come crashing down until it became clear that Drake's dining partner was going to be late. Very late.

So Drake had gotten himself into a rather bad mood by the time Christine finally arrived.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, Drake!" Christine said once she finally arrived, and sat down at the table, flustered. "I had an emergency call at the hospital, and I couldn't get away from that in time. And then I had to run home and freshen up, and then there was traffic and...well...I would've called and told you, but as you don't have a cell phone..." she trailed off, tapping the table gently with both hands. "So," she said, changing the subject in an attempt to lighten the mood, "how are you?"

Drake didn't reply.

"What's new?" Christine asked, trying a different approach.

Drake still didn't reply. Christine glanced at his empty bowl, trying to determine it's contents.

"Decided to try the soup tonight for a change, huh?" she asked.

Drake gave her a look.

Christine let out a sigh of frustration. "Okay Drake." she said in defeat. "What's the problem?"

"You're late."

"I know. I said I was sorry."

"I mean you're late _again_!" Drake exclaimed, slapping his hand on the table. "This is the third date in a _row _in which you've been late to show up to, Christine! The thirteenth in the past _three months!_ I know you're busy, but really..."

"It was an emergency call, Drake!" Christine said. "I can't just ignore it! I mean sure, there were...other...doctors who could've, um, taken care of it, and it...wasn't exactly life threatening, er, either...but still..."

"Christine, I give up a whole night of crime fighting to go on a date for you." Drake said. "A whole number of things could go wrong during one of those nights, but I set it _all _aside so we can both go out on a date together. Is it really too much to ask for you to do the same?"

"I'm not that late, Drake." Christine said.

"Not that late, huh?" Drake said. "Well, let me put things into perspective. We agreed we would meet both of us here at nine o'clock sharp tonight, right?"

"Yes." Christine said.

"I arrived fifteen minutes late."

"Fifteen minutes? Really?"

"And here I thought I was going to have to explain to _you _why I was late."

"Wow...fifteen minutes..."

"Now here's the real clincher. You didn't arrive until _thirty _minutes _after _that. That's a whole _forty-five _minutes after the time we agreed to meet at!"

"What? But I thought...I could've sworn..." Christine glanced at her watch, and her face fell. "Oh. Oh, um...oh."

"Sometimes I really wonder just how dedicated you are to this relationship, Christine." Drake continued sternly. "Because you've been late for even _longer _on several other nights!"

"But I _am _dedicated, Drake!" Christine said. "I _want _to see this relationship through to the end!"

"Then get ready." Drake said, standing up. "Because if this continues to happen, Christine, this relationship will end very soon." he pulled out his wallet and thumbed out a couple of bills, which he placed on the table in front of Christine. "I have other places I need to be tonight." he explained. "Your dinner's on me, though. Enjoy it. And have a good night."

And with that, he left, leaving a very crestfallen Christine behind.

* * *

The following morning, Honker did not leave the high school until about a half-hour after everyone else had. Exiting the building with only a small handful of students, he walked down to the curb, and waited, feeling the bright sun uncommon this late in September shine down on his back. Tucking his books under one arm, he glanced at his watch.

"C'mon Gos, you said you'd be here waiting for me." he muttered aloud, glancing up and down the street. "Well I'm here, so where are you?"

He waited for another few moments, then heard the sound of a revving motor further up the street. Turning, think it might be Gosalyn coming to pick him up in the Mallard family car, he instead saw a motorcyclist clad in a two-piece black jumpsuit and a matching motorbike helmet riding a fancy motorbike down the street towards him at breakneck speeds.

Honker didn't think much of it, until the bike jumped the curb and started speeding right toward him. Panicking, Honker started backing up, gearing up to run as the bike grew closer. When it started to become clear that the biker wasn't going to stop in time, he yelped and turned to leap aside. Despite what he thought, though, the biker did hit the brakes, and brought the bike to a skidding halt right in front of him, just inches away from hitting him.

Honker breathed in quick, sharp breaths for a few moments to try and calm his beating heart while the biker worked to remove his helmet, completely unconcerned. The biker's uncaring attitude quickly got Honker all riled up.

"Just what did you think you were doing?" he exclaimed at the biker. "You shouldn't be driving that thing like that, it's unsafe! You very nearly hit me, too! What were you trying to do, kill me? Just who do you think..."

He trailed off in surprise when the biker pulled off his helmet and revealed his face fully for the first time. He then noticed instantly that the he was really a she. A she he knew well.

"Hey Honk." Gosalyn greeted calmly, like she hadn't heard Honker's outburst. "I take it you're done making up for that quiz you missed the other day, then?"

Honker was too flabbergasted to reply. "G-Gosalyn?" he managed to stutter out after a moment.

"The one and only."

"Wh-where did you get the bike?"

"I bought it, pre-owned."

"You bought it? With your own money?"

"Yep. Been saving up the past couple of years for this baby. I was going to wait to get it for my birthday, but the owner decided to give me one heck of a bargain and sell it real cheap. So I jumped on it."

Honker blinked a few times, then looked the bike over. "So it's used?" he asked.

"Yeah, but the owner hardly ever used it, so it's like new." Gosalyn said, pleased with herself.

"When did you get it?"

"Just now, while you were in taking your quiz."

"So your dad doesn't even know about this yet, does he?" Honker asked, giving her a suspicious look. "He's going to blow his top, you know."

"Why should he?" Gosalyn asked. "He let's me drive the Ratcatcher."

"That's under different circumstances, and you know it."

"Well, there's not much he can do about it. I bought it, fair and square, with my own money, in full. Besides, I'm eighteen now, Dad can't hold me back like that anymore."

"You're not eighteen _yet, _Gosalyn." Honker pointed out. "Not until next month."

"A minor technicality." Gosalyn said. "Still doesn't change a thing, though. Now are you ready, or not?"

"I'm ready." Honker said, climbing onto the back of the bike. "Let's go. You got a helmet for me?"

Gosalyn handed it to him, then put on her own. "Bike came with two helmets, the suit, and gloves absolutely free." she said happily.

"Lucky you."

"Anyway, now that we've got all of that sorted out, there's something I need to talk to you about, Honker." Gosalyn said, revving the bike's engine and driving back into traffic.

"What's that?" Honker asked as he held onto Gosalyn's middle.

"It's Dad and Christine." she said. "They've got a problem."

* * *

"...so after he left Christine at the restaurant, Dad came straight home, barged through the front door and locked himself in his study for the rest of the evening." Gosalyn concluded her explanation as they drove along. "I couldn't get an explanation out of him until this morning at breakfast, and even then, it was by force. As you were too busy working on catching up on your homework that you got when you stayed home sick the other day at lunch today, I waited until now to tell you."

"Okay, now you've told me." Honker said. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Come up with a solution, Honker!" Gosalyn exclaimed, like it was obvious. "I don't want those two breaking up, not after all this time!"

"Well, like it or not, Gosalyn, I have to side with your dad on this situation." Honker said. "It's Christine's responsibility to be more responsible, not his. Their relationship _will _crumble if she can't start finding the time to not be so late to their dates."

"So you're saying this is her fault then?" Gosalyn asked.

"Not at all!" Honker said. "Just that she's not used to having a relationship like this, and is struggling to adjust. She needs to learn that she's going to have to set aside some her dedication to her job in order for any relationship of hers to work out, the same thing your dad had to learn when he adopted you."

"But how can we get her to learn that?" Gosalyn asked.

"I think you should stay out of it, Gos." Honker said. "It's their problem, not yours. Besides, maybe this all means that they just aren't made for each other, and they really should break up."

"Don't say that, Honker!" Gosalyn said. "Remember what happened last time Dad broke up with his girl? I don't think he could handle it again, even if he is the one who breaks it off! And if and when that does happen, then it _will _be our problem, so it might as well be ours now!"

"Well, the only thing I can think of that we can do is talk to Christine!" Honker said. "Get her to see what she needs to do. Other than that, it's all up to her."

"So there's a chance it won't work out anyway." Gosalyn said.

"Sorry, Gos, but it's the best I've got." Honker said.

"Okay, so what do I talk to her about?" Gosalyn said. "How can I get her to see she needs to change her priorities?"

"Like I said, her problem is not unlike the situation in which you and your dad had when he first adopted you." Honker said. "He struggled to set aside time from Darkwing Duck duties to be a parent. Compare Christine's situation with that. Should give her some bearings of what she needs to do."

"Okay, so next stop, the St. Canard Hospital!" Gosalyn said, apply more pressure to the throttle.

"Uh, Gos, don't forget you have a passenger." Honker said quickly.

"Oh right." Gosalyn said. "Next stop, the Muddlefoot home, and _then _the St. Canard Hospital."

* * *

"What am I going to do with you, Charlie?" Christine asked as she cleaned the cut the six-year-old had on his hand. "If this keeps up, soon there's going to be more wounds than there is kind on you."

"I'm sorry Dr. Merriweather." Charlie said quietly, holding his stuffed otter doll tightly like always. "The knife slipped, that's all."

"It's a knife you shouldn't even have had." Christine scolded lightly. "Mrs. Cavanaugh even said so. They keep those sharp knives in the kitchen, away from you orphans. So why did you get it from the kitchen?"

"Because I wanted to cut some crackers from snack time." Charlie admitted.

"You can break crackers with your hands, you know." Christine said.

"Not in even pieces." Charlie pointed out innocently.

Christine thought about that. "True." she admitted. "Well, lucky for you, this cut doesn't require stitches like Mrs. Cavanaugh thought. While it was still wise for her to bring you in, there's no reason you need to stick around. I'll just put some antibiotic on it to keep it from getting infected, slap a band-aid on it, and you're good to go!"

"Thank you, Dr. Merriweather." Charlie said. A pause, then he added, "I hope my adopted mother will some day be as nice as you are."

Christine grinned at him. "I hope so, too, Charlie." she said. "By the way, how's that going? Met any one you like?"

Charlie hung his head. "No." he admitted.

"Well, don't worry, someone will come along." Christine said, taking a tube of antibiotic cream and putting some on her fingertip to rub around the cut.

A knock rang against the door. Christine glanced back at it. "Come in?" she called hesitantly.

Gosalyn poked her head into the room. "Is this a bad time?" she asked.

"For you, Gos, of course not." Christine said. "C'mon in."

Gosalyn grinned, and entered, leaving the door open. "How's your day been, Chris?"

"Oh, okay." Christine said. She nodded at Charlie. "Just been treating the usual people today."

Charlie glanced nervously at Gosalyn. Gosalyn grinned supportively.

"That's right." she said. "I thought I saw Mrs. Cavanaugh in the waiting room on my way in. How you doing, Chuck?"

"Charlie." the boy corrected softly.

"Right, Charlie." Gosalyn amended. "How you doing?"

"Oh, he's just been getting into more trouble." Christine answered for Charlie, smearing some more antibiotic onto Charlie's cut. "I swear, he's been in here so often I almost know him better than I know you, Gos."

Gosalyn grinned at this comment.

"Anyway, what brings you here, Gos?" Christine asked, turning to look at Gosalyn fully for the first time. She frowned, and turned back. "What's with the black jumpsuit?"

"Oh, new motorbike." Gosalyn replied, running a hand through her hair. "Anyway, I came to talk to you about last night, during your date with dad."

Christine paused and glanced back at Gosalyn again. "Has Drake told you what happened?" she asked.

"The general jiff of it, yes."

"And what's your opinion on the matter?"

"Uh, mixed."

"Figures."

She pressed a band-aid over Charlie's cut and patted him on the shoulder. "There you go, Charlie." she said. "You know where to go from here. Let's try and stay incident free for a bit longer this time, shall we?"

"Okay Dr. Merriweather." Charlie said, hopping off the examination table and heading over to the open door. "Thank you Dr. Merriweather."

Christine grinned as she watched him go. "You can't but help like the kid." she said. "Can't believe no one has adopted him yet. I certainly like him."

"Well, just because you do means everyone does." Gosalyn said, going from experience. "But don't go changing the subject. This...fight...you and Dad got into last night hasn't been the first, and they're only getting worse. I don't want to see you two break up, Chris, you know that."

"I know." Christine said, hanging her head. "But I...I don't know what to do, to be honest. I don't mean to be late, but I am anyway. Maybe Drake's right, and we really should just call it all off."

"No." Gosalyn said. "You know how Dad would react. And besides, you two have been dating for nearly a year now and have managed to get this far. I will not let you guys get so far only to dash it all to pieces."

"Oh, but what can you do, Gos?" Christine said, discouraged. "You've never been in this situation before."

"Not per say, but I can relate somewhat." Gosalyn said. "Before Dad and me met, Dad spent his whole time as Darkwing Duck. He didn't do anything else for a very long time. When dad adopted me, he had a hard time taking time away from his duties as Darkwing Duck, which he loved, to be with me. I can safely say I've felt like Dad has about this situation before."

"So what do _you _suggest?" Christine asked.

"That you _make _the time to be with dad, and not just _find _the time." Gosalyn said. "Dad thinks you don't have your priorities right, putting your duties as a doctor ahead of him, even when there is absolutely no need to. Do you know how that looks, Christine?"

"Probably bad." Christine admitted. "But this is what I love best, and it's what I _do _best. I know this job takes up a lot of my time, and I don't like it. To be honest, I would really like to set up my own private practice somewhere and have a more quiet and peaceful life as a common practitioner than this hectic job as an emergency room doctor. But it's just not in my budget at the moment."

"Well, there must be something else you can do." Gosalyn urged. "Something you can do to kind of...I don't know...force you to un-dedicate yourself so much to this job."

Christine thought for a moment. "Just out of curiosity," she asked suddenly, "but how did Drake work it out?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, how did he get himself to get himself to stop being so dedicated to his work after he adopted you?"

Gosalyn thought for a moment, then just shrugged. "I dunno." she admitted. "It just kind of happened. I guess, maybe, adopting me was enough. He couldn't just ignore me, so he was kind of left with no choice but to change his ways."

"So adopting a child _made _him change his priorities?" Christine repeated.

"Or so I think." Gosalyn said. "Why? Do you have an idea?"

But Christine was already in motion, having a place to be. "I, uh, need to be somewhere." she said quickly as she headed out the door. "We'll talk later. You know the way out. And thanks for dropping by!"

Gosalyn stood a little stunned as she watched Christine vanish outside in the hallway. "Um...sure." she said.

* * *

"Gosalyn Mallard, I can't believe you didn't run this by me first." Drake said, his arms folded sternly.

"It's a motorbike, Dad!" Gosalyn said, holding her arms out to the bike in question, where it stood, parked, in their garage. "What harm could it do?"

"It's not _it _I'm worried about, young lady." Drake said, turning to look at her. "I really don't like the idea of you driving all over town on this thing."

"You let me do that on the Ratcatcher." Gosalyn pointed out.

"Which you crash on a regular basis."

"Oh c'mon dad, that reckless driving is only for show and for catching villains." Gosalyn said in her defense. "I'd drive more carefully in public on this bike."

"Why did you even _want _a motorbike in the first place?" Drake asked.

"I forget the original reasons." Gosalyn admitted. "But when you came back from the Negaverse and let me start driving the Ratcatcher around, I wanted a motorbike of my own that I could drive around on my own time."

"So you got it so you could go joyriding, in other words." Drake summarized.

"Look, I've got it now, and it's too late to go back on it." Gosalyn said. "You're just going to have to live with the fact that I have my own mode of transportation now."

"I can still ban you from driving that thing." Drake pointed out.

"No, I'm eighteen now."

"Not for another month."

"It's close enough!"

"Really, Gos, what are you going to do with a motorbike?"

"Drive to school, go to places I want to visit, see the world, I don't know just yet. I'll figure it out."

Drake sighed and shook his head, looking the motorbike over once again. It was a very nice bike, and Gosalyn did go to great lengths to get it. And he did know she could drive a motorbike very well. He sighed once again.

"You'll obey the speed limits?"

"Yep."

"You won't use it to street race or anything like that, right?"

"Yep."

"You'll pay for the gas?"

"Until I can get Honker to reverse engineer a Lovell Air Engine for it, yes sir."

Drake was silent for a moment. "Oh, all right." he said, waving his hand at his daughter dismissively. "I guess I can't find any reason why you can't keep it, so..."

"Yay!" Gosalyn cheered and hugged Drake. "Thank you Dad."

Drake's heart softened, and he returned the hug. "You're welcome Gos." he said.

It was then that Launchpad poked his head into the garage and cleared his throat. "Uh, sorry to spoil the moment here, but there's a phone call here for Gos." he said politely.

"Thanks, LP." Gosalyn said, giving Drake one last grin of thanks and then stepped into the house and scooped up the phone's receiver. "Gosalyn Mallard here, what's up?"

"Gos?" came the reply. "It's Christine."

"Hey Chris." Gosalyn said. "Did you come up with something to help with your priorities problem? You know, you left rather unexpectedly earlier this afternoon."

"I know, and I apologize." Christine said. "But I needed to hurry if I wanted to catch up with the right person."

"And who was that exactly?"

"I'll explain later. But could you come on over to my apartment for a little bit? I want to show you something."

"Like what?"

"You'll see."

* * *

After telling Drake she was heading out for a little bit to meet Christine, Gosalyn sped on over to Christine's apartment building on her motorbike. After being let in by the doorman, Gosalyn headed straight on up to the floor Christine lived on and straight to her apartment door. Stopping at the door to unzip the jacket to her motorbiking suit, she rang the doorbell.

"Come on in!" she heard Christine call from within.

Letting herself into the apartment, Gosalyn looked around for Christine.

"Christine?" she called.

"In the living room, Gos!" Christine called.

Gosalyn started forward and for the living room. As she walked past the hallway, she saw Charlie walk out it, clutching his stuffed otter loosely in one hand. She greeted him with a nod, and waved with one hand.

"Hi Chuck."

"Charlie."

"Right, Charlie." Gosalyn took two more steps before she ground to a halt and did a double take. "Charlie? What are you doing here?"

"Gosalyn?" Christine said as she stepped inquisitively into the room. She grinned at the sight of the two. "Ah, I see you two have met already." she said good-humoredly.

"What's he doing at your apartment, Christine?" Gosalyn asked, pointing at the six-year-old. "Shouldn't he be at the orphanage?"

"Not any more." Christine said. "That's what I wanted to show you. I adopted him."

"You...you _what?_"

Charlie giggled at Gosalyn's shock. Gosalyn looked back and forth from the two, before taking Christine aside and into the next room.

"Christine, what were you thinking?" Gosalyn asked. "What on earth made you go and just of the blue decide to adopt Charlie?"

"You gave me the idea, Gos!" Christine said, excited. "You said Drake got his priorities set in the right order after he adopted you."

Gosalyn gaped at her. "_Christine!_" she exclaimed. "You do not just go adopting little kids so you can win the heart of your boyfriend!"

"I _didn't _adopt him just to get things worked out with Drake." Christine said in her defense. "As a matter of fact, I have been considering this for a few months now. I even kept the necessary paperwork on hand in case I ever decided to do it."

"So wait, you've even gotten all the necessary paperwork done and everything?" Gosalyn asked. "All in one after_noon?_"

"It's a done deal." Christine said proudly.

Gosalyn gaped at her again for a moment. "And Mrs. Cavanaugh just let you waltz in and do that?" she asked, amazed.

"Mrs. Cavanaugh has known I was interested in Charlie for sometime now." Christine said. "Besides, thanks to the MTO, the medical treatment of orphans, program, she knows me very well. She trusts me, Gos."

"Christine!" Gosalyn said. "You...you can't just go and do this!"

"I just did!" Christine said.

"But...if you aren't careful, this could go very wrong, very fast!" Gosalyn said. "I know! I was an orphan once myself, remember!"

"I'm very confident about this, Gosalyn." Christine said, now acting serious. "Of myself, of Charlie, of everything. I'll make this work out, you just watch."

"So you dragged me on over here just to tell me this?" Gosalyn asked.

"Well, yes and no." Christine said. "There is one other reason I wanted you to come over, and that's to ask if you could babysit for me."

"B-b-babysit!" Gosalyn exclaimed.

"Like you so quickly noted, I did this today without planning ahead." Christine said. "As such, I didn't remember that I had a meeting that I can't miss nor reschedule until too late. I need someone to watch Charlie while I go to the meeting."

Gosalyn gaped at her yet again. "You know, you aren't making a very good first impression about this." she accused.

"I know, and I'm terribly sorry." Christine said, looking genuinely apologetic. "But I need to be at this meeting. Look, I'll make up to the both of you."

"Like how?" Gosalyn asked, folding her arms, getting ready to turn down the request to babysit.

"I don't know just yet." Christine admitted. "Maybe I'll get you and Charlie some ice cream."

"Ice cream?"

"Yeah, like that triple-ripple fudge mint ice cream you like so much."

Gosalyn hesitated for a moment. "When do you leave?"

"As soon as possible."

Gosalyn bit her lip for a long moment, liking the idea of getting a free ice cream cone out of this.

"Oh all right!" she finally agreed. "I'll do it. I'll just have to call Dad and break the news to him, and..."

"Actually, could we hold off on telling Drake about this for a little while?" Christine asked as she slipped on her jacket. "I want to surprise him."

Gosalyn gave her a look. "Oh fine, I'll come up with some kind of excuse." she said. "Now go on, get out of here! And remember, you owe me an ice cream cone!"

"And you'll get it!" Christine said, heading for the door. "I'll make it up to both of you, I promise! Bye!"

She left. Gosalyn stood and glared at the door for a moment. Charlie stepped over to her and looked silently up at her. Gosalyn glanced down at him.

"Guess it's just me and you, Chuck."

"Charlie."

"Right."

* * *

Every city has a water tower. But St. Canard was one of the few that has two. One, the newer of the two, was located within the St. Canard Waterworks, and was actively used, sharing it's supply with four smaller towers. Then there was the second, older one, that sat out on the city's eastern outskirts. It was no longer in use, and was only kept around as a historical monument. And not a very prestigious one at that. Most people just ignored it.

Of the two towers, it was the latter that was the best for Frogduck's purposes.

Half-filled with water, provided by Frogduck himself, the inside of the tower had been transformed into a small jungle, with little islands of dirt poking up at odd intervals, occasionally bridged with wooden planks, occasionally not. Each island sported a tropical looking plant. Some were real. Others were not. A couple of lights shone from the ceiling at odd intervals. Sitting directly under the tower's only entrance, a hatch in it's roof, was one big island that housed a fake palm tree that doubled as a ladder, as well as comforts of home, such as a cabinet, a dresser, and a desk.

Lying in the shade of Frogduck, grinning happily. Sitting on a rock next to him, staring at him, was a frog. See, there were several frogs in Frogduck's hideout, all of which ones he had found and had adopted and taken back here. This one was one such frog, and happened to be the biggest of them all. In Frogduck's mind, he was also the most loyal.

"This is the life, Keith." he said to the frog. "No chores, no responsibilities, no life, just lying around and doing nothing day in and day out."

The frog, Keith, ribbited once, as if in reply. Frogduck nodded, understanding the cryptic statement.

"True, true." he said. "Suppose I gotta do something other than nothing every once in awhile. But that can always wait until later, like tomorrow, or next week, or next year..."

Keith the Frog ribbited twice this time, louder this time.

"Procrastinate?" Frogduck asked. "Hah! I don't know the meaning of the word!" he paused for a moment. "Seriously, I don't. What _does _procrastinate mean?"

Keith the Frog ribbited in reply.

"Well, if you don't know, then why use the word?" Frogduck asked. "You don't learn by not doing, and that's good enough for me. Besides, I like to..." he trailed off suddenly, then grinned broadly. "I got it!" he exclaimed, jumping. "I know what we can do! We'll go into town, drape this big net over the middle of the road, and then when a car drive over it, we'll reel the net in and catch the car! Ha ha!"

Laughing, he hurried over to the dresser and pulled out his red and yellow costume and put it on.

"I can't think of a more productive way to spend my evening than by catching cars!" he exclaimed, scooping up Keith the Frog and climbing up the fake palm tree.

Reaching the top, he hopped out the open hatch onto the door itself, then leapt off of it and into the air, soaring off the water tower altogether.

"Frogduck away!" he exclaimed.

He then realized his error, and fumbled around in midair for a moment before crashing down to the ground with a splat. There was a moment of silence before Frogduck was heard again.

"Don't worry, I'm all right! The ground broke my fall!"

Keith the Frog was heard ribbiting once in reply.

* * *

"Now where's the phone?" Gosalyn said, stepping into the kitchen. Finding it, she dialed home. She didn't have to wait for long before someone answered. "Hey LP? It's Gos. Could you put Dad on please? Hey Dad? Listen, remember that I went to visit Christine, right? Well, while in the waiting room at the hospital, I met up with Mrs. Cavanaugh. You remember her, right? Anyway, we got talking about the orphanage, and Mrs. Cavanaugh said she was actually a bit short-staffed tonight, and asked if I could help her and I agreed. I know it's short notice, dad, but we go _way _back, you know. That's right, in the waiting room at the hospital. Yeah, I know usually Christine is off work for the night by now, but, uh, she's working late tonight. Now Dad, you don't mean that about her. She's just dedicated to her work. I know, maybe a little _too _dedicated about that, but that's why she called me over to visit. Yeah, I don't know how long I'll be. Probably won't be able to go on patrol tonight. Tomorrow night I'll be there. Yes, I'll stay out of trouble. See you later. Bye!"

She hung up, and turned her attention back to Charlie, who had followed her into the kitchen and had listened to the conversation.

"So Charlie," she began, "what do you do for fun?"

Charlie shrugged.

Gosalyn tried a different approach. "You happy Christine's adopted you?" she asked.

Charlie nodded.

"Think this will really work out?"

Charlie shrugged.

"Hmm, you and me both, Chuck."

"Charlie."

"Whatever." she spied Charlie's stuffed otter in his hands. "So who's this?" she asked.

"Jude." Charlie replied, holding out the doll for Gosalyn to see.

Gosalyn accepted it and examined it for a moment. "Heh, he kinda looks like Rowe." she remarked, handing it back.

"Who's Rowe?"

"Never you mind. Now anyway, anything you'd like to do?"

Charlie shrugged.

Gosalyn frowned. "You're not very fun, Chuck." she said.

Charlie shrugged again, and avoided eye contact. Gosalyn thought for a long moment. Then she grinned.

"Hey Chuck, ever been on a motorcycle before?"

* * *

Not long later, they were both speeding along on Gosalyn's motorbike, Charlie squealing with delight as he sat in front of Gosalyn, the helmet he was wearing slightly too big for his head. Gosalyn wasn't worried though, she had made sure it wasn't going to fall off his head at anytime. And, because it was so big, it as more likely to protect him from harm, at least, that was how Gosalyn saw it.

Although, she did admit that she wasn't sure if this was such a wise idea for a babysitter to be doing. But she didn't really know much about babysitting, having not done it very often. Nor ever. She had been baby_sat_ before, but never had she done the actual babysitting before. But wasn't this how babysitting worked? Keeping the kid close and keeping him entertained?

She looked down at Charlie, who was grinning as big as could be, having a blast. And as he was riding right in front of her, he couldn't be kept much closer to her than that. And besides, it wasn't like she was going to crash, right?

Gosalyn suddenly turned the bike around a corner and very nearly slammed into a truck as she very nearly drove into the wrong lane. Quickly correcting her driving, she missed the vehicle narrowly. Okay, so she might crash. She'll just have to play it more carefully than that.

Gosalyn glanced at her watch. "Okay, Charlie, we should head back now, in case Christine comes back here soon." she said. "Besides, I'm running low on fuel here."

"No, more!" Charlie squealed. "Drive some more around the block!"

"Look, Chuck..."

"Charlie."

"Right. Christine's going to be upset if she gets home and finds we aren't there. And furthermore, it'd look bad for all of us if we got caught."

"Oh, just one more time around the block? Please?"

Gosalyn looked at the pouty eyes Charlie was giving her and sighed. "Okay, one more time." she said.

Charlie cheered as they drove on. Turning around another corner, Gosalyn suddenly sensed something was out of place and began looking around for an explanation. She spied Frogduck's classy Frogmobile parked along one side of the road just in time for a large net stretched across the road to suddenly snap up and ensnare the motorbike.

Charlie yelped as the bike overbalanced and tipped over and got further entangled in the net. Gosalyn quickly latched onto him to keep him from falling, but the net kept that from happening to either of them. Meanwhile, the net continued to shoot upward, going up the full length of two skyscrapers that sat on either side of the street. It appeared that the ends of the net were attached to roofs of both buildings. The net didn't stopped until it was strung between the two top floors of the two skyscrapers.

Standing on the roof of one was Frogduck, who had been turning a crank.

"Ha! It worked! My Frognet worked!" he cried. "I caught a car!"

Keith the Frog, which sat perched on the crank, ribbited indignantly.

"Oh, well, true, it's just a motorbike, but still!" Frogduck said.

"Frogduck!" Gosalyn exclaimed in frustration.

She tried to move towards the mutant frog-duck, but the net wobbled dangerously. Charlie, scared, grabbed Gosalyn in a vise-like grip. Gosalyn wrapped a reassuring arm around him.

"Frogduck!" she exclaimed again, this time drawing the supervillain's attention. "You put us down! Now!"

"Make me!" Frogduck teased. "You're clear over there, and I'm way over here! You can't reach me from there!"

"Oh yeah?" Gosalyn challenged, but she knew he was right. Every movement she made caused the net to wobble dangerously. Gosalyn didn't trust it at all. She sighed. Then she looked at Frogduck once more. "How did you get this net set up without anybody noticing anyway?"

"Um," Frogduck said, looking blank. "You got me. Keith, do you know?"

The frog ribbited twice, almost sounding like an answer of no. Gosalyn narrowed her eyes at the pair.

"Do you even know _how _to get us down?" she asked.

Again, Frogduck looked blank. "Not our fault we didn't plan that far ahead." he said.

Gosalyn rolled her eyes.

"How are we going to get down?" Charlie asked, wide-eyed with terror, as he looked down at the long drop to the ground.

"There's only one thing we can do, Chuck." Gosalyn replied.

"Charlie."

"Right." She pulled out her cell phone. "We call for help."

* * *

Officer Matthew peered up at the net strung high above him. "Well, will wonders never cease." he remarked.

"Will we ever see anything _normal _in this town ever again?" Officer Frank asked, standing next to him. "And another thing, just how are _we _going to get them down from there?"

"We aren't." Matthew replied. "You heard the report. Frogduck's up there, and he's very skittish around the police. There's only one person I know of who can handle him."

"And speaking of him..." Frank remarked, hearing a vehicle approaching.

Turning, they saw the Ratcatcher roll up, moving past the row of police cars that blocked the street off and maneuvering around stray police officers. Riding upon it was Darkwing and Techno. Stopping in front of Matthew and Frank, they hopped off.

"What's up, Matt?" Darkwing asked.

"Oh please." Frank remarked, rolling his eyes unintentional pun.

"Funny you should say that Darkwing." Matthew said, and pointed upward. "_That's _what's up."

Darkwing and Techno both looked up at the net and blinked.

"Whoa." Techno said. "What happened?"

"Well, about a half hour ago, we got a call saying that there are two people and their motorbike that were caught in a net and where strung up there by Frogduck." Matthew explained. "Caller was one of the two caught up there. She was sensible enough to keep her cell phone handy. Can't get down on her own, and Frogduck is either unaware of how to do it or is unwilling to get them down."

"Oh great, leave it to Frogduck." Darkwing said. "Well, we've got LP on the way in the Thunderquack, he can probably airlift them to safety. In the meantime, we should probably get Frogduck out of the way."

"Hold on." Techno said, peering at the two people hanging way up in the net with his visor. "Who's up there anyway?"

"Uh, the caller said her name was Gosalyn Mallard, and she was with a boy named Charlie." Matthew replied.

Both Darkwing and Techno turned to look at him, alarmed.

"Gosalyn Mallard?" Darkwing asked in surprise.

"You know her?" Frank asked.

"Uh, yeah, we've...er...met." Darkwing admitted. He pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Launchpad, I need you to step on it, please."

"So what's special about this Gosalyn Mallard?" Frank asked.

"Uh..." Darkwing began, hesitated.

"Probably a fan, Frank, but is now really the time to be worrying about it?" Matthew asked. "What I want to know is what we plan to do from here?"

"Well, that part I can tell you." Darkwing said with a grin.

* * *

"Okay, so how are we going to get you down?" Frogduck muttered to himself as he paced the rooftop. "How, how, how?"

Keith the Frog ribbited out some advice.

"No, no, that'll never work." Frogduck said with a wave of his webbed hand. "We need a plan that's cunning, and daring, and dangerous!"

"Why can't you just lower us by turning the crank the way opposite you turned it to get us up here in the first place?" Gosalyn demanded from within the net.

"It's not so simple!" Frogduck exclaimed, and jerked the crank handle a few times. It didn't move. "See? The Frogcrank locks with my patented Forglock! You _can't _turn it the other way!"

"Why can't you just unlock the lock then?" Charlie asked innocently.

Frogduck blinked. "Hey, why don't you just shut up, kid!" he exclaimed.

"His name's Chuck!" Gosalyn corrected scoldingly.

"Charlie."

"Right, Charlie! I knew that!"

Suddenly there was a loud snapping sound and one of the ropes that held the net together went slack. The whole net jerked downward a few inches. Gosalyn and Charlie yelped and hung onto each other tightly.

"Ack!" Frogduck exclaimed, grabbing at his face. "The Frognet's snapping! Why is it snapping? I've got a lifetime warranty on this thing! I demand a refund!"

"Frogduck, shut up!" Gosalyn yelled.

The Thunderquack suddenly soared by overhead, turned around, then came to hover over the net.

"Launchpad!" Gosalyn exclaimed in relief.

A door in the underside of the Thunderquack opened, and a rope ladder unraveled out to hang next to Gosalyn and Charlie. Launchpad poked his head out of the door.

"Hey Gosalyn!" he called. "Grab the ladder and climb on up!"

Gosalyn grinned, and reached for the lowest rung on the ladder. But then there was another snap, and the net dropped even lower. Gosalyn's hand slipped on the rung, and the ladder swung to one side and wrapped around the handlebars of the motorbike. With another snap, the net dropped lower. Entangled in the ladder, the motorbike was lifted out of the net, and started to swing with the ladder.

During one swing, it smacked into Gosalyn's head. As she still wore her helmet, it didn't hurt her, but it did knock her over, taking Charlie with her. With a yelp, they both toppled onto the edge of the net, half of Charlie's body dangling over the edge. Screeching with terror, Charlie let his stuffed otter slip from his grasp and tumble down to the ground far below.

On the ground below, there were several startled cries from onlookers as the net continued to drop. Darkwing bit his lip, and pulled out his walkie-talkie.

"LP, what are you doing?" he demanded. "Get them out of there!"

"Uh, would if I could, DW, but I hit a snag." came Launchpad's reply. "I, uh, got Gos's bike instead of Gos, and now I can't get it off."

Darkwing slapped his face.

"I say we send some cops up there and grab Frogduck, and get him to lower the net before it falls." Frank said.

"You don't know, Frogduck, Frank." Matthew said. "He's not in his right mind. You can't make the guarantee that he'll do or tell you anything!"

"I've got another idea!" Darkwing announced suddenly, and turned to Techno. "Tech, rocket boots!"

Techno bit his lip. "I don't know if I'd have that kind of control, Mr. Darkwing." he said.

"We gotta do something!" Darkwing said. "I'm with Matthew, we should only storm up there if we've got no choice!"

Techno bit his lip for a moment. "All right, I'll do it." he said, and activated his rocket boots, launching himself into the air.

He soared on up to the net. "Gosalyn!" he exclaimed.

Gosalyn turned. "Techno!" she exclaimed.

"I'm going to try and get you down!" he said, moving closer. "Just, sit tight, and I'll...I'll...think of something!"

Frogduck watched for a moment. "Oh good, he's going to get them down!" he said to Keith happily. "Problem solved!"

Keith the Frog made a croaking noise that sounded disapproving.

Frogduck frowned. "Right." he said. "Gotta be the bad guy here, whether I like it or not."

He stopped to think for a moment, then stepped up onto the lip of the roof and lashed out with his frog-like tongue and slapped Techno to one side. He smashed into the side of one of the two skyscrapers, his rocketboots sputtering and dying. Beginning to fall, Techno quickly whipped out both arms and grabbed a hold of the ledge of a window and dangled there.

"Ha-ha!" Frogduck cheered, recoiling his tongue back into his mouth. But then he overbalanced and fell off his precarious perch. Quickly he stopped his fall by grabbing the ledge of a window and stopped his fall like Techno did.

"Oh c'mon!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "Frogduck, next time I get my hands on you, I'm going to _kill _you!" she ducked quickly as her motorbike suddenly swung over her head, still dangling from the Thunderquack's rope ladder as Launchpad moved the jet to a location where he could shake the bike loose. "And Launchpad, if you damage that motorbike, I'll kill you too!" she paused for a moment, another thought coming to mind. "And Christine, wherever you are, next time we meet I'm killing you too! Well, actually, I'll just strangle you for a little bit until I feel better! And then you can get some time off and..."

There was yet another snapping sound and the net jerked ever lower, cutting Gosalyn off short as she moved to stabilize herself. Below Darkwing grabbed at both edges of his hat, on edge. Frank looked at him.

"So you wanna send some people up there now, or wait until the net breaks enough that they come back down here?" he asked sarcastically.

Darkwark narrowed his eyes at him. "I'll go up there." he said. "You and Matt get some people together and make a net to catch them in, or something."

"We've got the fire department on the way, already, Darkwing." Matthew said. "They'll have something we can use."

"Good, I'll try and make sure you don't have to use it, though!" Darkwing said, hurrying into one of the two skyscrapers and into it's elevator to head to the top.

* * *

Meanwhile, Christine was walking home, her meeting having ended uneventfully. Anxious to get home and see Charlie, though, she was walking faster than normal, and wasn't paying too much attention to her surroundings. So she didn't notice the crowd that had gathered until she was in the mist of it.

Puzzled, she looked around at the crowd, then followed their gaze upward and gasped when she saw the net and the faint shape of the two people up there. She gasped again when she saw a figure dangling from a window on one skyscraper, and then again when she saw another figure dangling from the window on another skyscraper. Then, past all of that, was the Thunderquack, which was maneuvering to hover over one of the two skyscrapers, something dangling from it as well.

Christine stared up at it all for a moment, then finally tore her eyes away to survey the situation on the ground. It was then that she saw Officer Matthew find Charlie's stuffed otter, who was currently showing it to Officer Frank.

Her eyes went wide. "That's Charlie's!" she exclaimed, forcing her way to the officers.

They turned to look at her.

"You know Charlie ma'am?" Frank asked.

"Know him?" Christine asked. "I'm his adopted mother! At least...as of a few hours ago..."

Frank and Matthew glanced at each other.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask for proof of that." Matthew said. "In the meantime, we're doing everything we can at the moment. Darkwing Duck is on his way up there, and..."

"Darkwing!" Christine exclaimed, excited. "Which building did he go into to get up there?"

"Wasn't it that one?" Frank asked, pointing at the entrance of one building.

Without waiting for confirmation, Christine hurried into the building.

"No, Frank, it was that building." Matthew said, pointing at the other building. "Now ma'am, I need you to...where did she go?"

* * *

As it turned out, it takes less time for a panicked adopted mother to run up a flight of stairs to the roof of a skyscraper than it takes for a masked superhero duck to ride up to the roof of another skyscraper in an elevator, for Christine appeared on the roof of the skyscraper Frogduck had positioned his crank on long before Darkwing appeared.

She wasted no time in hurrying to the edge of the roof and looking down into the net. "Charlie! Gosalyn!" she exclaimed.

"Christine!" Gosalyn exclaimed, turning to look at the doctor. "Oh thank heavens! Am I ever glad to see you! Granted, you weren't who I was expecting, but still..."

"What on Earth happened?" Christine asked. "I leave you with Charlie for an hour and all this happens...?"

"It's a long story!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "I'll tell it to you once you get us safely on the ground! And quickly!"

"Why? What's the hurry?"

There was another snapping noise and the net sank ever lower. All three of them yelped in panic.

"_That's _the hurry!" Gosalyn said. "Now quickly, use the crank to lower us to the ground!"

Christine fumbled with the crank for a moment, while Keith the Frog watched, bemused, still perched on top of said crank. "By the way, Gosalyn, I'm never letting you babysit again!" Christine exclaimed while she fumbled with the crank's lock.

"That's okay, because I don't want to babysit for you ever again!" Gosalyn exclaimed back. "This is most certainly not worth a cone of triple-ripple fudge mint ice cream! Maybe two would be good...but definitely not one!"

Christine found the release to the lock, and flipped it. She then grabbed the handle to the crank to start and lower the net. But it wouldn't budge. Getting frustrated, she started tugging on it sharply. Then, without warning, the handle suddenly snapped off in her hands. With a startled yell, Christine toppled over and into the net, rolling across until she joined Gosalyn and Charlie in the middle.

Gosalyn gave her a glare. "My hero." she said sarcastically.

Christine didn't care at this point, and took Charlie from Gosalyn and held the frightened six-year-old tightly in her arms. "It's okay, Charlie, help's on the way." she cooed.

They all yelped as the net sank even lower. By this point, Darkwing finally arrived on the roof and looked down into the net.

"Christine!" he exclaimed. "When did you get there?"

"Never mind that, get us out of here!" Christine urged.

"Right!" Darkwing said, and began examining the net. Pulling out his gas gun, he opened it up and started pulling out the rope and grappling hook within. "Now just hold on!" he said. "I'm going to use this to try and reenforce the net, buy us some more time!"

But he didn't get the chance. There was another snap, and suddenly one whole side of the net suddenly went slack. Imbalanced, it flipped over, launching the three within it out of it. Yelling, Gosalyn quickly grabbed the edge of what remained of the net, then reached down and grabbed Christine, who in turned grabbed Charlie, yelling with fright, and there they dangled. Darkwing let out a yelp of fright of his own, and quickly worked at stuffing the rope and grappling hook back into his gas gun, while keeping one eye on the three dangling out of the net.

By this point, Launchpad, per Gosalyn's instructions, had carefully lowered Gosalyn's motorbike onto a rooftop and managed to get it untangled from the ladder. That done, he brought the jet around and brought it to hover directly under the three. Popping open the glass canopy, he brought as close as he dared.

"Drop in here!" Launchpad urged to the three. "One at the time! But quickly!" He then held out his hands to catch.

Christine took aim, bit her lip in an attempt to gather her nerve, and then dropped Charlie into the Thunderquack. He fell with a yelp, but landed safely into Launchpad's arms. There was another snap, and the net jerked lower. Gosalyn felt her grip slipping.

"I can't hold on much longer!" she exclaimed.

Darkwing got his gas gun all back together, and fired the grappling hook and rope across to the other building, bridging the gap with the rope. Hooking the gas gun onto the lip of the roof, Darkwing crawled out onto the rope to where Gosalyn dangled. Just as Gosalyn's grip finally slipped, Darkwing reached out and grabbed her gloved hand and stopped her.

They resumed the rescue attempt. Launchpad reoriented the Thunderquack so Christine could drop into the jet. She did so heavily, but without major event. Launchpad started to reposition the jet once again so Gosalyn could drop in. But then the net, even without anything in it, finally gave way, and snapped into two. One half draped over the Thunderquack, and forced Launchpad to turn the jet away from Gosalyn.

"Hang in there, Gos!" Darkwing urged, tightening his hold on Gosalyn's hand. "We've almost got you to safety!"

But then Gosalyn's hand suddenly slipped out of her glove, leaving Darkwing with just the glove. With a yell, Gosalyn started to fall. She had only fallen a couple of stories, though, before Techno, after working during all of this to get them working again, got his rockerboots to activate without warning, and flew out and grabbed Gosalyn around the middle, keeping her from falling.

"Need a hand?" Techno asked Gosalyn.

Gosalyn didn't reply, and simply wrapped her arms around Techno in what would've been a hug were they on the ground.

Down on the ground, the crowd of onlookers held their breath, until Techno and Gosalyn, the Thunderquack, and Darkwing, all returned safely to the roof of one of the skyscrapers. Then they all started cheering.

Darkwing grinned. "Not everyday that I get a standing ovation for what I do." he commented.

"Oh, I never want to go through _that _again." Gosalyn remarked, slowly letting go of Techno.

"At least we're all safe." Launchpad said, climbing out of the Thunderquack. "That's important."

"Yeah, it is." Darkwing agreed, but then turned to Gosalyn. "But Gos, just what happened here? I thought you were at the orphanage helping Mrs. Cavanaugh."

Gosalyn bit her lip. "I lied." she said.

"And why did you lie?"

"Because Christine told me to."

Darkwing glanced at Christine, climbing out of the Thunderquack, holding Charlie in one arm. "And why did she tell you to do that?"

"Because she wanted to surprise you."

"Surprise me with what?"

"The fact that I adopted Charlie today, Drake." Christine replied for Gosalyn.

Darkwing blinked. He looked around, then blinked again. "Well...er...I'm surprised." he said. He frowned. "You adopted him?"

Christine managed a grin. "It's a long story." she said.

* * *

A few minutes, they all exited the building on it's bottom floor, no worse for wear. Even Gosalyn's motorbike was undamaged, which she wheeled along beside her as they exited the building to find the crowd still cheering. Matthew and Frank quickly rallied together a party of officers and held the crowd back. Christine was still holding Charlie in her arms, but looked crestfallen.

"Charlie, I'm sorry." she finally said. "I've only been a mother for a few hours and already I'm off to a lousy start. I shouldn't have gone to that stupid meeting. They could've gone on without. Maybe then we could've avoided all that danger. Gosalyn was right, I rushed much too quickly into this."

"It's not your fault." Charlie said.

"Yes it is." Christine said. "By putting my job first, I put _everyone _in danger in some way or another, even myself."

Charlie was silent for a moment. "Uh-huh." he finally said.

Christine gave him a look. "What do you mean, 'uh-huh'?" she asked, curious.

"Well, you must be really brave to put yourself into danger." Charlie said. "I couldn't have done that. It was scary enough just being the one needing to be saved."

Christine grinned. "I scared me to death doing that, you know." she said.

"Me too." Charlie said. He gave Christine a hug around her neck. "But I like you. I'm glad you adopted me."

Christine looked like she didn't know what to say.

Gosalyn, who had been listening, grinned. "You know, he's right." she said. "You did exactly what a true mother would've done, Christine. I think you guys were made for each other. Just like me and Dad were made for each other."

Christine grinned.

"Excuse me ma'am, but I believe this belongs to the boy." Matthew interrupted suddenly, handing Charlie his stuffed otter.

"Jude!" Charlie squealed, grabbing the doll and giving it a squeeze.

"Glad to see you all safe, by the way." Matthew went on. "I hope the rest of your night turns out to be better than this."

"Yes, I think it will." Christine said. "Things are already looking up."

"Hey, I just thought of something." Techno said suddenly, stopping. "Anybody know what happened to Frogduck?"

* * *

Panting, Frogduck heaved himself over the edge of the skyscraper, and collapsed in a heap beside the crank, Keith the Frog still sitting perched upon the device.

"Thank goodness I have sticky hands!" Frogduck exclaimed, holding one of his webbed hands up. He let it fall for a moment while he worked on catching his breath. Then he hopped up.

"Well, I don't know about you, Keith, but I think I've had _more _than enough fun for one night." he said.

Keith ribbited in reply.

"Couldn't agree more." Frogduck said, scooping up the frog. "Let's go home."

Leaving everything else, the two then walked off.

* * *

_Fun Facts: The name of the resturant the chapter opens with, The Julip Leaf, comes from Redwall, which was on my mind when starting this chapter. It's probably the same resturant Christine and Drake visit in chpt. 14, "The Date", as the dishes served are close to identical._

_Gosalyn getting a motorbike came out of necessity. With each passing chapter, there was more and more need for Gosalyn to have her own means of transportation. As there was problems with her just using the Mallard family car, and she couldn't use the Ratcatcher out of costume, I gave her the motorbike, as Gos is the kind of person who'd want one._

_Frogduck's pet, Keith the Frog, is named after Frogduck himself in a sense. Before Frogduck became Frogduck, his name was Keith Gideon._

_Frogduck's scheme to catch cars is purposely ludicrous because Frogduck himself is ludicrous. Leaving blanks in how the scheme was done or even set up was also done on purpose for the same reasons. It should also be noted that when we last saw the Frogmobile, it was rammed into a streetlight (chpt. 47, "The Three Darkwings") and yet in this chapter it's back in action and unscathed._

_The plan for Christine to adopt Charlie has been around for awhile now, but I'm glad now more than ever that I came up with it. Charlie's such a sweet character, and now that he's Christine's charge, I'll get to have him around a whole lot more now._

_It's been alluded to once before that Gosalyn's favorite ice cream is triple-ripple fudge mint, and that was in chpt. 3, "Nanite". It was also alluded that Drake does not approve of it, thus suggesting that Gos doesn't get it too often. This would explain why Christine uses it to bribe Gosalyn into babysitting._

_The Mrs. Cavanaugh described in this chapter is the same Mrs. Cavanaugh we see as orphanage head in the episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck." Hence how Gosalyn knows her so well._

_Gosalyn's tendency to refer to Charlie as Chuck is a reference to the "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles M. Shultz, specifically the character Peppermint Patty, who had an odd habit of referring to Charlie Brown as "Chuck."_

_Six more chapters, and this fanfic will be the longest I've ever written. But this was to be expected when I started it. The current record holder is my fanfic "Weylan's Family", from the Redwall thread.  
_


	51. A FOUL Encounter

Summary: When SHUSH discovers that is FOUL up to something, and that it might additionally have a security leak, it turns to the one person they know can help, Darkwng Duck. But this time, Darkwing's going to have to do this mission without the mask...

Rating: T

Author's Note: A cool chapter that includes a lot of things, and finally concludes a story arc that hasn't been touched in so long, I wouldn't be surprised if you guys all forgot about it. But in the wake of one story arc comes another... ;)

51.

A FOUL Encounter

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_I've been checking out the readings for this earthquake, and they don't match up to any earthquake I've ever heard of before."_

"_So?"_

"_Gos, I think this earthquake didn't happen naturally."_

"_But, if that's true, then who caused it? I don't know of anyone who would have the tools, or the power to...The Elements."_

_--  
_

_Then it started to come together. The Elements did this, so they could have easy access to the building and whatever was in it. And, as always, to keep people looking in the wrong way while they did this, had Garth Miner create the earthquake. It seemed almost like overkill, but Techno saw that it was a good plan._

_--  
_

"_Sub-level five? What do The Elements want with SHUSH's transdimensional portal generator?"_

_--  
_

"_We've examined the databanks and security footage of The Elements intrusion into the facility, and think we know why they were here."_

"_Which is?"_

"_We think they were getting a copy of the plans for the portal generator."_

"_What? Why?"_

"_Clearly, to make use of it."_

"_We believe that FOUL wants to gain access to the Negaverse."_

"_But...why? Why do they want anything to do with the Negaverse?"_

"_That is the mystery, Mr. Techno. But knowing FOUL and The Elements, we'll find out eventually."_

_--  
_

"_Of course, there's another aspect. We know The Elements stole the plans for the transdimensional portal generator. Could it be possible that this is FOUL we're detecting?"_

"_It's a theory we've thought of, Darkwing, but there are several inconsistencies. First and foremost, FOUL has been in possession of those plans for no longer than a few weeks. That is simply not enough time to build a portal generator. Second, is that St. Canard is a little close to home to SHUSH for FOUL to be building such a device. And we know Steelbeak is smarter than that."_

_--  
_

_But that wasn't all. The device seemed to have survived the worse of the hideout's self-destruct, but clearly someone had come along and stripped it of various pieces. Darkwing's first thought was SHUSH, but then decided that was unlikely. He saw a list of the things SHUSH had salvaged, and none of it fit the description of this gateway-thing. So unless they were keeping it secret from him for reasons unknown, it wasn't SHUSH._

_--  
_

"_I, however, feared that he would have a means of creating portals so I gathered the gang together and went to check out the remains of the hideout. Turns out, though, that someone had beaten me there, and took most of what I had been looking for."_

"_Wait. You mean to say that gateway-like thing back there was a portal generator?"_

_--  
_

"_Hmm, well, this does confirm that FOUL is indeed working at building their own portal generator. But the question is; where?"_

"_Or why? Does FOUL want to get into the Negaverse, or possibly the newly discovered and unknown Warriorverse?"_

"_Or possibly to an entirely new universe we know nothing about? This is a question I would greatly like an answer to."

* * *

  
_

"And the calvary has arrived!" Darkwing proclaimed as he and the others stepped into Hooter's office. "What's up, J. Gander?"

"Darkwing, thank you again for coming." Hooter said, rising from his seat behind his desk to shake Darkwing's hand. "I have a mission for you."

"What is it, J. Gander?" Crimson asked, sitting herself in a chair.

"It's FOUL." Hooter said. "They've been very quiet lately. No major scheme from them in several months. At first, we just thought it was due to the fallout from the disbanding of The Elements, but they've been too silent for too long, and SHUSH is concerned they are up to something. As such, we've been monitoring their movements and actions more tightly than usual as of late."

"I take it, then, that you found something." Techno said.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Hooter said. "Lately, we've been monitoring the movements of minor FOUL agents, nobody you guys know, moving around in St. Canard."

"In St. Canard, why?" Darkwing asked.

"At first, we were at a loss for an explanation ourselves." Hooter said. "But then we discovered these agents were meeting up with contacts. Contacts from an organized group of criminals known as the Davidson Gang."

Darkwing let out a sigh of dissatisfaction at this, and Crimson rolled her eyes.

"I trust you've encountered them before." Hooter said, not surprised at their reactions.

"Once or twice." Darkwing admitted. "As I understand it, they're a gang of mafia-like mobsters that cause the occasional crime here in St. Canard. An entire block of the city is allegedly under "their" control. On occasion I had to deal with their actions, but usually their crimes were low-level enough that I just let the police handle them, so I could focus my attention on guys like the Fearsome Five, as they are more of a threat than the Davidson Gang."

"They weren't always like that." Crimson pointed out. "Back in the nineteen twenties, they all but ruled the streets of St. Canard, and were running a bootlegging operation smuggling illegal alcohol into the city."

"Yes, they founded the now very infamous Audubon Bay Speakeasy, and are believed to be the origins of St. Canard's reputation as a crime-infested city." Hooter confirmed. "1924, the year they were founded, on through to the year of 1933 is considered the 'golden days' for them."

"What changed that?" Darkwing asked, curious.

"Prohibition ended in 1933, Darkwing." Crimson explained. "The moment alcohol became legal again, there was little need for the acts of the Davidson Gang, and they lost a significant portion of their power when that happened. It's a miracle they even survived for this long." she paused, noting the unspoken question Darkwing's expression was giving her, then continued. "I know all of this because my great-grandfather was a member of the SCPD during the Prohibition Era and dealt frequently with the Davidson Gang. Grandpa used to tell me stories about my great-grandfather's dealings with the gang. Though, looking back, I think a good number of them were exaggerated somewhat."

"Whatever the case, the thing I want to know is why FOUL would even want to deal with this gang." Techno remarked. "What could FOUL possibly want from them?"

"For awhile, we didn't know, either." Hooter said. "But after watching the Davidson Gang for a little while, we saw that they were receiving large shipments of metal, conductors, and other equipment."

"Sounds suspicious." Launchpad remarked from the back.

"Indeed." Hooter agreed. "We think FOUL is using the Davidson Gang to house some kind of project, not unlike the time they used the Fearsome Five to house another such project. Unfortunately, we at present have no idea what that project is, or if we're even right."

"Then why don't you send some agents in there and raid the place?" Darkwing asked.

"Because any information that could be learned from the gang would be lost in the process, Mr. Darkwing." Techno pointed out.

"Then send some agents in undercover." Darkwing said. "Pretend their new recruits to the gang or something."

"We already tried, Darkwing." Hooter said, handing him a single sheet of paper. "We sent in two agents, Agent Joe and Agent Tobias, under assumed names, posing as individuals who were interested in getting jobs within the gang, probably as runners." he paused for a long moment, before continuing. "The bodies of both agents were found on the bottom of Audubon Bay just yesterday."

Darkwing glanced up sharply from the paper he had been reading.

"The gang figured out who they really were?" Crimson asked.

"And disposed of them." Hooter said, nodding. "And far too quickly for my liking, either. I worry that we have a security leak here at SHUSH."

This brought more surprised looks, but Hooter held up his hand to dissuade any questions.

"Most likely it's just a case of a hacker getting lucky." Hooter explained. "The Davidson Gang are very good at that. If so, it's a simple process of changing our security codes, changing passwords, increasing security, relocating saved classified information, and so forth. But getting back to the matter at hand, what little Agent Joe and Agent Tobias reported indicated that there is most definitely something out of place happening within the Davidson Gang, not at all consistent to the usual matters they deal with."

"So, how do _we _fit into all of this?" Darkwing asked, setting aside the paper Hooter had given him.

"Simple." Hooter said. "As I can't risk sending in another SHUSH agent without knowing more about the situation, I wish to send in you Darkwing. But not like in the past. This time, I need you to be...more under the radar."

Darkwing frowned. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, not liking the sound of it.

Techno, however, was one step ahead, as usual. "He means going in undercover, and not in our superhero guises." he said.

"I know the matter is a touchy one for you, Darkwing, but your superhero costume and flamboyant attitude that goes with it would do at all." Hooter said. "I need someone to go in who has no ties to SHUSH, but they can't suspect anything about this person. Darkwing doesn't fit for that."

"But my secret identity does." Darkwing said, perhaps more venomously than intended.

"If you won't do it, I have no way to make you." Hooter said. "But Darkwing, you're my only other real choice. Your secret identity has no real ties to SHUSH. If there really is a security leak, and the Davidson Gang checks your background, they won't find enough to have grounds for suspect you. You would be perfect. And don't think this will blow your own cover. I can limit as many people as possible from SHUSH to see you with the mask off. And if anyone does, I will make sure it goes no further than a glimpse. You have nothing to worry about in that regard."

Darkwing was silent for a long moment, all eyes on him. "What does Vice President Norrin think about this?" he finally asked.

"Lately, I haven't been running this sort of thing past him, not after that incident in August." Hooter remarked. "But is aware, and is actually for the idea."

"He is?"

"In it's entirety, exactly as I'm proposing it. No hidden twists. I think he's secretly hoping you'll fail and get killed, or something, but if he's going to approve it..." Hooter trailed off with a shrug.

"So...presuming I agree to this." Darkwing said. "Will I be going in alone?"

"I certainly hope not." Hooter said. "Granted, though, the choices of who else could go are few."

"Like me for instance." Crimson said. "I can't go undercover, because SHUSH _knows _who I really am."

"And have the data recorded away, yes." Hooter said. "And if the Davidson Gang has access to our databanks, they'll know this information. Launchpad can't, either, because he has no other alias that I know of."

"But then there's me." Techno said.

"Yes." Hooter said. "In fact, Techno, I almost encourage you to go. Your skills with computers, particularly with hacking, are exactly what the Davidson Gang will be looking for, and make both of you that much more likely to get in, and do some snooping."

Darkwing and Techno glanced at each other. "I suppose if Techno's up to it..." Darkwing said, receiving a nod from Techno in response, "...then let's do it."

Hooter nodded, relieved. "Thank you Darkwing." he said. "SHUSH is already arranging for the gang to look into you two. Once you're in, search everywhere for clues, but be careful not to get caught. Furthermore, I want you watched from the outside at all times. Here's where Crimson and Launchpad come into play. I'll be assigning Agents Mia and Sandy to go with them as well. You'll all need to be debriefed immediately, and the necessary arrangements are made."

"Right." Darkwing said, with a nod, standing up. "I'll need to do a few things on my end, and I'd like to do them straightaway, if I may."

"Of course." Hooter said, standing up as well. "And Darkwing, I wish you luck."

* * *

A few days later found Crimson, Launchpad, and Agent Mia and Agent Sandy at Darkwing Tower, preparing the Thunderquack for a stakeout.

"Well, I must admit I never expected to find myself here again." Agent Sandy remarked, looking around, as she helped Crimson load the jet. "After Vice President Norrin had us raid the place, I never thought you guys would let us back here again."

"Well, actually, there are some niceties about SHUSH knowing where the hideout is." Crimson said. "The fact you're here helping us is one of them."

"And besides, Sandy, never look a gift horse in the mouth." Agent Mia remarked, arriving with another box of items, then changed the subject. "Launchpad says this is the last of it, but he's double checking in case we missed anything. I'm going to go help him."

"Got it." Crimson said, unloading the crate. "We've got it handled, thanks."

Mia nodded, and walked off. Crimson and Sandy exchanged knowing glances once she had left, but did not comment further. Agent Mia, meanwhile, found Launchpad in the hideout's storeroom, scanning the shelves and what were on them.

"Are you nearly done?" she asked the pilot, startling him. "We're nearly ready to go, and Darkwing and Techno are scheduled to meet a man from the gang in an hour. We need to be in positions."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm almost done." Launchpad said, blinking a few times. He fell silent for a moment. "Um, Agent Mia..."

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"That depends on the question."

"I know. That's why I'm kind of hesitant. Furthermore, this seems like an odd time to bring it up, but seeing that we might not get another chance..."

"Launchpad, what is it?"

Launchpad bit his lip for a long moment. "You wanna go on a date?" he asked quickly and in a hurry.

Mia blinked, surprised. "What?" she asked, unsure how to react to this.

But Launchpad had already lost what little nerve he had. "No, forget it, forget I said that." he said, turning away. "That was a terrible way to ask you. I shouldn't have done that, I shouldn't have bothered you at all. Just...just...forget it."

"But I didn't even answer yet." Mia said.

"You don't need to, I can already tell what the answer is." Launchpad said.

Mia sighed. "True enough." she admitted. "I was going to say no. But not for the reasons you're thinking." she paused. "Launchpad, I'm flattered, but I just don't see it happening. We're just acquaintances who have a few things in common. Friends, maybe. But a date? Again, I'm flattered you asked, but I think is a date would be too much too soon, don't you think?"

Launchpad fiddled with his fingers for a moment. "Yeah, yeah I guess you're right." he said. "I jumped the gun there, a little."

"Besides, with my line of work, I don't think I could handle getting involved with anybody, even if just for one night." Mia went on. "Too much could go wrong too quickly. And I'm not ready, anyway."

"I just thought I'd ask you on one date." Launchpad said. "It's not like I get many chances."

"And yet again, I thank you for asking." Mia said. "But I think it'd be better we just stay as...acquaintances. Don't you?"

Launchpad thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah." he said. "Thanks for being so understanding."

Mia grinned. "You're welcome." she checked her watch. "Now, I hate to ruin the moment, but we need to be heading out. We have less than an hour before Darkwing and Techno meet up with the Davidson Gang."

* * *

Drake already felt out of place standing here, about to start a mission for SHUSH, without his mask, or trademark hat, on, standing here wearing a plain grey suit and tie that reminded him of the suit Vice President Norrin wore. But the feeling was doubled by the fact that Honker stood here next to him, similarly dressed, wearing only his glasses on his head. He seemed vulnerable.

Drake suddenly felt very pressured to make sure nothing went wrong on this mission, and suddenly wished he hadn't gotten Honker mixed up in this. He would be responsible for Honker's life during this mission. Granted, this was no different from any other time, but still, there was a real chance of this all going terribly wrong. Drake wondered what he would do if it came to that, and something happened to Honker.

First off, he'd have to inform his parents somehow, who were still in the dark about what Honker did as Techno. Drake wondered how the Muddlefoots would even take it, and decided to not even begin to guess. After he did that, he would then have to figure out how to not only live with himself, but Crimson as well, who wouldn't take the matter lightly, either. Oddly, he was usually thankful when Crimson stayed out missions such as this, but he wished now more than ever that she was here with them.

Technically, she was, though, watching them from afar. As were Launchpad and Agents Mia and Sandy. He just didn't exactly know where they were watching from. He wished he had some way of checking with them and making sure, but he didn't. Hooter had considered the idea of radio earpieces, but then worried that with the Davidson Gang on the lookout for new undercover SHUSH agents and frisk them and find them, and thus decided against it. Radio silence it would have to be then.

They hadn't been waiting here, the location the gang said they would meet them at, for very long before a car pulled up into the alley, stopping just before the pair. Drake sensed Honker tense slightly beside him.

"Easy..." he murmured. "Keep calm. Don't give them anything to suspect."

Honker nodded in reply.

Three people then exited the car and approached the two. One of the three, a towering lynx muscleman, approached them cooly, wearing a pair of sunglasses. After looking the two over for a moment, he pulled the glasses off to reveal a pair of flat, grey, eyes.

"You two Drake Mallard and Honker Muddlefoot?" he asked.

"Yes, that's us." Drake said, enthusiastically extending his hand for a shake in what he hoped was a normal gesture.

The lynx ignored the hand, and turned his attention to Honker for a moment, gauging him with a skeptical eye. Honker nervously avoided eye contact.

"Aren't you a little young for this?" the lynx asked. "Even for a hacker-wannabe?"

Honker chose not to reply.

"So...are we coming with you, or..." Drake began, changing the subject.

"One moment." the lynx interrupted, and motioned to the other two people.

They both moved forward, and started frisking both Honker and Drake, and then the simple duffle bags they carried with them. Both cooperated with the frisk, allowing the two people, but Drake worked to react like he hadn't expected this event. Finally, the two stepped back and nodded at the lynx. The lynx grinned.

"All right, thank you for your patience." he said. "You'll have to excuse us. Unfortunately, we can't trust everyone we recruit. Like the last two schmucks we recruited, for instance." he grinned a wicked grin. "Anyway, I'm Ethan McCaffrey, one of the powers that be, you might say. Welcome to the gang."

* * *

"They're away." Agent Sandy announced when she and Crimson returned to the Thunderquack and climbed in. "They're heading northwest."

"We know where they're going." Agent Mia said from the passenger seat in the front of the jet. "A building on Duncan Avenue that the Davidson Gang has been housing their more...bureaucratic...operations."

"Take off, LP, and head straight there." Crimson said, strapping herself in. "We'll get there ahead of time and set up for a long wait."

Launchpad nodded, and took the jet off into the air. "Did everything go okay?" he asked. "Anything go wrong?"

"No, everything went fine." Crimson said. "They were frisked as we suspected, then they chatted for a moment, then they all climbed into the car and drove off."

"Did you hear what they were talking about?" Mia asked.

"No, I wasn't close enough to hear." Crimson said. "Were you, Sandy?"

"No, I wasn't either." Agent Sandy said. "But it seemed everything was going okay."

"So what will happen now?" Launchpad asked.

"According to the reports SHUSH received from Agents Joe and Tobias when they arrived, they'll be given a brief tour of the facility, have the rules explained to them, then they'll be given a meal, while more background checks are run." Mia explained. "Most likely they'll then be introduced to their assigned jobs and will be allowed to work at them for a little while. Then they'll individually meet with the leader of the gang in a kind of employee interview." she paused, sighing. "That's where the real test will be."

"Real test?" Launchpad asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Because it was immediately after this meeting that SHUSH lost contact with Agents Joe and Tobias." Mia said, glancing at Launchpad. "That was when we presumed they were killed."

* * *

Upon Drake and Honker's arrival at the building, things went exactly as Agent Mia said they would. Despite the place housing several criminal operations, Drake found he was quite impressed with how things ran here. Very smoothly and effectively. He wasn't even sure he had seen SHUSH run so smoothly at times.

They were given a tour by McCaffrey, showing them the office-like building, explaining rules and procedures as he went. The office building housed mostly just that, offices, among other things. But there was one or two rooms Drake nor Honker were allowed to see. They were simply locked doors, though, meaning that Drake was fairly confident they could get past them. Presuming he could do so unseen.

After the tour, they were taken to a small diner built into the building that served the gangsters only. They were given a meal to eat while McCaffrey left to carry out some business, as he put it, and that they weren't to go anywhere while he was gone. He was gone for awhile, well after the point in which Honker and Drake finished their meal. Drake wondered why, Honker guessed they were probably conducting more background checks, which he didn't blame them for.

"They just caught two SHUSH agents trying this." Honker said. "I'm not surprised trying going to such extremes to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Eventually McCaffrey returned and showed them their assigned tasks. This was where Honker and Drake went on different paths. Honker was taken to a laboratory to begin familiarizing himself there and possibly begin hacking. Drake, however, had been proclaimed a hired gunman, and had to go through some basic training, both in the use of a weapon and in hand to hand combat using blanks and boxing gloves. Naturally, with his experience as Darkwing Duck, Drake did well in both areas, but still came out of the training scenario very sore.

He was preoccupied with that for quite awhile. By the time he was finished, night had fallen, and was ready for a break. But McCaffrey, who had come and gotten him, said he needed to meet with someone first, and escorted him to a penthouse-like room in the top floor of the building, very elegantly furnished. McCaffrey led him straight into the room, and then left again without a word, leaving Drake a tad puzzled.

"Oh don't worry about McCaffrey, he can be a man of few words at times."

Drake turned in time to see another person enter the room through a small doorway, rubbing his hands with a towel. He was a brown-furred weasel of average height, which Drake found a tad ironic, considering where he was and who this gentleman was associated with. He seemed cheerful enough, and once he finished drying his hands, extended one for Drake to shake, which Drake accepted.

"Good evening, Mr. Mallard." he greeted. "You don't know it, but it seems like I know everything about you now."

"Really?" Drake asked, genuinely surprised at this statement. "I trust there's a reason I'm here, then."

"Yes, I meet with every new person joining our proud ranks, no matter how small a role they play." the man said, stepping over to a table and pouring himself an amber-colored drink. He held the cup aloft. "Would you care for a drink? It's Lackadaisy Ale, circa 1982."

"I don't drink." Drake replied simply.

The man shrugged, and sipped his drink. "Your loss." he said. "Oh, and forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. I know you, but you probably don't know much about me. I'm Kevin Davidson."

"D-Davidson?" Drake repeated, caught off guard. "The Kevin Davidson?"

"The last living member of the Davidson family line, the same family that started the Davidson Gang and gave it them their name, yes." Davidson said, grinning at Drake's surprise. "I take it then that I wasn't who you were expecting."

"Well, to be honest I thought you would be..." Drake paused for a moment, searching for the right word. "...taller."

Davidson laughed. "Your friend Honker said something similar." he remarked.

"So you've talked with Honker already."

"Yes. And I must say that despite misgivings about his age, he is quickly proving himself very useful, quite skilled at hacking. How ever did you two get together?"

"Well, mostly by pure chance." Drake said. "We worked for ourselves for awhile, but just weren't making ends meet, so..."

"Yes, yes, I understand that." Davidson said. "Thing is that I checked the backgrounds for both of you, and there are a couple of things that don't add up. For instance, Mr. Mallard, you have a bit of a criminal record, but not one that quite lines up for the hired gunman you have proved yourself to be in our basic training course."

"Well, I keep a low profile." Drake said.

"Low enough to justify vanishing for seven some odd years?"

Drake coughed nervously, not surprised this subject came up. "Yeah, ran into trouble and _really _had to lay low." he admitted.

"At the expense of your family." Davidson said. "I noted you have an adopted daughter. Who, consequently, has a bit of her own juvenile record."

"That's right." Drake said, getting nervous now. "She doesn't know what I do these days, though."

"Probably a wise choice." Davidson said. Drake wondered, judging from the way Davidson said it, if he was aware of Gosalyn's history with SHUSH. "Now, as for young Honker, he's got just the opposite, with nothing bad on his records whatsoever."

"Oh, well, he wasn't into the criminal element until I discovered his skill as a hacker and got him involved. He just hasn't been caught yet, so his record remains spotless." Drake quickly explained.

"He's also your neighbor, I note." Davidson went on. "Did you know he was a hacker for a long time?"

"Uh, no, it's a fairly recent discovery." Drake said.

"Hmm." Davidson said, and turned away from Drake for a moment, peering out a window while sipping his drink. He continued speaking quite suddenly and on a completely different subject. "Have you ever heard of an organization known as FOUL?" he asked.

"FOUL?" Drake repeated, playing the part of the unknowing. "No, can't say that I have."

"I hadn't known much about them either until they came to us." Davidson continued. "Had an offer to make us, and as we are, as a gang, struggling, I couldn't say no."

"Seems to me you're doing well enough." Drake said, looking around the nicely decorated room.

Davidson grinned. "There's more to it than what meets the eye, Mr. Mallard." he said. "Whatever the case, FOUL is using our facilities to house some project of theirs. Agents from their organization come every now and then to visit the project in the lower levels and then leave again some time later."

"What's the project?" Drake asked hopefully.

"It's of no concern for you." Davidson said.

"So why are you telling me this?"

Davidson glanced at him and grinned. "Because, if you behave, I think you'll find out someday." he said cryptically.

* * *

When they met again later, Davidson having given them leave to go home, Drake related all of this to Honker.

"Funny, he didn't tell me any of this." Honker remarked as they walked down the hallway, empty due to the hour of day. "He talked a bit about my background, our made-up history about our past, discussed the possibility of me having combat training as well, and then sent me on my way."

"Odd." Drake said. "I wonder if he suspects something."

"Then why did he tell you he's working with FOUL?"

"I dunno." Drake said, reaching into jacket and pulling out the butt of a pistol. "But I intend to find out what this project is. I have a pretty good idea where it is, so c'mon, let's get this over with."

"About the project." Honker said as they went on. "I checked their computer records for references to it."

"You did?"

"Well, first, I hacked onto a few random computers I knew of in case I was being watched, and then I checked out the records. Couldn't find a thing on the project."

"That's not surprising."

"It isn't. But what I found about SHUSH is. See, I took the time to check to see if I could confirm that the Davidson Gang had hacked into SHUSH's computer core."

"Ooh, smart thinking. What did you find?"

"That's just it. I _didn't _find anything. Only a few copies of records that didn't seem to pertain to anything important. I found no other stolen files, no copies of sensitive information, no evidence whatsoever that anybody in the gang ever hacked into the system."

Drake frowned. "So your saying that the Davidson Gang isn't responsible for the security leak." he said.

"Or that there isn't a leak at all." Honker said. "Agents Joe and Tobias might have been discovered due to one of their own faults."

"I dunno, there's still too much about this that just doesn't add up." Drake said as he found the door he was looking for and looked around for anybody watching. Finding no one he moved towards it.

"Point is that I don't think the Davidson Gang is responsible for it." Honker said. "It's possible that FOUL might, but I find that unlikely as well."

"Yeah, if FOUL had hacked into the system, we would've seen the results by now." Drake said, fiddling with the lock of the door while Honker watched. "Okay, now if I'm right, our mysterious project is down here."

He opened the door to find a dark stairway. Pulling out the pistol, he started down, motioning to Honker to follow closely. The stairs didn't go far before they reached the bottom, which opened up into a large room.

"There's definitely something here." Honker said, feeling around with his hands. "If we could find a light..."

Drake happened across the light switch at that moment, and flipped it. The lights came on and illuminated the project, which was a very large device. One they were more than familiar with. Two rows of large generators lined two sides of the room. In the middle was a control panel. Behind it, was a multi-sided metal frame, having enough sides to look somewhat round, but not round enough.

It looked suspiciously like a gateway.

Honker's jaw nearly unhinged. "It's a portal generator!" he exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "FOUL built a portal generator!"

"Of course!" Drake said, hurrying towards the device. "FOUL stole the plans to SHUSH's, remember?"

"Yes, these generators are very much of SHUSH design." Honker said, running his hand across one. "But the actual portal generating device itself certainly isn't."

"No, it looks more like Darkwarrior's." Drake agreed, looking at the gateway-like device. "But that makes sense too! The Elements went snooping around Darkwarrior's device, learning what they could from it."

"They must have put the two plans together then and used the Davidson Gang to house it all and have been working on it ever since." Honker said, stepping up to the control panel, activating a few screens. "Yeah, this generator has only been in operation for about a month now, but FOUL's been making good use of it."

"Then why hasn't SHUSH detected it?" Drake asked, curious.

"Because their portal tracking system for the Posiverse is still disabled. We only have the system operating in the Negaverse."

"But wouldn't we have detected the portals there, then?"

"Not less FOUL hasn't been going to the Negaverse."

"Well, where else could they go?"

"Maybe the Warriorverse, the Neutraverse, or an infinite number of others we haven't even discovered yet. More likely, though, we detected the portals in the Negaverse as you suggest, but just presumed they were Negaduck's responsibility. The tracker can't tell the difference of who created the portal." Honker shook his head as he read more information from the screen. "Point is that we've found the project, and now we need to go and spread the word to SHUSH so they can come and seize control of this device."

"Wait, what about all that stuff about losing vital data by just storming this place?" Drake asked.

"It doesn't matter now." Honker said, turning to look at him. "FOUL's up to something and we need to stop them."

"Okay." Drake said, starting to turn. "We'll need to sneak back out of here first, radio Crimson, and then..."

He suddenly paused as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and grabbed Honker and forced both him and himself down to the floor. A millisecond later, a bullet whizzed over their heads and smashed into the screen Honker had been monitoring. Footsteps then pounded down the staircase, and McCaffrey came into view holding a gun, the large and muscular lynx looking more powerful than ever when angry. He was accompanied by several other gunmen. Clearly, their sneaking in here hadn't gone undetected after all.

"Put your hands up, we've got you surrounded!" McCaffrey exclaimed. "We'll shoot to kill if you don't comply!"

Drake reply was dragging Honker behind the control panel and returning fire with the pistol he had. McCaffrey and his men quickly returned the fire, the bullets pinging loudly off the control panel. Whenever convenient, Drake popped back up to fire off another shot. But every bullet he fired, ten or more came whizzing back. He didn't have a limitless supply either.

"We're trapped!" Drake exclaimed, frustrated.

Honker ripped off the back cover to the control panel and began fiddling with the wires. "Not yet we're not, I've got an idea!"

The one-sided firefight continued for a moment until Honker let out a victorious cry and a weak, multicolored portal suddenly flared into existence behind them.

"C'mon!" Honker said, tugging Drake's arm. "Into the portal!"

"But.." Drake began to object as the gunfire continued on the other side of the control panel.

"Do you have a better idea?" Honker asked.

Drake had to admit that he didn't, and allowed Honker to pull him up. Ignoring the bullets that were dangerously whipping around them, they both dove into the portal...

...and exited on the other side, landing in front of a whole party of Eggmen.

The portal winked out of existence behind them. A moment of silence fell as both sides became too stunned to do anything. Then, seeing that some of the Eggmen around him were armed, Drake quickly jumped up and snatched one weapon away from one Eggman and started shooting it. He shot to miss, but it scared the Eggmen into motion. Honker used the moment to jump up and grab one Eggman as hostage. Drake did likewise.

One Eggman, dressed slightly differently from the others, sat behind the control panel, but now stood up. It was Edward, Steelbeak's secondhand man.

"Who are you two?" he demanded. "How did you get here?"

"Never mind that now!" Drake proclaimed. "What are all of you doing here?"

"Answer my questions first!" Edward demanded.

Drake fired at the control panel before Edward, making Edward jump. "You answer my questions, then maybe I'll answer yours!" he said.

Edward looked like he was thinking about it. "No." he finally announced.

"Fine then!" Drake said, in no mood to argue about this, and flung the Eggman he held hostage at Edward and the control panel and resumed firing, working to disable as many Eggmen as possible. Honker hesitated, then followed suit to the best of his abilities.

The Eggmen were caught completely off guard, and soon started to scatter as most of them were unarmed, heading to the back of the room where a large door lead outside the building they were in. Edward stopped to type in a command to the control panel before fleeing as well. Soon, only Drake and Honker remained.

"Typical FOUL." Drake said, lowering his weapon. "All talk and no fight."

Honker hurried over to the control panel, running his fingers over the damaged controls, glancing at the screen as data rolled over it. He glanced at it at one point, looked away, then did a double take.

"Okay, we need to get out here, now!" Honker said, running for the door.

"What, why?" Drake said, who was busy collecting fallen weapons.

"Self destruct!" Honker exclaimed as he ran. "It's active and it's about to blow!"

"Oh. Oh!"

Drake dropped all of the weapons save one and quickly ran after him. They both exited the door and out into the city street beyond, the Eggmen who had fled into it just moments earlier were already gone. They had managed to run a few feet from the building when it suddenly exploded from the inside out, wobbled for a moment, then collapsed into a cloud of dust. Drake and Honker both looked back at the rubble, their ears ringing.

"Guess we aren't going back home that way." Drake remarked.

* * *

Not having anywhere else to go, Drake and Honker continued walking down the city street, taking in their surroundings.

"This is definitely the Negaverse." Honker said, looking up and down the Negaverse version of Duncan Avenue. "The red hue of the sky, the polluted air, cratered streets..."

"Okay, that's not so bad." Drake said. "We just need to get in contact with the Friendly Four and we can use the UIO's portal generator to go home."

"What about our secret identities?" Honker asked.

"They already know what they are." Drake said. "Partly due to my seven year stay here, and the fact that Negaduck and his minions don't use secret identities. But what I want to know is why FOUL is sending Eggmen here."

"Oh, well, that's easy." Honker said. "I managed to get a glimpse of their plans before the base blew. I nearly forgot in the excitement, is all."

"So what was the plan?"

"Well, Steelbeak theorized that since the Negaverse and the Posiverse are so alike, he could come here and get information to things he couldn't get in the Posiverse, and have a likely chance of them being very similar if not identical. Part of that was the launching codes to the nuclear weapons positioned all over the country."

Drake blinked. "Did he get any of these codes?" he asked, worried.

"I don't know, I didn't get to see." Honker said. "But that's not really the issue at the moment. In fact, now that we know, it'll be easy to change all those codes and end that problem. We just need to get home before we get caught by somebody."

"Right." Drake said, and continued walking.

A moment of silence fell. Then Honker spoke again.

"If I may ask, how did you learn to shoot a gun?" he asked, pointing at the weapon Drake still carried.

Drake glanced at it. "Well, a gas gun isn't too different from this thing." he remarked, then added, "You'll note that most of the shots I fired back there were fired to miss."

"You didn't back at the Davidson Gang hideout." Honker pointed out.

"I still didn't hit anybody." Drake said.

"True, but doesn't shooting that gun go against your goals in life?" Honker asked. "As Darkwing Duck, you're supposed to protect life, not try and destroy it."

Drake sighed. "Honk, I don't like the idea of it anymore than you do." he said. "But sometimes if you're going to live, you have to shoot the gun."

They were silent again for a moment.

"How far do you think we have to go?" Honker asked as they walked past an alley. "I feel like we're being watched by someone. I just know we're going to get caught if we don't hurry."

"Speaking of which..." Drake said, suddenly freezing in his steps.

Honker turned and blinked at surprise as someone stepped out of the alley, dressed in a grey trench coat, a black shirt, and grey pants. His glasses glinting in the dim light of the Negaverse, he raised the pistol in his hand, another like it in his other hand. This was unnerving enough, but then the feline was currently wearing the most neutral glare known to man that added to the effect.

"Don't move." Jonas Norrin of the Negaverse ordered flatly.

* * *

As Drake had the only other weapon, recovered from the site of the FOUL portal generator, and it was running low on ammo, both he and Honker surrendered to NegaNorrin, who silently disarmed them and handcuffed them, and led them away, in a direction opposite of the one they had been taking.

NegaNorrin said nothing about what he was doing and why, but it eventually became apparent he was taking them to where the police station would be in the Posiverse. Drake knew the SCPD existed in the Negaverse, but it was heavily corrupted, meaning it would be of no help to him. He blinked as he figured it out who NegaNorrin was in this universe, though.

"He's a bounty hunter." he muttered aloud, drawing Honker's attention. "You're a bounty hunter, aren't you Norrin?"

"Bounty hunter?" Honker repeated with a slight smile, thinking of how much of a step down that was for someone who was vice president in the Posiverse.

NegaNorrin replied by jabbing the barrel of his pistol into Drake's back. "Be quiet." he ordered.

He led them straight into the building at gunpoint, and called for attention once inside the empty lobby.

"Hey!" he called. "Need some assistance here!"

There was a momentary pause, and then another familiar face appeared, marred only by the fact that he wore a black uniform and had a long scar running down one side of his face.

"Jonas!" Officer Matthew of the Negaverse exclaimed upon seeing NegaNorrin. "I see you have brought in some more people for us. Got bored again?"

"As a matter of fact, I was investigating an explosion when I found these two." NegaNorrin said, motioning to his two prisoners. "No clue if they actually caused it, but I don't care, just so long as I'm adequately repaid."

"Actually, we didn't..." Honker began to remark, but NegaNorrin silenced him by jabbing his pistol into his back.

NegaMatthew grinned. "Same old Jonas." he remarked. "Yeah, we'll repay you. I'm sure Lord Negaduck won't mind if we lend you some of the funds. As for your prisoners, we'll just torture them for a bit, then make up some story explaining why for the public."

"Torture?" Drake and Honker repeated together, alarmed, but they were silenced when NegaNorrin shoved them to NegaMatthew and then silently left.

"I don't believe giving you two a choice in the matter." NegaMatthew replied thier question with a cruel grin to his two prisoners. "C'mon, we'll give you two to Chris to deal with for a few moments while I sort out the paperwork."

He led them into the back of the police office, and into what looked like a wicked version of a hospital room, lined with knifes and other tools of torture. But the real surprise was who was leaned over a small table of these tools, polishing a set of these knives.

NegaChristine looked up as NegaMatthew brought in the two prisoners. "Ooh-hoo!" she exclaimed in an excited manner. "You've brought me some playmates, Matt!"

* * *

Not long later, as NegaMatthew went to work out the details of their imprisonment, NegaChristine had both Drake and Honker strapped down to separate cots. They fought against their bonds, but to no avail.

"Well, things are just going from bad to worse, here." Honker noted in dismay.

Drake nodded in agreement, completely at a loss of how they were going to get out of this one.

"Let's see here, which one of you should I start with?" NegaChristine asked, pulling out a taser-like device, only bigger. She hovered over Drake for a moment. "How about you, deary? You seem kind of cute."

"Oh, I'm flattered, really." Drake said anxiously, struggling at his bonds. "But let's not and say we did, can we?"

NegaChristine laughed. "Hardly!" she said. "Worth asking, though, right? But yes, I think I will start with you after all, simply because you're funny."

"Now wait!" Honker said, objecting. "As I understand it, one uses torturing to get information! So what information are you torturing us for?"

"I'm not." NegaChristine replied.

"Then why do it?" Honker asked.

"Because you can't stop me." their torturer-to-be remarked with a shrug.

Drake paled slightly. "I suppose you have a point there." he admitted to NegaChristine. "But really, why can't we all just be friends?"

NegaChristine laughed again. "Friends? Ha!" she mocked. "You really are the funny one! Too bad I have to torture you, though, but hey, somebody's gotta do it."

She brought the deadly looking taser closer to Drake. Drake watched it come, not wanting to know what happened when it touched him. But then, at what seemed to be the very last moment, NegaMatthew barged into the room loudly.

"Hold it!" he exclaimed to NegaChristine, who backed down reluctantly. "Change in plans! FOWL just arrived here, and they're claiming custody to these two."

"FOWL?" Honker and Drake repeated together, not knowing if that was better or worse than their current position.

NegaMatthew ignored them as he unstrapped them while NegaChristine longingly watched. Handcuffing them once again, Drake and Honker were then escorted back out of the police station and onto the street outside. There, waiting for them, was a van, with the FOWL logo clearly painted on it's side. Inside, the outlines of two Eggmen could clearly be seen. NegaMatthew saluted at them a tad nervously.

"Where do you want them?" he asked.

"Put 'em in the back." the Eggman closest to the window said, in a very un-Eggman like voice.

NegaMatthew didn't seem to notice as he threw open the sliding door to the van and pushed them inside, then slammed it closed again, locking it. Saluting again at the two Eggmen and bidding them a brief goodbye before reentering the police station. The two Eggmen then turned to their so-called prisoners, removing their helmets. Drake and Honker brightened when they saw them.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Honker proclaimed.

"You know, you two have better have a dang good reason for why we need to come and save your butts!" NegaMegs exclaimed in a harsh mood, while NegaRowe looked onward in amusement.

* * *

"We were investigating an explosion when we caught sight of Norrin escorting you guys away." NegaMegs exclaimed as they drove away from the police department and hurried through the streets of NegaCanard. "We weren't sure if it was actually you, though, so we had to investigate further first. When it was apparent it really _was _you guys, we came up with the scheme of posing as FOWL to rescue you guys."

"So why are you even here, mates?" NegaRowe asked. "And out of costume, too?"

"It's a long story." Drake said. "A long, long, long, story. Involving a gang, FOUL, and a portal generator."

"The explosion." NegaMegs said suddenly. "That was you, wasn't it?"

"Indirectly." Honker admitted.

"Well, that's not entirely a good thing, mate." NegaRowe said. "You alerted our FOWL, and they're on the lookout for you guys, that's where we got the idea to pose as FOWL Eggmen."

"Oh great." Drake said, rubbing his forehead. "Please tell me we can avoid them."

"I think so, but that's why we're hurrying." NegaMegs said. "But I think your FOUL and our FOWL are in league with each other judging from what _little_ you've told me."

"Well, I was wondering where all those Eggmen went when they fled." Honker said. "They must have a backup base somewhere."

"It'd have to be FOWL, then." NegaRowe said. "They have a portal remote, like Negaduck does. They don't use it often, only in emergencies, mind you. Generally they leave the going to other realities thing to Negs. Rest of the time it's all under lock and key, hence why we don't bother trying to get at it."

"Our FOUL must have struck up a deal that if any of their men got stranded in the Negaverse, FOWL would provide them a means home." Drake said. He rolled his eyes. "That's just typical."

"Worse still is that we think we've got an Eggman following you two." NegaMegs said. "Caught sight of him around the same time we saw you. Haven't seen him since, but..."

"Hence why the van." NegaRowe said. "More likely to loose the blighter if we can outrun him."

"I can't say I'm surprised, though." Drake remarked. "Steelbeak's going to wonder how we managed to stumble across his portal generator and why."

"Worse still, but he's probably going to try and silence us before we start spreading the word to people such as SHUSH." Honker added. "They could get desperate."

And then, almost as if to prove his point, there was a loud bang, and the van suddenly jerked. NegaMegs, who was driving, lost control of the vehicle and it slammed into a lamppost. Shaking off the effects of that final jerk, everyone stood up and started to climb out of the van. As Drake hopped out, he yelped when a hailstorm of bullets very nearly hit him, and he quickly dropped to the floor. Honker, who was about to follow stumbled backwards.

NegaMegs, who was in the process of climbing out, was forced to slip back into the shelter of the van as the bullets moved to shoot at him. Approaching the wrecked van was a single, determined Eggman, one no one knew personally, armed with an Uzi. He walked fearlessly up to the van and to where Drake lay motionless on the ground in attempt to protect himself. The Eggman didn't buy it, and raised his weapon for the kill.

Honker, who was watching, moved to stop him, but NegaRowe moved faster and pounced onto the exposed back of the Eggman. The Eggman stumbled for a moment, then reached back, grabbed Rowe, and pulled him off of his back and around to where he could hold him in front of him. Wrapping one arm tightly around NegaRowe's neck, the Eggman raised his weapon once more in preparation to fire at his first target, in this case, Drake.

But the gunshot that rang out next wasn't from him, but Honker, who had managed to retrieve the weapon Drake had been carrying all this time from where it had fallen, and fired once. The bullet slammed into the shoulder of the Eggman's firing arm. Gasping in agony, he dropped his weapon, and started to topple over, very nearly dragging NegaRowe with him, but the agile otter slipped free before that happened and stood over the fallen Eggman in surprise, as the FOUL solider clasped at his bleeding wound and moaned.

Drake hopped up and looked at Honker in mild surprise as he lowered the smoking weapon. "Honker..." he began, a little shocked.

"It's just as you said earlier, Mr. Mallard." Honker said, a determined look upon his face. "Sometimes if you're going to live, you have to shoot the gun."

* * *

"They've been out of contact for far too long now." Hooter remarked as he marched down the hallway at SHUSH HQ. "But are you _sure _that something went wrong?"

"Well, as we had no radio contact with them, we don't have confirmation from them directly." Crimson admitted as she, Launchpad, Agent Mia, and Agent Sandy all walked with Hooter.

"But we were using the Thunderquack's espionage equipment to keep tabs on their general movements." Agent Mia remarked, picking up on the conversation. "And at several points we caught sight of Darkwing and Techno in a window. We haven't found any trace of them from either sources in quite awhile."

"Plus, the Davidson Gang has gone on a more full alert before we left, and we detected weapons discharging somewhere within the building." Agent Sandy said. "We think they got caught."

"Then the Davdison Gang has them." Hooter said.

"No, we don't think so." Launchpad said. "The Thunderquack picked up some funny energy readings in the lower levels of the building at some point."

"And it was identical to some reading Techno has gotten of transdimensional portals." Crimson added. "I think Darkwing and Techno fled to another universe."

"The question is how." Sandy said.

"And why." Mia added. "What did they hope to gain from that?"

"Clearly, though, the best thing to do now is to throw caution to the wind and raid the building." Hooter said. "I'll need to make the necessary arrangements first, but..."

But before he could say another thing, alarms started to go off.

"Director Hooter to sub-level five!" the intercom spoke suddenly.

The group quickly changed courses and went straight down to the sub-level in question where the portal generator resided. They arrived just in time to see the portal to flare into existence and a number of armed agents take aim with their weapons.

"Report!" Hooter barked as he entered.

Dr. Bellum hurried over. "It's a portal from the Negaverse, director." she said nervously. "We're waiting for any further information."

"Got it!" Agent Todd exclaimed suddenly from where he worked at a control panel. "The UIO's IDC is being transmitted!"

"Stand down!" Hooter ordered the agents. "Maybe the UIO knows something about what's happened to Darkwing and Techno."

There was a momentary pause as everyone watched the portal. Then Drake, wearing a mask, stumbled out of the portal and down the ramp. He was quickly followed by Honker, also wearing a mask, who bumped into Drake in his hurry, and then NegaRowe appeared, the injured Eggman in tow.

"G'day mates!" NegaRowe greeted emphatically. "Found a couple of things that belong to you, and also brought you a gift!" he motioned to the injured Eggman with a grin. "Free of charge!"

NegaRowe's comments broke the tension as there was several guffaws around the room, and everyone moved to greet the arrivals.

* * *

The next day, Darkwing arrived at Hooter's office, cleaned, and back in costume, with none the wiser about his secret identity. He greeted Hooter sitting behind his desk in the usual way.

"Good morning, J. Gander." he said, taking a seat. "You called for me?"

"Indeed I did, mostly to just give you an update on what's happened." Hooter said. "As per requested from you and Techno, SHUSH has raided the building containing the FOUL portal generator and now have it under our control."

"Well, that's good!" Darkwing praised.

"It was a simple matter, really." Hooter said with a shrug. "The Davidson Gang, probably predicting that SHUSH was going to raid the building, had all but evacuated the building and scattered. They provided no resistence. As for the portal generator itself, it's very useless at the moment, as if requires a portal generator on the other side in order to operate, and your report said you destroyed the one in the Negaverse."

"Yep." Darkwing said. "Although, FOUL _did _help somewhat with that."

"Speaking of FOUL, they haven't done much concerning the recent turn of events." Hooter went on. "Probably their way of acknowledging we've got them beat. There were rumors in the grapevine of the Davidson Gang putting a price for you and Techno's heads, but those rumors have since stopped. No doubt FOUL talked them into dropping the matter, fearing the wrath of SHUSH would befall them."

Darkwing chuckled at that.

"And as for our captured Eggman, he has told all he knows." Hooter continued. "Which isn't as much as we hoped. He confirmed FOUL's plans, and that they didn't get much from it at all, so we can rest easy today. He also confirmed that there was only the one portal generator. Other than that, though, he was kept out of the loop on things. Now, there is one final thing I wish to address, and that's the security leak. It's worse than we thought."

He turned his computer screen so Darkwing could see, which showed a picture of a part on one of the power generators to the FOUL portal generator.

"This part is identical to a part we have on our portal generator." Hooter said, tapping the screen at the part.

Darkwing didn't look impressed. "But FOUL stole a copy of the plans to SHUSH's portal generator." he said. "They used those plans to build their generator."

"Very true, but those plans are at least eight months old." Hooter said. "SHUSH has made several changes and improvements to the generator since then. And FOUL hasn't gotten the plans to those changes at all. And this part here is one of those new changes they shouldn't know about."

Darkwing frowned. "Then how did they find out about it?" he asked.

"Through a means much bigger than a hacker getting lucky." Hooter said. "I think we have a spy somewhere in SHUSH."

* * *

_Fun Facts: Originally, Crimson was going to tag along with Drake and Honker for this adventure, leaving me free to write another Launchpad/Mia moment, but then I realized there was a major plot hole in that fact because SHUSH knowns who Crimson truly is, and if they knew, it was entirely possible their enemies did as well. So I changed things so she stayed behind. It was actually kind of nice as it gave me the chance to write an adventure with just Drake and Honker, a rareity, and it's too bad I couldn't have done more with that._

_LP's scene where he asks Mia on a date was almost cut because it was so sudden and out of the blue, and seemed to derail the plot momentarily. I left it in because I knew you guys wouldn't complain to it._

_Me making Ethan McCaffrey a lynx was me attempting to justify having another feline character._

_I also didn't get to do as much with the Davidson Gang as I had wanted, so they will mostly come back again once or twice. They will not become major villains, though, as I've got enough on my plate already._

_As I, like Drake, do not drink and thus am not well-versed with different kinds of alcoholic drinks, I don't really know if there's such a thing as Lackadaisy Ale. But I'd really be surprised if there was, as I created the drink as a salute to the webcomic "Lackadaisy" from which the inspiration for the Davdison Gang comes from._

_This chapter introduced a lot of Negaverse doubles that I've been dying to get a chance to introduce, so I attempted to squeeze in as many as possible in this chapter, which it shows, as they're all bunched together in a group. Other characters that I wanted to do but didn't was a NegaHooter, NegaMia, NegaSteelbeak, NegaEdward, and a NegaNanite. Guess they'll have to appear in another chpt._

_I leave the possibility of a spy in SHUSH open for a future chapter and as a kind of cliffhanger. It feels almost like it needs a "to be continued" but I'm not going to add it. To counter this affect, I was going to add a scene in which Crimson and Techno say goodbye to NegaRowe as he goes back home through the portal. I cut it out simply because I didn't feel up to writing it.  
_


	52. DeSpell Of A Lifetime

Summary: When Scrooge McDuck drops by the Mallard home for a surprise visit to Launchpad, he begins snooping into things that are rather touchy for Darkwing...and then that's not even the tip of the iceburg when another situation begins to unfold at the same time...

Rating: K+

Author's Notes: Sorry this chapter is a bit late, it's been a rather hectic past couple of weeks as I ready myself for starting my first term of college. And as that first term begins on this upcoming Monday and will be consequently throwing my schedule into the wall, the next chapter might come late as well. But I've already got it started, so there's hope. :) DuckTales cross-over chapter, as the summary suggests. Enjoy. :)

52.

DeSpell of a Lifetime

"Huh, they're saying in the news that the planets are all going to be lined up in a row for the next couple of days starting today." Drake announced at the breakfast table, flipping through the newspaper.

"That's great dad." Gosalyn said from the couch, having taken her breakfast to the TV so she could watch cartoons. It was a Saturday morning in mid October, and currently nobody in the Mallard family had much to do except sit around the house.

"I personally think it's really cool." Launchpad said from where he sat to one side of the living room, working on his button collection. "I mean, how often are the planets all lined up like that?"

"Almost never, apparently." Drake replied, reading further. "In fact, the planets aren't _truly _lined up, they're just _look _like it from our vantage point on Earth. And it's not all of the planets, only the five biggest, the ones we can see with a naked eye here on Earth."

"Now see, that sounds even _less _interesting than before." Gosalyn said, chomping on her cereal as she watched TV.

"This doesn't happen everyday, though, like Launchpad said." Drake went on. "Apparently, this 'alignment' so to speak, is probably only going to happen again three times in the next hundred years. Once in 2040, once in 2060, and then once again in 2100."

"So it's quite possibly a once in a lifetime chance to see this." Launchpad guessed.

"Indeed it will be, LP." Drake said, setting aside the paper and getting up from the table. "I, personally, intend to get a glimpse of it one of these nights. Been awhile since I really used my telescope anyway." he paused to take a sip from the coffee mug he had in one hand. "Besides, Morgana told me once years ago that these little events are really important for those of magical blood, as this alignment releases some kind of magical energy that gives everyone of magical blood a kind of boost to their abilities."

"Hmm." Gosalyn said, still uninterested. "Good thing we don't have any villains out there with magical blood that we have to worry about."

"Mm, I have to agree to that." Drake said with a grimace, leaning on the back of the couch to watch the show Gosalyn was watching.

"There is Loki, though." Launchpad pointed out.

"Nah, Loki's not a bad guy." Gosalyn said. "He turned out to be a really good guy with good intentions."

"He just had a funny way of carrying them out." Drake remarked.

"Yeah." Gosalyn concurred.

At that moment a car could be heard pulling up to the curb outside the house, pause for a moment, then drive off again. Drake looked up at the window to see what was up, but the curtains, which were mostly closed, blocked his view. Shrugging, though, he didn't think a thing more of it until the doorbell rang.

Drake moved to answer the door. "We're not expecting anybody this morning." he muttered to himself. "I wonder who it could be."

He passed his coffee cup to his other hand and opened the door. He blinked in surprise at the person that was standing on the doorstep.

"Good morning Mr. Mallard." the elderly duck in a top hat greeted. "I don't believe we've met in person just yet. I'm Scrooge McDuck."

* * *

Drake just stood there in dumb shock, unsure how he should greet the richest duck in the world. Scrooge seemed to understand and overlooked the matter. He peered into the house.

"Is Launchpad here?" he asked politely.

As if in answer to the question, Launchpad suddenly called out from the other room, "Who's at the door DW?"

"Uh...it's for you, LP." Drake called back, finding his voice.

There was a momentary pause as the pilot set aside his button collection and walked to the door. Finally he appeared as well, and like Drake, blinked in surprise when he saw who was at the door.

"Mr. McD!" Launchpad exclaimed happily.

"Really?" Gosalyn was heard exclaiming from the other room, and then rushed right to the door to see for herself. "Keen gear! It is!"

Scrooge laughed. "Sorry if I'm intruding." he said. "But I was in the neighborhood this morning conducting some business, so I thought I'd drop by and pay Launchpad a visit."

"Oh no, not at all, Mr. McDuck!" Drake said quickly, holding the door open wide. "C'mon in! We actually wasn't doing much of anything at the moment."

Scrooge entered and looked around the small home. "I won't stay long." he insisted. "I just thought Launchpad and I could talk about old times."

"No, please, make yourself at home!" Drake insisted, escorting Scrooge into the living room and sitting him down on the couch. "Take all the time you need. Would you like something to eat?"

"No, thank you." Scrooge said, standing back up. "Really, I need to be back in Duckburg by this evening, and I just planned..."

"Oh, that's enough time for all of us to get to know each other." Gosalyn said empathically. "We could show you around the home, too, and maybe around town, and..."

"Uh guys, maybe you guys should go find something else to do while me and Mr. McD talk." Launchpad interrupted quickly.

"Sure thing!" Drake said, backing out of the room.

"We aim to please!" Gosalyn added, following.

Soon both Scrooge and Launchpad were alone in the living room.

"They're, uh, very easily excited, aren't they?" Scrooge asked in reference to the Mallards.

Launchpad grinned. "They're just not used to meeting someone as famous as you, Mr. McD." he said.

"Of course." Scrooge agreed. "But then again, you've gotten fairly famous yourself, Launchpad, at least more than usual."

"Oh, yeah, with being Darkwing's sidekick, I guess I kinda am." Launchpad admitted with a shrug. "Doesn't make me feel any more special, though."

"No, it doesn't." Scrooge agreed. "Sometimes fame is better off untouched."

"So what did you want to talk about, Mr. McD?" Launchpad asked, sitting down on the couch, and motioning for Scrooge to do the same.

"Oh, I dunno." Scrooge admitted, accepting the offered seat. "Multiple things, I guess. Part of it is that I feel still bad about all those years we spent fighting."

"Oh, Mr. McD, don't go beating yourself up over that." Launchpad said. "Besides, we've resolved that, it's behind us now."

"I know, but still..." Scrooge said, trailing off for a moment. "And then I've just been feeling...nostalgic...a lot lately, longing for the old days. Y'know, when you were around, and the boys, and..." he trailed off again. "It's gotten very lonely at the manor these days, y'see. Just me and Duckworth these days. Haven't gone and had an adventure in a long while, too. But of course, at my age, it probably wouldn't be advisable. I'm even older now than I was then."

He popped his back nosily as if to prove his point. Launchpad nodded in agreement.

"Times have really changed." he agreed. "But we always have memories, and we can also do what we're doing now. Just visiting."

"Aye." Scrooge agreed. "So, let's get to it, then. How have things been for you lately?"

"Oh fine." Launchpad said. "Drake and Gos have been great to me, like always. Practically family to them. And I've been keeping busy both here and with what I do with Darkwing Duck."

"And how is Darkwing?" Scrooge asked. "Haven't seen much of him since he stopped that robbery at my mineral mine about a year ago."

"Oh good, still around a kicking, trying to make the world a better place." Launchpad said. "Beaten a few enemies, gotten a few more to replace them. It kind of goes in a full circle it seems like at times."

"Aye, I've been in that boat, before." Scrooge agreed. "Still have plenty of enemies out there that would love to get at me money bin. But I guess that's just how it's always going to have to be."

"I think you're right, Mr. McD." Launchpad agreed. "No matter how many bad guys you beat, there's always going to be someone out there that could take their place. I mean, I've seen that happen loads of times myself. Like the time me and DW were going up against The Elements during that incident with the..."

But he trailed off suddenly and closed his beak, and vacant expression settling on his features as he stared straight ahead of him, somewhere over Scrooge's head. Scrooge stared at Launchpad for a long moment, then turned to follow the pilot's gaze. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. Frowning, he turned back to Launchpad.

"Launchpad?" he asked. "Are you all right?"

Launchpad didn't reply, and just kept staring ahead of him. Scrooge started worry, and shook Launchpad gently.

"Launchpad?" he asked. "Launchpad!"

"Huh?" Launchpad said, suddenly snapping out of it. "Oh, er...sorry Mr. McD. I, uh, zoned out there for a moment. I do that sometimes."

"Never in the time I've known you." Scrooge said.

"Oh well, er, sorry anyway." Launchpad said.

Scrooge looked at him for a long moment. "Are you sure?" he repeated, not quite convinced. "There's not something wrong, is there?"

"No." Launchpad persisted. "No, of course not, Mr. McD." he paused. "How about I show around the house, hmm?" he asked, standing up.

"Um, okay." Scrooge said, following him hesitantly. "I suppose that would be okay."

* * *

"Are you sure there's a spy hidden somewhere in SHUSH, Director Hooter?" Techno asked as he worked at the supercomputer inside Darkwing Tower. "Because I've been sorting through your records for the past several days and haven't found a thing out of the ordinary."

"The more I think about it, the more I'm sure of it, young Techno." Hooter said, his face looming over Techno on the big screen. "There is simply no other way for sensitive information such as the most recent plans to the portal generator to have gotten into FOUL's hands."

"I thought the popular belief was that the Davidson Gang was behind that." Techno said.

"The Davidson Gang is a low-level group of gangsters that yes, excel in organized crime, but do you really think they have the means to get this kind of information?" Hooter asked. "And what would they do with it, anyway? No, I'm convinced FOUL has got a spy in my building, and I want to know who, but more importantly, without arising their suspicions."

"Which is where I come in." Techno said. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Director Hooter, but I'm coming up with nothing here. I've checked the background files for all the new recruits and found nothing wrong there. I've checked for any evidence for hacking, or for bugs anywhere in the system, and now I'm checking the files of the more experienced agents in SHUSH, but I don't really expect to find anything."

"Who have you checked?" Hooter asked, curious.

"Agents Mia, Sandy, and Grizzlikof, of course."

"And?"

"My scans indicate they come clean. You thought they wouldn't?"

"I won't take any chances, Techno, as much as it pains me to admit it." Hooter said. He paused for a moment. "Any chance you might have missed something?"

"Not likely, but it's possible, nonetheless." Techno said. "It would really depend on how long they've been a spy for FOUL, and FOUL has only existed for a little under a year now."

"FOUL, in title, has only existed for a year." Hooter corrected. "But the idea of FOUL has existed for a lot longer than that. Any chance this spy could be jumping from one FOUL to another as they come and go?"

"He'd have to be a remarkably good spy in order to do it." Techno remarked.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Hooter said. "Check every agent who would have the experience to pull off such a feat."

"And if I turn up nothing?" Techno asked.

"Then check all the records." Hooter said, reaching for the control that would end the transmission. "I want this spy found!"

* * *

"So this is your bedroom." Scrooge asked, trying to be polite as Launchpad led him into his room.

"Heh, yeah." Launchpad said nervously, rubbing at the back of his head as he used his foot to shove some dirty laundry aside. "Excuse the mess, I haven't had the chance to tidy in...well...forever."

"Yes, I remember you always lived like you were raised in a barn." Scrooge muttered, looking around the room. He still tried to be polite about it. "Well, it's very nice, Launchpad. I'm sure there are other places in this...er...wonderful...home you'd like to show me. So, if uh, you'd like to continue with the tour..."

"Oh, but let me show you some of my stuff, Mr. McD." Launchpad said, pulling his former employer over to his cluttered desk. "See? Here's my scrapbook about DW! It's gotten a lot bigger since the last time you've seen it, hasn't it?"

"Um, well, yes it has..." Scrooge admitted.

"And here's where I keep all my plans for the...uh..." Launchpad pulled a handful of papers from a slot and sorted through them quickly, "...the Thunderquack!"

"Yes, I can see that, Launchpad. At least you appear to keep them all in the same spot." Scrooge remarked.

"And over here is where I stash my...uh...my...buttons?...yeah, buttons! Here's...uh...my button collection!"

"I've know you collected buttons for _years _now Launchpad." Scrooge said flatly, folding his arms. He was starting to loose patience. "How about we go somewhere else now?"

"Oh, hold on, I think I've got something that would interest you..." Launchpad said anxiously, sifting through the tangled mess on his desk.

He knocked a pile off and onto the floor with a clatter. He and Scrooge both looked down at it.

"Oops." Launchpad said.

"Oh, don't worry." Scrooge said with a sigh. "Let's clean it up."

He leaned over and started gathering things up. Among the mess he found a framed picture of a person. He picked it up and held it up to the light.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"Oh, that's uh..." Launchpad stuttered, taking the picture from Scrooge quickly and looking at it. "That's uh....uh..." he stared at the picture for a long moment, to Scrooge's puzzlement. "Uh...Mia. Yeah. Mia Gingivere."

Scrooge leaned over to get another look at the feline in the picture, but Launchpad moved the picture out of sight again.

"Okay." Scrooge said. "But who is she? What does she do?"

"Uh..." Launchpad said, again seeming to be lost. "Uh...I can't tell you."

"Ah." Scrooge said in understanding. "Something Darkwing related then?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, that's right."

"So is she a girlfriend?"

"What? Oh, er...well...she's a friend."

Scrooge gave Launchpad another long and hard look. "Launchpad are you sure you're all right?" he asked. "Ever since you "blanked out" earlier you've been acting like you've got your head caught in a thundercloud."

"I'm fine, Mr. McD." Launchpad persisted. "Never felt better."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

Scrooge gave him another long look, then shrugged. "Fine." he said decisively. "Now, what else can you tell me about this Miss Gingivere? Is she nice?"

"Um...yeah, I suppose so." Launchpad said, glancing at the picture.

"You suppose so?"

"Uh...yeah."

"Do you like her?"

Launchpad was silent for a long moment, looking like he was mentally seeking for the answer. "I don't know." he finally admitted.

"Then why do you have a picture of her?" Scrooge asked, tapping it with the end of his cane.

Launchpad regarded the picture again for a long moment. "I'm not supposed to have the picture, actually." he finally confessed. "I pulled a few strings with a friend to grab it from a file or something, so..."

"Oh, okay." Scrooge said. He looked around, eager to go somewhere else now. "You want to continue with the tour?"

"But...I still have things I want to show you here." Launchpad objected.

"Okay, go ahead, get it all out of your system, then." Scrooge said.

Launchpad nodded, and scanned his desk. Finally, he grabbed his button collection, which was a box filled to the brim with ziploc bags full of buttons organized by size, shape, and color, and started pulling out each button, one at a time, and began telling the story of how he got it, each story quite lengthy in length. Quite quickly he became totally engrossed in that.

It was the opportunity Scrooge was looking for, and he silently slipped out of the bedroom and back into the hallway. Not exactly the visit he had been hoping for, but this was Launchpad. Things usually didn't go according to plan when it came to him. It wasn't time for him to leave, and despite it all, it seemed impolite to leave without telling Launchpad to go, so Scrooge decided to seek out the rest of the house's occupants and converse with them.

* * *

"Honk, did you ever stop to think you might be thinking too hard?"

Honker, who had since ended his conversation with Hooter and had removed his costume to continue working, turned in surprise at the sound of Gosalyn's voice. She was just stepping up to the top of the platform, eating a banana, grinning slightly.

"Oh." Honker said. "Um, hi. And no, I've never stopped to think that. Not really, anyway."

"You should." Gosalyn said, coming to stand over his shoulder. "Because you've been working on this little assignment for how long?"

"Finding a spy in SHUSH is very important, Gos." Honker said, not looking up from his work. "I think it's justified that way."

"And what do you have to show for it?" Gosalyn asked dramatically. "Have you found the spy yet?"

"Well..." Honker admitted slowly, "...no."

"So you think it'll hurt if you took a quick break?" Gosalyn asked. "I mean, I know you've been in here all morning. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"It's breakfast time?"

"Only like three hours ago."

"Oh."

"So I take it that's a no."

"Yeah."

There was a pause.

"You know Honk, breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"Yeah, I know, Gos."

"So, as you're not making progress, let's put it away, and..."

"Oh, but I'm making progress."

Gosalyn stopped, and peered over Honker's shoulder at his screen. "You have?" she asked.

"Well, I've found evidence that actually supports the theory that there is a spy somewhere within SHUSH." Honker said, looking up at Gosalyn.

"Like what?" Gosalyn asked, curious.

"Well, I've found some encrypted messages that were sent out to an unspecified location several times in the past few months through the SHUSH data relay service." Honker explained, bringing up the relevant data as he went. "They were authorized, and everything about them is official, _except_ the fact that no one, not even Hooter, knows what's in them. And that's not normal, as someone else at SHUSH HQ _always _sees and reads any messages that comes and goes from the building."

"So you think these messages were sent by our spy." Gosalyn guessed.

"That's what I'm thinking, yes." Honker said.

"So what do they say?" Gosalyn asked.

"Well, that's the problem." Honker admitted. "They're encrypted with a code I can't even crack, nor can the any of our decrypting software, whether it be SHUSH's or technology we have here in the tower. I sent copies of the messages to Dr. Bellum for further analysis, but I'm still trying to work at cracking the code."

Gosalyn was silent for a moment. "So how long have you been doing that?" she finally asked.

"Uh..." Honker checked his watch, "...about two hours now."

"I thought so." Gosalyn said. "Look, how about you take a break? We have a visitor at my house."

"Like who?" Honker asked.

"Oh, only just a certain richest duck in the world by the name of Scrooge McDuck."

Honker whirled around to face her. "Get out!" he exclaimed.

"It's true." Gosalyn said. "Dropped by to visit Launchpad. Would you like to meet him?"

Honker was silent for a long moment, clearly debating it. "I...suppose I could take a break." he finally admitted.

* * *

In his study, Drake was currently sitting at his desk, busy working on something metallic and electronic. Wearing protective goggles, little flashes of light would flare out from the desk occasionally, wondering to an outsider to wonder just what the heck Drake was doing at the moment.

Scrooge watched this for several moments from the doorway in a state of mild interest for several moments. Drake was clearly unaware of his presence or he would've acknowledged it by now. Finally, his curiosity getting the better of him, Scrooge reached out with his cane and gently rapped on the door. Drake jumped and whirled around to peer at him through his dark-tinted goggles.

"Mr. McDuck!" he exclaimed, quickly switching off the tool he was using and pulling off the goggles. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you come in."

"That's okay lad, you seemed very busy at the moment." Scrooge said, looking around the room. "Do you mind if I come in and take a look around?"

Drake hesitated for a moment. "Um, I suppose that would be alright." he agreed slowly. "I thought you were here talking with Launchpad, though."

"I was, but Launchpad seems a little...out of it...today." Scrooge said, stepping fully into the room. "More so than usual, anyway. And since I know rather little about you, the people he lives with, I thought I could chat with one of you for awhile."

Drake furrowed his brow at that. "No offense, Mr. McDuck, but you never struck me as the kind of guy who likes to sit for hours on end and just talk." he remarked.

"I'm not, not unless it's about business." Scrooge agreed. "But lately..." he paused, looking hesitant to admit to this part, "...lately I find myself longing for what people like Launchpad have."

Drake frowned, wondering what that was. "Family?" he hazarded to guess.

"No. No, not quite." Scrooge said, prodding his cane at a box Drake had sitting on the floor. "More like constant company."

"You're lonely?" Drake said, surprised at this confession.

"Aye." Scrooge said with a weak grin, pausing to look at a family portrait that hung on one wall of the study. "It's not like there are many other richest ducks in the world I could befriend."

"Well, no, but I know there are several who come close." Drake pointed out.

"Aye, but they aren't friends, they're competition." Scrooge said spitefully. "Besides, they're a snotty, selfish, self-centered lot. All of my past attempts to befriend them have ended in failure, which in the long run is a good thing. What I need is more friends like you, Mr. Mallard. Just good, honest, people trying to make a living in this wild world we live in. I need more friends like that."

"Well, I'll try my hardest." Drake said. "But to be honest, I've never befriended a richest duck in the world before."

Scrooge laughed. "You're already off to a great start, I'll tell you that much." he said, stepping over to Drake's worktable. He squinted his eyes at the item sitting there, Drake moving slightly to block it from view. "What were you working on when I came in here, anyway?"

"Just...stuff." Drake said. "A little science project of sorts, you could say."

Actually, it was a energy scanner and analyzer that Honker had suggested be made for him, Gosalyn, and Launchpad to carry around while on patrol, so they could take preliminary scans of things in case Honker, was Techno, wasn't present at the time. But Scrooge wasn't to know that.

Scrooge seemed satisfied with the answer though, because he made an uninterested noise, and then turned away to look at other things. Drake used the moment to cover the half-finished device with a cloth.

"You seem to be quite a Darkwing Duck fan like Launchpad." Scrooge noted suddenly, pointing at a half-finished canvas painting of the Thunderquack.

"Oh, that!" Drake said, getting up and hurrying over. "Yeah, I suppose it's catching in a way. Really, though, it's just a case of a hobby of mine and having nothing else to paint at the time."

"Hmm." Scrooge said, looking over to where there were several finished canvases were placed against the wall. Several of them where Darkwing oriented as well. "Seems like you have nothing else to paint fairly often."

Drake wasn't sure how to reply to that, so he just remained silent. Scrooge gave him an odd look, and Drake worried the perceptive old duck was starting to suspect.

"Seeing that Launchpad is with you so often..." the multizillionaire began suddenly, "...do you meet up with Darkwing very often?"

"Um, no, not really." Drake said. "The guy tends to keep a very low...profile."

"How low?" Scrooge asked.

"Very low."

"Because you seem to know a good deal about him for a person who claims to have never met him. You aren't...hiding something...are you?"

"What? No! Of course not! I just came to know all of this from...Launchpad! Yeah, he gets very talkative about his adventures sometimes."

"I'm sure he does. But the detail of these paintings you have here seem almost...too detailed, for having just heard stories."

"Well, I assure you that's very much the case."

There was a moment of silence while Drake and Scrooge eyed one another. For a long moment Drake worried Scrooge was going to play the upper hand he knew he had, but finally Scrooge just adjusted his top hat and turned away.

"Aye, probably is." he admitted, walking out of the room. "Anyway, nice talking to you Mr. Mallard."

"Yeah...same...here." Drake replied, slowly, suspecting he hadn't heard the end of that matter.

* * *

Scrooge left Drake's study and stepped into the living room and looked it over for the other occupant in the house he knew was here. The room was empty, though. Deciding Gosalyn to be in some other room in the house, Scrooge walked across the living room and into the dining room, and from there, into the kitchen.

Not finding anybody, he exited the kitchen again by going through the double doors that sat next to the stairs, and stepped into the entry away where he began and glanced into the living room briefly, intending to head upstairs next.

But to his great surprise, there was now two people in the room, moving across it to exit. One was Gosalyn, and the other was a boy about her age. They didn't notice Scrooge right away, but when they did, they seemed surprised to see him there as well.

"Mr. McDuck!" Gosalyn exclaimed happily. "We were just looking for you."

Scrooge looked at the pair for a long moment. "How did you two get in here?" he asked finally.

Gosalyn and her companion glanced at each other. "What do you mean?" the boy asked, puzzled.

"I mean, this room was empty just a second ago." Scrooge said. "So how did you two happen to get in here?"

"We...walked in?" the boy offered.

"I think you're mistaken, Mr. McDuck." Gosalyn said. "We came into this room the same way anybody else would."

"But I was just in here a few seconds ago." Scrooge objected. "There simply wasn't enough time for you two to enter the room any other way."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, Mr. McDuck." Gosalyn said grinning slightly. "How else could've we gotten in here?"

"How indeed." Scrooge muttered under his breath.

"Anyway, this is my friend and neighbor, Honker Muddlefoot." Gosalyn said, motioning to her companion. "He wanted to meet you, Mr. McDuck."

"A pleasure, sir." Honker said, holding out his hand to shake.

"I'm sure it is." Scrooge said, shaking the offered hand. "You seem like a smart lad."

"He is, sir, in fact you should see him when he sits down in front of a computer." Gosalyn went on.

Honker blushed, and grinned nervously at this statement.

"Really?" Scrooge asked, taking some interest. "Maybe I should get you to talk with Gyro about the computer system in my money bin. See, the confounded things have been..."

"Honker?" Drake suddenly called out from within the study. "Is that you? If so, I need your help in here."

"Coming!" Honker called back, then turned to Scrooge. "Excuse me. It was nice to meet you."

"Aye, so it was!" Scrooge said, watching the boy slip into the study.

"So, where's Launchpad?" Gosalyn asked. "I thought that was the reason you dropped by."

"Aye it was, but he's acting a bit odd today." Scrooge admitted.

Gosalyn gave him a skeptical look.

"I mean more than usual." Scrooge corrected.

"Ah." Gosalyn said, leading the way back into the living room. "Well, we'll keep an eye on him. If it keeps up, we'll pursue the matter further. Anyway, would you like something to eat? I've got some snacking material in the kitchen that need eating."

"That would be nice, I am feeling a touch peckish." Scrooge said, pausing to stand at the other end of the room.

"Okay then, wait here, and I'll be right back." Gosalyn said, and stepped into the kitchen and vanished from sight.

Scrooge waited for a moment, looking around the room, before sitting himself in one of the two armchairs that sat at the end of the room to rest his legs for a moment. A fly buzzed around his head suddenly. Shooting a glare at it, Scrooge waved it away. The fly persisted to buzz around him, though.

More annoyed now, Scrooge aimed a swing at it with his cane. He missed. He swung again, and again, missing each time. The fly buzzed near the little table that stood between the two chairs. Scrooge swung at it again, but missed, the cane clacking nosily on the edge of the table. The fly zipped around, and then perched itself on the head of a little figurine that sat on the table.

Taking aim, Scrooge raised his cane to slap down on the little pest once and for all, and swung, scoring a direct hit on the head of the figurine. Whether or not he actually got the fly thought remained forever a mystery to him as the chair next to him and the one he sat in suddenly started to spin rapidly. When they stopped, Scrooge was gone.

A few moments later, Gosalyn returned with a tray ladened with snacks. "Okay, I'm back with enough food for all!" she proclaimed, only to find the room empty. A quick search confirmed this. "Mr. McDuck? Where did you go?"

That was a question Scrooge was asking himself. With another wild spin, Scrooge suddenly arrived somewhere else, and in the hurry of the movement of the spinning chair, Scrooge was thrown from the chair and he crashed heavily to the floor. The chairs stopped moving behind him, and all was silent. Adjusting his hat, Scrooge picked himself up, shooting the chairs behind him a glare before he started looking around. And in doing so, his jaw nearly unhinged in shock.

"Brigadoon." he muttered aloud. "Well, of all the things to find today, I find this!"

With utmost fascination, Scrooge started to wander around, examining Darkwing Tower to it's fullest.

* * *

"So what do you think so far?" Drake asked, showing Honker the half-finished scanner.

Honker looked it over. "It's looking good thus far, Mr. Mallard." he said. "But you might want to rewire that circuit there or it'll burn out."

He pointed at the circuit in question, and Drake squinted at it, and blushed.

"Oops." he said, grinning. "My mistake."

"It's okay Mr. Mallard." Honker said. "It's a typical beginner's mistake."

"Thanks." Drake said. "I think."

They turned when Gosalyn rapped gently on the study door and let herself in.

"Hey, have either of you seen Mr. McDuck?" she asked.

"No, I haven't seen him, but it's kinda hard to from in here." Drake remarked.

"Last I saw he was with you, Gos." Honker added.

"He was, but then I left to go get him a snack real quick." Gosalyn said. "By the time I came back, he was gone."

"Well, where would he go?" Honker asked. "He wouldn't leave the house without saying goodbye I don't think."

"Maybe he went upstairs to visit Launchpad again." Drake suggested.

"Already checked, it's just Launchpad upstairs." Gosalyn asked. "I tried asking Launchpad if he had seen him, but he was a little...slow...in remembering."

"Yeah, McDuck mentioned that Launchpad had been acting a touch odd." Drake said thoughtfully.

"Where did you see him last, Gos?" Honker asked.

"In the living room." Gosalyn replied, pointing behind her. "He was standing right next to...the...chairs..."

She trailed off. The three looked at one another for a moment, and then all jointly rose and raced into the living room and for the chairs in question. Honker sat himself neatly down in one chair. Drake and Gosalyn fought for the other chair for a moment, before they both squeezed themselves into it. Honker did the honor of activating the chairs.

Moments later, they arrived at Darkwing Tower, where they found Scrooge leaning back in a chair near the supercomputer, poking at buttons. He turned to look at them when they arrived.

"Well, g'day t' ye." Scrooge said, laying his Scottish accent thicker than usual. "Mighty fine hideout ye got here Mr. Mallard."

* * *

"So you're Darkwing Duck." Scrooge remarked once Drake sheepishly confessed this along with a brief explanation. "Somehow I'm not too surprised. I think I always suspected you were the masked vigilante, as it made sense as to why Launchpad chose to stay with you of all people."

"Yeah, well, it was either let Launchpad freeload off of me, or let him find his own place and live in pitiful conditions." Drake admitted with a grin.

"I hope you aren't mad we deceived you, Mr. McDuck." Gosalyn said.

"Oh, no, don't worry your pretty head over that." Scrooge said. "I can understand the need to keep secrets, having had obtained several myself over the years. I can especially understand the need to keep a secret identity, having tried the hero work for a brief while myself."

"I remember that!" Drake exclaimed. "In fact, I learned a thing or two from the news stories I read about that and tried applying it to my own techniques."

"Did you really?" Scrooge asked. "Well, bless me bagpipes, I've been helping you already and never even knew it!"

"So now that you know the secret, you're going to keep it safe, right?" Honker asked.

"I thought I already said I would, lad." Scrooge said. "And besides, I want to help you in anyway possible. Still want to make it up to you for saving my mineral mine last year. Keeping the secret is the very last thing I can do towards that." he grinned. "Question though, now that we've done and explained everything, can I ask what it was you were working on, Mr. Mallard? I trust it was something Darkwing related judging from how reluctant you where to explain it."

"Uh, yeah, it was." Drake admitted. "But to answer the question, the device is a energy scanner."

Honker stood, walked across the room, and picked up a completed version, showing it to Scrooge. "We're all going to start carrying one." Honker explained. "It'll help speed things up, and put less strain on me, as Techno, to do it all myself."

Scrooge handled the device for a moment. "How does it work?" he asked.

Honker took the device back and looked at it for a moment. "How about I show you?" he asked.

They went back to the house. Climbing out of the chairs, Honker switched on the scanner and started waving it around. It's screen blinked when it came near the dark TV screen.

"You see?" Honker asked, showing Scrooge, who looked impressed. "It can detect energy of all sorts even if the device in question is off, and label it accordingly. See, it says the energy detected is electric."

"I get it." Scrooge said, taking the device and waving it around, moving forward across the room while the others followed. "Great Scott, the device can even pick up energy from the light switch across the room." he moved over to it, then looked at the screen again. "And upstairs it can detect..." he trailed off as he stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "Magical energy?" he asked questioningly.

They all glanced at the screen, then all turned and looked upstairs. Drake frowned, and took the scanner from Scrooge, heading upstairs, trying to pinpoint the energy signature to the source.

"I don't understand, why would it detect magical energy?" Scrooge asked, perplexed.

"I'm just as puzzled." Honker asked with a shrug. "I can't find any reason why it would detect any of that."

"That's what we're trying to find out." Drake said softly, moving down the hallway now at the top of the stairs. "Now quiet."

They moved quietly along until the scanner beeped again beside one of the hallway's many doors. Drake moved the scanner closer.

"It's coming from in here." Drake whispered to the others, and then pressed his ear to the door.

All he could hear inside was Launchpad humming softly to himself.

* * *

"Magical energy coming from within Launchpad's bedroom." Honker muttered to himself, all of them having regrouped in the kitchen. He scanned the readouts the scanner was giving him again. "Who'd have thought it. We wouldn't have even noticed without the scanner."

"You don't think LP's been cursed or anything like that, do you?" Gosalyn asked nervously.

"I do." Scrooge said. "It would explain why he's acting so funny today."

"That's not much to go off of." Gosalyn said with a frown.

"Trust me young Gosalyn, I have experience with this." Scrooge assured her.

"Okay, but why?" Honker asked. "Why would anyone want to cast a spell on Launchpad?"

"And what's the spell?" Gosalyn asked. "So far as we know, it only makes Launchpad act...well...loopy. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Unless the spell is supposed to make him act loopy." Scrooge said. "Maybe to draw our attention away while the magician did something else."

"The question is what?" Gosalyn asked.

"Well, whatever the case, it didn't work." Honker said. "The scanner saw right through it, though granted our magician, whoever he or she is, probably didn't count on us having a device that could detect this spell."

Meanwhile, Drake was on the phone, trying to wait patiently as he waited for his call to connect, listening to the rings. He straightened up sharply as the call finally went through.

"Hey, Morgana? This is...oh." Drake fell silent for a moment. "Yeah, hi Bob. Is Morgana there? She's not? Where is she then? Out visiting her aunt? Oh. When we she be back? That long? What is it, some kind of family reunion? No, I'm sorry, just a little stressed at the moment. Yeah, needed her help with a little magic problem. Yes, I know you can do magic as well. I would kinda prefer to have Morgana do this. No, it's nothing against you, I just trust Morgana more with this. I _know_ I don't have many choices, and I _know _you're willing to help, but...oh, all right, fine. C'mon over, you know the place. I'll explain everything there. Yeah, see you there."

Drake hung up and sighed.

"Dad?" Gosalyn inquired. "Did you get help?"

"Yes and no." Drake said grudgingly. "Morgana's unavailable, so her husband Bob's going to come and help us instead."

* * *

Bob told Drake that he'd meet them at Darkwing Tower, which Bob had the privilege of knowing it's location by being Morgana's husband, so they all regrouped there, Drake, Gosalyn, and Honker all changing into costume while they waited. Scrooge followed as well, reasoning that Launchpad was his friend as well and there was no reason he should be kept out of the loop. Drake didn't have enough ambition to tell the fiery duck otherwise, so he relented.

When Bob arrived shortly thereafter, he spent a few moments greeting everyone, was quickly introduced to Scrooge, and then got right to work. The first thing Bob did was cast a few spells from the tower in the direction of Launchpad, still at home and presumably unaware of what they were doing, to confirm that he really was cursed. It was quickly confirmed that the pilot really was cursed, but this came as no surprise.

"I told you he was cursed." Scrooge remarked when Bob announced the results.

The next thing Bob wanted to do was to trace the curse back to it's source, and thus lead them to the person who had done the cursing. There was a multitude of ways to do this, but Bob decided to make a kind of potion.

"It's probably the safest way." he explained as he pulled out a cauldron full of water and magically began heating it. "Traditional spells can be tracked too easily. A potion can be tracked as well, but it's much harder, and it can only be done if the magician is aware that the potion is working."

The next several moments were spent in mild silence while Bob prepared the potion, stirring ingredients he, himself, brought, turning the clear water he had began with into a thick, bubbling, brown, broth. The others watched, bemused, while he worked. Finally, while Bob was stirring the potion vigorously, the bubbling stopped, and the broth settled for a moment. Then it rippled, and suddenly turned reflective.

Or at least at first glance it did. As everyone gathered around to watch, they saw that the potion was acting like a TV, and was really showing a location somewhere away from here in St. Canard. At the moment, all they saw was the blue sky, fringed with white puffy clouds. Then, slowly, the view began to drop downward. A ridge of red rock came into view, and eventually blotted out the sky as the view dropped into a red-lit cave.

The cavern was spacious, and mostly round. Spellbooks of all sorts lined the walls on stone shelves. Tall columns had been carved and lined the walls. The floor was smooth and well-polished, with intricate designs sketched upon it. Touches provided most of the light, as did a fire in a fireplace, from which a cauldron not unlike Bob's sat, it's contents simmering. A figure stood next to it, mumbling softly.

Everyone leaned closer to get a better look. Darkwing, Techno, and Crimson didn't recognize her, but Scrooge most certainly did, and after a moment of studying her, so did Bob.

"Why that's...that's..." Scrooge began to stutter.

"Magica DeSpell." Bob murmured quietly.

Darkwing blinked. "Magica DeSpell?" he repeated. "Really?"

"You know her?" Crimson asked.

"Kind of." Darkwing admitted. "Launchpad's mentioned her once or twice."

"Aye, him and I both have had to go up against her." Scrooge growled. "She's always trying to get my number one dime, so she can make some kind of amulet out of it that'll give her more power than she's already got. It's been awhile since she's tried, though. I must admit that I had thought she had given it up."

"It's been awhile since I've heard of her as well." Bob said. "But Magica's a wanted criminal in the magical community. There's a very long list of crimes up against her."

"Like what?" Techno asked.

"Like using illegal dark magic, magical subterfuge, unauthorized interaction with normals, robbery, attempted theft, assault upon innocent magicians, to name a few." Bob listed off. "There were a couple more minor ones, though, like speeding, using magic in a no magic zone, and double parking a dragon."

This drew a few glances from the others.

"Just what do you guys do in the magical community anyway?" Crimson inquired with a puzzled look.

"What does it matter?" Scrooge asked. "If Magica's behind all of this then it means she's trying to get at my number one dime! Again! Darkwing, you need to stop her!"

"Now, wait!" Techno interrupted. "Something doesn't add up about this. If Magica really has been after Mr. McDuck's number one dime all of those times...then why has she cursed _Launchpad _of all people, way over _here _in St. Canard?"

"She's probably using Launchpad as her puppet to get what she wants." Scrooge said confidently.

Bob, however, shot down this idea. "Wrong kind of spell." he said. "Such a spell would require a constant connection with Magica herself. My attempts to identify the spell indicated there was no such connection. And besides, it looks more like Magica's making a potion at the moment, and no potion could have any kind of relation to this." he gestured to the witch's figure in the potion.

Darkwing eyed her for a moment. "Can you get sound with this thing, Bob?" he asked after a moment. "It looks to me like Magica's talking to herself. If we could hear what she's saying..."

"...we might get a few clues, aye!" Scrooge finished, catching on. "I like that idea!"

"Well, in that case, there's only one way to do it." Bob said, pulling out some kind of root from his pocket. "It'll be risky. And it doesn't involve a potion." he tossed the root into the potion, and the image vanished as the potion turned inert. "That'll help dissuade Magica's attention. No point in spying on her through two different means, anyway." he paused. "If I do this, you all have to be quiet, as well."

"And why is that?" Scrooge asked.

"Because the spell I'm about to do will allow Magica to hear any noise we make." Bob explained. "And if she looks at us with her magical sight, she'll see our auras, and then she'll know she's being spied upon."

"You make it sound like we'll actually be there." Techno said.

"Only in spirit." Bob replied simply, and then muttered an enchantment to himself.

Their surroundings wavered, and then suddenly melted away to reveal Magica's lair. Looking around, it looked like they were actually _there _at the lair now, only now their figures were all transparent, like they were ghosts. Crimson opened her mouth to utter some kind of exclamation, but then quickly remembered she needed to be silent, and clamped her beak shut. Bob again indicated for everyone to be quiet by pressing a finger to his beak, and then lead the way closer to Magica. Soon they were close enough to hear what she was saying.

"This is taking longer than expected." she muttered in her curious European accent. "If spell hadn't gone wrong, I would have had Scrooge's number one dime by now."

This drew a couple glances from the spies. Magica continued talking, naturally unaware she wasn't alone anymore.

"This Launchpad McQuack is of little use to me." Magica muttered. "But at least he is close to Scrooge, that is good. I did not expect Scrooge to not be alone when I cast the spell. Should've bettered my aim. Still, timing could not have been better, him deciding to go on business trip on this week, of all weeks!"

She cackled for a moment. Scrooge gasped sharply as he realized Magica had been spying on him herself, it was the only way she could've known about his business trip to St. Canard, but fortunately, Magica didn't hear.

"I wonder if Scrooge even knew this was week in which the planets aligned and magic will be at it's strongest." Magica murmured once she was done cackling. "Gave me the chance to do the spell of a lifetime! Ha-ha, perfect irony me thinks. And then of course, there is the fact that Scrooge is completely unaware of what is right under his nose! Like the fact that this Drake Mallard person is superhero, Darkwing Duck! Or that this Gosalyn has plethora of unseen potential in her, potential I do not think even she is aware of. I can use all of this to my advantage, though!"

Darkwing and Crimson exchanged glances at this, Darkwing in alarm that Magica knew his secret identity, and Crimson in puzzlement, wondering what Magica meant by "unseen potental."

Magica fell silent for a moment as she peered into her potion. Techno caught a glimpse of it's surface, and realized Magica was using the same spying potion Bob had been using only moments later, but focused on something else. Launchpad himself.

"Poe, you need to hurry." Magica instructed into the potion. Apparently it was set up to act like a radio as well. "We don't have all the time in the world to do this. I must reverse the spell by Friday, or the planets will unalign and I will not have enough power. You would be stuck in that body forever."

The potion spat back a reply to Magica, but it was soft, and drowned out in the background noise.

"I don't care!" Magica exclaimed. "Find Scrooge! You are in control of McQuack's body now, Poe! You have access to his memories! Use all of that to find wherever Scrooge has gone! Look everywhere! Once you have found him, then we can begin my new plan to steal number one dime!"

Then a new voice rang out from beside the fireplace Magica stood beside.

"You crazy lady!" the voice rang out. "You aren't going to get away with this! DW will figure out what's happened and he'll stop you!"

"I would like to see him try, dear." Magica said, turning to face a small cage sitting on a table. A struggling raven was trapped inside it. "I control situation perfectly now. No one suspects anything, and soon it will be too late! This time I will emerge victorious!"

The raven didn't reply as he struggled again against the bars of the cage. Scrooge moved a little bit closer and saw that the raven was Poe DeSpell, Magica's brother and familiar who was accidently turned into a raven at some point in the past and never turned back. But the raven wasn't acting like Poe at all, but rather like...

"Launchpad!" Darkwing exclaimed suddenly, without thinking, making the connection the same time as Scrooge.

Magica whirled around at the sound of Darkwing's voice and spied the spies. Eyes widening, she instantly raised her arms and muttered a spell and cast it in their direction. Bob moved as if to deflect the spell, but apparently wasn't fast enough. Some unseen force tugged suddenly at the quintet. They got a brief glimpse of Darkwing Tower as Magica's spell overrode Bob's, and then suddenly they were all at Magica's lair, and this time for real. The group had just enough time to pat themselves over to confirm that they had physically been brought here, before Magica cast another spell that lifted them all up into the air.

"Ha, I told you!" Launchpad said in the raven's body, flapping excitedly. "I told you they would figure it out!"

"So you did." Magica admitted with a glare. "Not that's it's going to do them any good."

"You undo whatever it is you've done right now, Magica!" Scrooge exclaimed. "We've caught onto your plans, and they won't work!"

"Only a minor setback, Scrooge." Magica said, jabbing a finger at him. "I'll sort this little mess out soon enough. Though, I'll admit I don't quite know what to do with your friends here."

She glanced at the others she had captured, Bob being the only one who was putting up any real fight, struggling to try and get back down the ground. The witch pointed a finger at him.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Bob Macabre, resident magician and psychiatrist!" Bob exclaimed.

"A psychiatrist?" Magica repeated, outraged. "A _psychiatrist _got the drop on me?"

"Give me a few seconds, and I'll do a lot more than that, too!" Bob threatened.

"I take it you understand, then, what I have done." Magica remarked.

"What _did _she do?" Crimson asked, perplexed.

"She cast a transfer spell!" Bob explained, all the while giving Magica a glare. "A very complex and power-hungry spell. Most magicians don't have the power to do it under normal circumstances."

"But these aren't normal circumstances." Darkwing realized. "The planets have aligned into a straight line, that gives magic an extra boost of power."

"And she's put it to good use." Scrooge said, brandishing his cane at Magica. "You used that added power to cast this...this...transfer spell on Launchpad!"

"I assure you Scrooge, it was not intentional." Magica remarked cooly. "When I cast the spell this morning, I meant to cast it upon you. But that oaf, Launchpad, got in the way and the spell was cast upon him instead, forcing me to make do with what I had."

"Just what did the spell do?" Techno asked.

"A transfer spell is designed to kind of swap the personalities of two people." Bob explained.

"In this case, Launchpad and that mangy bird, Poe, Magica keeps as a familiar." Scrooge added.

"Hey, that mangy bird is my mangy brother!" Magica objected.

"I'm mangy?" Launchpad asked, looking the raven body he was currently stuck in over.

"So that's it!" Crimson said. "You wanted to put Poe in Mr. McDuck's body so he could get McDuck's dime without arousing any suspicion!"

"And since Poe would've had access to all of Scrooge's memories, he wouldn't have any trouble doing that." Bob said.

"Even if that worked, someone would've suspected something." Darkwing said confidently.

"Maybe eventually, but not enough to stop me." Magica said. "When I safely got dime, I would've undone spell, and then it would be too late."

"But I would've told people what happened!" Launchpad objected, shaking at the bars of his small cage. "I would've sent them here before you finished your plan!"

"It doesn't matter!" Scrooge said. "We thwarted this plan before it got too far anyway!"

"Oh no, Scrooge." Magica said, giving the multi-zillionaire an evil grin. "You didn't thwart it, you've helped me solve all of my problems!"

"How?" Scrooge demanded.

"By bringing yourself to me." Magica said, beaming happily.

Crimson's eyes widened. "She's going to use the spell on you now!" she realized in alarm.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Bob exclaimed, still struggling to get back to the ground where he could fight.

"What can you do?" Magica asked. "You can't counteract the effects of spell from there."

"No, all I need to do is distract you." Bob said, and pointed a finger at Launchpad's cage. "Obliterate!"

The spell he cast slammed into the cage, shattering it. Launchpad had flung his wings over his eyes when this happened, but when he realized that he was now free, no worse for wear, he let out a whoop of joy and took to the air. Swooping around, he let out a mad yell and dove for Magica.

Magica yelped, and quickly brought up her hands to protect herself from Launchpad's talons as he attacked her. In doing so, she turned away from her captured prey, breaking her concentration upon them. The spell released, the five fell to the floor. Darkwing was up in a flash, and pulled out his gas gun.

"Launchpad, move!" Darkwing ordered.

Launchpad quickly broke off his attack and flapped away to safety. Magica was still flapping her arms around wildly in self-defense, unaware that Launchpad had broken off in his attack. Darkwing took a second to adjust his aim, then fired a canister of plain blue smoke at Magica. It slammed right into her head and exploded, knocking back out of the resulting cloud of smoke and onto her back, dazed.

Bob then stepped forward and cast a few spells. One created silver bands that bound Magica's arms and legs. The other lifted the struggling witch into the air in a spell similar to the one she used on them. Magica let out an angry roar.

"You idiots!" she exclaimed. "Do you really think this will stop me? Someday, Scrooge, I will succeed, and I will take your lucky dime, and..."

She got not further. She was silenced when Bob conjured another band that wrapped around her beak, clamping it shut. Magica still tried to continue her tirade against them. Scrooge stepped up to stand below her, grinning at her in self satisfaction.

"Well, Magica, I believe it is here that it finally ends." he remarked. He turned to Bob. "I mean, now that we have her all tied up like that, and the fact that she's a wanted criminal, we can turn her over to the proper authorities, right?"

"I can do better than that." Bob said with a grin. "Stand back."

A gust of wind suddenly kicked up, the air all surging towards Magica, still struggling. Then, with a loud crack, Magica suddenly winked out of existence, and all fell silent. Bob sighed happily, and relaxed.

"Where did she go?" Techno asked.

"To the magical equivalent of the St. Canard Supervillain prison." Bob explained with a grin. "She isn't going to be getting out there anytime soon."

Crimson, meanwhile, had let Launchpad perch on her finger, and she turned to look at Bob. "But what about Magica's transfer spell?" she asked. "Can we still undo that?"

"Yeah, I don't want to be stuck as a raven forever." Launchpad added, looking worried.

But Bob merely grinned again. "Fortunately for us, it doesn't matter who originally cast the spell." he said. "Anyone can undo it."

"Including you?" Darkwing asked hopefully.

Bob nodded, then turned to look upward. Holding his hands out, he uttered several long incantations. Launchpad's raven face suddenly went blank for a moment. He was like that for several moments, then blinking, the raven looked around, and quickly leapt up to take flight. Crimson quickly lunged and grabbed the bird before he got too far.

"Nevermore! Nevermore!" the raven cawed loudly.

"It worked!" Scrooge exclaimed, hurrying over. "That's Poe in that raven's body!"

Everyone quickly hurried over to help Crimson restrain the struggling bird. Bob, however, walked over to the potion Magica had left simmering on the fire. Shown on it's rippling surface was Launchpad's image, who was blinking and looking around blearily.

"Launchpad, are you okay?" Bob asked.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Launchpad said with a snort of a chuckle. "A little disoriented, but glad to be out of that raven's body."

"Good." Bob said. "We'll be back soon."

He turned away from the potion and to where the others were. Despite everyone pitching in, they were still struggling to hold Poe down.

"Nevermore! Nevermore!" he kept repeated, alarmed by something, probably the fact that Magica had been defeated.

Finally, although leaving several feathers behind, Poe slipped free of everyone's grasp, and cawing loudly, flew out the opening in the room of the chamber and out into the air beyond. Everyone watched him fly off, feeling helpless.

"Drat!" Scrooge said, slapping the end of his cane on the stone floor. "He got away."

"I don't think he's going to cause much trouble, though." Techno remarked. "He just seemed anxious to get away."

"But why?" Darkwing asked. "I remember Launchpad mentioning in his stories about Magica that Poe was her unwilling servant. You'd think he'd be happy she was finally beaten."

"There isn't much we could've done for him." Bob said. "His aura's very erratic, probably how and why he's been stuck in that raven form for so long. No normal incantation that I know of could've reversed it."

"Magica mentioned once that she needed my number one dime, or at least the power it would grant her, in order to reverse the spell upon Poe." Scrooge said. "I highly doubt she would've ever done it, though."

"About how powerful would you say she would be presuming she ever got that powerful?" Bob asked curiously.

"Very powerful." Scrooge said. "I don't think there would've been another magican who could've equaled her power."

Bob winced. "In that case, by defeating Magica, we probably took away Poe's only hope of ever being a normal duck again." he said.

They all fell silent, and their eyes all traveled up to the opening Poe escaped through...

* * *

Bob magically returned them to Darkwing Tower, again in a manner similar to the means that brought them to Magica's hideout in the first place, but he didn't come with. He said he had other business to attend to, and traveled to a different location upon giving his farewells. Once back at Darkwing Tower, Darkwing and the others changed out of their costumes.

Gosalyn suggested the idea of going home and getting some lunch to celebrate their victory. Honker politely turned down the offer, however, as he was due back home for a family event, after which he hoped to come back to the tower and work more on searching for the spy rumored to be in SHUSH. Scrooge accepted the offer, however, and he, Drake, and Gosalyn headed back to the Mallard home.

There they found Launchpad, who jumped up quickly when they arrived. Perched on his finger was, of all people, Poe, who was grinning sheepishly.

"DW!" Launchpad exclaimed, excited. "Look who just flew in!"

Drake just stared at the bird. Gosalyn stifled a giggle, and Scrooge avoided eye contact.

"See, when we swapped places like that..." Launchpad began to explain, "...we also inadvertently swapped memories. Poe, here, got an idea of what it was like to be me, and I got an idea of what it was like to be him. Neither us liked his life. I wanted to help him somehow, and somehow Poe here knew it. So he flapped on over here, and well, here he is!"

Drake stared at the bird for another long moment. "You realize that we have no way of getting back into your old duck form, right?" he asked. "That you're stuck as a raven forever?"

Poe nodded. "I know I will be the old Poe DeSpell nevermore." he said. "That's not why I'm here."

"He just wants a home, DW." Launchpad said. "One better than the one he's had. Besides, when he was me, he was trying to go against Magica's evil plans anyway, so we kinda owe it to him."

This drew a few surprised looks.

"You were?" Scrooge asked, amazed.

Poe nodded again. "But then you guys showed up and stopped Magica yourselves." the raven explained. "Need my help nevermore."

Scrooge gave the raven a long look, and saw he was telling the truth. "Mr. Mallard, you have to repay him somehow." he said. "We owe him that much."

Drake shook his head. "I don't know, LP."

"He can stay in my room." Launchpad offered.

"But..."

"I'll look after him."

"I don't..."

"He won't cause any trouble."

"Really, LP..."

"Please DW?"

Drake gave Launchpad a look. He then glanced at Gosalyn, who was trying her hardest not to laugh. Then he looked as Scrooge, who was also stifling a smile. Then he looked into Poe's hopeful eyes.

"Oh, all right!" Drake exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. "But if anyone asks, he's just your pet, got it LP?"

Launchpad didn't reply. He and Poe were too busy celebrating.

* * *

_Fun Facts: This chapter came about shortly after writing chapter 13, "Mr. McDuck", and was planning ahead for future chapters in which Scrooge would appear. The idea of throwing in another old enemy of Scrooge's for a chapter, such as Magica, appealed to me, but there were other aspects as well. Magica herself manages to drop a clue into next chapter, something for you guys to look out for and to chew on._

_Having McDuck find Darkwing Tower and figuring out Drake secret identity was always part of the plan as well, as I figured Scrooge was more useful to the Darkwing gang if he knew who they were as well. All things considered, I think I pulled it off rather well. :)_

_There wasn't going to be references to the SHUSH spy alluded to in the last chapter, but I ultimately threw it in for filler and to keep you readers satisifed for this...interlude...chapter in that story arc._

_It occurred to me that by being a magician, it wasn't likely Bob would have a phone, and thus Drake's means for contacting him in this chapter were impossible. But I liked the idea of Drake having a conversation with Bob that we only hear one side of, so I omitted this little detail._

_I had to do a fair bit of research on Magica and Poe for this chapter, and by research, I mean re-watching episodes from Ducktales that contained both characters. This proved to be hard, because I don't own any of the episodes on DVD or VHS, and YouTube has pretty much pulled down most of the episodes that had Magica in them for copyright infringement (stupid Disney) but I managed. :)_

_The last part of the chapter in which Drake allows Launchpad to keep Poe as a kind of "pet" (though "roomate" will probably be a more accurate term) was literally added last minute, like right as I was writing it. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. Originally I had wanted to end the chapter before that scene with Bob commenting that defeating Magica probably took away Poe's last hope of escaping his raven form, but then took pity on poor Poe and came up with that last bit. No thought or planning on that last bit occurred before writing it, so I have no clue where this development will go. Most likely it'll come back to haunt me, but oh well. Too late now. :p  
_


	53. A Familiar Rowe

Summary: During a typical attack on the Fearsome Five, it is discovered that for reasons unknown, Crimson and Rowe can no longer be separated from each other, or they're at risk of passing out. While examinations take place at SHUSH to find out why, they are unknowningly playing into someone's hands...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Another chapter that will alter a few things in the NADWD universe as we know it and resolves a story arc or two. I explain a few of the reasons why in the fun facts. And now that I have started college, it's even harder than before to find time to write these chapters, so until I get things organized again, expect chapters to be uploaded seemingly at random. But despite everything, they will continue. :)

53.

A Familiar Rowe

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_And with that, he grabbed NegaGosalyn, standing nearby, and kissed her on the lips._

_NegaGosalyn was caught completely off guard, but surprisingly did not resist. After a moment, Rowe took the chance to look at the others. Quackerjack and Megavolt were both giving him a look, as if to say "have you gone mad?" Bushroot was trying to stifle a chuckle, and Negaduck just looked downright disgusted. He reached for his pistol, probably so to shoot Rowe, but before he could, Rowe felt the telltale stinging in his paw._

_Right on time, he thought, as time reset itself._

_--  
_

"_That's the guy?"_

"_All the data seems to point to it, yes. FOUL tried to locate him by going off of this picture, but the trail led to a dead end. We, however, have gotten further. The trail FOUL followed was planted, and thereby false. However, if one worked past it, you would find the real trail, which leads us directly to the present location of the leader."_

"_His name is Cornelius Jones, and he has lived in a cabin in the mountains for seven years now."_

_--  
_

"_You were involved with the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny seven years ago, operating from a base in the Sahara, working on a project codenamed Project 22-C."_

_--  
_

"_That project was my life's work, Director. I never gave up on it. As far as I'm concerned, it's still in progress, and thereby a work in progress."_

_--  
_

"_I'm not surprised. The break down began almost immediately. I knew it was going to happen almost immediately after Jack and the other three were injected. I knew eventually that the serum was going to run out and undo what I had done. And with FOWL on the verge of collapsing, I worked to slow the process until the project could continue."_

"_That's why you put them into cryogenic stasis. You planned on coming back, and didn't want to start over from scratch."_

"_I was going to come back...with a cure. I was working on a way to make the serum's effects permanent. Once I had done that, I would administer the changes to Jack and the others, and then put them to real use."_

_--  
_

"_There is also a reason why I have done what I have done. The serum. I cannot let you have it, it's plans, or any other related information, nor can I let any other agencies have this information, such as the new FOUL, and other agencies that I know exist. Only I will have this information, as I believe I'm the only one who can truly put it to good use. You will know what I mean when the time comes."_

_--  
_

"_This part is identical to a part we have on our portal generator."_

"_But FOUL stole a copy of the plans to SHUSH's portal generator. They used those plans to build their generator."_

"_Very true, but those plans are at least eight months old. SHUSH has made several changes and improvements to the generator since then. And FOUL hasn't gotten the plans to those changes at all. And this part here is one of those new changes they shouldn't know about."_

"_Then how did they find out about it?"_

"_Through a means much bigger than a hacker getting lucky. I think we have a spy somewhere in SHUSH."_

_--  
_

"_Well, I've found some encrypted messages that were sent out to an unspecified location several times in the past few months through the SHUSH data relay service. They were authorized, and everything about them is official, except the fact that no one, not even Hooter, knows what's in them. And that's not normal, as someone else at SHUSH HQ always sees and reads any messages that comes and goes from the building."_

"_So you think these messages were sent by our spy."_

"_That's what I'm thinking, yes."_

_--  
_

"_...And then of course, there is the fact that Scrooge is completely unaware of what is right under his nose! Like the fact that this Drake Mallard person is superhero, Darkwing Duck! Or that this Gosalyn has plethora of unseen potential in her, potential I do not think even she is aware of..."

* * *

_

"Fall back!" Darkwing exclaimed, ducking behind a large wooden crate. "Fall back!"

Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno all joined him behind the crate as more bullets fired from Negaduck and NegaCrimson's weapons slammed into the splintering side of the crate.

"Ha ha!" Negaduck crowed victoriously. "Out-gunned, are you Dipwing?"

"Suck gas, evil-doer!" Darkwing exclaimed, poking his head back out from behind the box and firing a canister of gas towards the pair before ducking back down again.

Negaduck and NegaGosalyn simply sidestepped the canister as it slipped past them. It clattered to the ground behind them where the rest of the Fearsome Five stood loading packages into the Negacopter and burst into a cloud of smoke.

"Ha! You missed!" NegaGosalyn teased.

"I beg...cough-cough...to differ!" Megavolt choked out, gagging on the smoke that surrounded him, Bushroot, Quackerjack, and Rowe. "If you really want us to get these boxes into the Negacopter, Negs, you need to...cough-cough...keep us out of the crossfire!"

Rowe, coughing an extra hard cough, dropped the box he was carrying with a crash.

"You _break _any of those boxes, and you'll have a heck of a lot more to deal with than the crossfire!" Negaduck scolded angrily.

Rowe nodded, and quickly went back to work, placing the box he had dropped into the Negacopter, and then turning to Quackerjack to receive another. From their hiding place, Darkwing and the gang watched them work.

"What's in those boxes anyway?" Darkwing asked.

"Parts, both mechanical and electronic." Techno replied instantly, scanning the stack of boxes that sat in the one corner of the aircraft hanger. "They're consistent with the parts Negaduck attempted to get eight months ago from the Negaverse."

"You mean during the time we accidently got sent back three hundred years ago?" Crimson asked, wide-eyed.

"Yep." Techno said. "SHUSH's analysis of those parts suggested that Negaduck was trying to collect the parts he would need to make a Negaquack. I would presume he's trying to do it again."

"Well, we aren't going to let them." Darkwing vowed.

"But how are we going to get at them?" Launchpad asked, peering over the edge of the box at Negaduck and NegaGosalyn, standing guard, their weapons still at the ready. "They've got us out gunned."

"It's not like we can sneak up on them, either." Techno noted. "There's no cover."

Darkwing eyed the Negacopter for a long moment. "I've got an idea." he said, switching the attachments on his gas gun. "I've always hated that Negacopter, so how about we just get rid of it?"

And with that, he fired off a shot of energy that would teleport all struck objects directly into the Teryx sub-universe. It hit the Negacopter dead on, and the craft, and it's cargo, completely winked out of existence in a brief flash of light, leaving Rowe standing there about to load another box into the craft, staring at the spot it had stood in shock.

Negaduck's eyes widened. He looked at the spot the aircraft had been, back at Darkwing, then back at the empty spot. Finally he let out an enraged yell.

"Darkwing!" he yelled, storming towards Darkwing's location. "I'm going to..."

"You're going to not take another step unless you want to end up with the Negacopter." Darkwing growled, pointing his gas gun at Negaduck's chest. "And trust me, you don't want to end up there."

Negaduck actually took a step back when he realized Darkwing's weapon, one he had never seen in action before, was pointed at him. Seeing that it was safe for the moment, Darkwing stood, the others following. NegaGosalyn started to raise her weapon, but Crimson quickly whipped out her own gas gun.

"Don't!" she ordered, then adjusted her aim and zapped the crate in Rowe's hands straight into the Teryx sub-universe, causing the otter yelp in fright and back into Quackerjack, equally shocked. "I've got that attachment as well."

NegaGosalyn blinked apprehensively at the gas gun. The activities of all the members of the Fearsome Five ground to a halt.

"We should've thought of this months ago." Techno said with a chuckle.

"All right, now here's how this is going to work." Darkwing said. "First, throw down your weapons, and put your hands in the air!"

Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot, and Rowe all obliged. Negaduck and NegaGosalyn reacted a little slower, stopping to glance at each other. Then, slowly, Negaduck bent down to set his pistol on the ground, and put his hands into the air. He gave NegaGosalyn a glance as if to silently instruct her to do the same. Slowly, looking apprehensive, NegaGosalyn bent over to place her P90 gently on the ground.

But as she did so, and before anybody could react, she grabbed something from her waist and rolled it towards Darkwing and the others. Both Crimson and Darkwing turned to look at it as it rolled past, giving Crimson the chance to pick her P90 back up and shoot at the feet of her foes. They quickly jumped back to avoid getting hit by any of the bullets.

"Run!" Negaduck exclaimed, scooping up his pistol and racing for the nearest exit.

The rest of the Fearsome Five quickly followed. Crimson fired off a warning shot at them, zapping another crate away, before groaning and racing afterwards. Techno moved as if to follow, but he paused when he saw Launchpad and Darkwing move the other way to look at the object NegaGosalyn and thrown to the floor. They both looked up sharply.

"It's a bomb!" Darkwing yelled, quickly running for cover. "Quick, get down! Crimson, it's a bomb!"

Crimson acted like she didn't hear as she continued running after the Fearsome Five. In an almost desperate lunge, she threw herself forward and tackled Rowe, who was bringing up the end of the group. Both crashed heavily to the floor and started to wrestle one another.

"Crimson, it's a bomb, and it's going to blow!" Techno called out as he, Darkwing, and Launchpad all quickly ducked behind a parked airplane, the only other aircraft in the hanger.

Crimson and Rowe both jointly turned to look at the little object, then at one another. Forgetting the fight, they both turned to get up and run, but they didn't have time to. The bomb went off at that moment, creating a fiery explosion that swept outward in all directions. By all accounts, it should have caught Crimson and Rowe in the fireball as well and killed them.

But at the last possible second, a wall of translucent energy encased them both in a kind of bubble, shielding them from the blast and from the flames. Both stared at the unexpected energy shield as the explosion rapidly dissipated, and the smoke thinned. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the shield vanished again.

Techno stepped out from behind the aircraft in time to see the shield vanish, and froze in surprise. Darkwing and Launchpad stepped out as well, too late to see the shield, and quickly hurried towards the two figures, still on the floor, and seemed to be too stunned to do anything. Darkwing quickly knelt down to Crimson and began looking her over, while Launchpad tackled Rowe once again, pinning the stunned otter to the floor.

"Crimson, are you okay?" Darkwing asked, not satisfied with the fact that he couldn't see any visible damage on Crimson.

"Huh?" Crimson asked, snapping out of her trance-like state and shaking her head. "Uh, yeah, miraculously I am." she paused. "What happened?"

"The bomb went off." Darkwing exclaimed. "It looked like you and Rowe got caught in the blast, but..."

"No, no, I mean where did that energy shield come from?" Crimson interrupted. "It was what saved us."

"Energy shield?" Darkwing repeated, puzzled.

"Didn't you see it?" Crimson asked.

Darkwing shook his head. However, Techno quickly hurried over.

"I did!" he exclaimed. "Where did that come from?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, Tech!" Crimson exclaimed, annoyed as she accepted help from Darkwing to stand up. "One moment it wasn't there, and then it was, and then it wasn't again! It was like magic!"

They all stopped. Techno quickly pulled out his energy scanner and started scanning the hanger.

"I _am _detecting traces of magical energy, like a spell was just recently cast here." he reported.

"Then...who cast it?" Crimson asked, puzzled.

"I intend to find out." Darkwing said. "Everyone split up and search for clues!"

"Hey, what about me, mate?" Rowe exclaimed as Launchpad hefted him up onto his feet.

"He's got a point, DW." Launchpad agreed. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Well, the rest of the Fearsome Five did get away." Darkwing noted, glancing in dismay at the open door the villains escaped through. "And we don't have time to arrest prisoners at the moment, not while time is of the essence when getting clues for this mystery."

"So..." Launchpad prompted.

"Let him go, LP." Darkwing said dismissively. "We'll grab him another time."

Launchpad let go of Rowe, who instantly stepped back from Launchpad. He paused for a moment, amazed at his good luck. Then he grinned.

"Cool!" he exclaimed, and ran for the door across the hanger.

"Techno, start scanning every nook and cranny." Darkwing ordered as he and the others started walking the other direction. "If there was a magician here, I want to know where he was in this hanger and why. Who, too, if possible. In the meantime, everyone else spilt up and search for more physical clues, such as..."

He got no further when Crimson suddenly fainted, falling to the ground. Yelping in alarm, Darkwing hurried over to Crimson's aide again, Techno joining him so to scan Crimson's health. Launchpad turned around when he heard a thump. Rowe, just reaching the door, had toppled over in a dead faint himself. Quickly, the pilot went over to the otter and started dragging the unconscious otter over to where the others were.

"Crimson!" Darkwing exclaimed, quickly checking Crimson for injuries once again.

"Her heart rate and breathing are erratic." Techno announced, alarmed. "I don't why, she seems to be unhurt, but if we don't do something soon..."

He was cut short when Crimson's eyes suddenly snapped open and she jolted upright. This happened just as Launchpad returned with Rowe. A split second later, Rowe regained consciousness with a start and wobbly hopped to his feet. Everyone then stood looking at one another in puzzlement.

"Something isn't right about this." Techno said.

"Crimson, we're taking you to SHUSH HQ." Darkwing said, grabbing Crimson's arm and dragging her towards the door despite Crimson's attempts to resist. "Something's wrong with you, and I want to know what. Techno, Launchpad, you stay here and search for those clues!"

Launchpad and Techno nodded, and began searching. Rowe stood with them, looking too lost to move. Darkwing and Crimson hadn't gone much further than ten, fifteen, feet before Crimson suddenly fainted again. The moment she passed out, Rowe did as well, toppling into Launchpad's arms. Techno glanced back and forth from the pair, and then started scanning them both, constantly.

"Launchpad, bring Rowe over to Crimson." Techno said, motioning to Launchpad to follow him as he moved to where Crimson lay, Darkwing crouched over her.

Launchpad obeyed, dragging the limp otter towards Crimson. Techno followed, monitoring the vitals of both as he went. As soon as the two came within five feet of each other, their vitals suddenly and miraculously stabilized like a switch was thrown. Moments later, both snapped awake again. Listening to the two breathing heavily for a moment, Techno's eyes glazed over as he became lost in thought.

"What happened?" Crimson asked, breathless.

"Yeah, what _is _happening?" Darkwing asked, alarmed.

"It seems that whenever Crimson and Rowe are separated, they, for reasons I can't begin to comprehend, pass out." Techno asked.

"What on earth for, mate?" Rowe demanded.

"I don't know." Techno admitted. "But until we figure it out, you two are going to have to stay together, within five feet of each other, at all times."

* * *

And so, this was how Rowe and Crimson grudgingly found themselves stuck together in a SHUSH medical ward on opposite ends of the room. Crimson sat on a cot, her head in hands and looking bored, staring at the opposite wall. Meanwhile, Rowe paced beside another cot, looking agitated at the situation. And watching them both, through a one-way window, was Christine, biting her lip as she racked her brain for answers.

She didn't look away when the door to the observation room opened and Darkwing stepped in. He wasn't surprised to see Christine there, as he had requested she be here.

"Well?" he asked. "Anything?"

"No." Christine admitted. "Darkwing, I have looked both of them over from head to toe and can't find a thing wrong with them, much less something that could explain this interesting phenomenon. I even tried separating the two for a few minutes and examining them after they had passed out, but that didn't even reveal anything, other than the fact that their condition rapidly degrades once they're separated. Whatever is happening, one thing is clear. If they're separated for too long, they're at risk of dying."

Darkwing gulped. "Please make sure it doesn't come to that." he pleaded.

"I won't Drake." Christine promised. "Besides, they're fine when they're together like that. The only thing I worry about is whether or not they're going to attack each other. I mean _look _at them." she motioned to the agitated pair. "They clearly hate this situation as much as they hate each other."

"They're going to have to live with it." Darkwing said. "We can't risk separating them until we know what's going on."

They were silent for a moment.

"How did your search for clues go?" Christine asked finally.

"Not much better." Darkwing admitted. "We looked that hanger over from top to bottom, and didn't find anything that could explain this either. Techno did pick up some more readings of magical energy in the general area Crimson and Rowe were when the explosion occurred, but that could be anything. J. Gander currently has a team over there looking for anything we might have missed, but so far, nothing."

"So where are Techno and Launchpad now?" Christine asked.

"Well, since Techno can't seem to help here, he agreed to help J. Gander and Dr. Bellum with another matter." Darkwing said. "I sent Launchpad to your place to watch over Charlie."

"Thank you." Christine asked. "I didn't get much chance to explain to him what was going on, and after that incident with Frogduck last month, I can't bear to leave him alone for too long."

"So I take it you two are getting along well, then." Darkwing remarked.

Christine nodded. "So far I haven't regretted my choice to adopt him." she said. "I can see how you feel about Crimson as well, Darkwing. I would be worried sick if this happened to Charlie."

"Well, I'm not to the sick part just yet, but I'm getting closer with each passing moment." Darkwing admitted. "The most frustrating thing about this is deciding on what to do now."

"What _are _we going to do now?" Christine asked.

"Well, I finally broke down and called for an expert." Darkwing admitted. "I asked Morgana if she could come over and help. She said she was on her way."

"And in the meantime?" Christine asked.

"We make sure that these two stay together." Darkwing said, gesturing to Crimson and Rowe.

* * *

"Well, I'm not making any progress here." Techno with a sigh, leaning back in his chair. "This spy is apparently better than we first thought."

Dr. Bellum, who sat across the lab, also sighed and leaned back in her chair. "All we've got to go off of is these mysterious messages." she said, gesturing to her screen. "And they're encrypted with a seemingly unbreakable code."

"Well, at least we've made _progress _with cracking that code." Techno pointed out.

"Yes, that's true." Bellum admitted. "We figured out that the numbers we see here are answers to a particularly complex algebraic formula, but that doesn't tell us a thing about what the messages say. There isn't even any patterns to it."

"There has to be an answer to this." Techno said, slamming his fist on his console.

"I think that the only way we're going to figure this out is if we stumble across the key for this code." Bellum said.

"I've already been searching for that in the databanks." Techno said. "Nothing so far. If there really is a key, it must be a hard copy only."

"That makes sense." Bellum admitted. "An electronic key would be found too easily."

"Can the computers find any patterns to this?" Techno asked.

"No." Bellum said. "I almost have to wonder if there is no message in this at all, but rather a bunch of numbers made to _look _like a code, so to throw us off the trail."

"I sure hope not." Techno said. "Because that would mean we're back to square one."

They were silent for a long moment.

"All right, let's look the code over once again." Techno said, leaning forward to start working again.

"Might as well." Bellum admitted, and got back to work as well.

* * *

Darkwing and Christine were still in the observation room when a phone hanging on he wall rang. Darkwing answered it.

"Observation room twelve, Darkwing Duck speaking." Darkwing said politely.

"Darkwing, this Agent Mia." came the reply. "A Morgana Macawber has arrived to see you. I'm presuming she has permission, because she has security clearance."

"Yeah, she does, send her on up here." Darkwing said.

"But that's what I'm calling to tell you." Mia objected. "She's already heading up there to you."

And as if to emphasis the point, the door to the room suddenly sprang open and Morgana stepped in with all of her usual elegance.

"Right, thank you, Agent Mia." Darkwing said and hung up. "Morgana, thanks for coming so..." he glanced at his watch and blinked. "...very, very, quickly."

"It's my pleasure Dark." Morgana said. "Anything to help a friend in need. Hello Christine."

"Hey, Morgana." Christine greeted. "Long time, no see, huh?"

"Yes." Morgana said, nodding. "We should get together more often, and on less grave situations."

"Well, I wouldn't call this situation grave." Christine said. "More like annoying."

"Then let's see if I can resolve this situation quickly." Morgana said, turning to look out the window at the two occupants in the room. "I daresay there must be some reason these two can't be separated."

"Right now, I'd just be glad to have some kind of theory." Darkwing remarked.

"Oh, I already have a theory, Dark." Morgana said.

"You do?"

"Indeed I do. But I find it...unlikely. At least, I hope, for Crimson and Rowe's benefit."

Christine and Darkwing exchanged puzzled glances.

"What kind of theory, Morgana?" Christine asked.

"First let me see if I am even right, by studying these two with my magical sight." Morgana said, concentrating on the two in the other room.

"Magical sight?" Christine repeated, puzzled.

"It's something all magicians are trained to use." Darkwing explained, having had this explained to him years ago. "It's a kind of second sight that allows those of magical blood to see magical energy like auras and the such. If there really is magic involved in this situation, Morgana should be able to see it."

"Well." Morgana spoke suddenly. "Well, well, well."

"And I take it she's found something like that." Christine guessed from Morgana's reaction.

"Yes, my theory, I'm afraid, is right." Morgana said, blinking her eyes and turning to look at the two. "First off, I should point out that this is the first time I have looked at Rowe with magical sight, and thus I was completely unaware of it."

"Unaware of what?" Darkwing asked.

"That Rowe is a familiar."

Darkwing's eyes widened, but Christine frowned.

"What the heck is a familiar?" she asked.

"It's someone or something that stores magical energy." Morgana explained. "Store it, but are unable to access it. If there is a magician nearby casting a spell, he or she can draw magical power from a familiar to aide in the spell's casting. I, myself, have three, small, familiars, who are not with me at the moment, otherwise I would show you. They are capable of storing small amounts of magical energy for me, or act like sponges and absorb any excess."

"And Rowe's a familiar?" Darkwing asked, still amazed.

"Yes, and he probably hasn't even realized it." Morgana said. "Rarely will there be a more...intelligent...creature such as an otter like Rowe that are familiars, but it's not unheard of. Rowe's aura is massive, though, suggesting that he's...well, to put into terms you can understand, he's the Fort Knox of magical energy."

Darkwing's eyes went wide again. "He's got that much magical power?" he asked.

Morgana nodded. "He's probably been collecting it all his life without knowing it, storing that energy away, untapped, until today." she explained.

Christine frowned again. "What do you mean, 'until today'?" she asked.

Morgana sighed. "The magical energy Rowe stores shows signs of having recently been tapped, like I had predicted." she said. "All I had to do was follow the connection that has been forged between him and the magician that tapped the energy."

"And?" Darkwing prompted.

Morgana hesitated. "It connects to Crimson." she said. "Dark, she has magical blood."

* * *

Darkwing was, to say the least, floored. "Wha...wha...wha...wha..." he stuttered for several moments. Finally he shook his head to clear his mind somewhat. "She's _what_?"

"Crimson has magical blood." Morgana repeated.

"How?" Christine asked.

"She inherited it from some relative, I suppose." Morgana said. "It's the only way she could've. She's had it all her life."

"Then _why _haven't we found out about it until _now_?" Darkwing demanded.

"I'm supposing it's because she's not pure blood." Morgana said. "She's not even half-blood by my estimates, considering her heritage as we know it. Magic could only come to her under special circumstances and with a great deal of concentration, unless..."

"...she had a familiar." Christine caught on. "That's Rowe, isn't it?"

Morgana nodded. "When that explosion occurred, Crimson instinctively and subconsciously conjured a shield to protect herself, drawing the needed power from Rowe, who was nearby. By doing so, Crimson has made Rowe her familiar."

Darkwing was still shocked by this revelation. "Gos is a magician." he muttered, shaking his head.

"It actually makes perfect sense, now that I think about it." Morgana continued. "Crimson always had a bit of a knack for magic, at least more than a typical normal would. She could do potions without help and some basic spells."

"Except for the time she nearly sold my soul to the devil so she could do the really powerful stuff." Darkwing said flatly.

Christine glanced at him out of the corner of her eye in puzzlement.

"That was different, Dark." Morgana said, managing a grin. "But it fits in there, too. Even though she had access to unnaturally powerful forbidden spells, she still mastered them remarkably fast." she stopped to shake her head. "I'm sorry, Dark, I feel somewhat responsible. I could've found out about this ages ago if I had merely looked at Gosalyn with magical sight, but because I had presumed she was a normal..."

"No one's going to blame you, Morgana." Darkwing assured her. "You couldn't have known. None of us could've. But now we do, so we're going to have to make the best of it."

"Now wait, there's still something this doesn't explain." Christine interrupted. "This doesn't explain why Crimson and Rowe can't be separated."

"They're connected now." Morgana said simply, failing to see the connection.

"Right, right, Rowe's Crimson's familiar." Darkwing recapped. "But clearly not every magician _passes out _when separated from their familiar, right? I mean, you're separated from _three _familiars, and you're fine!"

"That's because I'm a pure blood witch, Dark." Morgana said. "I use familiars for more of a convenience than anything, in addition to friendships. With Crimson, however, it's different. She's dependant upon her connection with Rowe, because she can't do magic without him."

"So are they going to be stuck like that forever?" Christine asked.

"Or is there some way to sever the link?" Darkwing asked. "Please say there is."

"There is." Morgana said. "But Crimson and Rowe aren't going to like it."

"Why, what does it entail?" Darkwing asked.

"It's not what it entails," Morgana explained, "it's what it implies."

* * *

"So let me get this straight, mate." Rowe said once things had been explained to him. "It's up to us whether or not we want this connection to...continue."

"That's right." Darkwing said, nodding.

"Okay then, that's simple enough." Rowe said, standing up. "I don't want this connection to continue. There, done."

"It's not that simple Rowe." Darkwing assured him.

"Well, if it has to be a unanimous, then rest assured because I don't want this to continue." Crimson remarked, standing up as well. "I mean, as tempting as it is, I don't want to be stuck with _Rowe _for the rest of my natural life."

"The feeling's mutual, mate." Rowe assured her.

"No, _it's not that simple_." Darkwing repeated. "See, it's...uh...it's uh, more...personal...than that." he looked at their blank looks for a moment, then clamped a hand to forehead in frustration. "Chris, you explain it."

"Well, according to Morgana," Christine began, "there are several variations of these...connections...a magician and it's familiar can have. The more...impersonal the relationship is, the weaker the bond, and visa versa. Now again, according to Morgana, the connection between you two is already unnaturally strong, which suggests...well..."

"A more _personal _relationship?" Crimson asked ludicrously.

"I know what it sounds like, but..." Darkwing began.

"A _personal _relationship, Darkwing?" Crimson repeated, this time with more emphasis.

"Now we're not implying anything here." Darkwing persisted. "That's just what...er..."

"Are you suggesting that I..." Rowe began pointing at Crimson.

"No!" Darkwing said. "Just...that...maybe you guys aren't the arch enemies you've always acted like."

Rowe and Crimson shot each other a glance.

"I don't buy it." Crimson remarked.

"Me neither." Rowe agreed.

"Look, whatever the case, the only way to sever this connection is when you _really _mean it." Christine said. "More than just standing up and saying you want it to end. You have to _really _want it."

"But I _do _want it!" Rowe pressed. "I've wanted it since I realized we were stuck together!"

"Well, obviously not, otherwise you wouldn't pass out every time you stepped out of the room!" Christine said a little harsher than was intended. "Now look, we aren't trying to say anything, we're just giving you the facts, telling you what you are going to have to do in order to reverse this."

They were silent for a moment. Crimson and Rowe shot each other a glare.

"So, um, since this is all up to you two, we'll leave you alone for a little bit to sort it out." Darkwing said. "Agent Todd is out in the hall standing guard, just shout if you need anything."

Both he and Christine turned to walk out of the room. As they went, they heard Rowe mutter how much he hated magic. Closing the door behind them, they both let out an exasperated sigh.

"This is going to take awhile, isn't it?" Darkwing asked.

"Yep." Christine agreed.

Sighing again, they both walked off, hoping that Crimson and Rowe will sort this out as quickly as possible.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dr. Bellum and Techno hadn't made _any _progress in the matter of sorting out the encrypted messages.

"We aren't getting anywhere with this." Bellum said, pushing away from her computer in defeat. "Neither you, me, or any of the computers can find any patterns, or key symbols, or anything about this code to decrypt it anymore than it already is."

"I know, it's like the code is already decrypted." Techno said, scrolling through the many pages of coded messages they couldn't decipher. "But all we've got here is..."

"Jibberish." Bellum stated.

"Pretty much." Techno agreed.

They were silent for a moment.

"I still say this is just messages of jibberish meant to throw us off the trail." Bellum remarked. "We're trying to break a code that doesn't exist."

But Techno suddenly noticed something as he skimmed through the code. "Wait a minute." he said, and typed in a few commands to his computer. The page of codes on his screen shrank suddenly so the whole page fit on his screen. Techno grinned at the results. "Bingo." he said. "Dr. Bellum, come look at this."

Bellum rolled her chair over to Techno's computer and squinted at his screen. She frowned. "Why are the letters all lined up in a column like that?"

"What if these symbols and letters aren't meant to be read like letters and symbols?" Techno asked. "What if they're acting like...pixels...to a much larger image or symbol?"

Bellum blinked. "You're suggesting that these symbols when organized in a particular fashion form large letters." she said.

"That's right." Techno said. "Letters to the actual message."

"That would have to be one massive message." Bellum noted, predicting the size it would be.

"There's one way to find out." Techno said. "I can try piecing some part of this message together here on a computer, but the best way is to start printing out these pages of codes out page by page and fitting them together like a jigsaw puzzle. And get Director Hooter and Darkwing down here. I think we're getting close to solving the mystery of our spy once and for all."

* * *

Crimson and Rowe sat awkwardly in the medical ward, avoiding eye contact. Finally, Rowe spoke.

"You don't really believe this situation do you?" he asked.

"What, the part where we're magically bonded to each other, or the fact that we're bonded through the possibility we're...closer...than first thought?" Crimson asked sheepishly.

"The, uh, latter."

"No."

"Didn't think so, mate." Rowe admitted. "Still, there must be something to all of this that we're missing, otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Well, look on the bright side." Crimson said. "We both know something more about both of us, and it could always be worse."

"That's true. Never even knew what a familiar was until today. Now someone tells me I'm an unnaturally powerful one." Rowe paused for a moment. "And you're right, it could be worse. I could've gotten stuck with your Negaverse double."

"Yeah, I suppose NegaGos...I mean, NegaCrimson, would have the magical blood as well, wouldn't she?" Crimson asked. "She's not as bad as you think, though."

"I dunno, she hangs around Negaduck a lot, and I don't know of many who are more evil than him." Rowe said. "She pretty much ignores me, too. You at least acknowledge my presence."

"It's all a front." Crimson assured him. "NegaCrimson has a good side to her, I've seen it. She's had several chances to kill me, actually, and always avoided it."

"Really?" Rowe remarked, surprised. "Huh, who'd have guessed."

"Actually, it's not so surprising for me. I know she was once better behaved than I was, years ago." Crimson sighed. "Then Negaduck came along."

"Hard to believe there's anybody good in the Negaverse." Rowe remarked.

"But there is." Crimson said. "The Friendly Four, for instance."

"The who?" Rowe asked. "You'll have to forgive me, mate, I haven't seen that much of the Negaverse, and what little I saw was limited and controlled by Negaduck."

"Yes, Negduck would." Crimson agreed. "Probably wouldn't want you guys getting any ideas from the Four. But to explain things in short, they're essentially your good twins."

"Good twins? So...they're nicer than we are?"

"Very. I've met your Negaverse twin before. He's actually quite a nice guy. He's more polite and friendly than you are. Much more likable."

Rowe blanked out for a moment. "Wait." he said. "Are you saying that you like _him_?"

"Wha...no!" Crimson said. "Just that he's...he's..."

"Actually, this could explain a few things." Rowe said, thinking. "If one or more of us liked each other's Negaverse doubles, then maybe this magic stuff can't tell the difference between the two."

Crimson thought about that for a moment. "I suppose that works." she admitted. "But that would mean there would have to be something on your side as well. Do you have any connections to NegaCrimson?"

Rowe thought about it once, then grinned mischievously. "Well, actually..." he began, and then began giggling.

"What?" Crimson asked.

Despite his laughing fit, Rowe blushed slightly. "I kissed her once."

"You...you what?"

"Full on the lips, mate. Remember the time when I told you I was stuck in a time loop?"

"I remember that was what you claimed."

"Well, I did that during one of those loops."

"One of those times you were just fooling around, like the time you claimed you filled Audubon Bay with bubble bath?"

"Aye." Rowe laughed. "But anyway, I suppose kissing NegaCrimson fooled this magic stuff to think...well..." he trailed off for a moment. "Problem is that if the magic connection thinks it's _us _it's supposed to be connecting, how are we ever going to break it?"

Crimson was silent for a moment. "So why did you do it?" she finally asked.

"Do what?"

"Kiss NegaCrimson."

"Oh. Well, mostly just to see how everyone would react. Looking back though, I must admit I kinda enjoyed it."

"Really."

"Not to say that I want to do it again, of course."

"Of course."

* * *

When Darkwing and Hooter arrived in the lab, they found the lab's floor covered with papers. Dr. Bellum was in the process of setting more down, while Techno stood on top of a tall ladder, giving instructions."

"Over a bit more, Dr. Bellum." Techno said. "Yeah, set it there." he noticed Darkwing and Hooter. "Oh, there you are! Good, you two need to see this."

"I presume this actually has some bearing on the case of the spy, then?" Darkwing asked skeptically.

"Each page of codes actually turned out to be a kind of puzzle piece, that, when put together, formed the actual message." Techno explained, climbing down from the ladder. "Now clearly, out spy and the person he communicates with have some more efficient means of decoding the message than this, but this was the best we could come up with at the moment."

"I trust, then, you finally have the answers we need, correct?" Hooter prompted.

"Yes." Techno replied.

"And?"

"You're not going to like it." he led them over to one part of the message. "First off, it turns out that our spy's allegiance isn't what we thought." he pointed down at the text the 'puzzle' fit together to form. "Right here. Remember him?"

Hooter frowned as he read the message. "Oh dear." he remarked.

"Well, this is an...unexpected...development." Darkwing admitted.

"It gets worse." Techno said, leading them to another portion. "I was right to surmise that our spy is an expert, because guess who it is."

He pointed at some more text. Hooter and Darkwing read it. Their eyes then went wide.

"What?" Darkwing exclaimed.

"Techno, there must be some mistake." Hooter said. "This can't be our spy."

"I'm sorry, director, but it's true." Techno said. "But it gets even worse. I know what they're planning to do." he pointed at a nearby portion of text. "There."

Darkwing read it. Then his eyes went even wider with panic. "Gosalyn!" he exclaimed without thinking, and suddenly rushed out of the room, Hooter beginning to follow. Techno frowned, then read the portion, and then saw something he missed.

"Dr. Bellum, raise the alarm, I just made a big mistake!" Techno said, hurrying after the others...

* * *

"...After mom kicked me out of the house, I just went around looking for stuff to do." Rowe was explaining to Crimson. "Spent most of me time in the sea. Then I met up with Neptunia, and got interested in her cause, to put an end to pollution, and I joined her forces for awhile. But it quickly came clear that we didn't see eye to eye on things. I wanted to get back at you land dwellers for polluting the sea like that, whereas Neptunia was more content to resort to more...peaceful...measures, although only just. Eventually it came to a head, I left, met up with the Fearsome Five, and the rest is history."

"Now wait, you must have skipped something." Crimson said.

Rowe stopped and thought. "No, I think I've covered everything, mate." he said.

"But then, that would mean you're younger than I thought." Crimson said. "That would make you around...uh...the age of..."

"Nineteen." Rowe replied.

"Nine-nineteen?" Crimson asked. "Really? You're that young?"

"Aye." Rowe said. "Actually, I'm not surprised. Most people think I look older than that."

"They're right, you look more like you're in your twenties." Crimson said, amazed. "That would mean you're only about a year older than I am!"

"Aye." Rowe said simply, with a shrug.

"Huh." Crimson said. But then she shook her head. "We're getting off subject, though. We need to figure out how to sever this connection between us." she paused to think for a moment. "Maybe if we..."

She trailed off when a noise rang out in the hallway. A yelp quickly followed, along with sounds of a scuffle.

"Agent Todd?" Crimson called, standing up. When no answer came back, she moved towards the door.

Rowe followed. "What's happening, mate?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't bode well." Crimson said. "And I intend to find out what."

She reached for the door handle, but before she could, the door suddenly sprang open and a multitude of people streamed into the room. They were all dressed in black combat uniforms and wore black helmets and goggles that covered their heads and faces. They were armed, and they quickly encircled Rowe and Crimson, pointing their weapons at them. They were clearly not SHUSH agents.

"Great seasons!" Rowe exclaimed. "What's all this?"

"That's what I want to know!" Crimson exclaimed, reaching for her gas gun, only to discover she didn't have it on her at the moment.

The intruders didn't reply. A couple more entered the room, this bunch dragging Agent Todd, disarmed, bound, and gagged, into the room. The agent was struggling against his captors, but as usual, it was quite clear he was very frightened about the situation. They were followed by another, larger, person the only one not dressed like they were and held a commanding air about the situation.

Crimson took one look at him, and suddenly things started clicking into place.

"Well, well, well, Miss Crimson." Cornelius Jones said, chuckling. "What a pleasure to meet you again."

* * *

As Darkwing, Hooter, and Techno all ran to the room Rowe and Crimson were contained in, alarms started to wail out. They skidded to a halt, looking around in puzzlement. A party of agents suddenly rushed by, armed, and looking ready for battle. Among them were Agents Mia and Sandy, who fell back to join them and explain the situation.

"Intruder alert!" Mia exclaimed, urging the three to follow her and Sandy. "A bunch of highly trained guys in combat suits have infiltrated the building. We don't know how, on moment there was nothing, and then suddenly, there they were! They've taken control of corridor thirteen omega as well as observation room twelve and it's medical ward that sit adjacent to it."

"Crimson and Rowe!" Techno exclaimed in alarm.

"It's Jones." Darkwing said. "He's after something, and apparently it's with Crimson and Rowe."

"How do you know that?" Agent Sandy asked, puzzled.

"We'll explain later." Hooter said. "You go on ahead, Agent Sandy, we'll follow you momentarily. Agent Mia, please wait a moment. I need you to find Agent Grizzlikof."

"Sure thing, director." Mia said, changing directions and starting to run back the way she had come.

Hooter stopped her, however. "It's not for the reasons you think, Mia." he said gravely.

* * *

"How did you get in here?" Crimson demanded to Jones.

"Well, considering that I managed to escape from here once, getting back in shouldn't be that difficult." Jones remarked idly.

"Well, I want to know just who you are, mate." Rowe said, feeling lost.

"Of course, my apologies." Jones said politely to Rowe. "I had forgotten we haven't met. I'm Cornelius Jones. Scientist."

"A _wanted _scientist." Crimson spat. "You're the mastermind behind the serum that created The Elements."

"That was _him_?" Rowe asked, pointing a claw at Jones. "Huh, I would've expected the guy to be thinner..."

"Enough of this talk, I came here for one thing, and I intend to get it." Jones said. He moved towards the captive pair.

"You mean us?" Rowe asked, stepping back.

"How did you even figure out we were here?" Crimson asked. "We hadn't been here long, so unless..." she trailed off for a moment as something else clicked into place, her eyes going wide. "The spy. The spy hiding in SHUSH, he's working for you, not FOUL!"

"Very perceptive, Crimson, as always." Jones said, pulling out an empty glass vile and a needle. "Indeed, I do have a spy here in SHUSH, who has been more than willing to help my cause. That was how we got in too, by the way. He opened the door for us, so to speak."

"Who is it?" Crimson demanded.

"I'm not telling." Jones said, connecting the vile to the needle. It looked like he was preparing to draw someone's blood. "Besides, I don't need to. I know SHUSH is onto his trail, and they've quite likely figured things out by this point. His usefulness to me has ended. But now, onto the matters at hand." he held up the needle, now ready for use.

"This is about your serum, isn't it?" Crimson asked.

"Again, very good, Crimson." Jones said. "And I have reached a stage in which some blood would be of real use to me."

"Well, you aren't getting mine!" Crimson said, moving forward to struggle, only to be quickly strained by Jones's mercenaries. "I'll fight it every step of the way, I'll..."

"I don't need your blood, Crimson." Jones said. "Just his."

He pointed at Rowe, who blinked, surprised enough that the mercenaries surrounding him were able to quickly grab a hold of him and restrain his movements.

"Me?" Rowe asked, puzzled. "Why me?"

Jones's reply was merely jabbing the needle into one of Rowe's veins. Rowe winced suddenly at the pain, and then, quite suddenly, he went slack. Crimson fought to get at him, but Jones's mercenaries kept her back. Jones watched silently as Rowe's blood trickled into his vial, then, once he had enough, yanked it out. Without even bothering to cover the pinprick wound with something to stop the bleeding, Jones cleaned up the needle, removed it from the vile, and then pocketed both.

"Done." he said to the mercenaries. "Time to leave."

He marched out of the room. The mercenaries then released their prey, allowing Rowe to sink to the floor, apparently unconscious. Crimson quickly rushed to his side, worried if he was alright, and if him being unconscious was going to affect the pesky magical connection between them. The mercenaries all exited the room. Then they were gone.

A few moments later, Agent Sandy stormed into the room and surveyed the situation. She pointed at Rowe.

"Is he all right?" she asked.

"I think so." Crimson said. "But we should..."

Sandy wasn't listening anymore as the feline turned away from Crimson and went over to help untie Agent Todd, who was squirming against his bonds, making muffled pleas through his gag to be freed. A matter of moments later, Darkwing, Techno, and Hooter arrived, and rushed into the room.

"Crimson, are you all right?" Darkwing asked, hurrying to her.

"I'm fine, but I'm more worried about Rowe here." Crimson said.

Techno nodded, and started scanning the otter with his visor.

"Jones?" Crimson prompted.

Darkwing shook his head. "Got away." he said. "It was like trying to catch smoke. They knew exactly how they were going to get out of here."

"What happened?" Hooter demanded.

"Jones drew some of Rowe's blood, and then just left." Crimson said, shrugging in puzzlement. "He said it was for his work on his serum, but I don't know what for."

"Why is Rowe unconscious, then?" Darkwing asked.

"He's been sedated." Techno reported suddenly. "Most likely the needle Jones used was laced with the chemical."

"But why?" Crimson asked.

"Because if Rowe started thrashing around as Jones tried to draw his blood, he wouldn't have been able to get as much as he wanted, obviously." Techno explained. "Drawing blood is a very precise science. Besides, sedation worked to Rowe's advantage as well, by minimizing the damage to his body. He'll probably snap out of it in half hour."

Hooter's radio suddenly crackled. He pulled it out. "Yes?" he asked.

"Agent Mia, here, sir." came the reply. "I have Agent Grizzlikof here, and in custody as ordered."

Hooter sighed. "Thank you, Mia, I'll be right there." he said, and stood, putting the radio away.

"In custody?" Crimson repeated. "But why do you have Grizz in custody?"

Hooter didn't reply, and simply stormed out of the room. Darkwing started to reply for Hooter, but seemed to be at a loss for words. Finally, Techno took over.

"Grizzlikof's the spy, Crimson." Techno stated plainly.

* * *

Later, Hooter sat, stonefaced, in an interrogation room at a metal table. Sitting across from him was Agent Grizzlikof, who was likewise stonefaced. There was silence for a long moment. Then, Hooter spoke.

"Agent Grizzlikof, you are changed with espionage against the SHUSH organization, and for aiding a convicted criminal." Hooter said. "So I'll make this simple." he shook his head. "Why?"

Grizzlikof was silent for a long moment. "The serum." he finally admitted. "SHUSH could benefit from it. Jones was offering it to give it to SHUSH in exchange to my services. I agreed. Was simple at first. Then only gotten more complex from there." he paused for a moment. "I am sorry, director, I have disappointed you."

"You have disappointed several people, Grizzlikof." Hooter said. "You were a friend and ally not just to me but to nearly everyone in this building. And yet you betray us."

"I did not intend for things to go so far out of hand." Grizzlikof admitted. "But Jones demanded I give him everything he needed. It was too late to back out."

"And now it's going to cost you your career, you know." Hooter said.

"I know."

"There is something I don't understand, though. If Jones was really behind all of this spy business, then how does FOUL fit into it? How did they get the updated plans to our portal generator?"

"Spy in Jones's own network." Grizzlikof replied gruffly. "Or so I'm told. Took all data I sent and relayed parts of it to FOUL. Jones told me he has since been dealt with."

Hooter shook his head, realizing just how big a security breech this was. He thumbed through the papers before them for a moment. "You should know, Griz, that Vice President Norrin has been informed of this." he said. "Currently, he's screaming for a court martial against you. Normally I'd agree, but considering that you're my friend..." he trailed off for a moment, then leaned closer. "You have two choices, Grizz. The court martial, or resigning from SHUSH and leaving. The latter will salvage some of your records, while the former will not. It's your choice, Grizz."

Grizzlikof was silent for a long moment. "I will resign, and leave peacefully." he said. "Either way, I am done with spy work whether I like it or not."

Hooter nodded, gathered up his papers, and stood up to leave. At the door, he paused and turned back to Grizzlikof. "Farewell, then, old friend." he said.

"Farewell, director." Grizzlikof replied.

* * *

"Well, physically speaking, the two are no worse for wear from this little escapade." Christine announced happily, flipping through a folder of medical readouts before closing it. "However, _magically _speaking is a whole other story."

Darkwing glanced through the observation window at Crimson and Rowe, where they sat silently conversing. "Have they made any progress, Morg?" he asked.

The witch stared at the pair intently, studying them with her magical sight. "Some, yes." she reported. "The connection between them has decreased significantly in the past hour."

"So they could be breaking the connection at anytime now, right?" Darkwing asked.

"Actually, I don't think they ever will, Darkwing." Morgana replied, turning to Darkwing. "For one, that decreasing has all but stopped now, getting ever slower. And second, I think they've actually gotten closer now that they had before."

"What?" Darkwing asked, dismayed.

"No, I think she's right, Darkwing." Christine agreed, looking out the window as well. "I mean, just look at them. Before they sat from opposite ends of the room, giving each other death glares, but now their sitting in a corner, talking like they're old friends."

Darkwing winced as he saw they were right. "So they're going to be stuck together forever?" he asked.

"Actually, Darkwing, the connection between them has decreased enough that they can safely leave each other's presence." Morgana said. "But I think a small part of that connection will always remain. When in this close proximity to each other, they will be able to interact magically, and Crimson can draw power from Rowe to cast spells, but would otherwise be unable to." she was silent for a moment. "It'll be curious to watch this connection and see how it changes as time goes by. To see if anything fruitful will become of it."

"If anything hasn't already." Christine agreed.

"You know Darkwing, maybe we can use this to our advantage." Morgana said. "If we could possibly get Rowe to breakaway from the Fearsome Five, both him and Crimson could be trained to use these magical abilities to their full advantage. Then they both could do what they wanted and not have to worry about the connection."

Darkwing surprisingly nodded. "Maybe someday." he said. "But not now. Only if and when that day comes will it happen."

* * *

"Negaduck is probably going to kill me, wondering where I've gotten to." Rowe remarked, glancing at the clock. "To be honest, I'm surprised I'm even being allowed to leave."

"This is a night that is better to forget, and to go back to the way things were before." Crimson said from where she sat beside him. "I'm glad we're getting things worked out, though."

"Yeah, they're saying the connection between us has dwindled enough for us to go our separate ways." Rowe said. "But it's still there. Makes me want to use it to it's full advantage."

"Me too." Crimson admitted. "I've always wanted to have magical powers." she paused. "But I don't think this is the way I want to have them." She fell silent for a moment, then laughed. "I need to stop doing this, befriending members of the Fearsome Five. First Bushroot, then NegaCrimson, and now you. Who's next, Megavolt?"

Rowe laughed. "There's probably a good thing in all of that, you know, mate." he said. "Everybody could use more friends. I don't have enough as it is."

"I wish you could say we could be friends." Crimson said. "But seeing that we'll still be enemies after this..."

"Aye, it wouldn't work out." Rowe agreed. He hung his head.

The door opened suddenly, and Agent Mia stepped into the room.

"Rowe, it's time to leave." she announced flatly.

Rowe nodded and stood back up. "Here goes." he said. "Guess I'll see you again under not-so-good circumstances, mate."

Crimson stood up with him, hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward and kissed Rowe on the cheek.

"In hopes that maybe someday things will change." she said.

Rowe was motionless for a moment, then he grinned mournfully, and exited the room, Agent Mia following him closely. The door shut behind them, leaving Crimson to sit and ponder the situation through, and wonder what the future will have in store...

* * *

_Fun Facts: Originally, Rowe was introduced just to be a new villain in the group, and I only ever planned to have him to be just that. And then chapter 23, "The Crimson Darkwing" came along, in which NegaRowe is introduced for the first time. In that chapter, I portray a version of Rowe that is more friendly and more polite than his Posiverse twin, which was to be expected. What I **didn't **expect was the fact that Crimson and NegaRowe seemed to...hook...together, almost like they had feelings for each other. This is when this chapter comes about, was me addressing the idea that maybe Crimson and Rowe weren't the enemies they always acted like, and in the chapters bridging chpt. 23 and this one I had engaged Crimson and Rowe in a kind of love/hate relationship. It could be compared to DW and Morgana's relationship before Morgana gave up being a villain. This new development will come to a kind of temporary head here soon, and then kind of die down to the background again for awhile.  
_

_Grizzlikof's betrayal was a choice I debated greatly, but there's actually some use to it. See, I knew that in a very distant chapter, Grizzlikfo was going to leave the cast anyway. The problem I faced there, however, was doing it and making it believeable, which I kept falling short on. Finally, when this idea of a spy in SHUSH came about, I wanted to use someone that would catch you readers off guard, but additionally wouldn't throw wrench into the gears for me. As Grizzlikof was the best choice for my plans and actually resolved my eariler issue **ahead **of time, I decided to do it. Besides, Grizz has been a very minor character in this fanfic, so I thought it wasn't any big loss. Grizz will have a replacement shortly._

_Jones's appearance is simply a kind of "teaser" to future plans with the character. There was actually more I wanted to do with him in this chapter that I ultimately didn't, but I like the end result anyway, as it leaves things vauge, and leaves one wondering just what he is up to and why he needed Rowe's blood. I don't even know the answers to some of those questions, and even if I did, I wouldn't answer, so don't bother asking. :)_

_I allowed the Negacopter to go "off the radar" in this, because, to be perfectly honest, the Fearsome Five haven't really needed it. They always managed to do well without it. So now we're officially doing without it. It might also be a chance to squeeze in the Negaquack that is alluded is being constructed somewhere, as I have been meaning to do that since I started this fanfic._

_Crimson's line of "Who's next, Megavolt?" is a kind of inside joke for me, and an allusion to next chapter.  
_


	54. Recollection Part I

Summary: Suppose for a moment that Megavolt suddenly remembered everything he had ever forgotten, and the consequences that would bring. Now, what if I told you there was no need to 'suppose' at all?...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: With the exception of the "Escaped Convict" two-parter, every two-parter to date has begun on every fifteenth chapter, meaning every two parter is fifteen chapters from the last one. This trend is going to start to be broken here starting this chapter with the start of a rather Megavolt centric story arc that will stretch through this two parter and two other chapters (so it's almost a four parter story). I have some great things planned for this story arc, so be sure to not miss it. There will be no fun facts this chapter. I'll save that for part 2 and do it all then.

54.

Recollection Part I

Bushroot glanced out the greenhouse window at the cool, bleak, early November afternoon, and shivered. "The weather's getting colder again." he remarked aloud. "Not very good for mutant plant-ducks like me. I am so glad I don't have to go out there today."

"Ah, it ain't that bad, mate." Rowe remarked from where he was working, tightening a bolt with a wrench. "I've seen it get colder around here."

"That's easy for you to say, you and that thick fur coat you've got." Bushroot remarked, turning to look at the otter.

"Not my fault you weren't born with one." Rowe grunted, giving the bolt one last turn.

"Regardless, though, Bushroot's got a point." Megavolt said, sitting on a worktable, watching the two work. "The only reason we're even here is because the boss decided to let us have a day off."

"Yeah, so he could do paperwork in peace." Rowe said with a snicker. "Did you see the stack he's got in his office? It's huge!"

"Guess even supervillains from parallel universes have to do paperwork." Bushroot said. "But we should be thankful. Not only are we inside, out of the cold, but we're also got a chance to prepare for Quackerjack's birthday later this week."

"Good seasons, is he ever going to be surprised when we pop out from hiding on Thursday." Rowe remarked, grinning in excitement, twirling the wrench in his hand. "A surprise party was a great idea, Megs."

"It's the only way to throw a party for Quackerjack." Megavolt remarked. "You know him. He loves surprises. I'm just glad Negaduck authorized us having one."

"Yeah, how did we pull that one off?" Rowe asked curious. "Negs's never cared before."

"I think NegaCrimson put in a good word for Quackerjack." Bushroot said. "Remember, her own birthday was last month, but it was overlooked because we were busy robbing the bank that day."

"Oh yeah, that's right, she was a bit ticked off by that." Rowe remarked. "Good thing she didn't have her P90 handy."

"I'm sure the Uzi wasn't much better, though." Megavolt said, remembering the incident.

"Whatever the case, we can do the birthday party, and we have time to put Quackerjack's gift together." Bushroot said, patting the device he and Rowe were working on. "A shock cannon. When fired, it'll shock anybody within it's sights."

"Quacky'll love it." Rowe agreed, placing a cover on the device and bolting it in place. "I just hope we can get it working in time."

"I'm not sure where the problem is." Bushroot said, rubbing his forehead in dismay. "We've checked out everything that could be causing the problem, but they all check out. It almost seems like it's just not getting enough charge to fire properly."

Megavolt looked at the device for a moment. "Maybe it just needs an extra boost of power." he remarked, hopping up and strolling over.

"You sure, Megs, me matey?" Rowe asked. "This could require a great deal of power, and we all know what you're like when you're low on power."

"It's not like I have anything else to do at the moment, right?" Megavolt asked with a shrug, looking the device over. "Where do I hook up?"

"There, I suppose." Bushroot said, pointing with a sigh. "But be careful, Megs, and don't give it _too _much power. The circuits are very delicate. They won't withstand too large a power surge. And if they overload, the feedback alone would be enough to give you a rather nasty shock, Megs."

Megavolt waved his hand dismissively at this. "I've gotten shocked more times than I can remember." he said. "Really. When _was _the last time I got shocked?"

"Just yesterday, when you accidently crossed the wires to the dohickey you where working on at the time." Rowe commented.

"Case and point." Megavolt said. "I can't even remember that. I usually never do after power shocks like that. Most likely the same will happen here."

"You never remember anything, Megs." Bushroot said, placing his leafy hands on his hips.

"So what's the big deal, mate?" Rowe asked. "If he doesn't remember, then won't that be a good thing?"

Bushroot frowned, and rolled his eyes. "I suppose not." he said. "Just...be careful."

"Fine." Megavolt said, hooking up the device. "Alrighty here, let's see what it takes to get this thing to fire."

He scrunched up his face and grunted in concentration. Sparks flew, and then the device started to hum. A moment later, a pulsating sound rang out, and the air around the cannon's tip began to waver.

"It's working, mate, keep it up!" Rowe said.

Bushroot moved to check on the power reading for the device, frowning still. Megavolt kept feeding power into the device, the going being easier now that he had started. The air in front of the cannon continued to fluctuate as low-level, invisible, energy surged through it. The wavering patch continued to grow until it reached the other end of the greenhouse. Bushroot nodded at the readouts he was getting.

"Everything is checking out." he admitted. "Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after..."

Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot from the edge of the greenhouse to the cannon and struck it. Megavolt jumped in surprise. The device sparked, then the hum grew in volume. Bushroot checked the readouts again.

"Static discharge!" he exclaimed. "The power levels are spiking because of it! Megs, disconnect, now!"

Megavolt hurried to do so, but moved too late. The device sparked again, this time more violently, and then a wave of electric energy washed over him. Yelling in pain, Megavolt started shaking as he was being electrocuted. The device continued to spark violently, and bolts of energy continued to snap at the cannon's tip.

Bushroot moved to Megavolt as if to help, but was forced to step back when Megavolt arched his back, the device sparked yet again, and bolts of energy started leaping to Megavolt. The device was still feeding power from Megavolt, and now Megavolt was drawing more from his surroundings to compensate, who was barely conscious at this point. As bolts dangerously started zapping all around them, Rowe did the sensible thing by grabbing Bushroot and throwing him and himself to the floor behind the shelter of the worktable.

Megavolt continued to be shocked by the overloading device until it's circuits could withstand no more, and burned out. A metal panel exploded off it's mountings, narrowly missing Megavolt, as he was shocked by one last surge of energy, and then throw backward as the device gave off one last series of sparks before sputtering into silence. Megavolt crumpled to the floor, unconscious, and slightly singed. Cautiously, Bushroot and Rowe both jointly looked out from behind their hiding place.

"Megs?" Bushroot said.

"Hey, Megavolt, are you all right, mate?" Rowe called, seeing the coast was clear and came out of hiding and to Megavolt's side. He checked for a pulse. "Well, he seems to be alive."

The smoldering device behind them suddenly burst into flames. Bushroot quickly commanded some nearby plants to take a couple of nearby water cans and to dump the contents on the fire. It was quickly extinguished. By this point, Megavolt suddenly flinched and started to stir, moaning.

"Megs?" Rowe said, shaking his friend. "You all right mate?"

"Owwwww." Megavolt moaned, opening his eyes weakly and trying to sit up.

Rowe helped him up. "Easy there, mate, you had a bit of a shock, there."

"A very unnaturally violent one, too." Bushroot added, standing over them. "You're lucky to be alive."

"Ow." was all Megavolt had to reply. "That really hurt."

Rowe raised his eyebrows. "You remember that?"

"Yeah! Of course I remember..." Megavolt began to snap, but then stopped suddenly. "Hey, yeah, you're right! I _do _remember that. Huh, normally I don't remember the actual shock after shocks like that."

"Well, that wasn't exactly a normal shock." Bushroot pointed out. "You sure you're okay, though?"

"Yeah." Megavolt said, standing up weakly, Rowe hovering nearby to help if needed, and sniffed. "Just gotta shake it off like all the times previous." To emphasis the point, he shook his body all over, as if waking up from a long nap. "To be honest, I feel a bit more alert, more alert than I've felt in a very long time. Very...clear minded."

"Maybe that shock did some good then." Rowe said, leading Megavolt over to a chair. "Maybe you can remember things better now."

"I think I already can." Megavolt said, blinking in surprise. "Bushroot, remember when you lost your favorite fern and I helped you find it?"

Now Bushroot blinked in surprise. "Yes, I do, but I'm surprised you do." he said. "That was nearly eight years ago. The Fearsome Five hadn't been together for much longer than a week."

"That's right, I remember that." Megavolt said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "I remember helping to install a device into the city's power grid that would create that shield we used to ensnare the city. Quackerjack was there, watching my back. Darkwing showed up then, and we..."

He trailed off in surprise at how well he could remember the event. His friends were surprised as well.

"Looks like that shock rebooted your brain, mate." Rowe commented.

"Wow." Megavolt said, amazed. "I wonder what else I can remember."

"How about something about your past?" Bushroot asked curious. "I've asked you about it before, but I couldn't get a straight answer."

"That's because I couldn't remember." Megavolt explained. "Never have ever since I forgot it. I don't really think I'll..."

But he trailed off suddenly as a whole flood of memories came rushing back to him...

"_Look, I still don't get it. But as an athlete, I can see you ain't runnin' hard enough."_

_--  
_

"_At last! What I've always wanted! The ability to entertain people at cocktail parties!"_

_--  
_

"_I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the grade curve that gives you an F! I am Darkwing Duck!"_

"Megs, are you okay?" Bushroot said, suddenly interrupting his thoughts. "You kinda blanked out there."

Megavolt shook his head. "I remember!" he exclaimed, awed. "I remember the night I became Megavolt! Well, I could always remember that, but I was a little fuzzy on the details..."

"Really, mate?" Rowe asked, curious. "Tell us!"

"Well..." Megavolt began, easing into a chair, "It's kind of simple, actually. See, way back in high school, I was bullied by this annoying guy named Ham. Ham String. One night, after school, when I was conducting an experiment with static electricity, he and his girlfriend stormed in and, in short, wreaked the experiment. Created such a huge build up of static electricity that it all got channeled into me, leaving me with my powers, a terrible hairdo, and Swiss Cheese for a memory."

"That actually makes sense." Bushroot commented. "The energy build up probably gave your body a kind of...dependance...on electricity and shorted out parts of your brain in the process."

"Maybe this last shock undid all of that." Rowe reasoned. "That's why you can suddenly remember."

"Maybe." Megavolt said, creating sparks with his fingers. "I've still got my powers, but my memory's slowly coming together."

"What else do you remember?" Rowe prompted.

"That I attacked the senior prom dance that night." Megavolt commented, remembering. "And that I fought with Darkwing for the first time that night as well..."

"_I foresee doom."_

_--  
_

"_All right Darkwing, you may be tough, but I'm not! Or something..."_

_--  
_

"_Let this be a sign to those who lurk in the shadows. Let terror pierce their wizened hearts! For though they flee to the ends of the earth, no evil doer shall escape the wrath of...Darkwing Duck!"_

"Wow, and Darkwing predates all the rest of us." Bushroot remarked, impressed.

"Anything else mate?" Rowe prompted.

"I remember being bullied." Megavolt added, like it was helpful. "I was always left to fend for myself. No one ever stood up to me." he paused. "No wait, there was one time just shortly before this all happened..."

"_Please refrain from accosting me, 'sir!' Or I shall be forced to retaliate!"_

"_Oh yeah? You and what army?"_

"_Why don't you leave him alone, Ham? Pick on someone your own size!"_

"_That's kind of difficult when I'm the biggest kid in the school, dweeb! But since you offered, maybe by trashing the both of you, that'll even things out, huh?"_

"_Oh dear."_

_--  
_

"_Well, this is certainly the side of the trash can I've never seen before."_

"_You get used to it. By the way, thanks for trying to stand up to Ham back there."_

"_Oh that? Oh, well, that was nothing. Particularly since it didn't do any good."_

"_Maybe not, but it's a step up from the past, in which everyone just ignored me."_

"_Well no more. If you ever need help, I'll be right there."_

"_Promise?"_

"_Sure. I could use a hobby anyway, even if it does include saving someone else's bacon."_

"_Gee, uh, thanks. I'm Elmo, by the way. Elmo Sputterspark."_

"_I'm Drake. Drake..."_

"...Mallard." Megavolt whispered to himself.

"Who?" Rowe asked, puzzled.

"Drake Mallard." Megavolt repeated, standing up.

"Who's that, Megs?" Bushroot asked, not recognizing the name.

But Megavolt wasn't listening. "He promised to help me." he muttered, starting to pace. "He promised. And yet on the night I needed him the most, he didn't turn up. Did he not mean it? Did something happen to him that kept him from coming to my aide? And after that night, why didn't he ever appear again? I could've used his help loads of time since then, yet he...didn't...show...up!"

Sparks suddenly flew from Megavolt's hands in anger. Bushroot and Rowe glanced at each other, then Bushroot moved to stop Megavolt's pacing.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, Megs." Bushroot said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Who's Drake Mallard? We don't know who he is."

"I need to find him." Megavolt suddenly announced, shrugging off Bushroot's hand and heading for the door.

"What? How?" Rowe exclaimed.

"I don't know, but I'll figure it out!" Megavolt exclaimed, and then he vanished out the door.

Bushroot and Rowe glanced at each other. Then they both sighed in exasperation and ran after Megavolt with the intent of following him.

* * *

Except it wasn't so easy. Megavolt already had a head start, and he apparently had a need to hurry, for they quickly lost him in the midst of St. Canard. But it wasn't a big deal. They knew where he was heading. Whenever Megavolt was confronted with a problem and his services wasn't needed by the Fearsome Five at the moment, he always headed to his hideout to think things through.

And sure enough, it was there where Bushroot and Rowe found him. Megavolt had arrived at his apartment-like hideout that sat over an old electrician's shop well ahead of them and was currently rooting through his closet, tearing it apart in apparent search of something. Bushroot and Rowe stood at the door watching him in puzzlement for a moment.

"No...no...no...c'mon...wait! That might be...no, that's not it...oh c'mon..." Megavolt muttered as he dug, throwing the unwanted items over his head.

Bushroot cautiously approached Megavolt. "Megs, what are you doing?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm looking for my yearbook!" Megavolt replied from within the closet.

"Your yearbook?" Rowe asked.

"Yeah, my yearbook." Megavolt said. "You know, the book with all the pictures of you and your classmates in it that you get when you graduate?"

"Oh." Rowe said. "Well, I wouldn't know too much about those, having never gotten the chance to attend high school."

"Why do you want it, Megs?" Bushroot asked.

"Well, as I see it, what better place to start looking for Drake Mallard than in my high school yearbook?" Megavolt asked. "I could use that to get started searching for clues, and then build up from there."

"Now wait, a yearbook is what you get at the end of every school year." Bushroot said.

"Yeah." Megavolt replied distractedly.

"You said you got your powers on the night of the senior prom."

"Yeah."

"That's before your graduation."

"Yeah."

"But after you became Megavolt, you fought against Darkwing and lost, got sent to jail."

"Yeah."

"So if you were in jail, how could you have attended graduation so you could get your yearbook?"

Megavolt paused. "Oh." he said, emerging from the closet. "I suppose that would explain why I can't find it."

"So much for the hope that his memory had returned." Rowe muttered under his breath.

"No, I just didn't think of that." Megavolt said, standing up, kicking at one of the items he had thrown from the closet. "Guess I'll have to start somewhere else on my search."

"But why, Megs?" Bushroot asked, stepping towards him. "Why is it so important that you find this Drake Mallard?"

"Because he promised to try and help me when I needed it." Megavolt said. "And I want to know why he hasn't been doing that."

"Megs, he probably just said that to reassure you, and didn't really mean it." Rowe said, stepping forward. "He's probably long forgotten you even exist."

"That thought's crossed my mind." Megavolt admitted, turning around and looking out the window.

"Then why bother finding him?" Rowe asked. "What could you possibly get out of it?"

Megavolt didn't reply right away. "Payback." he finally said.

Bushroot and Rowe fell silent and exchanged worried looks again.

"Megs," Bushroot began again, "Really, you aren't going to..."

"Shush, I'm trying to think here." Megavolt interrupted cutting him short. He stared out the window for a moment longer. "I need access to the records of everyone in the city. Do you guys know where I could find such records?"

"Well, I know they've got stuff like that at the police station, but they'll never you look at them, Megs." Rowe said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Negaduck probably has a few himself, but not on everyone in the city." Bushroot said. "Besides, how do you even know this Mallard guy is even still in St. Canard? It's been years since you where in high school."

"Just a hunch." Megavolt admitted. "Granted it might..."

He trailed off suddenly as a memory suddenly came to his mind.

"_Ah, Megavolt? I present the awesome, super secret, Darkwing Tower!"_

"_Cool! Audubon Bay Bridge!"_

"_Huh? Oh, well, uh, that's just, uh, a simple hologram to fool outsiders. Pay it no attention."_

"Yeah right." Megavolt muttered under his breath.

"What?" Bushroot asked, still lost.

But then Megavolt straightened with realization. "That's it!" he exclaimed, and turned and ran for the door.

"_Now _where are you going, mate?" Rowe asked.

"To the one person who'd have what I'd need!" Megavolt exclaimed, not looking back as he ran out the door of the room.

"Who?" Bushroot asked, as he and Rowe followed him.

"Darkwing Duck!" Megavolt exclaimed, running down the staircase leading to the bottom floor.

Bushroot and Rowe both skidded to a halt, and this time didn't bother trying to follow Megavolt.

"Maybe Megavolt getting his memories back wasn't such a good thing after all." Rowe remarked.

"Oh no, this isn't good!" Bushroot said, grabbing at his pedal-like hair. "If Megavolt goes blabbing to Darkwing about all of this, he's not only risking himself, but the security of the gang!"

"So what should we do, mate?" Rowe asked. "Go after him? Try and stop him?"

Bushroot thought for a moment. "No, we'd risk ourselves as well if we get caught by Darkwing." he said. "We can't do it alone. We'd need help." he thought for a moment longer. "As much as I hate to admit it, Rowe, but we need to tell Negaduck what's happened."

* * *

As night fell, a storm rolled in from the sea, blowing darkly over St. Canard, engulfing the city in a mist of water droplets as the rain started to fall, thick and heavy. Standing at the window of Darkwing Tower, Crimson stared out at the poor weather.

"It's going to be real fun going out on patrol in this weather." she remarked.

"Well, we don't have to worry about that just yet." Darkwing said, sitting in the command chair below the big screen. "We aren't going anywhere until we get that priority call from SHUSH that J. Gander told me to expect."

"Any idea how much longer it'll be, DW?" Launchpad asked, walking up.

"Not a clue, LP, just that the message will come sometime tonight." Darkwing said. "J. Gander said he was going to try and not make us wait too long though, so I think it'll come at any moment."

"Just so long as Hooter's quick about it, I won't complain." Crimson said, joining them. "I have a feeling something is going to happen tonight."

"It's probably just the weather, Crimson, rain tends to make one think dark thoughts." Techno remarked, sitting at one of the smaller computers that encircled the platform, working on a project of some sort. "Besides, this tele-meeting is important. Director Hooter is going to introduce Agent Grizzlikof's replacement tonight."

"He's not an agent anymore, Techno." Darkwing pointed out. "He resigned peacefully, and..."

He was cut short when a beeping sound rang out. Darkwing quickly spun around in his seat and slapped the coinciding button. The SHUSH logo quickly appeared on the screen as the transmission started to connect. Waving everyone over, they waited for a moment. Finally, Hooter's face appeared on the screen.

Darkwing promptly noted he seemed crestfallen, and understood why. No one expected Grizzlikof to betray SHUSH and be a spy to Jones of all people, but Hooter probably took it the hardest. The two agents had worked together for quite awhile now, it was heartbreaking to see that relationship end that way.

But at least Grizzlikof acknowledged he had made a huge mistake, having regretted his choice to join Jones's side reportedly almost immediately, but it was too late to back out. As he had been in the midst of telling Techno, Grizzlikof selected immediate, but quiet, resigning over court martial, and was choosing to treat it like retirement. He then peacefully packed up and went back to his native land of Russia, being observed by SHUSH agents in case he attempted to rejoin Jones's forces.

The couple of weeks that followed going from the end of October into the beginning of November was spent debating over who would replace Grizzlikof's role as SHUSH second in command. Vice President Norrin quickly put together a whole list of people he would like to see to take the role, but it was quickly seen that Norrin simply intended to use one of those people as puppets to better control SHUSH should one of them be selected. Hooter had his own ideas of who he wanted to fill Grizzlikof's shoes that conflicted with Norrin's list anyway.

Finally, after spending much time debating the matter, Hooter finally announced to Darkwing the day before that he himself had selected the replacement and had gotten Norrin's authorization (but not necessarily approval) to go ahead. He wished to introduce the replacement to Darkwing and the others as soon as possible and tonight had been selected.

Now, they got to find out who the replacement was going to be.

"Hello, Darkwing, sorry to keep you waiting." Hooter said in his usual joyful tones despite everything.

"No problem at all, J. Gander, they delay keeps us that much longer out of the rain." Darkwing remarked. "So? What's the verdict? Who's the replacement?"

Hooter nodded. "Darkwing, I would like to introduce Agent Henry Grant." he said, and then moved off screen.

Another face appeared, this one belonging to a slender, handsome, young duck who couldn't be much older than twenty five. He had dark, nearly black, hair that hung long, but was neatly trimmed to not hang lower than his eyebrows. Upon seeing Darkwing and the others on the screen, he grinned.

"Good evening!" Grant said. "Yes, I am the new 'replacement' as you say. I'm greatly looking forward to working with you and your team, Darkwing. I've looked through your file, and I must say I'm quite impressed."

"You are?" Darkwing beamed.

"Of course, there are one or two things that seem a bit...outside the box, but we can address that later." Grant went on. He looked at everyone else. "You'll have to forgive me, I'm still playing catch up, so I don't know you all by name."

"Uh, yes, well, you know me." Darkwing remarked. "This is the Crimson Avenger, that's Techno and that's Launchpad, my sidekick and pilot."

"Very pleased to meet all of you." Grant remarked. "I hope I can meet all of your expectations by taking on this role. I'm going to try and be your ally and not your enemy."

"Well, that's good, we could always use another ally." Crimson remarked, grinning.

"Indeed." Techno commented, still sitting at the computer he had been working on, but turned away so he could be a part of the conversation. "If I had a nickel for every villain we've encountered."

"Tell me, though." Darkwing said to Grant. "Now that you're essentially a part of the team, just what are your opinions on some of the troubles we face today?"

"I was hoping you'd ask, Darkwing." Grant said. "I've been giving the matter some thought, and I think I've got you an answer. If I could just borrow a few more moments of your time..."

"Go right ahead." Darkwing said, leaning back in his chair a shooting a quick glance out the window at the rainy night. "Admittedly, I'd rather be here where it's dry at the moment, anyway."

Darkwing then returned his attention back to the screen as Grant began a discussion on his interpretation on SHUSH policies. But if he had watched a moment longer, he would've seen as the lightning flashed a few seconds later, a figure silhouetted in the window, silently watching...

* * *

"He did _WHAT_?" Negaduck exclaimed, jumping up from his seat.

"We don't know just _what _he's done exactly, just what we _think _he's going to do." Bushroot pointed out nervously.

"That doesn't change the seriousness of the matter, Bushy!" Negaduck stated. "So did he, or did he not, do it?"

Bushroot and Rowe shot each other glances, a ritual that was rapidly becoming a habit.

"Well..." Rowe began slowly, "...Megs did _say _he was going to Darkwing for help..."

"The KNOB!" Negaduck exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air angrily. "Of all the people to go to..." he paused. "Wait. For help? He went to _Darkwing _for help?"

"That's what he was indicating he'd do." Bushroot admitted.

"May I ask _why_?" Negaduck inquired harshly.

"He was looking for someone." Rowe said. "Nobody we know, at least not that I know of. Though, I will admit the mate's name sounds vaguely familiar, like I read it somewhere..."

"Who?" Negaduck repeated.

"Someone named Drake Mallard." Bushroot said.

Negaduck's only reaction was a single blink, and a moment's silence. His expression never changed, so it was impossible to gauge his reaction, but both Rowe and Bushroot sensed Negaduck knew the name better than they did.

"Did Megavolt say _why _he wanted to find this person?" Negaduck finally asked.

"Yes and no." Bushroot said. "He wasn't exactly forthcoming on details."

"He did say he knew this guy in high school, though, if that helps." Rowe offered.

"High school?" Negaduck repeated, this time genuinely looking surprised.

"Yeah, er, we had a little accident at the greenhouse, and Megs got a rather nasty shock from it." Bushroot explained nervously. "It seems to have given his brain a reboot, because shortly there afterward, Megavolt started remembering everything he's ever forgotten."

Negaduck shook his head and started pacing, stepping out from around his desk. "Should've known that could've caused problems had that ever happened." he muttered under his breath.

"What was that, mate?" Rowe asked, half-hearing the mutterings.

"When did you last see Megavolt?" Negaduck asked.

"Just under an hour ago." Bushroot said. "We were at his hideout at the time, discussing this matter."

"Then he just ran off, saying Darkwing was the only person who could help him." Rowe added.

"So either he has figured out more than we've given him credit for, or he doesn't realize where this is going to lead him." Negaduck said, more to himself than anything.

"Aye, trouble." Rowe stated.

"More than that, Rowe." Negaduck said, and after pausing for a moment, headed to the office door. "I'm going to stop him."

"What?" Bushroot asked, following. "You sure that's a good idea, Negs? Megavolt could already have confronted Darkwing, and who knows what could've happened from there!"

"I'm aware of the risks, Bushroot, more than even you realize." Negaduck said as he opened the office door and stepped out. "I know exactly what will happen if Megs gets caught, which is exactly why I need to act now to stop him and prevent a big mess from falling down on _all _of our heads."

"All of our heads, mate?" Rowe repeated, puzzled. "Why? Just how serious is this matter?"

"Serious enough." Negaduck said, passing NegaGosalyn who stood not far from the door, awaiting a verdict. "Gos, I'm heading out to stop a mess before it happens, you hold down the fort in the meantime."

"Got it." NegaGosalyn replied. Negaduck nodded, and continued onward, Bushroot and Rowe still following.

"I don't get it, Negs." Bushroot said. "You act like you know something about this that the rest of us don't."

"That's not true, NegaCrimson would appreciate the seriousness of this matter if I ever told her." Negaduck remarked.

"So you do know something more." Rowe realized.

"All I'm going to say on the matter you two twits is that it's very important that Darkwing does not find out that Megavolt is looking for Drake Mallard." Negaduck said.

"Why?" Bushroot asked. "Just who _is _Drake Mallard?"

Negaduck paused, debating how he should reply. "An acquaintance." he finally said.

Then he turned and left, exiting their warehouse hideout and out into the rain, leaving a very puzzled Bushroot and Rowe behind...

* * *

Megavolt watched silently as the occupants within the tower went about their business, the transmission they had gathered around to be a part of having since ended, and now they prepared to leave, most likely to go out on patrol. Rain pattered thick and heavy on Megavolt's back, seeping through the yellow fabric of his jumpsuit, but he ignored it.

Normally rain was a real problem for him, because the falling droplets of water usually caused him to short out. However, as soon as he became aware that a storm was in the process of overshadowing St. Canard, he quickly discharged as much of the electrical energy stored within as he dared, not to the point that he was left weak and lethargic, but low enough that he wasn't at risk of shorting out, as he could safely store small amounts of electrical energy in water without the two reacting badly.

He ran a risk doing this, though, because by doing this, he lost his ability to use several of his trademark attacks. If anyone caught him here and reacted accordingly, Megavolt would be virtually defenseless. He was confident though that he could pull this plan off without it coming to that, though.

It seemed Darkwing and the others disliked the rain as much as Megavolt, for they all went to great lengths to equip themselves to stay dry. Finally, they were ready, and they left to go on patrol, using varying modes of transportation. They did not see Megavolt as they left. Silence fell. Darkwing Tower was now empty.

Megavolt examined the frame of the window he stood perched in, checking for many security measures. There was one, a simple one, and with a snip of a wire, Megavolt had it disabled. Too easy, clearly Darkwing didn't expect anybody to try and break into Darkwing Tower and steal anything.

But Megavolt hoped to leave everything as he had found it once he had done, and leave little trace he had even been here. Carefully sliding the window open, Megavolt slipped into the vacant Tower with a thump. Shaking droplets of water from off of him, he looked around quickly to double check everything was clear, and then moved towards the central platform in the tower. It contained the super computer, and the super computer, he predicted, contained exactly what he would need.

Sitting down in the command chair, Megavolt brought the supercomputer out of screensaver, and told it to bring up it's desktop. But instead, a window appeared with a box in it on the big screen. Above it was a sentence of words, which read: "Security code required. Please type it in box below."

Megavolt frowned, as he obvious did not know what the security code would be. But he did have a way around it. Gently placing his fingers over the controls to the computer, he released a very low level electrical shock into the system, one that would leave any physical damage behind. But it interfered with the systems for a moment. The screen flickered, and then the box vanished, and the desktop came up without any code of code having ever been entered.

Grinning, Megavolt now scanned through the files and programs the supercomputer contained. Finding a search program, he pulled it up, and typed the words "Drake Mallard" into the box and hit enter. The computer thought for a moment as it searched for any matches, and then it pulled up exactly what Megavolt wanted. A current picture of Drake Mallard appeared on one side of the screen while a lengthy text talking about the person appeared on the other side.

Megavolt focused on the picture for a moment, tilting his head. It was the Drake he remembered all right, but he certainly had changed. He was slightly taller (but still short), he had gone pretty much bald, he wore a different, more up to date outfit, and bore a rather fatherly complexion about him. Megavolt got deja vu looking at him, reminded of the little time he knew Drake all those years ago.

And yet, he sensed there was something else he knew about Drake...something more recent...

Pushing the thought from his brain, Megavolt turned to the text, and skimmed through it. Every part he read only further confirmed that this was indeed the Drake Mallard he was looking for. He attended St. Canard High School in the seventies, was native to St. Canard, attended a few terms of college at Westcott University, but ultimately didn't graduate. Drake had even been noted in public that he was a person who tried to help (although not always successfully).

Then there were other details that Megavolt did not know. On the top of the list was the fact that Drake Mallard had vanished for seven years, from 1995 to 2002, and it was never publically announced why, the police keeping the official report under wraps for unknown reasons. He had a small criminal record, all charges later being dropped for one reason or another. He wasn't married, but he had a daughter, adopted, by the name of Gosalyn Mallard, now in her teenage years. He had adopted her when she was nine years old, and...

"_Please, I know you, you're the Darkwing Duck Fan Club!"_

_--  
_

"_I'm almost finished with this stupid floor, dad!"_

"_Ahem, of course you mean 'dad' in the figurative sense, little girl who is no way related to me."_

Megavolt blinked as he suddenly made a connection. "No." he said. "No, that can't be right."

He cleared his search, and now typed in Gosalyn Mallard. Like before, her picture and profile appeared instantly on the screen. Megavolt glanced at the picture, winced as he was further proven that he could be right, and quickly started reading through the attached profile, looking for clues.

See, he remembered Gosalyn, remembered that she was frequently around when he fought Darkwing years and years ago. At first, he thought little of it, always presuming that Gosalyn was simply a very dedicated fan of Darkwing's that followed him everywhere. Hence the first memory that came to mind. It was the second memory that caused a logic issue.

"Gosalyn called Darkwing dad." he muttered as he read. "Now if that's true, then that means..."

Not finding the information he wanted, he printed off a copy of the photo of Gosalyn. Once it had slipped out of the nearby printer, Megavolt grabbed the paper, pulled out a marking pen, and drew a wide-brimmed hat, a mask, and a cape on the picture of Gosalyn. He held up the finished product with a sigh.

"...she's the Crimson Avenger." Megavolt said. "Which means Drake is..."

"_Ha- ha! Darkwing Duck is Drake the Dweeb? Too funny!"_

_--  
_

"_I may have lost, but at least I know Darkwing Duck's secret identity! He's Elmo Sputterspark! No wait, that's not right, he's um...."_

"...Drake Mallard." Megavolt said, and stood up sharply. "I've known that all this time? And I did _nothing _about it just because I couldn't _remember_? Curse my stupid memory! Seeing he knew who I was, I should've..." he suddenly froze. "Wait. Darkwing knows who _I _am. He has for even longer than I knew. But...then...why? He promised he'd be there to help me. He could've helped me turn my life around! We both could've avoided all of this! But he didn't! He didn't, didn't, _didn't!_"

He crumpled up the picture of Gosalyn in his hands and hurled it across the room, then kicked a nearby waste basket and did a little mad dance in rage until he wore himself out. Panting, he glumly stared at his feet.

"He ignored me." he said softly. "He ignored me like everyone else in the world. I thought he was going to be my friend, the first I ever really had. But I guess not."

Sadly, he pressed a button on the control panel that cleared the big screen of any evidence of his search and put the supercomputer back on screen saver. He then walked across the tower back to the window he had opened. Once there, he glanced back at the empty hideout.

"No wonder we're enemies, Darkwing." Megavolt muttered softly to himself, and then clambered back out the window and into the rain, quickly vanishing from sight...

* * *

He wandered aimlessly through the rainy night after that, getting soaked to the bone. Megavolt didn't care. Once he arrived at a dry spot, the heat from a quick recharge would dry him off. For now he just dealt with it. He didn't have the mood nor energy to do anything else. He was too depressed with the knowledge that Drake Mallard was Darkwing Duck, someone he had hoped was a friend, but was clearly wasn't. It angered him and saddened him at the same time, but he didn't feel like doing anything about it at the moment.

Eventually his aimless wanderings led him home to his hideout. Wearily, he stepped in out of the rain, closed the door behind him. Shaking off the excess rainwater, Megavolt then drew in a large amount of replenishing electrical energy from his surroundings, then wandered over to the window to stare out at the rain, leaning heavily on the windowsill.

"You were out pretty late tonight, Sparky."

Megavolt turned around in time to see Negaduck reveal himself from the shadows, wearing a neutral expression. Megavolt narrowed his eyes at him.

"Don't call me Sparky." he wined, then turned away from Negaduck. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now anyway, Negs."

"Tough." Negaduck said, leaning against the wall beside the window. "You're going to hear me out. Because I heard today that you fixed your memory problem."

Megavolt glanced at him in surprise. "How did you find out about that?"

"Bushroot and Rowe told me."

"The traitors."

"Hardly. They're just concerned for your well being, Megsy. You haven't been acting quite yourself since you regained access to those lost memories of yours."

"Like you really care though."

"True, under any other circumstances, I merely think of you as a knob, always getting under foot." Negaduck said, circling Megavolt now. "But I care now. Because there's something else Bushy and Rowe told me. Something about a certain name you remember..."

Megavolt gave him a glare, but didn't say anything.

"I happen to know who this Drake Mallard guy is." Negaduck continued. "You won't like him, Megs, no matter what it is about him that you remember. You should stay anyway from him. That sound good?"

Megavolt avoided eye contact, and didn't reply. Negaduck narrowed his eyes and whipped out a knife, pointing it menacingly at Megavolt.

"Right?" he growled, using the flat of the blade to lift up Megavolt's chin.

Unafraid, Megavolt nodded, still glaring.

"Good." Negaduck said, removing the knife and turning to leave. "Have a good night, Megavolt."

Megavolt watched him walk across the room, then turned away for a moment. Before he knew it, he was suddenly speaking again.

"Darkwing Duck is Drake Mallard."

Negaduck froze.

"And if he's Drake Mallard, then you're the Drake Mallard from the Negaverse, meaning NegaCrimson is Gosalyn Mallard from the Negaverse. So that's why you're always calling her Gos..."

The knife suddenly embedded itself besides Megavolt's head. Negaduck then grabbed him from behind and whirled him around.

"You aren't supposed to know that!" he roared in Megavolt's face.

"I got that, Negs." Megavolt said defiantly. "And you know that makes you vulnerable."

"I could kill you right now." Negaduck growled.

"Still doesn't change the fact that I know." Megavolt said. "What can you do about it?"

Negaduck slammed him into a wall. "No one should know either of our secret identities particularly a knob like you." he growled. "You let that knowledge slip and we will have a real mess for the both of us."

"Well, I know better to use it against you." Megavolt said simply.

Negaduck was way ahead of him. "You lay one finger on Darkwing..." he began.

"You'll what?" Megavolt spat. "I thought you wanted Darkwing defeated."

"I do, but by _me _personally!" Negaduck said. "You aren't me!"

"This is the best way to do it, and you know it." Megavolt said. "Why haven't you ever taken advantage of that?"

"Because people aren't as stupid as they look, Sparky." Negaduck said. "If I reveal Darkwing for who he is, I could get my goose cooked as well!"

"Then let _me _do it." Megavolt said. "I can hide the connection, and you know it."

Negaduck was silent for a moment, seething. "I know." he said. "That's what I'm afraid of. Besides, me and Dipwing have an unspoken agreement that we attack each other on the _professional _level only. That means with the mask on. If any of us attack him while the mask is off..."

"He can't do anything if he's beaten." Megavolt pointed out.

Negaduck was silent for another moment, then he released Megavolt with a flourish. "No." he persisted. "You leave Drake Mallard alone, Megs, or so help me, I'll see to it that you _get it_."

And with that, he stomped out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Megavolt stared at the shut door for a long moment, folding his arms.

"But you forget." he said aloud. "I have my own score to settle with Darkwing..."

* * *

"Chew twenty times before swallowing, Gosalyn."

"Oh, c'mon dad, I'm going to be late."

"Oh, no, I've seen you drive that motorcycle of yours. Much too fast. You won't be late."

"So you'd rather encourage me to drive faster than the speed limit."

"Oh, er, um, see, what I was really trying to say was...er..."

"Yeah, I thought as much."

Gosalyn shoveled the last of her breakfast into her mouth and then hopped up from the table, swinging her backpack onto her back. "See ya later Dad." she said.

"Bye Gos, have a good day at school." Drake said, sipping his orange juice as he thumbed through the paper.

Gosalyn could be heard exiting the house and stepping into the garage. A few moments later, the sound of a motorcycle revving and driving away drowned out everything else. Drake rolled his eyes, still not happy about the idea of Gosalyn driving a motorbike, but knew that he couldn't argue with her about the matter anymore.

"Hey DW, whatcha got planned for today?" Launchpad asked, as he stepped into the room, helping himself to the stack of toast that sat in the middle of the table, free game for anyone.

"I have a few errands around town I need to do." Drake replied, folding up his newspaper and checking his watch. "I should get started on that here soon, too, by the way. After that I intend to head home and take a nap." he stood up a stretched. "How about you, LP? What do you have planned for today?"

"Oh, nothing much." Launchpad said. "I was thinking about going over to the tower and giving the Thunderquack a tuneup. Then I might mosey on back here to catch the latest episode of _Jumpgate: Universitas _around noon. Gos then has a soccer game this afternoon that I want to see."

"Oh yes, I need to remember to go to that." Drake said, making a mental note. He picked up his car keys and his shopping list. "Well, I need to get going. See you later, LP."

"See you later, DW." Launchpad replied.

Drake stepped out to the family car and climbed into it. Turning the key in the ignition, he started the car, backed out of the driveway, and was soon on his way. As he drove, he switched on the radio and listened to his favorite station, singing along to the music. Eventually, he arrived in the metropolis section of St. Canard, driving past the tall skyscrapers. Grinning, Drake drove along, not suspecting anything.

Then a loud thump rang out as something heavy landed on the roof of the car. Drake glanced up award in puzzlement, looking around for some explanation to the sound. Not finding any, Drake looked for a place to pull over for a further investigation. But then a head suddenly poked into view, dangling in front of the windshield.

"Surprise!" Megavolt yelled dementedly.

Yelping, Drake swerved the car as if he expected that to get rid of Megavolt, but the rat hung on tightly to the roof of the car. When Drake realized swerving wasn't helping and stopped, Megavolt did a flip in the air as he jumped from the roof of the car and landed on the hood facing Drake.

"Hiya!" he exclaimed, throwing a punch at the windshield, which cracked under the impact.

Drake yelped again, and started swerving again, leaning over to peer through the cracked glass.

"Get out of here!" Drake yelled at Megavolt, reaching for the gear shift.

A well aimed bolt of electricity from Megavolt snapped the gear shift handle off, shattering the windshield in the process. Drake stared at the broken handle in his hand for a moment before Megavolt grabbed him by the front of the shirt and brought him close.

"I'm not leaving until I've done what I came here to do, Drake." Megavolt said. "Or should I say...Darkwing Duck."

Drake's eyes went wide. Megavolt threw him to one side of the cab. With no driver, the car veered off to one side and brushed against the side of another car. Dodging another bolt from Megavolt, Drake fumbled over to the driver's side of the car again and tried to regain control of the car. As he did so, he pulled out a spare gas gun from the glove compartment and fired off a couple cartridges at Megavolt.

Megavolt dodged most of them. One of the canisters clipped the edge of the broken windshield and burst into a cloud of smoke, but the air blowing past the speeding vehicle blew it all away before it could do anything. Megavolt took aim to fired off another bolt of electricity at Drake.

Panicking, Drake slammed his foot on the gas pedal, the car lurching forward. Caught off guard, Megavolt stumbled forward, throwing off his aim and shooting a bolt of electricity into the hood of the car before he slammed into the roof of the cab. Flipping up onto the roof, he slid down it to the back of the car and started to fall off. Quickly, Megavolt grabbed a handhold and stopped his fall, his feet dragging against the road behind the car.

Meanwhile, the car's sudden burst of speed caused it to bump into the back of a car ahead of it. Drake quickly dropped speed and drove around and ahead of the vehicle, honking his horn loudly to tell the other cars to get out of the way. He had almost forgotten about Megavolt until he heard a zap from behind as Megavolt fired a blind electric bolt through the back window and hit the roof's interior, punching a hole through both. Drake turned to look at him, gripping his gas gun tightly.

"How did you figure out who I am?" he shouted at Megavolt.

"Let's just say that getting your memory back in it's entirety has it advantages!" Megavolt called back, then fired another bolt at Drake.

It hit smashed through the back window, shattering it this time, and blasted the headrest to the driver's chair. Drake ducked, then fired off another canister of gas at Megavolt. It fell short of it's target, bursting within the car, but unlike the ones before, this was somewhat effective as the resulting cloud of smoke was blown out of the car into Megavolt's face. He vanished from view for a moment, then reappeared outside one of the side windows in the back of the car. He fired another bolt of electricity at Drake, narrowly missing him and hitting the dials and gages in the car's dashboard.

"You promised to be there to help me!" Megavolt yelled, firing more bolts in anger. "But you didn't! Feel sorry now, Drake?"

Drake switched attachments on the gas gun a fired a volley of shock darts at Megavolt. They all missed their target, some embedding themselves in the interior side of the car, but Megavolt was forced to move. He slipped back to the back of the car, then to the other side. While the car somehow continued on it's course even without a driver, Drake threw open the driver's side door and leaned out, firing canisters of sleeping gas at Megavolt. Megavolt shot down most of them, but the most he could do was hang on and dodge.

Then, suddenly, his eyes went wide in surprise, and he quickly moved to hang from the back of the car again. Puzzled, Drake looked ahead of the car to see a large truck, it's horn blaring, zoom towards the car, close enough to clip the vehicle. Drake quickly threw himself back into the cab.

The car jerked as it's side dragged against the truck's side as both drove past each other, the still-open driver's side door getting snapped off it's hinges in the process. Once the truck had passed and Drake regained control of the vehicle, he looked behind him for Megavolt, only to find that he wasn't there anymore.

Drake had just enough time to hope that maybe Megavolt had finally left, or possibly fallen off, before a bolt of electricity shot through the roof of the car, followed by three more, all dangerously close to Drake's position. Megavolt was on the roof again. Drake let go of the steering wheel to try and come up with a counterattack, but by doing so, allowed the car to veer to the right and off the road. He looked at his new course in time to see the car slam, nose first, into a fire hydrant and knock it loose, releasing a spray of water in the air. The car slammed to a stop, and the air bags deployed, slamming Drake back into his seat.

Megavolt, upon seeing where the car was going to end up, quickly jumped off the roof before impact and grabbed a hold of a nearby streetlight, hanging from it for a moment. He then jumped down, laughed, and ran off. Drake got out of the ruined car just in time to see Megavolt duck into an alley. He shook his head and sighed.

"This isn't good." he stated.

* * *

"Ha! I did it!" Megavolt whooped as he ran, breathless away from the fight scene. "Well, I haven't beaten Darkwing yet, but I'm well on my way!" he laughed. "It feels so...so..." he paused, slowing to stop, "...empty."

He shook his head. "No, no, no, this is right." he persisted. "What I'm doing is right. Drake abandoned me, leaving me to fend life for myself. Just like everyone else in the world, except he had the gall to make me think otherwise. That he would be different from the rest of the world."

He kicked at can that was lying in the ally, and then, not satisfied with just that, zapped the can with a well aimed electric bolt.

"I didn't complete my goals this time, but that's all right." Megavolt said. "I'll go away and make him sweat, wonder when I'll come back to finish him off. Because I'll be back. I'm going to get my revenge on Darkwing, on Drake Mallard, on them _both_, payback on both of them leaving me in the dust, to fend for myself." he narrowed his eyes. "I won't rest until I've completed that goal.

And with that, he started running again, heading towards his hideout again. What he didn't realize, though, was that he was being watched from a nearby rooftop by a figure in a cape and a hat. When Megavolt continued running, she left to report what she knew to her superior...

* * *

By the time the police and the medics had arrived at the site of the crashed car, there was little they could do but clean up. The medics checked Drake over to find that he was okay, and the police officers, none of them ones Drake knew personally, asked him some questions. Drake explained the generals of the situation, but naturally didn't tell them everything. For all they knew, Megavolt had for some reason decided to pick on this poor persecuted citizen.

But Drake knew there was more to it than that, and that was what worried him. Once the medics had finished and left the police began supervising the clean up of the wreck, Drake went to a payphone across the street from the wreck and dialed the number to Gosalyn's cell phone. He tried several times, but it wasn't until about fifteen minutes into the attempt that Gosalyn finally picked up.

"What is it that was so important that it couldn't wait fifteen minutes?" Gosalyn exclaimed the moment she picked up. "I was still in a class up until a minute ago! I can't answer my cell phone in the middle of class!"

"Gos, it's me." Drake said patiently.

"I kinda figured that, Dad." Gosalyn replied hotly. "But I ask again, what couldn't wait fifteen minutes?"

"There was an accident, Gos." Drake explained.

"An accident?" Gosalyn asked. "What kind of accident?"

"A car accident that I was in."

"Keen gear...are you all right Dad? Are you hurt?"

"No, thankfully, I wasn't seriously hurt beyond a few bruises. But the car's totaled."

"Drat! I liked that car." a pause. "How bad is the damage?"

"Well, it slammed into a fire hydrant, so it's nose is toast, among other things."

"Among other things? What other things?"

Drake hesitated, wondering how he could securely say this. "Gos, this was a special kind of accident, in which it didn't involve any other vehicles." he explained.

"So...how did you wreck?" Gosalyn asked, sounding lost.

"I was attacked, and lost control of the car, long story short."

"You were attacked? By who?"

Drake again hesitated for a moment. "By Megavolt." he finally admitted. "Gos, he knows who I am."

* * *

Megavolt kept running with the goal of heading to his hideout, in a properly vengeful mood now, and ducked into yet another ally to use as a short cut. But he skidded to a halt when he discovered that his path was cut off by the rest of the Fearsome Five.

"Hold it, Megs." Negaduck, who stood in the front of the group, said. "We need to talk."

Megavolt glanced at his compatriots in puzzlement, silently asking what was going on. Bushroot, Rowe, and even NegaGosalyn, however, all avoided eye contact. Quackerjack met his eyes for a moment, but then silently hung his head.

"Guys?" Megavolt prompted. "What's going on?"

"Oh, you _know _what's up, Megs." Negaduck growled.

He was right. He did.

"Look, as I see it, this was the best way to defeat Dark..." Megavolt began to explain.

"You were specifically told to leave Drake Mallard alone, and yet you disobeyed." Negaduck said. "Now I have to make good on my threat, although I wish I didn't have to. You have your uses, Megavolt."

"Well, that's all that I seem to be good for, isn't it?" Megavolt asked angrily. "Just another tool for people like you to take advantage of!"

"That's enough, Megavolt!" Negaduck interrupted. "You were given a warning and you failed to go through with it!"

"So what are you going to do?" Megavolt demanded.

"Well, first off, I'm kicking you out of the Fearsome Five." Negaduck stated. "Not so bad, considering, because now we're genuinely back to five members."

"Kicked out?" Megavolt asked. "You're kicking me out?"

"For starters." Negaduck said with a careless shrug. "You should know that now that I've done that, you're an official enemy to the Fearsome Five, starting now."

"What?" Megavolt asked. "Guys, you can't go along with this!"

His fellow partners in crime avoided eye contact though.

"Sorry, Megs." Bushroot remarked.

Megavolt simply stared at him in shock.

"It's not so bad, Megavolt." Negaduck continued. "If you just keep your distance from us, nothing bad will happen. But you have to actually get away first. Right now you're too close. We'll attack you if you don't get going."

Megavolt just started at him ludicrously. Negaduck sighed, and glanced at his watch.

"Tell you what, I'm going to count to five." he said. "If you haven't gone by that time, I'll have NegaCrimson here..." he motioned to NegaGosalyn, who reluctantly raised her P90 to take aim at Megavolt, "...shoot you down in cold blood."

"In cold blood?" Megavolt repeated. "Don't you..."

"One." Negaduck began.

"But can't I have..."

"Two."

"But..."

"Three."

Megavolt gulped, then, giving his former team one last glance, turned and ran back the way he had come, heading for the exit to the alley.

"Four."

Negaduck glanced at NegaGosalyn again, who nodded that she was ready. Negaduck watched Megavolt for a moment as he ran, nearing the exit to the alley but hadn't reached it yet.

"Five."

**To Be Continued**.


	55. Recollection Part II

Summary: Suppose for a moment that Megavolt suddenly remembered everything he had ever forgotten, and the consequences that would bring. Now, what if I told you there was no need to 'suppose' at all?...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Well, here's part two. This chapter turned out remarkably well. I even managed to get Poe into the mix. I daresay it could be my best yet. One thing is for sure, though, and that's the fact that seeing all of you really praised part one, you'll _love _part two. :) Fun facts for both parts are included.

55.

Recollection Part II

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Static discharge! The power levels are spiking because of it! Megs, disconnect, now!"_

_--  
_

"_Easy there, mate, you had a bit of a shock, there."_

"_A very unnaturally violent one, too. You're lucky to be alive."_

_--  
_

"_Looks like that shock rebooted your brain, mate."_

"_Wow. I wonder what else I can remember."_

_--  
_

"_Drake Mallard."_

"_Who's that, Megs?"_

"_He promised to help me. He promised. And yet on the night I needed him the most, he didn't turn up. Did he not mean it? Did something happen to him that kept him from coming to my aide? And after that night, why didn't he ever appear again? I could've used his help loads of time since then, yet he...didn't...show...up!"_

_--  
_

"_I need to find him."_

"_What? How?"_

"_I don't know, but I'll figure it out!"_

_--  
_

"_Megs, he probably just said that to reassure you, and didn't really mean it. He's probably long forgotten you even exist."_

"_That thought's crossed my mind."_

"_Then why bother finding him? What could you possibly get out of it?"_

"_Payback."_

_--  
_

"_Now where are you going, mate?"_

"_To the one person who'd have what I'd need!"_

"_Who?"_

"_Darkwing Duck!"_

_--  
_

"_So you do know something more."_

"_All I'm going to say on the matter you two twits is that it's very important that Darkwing does not find out that Megavolt is looking for Drake Mallard."_

"_Why? Just who __**is**__ Drake Mallard?"_

"_An acquaintance."_

_--  
_

"_Gosalyn called Darkwing dad. Now if that's true, then that means...she's the Crimson Avenger. Which means Drake is...Darkwing Duck."_

_--  
_

"_You leave Drake Mallard alone, Megs, or so help me, I'll see to it that you get it."_

"_But you forget. I have my own score to settle with Darkwing..."_

_--  
_

"_I'm not leaving until I've done what I came here to do, Drake. Or should I say...Darkwing Duck."_

_--  
_

"_You were attacked? By who?"_

"_By Megavolt. Gos, he knows who I am."_

_--  
_

"_You were specifically told to leave Drake Mallard alone, and yet you disobeyed. Now I have to make good on my threat, although I wish I didn't have to."_

"_So what are you going to do?"_

"_Well, first off, I'm kicking you out of the Fearsome Five. Not so bad, considering, because now we're genuinely back to five members."_

"_Kicked out? You're kicking me out?"_

"_For starters. You should know that now that I've done that, you're an official enemy to the Fearsome Five, starting now."_

_--  
_

"_Tell you what, I'm going to count to five. If you haven't gone by that time, I'll have NegaCrimson here...shoot you down in cold blood."

* * *

_

"One."

"But can't I have..."

"Two."

"But..."

"Three."

Megavolt gulped and glanced hopefully at the others, hoping Quackerjack, Rowe, or more importantly Bushroot would do something to stop this. But the reaction was the same. Bushroot looked clearly upset by all of this, but didn't dare object. Rowe looked to be feeling something similar. Quackerjack was just giving him a cold look that Megavolt didn't like. He realized with a chill that he was on his own now.

He glanced at NegaGosalyn, secretly hoping that she wasn't going to follow through on Negaduck's murderous request, but she already had her P90 aimed at him and her finger wrapped around the trigger, just waiting for the order to shoot. It was clear she intended to obey the order. His only chance now was to turn and run and hope he could get away before it was too late. Quickly, he raced for the ally's exit.

"Four."

Almost immediately, Megavolt saw he wasn't going to make it. The distance between him and the ally's exit seemed to have doubled in length since he had last looked, and it seemed like he was stuck in slow motion while everyone else was still moving in real time. Regardless, he pressed on, sweat dampening his body. The seconds that ticked by seemed to last forever as Megavolt waited for Negaduck to reach the end of his count.

"Five."

The exit to the alley, a gaping space between two brick-walled buildings, seemed so close, and yet so far. Megavolt gulped once again, and pushed every last ounce of energy he had left into running. Ironically, he almost had to laugh. Throughout his entire career as a supervillain, he had depended upon his control over electricity to save him. But not even all the electrical power in the world could save him now. Megavolt closed his eyes, still running, awaiting the gunshot that would end it all.

But the gunshot didn't come as quickly as Megavolt expected it. His eyes snapped back open and saw he was still alive and still running, so he hadn't just missed it the gunshot. It just hadn't fired. And in the milliseconds that followed, the P90 somewhere behind him still hadn't fired. The thought came to him that maybe NegaGosalyn had hesitated to fire after all, and saw he still had a chance.

He was almost at the alley's exit. Another step and he'd be out of the ally. Two more, and he could be around the corner and out of sight. Taking hope in this small fact, he counted his steps as he ran around the corner and out of sight. It was then that the gunshot finally rang out. There was a twang as something sparked against the brick wall of the building, and Megavolt felt the fired bullet whizz past his back, not even grazing him.

Resisting the urge to yell for joy, Megavolt stopped outside the alley to catch his breath, time suddenly returning to normal speeds with a vengeance, so much so his head spun. Leaning against the wall beside him, Megavolt listened for any sounds from within the alley. He heard Negaduck speaking in that low growl of his, the exact words ineligible, but moments later, Megavolt heard pattering footsteps of several people running for the alley's exit. Negs was sending the rest of the gang after him.

But now that Megavolt wasn't at danger of being sight, he knew he could easily evade the rest of the Fearsome Five. Grinning, and clapping his hands together, he began running again, ready for the chase that was going to follow...

* * *

"Megavolt knows your secret identity?" Hooter asked, shocked. "How? Not even SHUSH knows your identity, and I assure you Darkwing, we've tried quite valiantly to try and find out in the past."

"I know." Darkwing said, his face grim as he walked down the corridor. "It actually stems back to a stupid little accident years back in which Megs managed to pull my mask off in a fight. In the end, though, I wasn't too worried about it, because he promptly forgot the knowledge again."

"Then how did he manage to remember it?" Hooter asked.

"I don't know, but I think that's not all he's remembered." Darkwing said. "In our fight, Megs indicated he remembered _everything, _as in everything he's ever forgotten."

Agent Grant, who was following along side Hooter carrying a stack of files in his arms, blanked out at this. "How is that important?" he asked, then went on to add, "You'll have to forgive me, I'm still playing catch-up. Before I was assigned here, I worked in the field out in Mexico. I've been virtually unaware of the happenings in St. Canard because of it."

"As you know, Agent Grant, Megavolt's superpowers involve the harnessing and use of electrical power in his body, which he uses as a conduit." Hooter said flatly, as if annoyed at the interruption. "The downside to this power is that it interfered with the functionality of his brain, making it very difficult for Megavolt to remember any long-term memories."

"So how is this little problem being corrected an issue?" Grant asked, still lost.

"Megavolt has seen a lot over the years he's been a criminal." Darkwing explained. "He's virtually a treasure trove of secret memories that himself or others could use to our disadvantage if he ever remembered them. And now that he does, Megavolt is clearly putting those memories to use."

"By seeking revenge on you." Grant asked.

"That's right." Darkwing said. "He might also sell the knowledge he's got because of these restored memories to earn money."

"Like to Negaduck." Hooter said.

"Possibly, but somehow I doubt it." Darkwing said. "Negs's known who I am for longer than anybody. Makes sense, seeing that he's me. But during all that time, he's hardly ever used that knowledge to his advantage. I can't think of any reason for Negaduck to start now."

"But the principal concern here is Megavolt." Hooter said, as they arrived at Hooter's office and stepped inside. "He clearly doesn't have the same opinions as Negaduck, and he's not holding back to take advantage of what he knows."

"I know." Darkwing said, sitting down wearily. "It means I'm going to have to go out and fight him and beat him before he beats me."

"Which is exactly what I'm worried about, Darkwing." Hooter said sitting behind his desk. "By the sound of it, nowhere is safe for you to hide, not even your hideout."

"Darkwing Tower." Grant noted observantly, wanting to prove that he knew _something _about the goings on in St. Canard.

"I know the risks, J. Gander." Darkwing said, ignoring Grant. "That's why I'm going to take out Megs before he gets a chance to do any of that."

"But you don't even know where he is." Hooter pressed. "He could attack right this moment and you wouldn't even know it until too late! I hate to do it, Darkwing, but I can't afford to lose you. I must make the order to place you into protective custody. I want an agent of SHUSH with you at all times. That includes Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno, and anybody else Megavolt may use to get at you."

"What?" Darkwing cried. "But J. Gander, those agents will only slow me down! Besides, Crimson and Techno are both currently in school at the moment and both out of costume! If you have SHUSH agents following them everywhere..."

"We'll pull them out of school and have them wear their costumes until this issue is resolved." Hooter said. "They'll probably be safer that way anyway. But I'm sorry, Darkwing, the matter isn't open for debate. You're just going to have to make the best of the situation." He stood up, motioning to Grant to follow him, who was just about to sit down himself. "I'll leave you with some privacy to make the necessary arrangements, and then I want to dispatch agents to collect everyone as quickly as possible."

Darkwing sighed, leaning back heavily in his seat. "Fine." he said. "I'll get back to you in a moment."

He was pulling out a cell phone and beginning to dial while Hooter and Grant both exited the office. Hooter closed the door behind him, and deactivated surveillance within the room via a secret control panel before turning to leave. Grant hesitated a moment, then stepped forward to speak.

"Director Hooter," he began, "Sorry that I have to say this, but with all due respect, are you sure this is a good course of action? Darkwing seems to be a very capable person. I've seen his file. I think he's right, giving him an agent escort will only slow him down. Don't you think we should at least give him a chance to try things his way first?"

"If we do, and he fails, then what's the point?" Hooter asked rhetorically, then went on to add, "Agent Grant, one of Darkwing's greatest rivals was your predecessor, Agent Grizzlikof. He despised Darkwing, and greatly resented Darkwing's involvement in SHUSH. But Grizz was a very good agent, and knew when to just trust my word and not say anything. You should too."

And with that, he walked off, leaving Grant to brood about that for awhile.

* * *

"What was that about?" Negaduck demanded, circling NegaGosalyn angrily.

"What was what about?" NegaGosalyn asked innocently.

"Don't you play stupid with me, Miss Mallard, you _know _what this about!" Negaduck roared. "You hesitated to shoot Megavolt! It's because of you that we've lost him now!"

"I did not." NegaGosalyn said flatly. "He moved to the left suddenly. I had to shift my aim to compensate and simply didn't react fast enough."

Negaduck's eye narrowed, clearly debating if he should confront that statement as a lie or accept it as the truth. He ultimately choose neither. "You know, you worry me sometimes." he said. "I really have to wonder if you're going softer than you'd care to admit."

"If I was, don't you think you'd have known it by now?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"Maybe you're just good at hiding it."

"Then you'll never know for sure, will you?"

"I will if you ever get it in your head to turn against me."

"And why would I ever do that?"

Negaduck didn't reply. "Point of the matter is that Megavolt escaped." he persisted. "Now he's free out there to cause trouble."

"He's not going to be a problem now, he got the message, he's out of the gang." NegaGosalyn said. "He's going to keep his distance from us now, just as you requested."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Negaduck said. "I _am _worried about this whole Drake Mallard mess, though. Now that Megavolt's free, there's no one to keep him in line."

"If you didn't want him to escape, then why did you give him the chance to run?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"Because I didn't think he'd succeed, nor did I think you'd miss." Negaduck spat.

"You should've told me to just shoot him."

"Don't tell me what I should or shouldn't have done!" Negaduck said. He turned to the window of his office, overlooking the warehouse that was the gang's hideout and fumed for a moment. "Megavolt needs to be found." he said finally. "He needs to be found and at the very least stopped." he turned back to NegaGosalyn. "Bushroot and the others are already out looking for him. You go join them and _find him_."

"Got it." NegaGosalyn said, starting to walk off.

Negaduck stopped her briefly. "And if you find him," he continued, lowering his voice, "shoot to kill."

NegaGosalyn paused for a moment, then nodded, gripping her P90 tightly as she walked off.

* * *

"This is highly irregular." Techno remarked, as they both stepped out onto the roof of the high school in full costume. "I've hardly ever been in costume at school, and much less picked up by SHUSH agents to be babysat."

"It's highly irregular that Megavolt knows our secret identities, or at least Dad's." Crimson said, closing the door behind them. "Though, it wouldn't be hard for Megs to figure out the rest from here. Actually, though, I'm not too surprised that SHUSH wants to keep an eye on us." she looked around nervously. "After getting Dad's call about Megavolt's attack on him this morning, I haven't felt truly safe since."

They cautiously walked across the roof to the front of the school. Below, they could see a single car parked at the curb with two people in grey outfits standing beside it.

"Our ride, I presume." Techno remarked, glancing down at it.

"Yep, those are SHUSH agents all right." Crimson agreed. "Dad said they'd meet us at the school, and that they'd be expecting the Crimson Avenger and Techno and not Gosalyn Mallard and Honker Muddlefoot."

"Right." Techno said. "But it looks like they're expecting us to walk out the front door."

"Which is stupid." Crimson remarked, pulling out her gas gun. "Do they really think we'd just walk out the front door in plain sight of everyone while in costume?"

She fired off a grappling hook and swung down to the sidewalk below. Techno shrugged good-humoredly and followed. They both landed before the two agents suddenly, but neither agent was surprised. They knew how Crimson and Techno operated well.

"Crimson, Techno, glad to see you're well." Agent Mia greeted, peering over the sunglasses she wore over her eyes. "Any sign of Megavolt?"

"None." Crimson said.

"I'm not even getting any traces of him with my visor." Techno added.

"Good, then let's hope then that he's not lurking around somewhere waiting to attack." Agent Sandy said, opening the backdoor to the car. "Climb in. We need to be getting back to HQ."

Crimson nodded, and both she and Techno climbed in. Mia and Sandy climbed into the front of the vehicle, Mia sitting in the driver's seat. Soon they were both on their way. They rode in silence for a few moments.

"You know, I just remembered, my motorbike's still at the school." Crimson remarked.

"You'll live." Techno assured her.

"As soon as this situation is resolved, you can go back and get it, I promise." Agent Mia said. "But until then, you are going to watched by SHUSH agents at all times and follow our commands."

"Lucky us." Crimson remarked unexcitedly.

* * *

The rest of the day passed by without event. Grudgingly, Darkwing obeyed Hooter's request to allow himself and his cohorts to be taken into protective custody. At first, they were just going to stay at SHUSH Headquarters, but it was quickly agreed they weren't getting anywhere this way, and Hooter agreed. Besides, Techno also pointed out that there was a good chance Megavolt would attack areas such as the Mallard home or Darkwing Tower, both of which were currently vacated, and it was decided that allowing Megavolt having free reign at both of those locations wasn't a good idea.

A few strings were pulled, and it was arranged for Darkwing and the others to stand guard over the two locations, and despite a few awkward and sensitive moments, they pulled it off. And by the time night had fallen, there hadn't been another attack from Megavolt. The popular belief was that Megavolt had been scared off by the guards and was just waiting for his chance for the guard to be let down.

But in reality, Megavolt wasn't even aware of all of this just yet.

His day had been very busy avoiding the Fearsome Five. After very nearly getting shot, Megavolt spent the better part of his day on the run from the others, which apparently had orders to capture him (or worse) no matter what from Negaduck. Finally, sometime after noon, he finally shook his pursuers, but even then, still had to play it safe, as they seemed to be everywhere in St. Canard. It seemed every other step he took very nearly bumped him into Bushroot, or Rowe, or Quackerjack, or NegaGosalyn, whom, he noted with dismay, was armed.

He managed, though. At one point he tried to head home to his hideout, only to just barely realize that Rowe was already there ransacking the place, probably looking for clues, and had to quickly take steps to avoid being captured. He realized that at that point, not even home was safe anymore. Leaving him with nowhere else to go.

Suddenly, he understood how Drake must have felt, knowing he was being hunted by Megavolt. Megavolt almost felt sympathetic. But that still didn't change his goals. He still intended to get his revenge upon Drake. He just wasn't sure how he was going to do it.

Sitting on the bank of the Audubon Bay, looking across it's waters at it's opposite bank, he gave his problems some thought. The solution to his problem with Drake seemed simple. Figure out where he lived, and then Megavolt could attack him while he was right at home. He just didn't have the tools to do that.

He had a phone book at his hideout, but it was several year out of date, probably had several Mallards in there, and he knew Negaduck was likely to have the location watched.

Currently, he hated Negaduck as well. Actually, he always had in the past, but this was a new low. He never really thought that he was a mere tool to Negs, but today's events proved otherwise. And in retrospect, he should have realized this eons ago...

"_I'm here to help you escape. In fact, I'm going to help you and your friends all escape, but first I'm going to start with you."_

"_Why me?"_

"_I need your abilities in order for this to work."_

It seemed so obvious now. From the very beginning, Negaduck had only been using him. Heck, not just him, but all of them most likely. It made him feel betrayed, and he decided he had every right to. With one fell swoop, Negaduck had completely turned Megavolt's life upside down, and all because Megavolt had allowed him to get that kind of control. Now he didn't know what to do, or where from go now.

He needed help. But he didn't know who to turn to. Normally, in situations like this, he'd go to his friends, namely Bushroot and Rowe. But Negs had managed to even take them away from him and turned them into his enemies. Unwilling enemies, granted, but enemies nonetheless.

He thought about going to the officials, such as the police, but he knew that wouldn't get him anywhere. They'd just throw him into jail, and the police already were on the alert. Apparently reports had been streaming in from all over town that the Fearsome Five were being more active than usual, and had been taking precautions to prepare for anything the Five might do. SHUSH wasn't likely to be any better.

The idea of turning to Darkwing came to his mind, for they had done it before...

"_I'd prefer it if we had more to work with us."_

"_Consider it done, Dipwing."_

"_Negaduck! What're you doing here?"_

"_What do you think, you twit? We're here, heaven forbid, to help you."_

...but Megavolt quickly pushed that thought out of his mind. He wasn't ready to go trusting Darkwing just yet, not after what he had learned Darkwing had done to him as well. Besides, having attacked him, Darkwing wasn't likely to trust him either. Furthermore, one of the things he needed help with was trying to decide how to attack Darkwing. Which he felt probably wasn't going to become a reality anymore. But at least they were on a more even score.

What he needed was someone who could understand all the aspects of the situation, but not be so quick to turn him in. But where was he going to find someone like...

"_But I get ornery if I don't get to zap something every now and then. Maybe if I were to talk with Negaduck...say, where is Negs?"_

"_Dunno, he didn't tell me. Probably somewhere right in plain sight, and we don't even know it."_

"_Look, I've got and go deliver some couple's meal. Give me a shout if you see him. But discreetly."_

Megavolt suddenly jumped up at the unexpected memory of the conversation he and Rowe had held, undercover, roughly about a year ago. At first glance, it seemed like nothing pertaining to his present situation, but as Rowe had concluded the conversation with that last comment, he pointed at the couple in question. Naturally, Megavolt hadn't thought a thing of it at the time, but he realized now that the gentleman Rowe had been serving in his waiter disguise that night was Drake Mallard.

Megavolt found it ironic. They were undercover to look for Darkwing, but he never turned up. Because Darkwing wasn't Darkwing that night, he was Drake Mallard. He had been in plain sight, and neither he nor Rowe had realized it. Looking back, he even remembered seeing Negaduck, out of costume, that night as well, but didn't know it for the same reasons.

But it wasn't Drake's presence that caught his eye, it was the fact that Drake had a date. A pretty, long-haired, female duck about Drake's age that Megavolt couldn't say he had ever seen before. But she had to know everything about Drake and what he did. If anyone could help Megavolt at the moment, it was her. Now if he could just remember her name...

"_...and has helped taken action to prevent it from happening with other facilities, but that doesn't explain what they're up to."_

"_Sounds like a lot to worry about, I'm surprised you took time off from all of that for this date. I mean I'm surprised Darkwing took the time off...I mean, oh shoot."_

"_Don't worry Christine, you'll get the hang of it. It's not easy referring to that stuff in the third person. I know from experience."_

Megavolt grinned. "Good thing I happened to walk by right at that moment." he remarked to himself. "Christine, hmm? Well, that's good enough!"

The beginning of a plan started to form, Megavolt turned and ran off into the night.

* * *

"Okay, Charlie, time for bed." Christine remarked as she stepped into the living room.

"Aw." Charlie whined, curled up on the couch in his Pjs, watching the TV. "One more TV show, please?"

"No, that's enough for one night." Christine said, rolling her eyes as she leaned over to turn off the TV. "You need your sleep kiddo, or you won't grow up big and strong."

"But Gos stays up every night, and she's big and strong." Charlie pointed out.

Christine struggled to find a hole in that reasoning. "Yeah, well, that's Gosalyn." she said. "Anyway, I'm your mother, adopted mother anyway, and I say it's time for bed."

"But I'm not sleepy." Charlie whined, yawning a big yawn at the same time.

"Yes, you are." Christine said, trying not to laugh. "Now c'mon, let's go to bed. You got Jude?"

Charlie held up his stuffed otter innocently.

"Good." Christine said, scooping up the six-year-old into her arms. "C'mon, let's go."

She started off for the hallway when the window in the living room suddenly shattered and something heavy was heard hitting the floor. Alarmed, Christine backtracked into the room and looked at the figure kneeling on the floor. The figure looked up, studied her for a moment, and then grinned.

"Thank heavens!" Megavolt exclaimed. "It took me forever to track you down!"

Christine stared at him for a long moment, Charlie turning around in her arms to do likewise, then she suddenly turned and ran for the phone, Charlie yelling in fright in the process. Megavolt quickly jumped up and blocked their path.

"Ah-ah!" Megavolt said, urgently. "Listen, I don't want to hurt anybody, I just need your help."

"Fat chance!" Christine yelled, grabbing a frying pan sitting on the stove and lifting it above her head in preparation to swing at Megavolt.

Megavolt quickly knocked it out of her hands with a well placed bolt of electricity. Christine turned to look at the frying pan as it clattered noisily to the floor, giving Megavolt the chance to grab Charlie from Christine. He held the squealing child out of reach of Christine.

"Now look!" Megavolt said, annoyed. "I just need to know one thing from you, so just tell me the answer and I'll leave you alone!"

"Don't hurt him!" Christine said, trying to snatch Charlie back.

Megavolt held him further out of reach, holding Christine back. "I won't, if you just answer my question!" he repeated.

"Fine, what's your stupid question?" Christine snapped.

"Where does Drake Mallard live?"

"What? Are you _mad_?"

"That depends on your definition of the word."

"Why can't you just look in a phone book?"

"I would've, if it wasn't...look, it's a really long story!" Megavolt snapped. "Now tell me, or the kid gets it!"

He held one hand under Charlie and let it crackle with energy for a moment. Charlie whimpered, and Christine redoubled her efforts to get him, but Megavolt continued to hold her back.

"Well?" he asked.

Christine bit her lip, clearly torn over her choices.

"One..."

"Alright, alright, it's 537 Avian Way!" Christine exclaimed. "Now don't hurt him!"

Megavolt gently tossed Charlie back into Christine's arms. Christine, not fully prepared for the move, overbalanced in the catch and they both fell to the floor. Megavolt hurried back over to the broken window he had entered through.

"See, that wasn't so hard." he said once there. "By the way, you can call whomever you want now. 'Night."

And with that, he hopped out the window and vanished, heading back down whatever means he had used to get up here in the first place. Christine stared out the broken window for a long moment, clutching the still-terrified-but-calming-down Charlie tightly, then jumped up and grabbed the phone to make her call...

* * *

Darkwing stormed into the room suddenly. Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno, who were sitting around the SHUSH break room alone at the moment, all turned to look his way. They instantly saw from his expression that something was wrong and he wasn't happy about it.

"Something up, DW?" Launchpad asked innocently.

"I just got a call from Christine." Darkwing said flatly. "Megavolt just attacked her apartment."

The reaction was instantaneous, as the other all jumped up out of their seat.

"Keen gear, is she all right?" Crimson exclaimed, standing up.

"What about Charlie?" Launchpad asked.

"Why did Megavolt attack?" Techno asked.

"Christine's all right, Charlie's all right, and Megavolt attacked simply to get my home address from Chris." Darkwing explained quickly. "Once he got it, he left. But he did threaten to hurt Charlie if he didn't get the address, the only reason Christine even gave it to him."

"He threatened Chuck?" Crimson repeated, angry now.

"Charlie."

"Right, Charlie."

Darkwing shook his head. "This isn't like Megavolt." he said. "I think he's been driven to the point of desperation to try stuff like this."

"That would explain for a great many things, but it does pose a couple of unanswered questions." Techno reasoned.

"Whatever the case, one thing is clear, and that's the fact that Megavolt does indeed to finish the fight, and he's willing to take the battle anywhere now." Darkwing said. "If he doesn't find me at home, he'll keep looking for me until he finds me. Sooner or later, he _will _attack." he paused. "Now I'm thankful J. Gander took us into protective custody."

There was a moment of silence.

"So...do we have a plan?" Launchpad asked.

"Oh yeah, Launchpad, I've got a plan." Darkwing said. "We can't let this go on. We need to put a stop to this, and if it means a fight, so be it. Furthermore, I don't want Megavolt wandering around in the hideout, my house, or returning to Christine's apartment. So here's the plan. We're splitting into groups, each one of watching over each location. I'll be watching over Darkwing Tower. As a SHUSH agent will have to be with me at all times, I'll take...say...Agent Sandy with. Crimson, I want you to go and watch over Christine's apartment. You'll also need an agent to go with, but seeing that it's unlikely Megavolt will return there, just take Agent Todd. Besides, he's good at guarding stuff. LP, you guard the house. Take Agent Mia with, as you probably know her the best. Hide the fact that it's my house from her, and just say you're there guarding it simply because you and Gosalyn live there."

Both Crimson and Launchpad nodded.

"What about me?" Techno asked.

"Ah, I have a special task for you, Tech." Darkwing said. "I just got word from J. Gander. Dr. Bellum is reactivating the Elemental Tracker system and is attempting to modify it to search for Megavolt. I want you to stay here and help her."

"Understood." Techno said.

Darkwing fell silent for a moment. "Guys, I'm not going to sugarcoat it." he admitted. "Right now, Megavolt it quite possibly one of the largest threats we have ever gone up against, and not because of his powers, but his knowledge. It seems clear by now that he knows everything about me, and likely all of you as well, and he's trying to use it to his advantage. We will all need to play it safe should he show up at any of these locations. Be ready to hurry over to help others should they need it." He paused again. "J. Gander's already given me the go-ahead with this plan, so we shouldn't sit around any longer. Let's go, and good luck everybody."

* * *

And with that, the plan was enacted, and was carried out without a hitch. Launchpad and Agent Mia were standing guard over the Mallard home, Mia reportedly suspecting nothing. Crimson and Agent Todd stood guard over Christine, Charlie, and their apartment. Techno and Dr. Bellum were at SHUSH HQ making good progress on the modifications to ET, and Darkwing and Agent Sandy stood guard over Darkwing Tower.

Megavolt didn't reappear again the rest of the night, and by dawn the next day, he still hadn't appeared. Agent Sandy sat bored at one of the computers in the tower, playing solitaire.

"You know, in the past when I've visited this hideout, there's some action involved." She remarked aloud.

Darkwing, who sat in the command chair, spinning it around and around, stopped to look over at her.

"You've got a point." he agreed. "I don't know what the hold up is. I would've thought that Megavolt would've struck again _somewhere _in St. Canard. I wonder what's holding him up."

"Assuming Megavolt ever does get around to attacking, what do you plan on doing when he does?" Sandy asked.

Darkwing glanced at her. "Beating him before he beats me." he replied simply.

"That's your plan?"

"Elegant in it's simplicity, yes? Besides, there's not much else I _can _do but wait for Megavolt to make the next move, and you can bet that it's going to require a fight."

"There's ET. Presuming Dr. Bellum and Techno can get it running, we can use that to track down Megavolt's location and get the jump on _him_."

"Maybe, but I fear it's not going fast enough." Darkwing said. "I don't think it'll be ready in time. No, Megs is going to strike soon, that much I know. I just don't know when or where exactly."

Sandy stopped playing her game for a moment to think. "What do you think Megavolt hopes to get from this?" she asked. "I mean, of course, there's the revenge aspect, but doesn't he realize that if and when he ever succeeds at that goal that it wouldn't be long before he was caught again?"

"Which leads to me wonder if Megavolt believes he's got nothing left to loose." Darkwing said. "And if so, why?"

There was a long silence.

"Isn't it time for another hourly check-in?" Sandy asked.

Darkwing glanced at his watch. "It is." he confirmed, and pulled out his radio. "All units, please report in, over."

* * *

"How's it coming?" Agent Grant asked, entering the lab suddenly. "Director Hooter wants a report."

"We're making some progress." Techno said, sounding audibly frustrated as he worked at his computer station.

"...but not progress enough, I presume." Grant commented.

"You presume right." Bellum said, slapping at her keyboard in frustration. "ET wasn't designed to be used like this. It's proving to be very difficult to make the needed adjustments to accurately track Megavolt."

"Furthermore, the technology hasn't been used once ever since The Elements were defeated several months ago." Techno added. "There hasn't been a need. Things are out of adjustment, the terrain has changed, something in the program broke that we had to fix...there are just too many things standing in our way, here."

"And it's just gumming up the system." Grant guessed.

"You got it." Bellum said. "Still, we're finally getting somewhere. I estimate we should have prototype search parameter built to scan for Megavolt ready in a couple of hours."

"Presuming no new problems present themselves." Techno added.

It was then that Techno's radio crackled, and Darkwing made the call to report in. Techno pulled it out to reply.

"Techno here, we're still working on ET." he said. "Give us a few more hours, and we should be ready to roll."

* * *

"Darn it, Megavolt." Christine muttered as she finished putting up a plastic covering over the window Megavolt had broken the previous night. "Did you really _have _to break the window?"

"Considering the fact that your apartment isn't on the ground floor, he probably didn't have much choice." Crimson remarked, sitting in the kitchen.

"Well, at least I feel much safer with you here, should Megavolt decide to pay me _another _visit." Christine remarked, stepping back to survey her handiwork. "I just hope that if he does, he spares the other windows in my apartment. Speaking of which, will I have to pay for the window, or will SHUSH?"

"SHUSH policy dictates that it will cover any property damages that are inflicted during any matters it is directly involved in." Agent Todd commented, standing in the doorway of the hallway.

"So...probably? Maybe? Yes? No?" Crimson prompted.

"Yes." Todd replied with a sigh.

"You certainly seem to know a lot about SHUSH's policies." Christine comments, attempting to make small chat. "How long have you been in SHUSH?"

"Uh, a little short of a year now." Agent Todd said.

"He's still a junior agent, Chris." Crimson explained further. "Hasn't had much field experience. Typically he stays at SHUSH HQ as either a technician or a guard."

"I am good at both of those things, ma'am." Todd agreed confidently to Christine.

Crimson's radio clicked on suddenly as Darkwing made the call to report in. Crimson pulled it out to reply.

"This is Crimson, everything seems to check out here for the moment." she reported. "Chuck's still sleeping, and Christine's grumbling about broken windows, but that's all."

* * *

"Pretty girl, yes?"

"Shush Poe."

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"The bird. I thought I heard it talk."

"Uh, no, Mia, that was nothing."

Launchpad shot Poe a silencing glare. The crow cowered under the gaze, moving across his perch to be further from Launchpad, but they both couldn't deny that Poe was right.

Agent Mia, dressed in civilian dress instead of her trademark business suit, finished scanning Launchpad's room. "Okay, everything checks out here." she announced, turning to leave. "On to the next room."

"Mia, I fail to see why we have to check out each and every room every five minutes." Launchpad muttered following. Poe flapped along behind them, curious now that he had seen Mia.

"This house is big enough that there are several places Megavolt could slip inside and hide without our knowing if we didn't regularly check them out." Mia said, opening the door to Gosalyn's room and looking around inside. "Furthermore, you said it yourself, this is the most likely place Megavolt is going to attack at. He could attack at any moment."

"It's been quiet here all night, Mia." Launchpad wined as they moved on to Drake's bedroom. "I think if Megavolt was going to attack here, he would've done it by now."

"It still doesn't hurt to play it safe, Launchpad." Mia said, scanning Drake's room. "That's the only thing I've got against you, you know. You aren't very perceptive of the danger one faces in situations like this."

"I _know _the danger, Mia." Launchpad said. "I just think you're overreacting. This is Megavolt we're talking about, anyway. He's not good at that stealth stuff, never has. He'll just blunder his way along. He'll make so much racket we'll hear no matter where we are in the house."

"You don't know that." Mia said, turning to face him. "Seems to me that in the wake of this whole mess, Megavolt has been changed a lot of his usual tactics, and that all suggests to me that he's being much more careful."

"That still doesn't change the fact that he's clumsy." Launchpad said, Poe landing on his shoulder to watch. "I mean, I'm inherently clumsy, and no matter what I do, I can't change it."

"That's because that clumsiness makes you Launchpad, Launchpad." Mia remarked, stepping around him and walking back down the hallway.

"Pretty girl." Poe said again.

"Quiet, Poe." Launchpad shushed, then moved after Mia. "That same principle applies to Megavolt, you know. You can't get Megavolt without the clumsiness."

"I believe you can."

"Then wouldn't that disprove your entire statement about that making someone who they are?"

Mia was stumped by that and didn't reply. In the silence that followed, Launchpad's radio chirped. Knowing it was a request to report in, Launchpad sighed and pulled it out.

"This is Launchpad, everything checks out here." he reported quickly, and then put the radio away. "Besides, Mia, I think that if Megavolt was going to attack, he wouldn't bother to try and use stealth. We already know what he plans to do, and he knows it too. He's more likely to barge right on in and start attacking and forget stealth entirely."

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

"Doorbell!" Poe exclaimed, startled by the sound.

"I'll get it." Launchpad said, turning to head downstairs.

Mia had paused for a moment to think. "Launchpad, wait." she began, sensing they should be cautious.

But it was too late, Launchpad was already on his way downstairs. Mia sighed and continued searching rooms.

"You know, you seem to have a problem staying quiet." Launchpad commented to Poe, still perched on his shoulder, as he headed for the door.

"What?" Poe asked in his defense. "I'm just stating the obvious!"

"Yes, but while _she's_ here, you are supposed to act like a pet, which means no speaking. Remember? That was what DW wanted."

"How about I be a parrot, then?" Poe asked. "Can't I be a parrot?"

"No, now be quiet." Launchpad said, arriving at the door.

He waited to make sure Poe was indeed going to stay quiet, then opened the door.

"Hello, is Drake Mallard in?" Megavolt asked very politely.

And then without waiting for a reply, he shot a low-level bolt of energy at Launchpad, knocking him backwards and into a table that sat beside the stairs. A crash rang out as both toppled over, Launchpad knocked unconscious. Alarmed and unfazed by the shock, Poe quickly took to the air, squawking loudly in panic, almost like an alarm.

Megavolt ignored the crow and stepped into the house, looking around curiously. He quickly jumped back, however, when a gunshot rang out and a bullet slammed into the floor at his feet. Looking upward, he spied Agent Mia quickly duck out of sight up at the top of the stairs, pistol in hand. He fired a bolt of electricity in her direction. It missed. Mia ducked out of hiding and fired more bullets, but she missed as well.

Ducking down, kicking the front door closed behind him, Megavolt peered intently up the stairs, and spied the barrel of Mia's pistol hanging just barely in view. Grinning, he took aim and fired a bolt at the pistol. He hit it right on. The electricity shot through the metal of the pistol and shocked Mia. Gasping, she toppled over to the floor, unconscious. Still grinning, Megavolt walked upstairs to hover over her.

Still squawking loudly, Poe flew in circles over Megavolt's head. Megavolt finally took annoyance with the bird's noise.

"Quiet, you!" he said, shooting a bolt in the bird's direction.

Poe yelped as the bolt narrowly missed him, and quickly flapped into a nearby room. Megavolt fired again at the bird, but again missed. The bolt nicked the frame of a window, and a spider web of cracks spread over the glass of the window. Seeing this, Poe dove for the closed window and braced for impact. He smashed into the weakened glass, and it shattered, spraying glass everywhere.

Poe cartwheeled in the air for a few moments once outside as he reeled from the shock of the impact, but finally righted his flight path and soared off into the early morning light, heading towards the Audubon Bay Bridge sitting in the distance...

* * *

Groaning, Mia regained consciousness, her head throbbing. Sitting up, she realized she was tied to a chair in the living room, and sitting with his back against her's, also tied up, was Launchpad, who was already conscious and looking apologetic.

"What happened?" Mia muttered to him.

"Um, nothing good." Launchpad admitted, looking down at his feet.

"I'm what happened." Megavolt said, stepping into the room, munching on a sandwich he had made using stuff he found in the kitchen. "So you're both awake now. Good. Hope you don't mid if I help myself to the food. I haven't eaten since yesterday morning, so I'm starving." He took a big bite into his sandwich and chewed on it happily.

"Do what you want to us, Megavolt, but we aren't talking." Mia said confidently.

"Oh don't worry." Megavolt said, quickly swallowing so he could speak, sitting on the couch. "I'm not hurting you guys, you're just the bait."

"Bait?" Mia repeated.

"He's using us to lure DW here." Launchpad explained, having already been told this.

"Bingo." Megavolt said. He checked the clock hanging on the wall. "And after I freshen up real quick and start spreading the word, I shouldn't have to wait long."

"Why do you want Darkwing anyway?" Mia asked.

Megavolt shrugged. "Revenge." he said simply. "It's not like I've got anything left to loose anyway, so I might as well finish what I started." he took another bite of his sandwich and watched his two prisoners for a moment. "You know, you two make for a cute couple."

"Oh, we're not a couple." Mia said quickly.

"Though, it's not due to the lack of trying." Launchpad pointed out.

"Launchpad," Mia scolded, "We've been through this before."

"I know." Launchpad said. "A guy can hope, though, right?"

"So I'm presuming you're the one being the stick in the mud." Megavolt said, pointing at Mia.

"You could say that, yes." Mia admitted.

"You should lighten up." Megavolt said. "Life is only so long. You could be missing out on a real good chance here and not even know it. In fact, I've been looking back at my own life the past couple of days and that's one of the many things I regret the most, not ever finding a girl I could call my own."

"It's complicated." Mia said.

"That's what they all say." Megavolt said, finishing off his sandwich. "But the question is, is it really?"

"Look, what do you know about any of this?" Mia asked, folding her ears back in annoyance. "Just...move on with things so we can get on with this."

"Yeah, these ropes are starting to hurt." Launchpad said.

"Which is nothing compared to the fact that you're sitting on my tail." Mia complained flatly.

"I am?" Launchpad asked, surprised, wondering how Mia managed to cope with this.

"Okay." Megavolt announced, standing up and pulling out Launchpad's radio. "I'm ready to get things started."

* * *

"Look, all I'm saying is that I'm not interested in it." Darkwing said, pacing the floor. "I'm sure it is great, and it definitely seems to be very popular, but I just can't buy into it."

"But _Jumpgate's _a great show." Agent Sandy protested.

"And Crimson would agree with you." Darkwing assured her. "But I'm not Crimson. In my day, we watched shows like _Star Trek _or something for entertainment like that."

"_Jumpgate _blows _Star Trek _clear out of the water." Agent Sandy said flatly.

"Now on that, I can agree with you." Darkwing said, pointing a finger at her. "Especially when compared to some of the more recent _Star Trek_ productions."

The conversation was cut short when a rapping noise rang out somewhere. Darkwing began looking for the source.

"What's that?" Sandy asked aloud.

"Just some stupid bird." Darkwing said, seeing a bird pecking wildly at the window. He walked over to it and threw it open, waving at the bird. "Shoo bird!"

The bird simply spiraled around and flew into the hideout.

"Attack!" Poe squawked as he flapped around the hideout. "Attack! Attack! There's been an attack!"

"Poe?" Darkwing asked, surprised and moved to stand under the bird. "Poe! Come down and talk to me here!"

"Attack!" Poe yelled again as he landed on Darkwing's finger. "Megavolt's attacked the house! He's got Launchpad and the SHUSH agent!"

"What?" Darkwing repeated as Agent Sandy hurried over to listen better.

It was then that Darkwing's radio crackled.

"Oh Daaarkwiiing!" Megavolt called in a sing-song voice. "Guess where I am?"

Darkwing was already in motion for the chairs. Poe, who was still perched on his finger, didn't get a chance to take off again, and was pulled along with a yelp. Agent Sandy ran after him.

"Darkwing, wait!" she called.

"Sandy, you stay here!" Darkwing ordered and he sat down in one of the chairs.

"But Darkwing, you can't..." Sandy began to object.

But it was too late. Darkwing had already activated the chairs, and with a spin, he was gone. Seconds later, with another spin of a pair of chairs, Darkwing arrived at the Mallard home. Instantly, Megavolt whirled around and fired off a bolt of electricity at the chairs, but Darkwing was already in motion. Diving out of the chairs, he quickly rolled behind the couch, narrowly missing getting hit again as Megavolt shot a bolt into the little table that sat between the two chairs, damaging the trigger mechanism enough to deactivate the chairs.

Once behind the couch, Darkwing pulled out his gas gun and stood up, point the gun at Megavolt. Squawking, Poe flew into the kitchen to hide.

"Well, well, well, look who finally showed up!" Megavolt said, putting his hands on his hips. "And how is Darkwing today?"

"This ends here, Megavolt!" Darkwing exclaimed angrily, switching attachments on his gun to fire off a canister of sleeping gas. It would liking subdue Launchpad and Mia, who were watching the situation intently, as well as Megavolt, but that was better than nothing. "You've threatened too many people in your blind lust for revenge!"

"Oh c'mon, Darkwing, don't you realize what I've been through?" Megavolt whined. "I thought getting my memories back would be a good thing, but all it's done is bring me grief! Grief about _you _for one thing!"

"I don't what it is you think I did to you, but you brought that down upon yourself!" Darkwing said.

"It's not just that, Darkwing!" Megavolt said. "I got kicked out of the Fearsome Five because of my memories! I'm now their enemies, and they're hunting me!" He paused for a moment as he watched Darkwing's eyes go wide with surprise. "I've got nothing left in the world to loose except you, Darkwing!" his eyes narrowed suddenly. "And you I can do without."

He fired multiple bolts at Darkwing in rapid succession. Darkwing ducked down to avoid them, and then fired off the canister of sleeping gas at Megavolt. Megavolt dodged it, though, covering his mouth and moving to a different corner of the room. The gas spread to engulf Launchpad and Mia full on, and they quickly succumbed to the effects of the gas. Darkwing saw that as a chance to get some answers.

"What do you have against me anyway, Megavolt?" Darkwing asked. "Whatever did I do to you that's gotten you so mad?"

"You broke your promise, that's what!" Megavolt said. "Don't you remember? Back in high school? You promised to help me out of any of the jams I got into, but you didn't, remember?"

Darkwing did remember, now that Megavolt mentioned it, and it sent a chill down his spine. "Well, how could I have?" he demanded. "You vanished practically the very next day and became Megavolt! And at the time, I had no idea that was you!"

"True, you didn't, but you did years later!" Megavolt said. "Remember the high school reunion? We _both _figured out each other's identities, but you _still _didn't do anything to help me!"

"I didn't think I could!" Darkwing exclaimed. "You were a total mess! A convicted criminal on the run! A completely demented person with Swiss _cheese _for memory! Admit it, you couldn't even _remember _that agreement then, could you?"

"Well, no, but still, you didn't help me!" Megavolt said, pointing an accusing finger at Darkwing.

"But if I did, do you really think you would've accepted it?" Darkwing asked. "Megavolt, you weren't Elmo Sputterspark back then, and you haven't been until you got your memories back! Up until now, you've just been Megavolt, one of St. Canard's most vicious enemies! You haven't ever changed from that until you got those forgotten memories back! Now you've got them back, but you're not using them like Elmo Sputterspark would've, you're using them like Megavolt!"

"What difference does it make?" Megavolt exclaimed. "All these memories have brought me is trouble!"

"And that's not my fault!"

"_I've lost everything, Darkwing!_" Megavolt yelled. "What difference does it make, huh?"

"Well, maybe now is the perfect time to forget that past life and start building a new one!" Darkwing said. "You say you've lost everything! Now you've got a clean slate to start life over again! You should take the opportunity to _do _that, and not blow your only chance!"

"You can't help me!" Megavolt said. "You're my enemy!"

"I'm only your enemy because that's what you make me be!" Darkwing exclaimed. "I don't have to be your enemy, Megavolt, but you have to make that choice! Remember who told you _that_?"

Megavolt fell silent. He did indeed remember who told not only him, but everyone, that. Loki...

"_My task here was to prove to all of you that despite the fact you consider yourselves all enemies, you don't need to be."_

_--  
_

"_The choice is, of course, still up to you. This is really been more of a...'food for thought'...session than anything. But I would hope this all gives you a new look at your lives."_

"So the question now is do we ruin the moment and go back to fighting..." Megavolt began slowly.

"...or do we let everything that has happened slide and work at building a better tomorrow, today?" Darkwing finished.

A long moment of silence fell as the two just stood there. In that time, the effects of the sleeping gas wore off and Launchpad and Mia awoke again, looking around blearily. After staring at Darkwing for a long moment, his face revealing a whole mixture of emotions, Megavolt suddenly looked away.

"Megs?" Darkwing asked, lowering his gas gun and moving towards the rat. "You all right?"

"I...I don't know." he admitted. "I...I...I need time to think this through."

"I don't blame you." Darkwing said, patting him on the back. "I think we all do."

Launchpad and Mia stared at the two for a long moment.

"Darkwing, what did you do?" Mia asked, amazed.

"It's a long story." Darkwing assured her.

Megavolt sniffed. "I just want to go home." he said softly. "Home to my hideout. But the Fearsome Five are watching it, and..."

"Megavolt, get down." Darkwing said suddenly, stiffening.

"No, no, weren't you listening? I want to go home, not..."

"No, get _down_!"

He pushed Megavolt down to the floor. As they fell, several bullets suddenly smashed through the front window. Yelping, Launchpad and Mia both instinctively ducking, but tied up as they were, they simply managed to tip themselves over and to the floor. The gunfire stopped after a moment. Then, P90 still raised, NegaGosalyn slowly began moving towards the house...

* * *

When Hooter's face appeared on the big screen in Darkwing Tower, he was surprised to find a very panicked Agent Sandy looking up at the screen.

"Agent Sandy, where's Darkwing?" Hooter demanded, feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"He's gone, sir!" Sandy exclaimed. "We got word that Megavolt was attacking at Agent Mia's post, and he hurried on over to stop it himself, leaving me behind!"

"He did _what?_" Hooter exclaimed, standing. "He could...doesn't he...Agent Sandy, rally the troops and head over there, _now_! I want the situation under control, _stat_!"

* * *

"Who was _that_?" Mia exclaimed, struggling against her bonds.

"NegaCrimson." Darkwing replied as he lay motionless on the floor.

"She's hunting me!" Megavolt exclaimed urgently, beside him. "On Negaduck's order!"

Darkwing slowly peaked out the broken window, very nearly getting shot as NegaGosalyn fired at him, forcing him to duck back down.

"And she doesn't care who gets in the way." Darkwing noted grimly.

"We need to return fire." Mia urged, trying to slip out of her bonds but still failing.

"Right, we'll lay down the cover fire, and Megs, you use that time to escape." Darkwing said.

"What?" Megavolt said. "I'm not leaving you to get _shot_!"

"It's you she's after!" Darkwing said. "You need to get out of here!"

"But what about..." Megavolt began to object, thinking about their unfinished conversation.

Darkwing was one step ahead of him. "We'll finish it later!" he urged. "I promise! And this time I won't go against my word!"

Megavolt looked at him, and saw that he meant it. "All right." he said. "But how am I going to get out of here?"

"We'll provide the cover fire, you make for the backyard." Darkwing explained urgently. "Poe! You show him the back entrance to the tower! Megs, you can use that to get to the tower and go from there!"

A squawk from the kitchen confirmed that Poe had heard the order.

"The tower?" Mia asked, surprised.

"DW..." Launchpad said warningly. He could see NegaGosalyn get dangerously close from where he lay on the ground.

Megavolt quickly spun around and fired off a bolt of energy at her. NegaGosalyn backed off, firing blindly. Darkwing popped up and fired a couple of gas canisters at her, forcing her to duck for cover. Megavolt used a bolt of energy to cut Launchpad and Mia's bonds, freeing them. Mia quickly rolled free and retrieved her pistol from where it had been left and helped Darkwing lay down the cover fire. Launchpad, weaponless, rolled out of the way.

Megavolt waited until NegaGosalyn's return fire became more sporadic, and then made a wild dash for the kitchen, hearing the gun fight continue behind him. He meant Poe there.

"This way!" the crow exclaimed urgently, pointing for the back door.

They both slipped into the yard. Poe hovered over the concealed entrance to the tower, and then landed on it. Megavolt pulled open the hatch and started lowering himself into the tunnel beyond. There he paused, and looked back at Poe.

"Tell Darkwing thanks." he said.

Poe nodded. Smiling, Megavolt ducked inside and closed the hatch behind him. Up front, the firefight continued. NegaGosalyn then suddenly stopped, looked further up the road, and then suddenly vanished in a cloud of smoke. Darkwing and Mia glanced at each other. Then, moments later, several SHUSH vans and the Ratcatcher pulled up. Crimson was the first to arrive at the scene.

"Darkwing!" she exclaimed, grabbing Darkwing in a hug. "We came as soon as we heard, are you all right?"

Darkwing stood up slowly. "Yeah." he said, despite everything that had happened today. "Yeah, Crimson, I'm fine. Quite possibly better than I have ever felt before..."

* * *

"Well, Darkwing, you gave me a real fright today." Hooter said later, throwing down the report on his desk. "Even though everything worked out in the end, none of us had idea what your actions could have resulted in. Worse case scenario, you could be dead now."

Darkwing winced, but his reply was confident. "I knew where I needed to be." he said. "And I took action."

"Understandable." Hooter said. "I suppose I can't really hold that against you, but do me a favor and _don't do it again_."

Darkwing chuckled weakly. "Got it." he said.

"Now regarding your report." Hooter said, thumbing through it. "It does explain the basics of what happened, but there are many details that you have left blank. Rumors are spreading all over the facility, and I can't tell them anything because I don't know myself. Even Vice President Norrin is speculating, and it's getting more wild with each passing moment. I have to tell them something sooner or later, Darkwing. What's the truth?"

"The truth..." Darkwing began, then paused to let out his breath in a long whoosh. "...the truth J. Gander is rather touchy. You should know that."

"I do." Hooter said. "And I respect that, Darkwing, but still, I can't let these blanks remain blank. Not forever, at least."

"I know." Darkwing admitted. "There are probably a lot of questions going around about me."

"Some here at SHUSH are even making speculations about your secret identity." Hooter said. He sighed. "Look, Darkwing, I know how you feel about the matter, but really, maybe it's time SHUSH found out. We both know it's getting harder each time to keep it secret. This would solve a whole lot of problems."

"I know, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "But I don't think I'm ready to cross that bridge just yet."

Hooter sighed. "At least tell me where the situation with Megavolt stands." he requested. "Is he still a threat? Or is he not? Is he even still our enemy?"

Darkwing thought about it for a very long moment. "I don't know." he admitted. "Not yet. But if anything, we've made some real progress today to resolving things. And I somehow think Megavolt's going to leave me alone now."

Hooter heaved a sigh of relief. "At least I have that much." he said. He nodded to himself. "I suppose that's all I'm going to get from you, isn't it?"

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Very well. Good day, Darkwing."

"Good day, J. Gander." Darkwing said, tipping his hat at Hooter and walked out the door of the office.

As he walked out, Agent Grant walked in. He looked wistfully at Darkwing as he left.

"You gotta hand it to him, Director Hooter." he commented. "He's good at what he does."

"That he is." Hooter agreed, sorting through the papers on his desk.

"The only problem is that Darkwing's gotta do things his own way." Grant continued, sitting down.

"Yes." Hooter said, looking up and grinning. "I think that's what makes him such a valuable ally."

* * *

In her office, Agent Mia was busy slipping papers, folders, and other items into a black bag. Reaching the one she had purposely been trying to avoid, she picked it up, looked at it for a long moment, and sighed.

There was a knock on her open door. "Mia?" Launchpad called hesitantly.

"Launchpad." Mia said, looking up at the door. "Come on in."

Launchpad stepped inside. "You...going somewhere?" he asked, eyeing the bag.

The feline nodded as she set aside the paper and continued packing. "Director Hooter gave me the rest of the day off." she explained. "So I'm going home."

"Oh." Launchpad said. He looked around the room for a moment. It was clear there was a reason he was here, but was purposefully trying to avoid it. "I didn't know you had an office."

"Oh this." Mia said with a laugh. "Yeah, one of the advantages of my rank, I suppose. I'm hardly ever in it, though. Only when I need to do paperwork."

"Like that one?" Launchpad asked, putting at the paper Mia had been avoiding.

Mia glanced at it and picked it up again. "Yeah." she admitted. "Like that one."

"Do I dare ask what's it about?" Launchpad asked.

"It's an official order from Vice President Norrin that I explain everything that happened during this last mission." Mia explained.

"That doesn't sound like something Hooter would go for." Launchpad noted.

"That's because Director Hooter doesn't even know about it yet." Mia admitted. "It completely circumvents the chain of command and just went straight from Norrin to me. As such, I _could _theoretically not fill it out and tell Norrin everything that _really _happened that the official report doesn't say, but even then, it's a big risk to my career."

Launchpad was silent for a long moment. "Mia, I'm sorry, but I gotta ask." he finally admitted. "What are you thinking about doing? You heard some...well...rather sensitive information earlier today. So I guess what I'm saying is..."

"Did I hear enough to figure out the truth?" Mia finished.

Launchpad nodded.

Mia glanced at the paper in her hands one last time before making a decision about it. "Well, I've got several theories that could be the truth." she admitted. She then took the paper in her hands and put it through the paper shredder beside her desk. "But I think there are some secrets that are better off untouched."

Launchpad grinned. They were both silent for a long, awkward, moment. Finally, Mia broke the silence.

"Would you like some lunch?" she asked.

Launchpad glanced at her. "Sure." he replied.

* * *

That night, the gang prepared for their usual nightly patrol in a kind of stunned stupor.

"It feels kind of funny, actually." Crimson remarked as she attached her cape. "I don't know how I should feel about all of this. I don't know if I should feel happy, or sad, or upset..."

"Yeah." Techno agreed, slipping on one of his rocket boots. "Not only that, but everything seems so...unresolved. Do you think this is going to be the end of the matter?"

"Oh no, Techno." Darkwing said, adjusting his hat as he joined them. "You can count on the fact that this matter isn't over. If anything, it's just beginning. I think times are about to change drastically here in St. Canard very soon, and what happened the past few days has only been a mere taste of it."

"Which makes you wonder what still in store for us." Launchpad commented as he strolled over. "And whether it's going to be good or bad."

"I dunno, LP." Darkwing said. "We'll just have to wait and find out."

They finished getting ready. Crimson and Techno hopped onto the Ratcatcher in preparation to leave.

"Well, we're ready!" Crimson called as she revved the engine.

"Hold it!" Launchpad said, running for the chairs. "I think I forgot my lucky scarf at the house. Lemme hurry over there and get it real quick!"

"No hurry, LP, take your time!" Darkwing called as the pilot vanished with a spin of the chairs. "Crimson, Techno, go on without us. We'll catch up."

"Okay." Crimson said. "See you in a little bit, then."

They then drove out of the tower on the Ratcatcher. In a moment, Darkwing was alone. He grinned. He then turned and glanced up at the window.

"Hello, Megs." he said.

"Huh, I was wondering if you noticed me." Megavolt said, climbing down. "Look, we need to finish talking about all of this. Do we have the time?"

"Oh yes." Darkwing assured him.

"What about Launchpad? Surely he'll be back at any moment?"

"Actually not for two or three." Darkwing said, and picked up Launchpad's lucky scarf from where it dangled on a control panel. "It'll be a little while before he realizes it's already here."

Megavolt grinned, but it was quickly gone again. "Look, Darkwing, I suppose I should start off with an apology." he said. "For everything."

"Forget it, Megs, I don't think I could hold a grudge against you now even if I wanted to." Darkwing said. "But we are all very curious now. What do you intend to do from here?"

Megavolt sighed. "I'm still not sure." he admitted. "I gotta admit I'm still very torn over the choice that lays before me. Parts of me want to give it all up and start over, but other parts want to hang on to what I've been familiar with for so long." he sighed. "For right now, I'm just lying low. The Fearsome Five's still searching for me, you know. But I think if they just don't spy me for awhile, they'll eventually start giving up. Then things will start returning to normal, I think."

"Well, whatever you decide, Megavolt, I assure you that I won't hold any of it against you." Darkwing said. "We all have our own lives to lead. I suppose I can't really get mad at you if you choose a life I wouldn't have chosen."

"Hmph." Megavolt snorted. "I don't know if I can look at life the same way again after all of this." he looked around anxiously. "Look, if I'm intruding or anything, I'm sorry, but there's really one other thing I came to say."

"Yes?"

"Thanks. For everything. Especially that last encounter with NegaCrimson. You didn't have to do that."

Darkwing grinned, and patted Megavolt on the shoulder. "Yes I did." he said. "I'm just glad I could help."

Megavolt grinned, and climbed back up into the window to leave.

"So, will we be meeting again?" Darkwing asked.

Megavolt looked back at him. "I think no matter what I choose, Darkwing, it's inevitable." he said confidently. "Bye now."

And with that, he left. Darkwing shook his head, still grinning, and set about awaiting Launchpad's return...

* * *

_Fun Facts: "Recollection" is naturally insipired by all of the "Megavolt remembers" fanfics that are rather frequent here on FanFiction, including one in particular called "Remembrance" by Borgqn. But what's cool about my version is that it uses a kind of "twist" that to my knowledge no other fanfic has tried, the twist being the fact that Megavolt remembers turns Megavolt against DW and not befriend him, at least not intitially. I think it is because of this one idea that the two-parter was so successful._

_Originally, the title for this two-parter was "Remembrance" in salute to the fanfic that priniciply inspired these two chapters, but as it began to sing it's own voice more and more, I changed the title to "Recollection" so it would seem better suited._

_Megavolt's little "flashbacks" are cool, because I treated them like the chapter recaps, including only the speaking lines and no narrating descriptions. Furthermore, those flashbacks include scenes from the episodes "Clash Reunion", "The Frequency Fiends", "Duck Blind", me fanfic "Darkwing Duck Returns", and chapters "Escaped Convict Part II", "The Date", and "The Three Darkwings"._

_The fact that Bushroot and Rowe followed Megavolt around immediately after he regained his memories is reminiscent of "Remembrance" once again. It was actually unintentional, though._

_This two-parter introduced Agent Grant, who I hope comes across as seeming to be very new, not only because he's different, but beacause of the fact he's playing "catch-up". I also hope it is noted that he isn't quite trusted just yet, particularly by Hooter. No doubt Grizzlikof's betrayal shook him hard, and is finding it hard to adjust to the newbie._

_This is the first time ever that I've ever mentioned exact years in this fanfic. 1995, the year Darkwing disappaeared for seven years, was a gimmie, as that was made quite clear in "Darkwing Duck Returns." Add seven years to that date and you get 2002, the year Darkwing returned. And one more year, and you get the current year, 2003._

_I've mentioned it off and on throughout NWADWD, but "Recollection Part I" really allowed me to get detailed about why Negaduck doesn't use his knowledge of DW's identity to his advantage. It's mostly a professional thing, but he also fears that by people knowing DW's identity they also know his identity putting himself at **their **advantage. And he naturally doesn't like that._

_The Mallard family does indeed need a new car now, yet again. Not that anyone asked that._

_We touch base again on the fact that NegaGosalyn's got a good side, and that she's apparently gotten good at twisting the rules to fit her advantage, as she manages to, just barely, soothe Negs's temper about certain matters. Her bad side is still predominant, though, as evidenced by the fact she didn't hesitate to attack later._

_Part two also really made clear just how much control Negs's has over the lives of the individual members of the Fearsome Five, and how quickly he can take that away. It makes him seem that much more evil, but no real surprise there._

_Megavolt was bluffing when he threatened to hurt Charlie if Christine didn't tell him what he wanted to know. He was to reveal this at one point to Darkwing, but the matter never came up._

_This is the first time since chapter 36, "The Epicenter", that ET's ever been mentioned._

_When I had Launchpad unsuccessfully ask Mia on a date and was turned down in chapter 51, "A FOUL Encounter", some of you took it to mean that LP's and Mia's relationship had ended. Not so. It just went on a brief...intermission. Part two should confirm that they still have a thing and are starting to warm up to each other._

_In this chapter, I compare **Jumpgate **to **Star Trek**, and seeing that **Jumpgate **is **Stargate **in disguise, I made it seem like it trumps over **Star Trek**. This isn't a personal opinion. I actually rather like **Star Trek** on a whole._

_Originally, I wanted Crimson to get in on the end fight and later argument between Darkwing and Megavolt at the Mallard home, and would've snuck in through the back. There, she was to meet up with Poe and Crimson would've asked, getting an idea, if she could've used Poe temporarily as her familiar so she could have access to her magical powers. Poe shoots down the idea by saying that it couldn't be done because Crimson was still connected to Rowe, and Poe was still connected to Magica, and neither could go about forging new connections. Plus, Crimson just didn't have the training, thus forcing her to adopt other tactics. It was dropped, because plans changed throughout that scene fairly frequently, and it was just smoother to leave Crimson out. Besides, all of that would've only been mere trivial data._

_Many of you expressed concern about other members of the Fearsome Five finding out too much about Darkwing, but really it was SHUSH that ended up finding out too much, as the barrier that seperates the two very nearly was broken, and some found out more than they normally would've. I purposely left just how much they know and have put together with that data blank simply because it seemed all-around fitting. This will probably be expanded upon in future chapters._

_I leave the situation with Megavolt feeling unfinished, because it isn't. This two-parter might be drawing to a close, but this new Megavolt-centric story arc certainly isn't. The next two chapters will continue to cover more about Megavolt's little situation. :)_

_This is the longest chapter to date._

_This is also the longest "Fun Facts" section to date._

_"The New Adeventures of Darkwing Duck" is now officially tied with the spot of longest fanfic I've ever written as of this chapter, sharing the spot with my fanfic "Weylan's Family". It will be breaking that record next chapter, and will continue to break it in the chapters to come, which are many. :)  
_


	56. Time Trap

Summary: Megavolt is now faced with a choice, one he can't decide. Fortunately, he's going to find the answer, but what will it lead to...?

Rating: K+

Author's Note: A chapter of surprises. That's all I'm going to say about this one. ;) Enjoy!

56.

Time Trap

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Wait. Are you implying what I think you're implying?"_

"_Oh yeah. I'm from the future."_

_--  
_

"_Tell me more about my future!"_

"_I can't! Telling you too much about the future can alter time."_

_--  
_

"_What's this Gigavolt like, anyway?"_

"_Imagine a supercharged Megavolt on steroids."_

_--  
_

"_I will tell you this. You know the Fearsome Five?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_They're nothing compared to what you'll meet up against in the future."_

_--  
_

"_There __**is**__ a kind of energy responsible for life! And we've just harnessed it's power! Now we can give just about anything we want the gift of life!"_

_--  
_

"_I know, Tech, but clearly playing the part of a god is not without consequences."_

_--  
_

"_Unlike the wave of energy we released to stop the object army, Codwell's device had more power, and was capable of giving, or taking, life energy from anything. When the bolt of energy you reflected, Crimson, hit Dr. Codwell's exposed flesh, it took the life energy away from him, and has left him rendered in this state."_

"_So he's dead."_

"_Not necessarily. By all accounts, he is still physically fit. He just doesn't have the energy to make life possible. Think of it like a calculator with a dead battery. The calculator itself is still in fine condition, it just can't work until it gets a new battery."_

"_So, if that life energy was to ever get put back into Codwell..."_

"_...he would be brought back to life, yes."_

_--  
_

"_Take this case to Area 51. Make sure that case stays safe, and that it's contents do not leave that case, no matter what the reason."_

_And with that, he took one last look at the HLEDD within, then closed the case..._

_--  
_

"_Looks like that shock rebooted your brain, mate."_

"_Wow. I wonder what else I can remember."_

_--  
_

"_Gosalyn called Darkwing dad. Now if that's true, then that means...she's the Crimson Avenger. Which means Drake is...Darkwing Duck."_

_--  
_

"_I'm kicking you out of the Fearsome Five."_

_--  
_

"_You should know that now that I've done that, you're an official enemy to the Fearsome Five, starting now."_

_--  
_

"_Megavolt has seen a lot over the years he's been a criminal. He's virtually a treasure trove of secret memories that himself or others could use to our disadvantage if he ever remembered them. And now that he does, Megavolt is clearly putting those memories to use."_

_--  
_

"_Oh c'mon, Darkwing, don't you realize what I've been through? I thought getting my memories back would be a good thing, but all it's done is bring me grief!"_

_--  
_

"_**I've lost everything, Darkwing!**__ What difference does it make, huh?"_

"_Well, maybe now is the perfect time to forget that past life and start building a new one! You say you've lost everything! Now you've got a clean slate to start life over again! You should take the opportunity to do that, and not blow your only chance!"_

_--  
_

"_You can count on the fact that this matter isn't over. If anything, it's just beginning. I think times are about to change drastically here in St. Canard very soon, and what happened the past few days has only been a mere taste of it."_

_--  
_

"_I gotta admit I'm still very torn over the choice that lays before me. Parts of me want to give it all up and start over, but other parts want to hang on to what I've been familiar with for so long. For right now, I'm just lying low. The Fearsome Five's still searching for me, you know. But I think if they just don't spy me for awhile, they'll eventually start giving up. Then things will start returning to normal, I think."_

_--  
_

"_So, will we be meeting again?"_

"_I think no matter what I choose, Darkwing, it's inevitable."

* * *

_

"This is a really bad idea."

Megavolt had been telling himself that again and again as he moved ever closer to the Fearsome Five hideout. It had been a couple of weeks since he had regained his memories, and it was now mid-November. Things were finally starting to settle down again in the aftermath of all that. As he had told Darkwing, he did indeed lie low for the first week or so. Finally, it seems that Negaduck had given up for the moment of actively searching for Megavolt, and the Fearsome Five and resumed operations without the rat.

Regardless, Megavolt still played it safe for a few days in case Negaduck had someone out watching for any trace of him. Finally, earlier this week, he moved back into his hideout and was trying to get back to _his _life in peace. He had to admit it actually been rather relaxing. He hadn't thought about it, but being a member of the Fearsome Five was very demanding. Now Megavolt didn't have to worry about any of that, granting him huge amounts of free time he could use to do what _he _wanted for a change, to get back at the numerous unfinished projects he had gathered from over the years. Although, granted, there was some he just didn't have the heart to continue anymore.

He still hadn't decided where he was going to go from here, still being very torn over the choice that lay before him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to continue being the supervillain he had been for so long, or to forget that life entirely and start over from scratch. At the moment, he was somewhere in-between the two, still maintaining his supervillain identity and mannerisms, but without doing anything "villainish". While he thought about it, he was passing the time by working on those unfinished projects. Only to have run into a few snags.

Which was why he was here now. Like he had already implied, being a member of the Fearsome Five required a great deal of your time and energy, and it wasn't uncommon that you spent more time at the gang's hideout than your own. As such, the Fearsome Five hideout had become a kind of "home away from home," and they had all brought some of their own belongings to make it feel more welcoming.

In the chaos of Megavolt regaining his memories and the conflicts that followed, Megavolt never got a chance to retrieve those items before he was kicked out of the gang. And he needed some of them now if he planned on still working on these projects. So he was here in the hopes of actually getting them back, which might be problematic if he got caught.

In fact, it may just be a complete and total waste of his time. Those items might not even still be there, having been cleared away when Negaduck kicked him out of the gang. Why would they need to hang onto them if Megavolt wasn't going to be around anymore? But it wasn't like he had anything else to do, and he really wanted to get on with this project, even if he never uses it in the end, so he decided to take the risk.

The large, garage-like door, to the warehouse that was currently the Five's hideout was already open. This didn't surprise Megavolt, as it had been kept open fairly frequently as of late to allow quick comings and goings and also for transporting items for Negaduck's latest project, which tended to be rather large.

Carefully, Megavolt approached the open door and peered inside the warehouse. As usual, the door was unguarded. Negaduck had found that stationing guards at the warehouse entrances usually drew more attention than what was cared for and overlooked that detail. No one ever complained to it; it was just one less task to do, and Megavolt certainly wasn't going to start complaining now.

He took a few steps into the towering interior of the warehouse and ducked behind a stack of boxes. Successfully hidden there, Megavolt looked up at the office that sat a few floors above him that Negaduck had staked claim to when they all moved in. Sure enough, he could see Negs moving around in the little office, and better still, NegaGosalyn could be seen in the office as well. So long as they stayed there, Megavolt had little risk of bumping into either of them.

He moved further into the warehouse. Finally, he spied Bushroot and Rowe leaning over what looked like plans laid out onto a wooden crate. They were discussing something to each other. Curious despite himself, Megavolt moved closer to listen, ducking behind a nearby stack of boxes.

"...we could try that, couldn't we, mate?" Rowe was in the middle of asking.

"Not if we want to get caught." Bushroot said, pointing at something on the plans. "That tactic would leave us too bunched together. We'd get picked off one by one, so that's no good."

"Then maybe we could enter from here." Rowe said, pointing. "Out of all of our ideas, I say that one's our best."

"But I still say Negs will never go for it." Bushroot muttered, placing a hand to his head in frustration. "I wish Megavolt was still here. Just his presence alone would solve so many of our problems."

"Yeah, the Fearsome Five just ain't going to be the same without him." Rowe agreed.

"Aw, gee, that's awfully nice of you guys to say."

The words were out of Megavolt's mouth before he knew it. Quickly clamping a hand over his mouth, he quickly considered escape plans as Bushroot and Rowe spun around to look at him.

"Megavolt!" Bushroot exclaimed, then, wincing at how loud that sounded, lowered his voice to a whisper before continuing. "Megs, what are you _doing_ here? If Negs catches sight of you, he'll...he'll..."

"He'll kill you, mate!" Rowe finished, making a slicing gesture across his throat. "He may have given up hunting you down, but we're still supposed to be enemies now!"

"I know, I know!" Megavolt admitted, looking around nervously. "But I need to get a few things from here! Let me do that, and then I'll be gone again! Just...don't turn me in!"

"Why would we do that?" Bushroot asked. "We want you back as much as anybody."

"Unfortunately, _we're _outnumbered in that matter." Rowe said. "In addition to Negaduck, NegaCrimson being after your guts, Quackerjack's gone and decided to hate you as well."

"That clown." Megavolt muttered. "Dang it, sometimes it seems like everybody's against me these days."

"Where have you been, anyway?" Bushroot asked. "We haven't seen hide or tail of you ever since Negs kicked you out of the gang."

"It's a really long story, and I don't have the time to tell it." Megavolt said. "Look, can you help me get my stuff? That's all I'm asking. You could even just point me in the right direction. Is it all still where I left it?"

"No, Negs decided not to leave it lying around." Rowe said. "But he did have it all packed into a box and put into storage in case we ever needed some of that stuff."

"It's in the back room." Bushroot said, pointing back at the smaller workroom that was joined to the rest of the warehouse through a simple door. "C'mon, we might as well show you."

The threesome cautiously walked to the door and slipped through it. The room beyond was dimly lit, but very spacious. Worktables of all sorts sat lining the walls, all covered with tools and equipment. But Megavolt's eyes were drawn to the centerpiece of the room, sighing as he remembered the project undergoing here.

There stood a half-completed Negaquack jet plane.

"How close are you guys to completing that thing now, anyway?" Megavolt asked, worried. He had been against the idea of the Negaquack from the start, but after losing the Negacopter, the need for one had become a necessity.

Both Rowe and Bushroot exchanged hesitant glances before replying.

"We really can't tell you that, mate." Rowe said.

"Heck, we shouldn't even be _doing _this, helping you around like this." Bushroot said nervously, as they moved away from the Negaquack construction site and towards the other half of the room. "If we get caught..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Megs, if anybody sees us together, you know we have to act accordingly, or we'll get in real trouble."

"I know." Megavolt said. "You don't have to help me, I can find it on my own."

"Aye, but we want to help you mate." Rowe said, giving Megavolt a playful nudge with his shoulder. "'Sides, nothing should go wrong. The Negaverse duet up in the office, where they can't see us in here, and I think Quacky went home for the day."

Inbetween the construction site of the Negaquack and the rows of shelves they were heading towards was a section filled with seemingly random junk. Megavolt hadn't thought too much of it before, but then he realized there was one thing in that pile of junk that wasn't junk at all and should've stood out like a sore thumb if it wasn't so dark.

"What's _that _doing there?" Megavolt asked, pointing at Quackerjack's Time Top.

Bushroot and Rowe glanced at it briefly.

"Oh that." Rowe said. "Well, the cops raided Quacky's hideout recently. He got out of it okay, and managed to bring some of his stuff with, and now he's just storing it here until he's got a new place."

"Looks like he's taking the chance to do some work on it, too." Bushroot noted, seeing an open panel on the giant-sized red and yellow top.

"Huh, I would've though Quackerjack had learned his lesson after the last mess in time that thing caused." Megavolt snorted.

"Well, it's gotta be somewhere around here." Rowe said, stopping before the many rows of shelves, each one loaded with several crates and boxes of all sorts. "A box labeled "Megavolt" if memory serves right."

"In all that?" Bushroot said, dismayed. "I forgot just how many boxes we've got back here. It'll take forever to find that stuff."

"Look, let's split up." Megavolt suggested. "Anybody finds it, then shout."

They spilt up, all going down different aisles of shelves. Megavolt silently walked down his, looking at the boxes and mumbling the labels to himself as he went. None of them even came close to what he was looking for. Reaching the end of the aisle, he started to turn to the next one to go down it, but suddenly froze as he saw something he very nearly missed.

Standing at a small worktable, pulling things out of a box in the warm glow of a work lamp, was Quackerjack. Apparently he hadn't gone home after all like Rowe had thought. At first, Quackerjack didn't even notice Megavolt, giving Megavolt hope he could possibly back into the aisle and Quackerjack would never know he was there. But at the last possible moment, Quackerjack suddenly looked up and his eyes met with Megavolt's.

For a long moment, they both just stood there, too stunned to move. Then, yelling loudly with the pair of powerful lungs only Quackerjack had, he started yelling.

"INTRUDER!" he yelled, grabbing axe-dealing toy from the box, "INTRUDER IN THE HIDEOUT!"

He pulled a string on the toy and it started throwing miniature axes at Megavolt. Megavolt quickly ducked the blades as he hurried back into the aisle, shooting off a bolt of energy to distract Quackerjack with. Once safely into the aisle, Megavolt broke out in a mad run for the exit. Halfway there, alarms started to ring throughout the warehouse. His presence here wasn't going to go unnoticed after all.

Exiting the aisle, Megavolt very nearly bumped into Bushroot, who was rushing out of the next aisle over. Megavolt didn't waste a second.

"Sorry Bushy." he apologized in advance, and pushed Bushroot aside and continued forward.

Bushroot stumbled aside, and then crashed into a stack of cardboard boxes, although Megavolt could tell Bushroot did that last part under his own power to make things look convincing. Megavolt kept running. He heard pattering feet as not one but two sets of feet exited other aisles somewhere behind him. Judging from the slapping and skidding sounds, it was Quackerjack and Rowe, the latter slipping on the smooth concrete that made up the floor.

"STOP INTRUDER!" Quackerjack yelled. Megavolt looked back and saw him pull out an army doll that was armed with a real miniature machine gun and quickly added on a burst of speed.

"Uh, yeah! Stop, you!" Rowe added half-heartedly a moment later. Clearly he didn't want to have to catch Megavolt.

But that was the least of Megavolt's worries. A spray of bullets nipped at his feet suddenly, and he quickly changed courses, heading for Quackerjack's Time Top. Remembering all the trouble that thing could cause, though, he quickly changed paths and started climbing up to the top of a set of shelves.

More bullets zinged past, but they purposely shot to miss. Quackerjack was only giving him a warning shot at the moment. Reaching the top and balancing precariously up there, Megavolt started running along the top of the shelves. He saw Quackerjack skid to a stop below him, Rowe beside him, and fired off another shot. It took out a light next to Megavolt, startling him. Overbalancing, Megavolt felt the shelves start to tip over under the weight.

Panicking, he jumped blindly, allowing the shelves to crash to the floor. He landed with a smack on the top of the Time Top. Groaning, he picked himself up and spied that the hatch was open. Thinking he could just hide inside the top for a brief moment to shield himself from the bullets, he made his way over to it and started to climb inside.

Quackerjack fired off more bullets, though Megavolt couldn't see Quackerjack anymore from where he was. The bullets pounded across the side of the top and into the open panel Bushroot had noted earlier. Something inside sparked violently. Halfway into the hatch, Megavolt was suddenly slammed to one side as the top started to spin, exponentially gaining speed with every passing second.

Megavolt flailed out for a moment to get back out of the top before it got going too fast, but lost his footing and fell into the top entirely, landing on his back with a thump. The movement of the top caused him to skid along the floor of the top as the whole interior room spun with the rest of the top. Remembering that it was almost deadly to be in this thing and not be strapped down while it as active, Megavolt quickly grabbed a handhold to keep himself from getting hurt.

The top spun faster. He heard a clank as the hatch fell shut due to the centrifugal force. Megavolt held onto his handhold as tightly as he could, the room spinning so fast now it was just a blur, the momentum lifting Megavolt's feet off the floor. Finally, the force pulling at him was just too much, and his fingers slipped from his handhold. Flung outward, he slammed into one wall hard, was thrown around in a kind of twisting, mid-air, pirouette before he slammed into another wall, even harder this time, and everything went dark.

* * *

The next thing he remembered was waking up in a dimly light room, his vision fuzzy, and aches covering his whole body. Shadowy figures that seemed familiar hovered over him, almost in concern. Remembering what had been happening last and thinking he was still in danger, Megavolt tried to get up to keep fleeing.

A hand came down and stopped up, pushing him back down into a lying position. Something sharp, probably a needle, then poked his arm, and a warm feeling washed over Megavolt's body. With an almost pleasant sigh, he drifted back into unconsciousness.

* * *

In an office in a building, two women met together to discuss recent developments.

"How is he?" one asked.

"He's sleeping." the other replied. "Otherwise he's fine, now. Police Chief Matthew has him secure in a cell for the moment, just as a precaution."

"I doubt it's needed." the first women pointed out.

"I agree, but safety first, remember that." the other woman said.

"So what's the plan to go from here?"

"We wait for him to wake up."

"And then?"

"We tell him nothing."

"What? Director Navis, with all due respect, don't you think that's unwise?"

"I do. But Norrin stepped into the matter."

"Oh, of course, The Agency had to get their claws into this too, didn't they?"

"They say it's better that he knows nothing about what's happened."

"Well, that's stupid. If they don't want him to find out anything, then why not just keep him asleep?"

"The doctors advised against it. So, seeing that we can't keep him asleep and that he'll have to wake up eventually, we'll have to do the next best thing. Of course he'll learn some things, but most importantly not everything. That needs to be greatly moderated."

"Currently, the plan moderates it a little too much."

"I figured you'd say that, and told Norrin as such, but it fell upon deaf ears as usual. Still, he's got a point, though. If our little friend _was _to learn everything..."

"I'm not saying we should tell him everything. That would be a very bad idea, one that could theoretically jeopardize everything if we allowed it to happen. But he deserves at least a simple explanation."

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow it. I have my orders. And so do you."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"Observe. The police sent a psychiatrist to talk with him when he wakes up. You know her well. Just watch the proceedings and make sure everything goes okay. Hide in the shadows so he doesn't see too much of you, and of course, act dumb, like we don't know anymore than he does."

"What about when he goes home? We all know he's supposed to."

"The Agency's working at getting the authorization."

"But of course, they're taking too long to do it."

"In the meantime, just keep him busy. That's all I'm asking."

"I can do that. But don't blame me when this plan ultimately fails, which, you can be assured, it will."

* * *

Megavolt awoke slowly, feeling greatly refreshed. Stretching, he yawned, and rolled over. Up until now, he had been thinking that he was still in bed at home, and that the memory of the fight at the Fearsome Five hideout was nothing more than a dream. But then he realized with a start that the room he's in now wasn't home at all.

He bolted upright into a sitting position, taking in his surroundings anxiously. It looked like he was in some kind of cell, very sparsely furnished, and was sealed with a metal door with a little window embedded in it's middle. Megavolt hurried over to the door and tried to open it, but it had no visible latch, nor any apparent means of opening. Perplexed, he peered out the window to determine where he was, but only saw a plain hallway made of the same metal paneling the cell was built out of.

On the verge of the panic attack, Megavolt looked around further, and then finally spied a little security camera placed in one corner of the cell. He waved his arms frantically at it, hoping someone was at the other end, watching.

"Hey!" he shouted on the chance that someone could hear him. "What's going on? Where am I?"

He got no apparent response, and eventually stopped, his arms getting tired. Breathing heavily, he paused to re-catch his breath and think up new ideas. Before he could finish with either, though, a light above the cell door began flashing, a buzzer ringing every time it flashed. Text was shown when it flashed. Megavolt squinted his eyes at it to read it.

"'Please step into the center of the room?'" he read, perplexed.

He looked around and saw that he was already in the middle of the room. Then, without warning, a sheet of metal slid over the little window in the cell door, blocking the view out. Then, a wall of glass slid down over the back wall of the cell. Megavolt looked back and forth from both side of the cell in alarm, wondering what this was about. Then the whole cell suddenly jerked, and suddenly started to move upward, this becoming apparent as the metal wall behind the glass wall began to speed past.

Megavolt had enough time to realize the cell was doubling as an elevator and that he was traveling up several floors in rapid succession when it started to slow, and finally came to a stop. Through the glass wall, a larger and apparently circular room could now be seen. Sitting in a small desk was a pretty, young, female duck. The shadowy outline of another duck could be seen in the background, but Megavolt couldn't see anymore to determine anything else.

"Hello Megavolt." the duck in the desk said sweetly, her voice being broadcasted into the still-tightly sealed cell by a radio. "Sorry if we gave you any frights there, but you are in that cell mostly for your own safety. Plus, you were asleep at the time, and there seemed the most logical location to put you."

Megavolt glanced at her for a long moment. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Webbigail Drake." the duck said. "But you may just call me Webby."

"Okay." Megavolt said. "But why are you here? Where _is _here? Just what's happening here?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Webby asked politely. "Tell me the last thing you remember happening."

Megavolt narrowed her eyes at her. "This has the suspicious ring of reverse psychology to it." he muttered, but shrugged. Consciously aware of the shadowy figure listening as well, he recalled his last memory. "I remember waking up somewhere, and with a bunch of people looking down at me." he said. "I was hardly conscious at the time, and I hurt all over. Before that, I was at the Fearsome Five hideout running for my life while Quackerjack tried to..."

He trailed off for a moment, noting that Webby was writing this down in a notebook. Again, he narrowed his eyes at her.

"You _are _a psychiatrist, aren't you?" Megavolt demanded.

Webby hesitated for a moment, glancing back at the shadowy figure briefly, before nodding.

"I knew it!" Megavolt said, turning his back to the glass wall. "I'm not talking to you anymore!"

"But Megavolt, I'm here to help, so we can sort this out." Webby pleaded.

"Oh no you don't, I've heard that one before." Megavolt said, jabbing a finger at her. "Listen, lady, I've seen a whole lot of your type before in my life, and they've never helped me before. All they did was make my head hurt. Even when I was locked away for seven years in the supervillain prison they couldn't help me."

"Look, just give me a chance here." Webby said. "I just need to better understand where we stand before I can _really _start helping you."

"I've heard that one too." Megavolt said. "Look, you can _help _me by telling me what I want to know! Where am I? What is this place? What's going on here that you aren't telling me? Why am _I _locked up?"

Webby hesitated again, looking to the shadowy figure once more as if looking for instructions. Megavolt began to become suspicious of the figure as well.

"I can't tell you." Webby finally admitted.

"What? Why not?"

"If I could tell you, I would."

"You mean you can't tell me anything?"

"Not until the circumstances change."

Megavolt paused. "Oh well, that's easily remedied." he said.

Gathering some of the surrounding electric energy in the room, Megavolt then lashed out with two bolts of energy into the glass wall. The bolts shot right though, cracking the glass and leaving two large holes in it. One bolt hit Webby's desk, and she yelped and she was half-jumped, half-tossed out of it. Her collection of papers flew everywhere.

The shadowy figure moved forward, alarmed. Megavolt moved forward as well, and threw himself into the weakened glass. It shattered, and Megavolt tumbled through. An alarm started to go off somewhere. The shadowy figure whipped out some kind of weapon and started firing what looked like canisters at him. Megavolt dodged the shots, fired off another bolt at the figure, but missed, and then tackled the figure full on, knocking them both to the floor.

It was then that Megavolt got his first good look at the figure.

"Crimson?" he exclaimed, surprised, recognizing the face.

But then, at the same time, he didn't recognize the face. It resembled Crimson, but it was too old to be the Crimson he knew. She was dressed in Crimson's costume, though, minus the hat, which she hadn't been wearing to begin with. The questions bouncing around in Megavolt's mind suddenly doubled. Was she possibly some relative to Crimson? What was this all about? What the heck was happening here?

"Get off, Megs." Crimson said after a moment, squirming around as she tried to slip out from under Megavolt. "I mean it! You won't like me when I'm angry!"

Only half-listening, Megavolt gently got off of her, everything seeming to have fallen silent except for the wailing alarm. Crimson jumped back up, smoothing out the wrinkles in her outfit.

"What's going on..." Megavolt began to ask, but Crimson cut him short.

"Hold it!" she said. "Save your questions for a moment or two."

She then walked over to a box on the wall with a speaker embedded in it and pushed a button. "Control, false alarm." she said into the box. "I've got everything handled here, no need to send anybody here. You might want to send a cleanup crew, though." she glanced at the mess of broken glass for a moment and sighed. "Kill the alarm, too."

She released the button and stepped away from the box. A moment later the alarm did indeed stop, and the lights in the circular room went up a touch. Megavolt realized that it was more like a tube that curved around to join it's other end and form a circle. As such, it's middle was filled in with presumably empty space, but Megavolt spied other glass walls circling the whole inner wall of the loop just like the one in his former cell. The only difference was that there was no cells behind them at the moment.

Crimson walked across the room, bent over to scoop up her fallen gas gun, and approached Webby, who was in the process of picking herself out of the mess.

"You okay, Webby?" Crimson asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Webby said, brushing off her pink outfit. "You were right, Crimson. It didn't take long for that to all go wrong."

"Yeah, it only took about..." Crimson glanced at her watch. "...fifteen minutes. Congrats, Megs, you just set a new record."

"I...I did?" Megavolt asked, confused.

Crimson didn't reply. "Look, Webby, as usual, the plan isn't going to work out, and I think there's nothing more you can do. How about you get the rest of the day off and go and spend some time with Doofus. He probably hasn't been seeing much of his wife lately."

Webby grinned. "You're right, he hasn't." she concurred, turning to leave. "Bye then, and good luck!"

They watched her go. Then Megavolt stepped forward.

"Crimson, just _what _is going on here?" he asked. "I demand that I be told _something_!"

"Then here's the answer that'll explain several things." Crimson said, walking over to part of the outer wall of the loop, which wasn't a wall at all but a door of dark glass. She pressed a nearby control, and the door opened to reveal what was beyond it. "Megavolt, you're in the future."

Megavolt's jaw fell open. Sure enough, beyond the door was a balcony. Stepping out onto it, Megavolt saw that he was on the top of a very tall building, a very futuristic one at that. And it was one among many. Surrounding it were many more buildings, making up a St. Canard Megavolt had never seen the likes of. These skyscrapers began somewhere within the boundaries of what had once been Canard Woods, now only a small city park, and then stretched all the way to the shores of Audubon Bay where they stopped, only to continue again on the other bank, where there had once been the suburbs. Clearly, St. Canard had grown some.

That wasn't all. The common mode of transportation wasn't the usual automobiles Megavolt was used to, but some kind of flying vehicle, most of them very streamlined that hissed silently back and forth through the air in a crisscrossing pattern. They didn't release any apparent exhaust, and there wasn't any pollution anywhere in the air, at least none that Megavolt could detect. Megavolt looked it all over again with awe, and then turned to look back at Crimson, who was in the process of putting on her hat.

"Times certainly change, don't they?" she asked with a grin.

* * *

A short while later they were flying through this future St. Canard in the Thunderquack, which in of itself had seen some significant improvements. The general shape of the jet had basically remained the same save for some minor cosmetic designs, but the technology it included had significantly changed. There were no buttons on the jet's dashboard, it was all a touch panel with graphic displays of buttons instead. A screen or two showing complex designs sat in odd places. The glass canopy had many, constantly changing, holographic images displayed in it, forming a kind of virtual head-up display. And it was Crimson flying the plane, and not Launchpad like Megavolt was expecting. In fact, they were the only two present in the jet.

Megavolt stared out the canopy at the city below. He had many questions to ask, and didn't know where to begin. But furthermore, he couldn't begin just yet. Crimson had asked him to save his questions for the moment; she'd explain to the best of her abilities later. Megavolt wasn't sure when 'later' was, but he waited patiently.

Finally, Crimson sighed. "Megs, before you start asking questions, there's something you need to know first." she explained. "See, in my time, we've figured out time travel and have made use of the ability. There's even a top secret government agency that specializes in it now. But one thing we learned very quickly about time travel is that you have to be _very _careful. You wouldn't believe what kind of little things could alter history. Even knowing too much about one's future could alter things. Hence why I'm going to have to say that there will probably be several questions you're wanting to ask that I simply can't answer. You're better off not knowing, in more ways than you realize."

Megavolt was silent for a moment while he thought about that. It made sense.

"All right." he said. "I'll keep that in mind." he thought for a moment. "Okay, first question, what year is it?"

"Ah, see?" Crimson said with an amused grin. "Very first question you ask I can't give you an answer. Actually, I've been ordered not to tell you as an added precaution. In fact, you weren't even supposed to know this much, but I saw right away that wasn't going to happen."

"Okay." Megavolt said with a frown. "How about my fellow members in the Fearsome Five? How are they? Is the gang even still around?"

"I can't answer those questions either." Crimson said. "And don't bother asking about yourself either, because I won't answer those questions, either."

Megavolt mentally crossed off the next few questions on his list, then moved to the next one after those. "How about Quackerjack's Time Top?" he asked. "What happened to it?"

"There you go, there's a question I can answer." Crimson said. "You appeared in the Time Top in the exact same location you had left. Where the Fearsome Five hideout is. Or at least, was. A new building was built over it. Anyway, we found you in there, minimally hurt, unconscious, and otherwise unharmed. The Time Top itself is another story. It's pretty damaged, and it's time circuits literally blew. There isn't much left to salvage, so it was confiscated, and most likely will be dismantled."

"Okay, so how am I going to get back to my time?" Megavolt asked, then, as a scary thought came to mind, added, "_Can _I go back to my time?"

"Yes, we'll send you back via some of our own technology." Crimson said dismissively. "But because there are so many restrictions to time travel, getting the authorization to do so is another story. They'll get it sooner or later, but it's going to take some time. In the meantime, you'll just have to hang out here."

"Which will be hard seeing that I can't know too much about this future." Megavolt muttered. "Okay, so here's something that I'm puzzled about. You're still here, but what about everyone else? Launchpad, Darkwing, and the others?"

"They're still around."

"Are they still doing what they've always been doing?"

"I can't answer that."

"Drat. Um, what kind of villains are out there?"

"I...probably shouldn't answer that either." Crimson paused. "In fact, there's one in particular I must ask you never ask about."

"And who's that?"

"It's better you don't know."

"What _can _you tell me?"

"Very little, unfortunately. I'm sorry Megavolt, I know it must be frustrating."

"It's beyond frustrating." Megavolt said with a sigh, leaning back in his seat with a sigh. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"To be honest, I don't know." Crimson admitted. "I figured you didn't want to stay in the supervillain prison..."

"_That _was the St. Canard Supervillain Prison?"

"...so I decided to move you somewhere else. The problem is that I haven't figured where I can take you where you will...well..."

"Remain blissfully unaware?"

"...yeah."

"Joy."

"Yeah. And just picture how _I _feel. I have to do this kind of thing fairly often."

"Really? How often?"

"I can't answer that."

"So what else is new?"

They fell silent for a long moment. Suddenly, a light started to flash on the dashboard of the Thunderquack. Megavolt leaned over to study it, but then Crimson quickly reached over and pressed a different control, and it stopped.

"Ignore that." she said. "So, Megs, any other questions you've got?"

"Um, just one." he admitted. "You mentioned earlier that you found me in the Time Top not seriously hurt, but still hurt nonetheless. Yet now I feel just fine. What happened?"

"Oh, well that's easy." Crimson said. "Technology's come a long way over the years. We've got plenty of tools now that will heal injuries in half the time it used to take all those years ago, and..."

She fell silent when the light on the dashboard started flashing again. She shot it a glare.

"Oh, come off it." she muttered.

"What's that light mean, anyway?" Megavolt asked, pointing at it.

"It's an alarm for an incoming transmission." Crimson muttered, reaching over and pressing the control and a series of smaller controls that appeared after that. "But nobody should be contacting me now, and they _know _why not. I swear, if it's Sam, I'll..."

"Sam who?"

Crimson froze for a moment. "Never mind." she said, and continued pressing controls.

Finally, a semi-transparent video transmission appeared on the holographic display on the canopy glass. Megavolt instantly identified the person portrayed as Techno. He, too, was older, but hadn't changed too much.

"Crimson," Techno began. "Sorry for interrupting, and I know what you're thinking..."

"Really, Tech?" Crimson asked, annoyed. "Because I believe I asked to not be contacted while I'm busy with this matter."

"I know, and I know you've got company." Techno shot a glance over at Megavolt, but otherwise didn't acknowledge the rat's presence. "But I've really got a situation over here, and I really need your help. You know what the status of the others are."

"How bad can it be, Tech?" Crimson asked. "I mean, who is it that's causing trouble?"

Techno hesitated a moment, again glancing at Megavolt, who hadn't spoken, but was listening curiously. Finally, he sighed.

"Codwell." Techno replied simply.

Crimson squeezed her eyes shut in frustration and hung her head. "Where at?" she asked.

"Titan Laboratories, the computer processing wing." Techno said. "Codwell's having a heck of fun time in there, it seems."

"I'll bet he is." Crimson sighed. "All right, I'll be right there. But I need someone to watch over the Megs during all of this."

"Got it." Techno said. "See you soon."

The transmission then ended. Megavolt turned to look at Crimson.

"Who's Codwell?" he asked.

Crimson shot him a look as she changed the Thunderquack's course. "I think you'll remember him when you see him." she replied.

* * *

Titan Laboratories had grown in size over the years, just like the rest of the city. It had gained several additional wings and several more floors, including a virtually unsinkable reputation that had all started with the creation of the Lovell Air Engine. From above, Crimson noted that nothing seemed out of the ordinary save a small squadron of police cars parked at it's entrance, and serious wished this was the case. She glanced at Megavolt, who she knew was mentally taking this all in. She certainly hoped she could keep him from getting involved in this.

Landing the Thunderquack II with picture-perfect grace, Crimson opened the canopy and hopped out. She was promptly met by Techno.

"Crimson, thank you for coming so quickly." he said. "Sorry I had to pull you into this."

"You can explain on the way." Crimson said, moving towards the entrance to Titan Laboratories. Seeing Megavolt start to follow, she called to a nearby police officer. "Officer Raven, make sure my guest there doesn't go anywhere, or do anything he shouldn't."

Silently, a sable-feathered goose moved to block Megavolt's path. Megavolt frowned at this, but stayed put. Crimson drew Techno closer.

"You _sure _there isn't anybody else you could've gotten to help with this?" she asked.

"Positive." Techno said. "Giz is still out of town, Dewey's in a meeting and can't spare the time to leave, and Sam's staying away, just like you asked her to."

"SHUSH?"

"Director Navis says she can't spare any agents at the moment."

"The SCPD?"

"Matt doesn't want to risk any cops in this, not after what happened last time we faced Codwell."

Crimson thought for a long moment. "How about Dad?" she finally asked. "Any chance of getting him to help?"

Techno shook his head. "He's away from the phone again, and you know that he stays out of these issues these days. It's just me and you, Crimson."

"What _does _Codwell want in there?"

"I don't think he wants _anything _except to cause a rumpus." Techno said. "I don't even know how he got in there."

Crimson sighed, and drew her gas gun. "Well, he's not getting any younger, so better not keep him waiting." she said, entering the building.

* * *

The computer processing wing to Titan Laboratories was empty all save for one person, carefully strolling down an aisle of computers, whistling a little two as he walked. Following along behind him was a small army of random objects, all moving around under their own power, like they were alive. A cloud of crimson smoke suddenly appeared before them. The person paused to watch.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the dead battery on your laptop! I am the Crimson Avenger!"

Crimson emerged from the smoke, and then quickly ducked, and just in time to avoid a bolt of blue energy that whizzed over her head. She then looked up at her opponent.

"This ends here, Codwell!" she exclaimed.

Dr. Matthias Codwell grinned, holding his HLEDD aloft. "Sure it does." he said. "Wasn't that what you said last time?"

"This time I mean it." Crimson said. "You aren't getting out of here free this time, Codwell."

"We'll see about that." Codwell said, then turned to his army of objects, mostly computers. "Objects, attack!"

The objects stormed towards Crimson's position. Crimson waited until the last moment, and then fired a grappling hook up into the rafters and swung out of the way.

"Now Techno!" she exclaimed.

Techno suddenly emerged and hurled a handful of chemical bombs at the object army. Going off, they dealt heavy damages to the said army. Crimson then pointed her gas gun at members of the army at random and fired blue bolts of energy with them. Each object struck had it's life energy drained from it and turned inanimate once again.

Codwell let out a mad roar. "Stop it!" he said. "Don't you see you're killing them?"

And without waiting for an answer, he took his HLEDD and started firing it at other objects, bringing them to life. He didn't get far, however, before Crimson stormed forward and pounced on him, grabbing him by the front of the shirt.

"Gotcha!" she said.

Codwell defiantly held up the HLEDD to point at Crimson.

"Ah-ah!" Crimson said, grabbing the barrel of the weapon. "It's over. No more using this accursed thing to bring anything to life, Codwell, or visa versa."

Codwell grinned, as the HLEDD started to whine. "Who said I wanted to do that?" he asked.

And then, overloaded, the HLEDD suddenly exploded.

* * *

Word of the event spread fast. Still forced to stay at the Thunderquack and under guard by the police, Megavolt could only stand by and watch and listen, hoping he'd hear or see something that would explain what happened. Finally, after several long moments, the people in question finally exited the building.

Techno came out first, looking exhausted but otherwise unharmed. He pulled someone aside and whispered something to the extent of "objects inanimate again" before moving on. Following him were two medics pushing a stretcher that hovered. On it was a severely injured person mostly covered by a blanket. It wasn't clear if he was alive or not, as either was possible at this point. But Crimson was right, Megavolt _did _recognize the man now that he had seen him. He remembered seeing in the paper once sometime back in his decade, but didn't read the article in full. Something about life energy and gun thingamajig that caused some trouble.

Finally, Crimson herself exited the building under her own power. She looked tattered, and was favoring an arm that had gotten heavily scorched, and additionally seemed tired, but otherwise looked to be okay. Megavolt tried to draw her attention to him as she neared his position, but she ignored him, walking right past him to follow Codwell to an ambulance that had arrived.

As she passed, Megavolt noticed something about Crimson's injured arm, and caught off guard, stared at it. Crimson's eyes briefly met with his during this, and quickly moved positions to block the arm from view. But it still didn't change what Megavolt saw. He had no chance to actually address the issue, however, until Techno came along later, and granted him permission to leave the Thunderquack and meet with Crimson. She now sat in the back of the parked ambulance filling out what appeared to be a report. Her injured arm was now heavily bandaged.

"Megavolt." Crimson greeted, seeing him and Techno approach. "Hi. Sorry about all of that, but action needed to be taken."

"So, uh, what happened?" Megavolt asked.

"Our villain decided to resort to drastic measures." Techno replied. "Very nearly killed himself in the process."

"So he's still alive?" Megavolt asked.

"For the moment." Crimson admitted. "He's in serious condition at the moment however, so it's unclear he'll survive. I think what he _really _intended to do was to try and take me out."

"And he very nearly succeeded." Techno noted.

"Yet you came out of it okay." Megavolt pointed out.

"Yes, I was able to position myself to shield myself from the worse of the blow at the last possible moment." Crimson replied.

"You sure your _arm _didn't play a part in that?"

Techno shot Megavolt a puzzled look. Crimson, however, sighed.

"You saw, didn't you?" Crimson asked. When Megavolt nodded, she sighed again. "Well, no point in hiding it anymore, then."

She pulled back some of the bandages on her arm to reveal the burned-away flesh. Only it wasn't real flesh. It was artificial, although Megavolt would've never guessed it were it not in this state for it seemed very realistic. Beneath that false flesh were distinct robotic parts, blackened with damage, but looked to be slowly repairing itself.

"My whole arm is like that." Crimson explained as Megavolt studied it. "It got like that in an accident years and years back and my arm had to be swapped out for this robotic look-alike." she recovered the arm back up with the bandages. "Please don't relate this to anybody in your time, particularly my past self. If I knew about this then, I'd get all paranoid about it happening and probably work to see if I could make it never happen. Which would be disastrous, because I lost that arm doing what was _right_. Things would've played out very differently if I didn't do what I did then."

There was a moment of silence. Techno suddenly turned his head away for a moment as a message came through on his radio concealed in his helmet. He sighed.

"I'm needed elsewhere." he said, and upon receiving Megavolt's inquisitive glance, added, "Somewhere pertaining to the future that certain people from the past can't know. Be right back."

He walked off. Megavolt rolled his eyes.

"This is so frustrating." he muttered. "Here I am trapped in the future, and I'm not allowed to learn a thing about it."

"You'll understand why eventually." Crimson remarked cryptically. "At least you've learned _some _things."

"Not like I'll be able to relate any of it once I get back home." Megavolt said. "I wish you'd just _tell _me everything."

"Trust me, Megavolt, you don't know how much I wish I could do that." Crimson said. "But we have to be careful to not mess things up for everyone."

"You know, I don't understand that." Megavolt admitted. "Everyone I've met in this time seems more cautious and wary, like they make one wrong move and the universe will end. You're afraid to make mistakes. It's almost like you're all paranoid now."

"In a way, we are." Crimson admitted. "We've all made some pretty serious mistakes between the gap in time between your time and mine, and the last thing we want to do is to repeat them." she sighed. "Times have changed, Megavolt. This isn't the same St. Canard that you knew. We've learned that we have to take responsibility for our actions. We couldn't be the blissfully ignorant people of before. We faced a choice, and we couldn't ignore it anymore. We had to make it, and we all had to make the choice we knew was _right._ Deep down, we realized that any other choice only would've led to more troubles, and by the time we faced them, it probably would've been too late to backtrack. We had to face matters we hadn't wanted to face before, confront issues we had been putting off, to do what we didn't like and what we weren't used to. And where did it get us? Well, all of _this_." she motioned to their surroundings suggestively. "Which isn't perfect, but in the long run it certainly beat the alternatives."

Megavolt was silent for a moment. "I'm at that stage now." he admitted. "At the point where I can no longer avoid those critical choices."

"I know." Crimson said. "I did some historical research before I met up with you and Webby at the supervillain prison. The time you left was just a matter of weeks after you got your memories back, and was kicked out of the Fearsome Five. Now you had nowhere left to go, and wasn't sure of the choice you had to make to go on from there."

Megavolt hesitated for a moment, knowing the answer to his question already. "What did I ultimately choose?"

"I can't tell you that, Megavolt." Crimson replied. "You know why. But I assure you that if I could, I most certainly would. Because this choice you face Megavolt is the biggest choice you'll ever face in your life. You don't want to get it wrong. I _highly _recommend that you choose what _you _think is best, and nothing short of that."

Megavolt nodded. "Not that it makes things any easier." he admitted.

"Life is never easy, Megavolt." Crimson said.

"Actually, it is." Megavolt corrected. "Once you decide upon the right choice, that is."

* * *

Once things were cleaned up enough at Titan Laboratories, Crimson and Techno checked in with an unnamed person, presumably someone from SHUSH, to check on the progress on sending Megavolt home. Unfortunately, it didn't look like the authorization for the time portal necessary to send Megavolt home was going to go through until tomorrow. Seeing that Megavolt was going to need a place to spend the night, Crimson and Techno promptly took him to just such a place.

It was a simple apartment in a skyscraper apartment building. Crimson and Techno explained that it belonged to SHUSH and was used for a variety of things, namely housing someone for the night that didn't have anywhere else to stay for the moment. Today, it was going to be Megavolt staying here, while Crimson and Techno both stood guard over him for a number of unmentioned reasons, but certainly not unclear ones.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. They had dinner. At Crimson and Techno's request, who were both feeling nostalgic about the past by this point, Megavolt told a few stories about past adventures they had all had some part in. Megavolt then read a book for a little while, then ultimately fell asleep alone in the bedroom, resting flat on the bed.

The hours passed silently, as Megavolt remained undisturbed in the bedroom as he slept deeply. But then, a little past midnight, something sparked in the room. A ball of energy was then spat out of a power outlet in the bedroom and took shape within the middle of the room. Megavolt slept on, unaware. The figure that now stood in the room was silent and unmoving for a moment, then moved towards Megavolt, reaching out with his hands in an almost threatening way.

But he never got close enough to touch his prey.

"Why Gigavolt, I was wondering when you'd show up."

Gigavolt whirled around to face Crimson standing in the doorway, holding her gas gun aloft. The living being of electricity eyed the weapon warily, fully aware of what it could do, but he was still annoyed.

"You are always getting in my way, Crimson." Gigavolt muttered in his Megavolt-like voice, distorted by the sparkling energies that formed him. "I hate that."

"I know." Crimson said. "But I can't let you lay one finger on Megavolt there."

She motioned to Megavolt, still asleep. Gigavolt shot his normal double a glare.

"I hate him." he muttered. "I want to do him in!"

"Exactly why I have to stop you." Crimson said. "You _know _what would happen to history if I let you do that."

"I don't care about you or The Agency's stupid time travel regulations." Gigavolt spat.

"Well, I _do_." Crimson said. "Furthermore, Megavolt's the only reason you even _exist_, Gigs. If you did something to him, you'd at the very lest would alter history so that you erased yourself from existence."

"Better that than to constantly be living this pointless life." Gigavolt stated. "You're right, it _is _because of him that I even exist, and I resent it! I'm surprised you are even going for it. By getting rid of him, you get rid of me, one of your worse enemies."

"Actually, just one of the most frustrating these days." Crimson said. "Because you could never see the voice of reason. You're also very self-centered. Always thinking about yourself but no one else. Don't you realize who _else _you'll be affecting if you get rid of Megs?"

"People only _he _gets to have, and not me!" Gigavolt spat.

"Then killing Megs isn't the answer!" Crimson said. "Because then _neither _of you would get all of that!"

"All for the better!" Gigavolt said. "If I can't have it, neither can he!"

They were silent for a moment.

"Gigs, you have two choices at this point." Crimson said, waving her gas gun around. "Either you get out of here on your own, or by force. Either way, you have to leave."

The living ball of energy glanced back at the rat he shared appearances with for a moment with discontent. It was clear that he still wanted to fulfill his original goal. But he also knew that he had no chance so long as Crimson was there and armed.

"I'll leave willingly." he finally said. "But you had better keep a good eye on him, Crimson. Because I'll be watching, waiting for my chance to do him in."

"Oh I know you will." Crimson said. "So I'll make sure you never get that chance."

Gigavolt shot her one last glare, then transformed into a bolt of energy and shot into the outlet he had entered in and was gone. Megavolt slept on, completely unaware of what happened. Satisfied, Crimson stepped back into the living room where Techno sat.

"You heard?" she asked.

"Yeah." Techno replied. "Megs?"

"Still asleep. Thankfully."

"You know, Gigavolt's got a point. By allowing Megavolt to go back to his time, you know what will happen because of it."

"I know." Crimson said. "But who knows what would happen if we don't send him back to his time. He's going back, Honk. We have assurances from Norrin _himself _that it'll happen. We'll send him through a portal to a location of his choosing. I know will happen. But it needs to be done."

* * *

"You got _anything _yet, mate?" Rowe urged.

"Rowe, don't stress me." Bushroot urged. "You know what I'm like when I'm under stress."

"But Megs could be anywhere!" Rowe exclaimed. "He needs help! And we're the only ones who can help him!"

"Rowe, this is not going to be an overnight process." Bushroot said, looking up from the calculations he was working upon. "Besides, it hasn't even been a full day since Megs vanished, and we don't know where he vanished _to._ He'll probably turn up himself."

"He could be anywhere in _time_." Rowe pointed out. "And since time has no meaning, he could've arrived right back at the same time he left and we'd never be the wiser! The sheer fact he hasn't returned yet tells me that something happened, and Megavolt can't get back!"

"Rowe, do you not _realize _how much time there is in the universe?" Bushroot asked. "Megavolt could be in any one of those times. It's take forever to search them all without stopping and thinking things through. That;s why I'm going through some calculations, to try and determine if Megs really did travel through time with the Time Top and where he most likely ended up. And I can't do that if you're hovering over my shoulder, nagging me to work faster!"

Rowe turned away hotly and folded his arms. "Bushroot, you're mean when your stressed." he remarked. "Besides, I don't think you truly..."

He was cut short when the lights in the greenhouse suddenly flickered. Both he and Bushroot stopped and looked around, puzzled. As quickly as it started though, the lights returned to normal.

"Huh." Bushroot said. "Wonder what caused that."

"Dunno, but if it's out of sight, it's out of mind." Rowe said with a shrug.

Then a loud crash rang out from a closet across the room. They turned to look at the closed door. More noises rang out, and then the door swung open, and a pile of junk spilled out the door. And with the junk was Megavolt.

"Figures that they'd drop me off someplace like that, the stupid, blundering..." Megavolt was muttering as he picked himself up.

He was cut short as Rowe rushed over and grabbed Megavolt in a hug. "Megavolt!" he exclaimed. "You're back! How did you get there in Bushy's closest?"

"Uh, Rowe..." Megavolt wheezed, struggling against the otter's grip, "...you're crushing my ribs..."

Rowe quickly released him. "Sorry." he said.

"Where have you been, Megs?" Bushroot asked, hurrying over. "Nobody's seen or heard anything of you since that incident at the hideout! We thought the Time Top had malfunctioned and did who knew _what _with you!"

"It did." Megavolt said, getting his breath back, then pushing past his two friends and for the door. "It pretty much did exactly what it was supposed to."

"So wait, you traveled through time?" Rowe asked, following. "To when?"

"To the future and back!" Megavolt said, still heading for the door. "Look, I can't explain much, but I met up with some friends there and they sent me back. Though, the choice of location wasn't exactly what I was thinking of, but I suppose I can't complain..."

"Where are you going, Megs?" Bushroot asked as Megavolt threw open the door to the greenhouse and hurried out into the night. "You seem like you're in a hurry!"

"I am!" Megavolt called back as he ran off into the night. "I made a choice in the future, and now I need to carry it out! Bye guys!"

Bushroot and Rowe stood in the doorway, dumbfounded.

"Should we follow after him, mate?" Rowe asked Bushroot.

"No." Bushroot said. "Something tells me that no matter what we do, we'll never get to the bottom of that story."

* * *

Megavolt hurried straight home to his hideout. The events of his little trip to the future still fresh in his mind, he barged in through the door and headed straight to the small table that carried the latest project he had been working on. With one shove, it tipped it all over and onto the floor.

"Crimson's right." he said as he went to his closet and threw open the door. "Darkwing's right, they were all right. Now is the time for me to make a choice, and not put it off. And not just any choice, but the _right _choice."

He gathered up a handful of gadgets from his closest and looked them over for a moment. "I should've never gotten into any of this." he said, throwing them aside to join the items he had knocked to the floor. "Being a villain has brought me nothing but trouble. I should've done this years ago. But at least I'm doing it now. No more villainous work for me ever again."

He started throwing objects out of his closet at random, all tools he had used in his life of crime, and they were added to the pile of items he intended to dispose of. Gone where the various devices and projects that were all mistakes from the beginning. Finally, Megavolt found a device leaning in the back of the closet that he recognized immediately. It looked like a camera on a tripod, but Megavolt wasn't fooled. He knew he had built this device out of a toaster oven.

He narrowed his eyes at the Tron Splitter. Of all the devices he had ever made, this one had probably caused the most trouble. Some of it was good, for him as a villain, but mostly it was just a bad idea.

"If anything in here should have to go, it's you, Tron Splitter." Megavolt said to the device, grabbing it by it's lever and trying to pull it out.

But it seemed to be snagged on something, for it wouldn't come out. Frowning, Megavolt tugged on it some more, putting all his strength into it. Finally, with a loud snap, the lever snapped off into Megavolt's hands, and the Tron Splitter tipped over onto it's side, sparking slightly. Megavolt had just enough time to look at the broken lever before the Tron Splitter suddenly exploded, releasing not one but several waves of energy over Megavolt.

Yelling, Megavolt was knocked back into the far wall, and then slid to the floor. With a groan, he rolled over and started to pick himself up. It was then that he noticed there was an unnatural glow in the room, and he traced it to it's source. He gasped at what he saw.

"Wh-who are you?" he asked nervously.

"Who am I?" the figure that now stood before him asked. "I'm everything you _aren't _Megavolt! I'm GIGAVOLT!"

**To be continued...**


	57. Gigavolt

Summary: A new threat is loose in St. Canard. Armed with Megavolt's restored memories, and with more electrical power than Megavolt, Gigavolt begins a rampage of chaos as he seeks his target. Darkwing...

Rating: T

Author's Note: The conclusion to the Megavolt story arc. Worked out quite nicely, and is very dramatic as some serious stuff takes place here. Fun facts are included, some might pertain to last chapter.

57.

Gigavolt

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_I'm after a supervillain."_

"_Who?"_

"_A villain called Gigavolt."_

"_G-G-Gigavolt? I've heard of Megavolt, but not a Gigavolt."_

"_That because you haven't met him yet."_

_--  
_

"_What's this Gigavolt like, anyway?"_

"_Imagine a supercharged Megavolt on steroids."_

_--  
_

"_Me fighting Gigavolt is like you fighting The Liquidator. Easy. But just for me, because I know him a heck of a lot better than you do. And besides...you'll get your chance soon enough."_

_--  
_

_He was, in a sense, Megavolt, but was glowing brightly, to the point all the color on his personage was drowned out. Electric bolts zapped to and from him frequently, drawn to Gigavolt's superconductivity. An aura of energy surrounded him at all times. In fact, he was more than that, he was energy. A living ball of electricity given Megavolt's form._

_--  
_

"_I will tell you this. You know the Fearsome Five?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_They're nothing compared to what you'll meet up against in the future."_

_--  
_

"_Looks like that shock rebooted your brain, mate."_

"_Wow. I wonder what else I can remember."_

_--  
_

"_I'm kicking you out of the Fearsome Five."_

_--  
_

"_**I've lost everything, Darkwing!**__ What difference does it make, huh?"_

"_Well, maybe now is the perfect time to forget that past life and start building a new one! You say you've lost everything! Now you've got a clean slate to start life over again! You should take the opportunity to do that, and not blow your only chance!"_

_--  
_

"_So, will we be meeting again?"_

"_I think no matter what I choose, Darkwing, it's inevitable."_

_--  
_

"_Crimson, just __**what**__ is going on here? I demand that I be told __**something**__!"_

"_Then here's the answer that'll explain several things. Megavolt, you're in the future."_

_--  
_

"_Times have changed, Megavolt. This isn't the same St. Canard that you knew. We've learned that we have to take responsibility for our actions. We couldn't be the blissfully ignorant people of before. We faced a choice, and we couldn't ignore it anymore. We had to make it, and we all had to make the choice we knew was__** right**__."_

_--  
_

"_What did I ultimately choose?"_

"_I can't tell you that, Megavolt. You know why. But I assure you that if I could, I most certainly would. Because this choice you face Megavolt is the biggest choice you'll ever face in your life. You don't want to get it wrong. I __**highly**__ recommend that you choose what __**you**__ think is best, and nothing short of that."_

_--  
_

"_Furthermore, Megavolt's the only reason you even __**exist**__, Gigs. If you did something to him, you'd at the very lest would alter history so that you erased yourself from existence."_

_--  
_

_"Don't you realize who __**else**__ you'll be affecting if you get rid of Megs?"_

"_People only __**he**__ gets to have, and not me!"_

_--  
_

"_You know, Gigavolt's got a point. By allowing Megavolt to go back to his time, you know what will happen because of it."_

"_I know. But who knows what would happen if we don't send him back to his time. He's going back, Honk. We have assurances from Norrin __**himself**__ that it'll happen. We'll send him through a portal to a location of his choosing. I know will happen. But it needs to be done."_

_--  
_

"_Crimson's right. Darkwing's right, they were all right. Now is the time for me to make a choice, and not put it off. And not just any choice, but the __**right **__choice. I should've never gotten into any of this. Being a villain has brought me nothing but trouble. I should've done this years ago. But at least I'm doing it now. No more villainous work for me ever again."_

_--  
_

"_Wh-who are you?"_

"_Who am I? I'm everything you __**aren't**__ Megavolt! I'm GIGAVOLT!"

* * *

_

"Sir, we're picking up a power flux of some sort in energy grid three."

The chief supervisor over the Southern Audubon County power station turned to look at the duck who had announced it, peering at his computer screen intently. He stepped over to look himself.

"What kind of flux?" he asked, bending over to check out the readings.

"See for yourself, sir." the duck said, motioning at the screen. "Have _you _ever seen something like that?"

The supervisor frowned. "It looks like someone's drawing power directly from it, yet at the same time intermittently overloading it." he noted. Still frowning, he pulled out a walkie-talkie. "Phil, this is Joe in control." he said into the radio.

"What's up Joe?" came the response.

"We're getting readings of some erratic energy levels in energy grid three." Joe explained. "Get some people together and go check it out and report back to me."

"Got it." Phil replied, and the radio went silent for several moments.

Out a window, a group of people could be seen moving across the facility to the location of the grid in the far right corner. Joe watched their progress through the window.

"Phil here, we're at the grid." Phil reported in a moment later. "Definitely something wrong here. Some kind of flashing light ahead. We're moving closer to get a better look."

There was a momentary pause. Joe grew antsy.

"Well, Phil?" he asked, speaking into the radio.

"Well...it appears to be a person, Joe."

"A person?"

"At least I think it is."

"You think? Joe, give me the details. What are you seeing here?"

"Well, a person, a rat by the looks of it. But he seems to be surrounded by energy. He's directly connected to the power grid, it seems. I don't know what he's doing."

"Whatever it is, get him to stop!" Joe said. "He's interfering with the power flow for the whole grid."

"Got it." Phil said, and the radio went silent. But not for long. "Uh oh, it looks like he's seen us. He's...OH NO! LOOK OUT!"

The radio suddenly burst into static.

"Phil!" Joe exclaimed.

"Whoa!" the duck looking at the computer screen suddenly exclaimed, as the power readings suddenly went off the chart.

Several flashes of light could be seen outside near the power grid. Arches of lightning shot back and forth from the area. Finally, an explosion erupted out from the area that shook the whole area. The power began to flicker.

"What in the world...?" The duck at the computer said.

Joe was too stunned to speak as he noticed someone emerging from the wreckage of the power grid. Someone glowing with an aura of energy, drawing more from his surroundings. He stepped forward a few feet from the spot of the incident. Then, grinning, he fired off a series of lightning bolts that decimated the whole control room...

* * *

Twisting around Canard Tower in a banking turn, the Thunderquack shot off for the borders of the town as power throughout St. Canard flickered constantly, not getting it's usual steady stream of electricity. Techno studied it all as they flew.

"Something is definitely going on at the power station." he noted. "But the question is, what?"

"That's what we're being sent to find out." Darkwing asked. "All contact from the Southern Audubon County power station has been lost. The SCPD is being sent to investigate, but it'll be a little bit before they get there. We can beat them there and begin searching for clues while we wait."

"You know, normally under situation such as this, I'd suggest that someone like Megavolt would be behind this." Launchpad commented.

"Stop talking and fly, LP." Darkwing muttered.

"But..."

"_Fly the plane, _LP."

"You know, Dad, he's got a point." Crimson pointed out. "The same thought has crossed my mind as well. I don't like to think about it, but it's entirely possible that Megavolt decided to continue with his supervillain career after all."

Darkwing sighed. "I know." he finally admitted. "But things were looking so hopeful there. In our last encounter, Megs went from a vengeful supervillain to an apologetic lost soul. It seemed to clear that he would decide to switch sides in the end. All he needed was the right direction."

"It was his choice to make, though, Dad, and not ours." Crimson remarked. "If we chose to continue with what he's always done, there isn't too much we can do to stop him."

Darkwing sighed again. "I know." he admitted.

"Coming up on the power station!" Launchpad said, bringing the Thunderquack into a circling holding pattern over the station.

They all turned to look down at it and instantly noted the damage.

"Wow, what on earth did that?" Crimson asked.

"It's amazing St. Canard is even still getting power from that place." Darkwing remarked. "It looked like somebody _attacked _it, but not with the traditional guns, more like some kind of energy weapon."

Techno was scanning the area with his visor. "I'm picking up a large energy signature down there." he said, pointing at a little flashing light somewhere in the middle of the ruins of the station.

Launchpad squinted at it. "What is that?" he asked. "Tech, can't you tell?"

Techno didn't reply right away. "Yes." he finally admitted. "I'm detecting energy patterns consistent with the electrical energy patterns Megavolt produces."

Darkwing groaned and sank lower into his seat.

"No wait, I stand corrected." Techno suddenly said. "These readings are much to high to be Megavolt, they're at nearly lethal levels. Not even Megavolt could handle that much."

This drew surprised stares from all around.

"Then if it's not Megavolt, who is it?" Crimson asked.

"Bring us closer, LP, I want a good look at this guy." Darkwing instructed.

Launchpad nodded, and brought the jet lower to the station, maneuvering as if he intended to land. Slowly, the figure started to come into focus. Everyone's eyes grew wide as they recognized the general appearance of the figure standing there. But none were more surprised than Crimson.

"Gigavolt?" she whispered to herself.

"That looks like Megavolt!" Launchpad exclaimed.

"How did he get like that?" Darkwing asked, "He looks almost...demented! Techno, any theories?"

"He's looking at us..." Techno muttered warningly.

Indeed he was. In an unblinking stare, Gigavolt peered up at them piercingly. He didn't move, or change positions, he didn't do anything to react to the Thunderquack hovering down lower. He just stared at the jet with an almost annoyed glare.

"I don't like this..." Darkwing muttered. "I think he's planning some..."

"Move, Move!" Crimson suddenly exclaimed. "Launchpad, move the jet, now!"

Launchpad reacted quickly, but not quick enough. Without warning, Gigavolt suddenly lashed out at the jet with several bolts of electricity all fired at once. They all slammed into the hull of the jet, leaving dark and ugly scars all over. Almost lazily, the jet started to turn away as Launchpad tried to urge it to move faster.

"EM fields rising, and...augh!" Techno suddenly exclaimed. The systems all over in the jet suddenly scrambled themselves and Techno frantically worked with his visor, indicating that it had stopped working properly as well. "It's scrambled all the electrical systems!"

The jet shuddered as more bolts of energy struck the jet. Launchpad pushed on the controls as hard as he could, but he still couldn't seem to get the jet to move faster.

"C'mon, Launchpad, get us out of here!" Darkwing exclaimed, reaching over to help.

"I'm trying, DW!" Launchpad said. "I think that first shot got lucky and damaged the controls!"

The control panel suddenly sparked as something overloaded, causing both Darkwing and Launchpad to yelp, but it actually seemed to help as the Thunderquack suddenly jolted and shot away from the scene, leaving Gigavolt behind. Crimson turned around to watch the ruined power station fade away in the distance.

"Damage report, LP!" Darkwing ordered.

"I dunno, DW, nothing seems to be working right anymore." Launchpad said as he looked over the dashboard. "I know something short-circuited, and I'm confident that the orbital thrusters are damaged. Hull, too."

"So at worse, we can't achieve orbit or even high altitudes." Darkwin summarized. "Better than I thought."

"What exactly was that guy?" Launchpad asked. "Was that Megavolt?"

"It certainly looked like it, but clearly it wasn't the usual Megavolt." Darkwing said.

"Actually, I don't think it was Megavolt, not the real one, anyway." Techno said. "Before my visor shut down due to the interference from the EM radiation that guy was emitting, I was able to get a few clear readings of him. I only picked up an unnaturally strong energy signature. Nothing else. I think that thing was only a ball of energy that, for some reason, looks like Megavolt."

"Why?" Launchpad asked. "Do you think Megavolt is somehow behind all of this?"

Darkwing thought for a long moment. "Launchpad, set a course for Megavolt's hideout." he ordered. "If Megavolt is somehow connected to this, then the answers would be there."

"Roger Wilcox, DW." Launchpad said, changing paths.

"What about Gig...that guy back there?" Crimson asked quickly.

"We need answers, Crimson." Darkwing said. "Besides, that guy was too powerful, we wouldn't stand a chance against him in an armed conflict. We were lucky to get out of there in one piece as is. We need to learn more about him before we can fight him off. Hopefully, he won't go much further than that power station in the meantime. Continue on, Launchpad."

"Hmph, something tells me we won't be so lucky." Crimson muttered.

* * *

Back in St. Canard, Launchpad landed the Thunderquack with a bump on the roof of the building Megavolt used as his hideout. The building's lights, and the lights in the surrounding lights were still flickering due to the attack on the power station.

"I'm surprised we still even have power." Techno commented, climbing out of jet. "There was hardly anything left to relay power at the power station."

"Suppose it does go out." Crimson asked, following him. "What then?"

"Then St. Canard will likely be overall powerless until the local power plant can redirect a line of power in from Coot County." Techno said.

"Let's hurry then." Darkwing said, heading for the door that led into the building from the roof. "Maybe we can get this down before it goes out."

But halfway down the staircase to the next floor down, the lights flickered sharply, and then finally went out, plunging the gang into darkness.

"Oh great." Crimson commented from within the blanket of darkness.

A moment later, they switched on their flashlights and began shining them around as they continued on down to where Megavolt's hideout was.

"Well, so far nothing seems out of the ordinary." Crimson commented as they stepped onto the landing to Megavolt's floor.

"That could mean anything." Darkwing pointed out. He stopped at the door to Megavolt's hideout, pulled out his gas gun as an added precaution, and threw open the door.

But there was nothing sitting there waiting for them. The room was silent, and like the rest of the building, dark. Shining their lights around, the group searched for clues, but nothing seemed to readily out of the ordinary, except for the fact that the floor was littered with objects, most of them gathered into a pile.

"I'm detecting large amounts of tron radiation in here." Techno announced, scanning the room with his visor, working again.

Crimson shined his light at him. "Tron radiation?" she asked.

Techno nodded. "I'm not sure why." he said. "Maybe if we continue looking..."

"Megavolt!" Darkwing exclaimed suddenly, shining his light in one corner of the room.

They all turned and saw Megavolt crumpled against the floor, leaning with his back against the wall, and appearing to be unconscious. They hurried over to check him out.

"Megs, can you hear me?" Darkwing asked, shaking Megavolt.

Megavolt stirred, but didn't do much more.

"My visor indicates that he's been badly electrocuted." Techno reported. "Which is surprising, when you think about who we're talking about here."

"Bet you anything that the guy at the power plant is behind that." Crimson remarked.

"Clearly they didn't hit it off too well."

"Megs, can you hear me?" Darkwing repeated. "It's me, Darkwing."

Megavolt stirred again. "No..." he muttered, "stop...overload...no...Gigavolt..."

He faded into unconsciousness. Darkwing looked up at the others. "Gigavolt?" he repeated. "What's that mean?"

"Sounds like a name." Launchpad said. "Maybe to the other Megavolt we saw at the power plant?"

"One thing is clear, _this_ Megs is going to need medical attention." Techno said. "SHUSH would probably have the materials needed to treat him."

"Okay, let's get him in the jet." Darkwing said, working to lift Megavolt up. "Help me, here."

"Actually, Dad, you may want to come take a look at this." Crimson said from across the room, shining her light at Megavolt's closet.

"Okay, LP, Techno, get Megs in the jet, we'll be along shortly." Darkwing said, leaving them to the chore and moving over to where Crimson stood.

She shone her light on a heavily scorched and broken gadget laying just in the doorway of the closet. "Look." she said.

Darkwing did, and sighed. "The Tron Splitter." he observed.

"Or at least what's left of it." Crimson corrected. "Obviously, this is the source of the tron radiation Techno detected."

"I don't get it though." Darkwing said. "Something clearly happened here, but our clues don't seem to be leading us anywhere."

"Actually, they might." Crimson said. "Suppose the guy we saw at the power plant was Megavolt's physical manifestation of his bad side, galvanized. Kind of like the galvanized Negaduck we faced years and years ago."

"But that requires two hits from the Tron Splitter, not one." Darkwing pointed out.

"Suppose something happened to the Tron Splitter, and in the chaos that followed, we got the supercharged Megavolt on steroids." Crimson remarked.

Darkwing shined his light at her. "You act like you know more about all of this than I do." he commented.

"Why do you think that?" Crimson asked, shining her light back. "I would've told you if that were true."

"Not unless there was something stopping you, like some promise or rule." Darkwing commented.

"Then maybe it's better you don't know." Crimson said conclusively.

* * *

A few moments later, the Thunderquack was airborne again, sailing over the darkened streets of St. Canard. Darkwing peered down at the powerless roads in worry.

"About how long does it take to reroute power in from Coot County, Tech?" he asked.

"It depends." Techno replied. "Anywhere from one hour to several. It's not an easy process, from what I understand of it."

"You worried, DW?" Launchpad asked as he flew the plane.

"I just don't like the look of St. Canard being so dark is all." Darkwing admitted, folding his arms. "It seems...unnerving, almost."

"Hopefully once we get some answers from Megavolt about what's going on, we can start piecing things together." Crimson said, who was propping the still unconscious form of Megavolt up in the seat between her and Techno.

Techno suddenly tensed. "Um guys, I'm picking up a surge of EM energy straight ahead." he reported suddenly. "It's consistent with the readings I gathered at the power station."

At that moment, the radio suddenly clicked on.

"I can see you, Darkwing." A voice sounding like Megavolt's, only distorted, was broadcasted through. "Can you see me?"

Darkwing froze for a moment, then grabbed the radio's transmitter. "Who is this?" he demanded into it.

"Someone you're going to be seeing a whole lot more of."

And at that moment, a ball of energy suddenly burst out of the roof of a building they were approaching, soared upward for a few feet, and then turned and shot towards the Thunderquack. Launchpad yelped, and quickly yanked the jet's controls to the left, the jet tilting away from the ball of energy as it engaged a collision course with the Thunderquack.

Launchpad's quick action allowed the jet to avoid the ball of energy, but as it passed, it spat out a small shower of electric bolts at the passing jet. Several of the bolts slammed into the jet, boring round, black holes into it's upper hull, and a couple pierced the glass of the canopy. Despite the damage dealt, Launchpad continued the jet on it's course, adding more speed.

The ball of energy shot off in it's original direction for a moment then swooped around into a hover, the bolt changing shape to form Gigavolt temporarily as he surveyed the situation, then formed into the ball and pursued the jet.

"He's chasing after us!" Techno exclaimed.

A moment later, the jet shook as it was hit from behind by one of Gigavolt's bolts of energy.

"Launchpad, evasive action!" Darkwing ordered.

Launchpad twisted the controls, and the jet veered away, barrel-rolling to cruise over a city street at a very low altitude. Gigavolt managed to follow closely. Pulling up and out of the street, Launchpad brought the jet into a loop-de-loop, and then zig-zagged around buildings, very nearly crashing into several, but miraculously didn't. It didn't seem to matter though, for Gigavolt kept up, even beginning to overtake the jet as he started to fly along beside it.

He fired a few more bolts at the jet. One pierced the cockpit's canopy and struck the floor near Crimson's feet, making her yelp. Darkwing, seeing something needed to be done, pulled out the radio's transmitter again.

"Why are you doing this, Megs?" he asked.

"I'm not Megavolt!" Gigavolt whined angrily, firing another bolt into the side of the plane in retaliation. "The name's Gigavolt, get that through your thick skull, Darkwing!" he paused, a sly look coming over his face. "Or maybe I should call you Drake, hmm?"

Darkwing's eyes widened as he realized the sudden implications of this little revelation, but got no further than that as Gigavolt fired a bolt into the nose of the Thunderquack, blasting off one of it's headlights. The action caused Launchpad to loose temporary control of the jet and it veered off dangerously for a moment before Launchpad got the plane leveled off again.

"DW, we need to do something quick!" Launchpad said.

"Yes, we're taking a real beating here!" Techno exclaimed. "I don't think the Thunderquack can take much more of this!"

"Come about, LP!" Darkwing ordered, making a quick decision. "Face Gigavolt full on and fire at will!"

Launchpad obeyed, activating the anti-aircraft machine guns the jet was equipped with but seldom used and fired several rounds at Gigavolt. For added comfort, Launchpad also fired off two missiles. Gigavolt managed to shoot down one missile, but the other missile and all of the fired rounds simply passed through him.

"That won't work, he's immune to conventual weapons!" Crimson exclaimed quickly.

Launchpad broke off the attack and turned the jet around and fled. Gigavolt chased after them.

"Launchpad, head for the bay and submerge the jet, Gigs can't follow us, there!" Darkwing reasoned.

"But he can!" Crimson stated. "He's immune to water, too!"

"Just how do you know so much about this Gigavolt guy, Gos?" Darkwing snapped, twisting around in his seat to glare at his daughter.

"He's made of energy, so we should fight with energy!" Techno suddenly realized, and quickly pulled a chemical bomb from his wristband. "Launchpad, turn us around and open the canopy!"

Launchpad frowned, but obeyed, turning the jet around to face Gigavolt again and popping open the canopy, allowing the air rushing around the plane to surge into the cockpit.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Tech!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"Not really, no!" Techno said, holding the bomb in his hand up high. "Now everybody start praying! I'm only going to get the one shot at this!"

The jet continued surging towards Gigavolt. Gigavolt continued surging towards the jet. Finally, Techno hurled the bomb out into the air. It soared through the air towards Gigavolt calmly. Being so small, Gigavolt couldn't see it and shoot it down, so it continued onward unharmed. Finally, it exploded just short of reaching Gigavolt, and Gigavolt shot into the blast of energy that it created.

Launchpad quickly grabbed the controls of the jet and moved the plane away from the mid-air explosion and turned it around to flee, closing the canopy in the process. Everybody turned around to look behind them. As the remains of the explosion faded, one could clearly see Gigavolt drop out of it like a stone, apparently stunned by the blast.

"It worked!" Darkwing exclaimed. "Good work, Techno!"

"I managed to buy us some time, yes." Techno agreed. "But it's not enough to beat Gigavolt."

* * *

Battered, but still flyable, the Thunderquack made it the rest of the way to SHUSH Headquarters. Once there, Megavolt was taken away to be treated fully, and Darkwing and the others pulled aside by Hooter for a debrief. He was rather stunned by the news of Gigavolt's appearance.

"You mean to tell me that somewhere out there is a guy with more electrical power than Megavolt threatening St. Canard?" Hooter asked, pointing out the window of his office.

"More than that, J. Gander, he threatens me." Darkwing said. "He's got Megavolt's restored memories as well. He knows who I am, where I live, everything! And he seems bent on beating me, too, just like Megavolt was!"

"Only I don't think we're going to be able to talk Gigavolt out of it like we did with Megavolt." Techno said.

"Techno's right." Crimson said, the only one not sitting down. Instead, she was standing at a window and staring out it "Gigs is after us. And right at the moment, we don't have much of anything that can combat him. Keen gear, this is a real nightmare." under her breath she added, "a nightmare come true."

"This is a very serious matter, then." Hooter commented, rising from his seat. "There's no telling what this Gigavolt might try next."

"We do know one thing." Darkwing said, rising from his own seat. "He's bound to try and attack again."

"But where?" Agent Grant asked, standing beside Hooter like a shadow. "That's what I would like to know."

"What do you mean, where?" Launchpad asked. "He'll attack wherever we're at! If we're still here at SHUSH when that time comes, then he'll attack here!"

"Impossible." Agent Grant said. "SHUSH's security systems wouldn't permit it."

"Ah, but you're still treating Gigavolt like Megavolt." Techno corrected.

"Tech's right, so far, we've found very little that will even stop Gigavolt." Darkwing said. "Only that energy bursts of the right magnitudes seem to stun him slightly."

"I can make a number of other deductions about Gigavolt, as well." Techno said. "Seeing that he appears to be nothing but energy, he'll behave like energy. He probably could slip in here through the wires and circuits in here. We can't count on the usual defenses keeping him away."

"Concurred." Hooter agreed. "It's all going to come to a fight either way." he turned to face the others. "I'm open to suggestions. Darkwing, what do you suppose we do?"

"Move the battleground to someplace where _we _have the higher ground, somewhere we can use to our advantage." Darkwing replied without hesitation.

"Like Darkwing Tower?" Hooter guessed, following along.

Darkwing nodded. "I think we can stand our ground and hold Gigs back there." he agreed.

"Do it." Hooter said. "Leave quickly, before Gigavolt starts this attack we know he's planning."

Darkwing nodded, and turned to leave, motioning to the others to follow. Crimson hesitated for a moment, though.

"Wait, what about Megavolt?" she asked.

"The doctors have stabilized him, he's likely to make a full recovery by morning." Agent Grant said. "He will need to stay here for the time being for further treatment."

"Ideally, I'd like you all to stay here and ask him some questions." Hooter continued, sitting back down at his desk. "But seeing that cannot happen, I will have some of my personnel take care of him and see if we can get some answers from him. Now go, time is short."

"We'll be back, J. Gander." Darkwing promised. "Everything will work out just fine, you'll see."

* * *

Megavolt awoke slowly, blearily blinking his eyes as he looked around. He saw that he was in a hospital bed in what appeared to be a medical ward and looked around further. He saw that someone was sitting beside his bed, someone he didn't recognize. She was a slender female rat and carried a notepad. When she saw Megavolt looking at her, she smiled back warmly.

Megavolt, however, groaned. "Not another psychiatrist." he muttered.

The woman blinked. "What makes you think that?" she asked, perplexed.

"Seems to be a bit of trend, mostly." Megavolt said, sitting up. "Look, whatever you have to say, just forget it. You can't get me to switch sides, anyway."

"Oh really?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, I already did that myself."

"Really?" the woman asked, jotting this down in her notebook. "Well, that's certainly news. Director Hooter will certainly be glad to hear that."

"Hooter?" Megavolt repeated, then frowned. "Just where exactly am I, anyway?" he asked.

"SHUSH Headquarters." the woman replied instantly. "Darkwing and his cohorts brought you here for treatment after finding you injured in your hideout."

"Darkwing?" Megavolt repeated, and then suddenly remembered what had happened to him last. "Gigs! Look, I need to speak with Darkwing right away! In fact, better yet, just take me to him!" he proceeded to get out of bed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the woman said, quickly moving to stop him. "You can't go anywhere just yet, not until you're told otherwise. Besides, Darkwing's not here, he went elsewhere to deal with other matters."

"Where?" Megavolt demanded. "It's urgent I speak with him!"

"Now just calm down, Megavolt." the woman said, sitting him roughly back down into the bed. "I'm Agent Jewel Ampere, and I'm a doctor under SHUSH's employ. I helped treat you, and monitor your health. But in this case, just think of it as messenger. I was assigned to listen to any information you might have and relay it on to the right sources. Now start from the beginning. Tell me everything you know."

Megavolt sighed as he thought for a moment to gather his thoughts. "Okay." he said. "Here's how it goes."

And he told the whole story, excluding various parts that he figured Jewel would already know, such as his getting kicked out of the Fearsome Five, and of course he didn't say anything about his little trip to the future, but he told her everything else up to the point of Gigavolt's sudden creation through the Tron Splitter overloading.

"...and then he laughed manically, and spoke about going to attack Darkwing." Megavolt explained. "I realized then that Gigavolt was a serious threat, and I moved to stop him. But when I did, he attacked me, and...and...that's it. The next thing I can accurately remember was waking up here."

Jewel looked up from what she had been writing down, looking a touched awestruck. "That's quite a story, Megavolt." she said. "You really have been through a lot."

"Tell me about it." Megavolt sighed, leaning back in frustration. "And none of it seems to bringing about anything good. It's seems like nothing I ever do does. It's almost like my very existence causes trouble for everyone. I mean, I decide to switch to _your _side, and what happens? Gigavolt is born! Through a stupid accident, too! I feel like I could kill myself! Well, I couldn't, seeing that Gigavolt, being a galvanized physical manifestation of my bad side inherited all of my negatrons and bad habits leaving me with all the good traits...but still..." he sighed, "I don't know even being negatron-free could help me make amends now. I've messed up so many things for everyone..." he shook his head. "How can anybody trust me _now_? Everybody's just going to think I'm the bad guy everybody loves to hate."

Jewel was silent for a moment. "I don't think that." she said.

Megavolt glanced at her. "You don't?" he asked, surprised.

"No, I don't." Jewel said. "And I'm not saying that just to be nice, either. I've read your file, Megavolt. You've had streaks of good all throughout your life, and you probably never even realized it. You just had an uncanny knack for finding trouble. Your mental health was also questionable up until recently. Now, looking back, do you think you would've really done all of those things, even _with _your negatron half, if you had managed to stay mentally intact during all of that?"

Megavolt thought about it for a very long moment. "Well...no." he admitted.

Jewel grinned. "Then that should be evidence enough that you're really a good person." she said.

Megavolt looked at her for a long moment. "You know, that's the first helpful thing any psychiatrist...or doctor...has ever said to me." he commented.

Jewel laughed. "You're welcome." she said.

They were silent for a long moment, looking at each other. Finally, Megavolt shook his head.

"But enough of that, I need to get a message through to Darkwing." he said.

"Then tell it to me." Jewel said, raising her pencil to write. "I'll relay the message on to the right people, promise."

* * *

"All security systems up and running, Darkwing." Techno reported from where he sat at the super computer. "Including a few I've made up on the spot. If Gigavolt even so much as _touches _the tower, we'll know about it." he paused, entering commands into the computer for a moment. "I hope."

"It'll have to be good enough, Techno." Darkwing said, patting him on the shoulder. "I couldn't have asked for more. Thanks."

Techno grinned sheepishly.

"Hey, Darkwing, catch!" Crimson called out suddenly as she stepped up onto the platform, tossing Darkwing his gas gun. "Fully reloaded, and ready to roll."

"Good." Darkwing said, gripping the weapon tightly. "I just hope it'll be enough."

"Are you sure you don't want me to send you some help, Darkwing?" Hooter asked, his face on the big screen at the moment. "It wouldn't hurt to play it safe, now would it?"

"Who do you have available at the moment, J. Gander?" Darkwing asked, turning to face the screen.

"Unfortunately, very few." Hooter admitted. "Most are away on missions. In fact, Agents Mia and Sandy are currently away on a mission in Nicaragua. But I have a few other agents here who might be able to help, such as..."

"Sorry, J. Gander, but this could get very dangerous, even deadly." Darkwing said, cutting him short. "I'd only want agents here who'd have experience in this kind of thing."

"Well, there's Agent Grant, but I need him here." Hooter said. "I suppose that means it's just you, then." he sighed. "Any sign of Gigavolt, yet?"

"None." Darkwing said. "But I wouldn't complain. It's given us the chance we need to make some preparations. Speaking of which..." he turned to look across the tower. "LP, how are the repairs going on the Thunderquack?"

"Slow." Launchpad grunted, clambering out from under the jet and walking over. "But never fear, DW, she's still flight worthy. If we have to make a quick getaway, the ol' Thunderquack's your plane."

"Good, I'm not taking any chances." Darkwing said. "Gigavolt has already proven himself to be a very formidable opponent, and it could be that despite our hopes and beliefs, this could all end very badly."

"I must concur, Darkwing." Hooter said. "In fact, I support it. Although, I certainly hope you are right, and that you really can hold your ground against Gigavolt. I wish I could do more to help."

"Any advice you can give us would be appreciated, J. Gander." Darkwing said.

"Speaking of which, it may interest you to know that Megavolt as awakened." Hooter announced. "Most of what he had to tell us is information we already know. But he did request a message be sent through to you." he went to pick up a paper, but during the time it took him to do so, the screen started to waver and break into static. "Message....as follows...Dark....wait...hear...re..."

Hooter's image finally disappeared into a sea of static. Darkwing frowned.

"J. Gander?" he asked hesitantly, knowing it was probably useless. He exchanged a worried expression with Crimson.

Techno was busy running through a few readings. "I'm detecting an EM surge..." he said slowly. "It has to be Gigavolt. Huh, so much for hopes..."

"Shush." Darkwing suddenly shushed, and peered intently at the static-fill screen.

Something indistinct seemed to form just underneath all of the static, barely visible.

"Director Hooter?" Crimson called out, to no response.

"What is it?" Launchpad asked curiously.

Darkwing squinted at the shape long and hard, and then suddenly realized what he was seeing.

"GET DOWN!" he exclaimed, throwing himself to the floor.

Crimson leapt quickly and slammed into Launchpad, knocking them both from the platform, and Techno started to rise from his seat. Then there was a loud explosion as the big screen suddenly erupted with a fury of sparks, and a bright ball of energy smashed out of screen and slammed into the floor of the platform, blasting a crater into it.

Crimson and Launchpad hit the floor below the platform, and rolled over in time to see Gigavolt emerge from the crater, sparkling with pent up energy, and an angry glare on his face. Seeing Techno first, who was pushing himself off from where he had been thrown against the control panel, he fired off a burst of energy in Techno's direction.

Techno yelped and quickly leapt away. The ball of energy plowed into the control panel and ripped it apart. Gigavolt turned and tried to shoot him again as Techno ran, circling the platform, and blasted the command chair from it's spot with his next blast. Reaching the row of control panels that curved around the other side of the platform, Techno heaved himself over it and off the platform.

By this time, Darkwing had jumped back up and fired two canisters of smoke at Gigavolt, just in time for Gigavolt to turn to face him. The merely passed right through Gigavolt, not even affecting him.

"Oh, right, forgot about that." Darkwing muttered.

"Ya think?" Gigavolt said, and blasted him off the platform with a well-placed bolt of energy.

He spun around to face Crimson and Launchpad standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the platform and unleashed a hailstorm of energy bolts at them. Crimson and Launchpad quickly leapt out of the way, the bolts tearing up the floor and the area around them. Launchpad rolled into a ball and ducked under a worktable with several bottles of chemicals on it. Crimson went the other way and skidded across the floor of the Tower to where Darkwing was picking himself up.

At that moment, something clattered against the control panel on the platform and bounced to the floor. Gigavolt turned to look at it long enough to see it was a chemical bomb in time for it to explode. It blew another hole into the floor and took out a row of computers on the platform, but Gigavolt was far enough away that the energy of the blast didn't affect him much.

Once it had faded, Gigavolt moved to the edge of the smoldering crater and looked over the edge of the platform and saw Techno hiding behind the parked Ratcatcher, cowering is dismay, and fired off another hailstorm of energy at his prey. Several of the bolts struck the Ratcatcher, lifting the motorbike up into the air, where it ricocheted off a wall and crashed the floor, heavily battered. Dodging all of this and the many other bolts of energy smashing into the floor around him, Techno ran to join Darkwing and Crimson.

"Use shock darts, that might work!" Techno suggested.

Darkwing and Crimson nodded, and used their gas guns to fire off several of the darts at Gigavolt. They sparked when hitting him, but otherwise they just whizzed through him, doing nothing. Gigavolt grinned, and released a wave of energy at them that blew them back and off their feet.

"This is going very badly!" Crimson said, picking herself up. "I don't think we can win!"

"To the Thunderquack!" Darkwing said, pointing at the jet and dashing towards it.

He shouldn't have shouted the order, however, for Gigavolt couldn't help but hear. Cutting off the three's path with a bolt of energy real quick, Gigavolt then turned his wrath to the jet, very nearly tearing it, and the area is sat in apart with the furious attack of energy he unleashed at it. The Thunderquack was left very battered and completely unflyable, the fuel in one engine even igniting and starting a fire.

Seeing that route to escape cut off, the threesome then turned and ran for the chairs, but Gigavolt was a step ahead of them yet again, and quickly took out the chairs and the mechanism they operated upon with three bolts tightly grouped together. Dodging more attacks, the three then sought shelter behind one of the main support beams that held up the tower. Gigavolt could still be heard attacking, now just being purely destructive, by taking out the spiral staircase leading up to the upper levels of the tower.

"Now what?" Techno asked from their hiding spot.

"We have to abandon the tower." Darkwing said grimly. "Tech, go get the backup drives to the supercomputer. Me and Crimson will provide cover and then we'll open the escape chute so we can all get out of here."

They all winced as Gigavolt unleashed an attack at the beam they where hiding behind, which groaned under the stress. Counting to three, Darkwing then motioned Techno to run, while he and Crimson fired everything they had at Gigavolt. Like before, it didn't seem to affect Gigavolt much, but it drew his attention away from Techno long enough for him to duck and weave over to the supercomputer and yank out the back up hard drive from it's slot and begin running back in Crimson and Darkwing's position in a similar manner as the one he took to get there.

Upon seeing Techno hurrying back, Crimson and Darkwing moved over to the emergency escape hatch and began to pull it open. Gigavolt saw where this was all going, and was going to move to stop it all, when he suddenly caught sight of movement in the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw Launchpad, virtually forgotten in all of the excitement, slowly begin to climb out of his hiding spot under the worktable, thinking it was safe.

Convinced to prove him wrong, Gigavolt vaulted himself over the edge of the platform he still stood upon and landed on the table Launchpad had been hiding under. Launchpad yelped, and quickly scrambled out from under it, which was a good thing, for Gigavolt had quickly fired two bolts of energy through the table and would've hit Launchpad had he stayed. Knocking over a bottle of a chemicals to spill on the floor and slipping in it, Launchpad began running away from Gigavolt.

Gigavolt fired another bolt at Launchpad, but missed and instead hit the puddle of chemical, igniting it aflame. He quickly turned away, raising an arm to instinctively shield himself from the flames. Techno, in passing, saw what was happening, and pulled out another chemical bomb.

"Launchpad, MOVE!" Techno yelled.

Launchpad quickly hurried away from the little science corner of the tower, and Techno hurled the bomb into it before turning to run himself. A moment later, the bomb went off, amplified as the several bottles of chemicals the corner of the tower also housed ignited as well, completely destroying that corner of the tower and engulfing in a field of flames. Launchpad and Techno joined Crimson and Darkwing at the emergency escape, and looked back at the destruction, not seeing Gigavolt.

"Did we get him?" Crimson asked, hopeful.

As if to answer her question, Gigavolt suddenly emerged from the flames, looking disoriented, but unharmed.

"No!" Darkwing exclaimed, and pulled open the hatch to the escape chute open all the way. "Everybody in!"

Launchpad hopped into the chute first, quickly followed by Techno who still gripped the back up hard drive. Crimson moved to follow, but before she could, a bolt of energy whizzed between her and Darkwing, blowing away the entrance to the chute and knocking the two apart and to the floor. Across the hideout, Gigavolt took flight, reverting to his bolt form.

"You two aren't going anywhere!" he exclaimed, circling the tower.

And to prove his point, he plowed through a walkway that hung over Darkwing and Crimson, cutting it into two. With a groan, both parts jerked downward violently, very nearly falling. Crimson and Darkwing quickly moved out of the way as debris rained down, blocking the entrance to the escape chute. The two looked at each other, then up and Gigavolt.

"Run!" Darkwing exclaimed, and the two quickly started running in two different directions.

Gigavolt, still in the air, fired a bolt at Darkwing, blasting a hole into the floor under Darkwing's feet, and knocking him over. He fired off another bolt aimed at Darkwing's head, but missed and instead took out a window. He then turned his attention to Crimson, who was running past the corner of the hideout that served as a library, being lined with several shelves full of books.

Firing a bolt into one of these bookcases, Gigavolt watched as the bookcase tipped over from the impact and fell to the floor, taking out a lamp and chair with it, and spilling books all over. Crimson slipped on some of these books as they skidded under her feet, and toppled to the floor with a crash. Gigavolt found this funny and began to laugh.

Annoyed, Crimson started to pick herself up, gripping her gas gun tightly. She noticed with a start that in her tumble, the gun had been bumped and had switched attachments to the next one in line, the one that fired bolts of energy that teleported things into the Teryx sub-universe. Seeing that they had tried everything else, Crimson whirled around and fired the attachment at Gigavolt, hitting him dead on.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't teleport him. But it did hit him, and knocked Gigavolt back a few feet from where he hovered in the air and seemed dazed for a moment. Crimson realized with a start that the energy in the blasts worked to slightly stun Gigavolt. If several shots were fired at him in rapid succession...

"Darkwing, use the Teryx teleporter on him!" Crimson exclaimed, firing more shots at Gigavolt.

Across the tower, Darkwing switched attachments on his gas gun, and did as requested, firing several shots at Gigavolt. The combined hits from both the shots Crimson fired and Darkwing fired seemed to finally overwhelm Gigavolt, and with a moan, he toppled out of the air and fell to the floor with a thud. He lay there limply for a moment, leading Crimson and Darkwing to believe they had won finally, but then Gigavolt, glaring, sat up into a kneeling position, let out a yell, and then curled up into a ball.

From all around the tower, energy jumped from all locations and into Gigavolt, who started to glow brighter. A low whine started to build in volume, and Darkwing felt his stomach sink.

"He's overloading." he realized.

"What?"

"He's overloading, like a machine! Crimson, we've gotta get out of here!"

Darkwing clambered into the window Gigavolt had broken and motioned to Crimson to hurry. Crimson raced across the tower, dodging the bolts of energy Gigavolt was drawing to him, getting more destructive by the moment. One bolt sliced through the satellite dish stun gun that hung from the ceiling, and it fell with a crash onto the Ratcatcher, crushing it, and very nearly missing Crimson.

Finally, Crimson reached the window, but stopped for a moment to look back into the tower, consciously aware that this was probably going to be the last time she saw it intact. Then, narrowing getting hit again by another bolt of energy and hearing Darkwing telling her to hurry, she turned and dove out the broken window.

She flew out into open space, hung there for a moment, and then like a rock, began to drop downward, the air rushing around her in a fury. The window she dove out to faced out to the bay; there was nothing but water beneath her, meaning a soft landing was in store if she worked to slow her descent. Grabbing the edges of her cape, she gave them a yank, intending to use her cape as a parachute. But instead of the sudden jolt of being forced to slow down, Crimson instead heard a ripping noise and she continued to fall dangerously fast.

Risking a quick glance behind her, she saw that her cape now sported a large hole in it, and couldn't catch the air enough to make for an effective parachute. Just when she was about to begin panicking, however, a pair of webbed feet suddenly wrapped around her, and then there was the familiar jolt of the effects of a parachute that she had been hoping for. Looking above her, she had just time enough to see that Darkwing, having followed her out the window, had just managed to save her.

It was then that things went from bad to worse.

A sudden and echoing bang rang out abruptly, and a wave of energy smashed through all eight windows in the tower above them, quickly followed by a fiery explosion that gushed out the same windows in burning streams. The whole Audubon Bay Bridge rocked from the explosion. Launchpad and Techno, who were running along a maintenance walkway that ran along side the bridge where both knocked down. The minimal traffic on the bridge, thanks to both the late hour and the blackout that still gripped most of St. Canard, was bounced like toys and brought everything to a halt as all eyes turned to the tower.

The first explosion had barely dissipated before another went off lower in the tower, shattering the bricks that made up the walls just under the windows and spraying the debris everywhere. With a crumble, the roof of the tower collapsed, falling down on top of the rest of the structure, the fire burning within pluming out one last time in the process. The main cable that was strung through the tower shook, and then slipped, dropping several notches. The whole bridge rocked again, it's structural integrity compromised.

It was then that Darkwing and Crimson hit the watery surface of the bay. They both went under for a moment, disentangling themselves from each other. Darkwing surfaced first, and switched attachments on his gas gun and fired. A rubber raft spat out of it and inflated. By this time Crimson had surfaced as well, and they both clambered, wet and soggy, into the raft, and looked back up at the smoking ruins of the tower, debris splashing into the bay all around them. The bridge rocked again as the main cable again threatened to give way to it's load. The thought suddenly crossed Darkwing's mind that maybe the explosion took care of Gigavolt, but no sooner than he had thought this, a white ball of energy burst through the collapsed roof of the tower and shot off into the night. Clearly, it was Gigavolt, giving up the fight for the moment.

Panting, Crimson took off her hat and wrung the water out of it. "Well, that went very badly." was her only comment.

"Yes, it did." Darkwing said glumly, staring at what remained of his precious hideout. "So now Gigavolt had better watch out. Because this little battle of his has just been bumped up to the personal level..."

* * *

The police and an emergency team of construction workers quickly arrived at the scene and speedily evacuated the bridge in case it collapsed. Fortunately, it was discovered that there was no risk of that. It's integrity had undeniably been weakened, but the Audubon Bay Bridge was sturdy enough that it would hold together long enough for repairs to be conducted. By this point, the news crews had arrived at the scene and had rapidly launched into that night's special report, getting shots of the column of smoke that rose from the remains of the top of the southeastern tower as crews sprayed the tower down to extinguish the flames. They recorded it all with the intent to feed it to televisions all over the state of Calisota.

But for St. Canard, it wasn't really necessary, for the column could be seen no matter where you were in the city. A fact J. Gander Hooter dully noted as he looked out the window of his office out at that column. He sighed, and turned to face Darkwing and the others who had gathered in his office.

"How bad is the damage, Darkwing?" he asked hesitantly.

"Bad." Darkwing replied simply. "I haven't even looked, but it's safe to say that everything in Darkwing Tower is pretty much gone. All we've got left is the costumes we're wearing and the back up hard drive from the supercomputer, which contains only a fraction of the data that was stored on the supercomputer." he pointed at the device now sitting on Hooter's desk as he said this and sighed upon concluding. "We're going to have to start all over, J. Gander, and rebuild all of that lost stuff, and that's going to take time."

"Time we simply do not have at the moment, Darkwing." Hooter said. "Gigavolt is still at large, and very much a threat. He's already done all of _that_..." he pointed out the window at the column of smoke, "...and a whole lot more! Just imagine the damage he could do next if we don't stop him! And it's most likely going to be damage to _you _Darkwing!"

"I know." Darkwing replied flatly.

"This is a terrible mess that we're in." Hooter went on. "Thank heavens that Vice President Norrin hasn't found about it yet, but the moment he does..." he shook his head, "Most likely the dear vice president is going to be paying my office a visit in person before this is all over, and it won't be a pleasant meeting."

"I'm sorry, J. Gander." Darkwing apologized. "But I honestly don't know how we're going to stop Gigavolt. We've tried everything short of dropping a nuclear bomb on him, and we've found a few things that will temporarily stun him, but nothing that will actually beat him! I'm not even sure it's possible!"

"It's not." Crimson commented, her head in her hands.

"Crimson's right, I've been going over the math, and according to the numbers, there just isn't any way." Techno said. "At least not now. If I had time to experiment, a month, maybe more, then maybe I could help come up with something, but it's like you said, director! We just don't have the time!"

"There must be _some _way to stop Gigavolt!" Hooter said. "I'd even settle for something that would just get him out of the way long enough for us to come up with something better."

"I may be able to help you there, director."

They all turned to see Megavolt and Agent Grant standing in the doorway of the office.

"Brought Megavolt up here as reported, sir." Agent Grant reported to Hooter.

"Megs!" Crimson said, standing. "You're all right, then."

"For the most part, yes." Megavolt said, stepping across the room and staring out the window at the column of smoke. "But when I think about what's happening...all because of me..."

"So what makes you think you can help, Megs?" Darkwing asked angrily, standing himself. "Don't you think you've _helped _enough? It's because of you Gigavolt has even been created!"

"I know." Megavolt said. He turned around to face them. "But I intend to help fix that."

"How are you going to help fix this?" Techno asked.

"_Why _would you even want to help?" Launchpad asked. "You're the enemy!"

"Not any more!" Megavolt said. "I'm on your side now! I made that choice just moments before Gigavolt was created, it's the only reason he's even here!"

"So you admit that it's all your fault, then." Darkwing said flatly.

"Yes, it's my fault!" Megavolt snapped. "I made a real mess, I admit it! All I have managed to do for the past twenty-two years, ever since high school, is cause trouble! And I hate it, I resent it, and now there's nothing I want to do now it make it all right again! You've got to let me do that! I can do it, I know I can, but how can I if you don't trust me? Now I know you all probably don't want to have to do a thing with me at the moment, but I'm sorry! I'm your last hope, and you know it! So what's it going to be? Will you trust me, or would you rather face Gigs yourselves?"

There was a moment of silence. The Crimson turned to Darkwing and grinned weakly.

"Well, it's not like we've got much left to loose." she pointed out.

Darkwing rolled his eyes. "Oh all right." he said, sighing. "Sorry Megs, but it hasn't been a good night."

"For any of us." Megavolt agreed, nodding.

"What's your plan, Megavolt?" Hooter asked.

"Well, I've been thinking." Megavolt said. "At the moment, Gigavolt's number one goal is to get at Darkwing. It's easy to see why. He's all negatrons, probably perfectly evil, and my restored memories that he's got are no doubt telling to hate Darkwing's guts, just like they did for me, initially."

"The only difference is that we can't reason with him and get him to switch sides like we did with you, Megs." Techno remarked.

"Right." Megavolt said.

"So the only thing we can do now is beat him." Darkwing said.

"Wrong." Megavolt said, grinning.

"Excuse me?"

"Look, we all agree that we just don't have the means to beat Gigs at this time." Megavolt clarified. "Well, we've got enough ideas to do it with, but no time to pull any of them off. That's what it all boils down to, is the lack of time. That, and the fact that Gigs is even deadlier with the memories he's got than without."

"So what are you proposing?" Crimson asked.

"We scramble Gigavolt's memories, make him forget all of those restored memories if not more."

"We can do that?"

"I think so. All we need is a big enough surge of energy to overload him."

"That actually makes sense." Techno remarked. "We already know he's vulnerable to large surges of energy. Hit him with powerful enough a burst and we've got him."

"I'm convinced that once we wipe his memories, he'll not only be no longer so serious a threat to Darkwing, it should also disorient him and keep him busy from causing trouble again for a little while until we can come up with a more effective means of fighting him." Megavolt added. "Only a short term 'patch' to the problem, yes, but it's the best we've got at the moment."

"The only problem with all of this is obtaining something that can produce a large enough burst of energy." Techno said, running a few numbers through his head. "It's going to take quite a burst of energy to do what we need. A high magnitude bomb would probably do the trick, but considering this will all probably go down within the city limits, something more concentrated would probably be more desired."

"SHUSH as recently been working on an energy cannon that shoots highly charged beams of energy." Hooter suggested. "I can arrange for you to use it."

"That should work, shouldn't it?" Crimson said, turning to Techno. "Give it a power boost, and shoot it at Gigs and the problem's solved, right?"

"It would have to be one heck of a power boost." Techno said, a little leery of the idea. "I'm not sure how well the circuits of any device could handle it. We would at least only get one shot at it."

"So we had better make it count." Darkwing said. "Because Megs is right. This is the best plan we've got."

"So how is this plan going to go down?" Launchpad asked.

"Well, first, Director Hooter, you should get you and your staff to evacuate the building." Megavolt said.

"Certainly, I'll make the call to evacuate to Elementary Underground immediately." Hooter said. "But if I may ask, why?"

"Gigs knows this is the only place Darkwing and the gang have left to go to hideout." Megavolt said. "He's going to come here and attack sooner or later. In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't tried already."

"Well, he did get himself caught in the explosion at the tower." Darkwing said. "Could the blast have been big enough to disorient him for a little bit, dealing him minimal damage?"

"Possibly." Megavolt admitted. "But the point of the matter is that if already know he's going to be coming here, then we might as well let him come. But when he gets here, we'll be waiting."

"So we're using SHUSH as bait for a trap." Crimson commented. "Gigs will never see that coming."

"Exactly." Megavolt said. "So here's what we're going to do..."

* * *

When Gigavolt arrived, he found SHUSH Headquarters dark and inactive. Whether he suspected something, or not, he didn't seem too overly concerned over it. He approached the building in his bolt form, not looking like he cared if he was seen coming or not. Which was how Megavolt saw him coming.

"There." he said, pointing at the white bolt of light. "He's coming."

"Tech, get ready with that cannon thing." Darkwing called, hurrying across the roof to join Megavolt.

Techno worked with the cannon for a moment, the already jury-rigged looking device made even more jury-rigged looking by the fact that as many cords of additional power had been connected to it. He sighed. "21.12 gigawatts." he reported, letting his hands fall to his sides. "I can't get this thing to shoot anything more powerful than that. It's simply not built like that."

"Will it be enough?" Crimson asked, hovering nearby.

"It'll have to be!" Techno said. "It's not the number I would've _liked _to reach, but it's close enough."

"Fine." Darkwing said. "Me and Megs will hold Gigs at bay long enough for you to get a clear shot, Techno. Once you've got it, don't hesitate to fire."

"I won't." Techno said. "But be warned. The beam is likely to incinerate anything that's not Gigavolt caught in it's path."

"So noted." Megavolt said. "We'll be out of the way."

"Wait, I'll help fight Gigs too." Crimson said, hurrying forward to join Darkwing and Megavolt. "Launchpad, you help Techno."

"Gladly." Launchpad said, switching places with her.

"Crimson, I don't want you in this." Darkwing said.

"Tough, Dad, I'm joining this fight." Crimson said. "Besides, I'm going to be fighting this guy a whole lot in the future, right? Might as well start now."

Darkwing nodded, deciding he couldn't argue with that. "Let's get dangerous then."

It was Gigavolt who made the first move, firing a series of bolts of energy at his targets below, a couple of them aimed at the energy cannon, no doubt seeing that they were going to try and use it against him. The bolts were all easily dodged, though. As Gigavolt drew closer and was about to fly over the building, Crimson and Darkwing fired their Teryx teleporter attachments on their gas guns repeatedly at Gigavolt while Megavolt fired off a few of his own bolts of energy at their target.

Gigavolt tried to zoom off course and avoid the attack, but enough shots hit that it stunned him slightly, and he dropped out of the sky and crashed to the roof, bouncing off a satellite dish SHUSH had on the roof of their building. Amid the sparking wreckage, he quickly hopped back up, and before his attackers could fire off many more shots, sent a wave of energy in their direction.

Seeing the attack coming, Darkwing, Crimson, and Megavolt tried to outrun the attack, but weren't fast enough and were eventually knocked flat onto their backs. Gigavolt moved forward to finish off his prey. It was then that Techno took action.

"Fire in the hole!" Launchpad exclaimed, drawing Gigavolt's attention back to the cannon.

Once Gigavolt turned to look at them, Techno fired the cannon, a beam of white hot energy lancing out at Gigavolt and striking him full on. Yelling, he struggled against the onslaught of energy, but it was starting to drive him back in addition to overloading him. Techno kept the beam trained on him, eyeing a gage on the device measuring the total energy output it had released. It was quickly approaching twenty gigawatts.

"Almost there..." Techno muttered.

But then things went wrong. Something on the cannon spark violently, and the beam flickered and vanished.

"No!" Techno exclaimed before the controls overloaded and blew, knocking him and Launchpad backwards. "It didn't finish the process! We were nearly there, but we didn't finish!"

Released from the effects of the beam, Gigavolt wobbled around almost drunkenly. Megavolt watched him for a moment, then made a decision. Racing over to Gigavolt despite a shout from Darkwing and Crimson to stop, he grabbed Gigavolt by the collar. He was semi-surprised he even could do that, but quickly shoved that thought to the back of his mind as he brought Gigavolt around to stare into his face.

"What are you doing?" Gigavolt asked, surprised.

"Setting things right." Megavolt replied, and then forced all of the energy he had into Gigavolt, finishing the job the cannon had started.

Already still reeling from the effects from the cannon's blast, Gigavolt virtually crumpled under the new onslaught of energy. In the process, he let loose one last burst of energy himself, a kind of discharge that zapped Megavolt. He was knocked backwards and he, too, crumbled. Darkwing and Crimson rushed over to Megavolt to look him over. Warily, Techno approached Gigavolt, looking him over.

Like all the times before, Gigavolt bounced back from being stunned faster than would've been desired, but this time, as he slowly picked himself up, he did it blankly, looking puzzled. His eyes fell on Techno, and squinted at him for a moment, like he was seeing something that seemed eerily familiar to him.

"Do...I know you?" Gigavolt finally asked.

Techno's eyebrows went up, then he slowly grinned. "It worked." he whispered.

It was then that Darkwing fired his Teryx teleporter at Gigavolt several times. Yelping, almost as if in agony, Gigavolt reverted to his bolt form and shot off into the night, quickly fading away into the horizon.

Techno turned to Darkwing. "Why did you do that?" he asked. "It worked, Gigs lost all of those restored memories, if not more, just as planned!"

"I was scaring him off." Darkwing said. "Megs's right, we can't beat him now. Save that for another night. Besides..." he glanced back at Megavolt's limp form as Crimson knelt over him, trying to get him to wake, "...Megs needs some medical attention."

* * *

"Good work, Darkwing." Hooter praised once the all-clear had been sounded and the SHUSH agents returned to restore normal operations. They were both heading for Hooter's office. "The plan seems have worked almost flawlessly."

"Almost." Darkwing repeated, shaking his head. "How's Megs?"

"He'll live." Hooter assured him. "Right now he just seems to be in some kind of state of shock. He'll snap out of it eventually, but the doctor's chief concern is his memory, and if it's still intact."

"Think that shock he got from Gigs might have undone his memory too, huh?" Darkwing asked.

"It's a theory, but one I hope is wrong." Hooter said. "Megavolt certainly deserves more than that."

"You know, he's a hero now." Darkwing pointed out. "If he hadn't acted when he did, the plan probably would've failed."

"I know." Hooter said. "I intend to thank him somehow, but I haven't decided how."

"I think being accepted for who he is now and forgiven for past deeds would be good enough for him." Darkwing said.

"Then he certainly has that from me." Hooter said. "Still, I wish to give him some kind of award."

They walked on in silence. They did not speak again until they arrived at the door of Hooter's office.

"J. Gander," Darkwing began as Hooter went to open the door, "about the tower..."

"I want to talk to you about that, Darkwing." Hooter said, opening the door and proceeding inside. "Have a seat, and we'll..."

They both froze when they saw Vice President Norrin standing at the window of the office, turning to look at them with his usual neutral expression. Hooter narrowed his eyes.

"...or not." he said, shutting the door behind him. "I suppose you're here to discuss recent events, Mr. Vice President?"

"Indeed I am, director." Norrin said. "I'll be brief, however. First off, I just read the report on the issue concerning Gigavolt. I want to know where you stand on the issue."

"We've already begin work on creating new defenses to combat him." Hooter reported flatly.

"Good." Norrin said. He turned to Darkwing. "Darkwing, my condolences for the loss of your hideout."

"It'll be rebuilt." Darkwing said hotly, folding his arms.

"So it shall." Norrin said, and handed Hooter a manilla folder to read. "SHUSH will assist you in the process."

Hooter looked up from the folder he had been given and blinked, struggling to hold back his surprised. Darkwing didn't even try.

"Wh-wh-wh-what?" he stuttered.

"It would seem you've gathered quite a few allies within the various organizations and the such you've encountered, Darkwing." Norrin said, moving for the door. "I am now being pressured to...'lighten up' so to speak, when around you."

"Lighten up?" Darkwing repeated. "Really?"

"Those were the president's words, and not mine." Norrin said, opening the door and beginning to step out. "I should also point out that this doesn't change the fact that I don't like you."

"Well...same here!" Darkwing announced.

"Very well." Norrin said, and continued to step out. He paused, though. "Director, you may want to direct your attention to the back of that file. Good night."

He then left. Darkwing and Hooter exchanged glances. Hooter then opened the file and flipped to the back, reading what was there. He frowned, then handed the folder to Darkwing to read. In the back was a very lengthy article cut from the St. Canard evening paper. All Darkwing needed to read was the headline, however.

"**Southeastern Tower of Bay Bridge Destroyed!"**

"Evidence suggests tower was hideout of Darkwing Duck!"

* * *

As dawn broke the following grey morning, the light didn't make the wreckage of the ruins of the tower seem any nicer. As work crews continued to stabilize the bridge, Darkwing and Launchpad sorted through the wreckage while Hooter watched from afar. Finally, throwing aside a piece of the roof, Launchpad gave up.

"Sorry, DW, but there's nothing left." he said sadly, his shoulders drooping. "I can't even find very much of the Thunderquack left."

Darkwing continued sorting for a moment until he found by chance the little figurine that had been used to activate the chairs leading in and out of the tower, it's head missing. Gripping it tightly, he sighed, hanging his head. Hooter stepped over, wading carefully through the wreckage.

"I'm sorry, Darkwing." Hooter said, placing a reassuring hand on the hero's shoulder. "Even if there was something left to build up from, you know you can't, not now that the secret of the tower's location is out to the public."

"Yeah, DW." Launchpad said, stepping over. "We're going to have to find somewhere else to set up a new hideout."

"I know, LP." Darkwing said.

Hooter and Launchpad hung their heads to share a moment of sadness for the loss.

"Fortunately, I know where."

Hooter and Launchpad both looked up at Darkwing in surprise.

"DW?" Launchpad asked.

Darkwing pocketed the figurine and started walking to the structure that bridged the gap between the ruined tower and it's southwestern cousin. "Follow me, you two." he said as he went. "There's something I want you to see."

Puzzled, but knowing better than to make a comment, Launchpad and Hooter followed him across to the southwestern tower of the Audubon Bay Bridge on it's more stable side, then across the cable (Launchpad aiding Hooter in the trek) that connected the two towers on the western side of the bridge to the northwestern tower of the bridge. It was eerily silent here, away from the noise of the repairs occurring from the repairs. Nervous, Hooter felt compelled to speak.

"Darkwing?" he asked, as Darkwing opened the window on the tower. "What's this about?"

"Presenting, J. Gander," Darkwing said dramatically as he slipped into the tower, "Darkwing Tower's backup tower."

Once they were all inside, they found another Darkwing Tower, a near identical clone to the one that had been destroyed, minus several gadgets and the fact that everything in the tower was draped with plastic coverings to protect it from dust. Grinning, Darkwing looked to gauge Launchpad and Hooter's reaction. They were both flabbergasted.

"Built this around the same time I built the original tower years and years back." Darkwing explained, leaning on the dusty railing that ran around the platform they stood upon. "You can tell by seeing just how out of date the technology is. But it was built in the event that something happened to the original tower. All it'll need is a refit with the new technology, get stocked up on all of the gadgets, a new Thunderquack and Ratcatcher to house, and a few other ideas that I've got up my sleeve, and she'll be ready for action."

"Wow." Launchpad said, amazed.

"But I don't get it." Hooter admitted. "Darkwing, the location of the original tower is out now!"

"This one's still a secret." Darkwing pressed.

"Does it matter?" Hooter asked. "The old tower is just two thousand feet _that way_." he pointed in the general direction of where the old tower had stood. "And everyone knows where it was! Doesn't it seemed illogical to have another hideout so close to the old one?"

"Exactly." Darkwing said. "Everyone will have thought that I would be smart enough to not try and set up a new hideout so close to the old one. Even Negs will think that, I'll bet. Audubon Bay Bridge will be the very _last _place they'll look for the new hideout."

Hooter opened his mouth as if to object, but stopped at the last moment. "I must admit," he said reluctantly, "that actually makes some sense."

"It's brilliant, I think!" Launchpad said. "We can get started right away!"

"No, LP, there would be too much risk of being seen while the city rebuilds the lost tower." Darkwing said. "We'll have to wait until after they're done to begin."

"You can set up a temporary hideout at SHUSH in the meantime." Hooter said.

"Good." Darkwing said, and turned back to look at the new-hideout-to-be and grinned. "But I'm with Launchpad, and hoping the repairs to the bridge are finished soon. I can't wait to get started."

* * *

Megavolt awoke blearily again, and realized quickly that he was in the same bed in the same room the last time he woke up like this. He groaned, putting a hand over his eyes. He heard someone turn to look at him, probably unaware he was awake, and looked in the direction of the sound, expecting to see Jewel there, again.

Instead, it was Crimson, who had been reading a magazine to pass the time. "Well, good morning Megs." she said cheerily. "How you feeling?"

Megavolt stopped to think for a moment. "Okay, I guess." he said. "What happened? Did it work? Did the plan work?"

"Oh, it worked all right." Crimson said, setting aside the magazine and moving over to stand beside his bed. "Gigs has seemed to have lost those troublesome memories and has Swiss cheese for memory again. No one's seen any trace of him since, either, stating that he probably has gone and hid somewhere long enough to get his act back together again, just as you theorized."

"Oh good." Megavolt said, pleased.

"SHUSH has already begun working on coming up with new means of fighting him, if and when he comes back." Crimson said. "Techno's already volunteered, and there's interest if you'll help as well."

"I'll be glad to." Megavolt said. "It's not like I have anything else left for me to do, anyway. I suppose helping SHUSH is a start. Maybe I'll make a career out of it."

"I'd doubt that." Crimson was forced to admit.

"Well, we'll see, won't we?" Megavolt asked, adjusting his position.

"You sure you're okay, though?" Crimson asked again. "The doctors were pretty concerned about you, including one in particular, what was her name...?"

"Jewel?" Megavolt offered.

"Yeah, that was it." Crimson said. "Agent Jewel Ampere." she paused and looked conspiratorially around and grinned. "Between you and me, I think she's attracted to you, Megs."

Megavolt blinked. "Really?" he asked. "I'm surprised anybody would want anything to do with me."

"Not after everything you did last night, Megs." Crimson said. "Even the most skeptic can't deny that you were a huge help. Besides, you're on our side now. Of course people are going to want something to do with you." she was silent for a moment, allowing Megavolt to digest all of that for a moment before continuing. "Speaking of which, what finally made you decide to switch sides, anyway?"

Now Megavolt looked warily around. "Can you keep a secret?" he asked.

"Sure."

"I was dropped a hint from the future."

Crimson's beak fell open. "Keen gear, no way!" she hissed in an excited whisper. "Who dropped you the hint? No wait, don't tell me, it was me, wasn't it? The future me?"

"Yes." Megavolt said, mildly surprised she guessed so quickly, and then went on to briefly retell the story.

"...once back home, it was then that I realized that Future Crimson was trying to drop me a hint by saying what she said." he said at the end. "Make the choice that was _right_. In other words, switch sides, and I saw she really was right. The rest is history."

"Keen gear!" Crimson said again, but then frowned. "Why are you telling me this, though?"

"Because Darkwing wasn't the only one who noticed you seemed to know a lot about Gigavolt already."

"Oh. Ohhhh. Heh, yeah, well, that's because I've...uh...met up with him before."

"I knew it! So you've been to the future as well?"

"Well, no. It's just you in that regard, you lucky dog. No, Gigs came from the future to this time to try and alter time, and the future me came to stop him. I accidently got mixed up in the matter and got to meet up with him and learned a few tips about fighting him. Future Crimson dropped me a hint that I'd meet up with him again eventually, but I have to admit it was sooner than I thought."

"So here's a question to you." Megavolt said. "If you knew all of this already, then why didn't you tell Darkwing at the very least everything?"

"Because I promised myself, my future self, that I wouldn't tell anybody else." Crimson said. "And I figured I better keep a promise that I made to myself."

"But you broke that promise by telling me."

"So did you. But I think we're exceptions to the rules, as we're the ones who have the privilege of knowing all of this." Crimson grinned. "Besides, it's nice to be able to tell _somebody_."

"So it is." Megavolt said.

He would've said more about the matter, but then Jewel suddenly turned up. She blushed when she saw Crimson already there.

"Oh, I'm sorry." she said quickly. "I just heard Megavolt was awake and came over to check on him but I can come back if I'm intruding..."

"Not at all, Agent Jewel." Crimson said, standing. "I need to go meet up with Darkwing anyway." she nodded at Megavolt knowingly. "I'll leave you two to some privacy. See ya, Megs."

Megavolt waved a goodbye, then turned his attention to Jewel who took Crimson's vacated spot. At first, she acted like the doctor she was, but eventually the two began to strike up a conversation. It was around then that Megavolt realized something. The past few weeks may not have been exactly the greatest, but there was one thing he could be certain about all of this.

His future had never looked brighter.

* * *

_Fun Facts: First off, I should note that The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck is officially a year old now. Chpt. 56 was consequently posted on the very day of it's first birthday, which was completely unplanned. I didn't even notice until afterwards. The fanfic is also now my longest by two chapters, but I had already given you guys heads up about this._

_Speaking of length, this chapter has now beaten chpt. 55 "Recollection Part II" as the longest._

_Coot County that Techno mentions a couple of times when discussing power flow to St. Canard is the county Duckburg resides in. It is named after Duckburg's founder, Cornelius Coot._

_Remember when I mentioned way back in chpt. 46, "Prove Me False Part II" that I had allowed SHUSH to discover the location of Darkwing Tower because it would've happened anyway in a future chapter? This was the chapter I was referring to._

_Jewel Ampere's name is a gag on terms pertaining to electricity. "Ampere" is obvious, but "Jewel" is a gag on the word "joule". A relatsionship between her and Megs is to begin, and I was going to heavily enforce that in this chapter. It ended up only being mere hints, but in a way, I like that better. Jewel was originally was to be a psychiatrist, but deciding that was too much like Morgana and Bob, I changed her to a normal agent/doctor. Only to realize that was similar to Darkwing's and Christine's relationship, but by that point I decided that I just couldn't win so I left it as that. :p_

_I mention that Agents Mia and Sandy were out in the field on a mission during this chapter. I might reveal more details about that mission in a later chapter, or I might not. Just so your're all aware._

_Techno mentions that the energy cannon that is used to attack Gigavolt and is able to supercharge, was powered up to a full 21.12 gigawatts. If you were take that number and reverse it (so that it said 12.21 gigawatts) you'd get the necessary power for the DeLorean from the movie **Back to The Future** needs in order to time travel._

_Norrin's appreance in this chapter was done because I longed to fit the character into a chapter, even if for such a breif role. His unusual tone of friendliness is in preparation for an upcoming chapter._

_I realize I stretch realizism with Darkwing's new proposed hideout, but let's face it, can you really picture Darkwing Duck having a hideout somewhere **other **than in one of the towers of Audubon Bay Bridge?_

_The next few chapters will have Darkwing and the gang housed in SHUSH HQ until the new tower completed. I don't expect the tower to be completed chapter-wise until sometime after the next two-parter on every fifteenth chapter. We probably won't see much of this temporary hideout, though._

_I figured that you readers would all get mad if the chapter ended if Crimson never told anybody she already knew of Gigavolt, so I had her tell Megs, seeing that he already knows more about the future than she does. It'll be their little secret, so to speak. A secret they aren't likely to talk about often, but hey._

_This chapter concludes the Megavolt story arc for now. Megavolt will still make the odd appearance, especially in very distant chapters, but he will be mostly absent overall from here on out. Gigavolt will technically fill in the shoes Megavolt has left, but he won't join the Fearsome Five (though Negs will no doubt try to recruit him at some point). The few chapters remaining until the two-parter at the next upcoming fifteenth chapter will probably be more light-hearted, humorious, and just all-around fun. :)  
_


	58. A Change of Heart

Summary: When Honker suddenly and inexplicably decides to quit being Techno and breaks away from Gosalyn, Gosalyn is left feeling crushed, and Drake enraged. But upon investigating the matter further, Drake realized there's more to this that meets the eye...

Rating: T

Author's Note: This chapter is a touch dark, and somewhat suggestive entirely due to the presence of one character. I think it turned out very well, though, so enjoy it. Also note that the next chapter may be a touch late, because I really need to sit down and write an essay for class (shouldn't be too hard, though). ;)

58.

A Change of Heart

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Henry Bantamock at your service. Owner of this fine store."_

"_Honker Muddlefoot."_

_--  
_

"_Hey, remember me?"_

"_Y-you're Jax. Gosalyn's friend."_

_--  
_

"_Honker, what the..."_

"_I'm hiding from Jax."_

"_Jax? What's wrong with Jax?"_

"_I swear, she's stalking me, or something."_

_--  
_

"_One more thing while you're here. I believe you forgot this last time you visited."_

"_D-did I? Oh, well, thank you. You didn't look through it...did you?"_

"_I admittedly did skim through it. Very interesting life you lead, young Techno."_

_--  
_

"_You won't..."_

"_Your secret's safe with me. Besides, I don't really have anybody to tell it to."_

_--  
_

"_Some friend you are, Jax. Betraying Gosalyn like just so you can try to get close to her closest friend who never wanted to do a thing with you in the first place?"_

_--  
_

"_I can't believe I let you be my friend. But you have been everything but! Turning against me, setting me up with a traitorous dance partner, and going after my best friend and annoying the living daylights out of him!"_

_--  
_

"_It seems that whenever Crimson and Rowe are separated, they, for reasons I can't begin to comprehend, pass out."_

_--  
_

"_First off, I should point out that this is the first time I have looked at Rowe with magical sight, and thus I was completely unaware of it."_

"_Unaware of what?"_

"_That Rowe is a familiar."_

_--  
_

"_The magical energy Rowe stores shows signs of having recently been tapped, like I had predicted. All I had to do was follow the connection that has been forged between him and the magician that tapped the energy."_

"_And?"_

"_It connects to Crimson. Dark, she has magical blood."_

_--  
_

"_Is there some way to sever the link? Please say there is."_

"_There is. But Crimson and Rowe aren't going to like it."_

"_Why, what does it entail?"_

"_It's not what it entails, it's what it implies."_

_--  
_

"_Well, according to Morgana, there are several variations of these...connections...a magician and it's familiar can have. The more...impersonal the relationship is, the weaker the bond, and visa versa. Now again, according to Morgana, the connection between you two is already unnaturally strong, which suggests...well..."_

"_A more personal relationship?"_

"_I know what it sounds like, but..."_

"_A __**personal**__ relationship, Darkwing?"_

"_Now we're not implying anything here. That's just what...er..."_

"_Are you suggesting that I..."_

"_No! Just...that...maybe you guys aren't the arch enemies you've always acted like."_

_--  
_

"_I wish you could say we could be friends. But seeing that we'll still be enemies after this..."_

"_Aye, it wouldn't work out."_

"_Rowe, it's time to leave."_

"_Here goes. Guess I'll see you again under not-so-good circumstances, mate."_

_--  
_

"_How bad is the damage, Darkwing?"_

"_Bad. I haven't even looked, but it's safe to say that everything in Darkwing Tower is pretty much gone."_

_--  
_

"_The old tower is just two thousand feet __**that way**__. And everyone knows where it was! Doesn't it seemed illogical to have another hideout so close to the old one?"_

"_Exactly. Everyone will have thought that I would be smart enough to not try and set up a new hideout so close to the old one. Even Negs will think that, I'll bet. Audubon Bay Bridge will be the very last place they'll look for the new hideout."_

"_I must admit, that actually makes some sense."_

"_It's brilliant, I think! We can get started right away!"_

"_No, LP, there would be too much risk of being seen while the city rebuilds the lost tower. We'll have to wait until after they're done to begin."_

"_You can set up a temporary hideout at SHUSH in the meantime."_

"_Good. But I'm with Launchpad, and hoping the repairs to the bridge are finished soon. I can't wait to get started."

* * *

_

"Hey Gos, I need to talk to you." Honker said politely as he met up with Gosalyn on the way to their school lunch break.

Gosalyn wasn't listening at the moment, however. "...so I tell him that I'm not doing the stupid homework and so now he's threatening to give me detention." she jabbered away to her unknown friend on the other end of her cell phone. "I mean, you know the assignment, you know stupid it is. It doesn't have anything to do with class at all..."

"Gos, it's really important." Honker pressed, trying to get her attention by tapping on her shoulder.

"Worse still," Gosalyn continued talking into her cell phone, "he's claimed that he's told Dad about all of this. So _now_ I'm going to have Dad hounding me to do the homework when I get, regardless of how stupid the assignment is."

"Gosalyn Lynn Mallard, I need to talk to you." Honker said, now shaking Gosalyn's shoulder.

Gosalyn silently motioned to him to wait for a moment and continued talking on her cell phone. With an exasperated sigh, Honker fell silent and waited for her to finish her call. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long.

"Okay, I'll let you go then." Gosalyn said into her cell phone. "Yeah, see you later." she hung up. "All right, Honker, what is it?"

"I need to talk to you." Honker said, looking around at the crowded hallway of the high school as they walked along.

"I got that much." Gosalyn said. "What about?"

"It's...Darkwing related."

"Okay."

"You...you probably aren't going to like this."

"Okay."

"I mean it. You aren't going to take well to this."

"Honker, just spit it out."

"I'm quitting."

Gosalyn stopped dead in her tracks. Honker, used to always having to work to keep up with Gosalyn, continued forward for about a foot before he caught himself and backtracked to Gosalyn.

"You're _quitting_?" Gosalyn asked. "You're giving up crime fighting?"

"Um..." Honker said nervously, and nodded, "...yes."

"Any particular reason _why_?" Gosalyn asked, shocked and angry at the same time. "If it's a confidence thing again, we can sort it out, we've done it before."

"No, it's more than that." Honker said. "Look Gos, I...I never felt cut out for crime fighting, and you know it. I've had my misgivings about all of it for sometime now, and they've finally come to a head. As much as...you...enjoy having me there, I'm retiring from my post as Techno."

Gosalyn stared at him for a long moment, dumbfounded, and then finally grinned. "This is a joke, isn't it?" she asked, continuing forward again. "Ha! Good one, Honk, you nearly had me there."

"This isn't a joke, Gos!" Honker said. "I'm being very serious here! I ask that you do the same!"

"Then give me a _reason _why you're quitting, Honker!" Gosalyn whined, stopping and turning to face him. "So far you haven't given me one!"

"Well...maybe I don't have one!" Honker protested.

"You _have _to have one, Honker, it wouldn't be like you if you didn't!" Gosalyn said.

"Look, I just think I'm getting the way and causing problems, so..."

"_Causing problems_? Honker, just last week you told me how much you enjoyed working with SHU..."

"Gosalyn, people are hearing!" Honker said, realizing suddenly that their argument was drawing a crowd.

"...and you have been a _huge _help the past few weeks!" Gosalyn went on. "You were _instrumental _in that search for the spy in SHU..."

"Gosalyn, not so loud..."

"...and we couldn't have beaten Gigs if you hadn't..."

"Gosalyn, SHUT UP!" Honker snapped.

A stunned silence followed. The crowd that had gathered to watch suddenly felt awkward and, embarrassed, all slunk away, continuing what they had been doing. Honker and Gosalyn just stood staring at each other, Honker breathing heavily from his outburst, Gosalyn looking both hurt and shocked.

"Look, this is neither the time nor the place to discuss this." Honker said, stepping towards Gosalyn. "If it's that big a deal, we can talk later, at home. But for now, know that my decision still stands. I quit, Gosalyn. That's all you need to know."

And with that, he walked off, leaving Gosalyn to perplexedly stare after him. After a moment, shaking her head, she left as well. It was only then that one person, standing at her locker turned away from it. Grinning mischievously, she closed her locker and walked off in the direction Honker had left...

* * *

After the argument in the hallway, Honker decided to skip lunch and went to the library to study in hopes of getting himself to calm down. He was sitting alone at a table flipping through books and jotting notes down in a spiral notebook when a shadow fell over his table.

"Well, fancy seeing you here, Honk."

Honker recognized the voice instantly. "Jax." he stated, looking up at the vixen. "And here I had been hoping you were going to leave me alone now."

Jax ignored this last comment. She peered at Honker's book. "Whatcha studying?" she asked, then added hopefully, "More anatomy?"

"None of your business." Honker said, slapping his book shut quickly, remembering the last time Jax asked him that. Thankfully, this time he was studying history. "Why are you here, anyway? I suppose you want something, right?"

Jax gave him a look that was a mixture between sad and understanding. "I heard you and Gos's argument in the hallway earlier." she said.

"And what, pray tell, does that have to do with you?" Honker asked. "I believe the friendship you and Gos had ended some time ago, nearly a whole year. And for good reason, too."

"So I was a bad girl." Jax said with a shrug. "You can't hold that against me. Besides, I think Gosalyn was overreacting just a bit."

"You deserved that punch she dealt you."

"Point is, Honker, is that I've found that Gosalyn isn't a very understanding person. I don't know what it was exactly you were talking about, but it's clear Gos couldn't come to terms with it. And she probably never will."

Honker quickly put two with two. "You think our friendship is breaking up." he said.

"It certainly looks like it." Jax agreed.

Honker stood, giving her a glare. "Maybe it is." he said. "Don't get your hopes up, though. I know what you want, Jax, you want me. But you aren't going to get me, nor will you ever get me."

Jax made a pout. "How do I know you're just not playing hard to get?" she asked, and without waiting for an answer, continued, "Look Honker, just face it. Either you need to recount whatever it was that you did that upset Gosalyn, or you two should just call it quits. I can help, you know."

Honker snorted. "And how can you help?" he asked.

"Like this."

Without warning, she grabbed Honker and pulled him in for a kiss on the lips, something Honker promptly began to resist to. He was about ready to slap her when he heard someone step through the library entrance not far from where they stood.

"Honker!"

Drat, he recognized that voice too. Quickly, Honker shoved Jax off of him and turned to face Gosalyn. "Gos, it's not what you think, she..."

"Honker, are you gone completely _mad_?" Gosalyn asked. "First you announce, out of the blue, that you quit, and then the next time I see you, you're making out with _Jax _of all people!"

"She jumped me!" Honker accused, pointing at Jax, who was grinning mischievously and staying out of it. "You know her, Gos, she's willing to try anything!"

"Still doesn't change the fact that you were doing it!" Gosalyn said. "I daresay it looked like you were _enjoying _it."

"_What_?" Honker exclaimed. "Of course not!"

"Then why didn't you pull away until _after _I stepped into the room?"

Honker paused for a moment. "She's got surprisingly good grip." he answered truthfully, giving Jax a glance. The vixen shrugged indifferently. "I _was _about ready to hit her when you walked in."

"Then why didn't you?" Gosalyn demanded. "Honk, I just can't understand you today. I wish you'd give me an explanation here!"

"I already have!"

"Not good enough!"

"_Then forget it_!" Honker snapped. "Jax's right. You really _can't _understand, can you? You aren't even trying! Maybe it _is _better that we just go our separate ways." Honker blinked as this statement sank in fully. "In fact, let's. Actually, it would...admittedly, solve some problems for me."

"_Problems?_" Gosalyn said. She stood there shocked for a moment, then stepped up to Honker and slapped him. "Fine!" she exclaimed. "Get out of my sight!"

And with that, she stormed out of the room. Honker stood there, looking both stunned and crestfallen.

"What have I done?" he asked himself softly.

"I dunno, but I like it." Jax said, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around Honker, still grinning.

Honker barely noticed. "If only you knew, Jax." he said. "If only you knew."

"You could tell me." Jax suggested idly.

"I can't." Honker said. "It's...complicated. Besides, I wouldn't trust you to keep a secret, anyway."

"Now Honker, you can trust me for anything."

"The question of your trust is the least of my problems, Jax."

"You sound stressed. Maybe you should unwind."

"Not your style, thank you." Honker turned, pulled himself out of Jax's grip, and began packing his backpack in a kind of dazed, but anxious state. "Stressed doesn't begin to describe it, though. I can't believe I actually did that." he shook his head. "What am I going to do now?"

"I have a few suggestions." Jax offered helpfully.

Honker gave her a look.

"Seriously." Jax said. "They're good ideas."

Honker's look became sterner.

"Tell you what, I'll drop by your house and show you." Jax said, and without waiting for an okay, began to walk away.

Honker paused. "You...you know where I live?"

"One of the advantages of having had Gosalyn for a friend once." Jax replied slyly.

* * *

After school, Gosalyn rode back home on her motorbike in a state of stress, rage, frustration, hatred, and sadness. She ignored the speed limit and drove at the speeds she wanted. She had forgotten her homework, but didn't care. She was so distracted with her thoughts that she missed her turn three times and had to keep turning back to get it again. Finally, she arrived at home and barged through the front door.

"Welcome home, Gosalyn." Drake called from the living room, where he was doing paperwork. "Did you have a good day?"

Gosalyn's reply was a mere snort. She could be heard noisily stomping upstairs. Frowning, Drake left what he was doing and walked over to the bottom of the stairs in time to see Gosalyn reach the landing on the second floor.

"Gos, is something wrong?" he asked.

"Honker's what's wrong!" Gosalyn snapped in reply, and continued stomping down the hall into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

Drake stood there and debated with himself for a moment, and then followed after, stopping at Gosalyn's door to listen. He could hear muffled sobs from within the room. Wincing, he opened the door and peered inside. Gosalyn lay stretched out on her bed, head buried in her pillow. She had heard Drake enter, for she quickly pulled herself together, but it still didn't change what Drake heard.

"Gos, what's wrong?" he asked, stepping over to sit on her bed.

"It's Honker." Gosalyn sniffed. "He's being an idiot."

"What?" Drake asked, acting surprised. "We sure we're talking about the same Honker here?"

Gosalyn gave him an unamused look. "He told me he's quitting today." she said.

"Quitting? Quitting what?"

"Quitting being Techno."

"What?!" Now Drake really was surprised, and he jumped to his feet. "Why? Did he say?"

"No!" Gosalyn exclaimed. "That's what's frustrating! He wouldn't tell me, and instead kept getting mad at me, claiming that I just couldn't understand!"

"That doesn't sound like Honker at all."

"It gets worse. A little while later, I caught Honker kissing Jax."

"_What?_" Drake exclaimed, even more surprised now. Then he blanked out for a moment. "Who's Jax?"

"Jax Lafay." Gosalyn answered. Noting Drake's continued blank look, she added, "Remember? Tall, vixen, girl about my age? We used to be friends...until I decked her at the Winter Fun Dance last December."

"Oh, now I remember that!" Drake exclaimed, and laughed at the memory of the tale. He blanked out again for a moment. "I thought Honker hated that girl."

"I thought so too, but clearly not." Gosalyn said venomously. "When I confronted him about the matter, we got into an argument and...well...we're not exactly friends now."

Drake was silent for a moment.

"So can I have a moment alone, now?" Gosalyn asked, sniffling.

"Sure Gos." Drake said, and quietly left the bedroom and walked back down to the living room to return to his paperwork.

He couldn't concentrate, though.

"This isn't like Honker at all." he muttered, heading for the phone. "I hope everything is all right on his end."

He dialed the number for the Muddlefoots. The phone on their end rang twice before someone answered it.

"Hello!" a cheerful voice said, one that Drake didn't recognize.

"Um...hello." Drake replied, wondering if he somehow got the number wrong. "Is this...the Muddlefoots?"

"It is indeed."

"Then why am I talking to you and not one of them?" he had quickly determined that this person was no Muddlefoot he knew.

"Because I happened to be near the phone."

"Who is this, anyway?" Drake demanded.

"I'm Jax." came the reply, to Drake's surprise. "Who's this?"

"Drake Mallard."

"Oh, Gosalyn's dad, the funny, bald, health nut!"

"'Funny?'"

"I'll bet Gos told you what happened today, didn't she? Distraught, I'll bet."

"That doesn't begin to describe it."

"Well, she'll live. Honker decided he had enough of her."

"'Had enough?'"

"His words, not mine. You'll tell Gos he said that, right? Man, I wish I could see her face when she finds out..."

"What?" Drake couldn't believe this girl, and was hardly surprised she and Gosalyn where no longer friends. In fact, he couldn't understand how they became friends in the first place. "Just who do you think you are?"

"Jax Lafay, Honker's new girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?"

"Yeah, tell that to Gos, too. Guess she didn't have what it took. Probably wasn't a good enough kisser."

"Kisser?!"

"Yeah. In fact, did Gos and Honker _ever _kiss? Not that I can recall. Pity, Honker's really good at it."

"What? And how would _you _know?"

"Oh, we've been doing plenty of that over here. In fact, if we're not careful, we just might..."

Drake had heard enough. Without even stopping to hang up the phone, (he just dropped it, letting Jax keep talking) he stormed out the front door. He felt like decking Honker. Either that, or decking this Jax character. Though he'd probably just deck whomever answered the door.

Cutting across his yard into the Muddlefoot's and stormed up to the door and rang the doorbell twice, and then pounded on the door until it opened. It was Honker who answered it, who quickly had to duck as Drake swung a punch at him.

"Wha...what did I do _now_?" Honker declared.

"I don't know, but you had better have a _dang good reason_ why." Drake growled, grabbing Honker by the collar.

Honker looked blank for a moment as he quickly tried to put two with two. "So what happened?" he asked finally. "Was it Gos or Jax?"

"Both."

"I presume it was you who Jax was talking on the phone a moment ago. Look, I didn't invite her here, she came here herself!"

"I don't care!" Drake said. "I just know that you've lost your mind, Honker Muddlefoot! You're going to loose your friends _very quickly _if you don't recount all of it in the next..."

"Mr. Mallard, you need to help me."

Drake stopped short, the anger suddenly draining out of him. "What?" he asked.

"There's a very good reason I've done all of this." Honker explained, suddenly looking nervous and afraid, "And it's..."

He got no further, though, because Jax suddenly joined Honker in the doorway. She looked at the two with bemusement.

"There a problem here?" she asked.

Drake, realizing he still had Honker by the collar, quickly released him. Jax used that moment to pull Honker, unwillingly, away.

"Mr. Mallard, thank you for showing your concern for Gosalyn and Honker's relationship." Jax said sweetly. "But it's too late. It's over. Honker's got someone else in his life now."

Honker opened his mouth as if to object, but Jax slammed the door shut, leaving Drake standing on the porch, more puzzled than ever.

* * *

"Something's not right about this, LP." Drake commented later, sitting on the couch in the living room and staring at the paperwork he was supposed to be doing. "Honker was about to tell me something before Jax intervened."

"Maybe so, but it all doesn't make sense." Launchpad said, who stood behind the couch, leaning on the back. "What could possibly get Honker to wreak his life like this?"

"I don't know." Drake said. "That's the mystery. But by golly, I'm going to get to the bottom of it! Honker said I needed to help him, so I will."

"That's great, DW." Launchpad said. "But where the heck are we going to start?"

Drake thought for a moment. "Gosalyn would know." he said, and stood and headed upstairs.

Gosalyn was where he had been left, lying face down on her bed. She made a grunt of frustration when she heard Drake enter.

"Leave me alone." Gosalyn muttered into her pillow.

"Gos, I need to ask you some questions." Drake said, approaching her. "Do you have any ideas why Honker would decide to do everything he's done today."

"No."

"Anything he did before all of this to indicate he might have had a cause?"

"No. He's been acting perfectly normal until today."

"So no clue at all?"

"I think I already established that."

Drake sat down on the bed heavily. "If you don't know..." he began, "...who would? Does Honker have any other friends?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Please, Gos, work with me here."

Gosalyn rolled over and genuinely gave the matter some serious thought. "You know, I don't think so. Honker never did exactly have his own group of friends. He's a loner mostly."

"He must have _some _other friends." Drake persisted. "Someone who might have some understanding why Honker's reacting like this."

Gosalyn thought for a moment longer. "No, I don't think so." she finally admitted.

Drake sighed. "Well, thanks for trying." he said, and stood, heading for the door.

"Although..."

Drake paused at the door and turned to look back at Gosalyn. Gosalyn made eye contact him.

"I don't know if it'll do any good, but you could always try Mr. Bantamock."

* * *

"Well, I've been needing a chance to put this baby to use, anyway." Drake muttered later as he turned the car onto the next street.

Seeing that their last car had been wrecked during a high-speed fight with Megavolt, a new one needed to be obtained, and recently Drake finally broke down and pulled a few strings with his contacts as Darkwing Duck to get one. He struck gold in the end, obtaining the new 2004 Windstorm, one of the first cars made by Calisota Car Manufactures that made use of the Lovell Air Engine. No one was more happy than Drake to hear the news that he wouldn't ever have to pay for gas again.

It was fresh out of the manufacturing plant and had hardly seen much use, so Drake wasn't objecting on the chance to make use of it. He just wished it was under better circumstances.

"Who is this Mr. Bantamock guy, anyway?" Launchpad asked, who was riding shotgun.

"According to Gos, he's a watchmaker that Honker made the acquaintance of nearly a year ago, and has been friendly with ever since." Drake said. "He apparently visits him fairly frequently, so if there are any clues to be learned about Honker's actions, it should be here. Beyond that, I know very little about the man myself."

The car pulled to a stop in front of a small corner store at the end of the lonely street. Parking, Drake climbed out and motioned to Launchpad to follow. They both stood before the store for a moment, looking it over, and then stepped into the store itself. The room they then found themselves in was filled with clocks and watches, all ticking away softly. At the far end of the room was a service counter with a bell on it, with a sign saying ring for service if no one was there in the room. Seeing no one present, Drake rang the bell once.

A middle-aged mouse poked his head out the doorway of a workroom. "Yes?" he asked. "Can I help you?"

"Are you Henry Bantamock?" Drake asked.

"Indeed I am." Henry replied, stepping up to the counter.

"I'm Drake Mallard, and..."

"Ah, Mr. Mallard, I've been wondering when I would get the chance to meet you." Henry commented, brightening. "A pleasure to meet you, sir. Young Honker has told me a great deal about you."

Drake seemed taken aback. "He has?" he asked.

"Yes. He really looks up to you, you know."

"Really? Well, I actually didn't know that."

"And you must be Launchpad, seeing you fit Honker's description." Henry said, turning to Launchpad.

"Uh, yeah, that's me." Launchpad admitted, looking a little unnerved at the fact Henry was so perceptive.

"I used to have a wife who was a pilot." Henry went on. "Great fun, flying. She tried to teach me once, but I didn't have the nerve." he shook his head as if too clear his thoughts. "Anyway, enough about that. What can I do for you gentlemen?"

"I came to ask you a few questions about Honker." Drake said, leaning on the counter. "He's...uh...he's been acting a bit odd, and we were wondering if you knew anything about it."

Henry put on a puzzled, almost doubting, expression. "Define odd." he said.

"Odd." Launchpad repeated like the answer was obvious. "You know, different, unusual, out of the ordinary..."

"Honker's done some very unexpected things today." Drake said, ignoring Launchpad. "A couple, in fact. First off, he gets in a huge argument with Gosalyn at school, and now the two aren't on speaking terms anymore. Second, he starts hanging around this other girl who doesn't know the definition to the term "being moral". And third..." Drake fell short, remembering what the third item was and how touchy a matter it was.

"And third?" Henry prompted after a moment, looking curious.

"He..." Drake hesitated. "...quit."

"Quit what?"

"Quit...being...who...uh..." Drake was drawing a blank on how to explain it and yet not reveal anything he shouldn't.

Fortunately, Henry solved the whole problem with a single statement.

"He didn't decide to quit being Techno, did he?" the watchmaker asked, looking shocked.

But not as shocked as Drake and Launchpad looked. "How the heck did you know that?" Drake asked.

Henry looked blank for a moment, then laughed at himself for his foolishness. "Oh, I'm sorry, please forgive me, but of course you don't know." he put on a more serious expression and looked Drake right in the eye. "I know all about what you four do at night."

Drake blinked, unsure how to react to this new development. "How did you find out?" he asked. "Did Honker tell you?"

"Yes, but it's not really his fault." Henry said. "See, he left a notebook here once that revealed everything. I shouldn't have looked at it, but my own curiosity got the better of me. When I started putting two with two, Honker explained everything to me." he paused, noting Drake look, and added, "It's not as bad as you think, Mr. Mallard. In a way, it has actually helped Honker. Being a teenager is a stressful enough time in of it's self, but add to that his role as Techno and everything he and the rest of you do, and it can get to be a touch overwhelming. Furthermore, he had to keep it all secret. He couldn't tell anyone, not even his own family, save you. And that wasn't enough. Honker needed somebody to confide to, to get his worries off his chest, and by golly he has done so." he paused again, then added one more thing. "And before you ask, no, I haven't told another soul about any of this. It has always been his and I's little secret."

Drake was silent for a moment as he took in this sudden revelation. "So you know everything." he said.

"Yes."

"Because Honker confided everything to you in need of someone to talk to."

"In a sense, yes."

"So then you'd have to know everything about this matter." Drake concluded. "So _have _you noticed anything odd about Honker that could explain this?"

Henry sighed. "Honker's a very smart boy." he said. "He's not only very good at what he does, but also at a wide variety of other things. He gets good grades in school, and he has a very bright future. He's even helped me here at the store and is learning the skills of a watchmaker. I won't profess to be a very busy person, Mr. Mallard, especially as the need for a watchmaker is decreasing in this day and age. But even for me, there are times where it is hard to stay on top of it all, and Honker has been a huge help with that. In return for his help, I've been teaching him how to build a clock. During those times we often get talking, usually about Honker's life including the good things and the bad things. He's confided a lot of things in me that I'm quite touched he's done, but..." he sighed, "I'm sorry, Mr. Mallard, he hasn't told me anything about these actions, nor any clues that might indicate why."

Drake sighed, and looked down at the counter.

"I will say that I've been a great deal worried about Honker as of late." Henry continued. "For the past week, he's been acting...distracted. Or maybe even nervous, like he was worried someone was going to catch him doing something he shouldn't."

Drake frowned. "That doesn't tell me anything new," he said, "but it does fit with the facts." he then proceeded to tell Henry about the illusive request for help, cut short by Jax butting in a moment later.

Henry looked thoughtful for a moment. "You're right, that only reenforces the fact that something's up, but doesn't actually tell us anything, does it?" he paused. "Now that I think about it, I do remember asking Honker why he was acting so tense once this past week."

"And?" Launchpad prompted.

"He avoided giving me a straight answer, but he did mutter something about a letter."

"A letter." Drake repeated, brightening somewhat. "That's something to investigate further. Thank you for your help, Mr. Bantamock."

"My pleasure, Mr. Mallard." Henry said, as he watched the two turn to leave. "It's about time for me to close up shop anyway. But Mr. Mallard, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Honker's a bright boy who thinks everything through long before he does it. I'm sure he had a very good reason why he's done what he's done."

Drake sighed. "Unfortunately, we can't understand why until we know that reason." he pointed out.

* * *

"So you aren't going out on patrol, tonight?" Crimson asked hotly as she prepped for departure. "Any particular reason why?"

"I have things I need to do here, tonight." Darkwing lied, sitting at the computer against one wall of the room. "There's a lot to be done with rebuilding everything we lost in that battle with Gigavolt a couple weeks back."

Crimson nodded in understanding. The city was still busy repairing the damage that had been dealt to the Audubon Bay Bridge, and until they finished with that, they couldn't begin work on building a new hideout. Regardless, they still had plenty of things to do right here, in the room in SHUSH Headquarters that had been lent to their use as a temporary hideout, such as rebuilding the lost Ratcatcher and Thunderquack.

"You know, you don't have to go out tonight." Darkwing pointed out from where he still worked. "It might be a calm night tonight, you know. Supposed to be getting pretty cold tonight, the coldest yet this month."

"You know that's not true, Dad." Crimson said, finalizing her preparations. "Crime's been on the rise the past few weeks, and they're predicting tonight to be no exception. _Someone _needs to be out there tonight, so it might as well be me." she paused, then added, "Besides, you only say that, because you know I'm still hurt by what Honker did today."

Darkwing didn't bother to deny it. "How are you doing on that, anyway?" he asked.

"It stings." she grumbled. "But I'll get over it eventually, you know I will."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Darkwing said, but didn't elaborate. "Just don't go taking out your anger on the criminals you confront tonight."

"Yes Darkwing." Crimson said flatly, and walked out of the room to start her patrol.

* * *

A little later, Drake returned home to find Launchpad waiting for him.

"Well?" Launchpad asked hopefully.

"No dice." Drake admitted. "Honker was still working on salvaging the third of data we managed to save from the tower's supercomputer before it was destroyed, so it's a total mess still. I don't think it was there, anyway." he shook his head. "I created that mail monitoring system for stuff such as this, in case there was a letter that came through that we need to study further as crime fighters, but I suppose it doesn't do me any good if it was lost with the rest of the tower."

"So...now what?" Launchpad asked.

"Now we do what I was hoping we wouldn't have to do." Drake said, looking out the window and over to the Muddlefoot home. "We steal the Muddlefoot's old mail and hope the letter we're looking for is there."

* * *

As she had no Ratcatcher to drive, Crimson instead used her motorbike that she drove to and from school to do her rounds instead. It felt weird driving it instead of her usual mode of transportation when she wore her mask, but that was the least of her concerns. The most obvious thing missing from this was Techno, and the memory why was still bitterly fresh in Crimson's mind.

Grumbling complaints about Honker and what he had done, Crimson almost missed the call that came over her radio, tuned in to the SCPD's most used radio frequency.

"We have a report of a bank robbery in progress at the Last National Bank, all available units are ordered to go investigate, over." the radio crackled.

Crimson sighed, and changed course to head for the bank. "As usual, I can beat them all there." she muttered.

And she did. She arrived at a silent bank. Parking her motorbike at the curb, Crimson pulled out her gas gun and stepped into the bank through it's entrance. All appeared to be quiet inside the bank, but a struggle had definitely occurred here. The few night guards who had been left to stand guard had all been knocked unconscious. The vault showed signs of having been tampered with, but it didn't appear to have been opened. Something within her told her that the culprit was still here, then.

On guard, Crimson started forward, ready for a surprise attack. But she wasn't on guard enough when someone suddenly jumped down on her from above.

"Gotcha mate!" a familiar voice exclaimed.

Crimson twisted around and pulled the heavy otter off of her, twisted him around, and grabbed him from behind.

"No, I got _you _mate." Crimson said.

Rowe frowned as he glanced back at her, annoyed. "I ain't your mate." he muttered.

"Oh really?" Crimson asked hotly. "Even though you _do _happen to be my familiar?"

Rowe struggled slightly against Crimson's hold. "I thought we agreed to not worry about that little connection again." he grumbled.

"I don't know, we did walk away from that incident on a touch friendlier terms, so I simply thought you'd go easier on me." Crimson stated, pulling out a pair of handcuffs from her pocket. "Whatever the case, you're under arrest, Rowe. No matter what, you are the enemy and I still have to treat you as such."

"Arrest?" Rowe whined. "What did I do, mate?"

"You attacked me for one thing."

"I wasn't attacking, I was just trying to...er...surprise you."

"Uh-huh. But I can get for another charge, Rowe, and that was robbing the bank."

"I didn't _rob _anything." Rowe grumbled. Then, under his breath, added, "Didn't have enough time to."

"Attempted robbery, then." Crimson corrected, slapping one cuff onto Rowe's right wrist.

"Oh, come off it." Rowe said. "Did I really do enough harm to deserve getting arrested? I mean, I don't want to go to jail, I hate it there."

"Should've thought of that before you took up a life of crime, Rowe." Crimson said, moving on to cuff Rowe's other wrist.

But before she could, Rowe suddenly twisted around and grabbed the other cuff, trying to push it away. Not to be overpowered by the otter, Crimson fought back, trying to still get the cuff latched around Rowe's other wrist. They continued like this for a few moments, until Rowe accidently jerked the cuff a little too far to one side, and the pair both toppled over. In the scuffle that followed, Crimson regained control of the cuffs and managed to slap it onto what she thought to be Rowe's other wrist.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed, jumping up.

Only to note with dismay that she had instead managed to cuff her own left wrist. Rowe stood up and noticed they were handcuffed together.

"Well, this doesn't help things." he muttered.

"Hold on, I'll fix this in just a moment." Crimson said, feeling her pockets for the key to the handcuffs.

A few moments later, she was still at it, getting more and more nervous as she continued to not find what she was looking for.

"Don't you have the key?" Rowe asked skeptically.

"Of course I do." Crimson said quickly. "Just...not with me. I, uh, must have left it at the hideout."

"By the fur, why did you do that, mate?"

"I didn't mean to! I just...um...er...argh! C'mon, just follow me."

Crimson led the way out of the bank, dragging Rowe along behind her by the handcuffs. Rowe followed with mixed feelings.

"Somehow I think this is gonna be another one of _those _nights." he muttered.

* * *

The upstairs room that the Muddlefoots used as their office was currently dark and empty. Grinning, Darkwing quickly peered into the room to double check, then proceeded forward. Hanging upside down from the roof, Darkwing lowered himself a little further down and reached the latch to the window. Carefully opening it, he pushed the window open. The stack of letters he was looking for sat on the desk right under the window. Slowly, he started to reach for them.

"Herb, darling, are you going to take care of those bills like I asked you to?" the sweet voice of Binky called out suddenly, making Darkwing freeze.

"Yes, Binkie m'deariest!" Herb's voice was heard calling back, sounding dangerously closer than Binkie's had been. "On my way t' the office now t' do that now."

Herb's heavy footsteps could be heard approaching the office door. Yelping inwardly, Darkwing quickly retreated back out the window and ducked upward, out of immediate sight of anyone entering the room. A moment later, Herb entered the room and flipped on the light. Waddling over to the desk, he sat down heavily in the chair, and pulled out a pencil. He fumbled with it in the process, and then dropped it onto the floor. Herb sighed, and leaned over to pick it back up. His back was now to the window.

Darkwing grinned. Quickly, he reached in through the window, snatched up the entire bundle of letters, and ducked back out again, and was gone from sight. By the time Herb sat back up again, he had missed the entire event. He was quick to see that the bills he was supposed to be working on were now gone, though.

"Now...how in the world did that happen?" he wondered aloud to himself, scratching his head.

* * *

Back at the Mallard home, Darkwing dumped the letters onto the coffee table, and he and Launchpad started sifting through the pile, looking for any addressed to Honker. They were quickly turning up a blank.

"You sure it would be here, DW?" Launchpad asked.

"If it exists at all, yes." Darkwing replied. "The Muddlefoots stick all of their old letters for the entire family in their office, and don't get around to throwing them out until every spring cleaning. The letter we're looking for should be here, and addressed to Honker."

Launchpad pulled one letter from the stack and studied it for a moment. "How about any addressed to Techno?" he asked.

"What?" Darkwing said, taking the letter from Launchpad and studying it. It was indeed addressed to Techno and not Honker, and was sent to not the Muddlefoot home, but the Darkwing Duck hideout. "Huh. The postmark on this indicates that this letter got to Techno just after the tower was destroyed. He must have gotten to the Darkwing post office box to pick up the mail for the day before any of us saw it, and hid this one from our eyes."

"Why do you have a post office box at the post office anyway, DW?" Launchpad asked. "Don't you get mail enough as Drake Mallard?"

"Ah, but fan mail wouldn't be sent to Drake Mallard, now would it?" Darkwing pointed out as he pulled out the letter and began reading it. It was very short and to the point. But it wasn't sweet at all. "Uh-oh." he remarked.

"What?" Launchpad asked. "What's it say?"

"Well, this letter certainly explains a few things." Darkwing said flatly, holding up the letter. "It says that unless Techno doesn't quit being Techno and cut all ties to Crimson immediately, Crimson, you, and me, are all being sighted to be killed. If Techno tells any of this, then all bets are off, and we're dead." he crumpled up the letter in one hand. "This isn't a letter, LP, it's blackmail."

* * *

Annoyed, Crimson drove her motorbike down the streets to SHUSH HQ to retrieve the keys to the handcuffs that joined her to Rowe. The otter sat behind her on the motorbike, staying mostly silent, as it was clear that Crimson wasn't in the best of moods at the moment. The two were arranged so that the handcuffs wouldn't prevent Crimson from being able to grab the handlebars of her bike with both hands. Which in turn meant that Rowe had to ride uncomfortably close to Crimson, his arms wrapped around Crimson's middle like in a hug.

"Do you _mind_?" Crimson snapped when Rowe's handcuffed hand moved to an uncomfortable position for Crimson for the third time.

"Do _you _mind?" Rowe snapped back. "Me hand's hurting trying to stay in this position. Can you blame an otter for trying to assume a more comfortable position?"

"It does when it interferes with my driving!" Crimson exclaimed.

Rowe looked at her for a long moment. "Just what's got a bee in your bonnet tonight anyway, Crimson?" he asked.

"You, for one thing."

"Not my fault. There's gotta be something else to it, though. Maybe it's the bike. I notice you've got a new set of wheels tonight mate."

"You could say that, yes."

"I'm presuming the old bike got wreaked the same time your hideout bit it a couple weeks back, right? Is that what's got you annoyed?"

"Not really."

Rowe thought for a moment. "I note your usual accompaniment ain't here." he said. "So maybe it's Techno?"

"Don't you go bringing him up now!" Crimson snapped.

"Ah ha! So it is Techno! What did he do to you, mate?"

"If you really must know, he quit."

"Quit?"

"Yep. Decided he had enough. To add more injury to the wound, he's gone after another girl, too."

"Another girl? What, were you two close?"

Crimson bit her lip for a moment. "Not exactly close, more like just good friends."

"Sure you were. But at least I can see what's got you so mad tonight."

"You aren't helping. And the sooner I can get rid of you, the sooner I can...hold on..." she trailed off, listening to her radio as it began speaking, picking up a new transmission from the police. "Oh dear." she made a sudden turn at the next corner.

"Whoa mate, where are we going now?" Rowe asked. "What's happening?"

"It's Darkwarrior." Crimson growled. "He's causing trouble down on Hartvingson Road. Something about arresting jaywalkers. I need to hurry on over to there and stop him."

"What?" Rowe exclaimed. "But we're still handcuffed together!" he shook the cuffs to prove his point.

"I know!" Crimson snapped. "But that's going to have to wait, we can't just leave Darkwarrior out there to cause trouble. We'll just have to work things out and work together to stop Darkwarrior."

"You mean...be the hero."

"Yes."

"I'm not sure I can be the hero."

"Would it really hurt to just _try _to be the good guy for once, Rowe?"

"You know my background, Crimson, all of my past attempts failed miserably."

"Then maybe you just need a few lessons from an expert." Crimson said with a grin. "Me."

* * *

Officer Frank looked the letter over with skepticism. "So let me get this straight." he said, looking across his desk to where Darkwing and Launchpad sat. "You need the SCPD to run a couple DNA and fingerprint scans on this letter?"

"If you don't mind, yes." Darkwing said, grinning sheepishly.

"With you being a crime fighter yourself Darkwing, shouldn't you have all of this stuff yourself?" Frank asked.

"We did." Darkwing said. "But we lost it all in the fight with Gigavolt. The new replacements haven't arrived yet."

"But I'm sure SHUSH has this stuff." Frank pressed. "Why couldn't they do it?"

"Because you got to fill out a very long form in order to use that stuff, and that takes too long." Darkwing said. "Look, can we just talk with Officer Matthew?"

"Matt's on vacation to Tennessee to go fishing." Frank said. "He won't get back until tomorrow. Till then, I'm the best you've got."

Darkwing narrowed his eyes. "Look, Frank, it's really important that we figure out who sent that letter." he said. "You've read it, you know what it says. Don't tell me it's not a serious issue."

"Not serious enough." Frank said. "Look Darkwing, I don't know what you've been doing all night, but we've been getting really stretched think tonight, with crime popping up left and right. We just don't have _time _to do this for you."

"Please?" Darkwing asked.

"Oh, pretty, pretty, please?" Launchpad added unhelpfully.

Frank just gave them both a flat look. "Oh, all right." he said, rolling his eyes. "If it mean getting you guys out of my fur, I might as well."

Darkwing breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you." he said. "We'll wait here for the results."

* * *

"B-but, I didn't do anything!" the pedestrian wailed as Darkwarrior shook him back and forth.

"Doesn't matter what you think!" the extremist exclaimed. "You _broke _the law! You were crossing the street where there was no crosswalk! _You were jaywalking!_"

"B-b-b-but there is a crosswalk there, see?" the pedestrian wailed pitifully, pointing at the street. "It's just really, really, worn down so that it's hard to see!"

"A likely excuse!" Darkwarrior pressed, tossing the pedestrian into the sidecar of his motorbike, the Ratwarrior. "Let's get you back to the hideout, and then we can have a _proper _interrogation."

The pedestrian whimpered pitifully. Darkwarrior revved the engine to his bike in preparation to drive off, but then just as he started forward, two darts suddenly flew into the front tire and popped it, grinding the bike to a halt. Darkwarrior's red eyes went wide with rage. "What the...who did that?!" he demanded.

"That would be me, Darkwarrior."

Darkwarrior whirled around and saw Crimson standing there, holding her gas gun. Rowe stood beside her, trying to look confident. Darkwarrior glared at them, hopped off his bike and stomped towards them.

"You..." he said, pointing a gloved finger at the two, "...chose a bad night to tick me off."

He whipped out his own version of a gas gun, but it fired everything but gas. Instead, it fired off a small hailstorm of little missiles that sped towards them. Yelping, both Crimson and Rowe started running off in different directions to try and avoid the missiles. They forgot they were still handcuffed together, though, so they only got as far as the cuffs would let them before they were both knocked off of their feet and fell to the street.

The movement actually saved them, the missiles flying over there heads and blowing up a mailbox instead of them. Darkwarrior let out a yell of annoyance and proceeded to take aim so he could shoot again. He got sidetracked when he noticed the pedestrian he had apprehended was escaping, hurrying off down the street.

"Hey!" Darkwarrior exclaimed. "Get back here!"

He fired off a grappling hook in the pedestrian's general direction. Before it could latch onto anything though, a canister of gas exploded beside him, throwing off his aim at the last possible moment. The pedestrian escaped. When the smoke cleared, Darkwarrior saw Crimson surging towards him, dragging Rowe along behind her. Quickly, he ducked around the Ratwarrior, putting it between him and them.

Crimson and Rowe approached it from the other side, Rowe going around one side of the sidecar, while Crimson went around the other. There they got stuck again, the handcuffs being stretched top their limit between the two. Stuck on either side of the sidecar, they tried to go around the rest of the bike anyway, but couldn't while one was on the opposite side.

"Rowe, come around to my side!" Crimson ordered.

"No!" Rowe objected. "You come around to _my _side!"

They began arguing, and didn't notice Darkwarrior move to one side and raise his weapon to take aim until the last moment. Crimson caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye and gasped. She went to duck, but she reacted too late, and the shot was fired, heading straight for her. It would've hit her too, had a magically produced shield appeared in front of her and deflected the shot. Shocked, Crimson glanced at Rowe, who glanced back, both of them looking worried.

"Oh, plagues n' pestilence." Rowe muttered as the shield vanished again.

He turned, then yelped and ducked as Darkwarrior swung a punch at him. Undeterred, Darkwarrior simply adjusted his aim and swung another punch at the otter. He missed again, but only just barely. For a long moment, Rowe looked like he was only going to cower fearfully and not fight back. But then, without warning, he suddenly pounced on Darkwarrior and knocked him to the ground, dragging Crimson over the sidecar to Rowe's side.

Knocking Darkwarrior's gas gun out of his hands and chucking it aside, Rowe dealt Darkwarrior a punch, then flipped the villain over, pulled his hand behind his back, and then, using Darkwarrior's own handcuffs, handcuffed the villain. Breathing heavily, he then pulled back, looking slightly surprised at himself.

Crimson, picking herself up, looked surprised for a moment herself, then shot the otter a grin. "And you said you couldn't be a good guy." she commented.

The police arrived shortly thereafter and took Darkwarrior away to lock into prison. Crimson's spirits were beginning to soar again.

"I can sleep well tonight!" she whooped with glee as she and Rowe headed back to Crimson's motorbike. "Darkwarrior's going to jail, oh this is great!"

Rowe was less than enthused, however. "We've still got other problems to worry about." he pointed out flatly. He raised the handcuffs that still had them stuck together. "Like these, for instance."

"Right, our next stop is getting the key for those." Crimson agreed, hopping onto the bike.

"And then there was that incident with the shield." Rowe pointed out as he climbed on as well. "That was due to magic, wasn't it?"

Crimson bit her lip. "Yeah, it was." she admitted, seeing Rowe's point. "So now the question is, did that little incident reforge the familiar/magician connection between us?"

"Actually, seeing that we never did get that connection to break, I would think there's a chance we're still good." Rowe said. "I'm more worried about whether or not it strengthened it, though."

Crimson shook her head, revving the engine to the motorbike. "Guess we'll find out when we get these handcuffs off." she said, driving off from the scene of the battle with Darkwarrior. "If we did, though, I hope it shouldn't be too hard to weaken the connection. We've done it once before, after all. I just..." she trailed off again as her radio crackled in her ear, making an annoyed look as she listened to the new police report.

"What now?" Rowe asked, also annoyed.

Crimson, however, grinned in relief in the end. "It's nothing the police can't handle." she said. "It's just Frogduck causing some trouble out in the woods. All they have to do is scare him off, and that'll be the end of it."

"Frogduck?" Rowe repeated, a wicked grin spreading on his face. "Actually, let's go take care of him ourselves."

"What?" Crimson asked, surprised. "You actually _want _to go fight him?"

"I hate the guy." Rowe said innocently with a shrug. "Besides, seeing that I did was you asked and was the good guy for the change, now it's time for _you _to do what I ask you to do."

"You mean...be the villain."

"Aye."

"I don't think I can be the villain, Rowe."

"C'mon Crimson. Would it really hurt to just _try _to be the bad guy for once?"

* * *

"Launchpad, you're making a mess."

"Sorry DW, but these cookies are really, really, good."

"Where did you get those cookies, anyway?"

"I brought them from home. I was hungry, and I didn't know how long we were going to be here."

Darkwing looked at the mess of crumbs Launchpad was leaving on the floor. "The least you could do though was not leave so much of a mess for the police to have to clean up later." he said.

Launchpad looked down at the mess, and gulped. "Sorry." he said again.

Officer Frank arrived at that point. "Okay," he said, holding a paper. "We found a hair in the seal of the envelope, and just ran it through the DNA scan."

"And?" Darkwing prompted hopefully.

"It belongs to a certain Rowe P.W. Lutra." Frank stated, handing over the paper. "And we all know who that is."

"Huh." Darkwing commented, furrowing his brow as he read the paper. "Does the fingerprint scans coincide with these results?"

"Don't know yet, they're still working on that." Frank reported.

"What difference does it make?" Launchpad asked, not understanding. "Doesn't the hair confirm that Rowe sent the letter?"

"But there's no _motive_ Launchpad." Darkwing pressed. "Why would Rowe blackmail Techno, and for these reasons? Furthermore, how did he plan to carry out his threats? Or was he bluffing?"

"There's also the aspect that Rowe is known to hang around four other known criminals." Frank pointed out. "Maybe Rowe did send the letter. But that doesn't mean he's acting alone, or, for that matter, that he even wrote the letter."

"Exactly." Darkwing said. "Very good deductions, Officer Frank."

"Glad there's something we can agree on, Darkwing." Frank commented. "Anyway, this does narrow things down to the Fearsome Five."

"Well, at least we can tell Techno he can drop the act now." Launchpad said.

"No LP, we can't, not until we know that the blackmailer can't make good on his threat." Darkwing stated. "In fact, we should be careful that we don't accidently tip off the blackmailer into letting him know we're onto him." he handed the paper back to Officer Frank. "Let us know the moment the results from those fingerprint scans come in, Frank. I want to get to the bottom of this."

* * *

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA!" Frogduck crowed as he fired his napalm cannon into the surrounding bushes. "No more cold around HERE! Just think of it, Keith! Within moments, we'll have chased away the cold of winter FOREVER!"

Keith the Frog, the rather large pet frog Frogduck kept as like a pet, made an almost satisfied ribbiting sound as Frogduck set more shrubbery aflame.

"My patented Frogflamethrower is working perfectly, too!" Frogduck ranted on as he sprayed the dangerous flames everywhere. "By using it, I can set all of St. Canard on fire, and then the whole city will be as hot as if it was still summer! Just think of how many people will thank me, ha-ha!"

Watching in some bushes a safe distance away, Crimson rolled her eyes.

"I highly doubt that." she muttered, in reference to Frogduck's late statement. She frowned. "I do wonder where the heck he got the flamethrower, though."

"Who cares?" Rowe asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Time to shut his little plan down."

"Rowe, I don't think I can do this." Crimson said. "Taking him down as a hero, I can do. But as a villain...?"

"Hey, as long as your handcuffed to me, this is what we're doing, mate." Rowe said, holding up the handcuffs that connected them together. "Besides, it's easy. It's not too unlike being a hero, except when you're a villain, you don't do it so nicely, and for your own personal profit."

"Exactly my problem." Crimson said. "I just don't have the right mind set for this. I don't even know why I'm letting you talk me into this!"

"Shh, not so loud." Rowe said, dissuading any further comments from her. "Now listen, the first thing we should probably do is put out those flames and put the flamethrower out of commission."

"Oh, well, that's easy." Crimson said, pulling out her gas gun and taking aim.

She fired off several shots into the burning shrubbery. The canisters burst upon impact and sprayed foamy flame retardant all over them, extinguishing the flames. Frogduck, dumbfounded, simply stared as he watched his work being undone so quickly, then turned to look in the direction the canisters were being fired. When he did so, two more canisters were fired at him. One went right up the barrel of the flamethrower and went off within it, the flame retardant spraying back out of the barrel, and the second hit Frogduck in the face, knocking him over.

Keith the Frog ribbited urgently as Crimson and Rowe rose from their hiding spot and walked over to where Frogduck lay groaning, wiping flame retardant from his eyes. He glanced at his attackers blankly for a moment before brightening.

"Ah!" Frogduck exclaimed. "You! The girl who's my fan! Sorry, I don't need cooling off today. I see you brought a friend, though." he looked blankly at Rowe for a long moment. "Have we met?"

"Actually, mate, we have." Rowe said, lifting Frogduck up off the ground by the collar and giving him a glare. "And we're here to tell you what we think about you."

He roughly threw Frogduck to the ground again, who landed with a grunt. Keith the Frog ribbited urgently again, and hopped over to join Frogduck. Rowe motioned at the pair.

"C'mon, Crimson, you try now." he said.

Crimson glanced at the pair for a long moment, then, acting swiftly so she wouldn't be able to think twice about it, she slapped Keith the Frog aside with the back of her hand, and then grabbed Frogduck by the collar and heaved him up off the ground like Rowe had done.

Frogduck just looked blankly at her for a long moment. "Did I miss something here?" he asked, puzzled by the behavior he was getting from the two.

"You miss a lot of things, Frogduck." Crimson pointed out.

"I don't try to."

"You do anyway."

"Maybe you could help me and explain things to me."

"No. You'd just forget it all anyway."

"That's mean."

Frogduck bopped her on the head with one webbed hand. It didn't hurt, but it annoyed Crimson enough to deck Frogduck hard in the face. Frogduck staggered back, pulling free from Crimson's grasp, inhaling sharply from the pain, before toppling over onto his back again. Crimson approached him slowly, racking her brains for a moment of what she could do next, when Frogduck suddenly rocketed into the air, gripped by some invisible force.

He came to a sudden halt several feet off the ground. Then, yelling loudly, Frogduck was then suddenly hurled off into the distance, flying several feet before crashing to the ground somewhere out of sight in the surrounding woods with a crash. Keith the Frog ribbited a few times, then hopped after his master. Crimson and Rowe were left standing there, stunned.

"Well." Rowe began, sounding stunned. "That went better than planned."

Crimson looked down at her hands guiltily. "That was me." she realized. "I did that with my magical abilities, I think." she blinked in shock. "I've never had that kind of control over my magical powers before."

Rowe blinked in surprise as well. "Maybe it's because I'm here." he realized.

Crimson turned to look at him. "The connection." she said.

"It must've gotten stronger after all." Rowe concluded, his heart sinking as he realized what happened.

They were silent for a moment, then Crimson turned and ran for the motorbike, dragging Rowe behind her.

"Crimson, wait."

"We need to separate ourselves, _now, _while we still can, Rowe. The prospect of this is...is...dang it, it's just frightening!"

"Crimson, _wait!_" Rowe stopped her with one hand. "Look mate, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you do all of that back there, and...and...I'm sorry."

Crimson sighed apologetically, calming down. "It's not your fault, Rowe." she said. "I let you talk me into that. If anybody should be blamed, it should be me."

"If anybody should be blamed, it most certainly _shouldn't _be you, mate." Rowe said. "You...you're a good person, Crimson. Someone to really look up to. You're...well...you're everything I wish I could be...to be honest."

This made Crimson stop dead in her tracks. "You look up to me?" she asked.

"Well, it's just that...um...y'see the thing is...er...well...aye, I do." Rowe stuttered.

They were silent for a long moment.

"Rowe...I...er..." Crimson began, lost as to what she should say.

"No, you're right, we need to separate ourselves." Rowe said, distancing himself as far as the handcuffs would let him from Crimson. "I'm just...I'm just causing you trouble. I mean, you have friends who are better than me, like Darkwing, and...and...Techno, and..."

"Techno _left, _remember?" Crimson asked. "And Darkwing doesn't count, either. Launchpad's indifferent." she shrugged. "Rowe, you were right. There was something between me and Techno. But now he's gone, I've got nothing to stand in my way."

Rowe was silent for a moment, looking stunned. "But...what about the handcuffs?" he asked, raising the device that was keeping them together.

Crimson looked at them and magically unlocked them. The cuffs then fell to the ground with a thump, freeing them. Crimson grinned.

"I should've tried that ages ago." she said.

Rowe grinned back.

* * *

"Okay, this should interest you." Frank said as he sat down at his desk while reading a paper, Darkwing and Launchpad leaning forward anxiously. "We've searched the letter top to bottom for any fingerprints, and found none. But we did find lots and lots of _this _substance on it."

He handed the paper to Darkwing, who read it slowly. Then, straightening in surprise, he read it again.

"Well, that's a surprise." he commented.

"It is a surprise." Frank admitted. "But it fits with some our theories." he tapped the paper. "One thing _is _for sure, Darkwing. That's your _real _blackmailer."

* * *

Darkwing pressed his back beside the door, and pulled out his gas gun. He glanced over to where Launchpad pressed his own back against the other side of the door, and motioned for him to be quiet. Then, moving slowly so to not make any alarming noises, Darkwing pushed open the door and looked in the room beyond.

About halfway across the room, standing at a row of worktables, was a figure. It was also their target. Motioning for Launchpad to follow him, Darkwing led the way into the room, moving stealthily. He was itching to use a smoke-and-entrance tactic, but he wanted to catch their villain unaware tonight. They were making good progress too, already halfway to their prey, with the figure still behaving like he was completely unaware that their were intruders in his hideout.

That is until Launchpad tripped over his own foot and fell to the floor with a crash.

The figure whirled around, caught a glimpse of the two intruders, then vaulted himself over the worktable and hurried for the other exit. He didn't get far when a cloud of blue smoke appeared in his path. He attempted to stop himself from entering the cloud, but didn't have enough traction on the smooth floor and skidded into the cloud. He then whacked into Darkwing's arm, hidden in the smoke, and fell to the floor. Rolling his eyes, Darkwing then reached down and pulled the figure up, getting his first good look at him.

"I didn't do anything, you've got the wrong guy!" Bushroot squealed as he was hauled roughly to his feet.

"Oh yeah?" Darkwing asked. "Then explain why we found _your _chlorophyl all over _this_?"

He whipped out the incriminating letter and pressed it into Bushroot's face. Bushroot stumbled backwards blindly a few paces, then pulled the letter off his face and glanced at it. His eyes widened and he turned pale.

"You traced this back to me?" he asked, bewildered. "Already?"

"So you _admit _that you're behind it." Darkwing said, advancing on the mutant plant-duck.

"Well, I, er, uh...it's not what you think."

"That's what they all say, Bushy."

"No, seriously, I...I didn't mean any _real _harm out of it. I wasn't going to actually carry out the threats. I mean, how could I? But it needed to be something serious enough to get Techno to respond, so..."

"But why, Bushroot?" Launchpad asked, walking over. "That's the thing that's got _me _baffled."

"It...it was Rowe." Bushroot admitted with a sigh. "I don't know if you know, Darkwing, but he and Crimson are...connected, so to speak."

"I know." Darkwing said. "Their connection between magician and familiar."

"No, not that, I _know _you know that already, it's..." Bushroot hesitated a moment. "I know why that magical connection between them got so strong so fast." he stated reluctantly.

Launchpad and Darkwing glanced at each other, not liking Bushroot's tone.

"How?" Darkwing demanded.

"Rowe has a...er...thing...for Crimson."

This brought a moment of baffled silence.

"What?" Darkwing asked, stunned enough to lower his gas gun.

"It all started after that night Rowe discover he was Crimson's familiar." Bushroot said, the words spilling out of his mouth now. "In the days that followed that event before Megavolt got his memories back, he was moping around and sulking, looking so depressed that I finally weaseled the explanation why out of him."

"So he actually _admitted _that he...er...likes Crimson?"

"Yes. And I, like you, saw problems with that instantly. Rowe probably did too, but not enough to get himself to snap out of it. So I did all this, the blackmailing, and everything, in an attempt to...well...help Rowe."

"But I don't get it, still." Launchpad said. "How does blackmailing Techno into quitting even _begin _to fit in with this?"

"I needed to get Rowe and Crimson together again." Bushroot said. "But to do that, I had to get Techno out of the way, and make Crimson seem open again."

"What do you mean, 'open'?" Darkwing asked. A moment later he answered his own question. "You mean Crimson's own interests lie with Techno?"

"It didn't exactly take a genius to see it, Darkwing." Bushroot pointed out. "But yes, at least enough to cause problems. I figured that if I could somehow get Techno out of the picture for awhile, I figured that would leave Rowe a perfect chance to hook up with Crimson."

"Whoa." Launchpad said, but he frowned. "But I don't think Crimson will go for that, though."

"Neither did I." Bushroot admitted. "I never did. But I couldn't get Rowe to see that. It was something _he _had to figure out himself."

"So you staged all of this to try and get Rowe to do that." Darkwing said.

"And once Rowe saw he was hoping against hope for something that wouldn't happen, I was going to send another letter saying that Techno was free to go back to what he had been doing before." Bushroot said. "And if anybody caught onto the scheme, I planted one of Rowe's hairs in the letter to lead one to believe that it was Rowe behind it all. I, uh, didn't even stop to think about chlorophyl getting on the letter, though." he looked guiltily at his own hands.

"Well, even though this was all done with good intentions, Bushroot, you still made a real mess of things." Darkwing said. "Techno's gone and followed your demands, alright, to the extreme. He's doing things that are probably breaking every thing he believes in at the moment. Furthermore, you left Crimson crushed, and everybody else puzzled, _and _you gave me a real fright with this whole blackmailing business, Bushroot!"

"I know, and I'm sorry." Bushroot said, hanging his head. "But I had to do something. You hadn't seen Rowe in these depressed spells. He's good at hiding them most of the time, but still..." he shook his head. "I just didn't want to see him continue to go through that."

"And how do you think this would've done to Rowe in the end?" Darkwing asked. "By the sounds of it, it would've been _Rowe _who was crushed, worse than he is now! You probably would've just made things worse for everyone, Bushroot!"

Bushroot hung his head further and didn't reply.

"We'd better put an end to this now while we still have the chance." Darkwing muttered, pulling out his radio and switching it on. "Crimson, come in please, I have urgent news for you."

He got no reply. Frowning, he tried again, to similar results. He changed frequencies on the radio before speaking into it again.

"SHUSH HQ, come in please." Darkwing said. "I would like to speak with Director Hooter, if I may."

"Darkwing, this is Julie, Director Hooter's secretary." a female voice replied. "The director isn't in at the moment, but I can connect you to Agent Grant."

"Please do."

"Agent Grant here."

"Hello, Grant? This is Darkwing. By any chance, has Crimson returned to the temporary hideout there?"

"No, I haven't seen Crimson since she left go on patrol."

Darkwing exchanged glances with everybody, and shut off the radio without giving a reply to Grant. "Okay, this isn't good." he said. "I think something else about this plan has gone wrong now. Bushroot, how did you plan to get Rowe and Crimson together?"

"I didn't." Bushroot said. "I was going to leave that up to Rowe. Figured things would go smoother that way."

"Perhaps a little too smoothly." Darkwing said. "Because I'm worried your plan has completely backfired, Bushroot."

"You mean, you think Rowe didn't enact on the chance to get Crimson?"

"No, that Crimson didn't turn him down." Darkwing sighed. "The two could be anywhere now. We're going to need help tracking Crimson down. Launchpad, let me borrow your cell phone. There's somebody I want to call."

* * *

Honker covered his ears to try and drown out the loud music. "Jax, are you _always _going to parties like this?" he asked.

"Of course!" Jax said, pulling him along. "They're fun! I'm just glad your folks let you go at such short notice. I would've had to hate to sneak you here."

"You and me both."

Honker allowed Jax to pull him further into the crowd of partying teenagers about his age, trying to avoid making eye-contact. He had thought Gosalyn's parties were wild, but then saw this one easily put Gos's to shame. He wouldn't let himself caught dead at one of these.

But here he was anyway, at Jax's persistence. Jax was practically all over him now that he and Gosalyn had separated, and Honker hated it. But he knew that until he knew otherwise, this was probably for the better. He just hoped Drake could get to the bottom of things and get him out of this mess before it was too late to make amends.

In all the chaos, Honker almost couldn't hear his cell phone ringing in his pocket. Puzzled, he pulled it out and answered it. "Hello?" he said loudly, so he could be heard over all the racket around him.

"Good gravy, Honker, where the devil are you at?"

"Mr. Mallard?"

"Look, I've gotten to the bottom of this mess. It's Bushroot who sent you the blackmail, and we've got him right here, he can't do anything, not that he planned to, anyway. Anyway, we've got a bit of a..."

"Who's on the phone, Honker?" Jax asked, interrupting the call.

Honker lowered his cell phone, making a decision instantly. "Jax, I'm only going to say this once." he told the vixen. "Leave me and Gosalyn alone!"

And with that, he decked her, watching the vixen go down from the blow. The action was hardly noticed in all of the chaos in the party. Honker then turned and hightailed it out of there.

"Give me your location Mr. Mallard." Honker said into his cell phone again once he had exited the party. "I'm heading on over to the hideout now to suit up."

* * *

Feeling kind of lost as to what to do now, Crimson drove her motorbike around town aimlessly with Rowe riding behind her. As per a request from Rowe so they wouldn't be interrupted with more police reports, Crimson had turned off her radio. As such, they were currently riding in silence.

"Here's the city park." Crimson noted as they started to drive past.

"Aye." Rowe replied, noting the same.

"You know, we can't keep driving forever, you know."

"I know, mate." Rowe replied softly. "Guess we can stop here for awhile."

Crimson nodded and drove the bike into the middle of the park, stopping near a tree. Rowe climbed off, then politely helped Crimson off. Crimson accepted the assistance, but hesitantly.

"My conscious is screaming at me to deck you, rather than to let you be such a gentleman." she admitted to Rowe.

"Mine, too, only with the standpoints reversed." Rowe agreed. "But Crimson...look. Ever since that night at SHUSH when we discovered that magical connection between us, I've felt..." he trailed off for a moment. "How can I describe it? Like I was missing something."

"It might be residual effects from the magical connection between us." Crimson suggested.

"That's what I thought at first, but then I realized there's more to it than that." he paused again, clearly feeling uncomfortable for admitting this. "Crimson, remember when I told you that I kissed your double during that whole time loop mess?"

"What about it?"

"You should now that I enjoyed every moment of that. Nor would I mind doing it again."

Crimson grinned. "I figured as much." she said.

Rowe grinned back, looking relieved.

"I have to be honest as well, Rowe." Crimson began to admit as well. "I could sense that...connection...between us as well, and the gap it seemed to leave when we weren't together, but never as bad as I do now." she shook her head. "Today had been a very bad day. Techno leave, gets a different girl, and everything in life just seemed to fall apart from there. I don't know if it's stress, or what, but..." she paused. "Rowe, you've somehow made things worth looking up to again."

Rowe's grin grew bigger. "Glad I could help, mate." he said.

They fell silent for a very long moment, staring at each other. There was no telling for sure what would've happened next, but whether they were conscious of it or not, they were slowly leaning closer together. It probably would've continued, though, had one event not occurred right at that moment.

"Crimson!"

Crimson whirled around instantly and looked behind her. There, standing on top of a hill sitting across from the path the motorbike was parked on, fully dressed in costume to Crimson's complete and utter surprise, was Techno. For a moment, neither Rowe nor Crimson could react, and Techno wasn't entirely sure what he should do next.

Finally Crimson, moving forward a few steps, managed a weak grin. "Techno." she whispered, then again, louder. "Techno!"

She rushed right over to her sidekick and grabbed him in a heartfelt hug. Techno, surprised, could only half-heartedly return the hug. He was further surprised, however, when Crimson planted a kiss to his cheek.

"Techno." she murmured in his ear, then grinned. "I thought you quit."

"It's a long story, Crimson." Techno said. He paused for a moment. "You'll be happy to hear I decked Jax before coming to find you."

"Good. Remind me to do likewise at a later date."

Techno laughed, then grew more depressed. "I'm sorry for all of that, Crimson." he said. "I really did have a reason. You see..."

"Shh." Crimson shushed him. "All I need to know is that you're back, and not going anywhere anytime soon."

Techno grinned again. "Done." he said.

They held out the embrace awhile longer. During so, Darkwing and Launchpad arrived, both watching the exchange with wide, supportive, grins. From a distance, Rowe also watched, but he wasn't smiling. Instead, he simply just stood there, looking to be a mixture of shocked, stunned, and grieved. After a moment, Bushroot joined him.

"Rowe?" he prompted cautiously. "Are you all right?"

Rowe didn't respond. Bushroot carefully placed a hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon." he told the otter. "Let's go to my place and chat."

Leading Rowe away, Bushroot took one last glance back at the happy group, then, with a sigh, continued onward. By this point in time, Crimson and Techno still hadn't released each other, so Darkwing decided to intervene.

"Okay guys, enough of that." he said, pulling them apart. "We're all happy to see each other, yes, we got that. Let's not overdo it, now."

Crimson and Techno laughed, and started to follow Darkwing and Launchpad as they started to walk away. A thought came to Techno suddenly, though.

"Crimson," he began, "Not to sound ungracious or anything like that, but uh, about you and Rowe back there..."

Crimson avoided eye contact. "What about it?" she asked.

"Nothing, really, but I'm just curious. It seemed apparent to me that you were content to stick with Rowe up until the moment I announced my presence, then you quickly left him for me." he paused. "Why?"

Crimson gave him a glance. "Because, Techno, up until then I thought I didn't have you anymore." she replied, grinning.

Techno returned the grin, and continued walking. Crimson followed, but she hung back a moment to look back in Rowe's direction. She noted that he had already left, though. Sighing heavily, she turned away and walked off.

* * *

At Bushroot's greenhouse, Rowe simply sat in a chair and stared at the opposite wall, his eyes unfocused. As Bushroot worked nearby, he kept shooting the otter nervous glances.

"Look, Rowe, I know your upset." he said. "So, I made you something I think will cheer you up." he gave Rowe a grin. "Your favorite. Salmon."

Rowe slowly glanced at him, then looked away. "I'm not hungry mate." he said softly.

Bushroot blinked, having never seen Rowe turn down salmon before. Fortunately though, he had prepared in advance for this.

"That's not all though." he said, turning around, a food-ladened tray in his arms. "I've also got fresh crayfish, the kind you love, prepared just as you like it. Not easy to find this good of crayfish in St. Canard."

He set the tray down in front of Rowe. The otter glanced at it briefly, but made no motion to go and eat it. Bushroot sighed, and sat down on the other side of him.

"Look, Rowe, I'm sorry about all of this." Bushroot said. "I'm sorry you've been hurt so emotionally, and...well..."

"Hurt doesn't begin to describe it, mate." Rowe mumbled.

Bushroot gave him a look. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Bitter. Very bitter."

"I'm sorry."

"You said that already."

"I mean it, though. But Rowe...maybe this is all for the best. Do you really think it would've worked out, even if you did have your way? You're a villain, a convicted criminal. Crimson's the exact opposite, and a respected hero. You contrast each other too much." a pause. "Besides, you saw how quickly she left you for Techno."

"Don't remind me, mate."

"The point is, Rowe, is that she already has someone, and unfortunately it's just not you. The sooner you come to terms with this fact, the sooner you _both _can move on."

"Hmpf."

There was a long pause. Then Bushroot thought of another reason it would've worked.

"Besides, think about how it would've looked." he said "You're both enemies, so you should act as such."

"Enemies." Rowe repeated flatly. "Yes. Enemies." he sighed. "Guess that's all we'll ever be, mate...."

* * *

_Fun Facts: You're probably wondering what the status is on the magical connection between Crimson and Rowe. I mean, last time they got the connection going, they kept passing out everytime they got separated. So why not now? Well, for one reason, I forgot to address this matter, and now, looking back, I'm not entirely sure where to fit this in. So I'll just explain it to you. As demonstrated in this chapter, Crimson gets a bit better at controlling her magical powers. Thanks to this, and the fact that they've dealt with the matter of the connection before, both she and Rowe now have enough control to severe that connection at will, as well and re-establish it again at will. So when Crimson saw Techno was back in the end of the chapter, she, whether she was aware of it or not, was able to cut the connection between her and Rowe right there and then to go and hug Techno. Hence why there's no passing-out-when-separated ordeal._

_This chapter is a touch bold, as it suggests that Crimson's in a bit of a love triangle between Rowe and Techno. Clearly, Techno is the favorite at the moment, but who knows what will happen in the future? ;) Speaking of Rowe and Crimson, how does this chapter affect their relationship isn't as bad as one would think. They'll be a bit bitter towards each other for a little while, but will eventually revert back to their usual love/hate relationship of old._

_Jax, Mr. Bantamock, Darkwarrior, Frogduck, and Officer Frank all appeared in this chapter because it had been a little while since we had seen them last._

_To be perfectly honest, I don't like Jax's character, as she is so self-centered, heartless, uncaring for other's, not to mention immoral. But Jax is an interesting character, because she is probably the one and only character to date who can **truly **get Honker enraged. I mean, usually Honker, when mad, talks darkly for a little bit, shoots a few glares around, but otherwise keeps his feelings in check. Jax's presence has the uncanny knack of blowing that all out of the water though, as she can get Honker mad enough to start yelling and hitting, as we see in this chapter. So bringing Jax in was done mostly for this one purpose. That, and the fact that I figured Jax would some day try again at her old tricks._

_It would seem that a tradition has started that every chapter featuring Jax now ends with her getting decked. Not that we should feel sorry or anything, she does deserve it after all._

_Although Mr. Bantamock has been referred to a number of times since the chapter he was introduced in, this is the first time we see him again since the chapter he first appeared in. I wish it wasn't so, as Mr. Bantamock, as I explained in the chapter, is supposed to be a kind of advisor to Honker, as well as someone for Honker to share secrets with. Unfortunately, due to the nature of NADWD, I rarely get the chance to fit poor Mr. Bantamock in._

_Interestingly enough, this is the second time both Jax and Mr. Bantamock appear in the same chapter._

_Darkwarrior is likely to stay in jail for a little while, as the plots for the next several chapters won't really allow for very many appearances from him. Throwing him in jail seemed like the obvious solution to feeling guilty about not including him for so long. But when Darkwarrior does come back, I promise, he'll come back with a vengence. ;)_

_Like Crimson, I, too, wondered where the heck Frogduck could've gotten a flamethrower, but ultimately decided that was just one of the many mysteries that surrounds Frogduck. :)_

_This is the first time Rowe's full name (Rowe P.W. Lutra) is mentioned since his first appearance, way WAY back in the very first chapter of NADWD._

_This chapter came about upon realizing that chapter 53, "A Familiar Rowe", wouldn't resolve things enough, leaving one to wonder if there was something going on between Rowe and Crimson or not. The answer is yes, but I was going to need a whole other chapter to explain it in. Quickly thereafter, I got the idea of parring Crimson and Rowe together for a chapter and letting them get "close" and let things explain themselves. But in order to do that, I needed someway to keep everyone else from interfering, particularly Techno. So I devised the whole scheme of Honker quitting his role as Techno and befriending Jax due to being threatened by blackmail, and having Darkwing and Launchpad figure it all out. Originally, Rowe was going to be the blackmailer, in an attempt for him to get the girl, but I felt that made him too heartless, so I came up with Bushroot's role to resolve that and make the true blackmailer a surprise._

_This chapter is offically the new longest, just barely beating chapter 57, "Gigavolt". Usually, I watch the page count when writing these chapters to gage how long to let the chapter to go on, but this time I just thought "forget the page count" and just wrote freely. It's a time consuming process, though, so don't expect record-breaking chapters again anytime soon._

_This chapter is also different, as it originally did NOT have the chap. recap at the beginning. It was added later, after I had written the chapter. This is unusual for me, because usually I decide well in advance when I want a recap, and usually begin such chapters by writing the recap, and not saving them for last._

_It's always been apparent that Techno and Crimson had feelings for each other, but this chapter is important as it made **them **realize it too. ;)  
_


	59. A Visionary Marten

Summary: Calvin McClure was an investigative reporter wanting to learn everything about Darkwing, including his secret identity. But when a series of events lives Cal in the center of an interstellar problem, he may decide to change his mind...

Rating: K

Author's Note: A rather nice interlude chapter in-between all of these very dramatic chapters we've been having lately. Don't get used to it, though, because next chapter, chapter 60, is the next fifteenth chapter, meaning a new story arc is in order. And I've got a few surprises planned for it, so be on the look out for it. ;) Anyway, enjoy this chapter.

59.

A Visionary Marten

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_The person saw Officer Matthew being among them, having learned about him in the papers. He had credit for solving for some of St. Canard's most perplexing cases, and the young officer was quickly rising up the ranks of command. He was also known as being a "Darkwing nut" for his constant support in the masked vigilante._

_--  
_

"_Is it just me, or does that thing look a lot like..."_

"_Yeah, it does."_

"_In fact, I think that's exactly what it is."_

"_No, that's impossible. Because I was going to say it looked a lot like a Jumpgate."_

"_And I say again. I think that's exactly what it is."_

_--  
_

"_But this also not only confirms that everybody but us knew about this Jumpgate, but that it's been actively used at the same time. And it also explains why the Teryx seemed so familiar when we first met them. All of the things shown on the show are based on real events. So somewhere out there in the galaxy, we've got people from our planet using this thing to go and visit who knows what!"_

"_All done while us the average citizens are completely clueless about it."_

_--  
_

"_Funny, I don't remember any SHUSH facilities being located there."_

"_I don't think SHUSH is involved in this, Mr. Darkwing, sir."_

"_But then...who else could it be? SHUSH is the most secret organization on the planet!"_

"_So far as we know."_

_--  
_

"_Yes, ma'am, there is indeed a Jumpgate, in fact there's a whole network of them strung all throughout the universe it seems and we've been using them appropriately for the past twelve or so years. Don't ask me the particulars about how they work, as I don't understand it myself, but I'm told it's all explained in our cover story, the TV show."_

"_You mean where each Jumpgate opens a portal into hyperspace where all the laws of physics are thrown out the window, and using carefully transmitted signals to direct every object that enters a Jumpgate to another Jumpgate almost instantaneously at any given location in the galaxy?"_

"_That was a waste of a perfectly good explanation."_

_--  
_

"_Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the city of Avalon."_

_--  
_

"_As you can see, Avalon is massive in size. Our expedition here numbers to fairly large numbers, but even then, it's nowhere near enough to populate the whole station. We in fact haven't even explored the whole city yet. There are still parts completely untouched by us, which is in of itself astounding, because what we have found here is simply amazing."_

_--  
_

"_**Southeastern Tower of Bay Bridge Destroyed!"**_

"_Evidence suggests tower was hideout of Darkwing Duck!"_

_--  
_

"_I'm sorry, Darkwing. Even if there was something left to build up from, you know you can't, not now that the secret of the tower's location is out to the public."

* * *

_

Floating silently in a secret orbit around Earth was the Jumpgate. Referred to as "Project: Bluebook" by the government agency that kept it top, top, secret, the device allowed portals into hyperspace allowing objects to enter it and to almost instantaneously travel from one location to another location somewhere in the Jumpgate network anywhere in the galaxy.

Currently, the device sat dormant was is slowly moved along on it's way around the planet below, traveling towards the night side of the planet. The three antennas evenly placed around the center ring of the gate were blinking a brilliant blue light intermittently. But then, the center of the device flashed with a brief burst of light, and something came whizzing out of the light, shooting away from the device at high speeds and plunging into the atmosphere of the planet below.

Not slowing the least amount, it cut through the winter atmosphere of it's destination like a hot knife and zoomed down towards land. It didn't touchdown on land, but instead into an icy river. With a great cloud of steam and a splash of water, the object tumbled along with the course of the river, following it's course for at least a mile before it was dropped unceremoniously into a large body of water.

Audubon Bay, to be specific.

* * *

"...it is to be noted that he has gone well above and beyond the call of duty, doing much more than anyone could've expected from him." Police Chief Luke Juniper said with a grin on his face. "So it is with great pride that I hereby promote Officer Matthew Christofferson to the rank of detective!"

The audience that had gathered to watch the proceedings cheerfully applauded as Officer Matthew hurried on up to the podium to accept the promotion from the stout mole. The usual proceedings went on with new badges and the such being pinned to Matthew's uniform. Then, Luke stood to one side to allow Matthew a chance to speak.

"Thank you all." Detective Matthew said, grinning broadly. "Normally, I suppose a person would go on to list all the people who have helped get them to where they are now in situations like this, but if I did that, we'd be here all day. And I understand that there are refreshments to be served after the ceremony, and I don't want to keep you all waiting."

There was a murmur of polite chuckles from the audience.

"Anyway, the point is that I want to thank all of those people for getting me here, and to everyone who gave me the chance to get here." Matthew continued. "I hope I can continue to serve the SCPD, as well as the whole city, to your satisfaction as well as I have in the past."

There was more applause, and then the crowd dispersed as the ceremony ended. There were indeed refreshments, and everybody lined up to get their share of it. Once they did, everybody wandered around chatting. Many kept approaching Matthew to personally congratulate him on his promotion, which Matthew was accepting warmheartedly.

"Thank you so very much." he said, shaking the hand of one such person. "I'll remember that, thank you." he stopped to take a drink from his little plastic cup of punch once the person had left, and then decided he had been in the spotlight long enough and was going to go and get back to work.

But it wasn't meant to be.

"Detective Matthew, could I possibly have a moment of your time?"

Matthew knew it was a news reporter long before he turned around, and quickly saw he wasn't wrong. The reporter was a tall, male, sable-furred marten, wearing a plain white shirt, untucked, blue jeans, and a tan vest that was currently unbuttoned. He held a notebook and pencil in one hand, ready to take notes.

"Calvin McClure, reporter for the _Saint Canard Times_." the marten introduced himself as, offering his hand to shake. "You can just call me Cal, though."

Matthew sighed as he accepted the hand to shake; talking to a reporter wasn't high on his list at the moment, as he had already had spoken with several, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to talk to one more.

"Sure, Cal." he said, managing a grin. "What did you want to ask?"

Matthew had been expecting something along the lines of a question regarding how he felt about his recent promotion, but was instead caught off guard by the real question.

"I just wanted to ask a few things regarding your connections to Darkwing Duck." Cal said. "Would you say you two are close, like say...good friends?"

"Um..." Matthew said, as he worked past his surprise and sought the right answer. "Yeah, I suppose we are friends."

"So do you visit with each other frequently?"

"No more than we do when on the job and on case, why?"

"So you don't know much about Darkwing's true identity."

"That would be a no, Cal."

"Do you have clues to narrow the list with, perhaps?"

Matthew gave the reporter a curious look. "What kind of reporter are you again?" he asked.

"Investigative reporter, detective, sir."

"Ah. That explains a lot. The answer, Cal, is no, I don't have many clues to go off of, and even if I did, I would keep them secret." Matthew paused to sip his punch again before continuing. "Darkwing is a valuable asset to the SCPD, and he's very protective about his identity. We acknowledge that, and work to protect it as well."

"Any way one could find out what his identity is, though?"

"SHUSH might know, but only might, and I'd doubt they'd ever tell you if they did."

"Seeing you two are so close, did Darkwing come to see you be promoted?"

"I invited him, but he had to turn down the offer at the last moment. Something unexpected came up, some mission or something. I don't know all of the details."

"Anywhere I could go to find out?"

Matthew gave the hopeful marten a long look. "Look, Cal, I don't have anything against reporters or trying to find scoops, as you call them." he said. "But you're digging too deep into a very sensitive matter. So do yourself a favor and stop looking for that scoop and find another." he patted Cal on the shoulder. "You'll thank me later."

"Matt!" an officer from within the crowd called out. "Chief's looking for you."

"Coming, Frank!" Matthew said. "Look, I gotta go. See you later, Cal."

Matthew then left, leaving Cal standing there, looking crestfallen.

"Can't anything go my way for once?" he asked in dismay, then turned to seek out his companion.

His companion was, of course, at the refreshments table, loading up his small paper plate with as many goodies as he could on it. Dressed similarly as Cal, except for the fact he wore a dark brown leather jacket instead of a tan vest, the otter moved greedily up and down the table collecting the goodies, often times stopping to sample most of them before he actually put any on his plate. An expensive digital camera hung from the otter's neck. This was Lance Nicholson, one of the _Saint Canard Times's_ newest photographers, and Cal's best friend.

Cal gently placed a had on Lance's shoulder. "C'mon Lance, time to go." he said.

"Oh." Lance said, turning to look at his friend, mouth half-full with food. He quickly swallowed. "How did it go, mate?"

Cal frowned. Lance winced.

"That bad, eh?" Lance inquired.

"C'mon, we're leaving." Cal said, dragging the otter for the door.

"But...but...wot about th' food?" Lance asked desperately, trying to grab some last-minute tidbits before going. "Like that bite-sized cupcake, mm-mm! C'mon, Cal, me matey, give a guy a chance 'ere! I just...I want...can't I...oh, plagues n' pestilence!"

* * *

Outside, snow was still falling, spinning around as it was blown around violently, settling on the ground below unevenly. It was St. Canard's first snow of the winter, and it was the first week of December, many felt it was just in time. But the snowstorm had lasted, non-stop, all week. People were already getting tired of it. Cal was no exception. Having grown up in Duckburg, where not nearly as much snow fell due to the city's close proximity to the ocean, he wasn't used to all this snow.

"Blasted snow." he cursed as he attempted to drive his car down the snow-filled roads, having to squint to even see the road. "I can hardly see where I'm going."

"Ye'll get used t' it, mate." Lance assured him, sitting in the passenger seat and eating what refreshments he had managed to slip out of the police station. "Now tell me 'bout th' interview. Did ye get anythin' at all out of it?"

"See for yourself." Cal said hotly, pulling out his notebook and tossing it into Lance's lap to read. "It's nothing we don't already know."

Lance skimmed through the rather short list of notes Cal had taken during his brief conversation with Detective Matthew. "We didn't know Darkwing's currently away on a mission." he pointed out, pointing at the notebook with one finger. "Hence why he wasn't at th' promotion ceremony, or wotever ye want t' call it. That's somethin' new."

"Yeah, but what good does it get us?" Cal asked, taking back the notebook. "All it means is that Darkwing is away somewhere, and could be unavailable for days on end until he gets back. Which could further delay my story."

"I'm not sure why ye're so bent on gettin' a scoop on Darkwing." Lance said. "Surely there are plenty o' other stories ye could write 'bout. Easier 'uns too."

"Darkwing is the scoop we need, Lance." Cal persisted. "We haven't had a good scoop in over a month, not since we first got jobs at the _Times_. If we don't produce results soon, those jobs aren't going to last. We need a good story, and ever since that explosion on the Audubon Bay Bridge last month, Darkwing's been big news. He's a hot topic Lance, everybody seems to want to know more about him, except there's nothing more _to _learn about him _except _his secret identity. If we can figure that out...."

"Right, we've got it made." Lance said sarcastically, licking frosting off his claws as he finished off his snacks. "Wotever mate. Ye write it, an' I'll get pictures t' go with it. I'm good at that. Just at the drop o' a hat, mate, I can get 'em that quickly. For example..."

He took his camera and with one hand took a quick picture at something as the car drove by it. He then pulled up the picture on the camera's little screen to study it and grinned.

"There, ye see mate?" he asked, holding the camera for Cal to see. "Nothin' to it."

Cal glanced at the picture, and saw it was of a female otter who had been walking down the street. He rolled his eyes and didn't respond. It wasn't too long later that they arrived at the apartment complex they both lived in. Lance lived in the apartment above Cal, but today Lance invited him to his place to show off some pictures he had been stockpiling of Darkwing for if and when Cal ever got his article together.

"I'm still lookin' for a front page worthy 'un." Lance said, scrolling through the pictures he had on his computer. "It's not easy, y'know. Darkwing, as I understand it, is anythin' but camera shy, but there's actually very liddle in th' _Times's _archives 'bout 'im. I've 'ad t' try and get new pics, an' that ain't easy. Darkwing's for some reason been lyin' low lately. Ah, 'ere we go. How 'bout this 'un, mate?"

Cal looked at the picture Lance had pulled up. It portrayed Darkwing walking down a street. A police car could be seen in the background, as well as several indistinct shapes moving around. Darkwing himself was currently looking behind him, his face emotionless. It probably wasn't the case, but the look gave Darkwing an almost mysterious feel to it

"When did you get this one?" Cal asked, intrigued.

"'bout a month ago." Lance replied. "Not long after we joined th' _Times_. Was gettin' pictures of a store robbery I happened t' be passin' by when I got this beauty. Think it'd work?"

"Certainly, but I'd want it bigger, with the edges cut out so we only had Darkwing, full-figure." Cal said, rubbing his chin.

"I can do that, mate." Lance said, pulling up a picture editing program. "Just give me a tick, an' I'll 'ave it ready for ye."

"There's no hurry, first I need an article to go with it." Cal said. He swallowed, feeling how dry his throat felt. "You got anything to drink, Lance?"

"Aye, tap water." Lance said, pointing into the kitchen while not looking away from his computer screen. "Tis all I got mate, so I 'ope it'll work for ye. Cups are in th' cupboard directly t' th' right of th' sink."

"Thanks." Cal said, walking into the kitchen.

The sink stood right in front of him when he entered. Pulling a cup from the appropriate cupboard, the reporter turned on the water in the sink and stuck the cup under the facet. It started to fill, but then the water coming from the facet slowed to a trickle for a moment before something thick and syrupy plopped into the cup.

"What the..." Cal said, turning off the water and peering into the cup.

Something colored a clear murky white floated in the surface. Pulling a disgusted look, Cal picked up a fork sitting on the counter nearby and poked it into the cup to try and fish the substance out. But then the substance, like it had a mind of it's own, suddenly shuddered, then started slithering up the fork to sit on Cal's hand. Yelping, Cal dropped both the fork and the half-filled cup to the floor and started trying to shake the substance off.

"Cal?" Lance called urgently from the other room. He could be heard standing up and heading for the kitchen. "Ye all right, mate?"

Cal was too busy trying to get the substance off his hand to reply. But the substance wouldn't budge. Then, without warning, the substance seemed to melt and vanished into Cal's fur. A moment later, it was gone from sight. It was then that Lance walked into the room. He instantly noticed the water, cup, and fork lying on the floor, and Cal staring at his hand in shock.

"Wot 'appened, mate?" he asked, stepping over the mess to his friend.

"There was something in the cup!" Cal said, pointing at the spilled cup on the floor. "It...it was some kind of...of...living goo that climbed out of the cup, and...and...it climbed onto my hand...and...and..." he shrugged, "...then it just vanished."

Lance gave him a long look. "Ye feelin' all right, mate?" he asked, feeling Cal's forehead. "Mebbe ye've been workin' too 'ard again."

"I'm...I'm fine, Lance." Cal said, ducking out of Lance's reach. "I just need...er..."

He trailed off as his head suddenly swam and the world started to spin. The next thing he knew the tile floor of the kitchen was speeding up to greet him. Lance quickly reached out and stopped him from falling.

"Aye, ye've definitely been workin' too 'ard." the otter said conclusively as he led his friend out of the room. "Ye're dizzy, disoriented, an' it sounds like ye've been hallucinatin' too."

"I know what I saw, Lance." Cal murmured, but he let Lance escort him into the living room and plop him down on the couch.

"Now ye just rest there for a liddle bit." Lance instructed. "If ye aren't feelin' better by then, then we should take ye t' see a doctor."

"I don't think a doctor will help, Lance, and I need to focus on that article..." Cal began, but Lance cut him short.

"Ye _stay_." he said, pointing a finger at him. "_I'll _handle anythin' ye need for that article for now." then he grinned comfortingly. "I'll be in th' other room workin', so just shout if ye need me."

Cal sighed, and nodded as Lance walked out. The marten then leaned back in the couch and looked around Lance's cluttered living room, filled mostly with Lance's work as a photographer. He then spied an old copy of the _Times _lying on the coffee table. Lance had been studying the photograph on the front page; notes were haphazardly scrawled on the sides. It was the headline that caught Cal's attention, being very familiar with it.

"**Southeastern Tower of Bay Bridge Destroyed!"**

"Evidence suggests tower was hideout of Darkwing Duck!"

He started thinking about how it was this particular headline that had gotten him started on his quest to learn more about Darkwing and was wishing he could actually make some good progress on that quest when his head suddenly started spinning again, worse this time. Cal moaned to himself as he fought to keep focused, but the living room suddenly faded out of sight, replacing it with something completely different...

_...It was then that things went from bad to worse._

_A sudden and echoing bang rang out abruptly, and a wave of energy smashed through all eight windows in the tower above them, quickly followed by a fiery explosion that gushed out the same windows in burning streams. The whole Audubon Bay Bridge rocked from the explosion. Launchpad and Techno, who were running along a maintenance walkway that ran along side the bridge where both knocked down. The minimal traffic on the bridge, thanks to both the late hour and the blackout that still gripped most of St. Canard, was bounced like toys and brought everything to a halt as all eyes turned to the tower._

_The first explosion had barely dissipated before another went off lower in the tower, shattering the bricks that made up the walls just under the windows and spraying the debris everywhere. With a crumble, the roof of the tower collapsed, falling down on top of the rest of the structure, the fire burning within pluming out one last time in the process. The main cable that was strung through the tower shook, and then slipped, dropping several notches. The whole bridge rocked again, it's structural integrity compromised..._

The vision ended just as quickly as it had begun, leaving Cal shaken and sweaty. It was like he had actually been there for that event. But how? And what sparked this?

He shook his head. "Whoa." he said, then raised his voice. "Lance! You better get in here!"

* * *

"This is really weird." Darkwing muttered to himself, leaning back in his chair as he thought about the whole matter. "There must be something out there that they're after."

"That's a pretty safe bet, Darkwing." Techno agreed, sitting across the room SHUSH had allowed the gang to temporarily use as a hideout. He turned away from the computer he had been working at. "FOUL is definitely up to something. Sightings of Eggmen and of confirmed FOUL agents around the St. Canard area have tripled over the past _day_. There's even a rumor going around that Steelbeak himself has been sighted somewhere within the city."

"But then, what are they doing?" Crimson asked, studying a map of St. Canard that showed the locations of the sightings in clusters of yellow dots. "Some kind of new scheme of theirs?"

"The information suggests that they could be looking for something." Techno stated. He shrugged. "I couldn't begin to guess what, though."

"So we're pretty much faced with two questions, then." Darkwing said. "What are they looking for that's here in St. Canard that's not anywhere else, and/or what are they planning, and how does it fit in with us?"

"They could be planning nothing." Launchpad suggested. "At least, nothing that's going on here in St. Canard."

"It wouldn't be the first time that they've worked on something right under our noses, though." Techno pointed out. "Remember the portal generator they built? Whatever the case, they can't be up to any good. I mean, when are they?"

"What we need though is some theory about _what _it is they're searching for, and _what _they intend to do after that." Crimson said. She leaned her head to one side as she continued looking at the map. "You know, I get the impression FOUL's here doing whatever it is they're doing unwillingly. They know they're at risk of getting caught, and are trying to hide it."

"This speculating isn't getting us anywhere." Darkwing muttered, standing. "In fact, this whole mission is going nowhere fast. I think it's time we tried a new tactic."

"Why's that, DW?" Launchpad asked. "Think we'd find something that way?"

"Not really, but this is taking too long." Darkwing said. "I already missed Officer Matt's promotion. He's a detective now, you know."

"Yes, Dad, you've told us several times now." Crimson said, rolling her eyes as she flipped through a SHUSH report. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the guy...but really, you're making too much of a big deal out of it. Anyway, what is it you plan to do?"

"Whatever it is, it will have to wait." a voice said as the door to the room opened.

Everyone turned, and saw to their great surprise the very last person they would've wanted to see today. Vice President Jonas Norrin. He wasn't alone, either. Today he was joined by two bodyguards wearing suits and sunglasses. They lacked the trademark name tag of a SHUSH agent, so they were more likely Secret Service. Hooter was also there, standing to one side of the group, looking disgruntled, but reluctantly obedient.

"Norrin!" Darkwing said, giving the vice president a glare. "_Now _what do you want?"

"Your obedience, Darkwing." Norrin said, his feline face as neutral as always. "I require that you follow me to my car for a quick drive. I will explain along the way."

"Not so fast, what's this about Norrin?" Crimson demanded, marching up to the vice president. "We have a right to know what's going on."

"So you do." Norrin calmly replied. "But it involves sensitive material, and I cannot explain it here."

"What sensitive material?" Darkwing demanded.

"Like I said, I will explain along the way." Norrin said. "But I require you to please come with me." he paused, noting Darkwing's defiance, and added, "I can make it an order if I need to."

Darkwing turned helplessly to Hooter. "J. Gander, you can't let him do this." he said.

"I'm sorry, Darkwing, but I have to." Hooter admitted, giving Norrin a glare. "He has orders from the president himself to do this." he held up a paper with the order, neatly typed out, as proof. "There's nothing I can do now."

"I promise, things will come together shortly so long as you obey, Darkwing." Norrin promised.

All eyes turned to Darkwing, waiting for him to give the order. The hero fumed for a moment, but he was clearly considering his options first before he did anything. Finally, without warning, he stepped forward to join Norrin.

"C'mon guys, we might as well hear the _good _vice president out." he said.

Wordlessly, Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad nodded, and followed his example. Norrin grinned a rare grin.

"Thank you." he said politely, and then turned to exit, his bodyguards following, Hooter staying behind. "Please follow me."

He led the way outside of the building into the snowstorm still going on outside to where a black limo sat idly waiting. Norrin's bodyguards opened the back door and allowed Norrin to climb inside. Darkwing and the others followed. Norrin took a seat all to himself with his back facing the driver. Darkwing and the others sat on the other side of him. The door was closed, and the limo lurched forward. Norrin pulled out a laptop, and keeping the screen hidden, he began working with it silently.

"All right, Norrin, we've willingly followed you this far." Darkwing said. "Now time for the answers. Start talking, what's this 'sensitive material' you spoke about? If it really was so 'sensitive', then you could've said it right there in SHUSH HQ."

"Oh really?" Norrin asked, peering over his glasses at Darkwing.

"Yeah, really!" Darkwing said.

"Perhaps I was mistaken then, I thought there were some things even you four knew of that the SHUSH organization did not."

Darkwing blanked out at this. "No...not that I can...think of..." he admitted slowly.

"Remind me what this is, then." Norrin said, turning the laptop around to finally reveal what was on the screen. It was a picture, of an instantly familiar device.

"That's a Jumpgate." Techno realized, surprised.

"You know of Project: Bluebook?" Crimson asked, also surprised.

"Ms. Avenger, I _founded _Project: Bluebook, and I head the organization that operates it." Norrin said. "It was I that gave authorization for you four to go see the city of Avalon three months ago."

"That was _you_?" Darkwing asked, dumbfounded. "I thought that was all General O'Brien's doing!"

"He did put in a very good word for you." Norrin admitted. "I was personally against the idea, but he was very persuasive. And as it turned out, from what I gathered from the reports later, your presence at Avalon proved...useful."

"Is that why you've been a bit more friendly with us than usual?" Launchpad asked.

"No, that is a completely different matter concerning a new project that is currently underway." Norrin said. "You are likely to begin seeing the results of it later this month." he wouldn't say a thing more on the subject.

"So what's this about, Norrin?" Crimson asked. "What does any of this have to do with the Jumpgate?"

"Late yesterday night, an incident occurred on Avalon." Norrin explained. "An alien entity they were experimenting with there escaped, and managed to use the Jumpgate to flee. It then came here, to our planet, and crash-landed somewhere nearby St. Canard. All traces of it have since vanished. I have rallied together a search crew to track down the alien, but none of them are very familiar with the layout of the land."

"So that's where we fit in." Darkwing realized.

Norrin nodded. "You are the only people I have available who are aware of Project: Bluebook and are also familiar with the layout of St. Canard." he explained. "You will be able to judge a situation and react accordingly better than anyone else." he paused. "There is another aspect to it, however."

"And what's that?" Techno asked.

"The alien's crash-landing did not go undetected. Another organization, the one you know as FOUL, detected the alien's reentry and traced it to here. They do not know what they are looking for or where it came from, but they are searching for it, nonetheless."

"That explains the increased activity SHUSH detected." Crimson remarked.

"I highly doubt we will face much problems from them, but in case we do, you four are among the most experienced when it comes to dealing with them." Norrin said. "As much as I hate to admit it, Darkwing, I need your help."

"You've already got it, Norrin." Darkwing said thoughtfully. "I became willing to help you the moment the subject of the Jumpgate came up." he paused, though, thinking. "I'm betting you want to keep this all secret from the public, then."

"If at all possible, yes."

"Then how are you going to plan to do this search? The only way to actually find this alien so quickly isn't going to be easy to hide."

The limo pulled to a stop somewhere just outside St. Canard's boundaries. One of the Secret Service bodyguards opened the door. Norrin put away the laptop and proceeded to climb out.

"Allow me to show you, Darkwing." Norrin said.

They all climbed out to stand in an empty clearing, snow being swept across it in the fury of the storm. Darkwing frowned.

"Show me what?" he asked hotly.

"Just wait a moment, Darkwing." Norrin urged.

They did. Finally, a low hum began to ring out from somewhere, growing louder as the object that produced it drew closer. Finally, it seemed to be right on top of them, but nothing still couldn't be seen. The snow in the clearing began to be blown away by another burst of wind, this one aimed downward so it wasn't from the storm. Just when Darkwing was going to inquire again as to what it was Norrin wanted to show them, the air in front of them wavered, and then a jumper from Avalon materialized out of thin air just before it landed gently on the ground.

It's back hatch opened, and another recognizable figure stepped out.

"Mr. Vice President!" Lieutenant Colonel Jack Pepper exclaimed, snapping to attention. "You called, sir?"

"I've brought you some help, colonel." Norrin explained, motioning to Darkwing and party. "As they know the land better than you do, they're going to come along and help search."

Pepper glanced at the foursome of heroes and frowned. "Oh no, not you guys again." he stated.

"And it's very good to see you again, too, colonel." Crimson said, with a grin, stepping over to the parked jumper. "Permission to come aboard?"

"Yeah, yeah, get in here." Pepper grumbled, heading back to the front of the jumper.

Crimson empathically stepped aboard, quickly followed by Techno and Launchpad. Darkwing brought up the rear, but before he entered, Norrin called to him.

"Darkwing." he called. He paused for a moment. "Good luck."

Darkwing glanced at the vice president for a moment, then saluted to indicate that he had heard before he climbed aboard, the back hatch closing behind him. Inside the jumper, it became apparent that Pepper hadn't been alone. With him was also Dr. Robert McDonald, wearing a uniform like Pepper's this time around instead of a scientist's white lab coat. He barely acknowledged the presence of the new arrivals, being busy working at a computer.

"Right, everybody, please take your seats." Pepper muttered, sitting down into the pilot's seat, the others taking their own seats. "Buckle them up, put them in the upright positions, keep your hands and arms inside the jumper at all times...all that jazz."

"Can we get on with this?" McDonald suddenly interrupted, not looking up from his computer. "I think I've got another lead on our little alien friend."

"You sure this time?" Pepper asked as the jumper took off, and the cloak in engaged, hiding the ship from view of any outside watchers. "Maybe it's another greenhouse full of plants."

"Hey, it's not my fault that all of those life signs grouped together looked like the life sign readings of our missing alien."

"Oh sure. One just simply had to look closer to clearly tell it was a mere group of life signs clustered together."

"Oh, well, I don't hear _you_ offering to do the scanning. If you think it's so easy..."

"I _do _think it's so easy. You're just making it _look _complicated."

"Look, the moment you can claim to be being the smartest man on the planet, _then _I'll listen to you."

"Sometimes I wonder if I already am."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

* * *

"So let me get this straight, mate." Lance said before pausing for a long moment to determine just how he should say this. "Ye're seein' things."

Cal sighed, leaning heavily against the wall. "To put it in short, yes." he admitted, frustrated. "Look, I don't know how to explain it. I just know that when I look at or think about something in particular, I get these...visions...of things. Most of them have to do with Darkwing."

"Wotever for, mate?" Lance asked. "Ye sure it's just not a case that ye've been thinkin' about Darkwing too much lately?"

"I think that's exactly the case, at least partially." Cal admitted. "I think that my own line of thinking is causing these...visions...to appear."

"An' ye say that this is all has somethin' t' do with that mysterious gooey stuff ye found in a cup earlier." Lance said skeptically.

"That's what I think, yes." Cal said. "This all didn't start happening until after I found that...whatever it was."

"Goo ye 'ave yet t' prove actually existed." Lance said, still skeptic.

"Look, I know what it sounds like, and I wish I had some way to prove it to you, Lance." Cal said, flopping down into the couch. "But I know what I see, and I'm seeing visions of things...almost like flashbacks of memories...when I shouldn't for no particular reason."

Lance sighed, and sat himself in a chair adjacent from the couch. "So let's presume everythin' ye said thus far is true." he said. "Let's recap wot ye've seen thus far."

"It's really a tangled mess, Lance." Cal admitted. "The first thing I saw was the southeastern tower of the bay bridge exploding, an incident we know happened less than a month ago. Since then it's just been little brief flashes of things...a computer screen here...a house there...I haven't managed to duplicate the full extent of the first vision, with all the detail and length and...realism. Lance, it was like I was actually there."

"But ye weren't." Lance objected. "Ye weren't even in town that particular night, nor was I." He shook his head and thought for a moment. "Again presumin' for a moment that wot ye say is true, wot do ye think we should do about it? _Can _we do anythin' about it?"

"I...I don't know." Cal admitted. "I think I would need to figure out better how this works and if I have any control over it first. Having another vision like the first would probably help."

"Okay, that's somethin' t' shoot for." Lance said, shuffling through the mess on the coffee table, searching for the paper Cal claimed had triggered the first vision.

"But I'm not sure I _want _to have that vision again." Cal admitted, watching Lance work. "It seemed so real...and I could feel the panic and...and the terror and...it was just so...nerve-racking, that I'm not sure I could handle much more of it."

"Well, of course, I ain't about t' do that t' ye mate." Lance said, recovering the paper and holding it in front of Cal. "Let's just see if we can get this so-called vision t' trigger again, so I can see for meself if ye just aren't goin' crazy."

Cal sighed. "Okay." he said. He stared at the headline, and tried reproducing the thoughts he had been thinking of when the first vision occurred when he felt his head begin to spin...

_...Released from the effects of the beam, Gigavolt wobbled around almost drunkenly. Megavolt watched him for a moment, then made a decision. Racing over to Gigavolt despite a shout from Darkwing and Crimson to stop, he grabbed Gigavolt by the collar. He was semi-surprised he even could do that, but quickly shoved that thought to the back of his mind as he brought Gigavolt around to stare into his face._

"_What are you doing?" Gigavolt asked, surprised._

"_Setting things right." Megavolt replied, and then forced all of the energy he had into Gigavolt, finishing the job the cannon had started..._

"Whoa." Cal said when he snapped back to reality. "I just had a glimpse of a vision. It wasn't of the tower exploding, but it was a vision! Of supervillains!"

Lance had been watching his friend closely during this. "Aye, ye did look vacant there for a moment..." he admitted, looking thoughtful. "See if ye can do it again."

Cal nodded, and concentrated for a moment. A moment later, he felt the tell-tale signs of his head spinning in preparation for the following vision...

"_...Well, well, well, look who finally showed up!" Megavolt said, putting his hands on his hips. "And how is Darkwing today?"_

"_This ends here, Megavolt!" Darkwing exclaimed angrily, switching attachments on his gun to fire off a canister of sleeping gas. It would likely subdue Launchpad and Mia, who were watching the situation intently, as well as Megavolt, but that was better than nothing. "You've threatened too many people in your blind lust for revenge!"_

"_Oh c'mon, Darkwing, don't you realize what I've been through?" Megavolt whined. "I thought getting my memories back would be a good thing, but all it's done is bring me grief! Grief about you for one thing!"_

"_I don't what it is you think I did to you, but you brought that down upon yourself!" Darkwing said._

"_It's not just that, Darkwing!" Megavolt said. "I got kicked out of the Fearsome Five because of my memories! I'm now their enemies, and they're hunting me!" He paused for a moment as he watched Darkwing's eyes go wide with surprise. "I've got nothing left in the world to loose except you, Darkwing!" his eyes narrowed suddenly. "And you I can do without...."_

"There!" Cal exclaimed, snapping out of it. "There it was again!"

"Aye, I saw it!" Lance said, his eyes going wide. "Well, not th' vision, but I saw ye 'ave it. Ye went all rigid, yore eyes went blank an' unfocused, an' ye wouldn't respond t' any outside sources for a moment." he shook his head. "Sink me rudder, mate, it's all true."

"I told you." Cal said, grinning victoriously.

"An' I'm sorry I ever doubted ye, mate." Lance said, grinning.

Cal nodded, but frowned. "Now that we've got this figured out, though, how are we going to reverse it?" he asked.

* * *

"So just what is this alien that we're looking for anyway?" Darkwing asked as the cloaked jumper flew over St. Canard, it's computers scanning.

"It's kind of hard to describe." Pepper admitted. "It's kind of like a ball of grape jam, only clear."

"Actually, the proper terms would be to describe it as a gelatinous..." McDonald began.

"I'm describing it in terms they can understand, Robert." Pepper interrupted hotly. "Anyway, we found it on a planet we were exploring, and took it back to Avalon for further studying when it escaped. That simple."

"Okay, then here's a potentially stupid question." Launchpad asked, helping Crimson and Techno sift through scan results on another computer. "If this alien is nothing more than a glob of goo, then how could it have possibly escaped?"

"It proved to be more intelligent than we expected." Pepper stated, focusing on his piloting skills.

"_Much _more." McDonald agreed. "If those last scans we got of it were anything to indicate how smart it was, it's intelligence was way off the charts!"

"But it was a glob of goo." Launchpad said, not understanding. "How could it do stuff like open doors or fly a ship?"

"The last scans we got of it indicated it had massive mental abilities." McDonald explained. "It probably had telekinesis that it used to do stuff for it."

"We also think it had telepathic abilities, being able to connect with other people's minds." Pepper said with a wince. "That might have helped as well."

"Point is that while it doesn't look like it, it was extremely mentally advanced." McDonald said. "Part of the reason we wanted to study it."

"...but it escaped." Crimson stated with a grin.

"Yeah, and now we gotta get it back." Pepper said.

"Why can't we track whatever it used to get here?" Techno asked, having wondered this for several moments now.

"Because all it used to get here was itself." McDonald said. "This alien is extremely resilient. So much so that it could survive _and _maneuver around in the vacuum of space. It jettisoned itself right out into space and started to make it's getaway. It didn't get far, though, as it was starting to sink into the gravity well of the planet Avalon orbits, so it made for the Jumpgate and came here."

"Only here it faced the same problem, and had no choice but to re-enter the atmosphere." Techno concluded.

McDonald shot him a surprised look. "That's right." he said. "Anyway, I said that alien is extremely resilient, but it's still susceptible to extreme heat. It obviously survived re-entry, but it's no doubt injured, and it probably gone and hidden itself somewhere to lick it's wounds." upon getting a glance from Pepper, he added weakly, "...or...at least...the equivalent of that for it."

"So now we just have to find it before FOUL does." Darkwing concluded.

"I've heard of FOUL before." Pepper said. "I highly doubt we have anything to worry about. We have the advantage of knowing what we're looking for and the superior technology."

"All we have to do is track down the alien's unique energy signature that it produces and triangulate it's location and recapture it." McDonald added. "Then we've got this mission in the bag."

Crimson suddenly paused. "Dr. McDonald," she said, looking up from her computer screen. "is the energy signature you are looking for like this one?"

McDonald glanced at her screen, and brightened. "That's it!" he said, bringing up the readings on his own screen. "Now I just have to pinpoint the location it's coming from and....there!"

A wireframe map of St. Canard appeared on the computer screen, with a blinking dot flashing where the alien was to be. Darkwing studied the location of it.

"That would be Hoeye Street, which is location in that direction, to the north from here." he said, pointing out the jumper's viewport.

Pepper turned the ship to head to that location. McDonald was still studying the location displayed on his computer.

"It looks like it could be inside a building." he said. "Any ideas what?"

"Hmm, what buildings _are _on Hoeye Street?" Darkwing asked.

"I'm going to hazard a guess that the alien is in the apartment complex that's on that street." Crimson said. "Towering Apartments I believe is the name."

"Looks right to me." Pepper said as they arrived at the location of the building. "Which apartment is it in?"

"Apartment 710-B." McDonald announced, pulling up more information on his computer. "According to the building's electronic records that I've accessed..."

"Hacked." Pepper corrected, grinning teasingly.

"The term is 'access' when you do it for the greater good, colonel." McDonald said, giving him a look. "Anyway, the apartment belongs to a Lance Nicholson."

"Think he knows he's got an alien in his apartment?" Launchpad asked.

"If he doesn't, maybe we can keep it that way." Techno said, being optimistic.

"So who's going to go in there and get the alien?" Pepper asked.

"Seeing you two are both members of a top secret organization that not even _I _know that much about, you two should probably stay here." Darkwing said, patting the back of Pepper and McDonald's chairs. "We'll go."

"But you four are a bunch of flamboyant crime fighters and are well known in this city." Pepper objected, landing the jumper on the building's roof, still cloaked. "_I _think you should _stay _here."

"Now wait, there's no need to be difficult." McDonald interrupted. "Look, there's six of us, so we'll compromise. Three of us will go, while the rest stay here. So who's going?"

"That'll be me." Pepper spoke up immediately.

"And me." Darkwing added next.

"And me." Crimson added third.

McDonald blinked, not even having had the chance to speak up. "But...but...I wanted to go!" he objected.

"Sorry, it looks like you're going to have to stay here, Robert." Pepper said, opening the back hatch and leading Darkwing and Crimson out it. "Should've spoken up faster. Maybe next time. Now you stay here and guard the ship. We'll be right back."

Closing the hatch behind them, the threesome walked across the roof and proceeded down to the apartment they needed to visit.

* * *

_...Charlie yelped as the bike overbalanced and tipped over and got further entangled in the net. Gosalyn quickly latched onto him to keep him from falling, but the net kept that from happening to either of them. Meanwhile, the net continued to shoot upward, going up the full length of two skyscrapers that sat on either side of the street. It appeared that the ends of the net were attached to roofs of both buildings. The net didn't stopped until it was strung between the two top floors of the two skyscrapers._

_Standing on the roof of one was Frogduck, who had been turning a crank._

"_Ha! It worked! My Frognet worked!" he cried. "I caught a car!"_

_Keith the Frog, which sat perched on the crank, ribbited indignantly._

"_Oh, well, true, it's just a motorbike, but still!" Frogduck said._

"_Frogduck!" Gosalyn exclaimed in frustration._

_She tried to move towards the mutant frog-duck, but the net wobbled dangerously. Charlie, scared, grabbed Gosalyn in a vise-like grip. Gosalyn wrapped a reassuring arm around him...._

Cal shook his head to clear the vision. "This is getting out of control." he muttered. "These visions just come at random...they don't even seem to be connected anymore. It's like...it's like..."

"Tryin' t' tune in t' a specific radio station?" Lance asked, entering the room with a drink for his friend. "Y'know, where ye 'ave t' keep turnin' th' liddle knob, gettin' only brief snatches of somethin' every now an' then?"

Cal blinked. "Yeah." he said. "Thanks Lance."

"Don't mention it." the otter said, handing Cal the drink.

"Unfortunately, this doesn't get us any further to figuring out how this happened." Cal muttered, sipping the drink.

"Or 'ow t' stop it." Lance agreed. "Too bad these visions aren't givin' ye any clues."

"Yeah, they don't make any sense." Cal agreed. "Half the time it's not even about Darkwing anymore, but other people I don't think I've ever met. To build on the radio analogy, it's like I'm getting several signals at once, and I don't have any control over how to get just the ones I want."

Lance was silent for a moment. "Cal me matey," he began, "I've been thinkin' 'bout all of this for a liddle while now, an' I'm startin' t' wonder if ye've somehow become telepathic."

"T-t-telepathic?" Cal repeated. "How?"

Lance shrugged. "There's a way t' find out." he said. "Seein' that ye've been seein' Darkwing related stuff, an' ye've 'ad Darkwing on th' brain a lot lately, I've been wonderin' if ye get these visions when ye accidently get inside Darkwing's head."

Cal looked at him for a long moment. "_Now _who's being hard to believe?" he asked, unbelieving.

"C'mon mate, it's th' best theory we've got at this point." Lance said. "An' I think I know 'ow t' prove it. Remember when ye were in the kitchen gettin' that drink?"

"Yeah."

"Wot was I doin' durin' that time?"

"You were on the computer, adjusting that picture we chose."

"Was I?"

Cal thought for a moment. His head spun, and his eyes went vacant for a moment. Just as quickly as it started, he snapped out of it again, and gave Lance a bemused look.

"You weren't." he concluded. "You were reading a magazine instead while you waited for the computer to check your e-mail."

"Seein' that ye didn't 'ave an article t' go with the picture just yet, I figured there was no 'urry." Lance said with a shrug. "Point is, though, is 'ow could ye've known that?" he gave Cal a wink.

Cal sat silently for a long moment, thinking about it. Meanwhile, the doorbell to the apartment rang. Lance rose to go answer it. Cal hesitated, then followed out of curiosity. He was later glad he did when Lance opened the door and revealed Darkwing, Crimson, and another duck in a uniform that neither Lance or Cal was familiar with. Both were too stunned by the unexpected visit from the three visitors to say anything. Finally, Cal was about to ask the question of why they were here when his head unexpectedly spun and the resulting vision answered for him...

_...Just when Darkwing was going to inquire again as to what it was Norrin wanted to show them, the air in front of them wavered, and then a jumper from Avalon materialized out of thin air just before it landed gently on the ground._

_It's back hatch opened, and another recognizable figure stepped out._

"_Mr. Vice President!" Lieutenant Colonel Jack Pepper exclaimed, snapping to attention. "You called, sir?"_

"_I've brought you some help, colonel." Norrin explained, motioning to Darkwing and party. "As they know the land better than you do, they're going to come along and help search."_

_Pepper glanced at the foursome of heroes and frowned. "Oh no, not you guys again." he stated._

"_And it's very good to see you again, too, colonel." Crimson said, with a grin, stepping over to the parked jumper. "Permission to come aboard?"_

"_Yeah, yeah, get in here." Pepper grumbled, heading back to the front of the jumper...._

Cal snapped out of the vision just as Darkwing opened his mouth to begin explained.

"Um, hello." Darkwing began. "Uh, you're probably wondering why we're here, so..."

"You're here because you're helping the colonel search for something." Cal blurted out, pointing at Pepper. He paused for a long moment, immune to the surprised glances he got from everyone. "What's Avalon?"

Pepper frowned. "Now how did you know all of that?" he demanded.

"It's...it's a very long story." Cal explained. While he did, Lance slowly raised his camera and took a picture of the three visitors. Crimson, caught off guard by the flash of the camera, gave Lance a look. "See, earlier today I found this...gooey thing...in a drink of water I was getting, and..." he trailed off when his head unexpectedly spun again...

_...This Jumpgate one orbited a blue and green, friendly, planet not unlike the one they had just left, but the real focus of attention was really on the much larger object that orbited with the Jumpgate._

"_Whoa." Crimson said, standing up._

"_Hey, I said to stay seated until the jumper comes to a complete stop." Pepper griped._

_O'Brien however was enjoying their guests's amazement. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the city of Avalon." he said dramatically._

_Avalon proved to be more space station than city, but it was certainly big enough to fit perhaps more than one city within it. It was roughly circular when viewed from above, and was easily about a kilometer across in diameter and several, several, floors deep. Jutting out of the side of the station were four pylons all evenly space from each other that stretched out a great length from the main body of the station. Little blinking green lights flashed on the tips of these, but there were also little gun turrets placed on them as well, currently in active._

_At the top of the station was a large dome seemingly made of glass, or, more likely, some other transparent material. Through it, the real part of Avalon that was actually city. A small mass of what appeared to be skyscrapers that were housed within the dome. At the top of the dome, however, was a large disk-like object with rows of windows in it. It's location suggested it was a kind of control structure. Within the dome, a tall tower could be seen joining with it's underside..._

"Wait!" Cal said, holding up a hand for silence. "Don't answer the Avalon question."

"Oh good, because I wasn't going to tell you anyway." Pepper said sarcastically.

"Well, I know now." Cal said. "I know that Avalon is an orbital city that orbits an alien planet and is accessed by a device known as a Jumpgate."

This drew more surprised glances.

"Now, what makes you think something as far-fetched as that is even real?" Darkwing asked, feigning disbelief.

Cal's head spun as he got another answering vision...

_...Crimson quickly went to grab Launchpad and drag him out of the van._

"_Wait, wait, wait, I'm not done!" he exclaimed as Crimson dragged him out._

"_It's too late, we've got to go!" Crimson exclaimed._

_And then, salvation arrived. Shooting down from the sky above, a large ship hovered over the street, and began firing pink beams of light at the duplicates. In quick flashes, they all started reverting back to the ordinary cabbages they were to begin with. Cheering, the originals began to regroup to drive the duplicates back, and finally, the battle began to end..._

"You deal with the far-fetched everyday, Darkwing." Cal replied confidently. "You tell me if it's true or not."

Darkwing was floored by this comment.

"Look, Cal really does 'ave an explanation for all of this." Lance said, pointing at his friend. "It's a bit long, though."

"I don't care." Pepper said sternly, folding his arms. "I want to hear every word."

"Can we come in?" Darkwing asked politely.

"Oh, of course!" Cal said, quickly stepping to one side. "C'mon in!"

The threesome of visitors entered the apartment. Lance led the way into the living room. As he did so, he backhandedly snapped another picture of the visitors with his camera and earned another look from Crimson. Cal offered the couch for the visitors to sit on. Pepper and Darkwing accepted the seat, but Crimson remained standing. Lance and Cal, acting a little nervous at the thought of such important people being in the same room as them, took their own seats in front of the couch.

"Okay." Pepper said, wanting to get to the bottom of this. "Start at the beginning, and tell us everything that his happened to led to all of this."

So Cal did, allowing Lance to add contributions as needed. Beginning with the reason they were together in the apartment to begin with, they both told of everything leading up to now, as well as their own theories as to what had happened. When they finished, there was a moment of silence as everyone stopped to let this all sink in.

"Well, one thing is for certain." Pepper said. "The goo, as you called it, that you found was an alien, an extremely smart one. We're here to retrieve it." he shook his head. "I'm at a loss for the rest of it, though."

"Now wait, you told us that this alien was so smart, it could be telepathic." Darkwing said. He motioned to Cal. "That would certainly account for this."

"But...then...how is Cal gettin' these visions?" Lance asked, confused.

Crimson pulled out an energy scanner and waved it around the room. She frowned at the results. "Uh, guys..." she began, "remember that energy signature we used to track down the alien?" she pointed at Cal. "It's coming from him."

Cal looked himself over, alarmed. "You mean it's still on me?" he asked.

"More like it's still _in _you." Crimson corrected.

There was another moment of silence.

"Well, that explains th' visions." Lance admitted, trying to be optimistic. "I suppose if this alien really does 'ave telepathic abilities, an' it's in ye, then ye'd inherit the abilities."

"But _why _is it in him?" Darkwing asked, puzzled.

"That's easy, it's injured, and probably knows it's being hunted." Pepper said. "It probably saw Cal here as a chance to hide."

"So the next question I've got is how the heck are we going to get it out of him?" Darkwing asked.

The question was left unanswered when the door to the apartment was suddenly knocked down. Several windows were broken when people started forcing their way in. Darkwing, Crimson, and Pepper jumped up in alarm, each pulling out their respective weapons. They were terribly outnumbered, though, as they were surrounded on all sides from the intruding ducks. Two, looking more important than the others, pushed their way through to stand in the front. Cal didn't recognize them, but as his head started to spin, he knew that was going to change...

_...Edward was never one to like being on the top of a mountain. It was too cold, too high, and the air was too thin. But he did have to admit that the view from up here was spectacular. Turning away from the window over looking the Teton Mountains, he looked at the two Eggmen sitting at a computer console while sipping the hot chocolate he had requested to fight the extreme chill that surrounded the data retention center..._

_--  
_

"_...So, some things never change, do they?" a voice echoed out in reply, and figure stepped out to where he could be seen._

_Darkwing and Crimson pointed their gas guns at the person._

"_Hey, hey, hey!" Steelbeak said, dressed in his trademark white tuxedo. "I'm unarmed!" he held up his arms to show this. "Is this really the hello I get after not seein' ya all in seven some odd years? Don't I at least get a 'how are ya' or somethin'?"_

"_No." Darkwing and Crimson replied together._

"_Now what do you want?" Darkwing continued._

"_Would ya believe it was just t' say hi?" Steelbeak asked._

"_No." Crimson said, her aim not wavering._

_Techno, who's visor was still on infrared, saw something out of the corner of his eye, and turned to look at it._

"_Well, yer right." Steelbeak said, lowering his arms, and pulling them idly behind his back. "Get 'em boys!"_

_And suddenly the quartet found themselves surrounded by Eggmen, all of them armed..._

"Well, well, Darkwing, you're one step ahead of me t'day!" Steelbeak exclaimed. "I presume you were recruited to find the same thing as me!"

"And you aren't going to get it, either Steelbeak!" Darkwing exclaimed, moving towards the rooster. He was quickly held back by the surrounding Eggmen. Pepper and Crimson were also restrained in case they, too, tried anything.

"Ah, as feisty as always, Darkwing." Steelbeak said, grinning. "I can always count on ya for that. But today, ya better not toe the line, 'cause my Eggmen here have itchy trigger fingers today."

The surrounding Eggmen gripped their weapons tighter to prove the point. Edward, Steelbeak's second in command, was moving around the room, waving a scanner. He stopped in front of Cal and Lance, both of which had their hands in the air in surrender.

"Sir!" Edward called to Steelbeak. "It's over here!"

Steelbeak stepped over and glanced at the scanner before approaching Cal. "So, you've got it." he stated. "Okay. How about ya hand it over t' me now?"

Cal winced. Uh, yeah, about that..." he began nervously.

"He's not going to give it to you, Steelbeak!" Crimson exclaimed.

"Oh really?" Steelbeak asked. "And how do you know?"

"He...he doesn't know he has it, for one thing!" Pepper offered lamely.

Steelbeak gave Cal a questioning glance. The reporter shrugged.

"I...I'm in no position to give it to you, no matter what." he said.

"Fine." Steelbeak, snapping his fingers. The Eggmen started to move their prisoners out the door. "We'll go home and interrogate ya further there. To the van, boys!"

* * *

Back in the jumper, McDonald glanced at his computer screen in alarm. "Um, they're moving away." he announced suddenly.

Launchpad and Techno looked up from the improvised game of tiddlywinks they had been playing on the floor of the craft.

"Who's moving where?" Techno asked.

"Pepper, Darkwing, and Crimson." McDonald said, pointing at his computer screen. "They've left the building, and are now heading down the street." he frowned. "There's a whole bunch of people with them."

Techno came over to look at the screen too. He sighed. "I think someone else tracked the alien here to this location as well." he stated.

"FOUL?" Launchpad asked.

"Pretty safe bet." Techno said. "We gotta stop them."

McDonald quickly switched to the pilot's seat and started up the jumper. "Then what are we waiting for?" he asked.

"Wait!" Techno said. "You can fly this thing?"

"Well, yeah!" McDonald replied. "At least...kind of."

"'Kind of?'"

"I still need some practice, but I can get this thing off the ground."

Launchpad winced as he stepped over. "Maybe I should fly it." he offered. "Being a pilot, I can..."

"No, you don't know a thing about how this ship works whereas I do." McDonald said, working with the controls in preparation to take off. "I'm the best bet we've got."

"Besides, Launchpad, you're more likely to just crash." Techno pointed out.

The jumper, still cloaked, jerkily rose into the air, scraping it's underside on the roof edge as it flew off wobbly, nearly smashing into another building before McDonald was able to fix his course. Techno winced as he gripped the back of McDonald's chair anxiously.

"Though maybe that wouldn't have made much of a difference." he admitted.

"Look, there they are." McDonald pointed below them, where a van drove down the street with a car leading it and following behind it. "They're in the van, according to my scans."

"Those definitely look like FOUL agents in those vehicles." Techno said, looking for himself. "See if you can get closer, Dr. McDonald."

"Call me Rob, why don't you." McDonald muttered to himself as he went to carry out the request.

The jumper dropped lower to hover over the lead car. Techno looked around.

"That's good, but I want to see who'd driving the van, and we'd need to be a little lower." he said.

"Okay." McDonald said.

The jumper suddenly pivoted around to face the van, now driving backwards. This done, McDonald started to lower the jumper to be level with the van. Unfortunately, he forgot until too late, and when they heard the crunching and grinding sound that the lead car was still below them. The invisible jumper was beginning to crush it.

The driver of the van, as well as Steelbeak and Edward who were riding in the front, widened their eyes in surprise as the car ahead of them seemed to be crushed by some unseen force, then alarm as the van had to quickly veer away as McDonald quickly brought the jumper back up, allowing the slightly flatter car underneath to veer away out of control.

"Good thing there were only Eggmen in there." Launchpad muttered.

"I got a better idea." McDonald said, adjusting the jumper's course.

The craft shot over the van, still driving backwards, and sank down to squeeze into the space between the van and the car bringing up the rear. The space wasn't quite big enough, and the nose of the rear car was flattened somewhat as the invisible jumper moving down pushed it out of the way. Once there, McDonald moved the back end of the jumper closer to the back of the van. He accidently got too close, roughly bumped it, then fell back about a foot.

By this point, Techno and Launchpad had caught on to the idea, and opened the back hatch. Like an invisible door had opened leading into a hidden room, the opening hovered not far from the closed and locked back doors of the van. Techno pulled out a chemical bomb and reached out and wedged it into the lock of the door. Blowing the lock and latch open, the doors swung open, flapping nosily as the van sped down the road.

Inside was Pepper, Darkwing, Crimson, Cal, and Lance. There were also a couple of Eggman guards, but when the van started getting all jostled about, Pepper, Darkwing, and Crimson had already taken them out. When they saw the open back hatch to the jumper hanging there, Pepper, Crimson, and Darkwing quickly hopped aboard. With some hesitation, Cal nervously followed, clearly scared for his life. Lance seemed frozen with fear, and wasn't about to move, until Techno and Crimson dragged him aboard and closed the back hatch.

Pepper went straight to the pilot's seat and patted McDonald on the arm. "I'll take over." he said.

"Please do." McDonald said, quickly surrendering the controls and the chair.

Back under Pepper's control, the jumper zoomed off and into the air, leaving the squadron from FOUL behind to make a very undignified getaway. Once they were safe again, McDonald promptly wanted an explanation.

"Where's the alien?" he asked. "Did we get it?"

"We did indeed." Crimson said, and motioned to Cal.

McDonald stared at the marten for a long moment, while Cal nervously waved. "Is this a joke?" the scientist asked.

Cal was about to reply when his head unexpectedly spun...

"_...Ah, I see you found the trouble spot already." a new voice spoke suddenly, startling O'Brien. He turned to see one of the scientists, a short-haired goose with a look of pride on his face, standing beside him. "I suppose it'd be too much to hope you're here to help, though, right? Gotta leave it all to the scientists."_

_O'Brien made an expression that was part a friendly smile and part a grimace. "Ah yes." he said. "Dr. Robert Marion McDonald, if I remember right."_

_Now McDonald winced. "Actually, just Robert McDonald will suffice." he said, embarrassed by his middle name. "Or just Rob. But again, that's just wishful thinking..."_

"You're Robert McDonald, scientist for the Avalon Expedition." Cal stated plainly, pointing at McDonald, to the scientist's surprise.

"The alien's in him." Darkwing explained.

McDonald looked blank for a moment, then his smart brain put two with two. "Ahhh." he said, grinning. "Well, that explains a lot."

"But then, if it's in him, how the heck are we going to get it back out?" Techno asked.

There was a moment of silence as everyone thought about that a bit.

"I think I have an idea." Pepper announced suddenly.

* * *

The alien planet wasn't too unlike Earth, only it was a mostly jungle planet, and it orbited a ringed gas giant; the planet was faintly visible, hanging in the sky. Calmly, a jumper landed in a small clearing, and it's back hatch opened. Only two people were aboard at the moment, and that was Pepper, at the pilot's controls, and Cal. Nervous, Cal was the one who stepped out onto the planet's surface, but he didn't go far before he swooped down and placed his hand against the ground. Like Pepper had predicted, once the alien within the marten sensed it was back home, it re-materialized on Cal's hand and slithered off his hand onto the ground and off into the distance. Grinning, Cal climbed back aboard.

"It worked?" Pepper asked, closing the hatch.

"It worked." Cal confirmed cheerfully.

"No more visions?"

"None so far."

"Good."

The jumper took flight, soared out of the planet's atmosphere to where it's Jumpgate hovered. The jumper shot right through it, and a heartbeat later arrived at Avalon, where it landed in the station's hanger bay. There waiting for them was Darkwing, Crimson, Techno, Launchpad, McDonald, and Lance, as well as Colonel Amanda Parting, leader of Avalon. They were chatting lightly as they went to greet the jumper.

"See, I guess the thought never occurred to us that the alien was simply homesick." McDonald was explaining as they went. "We knew it was intelligent, but nobody stopped to think it was intelligent enough to have it's own opinions about it's situation so it escaped. It never meant to cause any harm. It just wanted to go home."

"But then, if that's true, then when it escaped, why did it head to our planet rather than it's own?" Crimson asked, perplexed.

"It was busy escaping at the moment, Crimson, knowing it was going to be chased." Techno said. "It wasn't focusing on where it was going, it was just trying to get away."

"See, that's why I like you kid." McDonald said with a grin. "You are the one person it seems who can keep up with me and my magnificent intelligence."

Parting cleared her throat, annoyed.

"...except for you, Amanda, of course." McDonald quickly amended.

The back of the jumper opened, and Pepper poked his head out. "All aboard who's coming aboard!" he called. "Last chance for those going to Earth to come aboard!"

Laughing, Darkwing and the others moved to get onboard.

"Well, thanks for letting us come visit, colonel." Darkwing said to Parting. "I must admit, it was great to see Avalon again." he sighed. "Now I'll just go home again and pretend it never happened."

"One of the disadvantages of being involved with our line of work." Parting agreed with a grin. "But Darkwing, you should know that we are currently working on a project that should be going underway later this month."

"Yeah, I know, Norrin has alluded to it." Darkwing said.

"Well, presuming if and when this project those pull through, you should know that you will most definitely begin getting more in the loop with this kind of thing in the future." Parting said.

Darkwing gave her a curious glance, but quickly saw it would be fruitless to try and pry for more information. "I'll keep that in mind." he said, waving goodbye. "Thanks again."

"No, thank _you_." Parting said.

"C'mon mates, let's 'ead 'ome!" Lance exclaimed, excited as he climbed aboard the jumper.

"What's with otters and the word 'mate' anyway?" Crimson asked, following him.

"If ye were an otter, ye'd know mate." Lance replied with a grin.

"I'd prefer that you stay as a duck, though, Crimson." Darkwing said, patting Crimson on the shoulder as he climbed aboard. He slapped the control to close the jumper's back hatch. "Okay, Colonel Pepper, we're ready to go."

Nodding, Pepper prepared to take off. Darkwing went to sit down, but he was stopped by Cal and pulled to one side.

"Darkwing, you know how that most of those visions I was getting was mostly about you and your compatriots, due to the fact that I had focused most of my attention lately on finding more about you, being the investigative reporter that I am." Cal said.

"That's right." Darkwing said.

"You should know that thanks to those visions, I figured out who you are."

Darkwing blinked, but otherwise didn't react to this announcement. "You did?" he asked.

Cal nodded, remembering the vision in question...

"_...Now, the first thing we're going to cover is how to change into costume." Drake began, leading Gosalyn over to one of those collapsible walls people change clothes behind. "When the aide is require of a superhero, speed is of the essence. Now, I'm going to demonstrate. Launchpad will time me, and that'll give you an idea of how quick you need to be."_

_Gosalyn nodded, and understood. Drake took a few steps back, then, waving to Launchpad to start timing, raced behind the wall. Some rustling sounds were heard, then Drake leapt out from the other side of the wall entirely dressed as Darkwing Duck._

_Launchpad stopped the stopwatch in his hand. "Five point seven seconds, DW." he announced._

"_A good one!" Darkwing remarked, pleased with himself. "Now you try, Gos. Don't worry if you don't get it first try."_

_Gosalyn gave her father a sly look, then zipped behind the wall herself. Darkwing then blinked, and Gosalyn zipped out the other side dressed fully in her new black and red costume, designed similarly to Darkwing's._

"_Two point two seconds!" Launchpad announced as she stopped his watch, awestruck._

_Darkwing's jaw hung loosely in shock._

_The Crimson Avenger simply shrugged. "Beginner's luck, I guess." she said...._

"Okay." Darkwing said, accepting this fact easier than Cal was expecting. "So now that you know, what do you plan to do about it?"

"Well, before all of this happened, I would've sat down and quickly written out an article that would've revealed all and sent it in to be published." Cal admitted. "But if I had known what I had known back then..." he shook his head. "I still need an article. But what would I write it about? Me and Lance have already been sworn to secrecy for all of this Jumpgate stuff, and that's an important detail in me figuring things out about you. Plus, Darkwing, I've learned more about you, and I've...admittedly...come to respect you more than I did before."

"Okay then." Darkwing said, turning to watch the jumper shoot out of the hanger bay and fly towards the awaiting Jumpgate. "So you don't plan on writing an article revealing my secret identity."

"I don't think so." Cal agreed, also turning to watch for a moment, before he glanced back at Darkwing. "I have a better idea."

* * *

About a week later, the following headline appeared on the front page of the _Saint Canard Times_:

**Darkwing Duck: The Hero**

Why St. Canard Needs The Masked Mallard

_An article by Calvin McClure_

_Pictures by Lance Nicholson

* * *

_

_Fun Facts: The plot for this chapter originally began very differently from what it is now. In the beginning, it was going to star the two reporters that appeared in the episode "Whiffle While You Work" from the show, and it was going to be all about the two reporters using known knowledge of Darkwing to piece together enough about him to, in the end, figure out that he is Darkwing. With the intent of blowing the secret out of the water, they go to break the news to Drake first. But upon seeing DW's secret identity life as a family man, they decide it would be better to not reveal Darkwing's identity, and, without ever telling Drake they knew, they leave planning to never tell the secret. Later, as NADWD moved right along, I decided that the two reporters I planned to use were too obscure to use, and decided to replace them with new characters of my creation, and the characters that would eventually become Cal and Lance were created (only Cal was a duck, and Lance was a fellow reporter instead of a photographer). Finally, more recently, worrying that the planned plot would be too boring and too simple, I sought a way to make it more complex. I came up with the idea that while Cal and Lance were trying to interview the gang and pry loose the information he wanted when they all suddenly get caught in the middle of a conflict with FOUL, and Cal and Lance suddenly find themselves fighting along side the heroes, in the end deciding that Darkwing was a hero to be respected and decide to quit pestering him with questions he won't answer. I **then **decided I wanted to somehow bridge this chapter with the next one and decide to throw in references that The Agency was starting something that would somehow include DW in the loop, and made the rather late and completely unplanned addition of the Jumpgate aspect of the chapter, and...well...there you go, the chapter we have now. :)_

_Originally, the title for this chapter was "What The Reporter Knew", which I intended to stick with to the bitter end, but finally had to acknowledge the plot of the chapter had changed too much and it just didn't fit as well, so it was changed.  
_

_This is the first time we see the police chief who replaced Hugo after he died way back in chapter three. The long delay was due to the fact that I didn't know who (and what) I wanted to replace Hugo until quite recently. It's brief, though, but it'll help should I ever have to refer to him again._

_This is also the first time we ever find out what Officer Matthew's last name is, and the long delay is similar to the reasons behind Luke. I just didn't know until recently what Matthew's last name was, and if I wanted him to have one. Matt's promotion to detective was also done because I felt Matt deserved such a promotion by now._

_The "visions" Cal has are from the following chapters: "Gigavolt" (twice), "Recollection Part II", "Adoption", earlier this same chapter (duh), "Jumpgate"(twice), "Mission File 24", "Friendly Fire", "A FOUL Return", and "Helping Hand"._

_I was also going to introduce two new characters to the Jumpgate gang in additon to Pepper and McDonald, but I quickly say that they were excess charatcers that were taking up space and weren't adding anything to the story, so one went, rapidly followed by the other. *sigh*, maybe next time._

_The characters in this chapter state that Cal's vision focus mostly on Darkwing, but that's not entirely true. You can tell by the context of some of the words in some of these visions that it's not through Darkwing's eyes that these visions occurred, but another character who's perhaps nearby. Examples include Gosalyn, Launchpad, Techno, and even Megavolt._

_Remember, the references to this "project" that will pull Darkwing and the gang into the loop of things such as Project: Bluebook will be explained in detail next chapter. ;)_

_Crimson's question about why otters have this apparent need to refer to everything as "mates" is me taking a stab at myself. No otter has appeared in this fanfic to date that didn't utter the word "mate" at some point. :p While we're on the subject, Rowe was originally planned to have the same accent as Lance's, but that was dropped because at the time, I had trouble switching back and forth from the accent to "normal" speech, a trouble I clearly have since fixed. Rowe, in fact, is the only otter in this fanfic to NOT have this accent (but he does have some of the mannerisms that comes with it, the whole "mate" buisness being the biggest)._

_Cal is described as a marten in the chapter, which means he could be any of the nine species that make up the genus. If I were to select a specific one, though, it would probably be the sable (the fact that Cal is described as being "sable-furred" is an allusion to this). The reason why I just don't outright say it is because sables are native to Russia and the orient, and not America. :p  
_


	60. Truth Be Told

Summary: An organization known only as The Agency has come forward and revealed their existence to Darkwing, the rest of the gang, as well as SHUSH itself. But as they begin revealing their secrets, there is one that will quite possibly change everything for Darkwing and Crimson...

Rating: K+ (for an overall depressed attitude, otherwise it'd probably be just K)

Author's Note: I mean it when I say this chapter will change everything, as it quite easily will change how NADWD has been working up until now forever, and not just for DW and Crimson; I took the chance to expand on characterizations for a number of other characters. But there are some things that happen in this chapter that should just blow whole objects of the water. And it turned out so _well _too, which is good, because I've been looking forward to this chapter for a very long time. And there's also one part to this story that all of _you _have been looking forward to as well...particularly the cliffhanger. ;) Oh, and as much as I want to do otherwise, I'm going to hold off on the fun facts until a later chapter. This is the next fifteenth multi-part cliffhanger, just so we're clear, because as I'm sure you'll all note, there is no "part I" in the chapter title this time around (that's because the next chapter will bear a different title). Oh, and the fun's only beginning here, too. ;)

60.

Truth Be Told

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_And what about 'The Agency'? Do you think that was SHUSH?"_

"_Can't be SHUSH. It was already going by that name at the time in question and was well known for it already. It must be some other organization, one we don't know about."_

"_They would be the only ones who would have the answers. Too bad we can't find them and ask them. Clearly, they're more secret that SHUSH is, and that's saying something."_

_--  
_

"_...Actually, I've grown to dislike time travel due to it's complexity, and I didn't want to do this mission because I knew there was a chance of me meeting up with...me. But, I was kinda blackmailed into this mission. The Agency to the rescue again."_

_--  
_

"_Who are you? What are you doing here?"_

"_I'm not at liberty to say, director. So I'll make this quick. I'm here for one thing, and one thing only. The report on the recent event with the Larsonians."_

_--  
_

"_This is hardly sufficient. I don't even know who authorized this."_

"_That is all classified. You don't have permission to know any of it, unfortunately."_

"_I'm the director of SHUSH, the most secret agency on the planet!"_

"_Ah, but there are bigger things going on in this world than SHUSH, director. Now please, I need the report. There's nothing you can do to stop me from taking it. I can use force if I need to, but I'd rather not."_

"_I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I have contacts, you know."_

"_Not like mine. So you can try, but you'll ultimately fail. Now, everything regarding the Larsonian event is now very strictly classified. You are to not relate it to anyone. Nor can anyone else who knows of it, whether it be SHUSH agent or Darkwing Duck. Understood?"_

"_Yes, but..."_

"_I bid you good day, director. Maybe we'll have the chance to meet again under better circumstances."_

"_I'd hope I'd be kept better in the loop, that time."_

"_Oh you will, director. You will."_

_--  
_

"_What the? Project: Bluebook? Approach with caution? Property of The A..."_

"_You probably shouldn't see that. Like I said, there are limits, and whether I like them or not, I have to enforce them."_

"_But who applied those limits?"_

"_You'll have to take that up with your planet."_

"_So is it some kind of national secret? Because I have top security clearance with SHUSH..."_

"_There's more going on at your planet than any of you know. And while I disagree, everyone says it's for your own good. So please, I must ask you to drop the subject."_

_--  
_

"_Trellis indicated that whatever it is he wants us to find, it's a government secret. SHUSH is the most secret agency on the planet, so they could possibly be in on the secret. If we let them know we know something about it, they'll work to stop us, I know it. Getting help from SHUSH isn't an option at the moment."_

"_But suppose this goes deeper than SHUSH? Trellis indicated as such."_

"_Ah yes, your theory that the ever illusive and mysterious organization known as The Agency somehow has a hand in all of this."_

"_Honker's convinced it actually exists now."_

"_Well, he can think what he will."_

_--  
_

"_Funny, I don't remember any SHUSH facilities being located there."_

"_I don't think SHUSH is involved in this, Mr. Darkwing, sir."_

"_But then...who else could it be? SHUSH is the most secret organization on the planet!"_

"_So far as we know."_

_--  
_

"_You know, in retrospect, I don't think it was a bad choice to let those guys get their tour. They showed they can handle the truth for one thing, and if they hadn't been here..."_

"_McDonald reports that their shock dart thing sorted out parts of Cassandra's robotic parts. None of it's fatal, those parts will still keep her alive. But because those parts are shorted out, McDonald's confident that we're that much closer to bringing her back."_

"_Which is exactly why I'm going to talk to Vice President Norrin about letting those four in on all of our secrets. They could be a big help."_

"_Norrin's not going to like that idea."_

"_I know. But it's time they know everything about what we do here at The Agency..."_

_--  
_

"_Is that why you've been a bit more friendly with us than usual?"_

"_No, that is a completely different matter concerning a new project that is currently underway. You are likely to begin seeing the results of it later this month."_

_--  
_

"_But Darkwing, you should know that we are currently working on a project that should be going underway later this month."_

"_Yeah, I know, Norrin has alluded to it."_

"_Well, presuming if and when this project those pull through, you should know that you will most definitely begin getting more in the loop with this kind of thing in the future."

* * *

_

When J. Gander Hooter walked into SHUSH Headquarters that cold day in the middle of December, all that was on his mind was remembering what was on his schedule for that day.

"Let's see, I need to speak with Agent Grant about the plans for the new science lab." he mumbled to himself as he headed for his office. "I need to visit Dr. Bellum so she can show me whatever it is that she has invented now. I need to brief Darkwing about the progress on his new hideout. I need to _de_brief Agents Mia and Sandy and congratulate them on a job well done for their work in Nicaragua. Then there's my morning meeting, my noon meeting, my afternoon meeting, my after-_after_noon meeting..."

"Good morning Director Hooter." the female duck that sat behind a desk beside the door that led into Hooter's office.

"Good morning Julie." Hooter greeted in passing.

"Your visitor is waiting in your office." Julie continued, sorting through papers.

Hooter froze, then turned to look back at his secretary. "What visitor?" he asked. "I have a very busy schedule today, Julie, but I didn't have any visitors scheduled to meet me this early in the morning."

Julie frowned. "He said he was a late entry." she said. "I checked it out on the computer, and everything checked out."

"Someone still would've told me." Hooter said. "Who is this person?"

"I don't know sir, I don't think I've ever seen him here before."

"And you let him into my office?"

"Everything seemed to be in order, sir." Julie said innocently. "He showed me his ID as he passed and then walked right on in, and..."

"Wait." Hooter said, suddenly recognizing this story. "Was this person a duck, about middle-aged, tall, wearing a black jumpsuit or uniform?"

"Yes sir."

Hooter scowled in annoyance. "What did his ID say?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"I...I don't know, sir, he only flashed it briefly, so I didn't get a good look at it." Julie said. "It was definitely a government ID card, but I can't say that I have ever..."

Hooter cut her off by reaching past her to pick up the phone that sat on her desk, entering in a brief number. "Hello, Agent Grant?" he asked harshly. "Get a team of agents together and get down to my office _stat_." he then hung up, turned around, and opened the door to his office and entered inside, already having a good idea of who he'd find in there.

He wasn't disappointed.

"_You!_" Hooter exclaimed, recognizing the duck standing beside the office's desk, fingering one of Hooter's desk ornaments.

"And a good morning to you, too, Director Hooter." the duck said, setting aside the decoration and turning to face the angered director. "I take it you've called for security."

"I called for a whole team of agents." Hooter growled.

"Overkill, in my opinion." the duck said, leaning against the desk.

"You left last time with a whole _report _regarding a highly classified situation with nothing but a shaky clearance slip to cover your butt with!" Hooter said. "You left without giving me hardly any answers last time, and I don't intend to let you do that again."

"Oh, well, you don't need a whole team of agents to do that." the duck said.

"Oh, don't I?" Hooter asked. "And why not?"

"Because today is your lucky day, director." the duck said. "Because today I have authorization to tell you everything."

Hooter was taken off guard by this. "You...you...you..." he stuttered, unsure what to say now.

"Allow me to introduce myself." the duck continued. "I'm Special Agent Nathaniel Rickaby. I belong to an organization known only as The Agency."

* * *

"Did J. Gander give a reason why he wanted us?" Darkwing asked, as he and the rest of the gang followed Agent Grant to Hooter's office. "We just got back from patrol, and we're beat."

"No." Grant admitted. "That's the weird thing. And a little before that, he called for me to get together a team of agents and head on down to his office. He sounded like he was ready to storm a country with guns blazing. But before we even got there, he called us off, without giving a reason why."

"Weird." Crimson agreed.

"Exactly what I thought." Grant said. "Director Hooter has also completely cleared his schedule for today, something else that's not like him, at least not without him giving a good reason."

"I would presume he intends to explain everything once we get to his office." Techno reasoned. "Why else would he have called us down here?"

"He better, because I'm not in the mood for this." Darkwing grumbled, rubbing at his tired eyes.

As they arrived at the office, they met up with two other agents who were about to enter themselves that they knew well.

"Mia!" Launchpad exclaimed.

Agent Mia and her partner, Sandy, turned. "Launchpad!" Mia exclaimed. "Darkwing! Grant! What are you all doing down here?"

"The director called for us." Grant said, puzzled. "Did he call for you two as well?"

"Yes." Sandy said, furrowing her striped brow in confusion. "I don't suppose he told you why, either, did he?"

"No." Darkwing grumbled, pushing past all of them to open the door. "But I intend to find out."

He stepped through, everyone following. The found Hooter sitting in his trademark spot behind his desk. Standing beside him was a tall duck with an air of mystery surrounding him. None of them recognized him, but Crimson did recognize the uniform he wore, though she couldn't place it at the moment.

"What's going on here?" Darkwing demanded, hands akimbo.

"Please, Darkwing, don't make a scene." Hooter pleaded, but he didn't look to be in the best of spirits either. "You'll probably will want a seat, too."

Darkwing said and grumpily folded his arms. As no one else moved to take it, Crimson sat in the seat adjacent to Darkwing.

"So what's this about, director?" Grant asked.

Hooter glanced at the duck standing beside him who was looking at his watch.

"We have time to explain." the duck said simply.

"Everyone, this is Special Agent Nathaniel Rickaby." Hooter introduced. "He belongs to an organization known as The Agency."

Darkwing, who had been looking at his feet, twiddling his thumbs, looked up sharply. Crimson's eyes went wide, and Techno and Launchpad glanced at each other. Everyone else just looked blank, having never heard of the organization before.

"Keen gear." Crimson muttered. "It really does exist."

"I've never heard of anything called The Agency before." Mia muttered.

"It's a very top secret organization, Agent Gingevere." Rickaby explained. "Only a handful of people are told about it, and it's existence is denied in public. As far as most are concerned, we don't exist."

"We've heard of you before." Techno said. "Mere slips of the tongue, mostly, but..."

"Yes, we are aware of this, thank you." Rickaby said. "We've had to go to great lengths to make sure you never learned too much. In fact, we would've preferred you didn't know anything."

"So if you're so secret, what the heck do you deal with?" Agent Sandy asked.

"The abnormal, the odd, anything that no one believes would usually happen on this planet." Rickaby explained, grabbing a handful of folders and starting to hand them out. "Such as projects such as telekinetic research and Project: Bluebook."

Techno glanced up at this. "The Jumpgate." he murmured.

"Figures that The Agency was behind all of that." Crimson muttered.

"What's the Jumpgate?" Grant asked, being handed, consequently, the folder that told about Project: Bluebook. He glanced through it, then stiffened and glanced through it again. "Whoa." he muttered in shock, then looked at Rickaby. "This has all been going on without any of us knowing?"

"For many years now." Rickaby said. "The Agency has consistently stayed a secret for very nearly a hundred and ten years now."

"Then why are you telling us all of this?" Darkwing asked, not even glancing at the folder he was handed. "Some change in policies, perhaps?"

"Close." Rickaby admitted. "Actually, it's the start of a new joint venture with SHUSH. The Agency and SHUSH, seeing that they are the two most secret organizations on the planet, will be working together very closely now."

"But why?" Crimson asked, also not looking through the folder she had been given.

"For a number of reasons." Rickaby said. "Actually, it was Darkwing's group that got the project underway. Seeing that they knew of such things, it made sense to include the organization they are affiliated with on the secret, so to avoid major security breeches. Later, though, we began to see other benefits to the idea, and people quickly began giving their support for it."

"Both the president and the vice president signed the agreement for this 'joint venture', as they call it, to go forward." Hooter added, holding up a plain paper form. "It seems everyone supports this idea."

"So...what does this mean?" Agent Mia asked.

"It means, Agent Gingevere, that everything that goes on within The Agency will be shared with SHUSH, and vice versa." Rickaby said. "You are all going to have to keep in the loop regarding matters involving The Agency now."

"That's right, Norrin mentioned that much earlier this month." Darkwing said.

"You are correct, Mr. Mallard." Rickaby said. "Seeing that you already know so much about..."

But Darkwing, giving him a sharp and sudden glance, motioned for him to be silent. "What did you call me?" he asked, looking surprised.

"I addressed you by your true surname, Mr. Mallard." Rickaby replied calmly.

"You know my last name?"

"I know your whole name, actually. Drake Wilberforce Mallard."

Hooter was on his feet in an instant, caught off guard by this sudden announcement. In fact, everyone was, including Crimson, but even she couldn't help but mention something else.

"Wilberforce?" she asked Darkwing in disbelief. "Your middle name is _Wilberforce_?"

"It was _mother's _idea, so I'm told." Darkwing muttered grumpily.

"Now how do you know that?" Hooter demanded, having not gotten past the fact that Rickaby knew of such a secret. "SHUSH has searched for Darkwing's secret identity for some time, and we had always theorized what it could be, but _never _had we ever gotten enough proof to confirm anything!"

"You _theorized_?" Darkwing repeated in an almost hurt and accusing tone.

"Director Hooter, if SHUSH had been keeping tabs on Mr. Mallard here as long as The Agency has, you would've known his full name as well." Rickaby said in reply to Hooter's demanding question. "I know all of your names anyway. Director John Gander Hooter, Agent Henry Grant, Agent Mia Gingevere, Agent Sandingomm Verdauga, Drake Wilberforce Mallard, Gosalyn Lynn Waddlemeyer, Herbert, a.k.a "Honker", Muddlefoot Jr., and Launchpad McQuack."

"Gee, nothing's sacred with you guys, is it?" Crimson asked venomously.

"It is the duty of The Agency to know everything." Rickaby said.

"But to keep everything about yourself secret at the same time." Hooter noted with his own tone of venomousness.

Rickaby shirked the remark by glancing at his watch again. "Very nearly time." he noted.

"Time for what?" Agent Sandy asked.

"You all should feel privileged, you know." Rickaby said, again avoiding a direct answer to the question. "The Agency didn't plan on holding this meeting for another week, for which we would've given you more heads up for. But we recently discovered something that allowed us the perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone with this meeting, and permitted it be moved ahead."

"What discovery?" Techno asked.

"The current location of Taurus Bulba."

All eyes went to Rickaby instantly. Darkwing dropped the folder he had finally begun flipping through in shock. Hooter rose from his chair again, being unaware of this as well. Finally, it was Agent Mia who spoke.

"No one has seen Taurus Bulba for nearly nine years now." she stated matter-of-factly.

"Isn't he supposed to be dead?" Agent Sandy asked.

But even Agent Grant knew better to assume that. "No." he said. "He still lives."

"More like he still lives after he was brought back to life." Crimson grumbled. "FOWL, the old FOWL, had the honors of pulling _that_ stupid stunt off."

"And then thought he would join their forces." Hooter said, slowly sitting back down. "Instead, he turned against them, and suddenly we had a half technological criminal mastermind on the loose."

"For awhile." Darkwing reminded him. "I fought with him once, just _once,_ after he was brought back to life, and then he simply vanished without a trace, for no real reason, after that. Even when I came back after my seven year stay in the Negaverse, no one had seen him."

"People were beginning to think he had done himself in somehow." Agent Mia commented, remembering the report on the matter.

"You are partly right." Rickaby said. "In actuality, Bulba put himself into a kind of stasis that kept his biological parts alive, but his robotic parts could be allowed to power down. The Agency recently found his hideout and learned all of this, even finding the bull himself. But according to our scans, something went wrong and he is very much dead now."

"How can you be sure?" Darkwing asked.

"We're sure." Rickaby assured him.

"So...what went wrong?" Crimson asked.

"We're not sure, we're still investigating." Rickaby admitted. "But you're welcome to come and see for yourself. In fact, we invite you to do so."

"Okay, but here's a question for you." Launchpad offered. "You said that it's because of this that you moved this meeting ahead of schedule. But I fail to see how it all connects."

"It is because of our discovery of Taurus Bulba that a certain person can finally come out of hiding." Rickaby said, glancing again at his watch.

At that moment, Hooter's intercom buzzed. "Director, sir," came the voice of Hooter's secretary, "there are two more agents here to see you. They have a third person here with them."

Hooter glanced at Rickaby, realizing that the agent had purposely timed this, and frowned as he went to reply. "Let them come on in, Julie." he said slowly.

The door to the office opened. The first two people to enter were more agents from The Agency, wearing uniforms like Rickaby's. What caught everyone's attention was who they were escorting into the room as the figure stepped into the light. Several eyes went wide with shock. Darkwing rose from his chair, he was so shocked, quickly followed by Hooter, who in turn rose from his chair for the third time in shock. But none of their shock could compare with Crimson's, who could do nothing more but sit there and gape at the newcomer.

"Grandpa?" she asked.

Sure enough, there stood the deceased Professor Grant Waddlemeyer.

Only he was very much alive.

* * *

It seemed no one knew how they should react next to this. Not even the professor seemed to know what he should do next, nervously looking down at his feet, looking both embarrassed and ashamed with himself. It was also clear that he hadn't quite expected so stunned a reaction either, and it didn't comfort his misgivings any. The agents from The Agency simply stood to one side and idly watched, like it was some kind of afternoon show they were watching.

Finally, the flabbergasted Darkwing finally found his voice.

"That...that can't be!" he stuttered. "You're dead!"

Waddlemeyer made a weak laugh that was both forced and nervous. He didn't go on to explain, so Rickaby took up that role.

"He did not die." he pressed. "We only made it seem like he had."

Agent Mia, who had been staring at Waddlemeyer in stunned curiosity, glanced at Rickaby. "You faked his death?" she asked.

"I was at his funeral!" Hooter suddenly blurted out. "SHUSH knew Bulba was going to try to kill him...we had hoped to...we wanted to..." he shook his head. "Point is that I was at the funeral. I _saw _the body."

"It was fake." Rickaby said calmly.

"It was all over the news!" Darkwing exclaimed, turning to Rickaby. "There was everything anyone would ever need to prove that he was dead, plus some! News reports, eye witnesses, coroner reports, autopsy results, police investigations..."

"All of it fake." Rickaby pressed again, then continued to explain the matter like Waddlemeyer wasn't even there. "The Agency knew Bulba was going to try and take Waddlemeyer's life in an attempt to get the Ramrod he had been building, and we didn't want that, so we took him into protective custody."

"For ten _years_?" Techno asked, doing the math. "Bulba was only a threat for _one _year."

"So why didn't we let him leave our custody?" Rickaby said, finishing the question. "It's simple. Bulba was presumed killed in the explosion that incidently you, Mr. Mallard, helped create, but when The Agency investigated the scene of the incident later, we couldn't find Bulba's body. At the time, it seemed Bulba had survived, so we kept Waddlemeyer in our custody as an added precaution."

"SHUSH discovered that Bulba's body was missing as well." Hooter said. "But we also found evidence that FOWL was somehow responsible, although at the time we couldn't think of a reason why, so we didn't think much of it." He shot Rickaby a self-satisfied grin. "I take it then, that you simply missed that part."

Rickaby cleared his throat, sounding embarrassed. "The Agency did indeed overlook those clues." he admitted. "The point is that we had reason to keep Waddlemeyer in our custody, so we did. And as it turned out, it was a good thing we did, for about a year later, Bulba was proven to have been revived and was at large again."

"So you continued to keep him in your custody." Darkwing said, catching on. "But that still doesn't account for the remaining eight years between then and now."

"Ah, but it does." Rickaby said. "Because we didn't know what became of Bulba after that, just that he had to still be out there somewhere. Furthermore, when you vanished later that year, Darkwing, we knew you had survived your fall into the river, but we didn't know what had become of you after that. The popular belief within The Agency was that Bulba had something to do with it, increasing his threat."

"That accounts for the next seven years after that, I suppose." Agent Grant agreed. "But what about when Darkwing came back, and it was proven that Bulba had nothing to do with his disappearance? Why keep Professor Waddlemeyer in your custody for an extra year?"

"Because by then we finally had a lead as to where Bulba could be." Rickaby said. "We spent the next year, nearly two, following it until it finally led us to the hideout we found earlier this month in the mountains to the south from here, which led us to the Bulba himself."

"And then you realized that all of your precautions weren't so needed after all." Agent Mia said venomously.

"Think they know that, though?" Launchpad asked, and motioned to Crimson and Waddlemeyer, whom he himself had been watching during the entire conversation.

Neither of them had moved yet, Waddlemeyer still having said nothing, and Crimson still looked too stunned to do anything. They were staring at each other, getting their first good look at each other for the first time in ten years. An expression of hurt and betrayal was starting weasel their way into Crimson's expression, whereas Waddlemeyer already looked hurt, in addition to very saddened by it all. He finally made the first motion to do something.

"Gosalyn..." he began, moving towards Crimson.

But Crimson quickly rose from her chair and backed away, her eyes narrowing into a glare. Rickaby took advantage of the following silence to speak again.

"Anyway," he said, "it was because of the discovery of Bulba that we could bring Waddlemeyer out of protective custody, so we acknowledged the need to reintroduce him, and thus moved the meeting ahead a week so we could do it all in one."

"Oh, how _very _efficient of you." Hooter snapped, shooting Rickaby a glare. "We'll discuss this later. Now get out of my office."

Rickaby tilted his head in mild surprise, then nodded, and exited the office, motioned to the two agents that had escorted Waddlemeyer in to follow. They closed the door quietly on their way out. No one really took much note of it, though.

Hooter let himself fall back into his chair, rubbing at his eyes. "Somehow I think I'm going to learn to hate The Agency very quickly." he muttered.

"I think I already do." Darkwing growled in agreement.

They all stood watching Waddlemeyer and Crimson watch each other before Hooter finally had enough.

"Darkwing, I would like a word with you, to discuss the matter of Taurus Bulba." he said. "The rest of you...go do something else!"

Snapping out of their gazes, everyone turned to leave. Waddlemeyer made another attempt to approach Crimson, but she again moved away before stepping around him and walking away, muttering darkly under her breath something like 'stay away from me'. Waddlemeyer, despite looking hurt by this, followed. Darkwing pulled Launchpad aside for a moment.

"LP, take Gos and the professor home." he said. "Then, go into town and find something to do so they can have some time to themselves. Please?"

"Sure thing, DW." Launchpad said, patting Darkwing on the arm before hurrying out the door.

This just left Hooter and Darkwing in the room, looking at each other. Finally, Hooter rose from his seat, forcing a grin.

"So, Drake Wilberforce Mallard, huh?" he said, taking his jacket from it's hook.

"Yeah, I guess it was only a matter of time before that little secret finally got out." Darkwing admitted, looking put out. "But that's the least of my concerns at the moment."

"I'm inclined to agree." Hooter said, slipping the jacket over his shoulders. "But Darkwing...no matter what The Agency did that we didn't like, there's not much we can do to change that now."

"I know that." Darkwing said with an indifferent shrug. "I'm just worried it's too late to make amends."

Hooter was silent for a moment. Then he, too, made for the door. "C'mon, let's go." he said.

Darkwing glanced at him, puzzled. "Go?" he asked. "Go where?"

"I think you'll understand when I say that I'd rather see that Taurus Bulba's no longer a threat with my own eyes." Hooter replied, giving Darkwing a cool grin.

* * *

Launchpad carried out Darkwing's request to the letter and gave Crimson, now out of costume and back to Gosalyn, and Professor Waddlemeyer a lift back to the Mallard home. They didn't say anything during the whole trip. The mood was too depressing. Once they had arrived at their location, Launchpad again carried out Darkwing's request to the letter and drove off again, alone, to give Gosalyn and her grandfather some privacy.

"Nice house." Waddlemeyer commented, trying to make small chat as they strolled up the front step.

Gosalyn didn't make any comment as she threw open the front door to the house and stomped inside.

"Gos." Waddlemeyer said, closing the door behind him as he entered. "_Gos_, can't we talk?"

Gosalyn stubbornly shook her head, and headed for the kitchen.

"Gosalyn, please don't act like that." Waddlemeyer pleaded, still looking hurt.

"Well, how do you _want _me to act, grandpa?" Gosalyn snapped, whirling around to face him. "Just grin and hug you and act like nothing happened?"

"Of course not!" Waddlemeyer retorted.

"Then quit complaining!" Gosalyn said as she stomped into the kitchen. "You _know _this is how I should acting!"

Waddlemeyer followed her as far as the door, watching his granddaughter angrily begin putting together a sandwich. "I know." he admitted. "But Gos, look at it from _my _perspective..."

"I did!" Gosalyn exclaimed, roughly pulling out the jar of pickles from the fridge. "And I saw a man who faked his own death to save his own skin and left his only living relative to fend for herself!"

Waddlemeyer paused for a moment, realizing she had a point. "I-I didn't want you to get involved in such a touchy matter." he said.

"I got involved a year later, that's how I met up with Darkwing." Gosalyn pointed out.

"I know, I saw the headlines." Waddlemeyer admitted. "And maybe, in hindsight, I should've done something more than hide."

"You should've taken me _with_ you." Gosalyn said, venting her anger on pickles in the jar by stabbing them with a fork. "I don't care how you would've done it, but by leaving me clueless, on my own, and thinking you were dead may have actually put me in _more _danger when Taurus Bulba finally came after me! You should've know he would!"

"Gosalyn, going to hiding was no way for you to live!" Waddlemeyer said. "I spent most of _my _time locked away in some secret lab of The Agency's working for nearly all of those ten years I was gone! No doubt you would've ended up the same way! You didn't deserve that, Gosalyn, you deserved better! To be free to go out and explore the world, to live a normal life like all of the other girls your age! I did what I did thinking of you! I knew that Bulba was going to try and kill me, and it probably would've included you if you got in the way! What The Agency was proposing to do seemed like the perfect solution! We would've been apart for awhile, yes, but when it was all over, we could get back together and continue living normal lives!"

It was then that Gosalyn, in her anger, slammed the pickle jar down on the counter, hard. It shattered, spilling pickles and green pickle brine all over the floor. Gosalyn hardly seemed to notice as she whirled around to face her grandfather.

"We will _never _have normal lives _again _because of what you did, grandpa!" she exclaimed. "The _moment _you agreed to The Agency's terms, there was no going back to the lives we once had!" she stood there fuming silently for a moment before she continued. "You are right though, I did deserve better. I deserved to be with what little _family _I had left."

They were both silent for a long moment.

"You know, we can still do that now." Waddlemeyer pointed out. "Be together as a family again."

Gosalyn shook her head. "I have a new family now." she said, and turned and walked off, leaving her crestfallen grandfather in the kitchen...

* * *

Launchpad returned to SHUSH Headquarters to pick up Darkwing, thinking he would need a lift by now. But upon his arrival there, he was surprised to see that Darkwing wasn't there. He wasn't in Hooter's office still, nor was he in the temporary hideout. Launchpad wasn't too worried, though. He knew of one location he could always go to and get answers.

Finding the door to Agent Mia's office already open, Launchpad knocked politely on it as he strolled in the room. Mia herself was sitting at her desk stacking papers neatly into a pile. She glanced up and Launchpad's knock.

"Launchpad." she said, looking surprised. "What brings you here?"

"I'm looking for DW." the pilot replied. "Have you seen him?"

"No, not recently." Mia admitted, slipping the stack of papers into a manilla folder and placing the folder into a drawer in her desk. "Director Hooter left to go see Taurus Bulba's remains, though. I'd presume Darkwing went with."

"That sounds like DW." Launchpad agreed. "Okay, guess I'll just wait until he comes back."

They fell silent for a moment. Launchpad watched as Mia half-heartedly placed another folder into a black bag. She finally sighed.

"Launchpad, what do you think about all of this?" she asked. "Having the existence of an agency more secret than SHUSH be revealed to you is one thing, but having all the _rest _of it revealed all in one meeting..." she shook her head. "I don't know what to think anymore."

"What makes you think I'm any better off?"

"I don't. But I hoped that seeing most of that meeting involved Darkwing and the rest of you, you would have a better standpoint on things." Mia paused for a moment, tilting her head as she studied Launchpad. "You seem to be dealing with the suddenness of all of this better than I am."

"I'm at a bit of a disadvantage, though, I've heard of The Agency several times before." Launchpad pointed out. He shook his head. "It's kind of ironic, really." he said. "I've wondered many times just how cool it would be to be so closely involved with such a secret agency like The Agency, and what kind of benefits me and DW might get out of it. But...now that it's finally happened, it feels more..." he shrugged, not knowing how to describe it. "...bitter, I guess."

"Like we've been tainted with something." Mia offered, having given her feelings more thought than Launchpad. "Something that's not really bad, but is most definitely not good either."

Launchpad nodded. "I think nothing but trouble is going to come from this new joint venture between SHUSH and The Agency." he deduced.

Again they fell silent. Agent Mia resumed packing her black bag.

"So...where are you going now?" Launchpad asked.

Mia paused, and sighed. "I don't know." she admitted. "Anywhere but here at SHUSH, I guess. Things really got very depressing around real quick after that meeting. I'm glad I don't have to be a part of it for right now, though, I've got some free time coming to me."

"Yeah, I heard that you and Agent Sandy got the rest of the week off as a reward for doing such a good job on a mission to Nicaragua." Launchpad stated. "How did that go?"

"Well enough, I guess." Mia replied. "Nothing really too special about it, though. All we did was take down a drug lord who was residing down there, and he came down willingly. So in the end, we got our guy, no one was hurt, ended up with several hundreds of pounds worth of illegal drugs to get rid of, and one very disgruntled buyer angry at us. He had come to negociate a deal, but that all came crashing through the floor when we got the guy." she shrugged. "Still, I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, and just accept the downtime, even if I don't know what I'll do during it."

Launchpad hesitated for a moment before he made his reply. "Well..." he began, clearing his throat. "I know of this new restaurant downtown that's been getting some really good rating lately."

Mia gave Launchpad an amused look. "Are you asking me on a date again?" she asked.

"Kinda, yeah."

"Launchpad, I told you before why I'm hesitant to do that."

"Oh c'mon, it's not like you've got anything else to do. You said yourself that you need cheering up. And...so could I."

Mia was silent for a moment. Finally, she sighed. "What do they serve there?" she asked.

Launchpad brightened. "Pancakes." he said eagerly.

Mia grinned. "Pancakes do sound good at the moment." she admitted.

Launchpad returned the grin. "And then maybe a movie?" he asked hopefully.

"Don't push your luck, Launchpad."

* * *

Darkwing stood at the base of the stasis chamber, a transparent cylinder made of sturdy plastic, and peered up at Taurus Bulba's eyes. They were currently closed, and Bulba unmoving, but it still gave Darkwing the willies standing so close to the half-robotic bull. While he stood there, Hooter strolled over, reading the report he had obtained from one of the many agents working in the hideout, and joined him.

"He doesn't seem a day older at all." Darkwing commented aloud.

Hooter glanced up at Bulba's still form within the stasis chamber. "Yes, according to the report, even though the chamber malfunctioned, it still kept Bulba's body perfectly preserved." he noted. He lowered the report and matched Darkwing's gaze and sighed. "The Agency is done with him." he announced bleakly. "They found out whatever it was they wanted to know, and so they're turning jurisdiction of both Bulba and the hideout over to SHUSH."

"I'd take immediate advantage of it, in case The Agency changes their mind." Darkwing said.

"I've already sent for a team of agents." Hooter said. "Their orders are to dismantle the hideout and ready Bulba for transport."

"Where're you taking him?"

"I haven't decided yet. Probably to a warehouse out in the country where he'll be dismantled." Hooter sighed. "The point, however, is that The Agency is right. Everything suggests that Bulba is indeed dead and gone, even though no one can explain it yet. All evidence suggests that the chamber is still in working order and everything. The theory is that the device just didn't do what Bulba had hoped."

"Why do you think he put himself into stasis, anyway?" Darkwing asked, folding his arms.

"According to the report, Bulba did it just shortly after you disappeared eight years ago." Hooter said. "My bet is that he still wanted revenge on you and didn't really think you were gone. But, he couldn't find you at the time, so he put himself into stasis so he'd be ready later when you presumably came back."

"Obviously, something went wrong." Darkwing noted. "Maybe the stasis chamber didn't deactivate when it should've."

"Maybe."

They were both silent for a long moment.

"Well, I've seen what I wanted to see." Hooter said conclusively, turning to leave. "I need to get back to SHUSH HQ."

"And I need to go home and check up on Gos...I-I mean Crimson." Darkwing said, following. "_I _can't even begin to think what she might be going through. Finding out her grandfather was still alive...that had to have been more of a shock than it was for the rest of us."

He then fell silent and hung his head. Hooter studied him for a moment.

"Darkwing..." he began, "...maybe you should take some time off."

"What?" Darkwing said. "No way!"

"Darkwing, it's clear to me that you took the shock of discovering that Professor Waddlemeyer still lives hard as well." Hooter said as they exited the mountain hideout and approached the helicopter they used to get here. "You've been very calm and withdrawn, not at all like your usual self. I think you need some time to set things straight for yourself again." he paused as he started to climb onto the helicopter, looking back at Darkwing. "Besides," he continued, "I'm certain that Crimson could probably use some comfort from her adopted father right about now."

Darkwing grinned sheepishly. "Thanks, J. Gander." he said. "But Gos is often times better off on her own in instances like this." he paused. "I suppose you're right, though. I probably could use some time to sort things out."

Hooter grinned, and helped Darkwing aboard. "Good." he said. "Besides, it's not like we have any enemies to worry about at the moment."

They both glanced back into the hideout as the helicopter started up, where Taurus Bulba could still be clearly seen, looking as menacing as always, even when deactivated

"Yeah." Darkwing agreed. "Good thing."

* * *

Agent Todd gripped the clipboard tightly in his hands as he stepped into the SHUSH workroom. It was currently quite busy as workers moved about hurriedly doing their assigned tasks, moving parts, assembling devices, and testing new equipment. A little nervous as always, Todd worked his way across the room, pushing past workers not paying attention to his surroundings. He ducked as the body of a motorcycle was moved, by crane, over his head, probably about to be used to help build a new Ratcatcher for Darkwing.

But the real attention was on the jet that was slowly beginning to take shape in the middle of the workroom. Agent Todd placed a respectful hand on the frame of the Thunderquack II. They had a lot of setbacks getting this far with it, but finally progress was well under way building the jet, even though it was going to be awhile still before it was ready to fly.

Todd moved past the jet, however, and over to where the jet's canopy-to-be lay, propped up off the ground and connected to power. He ducked his head underneath it and looked around. Propped up himself with a cushions, tapping away at a laptop, was Techno, wirelessly feeding information to the canopy's heads-up display, currently flashing holographic images and text on it's glass windshield as it processed the information.

"Mr. Techno?" Todd said, announcing his presence softly.

Techno looked up from the laptop. "Oh, hello Agent Todd." he said, turning back to his work. "Only about four more terabytes of information to download to the HUD's computer, and then it'll be ready to go."

"Oh." Agent Todd said nervously. "That's good."

"Did you need something?"

"Uh, yes." Todd said, remembering the clipboard in his hand and holding it out. "Dr. Bellum just printed this off. Apparently, it's a list of items The Agency is requesting be installed on the new Thunderquack."

Techno took the list and skimmed through it, his eyes narrowing. "Of course it is." he muttered.

"Should we begin carrying out their requests?" Todd asked.

Techno snorted as he found an item on the list he didn't like.

"...or should we just forget it?" Todd amended.

Techno skimmed through the list one more time, then handed it back. "For now, just hang onto the list and do nothing." he said. "We'll let Darkwing see it first and get his opinion before we do anything."

"Okay." Todd said, accepting the clipboard. He hesitated a moment. "How is Darkwing at the moment?" he finally asked. "I...uh...heard you all got a real shock today."

Techno stopped typing and sighed. "It's Crimson we should be worrying about." he said. "I don't think she's taking it well."

"Think she'll be alright?"

"Of course she will be. I know Crimson well, and she'll get over the worse of it soon enough. That's not what I'm worried about, though. Darkwing sent her home to talk with her grandfather and work things out between the two of them, alone. I worry that plan might backfire."

"Can't Crimson look after herself?"

"Exactly the problem. I certainly hope she goes easy on Professor Waddlemeyer..."

* * *

For a long while after their argument, Gosalyn and her grandfather kept their distance from each other, staying in opposite ends of the house. Waddlemeyer did it mostly because he knew Gosalyn needed some time to calm down, and didn't want to hurry her. In fact, he wasn't too surprised Gosalyn was so bitter to him. She had every right to be hating him at the moment.

But that was exactly hurt the most about the whole situation.

To pass the time, Waddlemeyer explored the rest of the Mallard home, trying to get an idea of what life for Gosalyn might have been like. He didn't get to find out as much as he would've liked. Gosalyn forbade him access to her bedroom, the real room he wanted to see, and Drake's study was, naturally, locked at the moment, and only Drake had the key. The rest of the rooms in the house just didn't say enough about life in the Mallard home.

At least, not to Waddlemeyer's satisfaction. He did get a few clues. Launchpad's room suggested one or two things that the family was pretty happy together, but most of the things in Launchpad's room had to deal with Launchpad, and not the Mallards. Waddlemeyer figured Drake's bedroom would have more, but he was hesitant to enter. Finally, though, it was the last room he had access to, so he finally let himself in.

As bedrooms went, Drake's bedroom didn't have anything unique or special. It merely had the simple things. A bed, a dresser, a closet, a small two-shelved bookcase, and a sidetable. But it also had several pictures. Waddlemeyer's eyes were instantly drawn to a picture hanging on the other side of the bedroom that looked brand new. A very nicely blown-up photograph of Darkwing walking rather calmly through what appeared to be a crime scene. It was hard to tell, though, for the picture had been cropped to focus on Darkwing. In one corner of the picture was some writing. It read: "Thanks from Lance and Cal."

Waddlemeyer was in the process of wondering who Lance and Cal were when his eyes caught sight of another picture, and turned to focus on it. This time it was a painting, and it depicted Gosalyn, full-figure, in her teenage years. The initials placed in the corner suggested Drake had painted it himself. Impressed, Waddlemeyer turned for it and to the smaller framed pictures sitting on Drake's bedside table, picking them up one by one to examine at random.

The first one depicted Drake, Gosalyn, and a brown haired female duck Waddlemeyer wasn't familiar with at a theme park. The next one starred only Drake at his high school graduation as he accepted his diploma, but the third picture starred the whole family of Drake, Gosalyn and Launchpad, though Gosalyn was much younger in this picture. Closer to the age Waddlemeyer had last seen Gosalyn at. The next picture was also old, showing Gosalyn and Drake hugging each other. One could really see the love the two were sharing at the time the photo was taken.

Waddlemeyer sighed, and gripped the picture tightly as he turned to leave the room with it. There was one other picture on the table, but Waddlemeyer didn't look at it. It was time he tried talking with Gosalyn again.

He found her downstairs, in the living room, sitting on the couch in front of the TV. It was on, at first suggesting that Gosalyn had been watching it, but Waddlemeyer quickly crossed out that idea. It was currently showing a broadcast about the stock exchange, not at all something Gosalyn would watch. She may have been watching the TV at one point, but she wasn't anymore, having gotten distracted and hadn't realized yet that whatever she had been watching had ended and had moved on to the next program.

When Waddlemeyer stepped into the living room itself, he quickly saw that he had been right. Gosalyn was indeed sitting on the couch positioned so that it seemed she was watching the TV, but she really wasn't. Instead, she sat there, looking a touch mournful, stroking the plumage of a black bird that was perched on Gosalyn's finger, the bird appearing to greatly enjoy the stroking. Waddlemeyer presumed it was a pet.

He stood there watching the two for a long moment, noticing that they hadn't noticed he was there, and wondered if he really wanted to interrupt. He finally decided that he did, and politely cleared his throat. Both Gosalyn and the bird turned to look at him. Gosalyn's eyes quickly went from mild surprise to a scowl, while the bird's eyes seemed to regard Waddlemeyer curiously.

"Hi." Waddlemeyer said sheepishly. "Can...can we talk again?"

Gosalyn sighed, but didn't say no. She turned to the bird. "Poe, give us some privacy please." she instructed.

The bird, Poe, took flight, swooped past Waddlemeyer's head, who instinctively ducked, and then flapped on upstairs. Waddlemeyer watched it leave, frowning with puzzlement. He turned to inquire to Gosalyn about it, but Gosalyn was one step ahead of him.

"Poe's not your ordinary bird." she said, her eyes facing the TV and not him, even though it was only showing a monotonous reporter talking about the Dow Jones Industrial Averages for that day.

"Oh." Waddlemeyer said, and cleared his throat again. He glanced at the picture in his hands. "Gos, you really do...uh...care for this Drake person, don't you?"

Gosalyn gave him a side glance. "What do you think?" she asked haughtily.

"That you do."

"Then you'd be right."

Waddlemeyer sighed, and took a seat on the couch beside Gosalyn. His granddaughter ignored him. "Gos," he said, "look, I'm sorry. Clearly, I made a mistake, and I know you'll probably never forgive me for it. But I really did do it thinking of you and for your safety. To me, I felt you'd be better off thinking I was dead and gone than being constantly living in fear and danger of Taurus Bulba's wrath."

"I'd doubt it." Gosalyn said with a snort. "I didn't even know Bulba existed until I met up with Darkwing."

"Another attempt from me to keep you out of my personal matters." Waddlemeyer admitted. "Gos, you just had no place there. Surely you can see that."

"That still doesn't change the fact of what you did." Gosalyn retorted.

Waddlemeyer hung his head. "No, it doesn't." he agreed. "But I did it anyway, and in some ways I still think I made the right choice."

"And there's where the problem lies." Gosalyn turned to face him. "You were gone for ten years, grandpa. _Ten years_. Ten whole years in which I thought you were dead, and I moved on to rebuild the life _you _took away from me. Now you suddenly come back and think that I'll just forget everything and we'll be one happy family again when we can't. Too much has happened since you left. I've grown up. More importantly, I've moved _on._ I have a new life now, and unfortunately, it doesn't include you."

"I know that, Gos." Waddlemeyer said. "I knew the moment I saw you for my own eyes back in that meeting that you've changed. That you've had a pleasant life growing up that frankly I've missed out on, and will never ever be a part of, no matter how much I wish for it." he paused, sighing, looking at the picture he held in his hands. He set it down on the coffee table before them, next to a vase of daffodils. "You know, despite the fact that we've been apart for so long, I've still been keeping track of you. The Agency has some impressive technology at it's disposal, and they granted me permission to use some of it to keep track of you. I've followed almost your entire life, Gosalyn. I knew when you met Darkwing, when you were adopted by him, of your various adventures with him, of your debut into crime-fighting with him, and so on. It was like I had some magical mirror looking into this whole other world that I could follow along, but never be apart of. I was kind of forced to watch as you had a wonderful life with another person while I couldn't." he was silent for a moment. "It was almost pure torture."

Silence fell for a long moment.

"You know, I didn't have to be gone for ten years, or so I think." Waddlemeyer suddenly continued. "They'll deny it now, but when The Agency first offered to take me into protective custody, they promised I wouldn't be gone for very long, possibly no longer than a few months, a couple of years at most. But slowly, over the years, that changed. They found one excuse or another to keep me where I was for another year. All the while, they put me to work, building, inventing, all for them." he sighed. "I mentioned that I spent most of those ten years I was gone in a lab, and I wasn't exaggerating. The Agency wanted me to put my skills to use building things for them, and I think that's all they ever wanted from me."

Gosalyn was curious despite herself. "Building what?" she asked.

"Principally, a smaller version of the Ramrod." Waddlemeyer said. "A portable one, that you could carry in your hand like...like a pistol." he shook his head. "I regret ever inventing that accursed device. All it ever brought me was trouble. Trouble with Bulba, and trouble of a different sort from The Agency." he made an annoyed face. "I think they knew where Bulba was all along, they were just using it as cover to keep me there and finish working. They weren't interested in me or my well-being at all, just my skills."

Gosalyn looked thoughtful for a moment. "They were blackmailing you."

Waddlemeyer nodded. "I think so." he kept shaking his head. "They offered safety, protection, and a possible solution to my problems, but I should've never agreed to it." he said. "It kept you safe, but for what price?"

"A great price." Gosalyn answered.

"One that I don't think I was ever ready to pay."

"Seems to me you're still in indebted to it."

"Probably. Oh, Gos, I've been a terrible grandfather, haven't I?"

"Yes." she didn't even hesitate to answer.

Waddlemeyer sighed. "I have no place here anymore." he said.

"Well, I don't know about that." Gosalyn said, to her grandfather's surprise. "You are still my grandfather, after all. Staying away certain won't help the mess you're already in."

For what seemed like the first time in ages, Waddlemeyer truly grinned. "You could be right, Gos." he said.

* * *

"How tall is it now?"

"About three feet, Charlie."

"I want it to go all the way up to four."

"I don't know if you have enough blocks for that."

"I'm going to try anyway."

Christine grinned as she set aside the yardstick and watched Charlie carefully and delicately placed more square wooden blocks on top of his deceptively sturdy tower he had been building for the past fifteen minutes. His precision reminded Christine of the precision a surgeon would use for a triple-bypass surgery, and wondered if Charlie might be interested in becoming a doctor when he grew up.

She was in the process of imagining a fully grown Charlie preforming wonderfully achieved triple-bypass surgeries when the block tower tipped over onto her head, hard.

"Oops." Charlie said, sitting down on his haunches, crestfallen. "Sorry."

Christine rubbed at her sore head for a moment before answering.

"That's okay, Charlie." she said, helping her adopted son gather up the fallen blocks. "How about you try again, only with a sturdier base this time to help it stand up?"

Charlie grinned, and nodded, liking that idea. He quickly set to work doing that as the doorbell rang. Christine rose from where she sat on the floor, stretched, then walked over to the door of the apartment and opened it.

"Drake!" she exclaimed when she saw her boyfriend standing there in casual clothes, wearing a jacket over that. She then noticed how depressed he currently looked, and felt her stomach sink. "Who died?" she asked seriously.

"It's more of a matter of who _didn't _die, Chris."

* * *

It wasn't long after that before Drake had told Christine the whole story. Feeling slightly stunned herself, Christine carefully handed Drake a drink she had poured while keeping one for herself, both of them turning to look out the apartment's windows while Charlie continued to play with his blocks on the floor behind them.

"So Gosalyn's grandfather didn't die after all." she remarked.

"Yep." Drake said, staring into his drink, but not actually drinking it.

"How's Gosalyn taking it?"

"Last I saw, not well."

"Last you saw?"

"I haven't seen her since the meeting at SHUSH HQ."

"Good seasons, she hasn't run away, has she?" Christine asked, instantly taking the statement the wrong way.

"No, she's at home, with the professor." Drake explained calmly. "The idea was that they could have some privacy to talk."

"Oh." Christine paused for a moment. "Drake, are you sure that was such a good idea?"

Drake paused. "No." he admitted. "But it was either that or...well..."

"...or also face the matter yourself."

Another pause. "Yeah."

"Drake, you won't admit it, but it seems to me you took Waddlemeyer's sudden reappearance just as hard as Gosalyn did."

"Yeah."

"And you don't want to have to deal with that."

"Not now, no."

"Then I don't understand. Waddlemeyer's reappearance was, granted, shocking and unexpected, but shouldn't we be happy for him and Gosalyn getting back together?"

Drake gave Christine a crestfallen look, and then suddenly it all came together.

"Unless that's exactly what you are afraid of." Christine realized. "You're think that Waddlemeyer's going to take back Gosalyn as his."

"And take her away from me." Drake concluded, nodding. He swallowed. "I don't think I could handle that, Christine."

"I'm sure that if it came to that, Waddlemeyer will go lenient on you. He'll give you visitation rights and the such."

"It just won't be the same."

Christine sighed, and was silent for a moment. "Well," she said, trying to look on the bright side. "Has he said that he intends to take Gosalyn away?"

"Well..." Drake hesitated, "...no."

"The how do you know that he will? You said it yourself, Drake, Gosalyn wasn't taking it very well either. Maybe she'll refuse to have anything to do with him. In fact, she's old enough now that _neither _of you can do anything about it. It would all be up to Gosalyn to choose."

"Another thing that I'm afraid of."

"The fact that she might choose her grandfather over you."

"Yeah."

Christine bit her lip as she fell silent for a moment. "Well, Drake, there's nothing I can say that will make you feel better, and there's no way we can speculate what will happen from here." she concluded.

"So what should I do?" Drake asked.

Christine placed a hand over Drake's comfortingly. "Go home and find out for yourself what will happen." she said.

Drake sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say that." he said.

"If it'll help, I can come with."

"No, no, that's okay." Drake assured her, shaking his head. "You stay here with Charlie."

Christine hesitated, then nodded. "Okay." she said. "But if things do go as you fear, I don't want to hear you went and jumped off a bridge or anything like that. You come straight here, and we'll talk. I'm always here for you, you know."

Drake forced a grin. "I know." he said. He pulled her into a hug. "Thanks."

Christine, caught a little off guard by the hug, returned it. "You're welcome."

* * *

Drake did as Christine suggested and drove straight home. It was beginning to get dark out as another cold, wintery, night in St. Canard started to begin. The thought of the need to get out on the usual nightly patrol crossed Drake's mind several times as he drove, but he refused to let himself get distracted by even that. When he finally arrived at his house, he sat in the car in the driveway for a long while, trying to get the courage to enter. He finally did, and slowly, almost dragging his feet, the walked up to the house and proceeded to open the door.

In the process, he came face to face with Waddlemeyer, on his way out.

"P-p-professor!" Drake stuttered. "Um, hello! We, uh, haven't been formally introduced, so uh..."

"A pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Mallard." Waddlemeyer said, taking Drake's hand to shake warmly. "I was just wondering where you were."

"Is...is that why you were heading out?" Drake asked, nervously.

"Oh, no, I heard the engine to your car, and thought my ride was here." Waddlemeyer said.

"Oh." a pause. "Wait, what?"

"I'm...I'm leaving." Waddlemeyer said. "I really need to be getting back to...well...what has been serving as home for the past ten years, at least. Until I can clearance from The Agency to get my own place."

"Your own place?"

"Yeah. I want something bigger, more spacious. Maybe something out in the country with lots of open space, fresh air, and big fields to run around in. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll even managed to quit working with science and have the time I want to do what I really want to do."

"L-l-like what?" Drake asked, fearing the worse as be blurted out, "Take care of Gosalyn?"

Waddlemeyer gave him a long look. "No, to write a book." he said.

Drake was silent for a long moment. "A-a-a book?" he repeated. He paused. "Oh, well, uh...good...luck with that?"

"Yes, thank you." Waddlemeyer said, nodding. "Truth be told, Mr. Mallard, I think it's all I have left to shoot for." he sighed sadly. "I think me and Gosalyn have managed to...for the most part...come to terms with what happened. She's still mad at me, and it's understandably so. But she also made me see that I missed my chance to get back to the relationship we had before. She's grown up, and I was stupid enough to miss it. Now I have to live with it."

A taxi suddenly pulled up to the curb and honked.

"There's my ride." Waddlemeyer said, stepping out into the cold night and heading towards the cab. Halfway there, though, he stopped and turned back to Drake. "You know, Mr. Mallard, you have been an excellent guardian for Gosalyn over the years. You've been able to be everything for her that I was not." he paused, then grinned sadly. "I admire you for that." he nodded at Drake. "Good night."

He then climbed into the cab, and the vehicle drove off and vanished into the night. Drake remained standing there in the open doorway, too stunned to move. After a moment, he realized suddenly that was Gosalyn was standing there beside him, shivering in the cold winter air, but was stubbornly braving it out anyway.

Drake glanced at her. "Think he'll come back and visit you?" he asked.

Gosalyn shrugged. "If he doesn't, I'll go and visit him." she said. "I owe him that much."

Drake wrapped one arm around his adopted daughter and pulled her close. Together, they stood there and looked out at the horizon, wondering what the future would bring next...

* * *

Elsewhere, a party of SHUSH agents were in the process of loading Taurus Bulba, stasis chamber and all, into a van as ordered. Jointly pushing the cart it all sat upon up a ramp and into the van itself, they carefully pushed the heavy load off the cart, straightened the chamber with it's sole occupant, pushed the cart back out of the van, and moved the ramp they had set up. Two agents then turned to close the double doors to the van's back.

While their backs were turned, a red light, like a bright laser light right about eye level shone out from within the darkness of the interior of the van. But it was quickly hidden from sight when the van doors were closed, locked, and the van itself drove away with it's cargo...

**To Be Continued...**


	61. Interlude

Summary: Despite claims that he was dead and gone, Taurus Bulba is back, and is planning his revenge...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is a touch late. I've been intermittently working on a research paper for class this past week, and will be continuing to work on it off and on for the next few weeks, so that's going to sap some of my time. Also, oddly enough, I had a hard time getting the want to work on this chapter, which is really weird. Normally, I'm beyond excited to continue a multi-part story arc. Anyway, this chapter wasn't quite as action packed as I had hoped, and it's probably because I tried to squeeze as much stuff into this chapter as possible, and got derailed here and there. But the ending's good, you all will like the ending, me thinks. No fun facts for this chapter either, saving them for a later chapter still. ;)

61.

Interlude

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Special Agent Nathaniel Rickaby. I belong to an organization known only as The Agency."_

_--  
_

"_I've never heard of anything called The Agency before."_

"_It's a very top secret organization, Agent Gingevere. Only a handful of people are told about it, and it's existence is denied in public. As far as most are concerned, we don't exist."_

_--  
_

"_You all should feel privileged, you know. The Agency didn't plan on holding this meeting for another week, for which we would've given you more heads up for. But we recently discovered something that allowed us the perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone with this meeting, and permitted it be moved ahead."_

"_What discovery?"_

"_The current location of Taurus Bulba."_

_--  
_

"_People were beginning to think he had done himself in somehow."_

"_You are partly right. In actuality, Bulba put himself into a kind of stasis that kept his biological parts alive, but his robotic parts could be allowed to power down. The Agency recently found his hideout and learned all of this, even finding the bull himself. But according to our scans, something went wrong and he is very much dead now."_

_--  
_

"_Okay, but here's a question for you. You said that it's because of this that you moved this meeting ahead of schedule. But I fail to see how it all connects."_

"_It is because of our discovery of Taurus Bulba that a certain person can finally come out of hiding."_

_--  
_

"_Grandpa?"_

_--  
_

"_The Agency knew Bulba was going to try and take Waddlemeyer's life in an attempt to get the Ramrod he had been building, and we didn't want that, so we took him into protective custody."_

_--  
_

"_I've already sent for a team of agents. Their orders are to dismantle the hideout and ready Bulba for transport."_

"_Where're you taking him?"_

"_I haven't decided yet. Probably to a warehouse out in the country where he'll be dismantled. The point, however, is that The Agency is right. Everything suggests that Bulba is indeed dead and gone, even though no one can explain it yet. All evidence suggests that the chamber is still in working order and everything. The theory is that the device just didn't do what Bulba had hoped."_

_--  
_

_Elsewhere, a party of SHUSH agents were in the process of loading Taurus Bulba, stasis chamber and all, into a van as ordered. Jointly pushing the cart it all sat upon up a ramp and into the van itself, they carefully pushed the heavy load off the cart, straightened the chamber with it's sole occupant, pushed the cart back out of the van, and moved the ramp they had set up. Two agents then turned to close the double doors to the van's back._

_While their backs were turned, a red light, like a bright laser light right about eye level shone out from within the darkness of the interior of the van. But it was quickly hidden from sight when the van doors were closed, locked, and the van itself drove away with it's cargo..._

_--  
_

"_Deep down, you're still good!"_

"_I am __**not**__!"_

"_Then prove it! Because I certainly can! You've done lots of things that are good! Remember when Darkwarrior almost got the cure to the virus infecting his robots? You shot the data card right out of his hand, yet you never said __**why**__! And what about the time you had me all tied up in the Negaverse? You had the perfect chance to bump me off, yet you waited until too late! That all __**screams**__ that there's unfound good in you!"_

"_What do you care? We're still enemies. I've done nothing but hurt you. Why don't you treat me the same way?"_

"_Because I see you are hurting yourself. By trying to please someone whose opinion you think makes all the difference."_

_--  
_

"_Gos, you once told me that we have more in common that I thought. Well, now it's your turn to realize we have more in common. The more I think about it, the more I see that you __**do**__ have a good streak in you. You've just been taught to ignore it. But you don't have to! You don't like your life, so __**change**__ your life!"_

_--  
_

"_Clearly, the bad personality is much more predominate, but the point is that the good is still there! If you really work at it, you can get it back out again!"_

"_But that's the part you just don't get, Gos! The two personalities __**conflict**__! They don't mix! They're constantly fighting with each other to be on top of the other! Do you __**realize**__ what kind of turmoil that creates in my head? It's like I'm two people in one! One's good while the other isn't! The bad side doesn't like the good side, and the good side doesn't like the bad! The end result is that I'm stuck between the two, not happy with either one!"_

"_No, you're trying to stay in the middle! But sooner or later, you're going to have to pick a side. It's up to you to make that choice, yes, but once it's made, you're stuck with it. You have to be __**sure**__ which side you want before you pick it."_

"_But that's just it! I'm __**not**__ sure, and I don't I'll ever be!"_

"_You'll have to be! Making that choice won't be easy, but you can do it! You have to! Sooner rather than later."

* * *

_

All was quiet at SHUSH warehouse number forty-two.

Too quiet.

"Doesn't anything ever happen here?" one guard snapped suddenly, bored beyond reason as they walked around doing their usual patrols.

"No." another, more experienced, guard replied.

"No sudden attacks from bad guys?" the guard asked hopefully. "No experiments gone wrong?"

"Not in the twenty years that I've worked here."

"Wow. Long time."

"Tell me about it. Wish they'd promote me already."

They entered a dark storage room and shined their lights around.

"Everything looks okay here, too." the first guard said, dejected.

"Now it is, at least." the other guard replied. "It was really busy in here a week or so ago. Something about delivering something new to store here."

"Anything special about it?"

"Don't know, it's classified."

"Drat."

"Anyway, it's not staying here long." the guard explained as they both turned to walk back out again. "This is just a quick stop before it goes to it's final destination, wherever that is."

"So, in short, all that means for us is more boredom."

"In short, yes."

They started to close the door when they heard something shatter in the distance, followed by the tinkling sound of glass hitting the floor. They peered back into the large room.

"Did you here that?" the first guard asked.

"Yep." the second guard said, flipping the light switch next to the door.

But the lights didn't come on. Annoyed, the guard flipped the light several more times, but the spacious storeroom remained dark. He frowned.

"Something isn't right about this." he muttered. "Spilt up. You go that way, I'll go this way. Shout if you find anything."

The other guard nodded, and they both went off in separate directions to begin searching. After a while, the second guard found an open circuit box hanging open. Shining his light on it, he saw that many of the wires within it had been cut. He fingered one of the wires that were dangling out.

"Hmm." he said to himself. "Wonder what caused this." he turned around and raised his voice so the other guard could hear him. "I found the problem with the lights!"

"And I found the source of the noise!" the first guard called, shining his light on a glass cylinder, a large hole broken into it. "Not sure how it happened, but it looks like..."

He trailed off suddenly when he heard something move behind him. Spinning around, his light just barely caught of something big ducking behind a row of wooden crates.

"Uh, I think there's somebody in here!" he called out. "I'm checking it out!"

He peered around the row of boxes in the direction he saw the shape head in. He felt his blood chill as his light shone upon the shape, then he yelled loudly as the shape suddenly charged at him.

The second guard spun around as he heard the yell, followed quickly by a heavy thud, a number of metallic bangs, one gunshot as the first guard's sidearm discharged, then a moment of silence. Alarmed, the second guard proceeded towards the source of the commotion.

"Hey, are you all right?" he called.

His only answer was another, louder, bang followed by a flash of light from a small explosion. The row of crates, barely visible over the tangle of items that separated the second guard from the first, suddenly tipped over with a crash. Somewhere in the mess, and red light, like a laser sight, flashed briefly. The second guard quickened his pace and hurried over to the site of the incident, rounding another, not so tall, aisle of crates.

"Holy–!"

He quickly ducked as the...thing...he saw fired a burst of energy at him. The shot was wide of it's target, and slammed into a crate, shattering it. The guard quickly turned and ran for the room's exit, fumbling anxiously with his radio as he ran, hearing the...thing...chasing after him with heavy footsteps.

Outside the storeroom, and down a hall, the radios for two more guards standing at a doorway crackled.

"Hey, I need help in the far storeroom!" the panicked voice of the second guard cried through the radio. "We've got an intruder alert, he's shooting everything up! Think he's already killed somebody, and he's..."

The rest of the message was cut off suddenly by what sound like an explosion in the background, followed by a loud bang before the transmission erupted into static. By this point, the two guards at the door were already moving forward, racing down the hall, gathering more guards as they went, all of them drawing their weapons. They paused outside the open door of the storeroom in question, a flickering, yellow, light shining through it, suggesting a fire.

They all trained their weapons on the open door, and inched forward. Then the whole wall the doorway sat in exploded, and something big surged out of the resulting hole and into the ranks of guards. Panic erupted instantly as all the guards fought back blindly and to the best of their abilities. But they one by one each started to go down and be overwhelmed.

One of the few remaining guards standing the back saw that they were fighting a losing battle, and turned and fled, running back down the hall with the idea of raising the alarm. Two more turned to follow the example of the first, but they were both bodily knocked aside as the attacking object pushed past them and after the fleeing guard.

The object was fast, but he wasn't fast enough to catch the guard before he reached the end of the hallway and slammed his hand over a big red button, causing the alarms to begin wailing. Then he caught up with the guard, and made short work of him.

Alarms all over the complex of warehouses began ringing, and more armed guards hurried towards the sight of the action, only to be quickly driven back as the attacking object drove his way forward to the complex's main building, wreaking havoc as he went. In one of the upper levels of the main building was a control center overlooking the whole facility, and it was currently in a state of chaos as it was trying to make sense of the tangle of reports it was getting.

The complex's commanding officer, an official agent of SHUSH, stormed angrily into the room. "Report!" he exclaimed over the noise.

"Something's attacking, and heading this way sir!" someone reported. "We don't know much more than that!"

"Send out the troops to intercept and bring this attacker down!" the agent ordered as he looked out the control rooms long bank of windows at the columns of smoke that were starting to rise from within the complex.

"We did sir, they were driven back with heavy casualties!" the person replied.

"Then rally them here, and have them form a blockade the complex exit!" the agent ordered, turning for the room's exit. "I don't want this thing getting out!"

"There it is!" someone suddenly shouted, pointing out the window.

The agent turned back and ran to the window, followed by several others. They all gasped as the attacking object came into view. The agent recognized him instantly, and noticeably paled.

"Everybody out!" he ordered, pushing people for the exit. "Go, go, go, GO!"

He was glad he did, for a moment later, shots of energy slammed into the control center, slowly ripping it apart under the constant bombardment.

Later, the agent quickly rallied together an assault force, and they hurried downstairs to the lobby of the main building, the one room that separated the complex from the rest of the world. They all turned upon their arrival here and pointed their weapons at a pair of closed double-doors, the only other doorway leading in and out of the lobby besides the doors behind them that led outside.

A commotion was going on, consisting of loud noises of bangs, booms, slams, and yells, on the other side of the door. Then, quite suddenly, silence fell. Tense, the assault team and the commanding agent shuffled about nervously, wondering what was happening beyond those doors. Then, something big and heavy slammed into the doors with a bang. A moment later, it happened again. Finally, a low whine rang out for a spilt second before the doors were blown off their hinges and into the assault team...

...and Taurus Bulba emerged from the wreckage, the cyborg/bull grinning triumphantly.

"Oh, it's good to be alive!" he exclaimed with a laugh, and then turned to attack the assault team.

They didn't stand a chance.

* * *

"Keen gear, this game is great!" Gosalyn exclaimed as she worked with the controller viciously. "Dad, thank you _so _much for getting me this game for Christmas! _Whiffle Boy: Unleashed _is an awesome game!"

"Glad you approve, Gosalyn." Drake called from within his study, working on something.

"I mean, the graphics are great, the controls are revolutionary..."

"So it is."

"It's even just plain cool to sit and _look_ at! I mean, I looked at the game's disc for...what...five hours before I put it in to play?"

"So it's your favorite gift, then?"

"Heck, yeah!"

"What was wrong the other gifts you got from Honker, the Muddlefoots, Launchpad, and Christine?"

"Well, let's think about that for a few moments. Honker gave me a graphing calculator. Like I'd really use that. His parents both pitched in and got me a frilly dress. Which I wouldn't touch with a twelve-foot stick. Launchpad, granted, gave my a box of candy bars, but Christine gave me a whole bunch of health food. My Christmas would've been _ruined _if you didn't get me this game!" Gosalyn paused long enough to destroy several of the enemies on the TV screen at once before she continued. "Speaking of which, why did you get me the game? Usually you just give me a bunch of nutty health stuff, too."

"Christine beat me to it." Drake replied, putting the finishing touches on whatever he was working on and admiring it for a moment. "LP was going to get it, but he decided not to at the last second. And since I didn't think you would let any of us live if we didn't get you that game..." he left the thought unfinished, thinking he didn't need to go any further.

"So I got it because of a survival instinct." Gosalyn muttered sarcastically. "Joy. But at least I got the game."

"Yes, and playing it despite me saying you had played it long enough." Drake said, taking the object and walking into the living room with it.

"When you can actually get me to leave the game and leave this spot, _then _we'll talk about it." Gosalyn said determinedly, settling further into her spot on the couch. "Besides, it's still the winter vacation, and I don't have much else to do."

"Exactly why I haven't cracked down on you yet." Drake said, strolling past her (purposely blocking her view for a moment in the process) and sitting down in one of the armchairs on the far side of the room. "Launchpad's away doing some shopping, and Honker's in the tower working, so I'm not surprised you have anything else to do. I'm just glad you aren't destroying the house."

"C'mon Dad, I grew out of that stage years ago." Gosalyn said.

"Then explain how the dishes I asked you to clean all got broken the other night."

Gosalyn hesitated for a split second. "Freak accident." she replied.

"Uh-huh."

"So, speaking of the tower," Gosalyn said, changing the subject and side-glancing over at her dad, "how are things going over there?"

It was then that Drake held up the item he had been working on. The little figurine that usually sat on the side table in-between the two armchairs and activated them to transport their occupants to Darkwing Tower. It had been removed after the battle with Gigavolt and hadn't been returned to it's spot since. Until now, when Drake placed it quite firmly onto it's proper spot on the table.

"Quite well." he replied.

Gosalyn paused her game, and gave Drake a look of awe. "Is it completed?" she asked.

"It's...getting there. Close enough that we can start moving out of SHUSH HQ and back into a proper hideout. It's not done yet, though."

"Can I see it?"

"Not yet. I need to address a few matters over there, and the people I need to talk to are over there. You just wait here and keep playing your game. I'll be back in a little bit."

Drake then slapped the head of the figurine, and the chairs began spinning violently, taking Drake to Darkwing Tower. Only this time the location was a little different, and a little farther. And when Drake arrived, he saw that things about the new Darkwing Tower that was being built was different as well.

The chairs were in the same location as always, but things changed from there. For one thing, the tower currently wasn't it's usual vacant self. It was currently filled with both SHUSH agents and a handful of agents from The Agency, all working to help build the tower. Drake didn't mind SHUSH agents being here so much, seeing that SHUSH had known the location of the tower for several months now without any conflict. He was still a little apprehensive, however, about The Agency's presence, but they had insisted upon it, and they could easily overrule whatever he or SHUSH said if they wanted to, so Drake didn't have much choice over the matter.

But he didn't trust The Agency yet, still, and neither did SHUSH just yet. So when Drake quickly ducked away to change into costume before too many of the working agents saw him, it was really to protect his identity from The Agency rather than SHUSH, even though both knew it quite well now. In fact, he theoretically no longer had to maintain the ruse in their presence at all, but old habits die hard, and he felt more comfortable that way.

Emerging again as Darkwing Duck, though, he did have to commend both parties on their excellent work on remolding the back-up tower to be brought to full use as the new Darkwing Tower. The last time Darkwing had to remodel something like the tower so extensively was just after he came back from his seven year absence in the Negaverse, and he had to do that himself in his free time, and it took roughly about a whole month. Even then, he still didn't get to do quite as much as he had hoped, though Honker helped greatly with a few things.

This time around, he had whole parties of both SHUSH agents and members of The Agency at his disposal, and the process was taking half the time. Now that the city had finished rebuilding the old tower, they could work safely without fear of being detected, and the overall process was going much faster. It had only taken them a couple of weeks to get this far, and they were very nearly done. And they didn't stop there; they had all went on to add several improvements to the original design of the tower.

In addition to the usual things such as a parking spots for the Thunderquack and Ratcatcher (which would be used as soon as both of those things were finished), a library, and a platform for the supercomputer and all related materials, two new platforms had been built on opposite sides of the tower. One housed a new chemistry lab. The other, an armory to-be, as soon as the weaponry Darkwing and the rest used were moved there. This freed up space for some stuff SHUSH had come up with.

For instance, in the space where the chemistry lab had sat in the old tower now sat a "situation room" of sorts beside the supercomputer's platform, containing a table-like screen, and a small, transparent, map to one side (nothing like the big map Darkwing used to have in the old tower, but it worked). It was to be used to meet at and plan for things, and was large enough that it could house more than the usual people if necessary.

Darkwing looked the tower over one more time and sighed. Despite it not being finished just yet, he was quite pleased with the results, and couldn't wait to put the tower to real use.

He walked across the length of the tower, and up the steps to the platform where the rebuilt supercomputer was housed. Even this had received changes. Instead of the three smaller computer on either side of the platform, there was now four, making for a total of eight. In the middle of each side of the platform was a large touchscreen standing on it's side, making for two in total. It had been Honker's idea to include them, thinking that the touch principal the technology used to be useful.

The big screen was even bigger now, and was hi-def. The supercomputer itself was bigger as well, housing even more information. It also had direct access to the SHUSH supercomputer where it didn't before, allowing instant access to the information there. Darkwing and Hooter had both attempted to negociate that connections be made to The Agency's computer network, but they refused, reasoning that as the joint venture the two agencies were using would eventually mean that SHUSH would have information belonging to The Agency downloaded to it's systems as well. Both Darkwing and Hooter agreed, though, that it was a poor attempt to keep them from finding out too much too soon, because even though The Agency was to technically reveal everything to them, they were taking their dear sweet time doing it.

Currently, Honker, also dressed in his costume as Techno to protect his identity despite not needing to, sat in the new command chair, programming the supercomputer and fine-tuning it's systems. He was being silent, and looked like he was trying his best to ignore Agent Grant and Special Agent Rickaby, who were standing behind him, arguing loudly.

"I will not stand for this, Agent Rickaby!" Grant was saying. "I'd like to think that I've been very patient with you and The Agency's demands, but this is going too far!"

"The matter is only about safety." Rickaby replied calmly. "It will not be abused, that much I can assure you."

"First I want you to define 'abused'!" Grant snapped. "No wait, don't! No matter how you define it, you'd still find some kind of loophole to exploit!"

"The Agency is supposed to be your allies now!" Rickaby persisted. "We are supposed to cooperate with SHUSH and all affiliated people!"

"Then _do _so!" Grant said. "Do so and _quit _trying to control us!"

"Control us how?" Darkwing interrupted, having seen this argument go on for long enough.

Both Grant and Rickaby glanced at the hero. Techno side-glanced back at him, but silently kept at what he was doing. Darkwing suspected he had already know he was there.

"Darkwing!" Grant said first, looking surprised. "What brings you here?"

"First explain to me just what the heck you two are arguing about." Darkwing pressed, folding her arms.

"It's all because of _him_." Grant said, jabbing a finger at Rickaby.

"I'm trying to act in everyone's best interests." Rickaby pressed. "And as I said, it will not be abused."

"Prove it!" Grant stated.

"Enough!" Darkwing interrupted. He turned to Rickaby. "Will _what _not be abused?"

It was Techno who answered.

"The Agency wishes to set up connections with the supercomputer so that they can take control of it whenever they feel the need." he stated monotonously.

Darkwing shot Rickaby a bewildered look. "Over my dead body!" he shouted. "I'm not giving you guys that kind of control, control to take over the systems of _my _hideout at the slightest whim!"

"Exactly what _I _said." Grant agreed.

"Me too." Techno said, still not looking up from his work. "Only in nicer terms."

"The Agency's simply thinking about the best interests for everyone." Rickaby explained calmly. "You must see the use such a setup would have. Should this tower fall to the enemy, The Agency could use that connection to disallow any enemies to make use of it for their own advantages."

"I still wouldn't trust _you _guys with that kind of power!" Darkwing persisted. "You are much too prone to trying and get control over the others through blackmail and the such! How do I know you won't seize control of the supercomputer just whenever you want to force me to do something."

"I promise it will never be used like that." Rickaby vowed.

"Prove it!" Grant challenged again.

"Don't bother." Darkwing said, cutting Rickaby's reply short. "No matter what you say, you aren't getting permission to do that."

"I can order you to obey." Rickaby threatened, the one time he would ever look truly angry.

Darkwing merely laughed. "Don't get used to trying that tactic, because it's not going to ever work." he said, brushing past the agent.

"Besides, SHUSH will back Darkwing up on this matter and overrule you." Grant added. "You surely must realize that."

Rickaby didn't answer. "I can see that I'm not making any progress on this matter." he said flatly. "I'll instead wish you good day and be off."

He walked off, stomping down the stairs from the platform as he went.

"Thank goodness, I thought he would never leave." Darkwing said.

"So what did you want to talk about that Rickaby wasn't to get involved with?" Grant said, turning to him.

"Just wanted to hear a progress report on things here."

"Things are coming along great, Darkwing." Techno said as he worked. "I've very nearly got the supercomputer completely reprogrammed again, with a few additions added in. Thanks to our connections with the SHUSH mainframe now, I was able to replace the data we lost in the battle with SHUSH with great ease."

"Construction's coming along great, too." Grant said. "We expect to have things ready later this week."

"That soon?" Darkwing asked, surprised.

"Not counting the new Thunderquack, of course." Grant said. "That's taking longer than planned. But everything else, yes, it will be."

"Speaking of which, how is the new Ratcatcher and that other project I asked for coming along?" Darkwing asked.

But before he could get an answer, the control panel before Techno beeped.

"Incoming transmission from SHUSH." he reported. "It's Director Hooter, priority call."

Both Grant and Darkwing turned to look at Techno curiously.

"Put it on the big screen, Tech." Darkwing requested.

A moment later, Hooter's face appeared on the screen. His expression was indeed, grave.

"Darkwing!" Hooter exclaimed, relieved. "Good, I'm glad I caught you. We've got trouble."

"I surmised that much, J. Gander, what kind of trouble are we talking about here?" Darkwing asked.

"Approximately twelve hours ago, SHUSH lost all contact with a complex of warehouses that is positioned some miles outside of St. Canard, away from any populated areas." Hooter said. "Just before we lost contact with them, reports were sporadic, urgent, and unclear. What _was _clear was that the complex was being attacked by someone or something, so reinforcements were quickly dispatched. They arrived about ten hours ago, and have been conducting an investigation ever since."

Agent Grant didn't like the tone Hooter was taking. "What did they find, Director?" he asked.

"See for yourself." Hooter replied.

A series of pictures then appeared on the screen showing in detail the damage done to the facility, and the injuries done to the people manning the complex. Darkwing, Techno, and Grant stared at the pictures as they appeared on the screen one after another. Finally, Darkwing averted his gaze.

"How many survived?" he asked.

Hooter's face reappeared on the screen. "Too few." he said gravely. "That's only the tip of the iceberg, however."

Techno frowned. "What do you mean, J. Gander?" he asked.

"This complex was storing one very important item that had recently been placed there." Hooter said. "The reports we have gotten from the survivors have confirmed it, but first I wanted to make sure. There is one last picture you should see."

The new image appeared, depicting a shattered plastic cylinder leaning on it's side among a mess of ruins. Darkwing stiffened at the sight of it. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is." he remarked.

"I'm afraid that it is, Darkwing." Hooter said, his face reappearing. "Meaning that the item I mentioned earlier is now at large."

"What, or who, is this item?" Grant asked.

"Taurus Bulba."

There was a moment of stunned silence. Then Darkwing pounded the control panel with his fist in anger.

"Apparently he wasn't dead after all, and has now escaped." Hooter went on to say.

"Just great." Techno said, cradling his head in one hand in dismay.

"We better get going, then." Darkwing said. "J. Gander, you'll need to provide transportation to this complex. We'll search for clues and..."

"Not this time, Darkwing, I'm not going to let you out of my sight." Hooter said. "It's already been confirm; Bulba's heading straight to St. Canard, no doubt to finished what he started. He's coming to attack you, Darkwing, so there's no need for you to find him. He'll come to you."

"Like that's going to make me feel any better." Darkwing muttered.

"I'm assigning Agents Mia and Sandy to stand guard over you." Hooter said. "But beyond that, I know it'll be pointless to stop you from trying anything to stop Taurus Bulba, so I trust you to do what you feel is necessary. Just stay in St. Canard and with a SHUSH agent, that's all I ask."

"You got it, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "For once, I'll be glad to get all the help I can get."

* * *

He wasn't sure why he had been called out here at this time of day and for what purpose, but he didn't complain. It was his job, and it was frequently expected of him to carry out unknown chores like this. This particular time, he had been called here to receive further instructions to something, but he didn't know anything more beyond that.

Parking the car and climbing out, he squinted in the bright sunlight of the winter day in late December and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on. It probably looked ridiculously out of place in this weather, but it did protect his eyes from the light glaring off the white snow in the alley, and it also made him look cool and in charge.

He walked across the frozen snow to the back door of the long abandoned and empty store he had been called to and knocked on the door. He got no answer. Frowning in puzzlement, he knocked again, only getting the same results. Getting suspicious, he reached for the doorknob and slowly opened the door a crack, peeking into the dark room inside. The store was once filled with shelves and other things to fill it up, but when it was abandoned, that had all been cleared out, leaving only a big empty room.

"Hello?" he called into the room anxiously. But there still was no response.

He opened the door further and stepped inside, taking a few steps before stopping and looking around.

"Anybody here?" he called, again to no response.

Frowning, he turned around to close the door. The moment it latched shut, he spied the recently added electronic lock that had been hidden on the door snap shut. It was then that a voice other than his own spoke

"Hammerhead."

He froze. He knew that voice. Too well. And for the first time in years, he felt a wave of terror sweep down his spine. As he turned around, he saw the shadowy outline of a person he knew too well step into a beam of light, one eye glowing a bright red.

Hammerhead Hannigan gasped. "B-Boss!" he exclaimed, backing up into the closed and locked door. "I-I thought you were dead and gone! That's what everyone said!"

"They were misinformed." Bulba said, the shadowy outline grinning. "Hammerhead, I must say it is good to see you again."

"R-really?" Hammerhead said, trembling. "Uh, thank you boss." he gulped. "Uh, wh-what are you doing here?"

"I called you here to request your services once again." Bulba replied.

"But-but I was called here by Ethan McCaffrey f-for an assignment!"

"I impersonated his voice to get you here. Besides, your relations with the Davidson Gang are dubious at best. It would be of more interest you to work for me again." Bulba stepped out of the beam of light and across the length of the room, his footsteps heavy and metallic.

"Well...I _did _need a new job after that incident with the Ramrod, and the Davidson Gang certainly worked." Hammerhead pointed out.

"Mm." Bulba replied, glancing him slightly. "No more of that. I want you with me. In fact, I would've gotten the whole group back together for one big family reunion...but you were the only one I can track down."

"Well, Hoof and Mouth applied to join the Davidson Gang as well, but they didn't make the cut." Hammerhead said with a shrug. "Dunno what happened to them after that. Or Clovis, for that matter."

"It doesn't matter." Bulba said. "I have you, and that will do."

Hammerhead nervously looked his old, now new, boss over, noting the differences, particularly with Bulba's laser eye.

"So uh, so uh, how did you managed to survive that explosion on Canard Tower all those years ago?" he finally asked.

"Technically, I didn't, but FOWL brought me back to life, not that I thanked them for it."

"Which FOUL?"

"What do you mean, which FOWL?"

"Well, there are two FOULs now, Boss. One FOWL is spelt with a 'W' while another FOUL is spelt with a 'U'."

"I don't care. It was the FOWL I had always known. The one from eight years ago if my calculations are correct."

"Ah, well then, you don't have to worry about them, Boss, they're kaput. Disbanded years ago by SHUSH."

"I don't care. I have other plans in mind, and they aren't included in it."

"Okay, fair enough. So...two questions. What are your plans, and where have you been all this time?"

"Here and there." Bulba replied, turning to face Hammerhead fully. "It doesn't matter, though. I am ready to carry out my plans finally, and the time has come to begin."

"Begin what?" Hammerhead asked.

"My revenge."

* * *

"Sorry, Darkwing, I've tried several times, but for some reason, I can't seem to get through to Launchpad." Gosalyn reported over the radio. "I think he has his cell phone turned off for some reason."

"That's not like him." Darkwing admitted, frowning. He glanced at his watch. "He's running late, too. Normally it doesn't take him _this _long to do some shopping."

"Do you think Bulba got to him?" Techno asked, worried.

"Keen gear, I hope not!" Gosalyn exclaimed from the other end of the radio. "Maybe I should go out and look for him, though."

"Go ahead." Darkwing said. "Take your motorbike, maintain your cover, and keep watch for anything. I highly doubt that if Bulba will attack, it won't be just yet, so you should be safe for the moment. I hope. Just...find Launchpad, and quickly!"

"Got it, DW." Gosalyn replied, and the radio quickly shut off after that.

"Darkwing, if you don't find him soon, you're all going to have to come back here for safe keeping without him regardless, where we can keep an eye on you." Agent Grant said, the only agent still present, the rest having been sent away. "We can't risk having too many of you out of sight."

"I know." Darkwing said. "But let's not give up just yet. Gos'll find LP, you just watch."

Techno stood at the window, looking out it. He suddenly straightened. "Here they come." he said.

Sure enough, a helicopter had appeared in the distance, and came to stop and hover beside the window. Techno quickly opened it, and Agent Sandy nimbly stepped from the helicopter and into the tower.

"Agent Sandy reporting for duty!" the feline said smartly, saluting Grant.

"Thank you for coming, Sandy." Grant said as he and Darkwing stepped over. "Where's Mia?"

"Isn't she here?" Sandy asked, puzzled. "She wasn't at HQ, so we sent her a message."

"No, she hasn't gotten here yet." Darkwing said.

"Don't tell me we have _two _people missing!" Grant bemoaned.

"At least I didn't come here empty handed." Sandy said, as she helped a pair of workers on the helicopter slide a big wooden crate about as big as herself into the hideout. "Director Hooter thought you could use these, Darkwing."

Darkwing eyes brightened as he realized what was in the crate, and the identical one that was being moved out of the helicopter after it. "Oh, goody!" he said, patting a crate. "This will definitely help! And won't Crimson be surprised when she sees it!"

* * *

Gosalyn drove her motorbike down the snow-filled roads wearing a white winter coat loosely to protect herself from the chill. She had already checked out several of the stores Launchpad would usually go shopping at and found nothing. She was now heading to check out the number of places Launchpad would frequently stop by to visit on his way to and from any given location.

The light ahead turned red. Gosalyn slowed to stop at the light, sitting at the front of a long line of traffic in the leftmost lane on the street. As she waited for the light to change, she absentmindedly looked around at her surroundings. She saw a figure dressed in a red sports jersey, black jeans, and a yellow winter coat with red hair pulled back into two pigtails walk past as she rounded the corner.

"Hi Gos." she greeted as she walked past.

"Hi NegaGos." Gosalyn replied calmly, glancing at her double, then back at the red light.

She then froze, and quickly stomped down on her bike's throttle, driving it up onto the sidewalk and after NegaGosalyn, cutting off her double's path.

"All right, what are you up to?" Gosalyn demanded once she had done this.

"Getting your attention for starters." NegaGosalyn replied, putting her hands on her hips. "I must say, I wondered if you were really paying attention for a second there."

"There must be a dozen better ways to get my attention if that's what you really planned on doing!" Gosalyn snapped.

"But none more fun." NegaGosalyn said with a mischievous grin.

"All right, so you've got my attention." Gosalyn said. "Now what?"

"Now I tell you that I can help you." NegaGosalyn replied, her expression switching to a much more serious one. "I know where Launchpad is. I also know where you can find Taurus Bulba."

* * *

A short while later, they were both on the motorcycle, NegaGosalyn riding behind her Posiverse double as Gosalyn followed NegaGosalyn's directions to Launchpad's location.

"So why are you telling me all of this, anyway?" Gosalyn asked as they set off, ready to trust her double, but at the same time still be suspicious of her. "I can't say I'm too surprised you know all of this either, but I suppose I should probably ask how you came across this knowledge."

"Negaduck's orders." NegaGosalyn replied. "He's been keeping tabs on your locations as best as possible as of late. Usually, though, you're such an illusive bunch that we fairly regularly have no real idea of where you're all at, but lately I've gotten lucky and have been able to pinpoint Launchpad's location fairly consistently to this one location. No clue what he does there, I just know he's always been there for the past several weeks at this time of day.

"As for Bulba, that's simpler. Word gets around quickly, you know. Taurus Bulba just can't come back to life and escape captivity without somebody other than the government hear about it, y'know? Besides, Negs sees it as competition, and of course, he doesn't like competition."

"So seeing that there doesn't appear to be some kind of trap underlining all of this, why are you telling me this?" Gosalyn asked.

"Because whether you'll admit it or not, you need help." NegaGosalyn stated flatly, looking annoyed.

"Feeling particularly good today, are we?" Gosalyn asked, grinning.

NegaGosalyn gave her double an annoyed look. "How do you know that I'm not doing all of this to lure you into a trap or something of the such?" she asked.

"How do I know that you are?" Gosalyn challenged back, seeing right through that statement like it was plastic wrap.

NegaGosalyn frowned and looked straight ahead. "We know each other too well."

"That we do."

Finally, Gosalyn slowed the motorbike as they arrived alongside an insignificant diner on Duncan Avenue. She saw the Mallard family car that Launchpad had left in parked at an angle at the diner's curb and pointed it out to her Negaverse double.

"Launchpad's here all right." she stated, pulling her motorbike to park beside the car.

They both paused and peered into the diner, looking for the pilot.

"There he is." NegaGosalyn said, pointing at Launchpad where he sat in a booth on the far side of the diner.

"He's not alone either." Gosalyn observed, spying the familiar person sitting on the other side of the booth, dressed in standard SHUSH attire. "That's Agent Mia."

"Are they on a _date_?" NegaGosalyn repeated, stunned.

"It sure looks like it." Gosalyn muttered. "Shouldn't you know this already?"

"No." her double admitted. "I'll I knew was that he always came here around this time, stayed there for a long period of time, and then left again. It never occurred to me that he was _seeing _someone here. I just thought he liked the food they serve here."

"Well, don't go kicking yourself over it, I probably would've thought the same thing." Gosalyn said, getting off the bike and pulling off her helmet. "I'll go get them."

"I'll wait here." NegaGosalyn stated.

Gosalyn gave her suspicious look.

"How do you think they would react when they see two of you?" her double then asked.

Gosalyn rolled her eyes. "True." she admitted. "If I find out that you're up to something..."

"I promise you that I'm not." NegaGosalyn vowed, leveling her eyes with her Posiverse doubles. "I have a reason behind all of this. And maybe I'll tell you why sometime."

"It had better be soon." Gosalyn said, as she entered the diner.

It was noisy inside the room was it was quite busy with customers at the moment. It was also a touch too hot, no doubt as the kitchens worked hard to crank out meals for the customers. The whole building also smelled strongly of greasy food. Pushing past to waitresses, Gosalyn moved towards Launchpad and Mia, both chatting lightly, unaware of everything going on around them including Gosalyn's approach.

Gosalyn came within hearing range in time for Mia to finish telling a joke, and both of them laughing at it. She waited until the laughter died down, and then cleared her throat loudly to announce her presence. Launchpad turned to look at her, and then jumped.

"Gos!" he exclaimed, moving to stand up, but stumbling and ended up sitting back down again. "Wha-what are you doing here!"

"Looking for you!" Gosalyn declared. "We've been trying to reach you on your cell phone!"

Launchpad blinked, then reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Turning it on (hence why he missed the attempts to contact him, no doubt) he saw that he had several messages waiting for him. He made a nervous and slightly embarrassed grimace. Mia, meanwhile, had pulled out her own cell phone and was checking it for messages also having to turn it back on to do so. Seeing she had her own list, she started reading through some of them. She turned pale slightly.

"Oh no." she said. "SHUSH has been trying to contact me, I _knew_ shouldn't have... she sighed. "Seeing that you're probably related to all of this, what is that they need us for, Ms. Mallard?" she asked Gosalyn.

"Two words." Gosalyn said. "Taurus Bulba."

They both glanced sharply at her, Launchpad now turning pale as well.

"Look, I'll save my questions about this incident later." Gosalyn said. "Right now we need to get to the tower, stat. So let's move."

Nodding, both Launchpad and Mia rose and started to follow Gosalyn out of the diner.

"Gos, how did you find us, anyway?" Launchpad asked.

"Yeah, small story with that." Gosalyn said, pushing open the front door. "See, I was directed here by..."

But she trailed off when she saw that there was nobody by her motorbike anymore. For some reason, NegaGosalyn had left. Bewildered, Gosalyn froze and just stared at the empty spot.

"Directed here by who?" Mia prompted.

Gosalyn shook her head. "Never mind." she said. "Let's just get going."

* * *

A short while later, the chairs leading to the new tower spun suddenly, and Launchpad, Gosalyn, and Mia appeared, drawing the attention of the others waiting for them.

"Gosalyn!" Darkwing exclaimed, stepping away from the wooden crate he and Techno had been working with. "What have I told you about using the chairs while someone's watching, much less bringing that person with?"

"Hey, _she _knows who we are!" Gosalyn said in her defense as she pushed past her father to change into her costume, jabbing her thumb back at Agent Mia. "It's not going to hurt anything, and besides, it was faster this way!"

"She's got a point, DW." Launchpad said, stepping over to Darkwing's fuming figure. "Besides, from what I understand, you needed all of us here quickly!"

"Just because our secret identities aren't so secret anymore doesn't mean I can't still work to protect them from those government types!" Darkwing snapped.

"Hey!" Mia objected, and looked ready to say more if Agent Sandy hadn't quickly intervened and motioned for her to not get involved.

"And where _have _you two been, anyway?" Darkwing went on. "We've been trying to contact you! Don't you know what's going on?"

"Now we do, thanks to Gos." Launchpad said, jerking over to where Gosalyn was changing in the seclusion of the changing area. "And sorry, we had our cell phones turned off."

"But why?" Agent Grant asked, stepping over. "Didn't you think we might need to contact you?"

"And how did you both get here at the same time?" Darkwing asked. "Did Gosalyn find you both together?"

"I think we really need to be focusing on the matter on hand, Darkwing." Techno politely interrupted, placing a hand on Darkwing's shoulder.

"Techno's right, Darkwing." Crimson said as she stepped back into sight again, fully dressed in costume. "Or did you forget that Taurus Bulba could be attacking here at any second?"

"I still would like an explanation, Gos, I-I mean Crimson." Darkwing said. "But...you're right. Fortunately, J. Gander's given us authorization to track Bulba down before he tracks us down and take him out. We need to get going on that."

"Yeah, how are we going to track him down, DW?" Launchpad asked, adjusting his flight cap. "I mean, we have the tools, but we don't have a mode of transportation." he paused when Darkwing gave him a cool grin. "Do we?"

"Presenting..." Darkwing began, dramatically stepping over to one of the two wooden crates standing to one side and pushing it out of the way, "...the new Ratcatcher!"

And sure enough, there it stood, hidden behind the crate it no doubt arrived in. Freshly painted and polished, and looking very close to the original, the Ratcatcher looked ready to do some action.

Agent Sandy confirmed it. "SHUSH finished it this morning, and when the situation Taurus Bulba broke out, a means of transporting them here was quickly arranged." she explained. "It's mostly identical to the original, only with a few new toys added in, as well as a new Lovell Air Engine for it to run on."

"Keen gear, too cool!" Crimson said, hurrying over to the bike, and started to climb on.

But Darkwing stopped her. "Ah-ah!" he scolded. "This is LP and mine's ride."

"What?" Crimson wined. "But that's-"

"Now don't panic, your ride is over there." Darkwing interrupted, pointing behind Crimson.

"_My _ride...?" Crimson began turning to look as Techno proudly pushed aside the other crate.

As he did so, another motorbike came into view, very similar to the Ratcatcher with a few modifications and a new paint scheme; black with red trim. Techno motioned to the bike dramatically.

"Presenting the Avenger." he said calmly.

Crimson let out a whoop and quickly hopped onto the bike, looking it over. Darkwing strolled over to watch.

"I arranged for SHUSH to build this little beauty so that me and Launchpad wouldn't always have to use the Thunderquack to get around, nor would we all have to squeeze onto one bike when the Thunderquack's grounded." he explained, grinning. "Which it currently is, as the Thunderquack II isn't quite flight ready yet. Anyway, I'd show off everything it can do to you, but we _are _on a bit of a tight schedule..."

"Right." Crimson said, starting the engine and adjusting her hat so it looked more dramatic as Techno and Agent Sandy climbed into the sidecar. "Let's get dangerous."

* * *

"Oooh, I _love _this new scanning system...thingy...that we put on this thing!" Darkwing said as he drove the Ratcatcher down the road. He motioned to the holographic HUD that was being displayed on the bike's windscreen. "I mean, _look _at that! I can detect nearly any energy source for half a mile! No way Taurus Bulba can hide from me now!"

"Speaking of which, how are we going to find him, DW?" Launchpad asked, sitting in the sidecar next to Agent Mia, who was acting as their bodyguard. "We can detect his energy signatures, sure, but how are we going to know which one's the right one?" he motioned to the mess of dots on the HUD. "I mean, any of those signatures could be Bulba!"

"I'm sure Bulba's will stand out in comparison to the others upon a closer investigation." Mia said confidently. "His signature isn't like to match much else in this city."

"She's right, Bulba's energy signature, now that he's half-robot, will stand out almost like a sore thumb." Darkwing said. "We can manually sweep through these readings and pick out the ones that don't match up, but I have a faster way." he pressed a control on the radio. "Crimson, does Techno have that information _yet_?"

"He's just gotten it on his visor, Darkwing." Crimson replied back through the radio, as she drove the Avenger down a different road across town. "He's downloading the information to the Avenger's onboard computer now."

"What information?" Agent Mia asked.

"The very last energy reading SHUSH got of Taurus Bulba when he was active." Darkwing replied. "We can use that to pick out exactly right signature."

"Transmitting now." Techno reported over the radio. "The Ratcatcher's onboard computer should be receiving the data now."

"Got it!" Darkwing announced as the information appeared on the HUD. "Now, we enter the parameters into the filter program, and that should get rid of all of these extra energy readings!"

He was right, most of the dots quickly vanished from the HUD, but unlike what he was expecting, there was still several dots still remaining.

"Techno says that the scanner will still show a few results on the HUD because it'll be getting a few readings it can't get clear enough scans of to know to eliminate them." Crimson explained over the radio. "He also says, though, that we can use the scanners on both motorbikes to triangulate on the signals, and eventually pick out the right one. He's networking the two onboard computers together so that the readings from both bikes will appear on both screens."

Sure enough, the HUD added on a few more dots, and communicating through the radio, they slowly started to eliminate the signals they didn't want and narrow down the readings that could be Bulba, narrowing down their options as they got closer and closer to each other. Finally, there was only one reading left that was a most definite match to what they were looking for.

"There!" Darkwing and Crimson exclaimed together, as the two bikes joined each other on the same street. "Bulba's there!"

"Techno, anything on that destination?" Crimson asked her sidekick.

Techno worked with his visor for a moment, while Agent Sandy, quietly sitting beside him, looked on.

"It's a warehouse, an old one." Techno reported. "No records on who currently owns it, but I can confirm it's currently in use by someone."

"Why would Bulba be there?" Launchpad asked, puzzled.

"It's probably his hideout." Darkwing said.

"Not while it's currently in use." Techno said, shooting down the idea.

Sandy suddenly stiffened. "Unless it's already being used as a hideout."

Techno glanced at her. "The Fearsome Five?" he asked.

"I would bet on it." Mia said. "Bulba's probably attacking them for some reason."

Crimson blinked. "That would explain why NegaGos didn't stick around like we planned." she said aloud to herself.

Darkwing looked over at her. "NegaGos?" he asked.

"I'll explain later." Crimson said. "Right now, we need to go save the Fearsome Five, as weird as that sounds."

* * *

Bulba was indeed attacking the hideout of the Fearsome Five, and was having a blast while he did it. Roaring with laughter, he used his lasers to destroy another stack of crates Bushroot, Quackerjack, and Rowe had been hiding behind, making the group scatter as they sought new cover so they could continue fighting back.

Bulba appeared to be alone in his attack, but he wasn't. When the attack began, Hammerhead used the distraction of the battle to sneak undetected up to the Negaduck's office, hacking into villainous leader's computer and downloading a certain batch of files to a thumb drive. The office was empty, so he was able to carry out this task in peace. It was unknown where Negaduck himself had gone, having vanished from sight when the attack began. But neither Hammerhead or Taurus Bulba cared at the moment.

"Look out!" Quackerjack yelled as Bulba aimed his laser cannon at the new stack of boxes they were hiding behind.

The group quickly jumped out of the way as the laser shots blew the stack of crates away. Each individually ducking under some piece of debris to hide behind as they continued attacking.

"Sink me rudder, mates, we're getting clobbered here!" Rowe muttered as he ducked behind his new shelter.

"It's playtime!" Quackerjack yelled, whipping out a toy gun that fired real bullets and started shooting at Bulba.

He handed another, similar, gun to Rowe so that the otter could help fight. The bullets didn't seem to affect Bulba that much, and they merely bounced off the cyborg's metallic parts. Meanwhile, Bushroot watched from nearby, feeling helpless. He had already tried using plants against Bulba, but it didn't work, and he had nothing else to use to help fight back.

"Can-can I have one of those guns, Quackerjack?" he asked hopefully, ducked swiftly as one of Bulba's arm cannon shots zinged over his head.

"Sorry, I don't have enough to share." Quackerjack said, and focused instead on firing everything he had at Bulba's robotic arm that doubled as a cannon, probably the deadliest tool Bulba had at his disposal.

"We need to figure out how to take this guy out, mates, or we're done for!" Rowe said, yelling over the firing. "Anybody got any ideas?"

"I think I've got one!" Bushroot said, perking up suddenly as he suddenly thought of something. "How about we-"

He got no further when Bulba suddenly blew the spot Bushroot away, taking Bushroot with.

"Bushroot!" Rowe exclaimed, but couldn't stop to help his friend at the moment as Bulba moved on to try the same thing for him and Quackerjack.

Hiding just inside the doorway leading into the back room, firing off sporadic shots with her P90 when ever she thought she had an opening, was NegaGosalyn, now dressed in costume. She had seen the whole event.

"Bulba just took out Bushroot!" she reported urgently.

"He'll grow back." Negaduck said, unconcerned as he worked at the controls. "Just make sure that Bulba's stays at bay for a little longer while I finish here, that's what I called you back here for."

NegaGosalyn nodded and obeyed, firing occasionally. "You're _sure _this guy is properly dead and gone in the Negaverse, right?" she asked.

"Of course I'm sure." Negaduck said, adjusting a few dials. "You were there, you saw the explosion."

"I hardly remember it." NegaGosalyn pointed out with narrowed eyes.

"Your loss." Negaduck said in reply, again unconcerned. "I'm almost done, you'd better move."

NegaGosalyn obediently moved out of the way, as an engine started, and the cockpit closed around Negaduck. A few moments later, the whole wall dividing the back room from the rest of the warehouse where the battle was occurring shattered, and exploded, spraying debris everywhere. The battle was suddenly forgotten as everyone, including Bulba stopped to stare in awe as the fully operational Negaquack inched out the whole in the wall it had made. Quickly, seeing where this was going, Rowe and Quackerjack moved out of the way.

"Time to get deadly!" Negaduck yelled, beyond enraged with the cyborg attacking _his _hideout, and brought the Negaquack's many weapons to bear on the robot and began shooting.

The shots at first fell short of their target, tearing up the ground before Bulba as Negaduck quickly compensated for the oversight, giving Bulba just enough time to turn his body so that his mechanical parts took the blows. But even that wasn't enough as Bulba finally started to take damage. The Negaquack soared over Bulba, then turned around in the tight confines of the warehouse's interior for another pass to finish the job.

That was when Darkwing and the others arrived on their motorbikes, driving right through the open doors leading into the warehouse.

"Whoa." Launchpad remarked when they saw the Negaquack.

Bulba looked in their direction, and quickly fired off a shot in their direction. He missed, the group quickly driving their two motorbikes into separate corners of the warehouse before hopping off and ducking behind cover to join into the fight, but he didn't mind too much.

"Hammerhead!" he yelled into the build in radio he had. "Now!"

Hammerhead was already one step ahead of him. Still in Negaduck's office, he pulled out his sidearm and ran to the window, adjusting his aim to point at an exposed part on the Negaquack, hovering just under him. He fired once, shattering the window. His shot hit home, causing something within the jet to spark. He then fired twice at the cockpit, piecing the glass canopy and hitting the control panels. Alarmed, Negaduck worked urgently with the now-dead controls, the jet no longer responding to his commands as it slowly continued forward.

Bulba reacted by jumping up and grabbing the Negaquack's wing. With strength only the cyborg could muster, he managed to change the entire path of the jet, and gave it a shove in it's new direction. No longer under Negaduck's controls, the jet soared forward and smashed through the window that ran along the roof of the warehouse, taking out part of the wall with it. Outside, the jet wobbled dangerously, then ricocheted off a nearby building before crash landing, backwards, on the roof of a slightly shorter building. Negaduck quickly worked to get the jet flying again, but he was out of the fight for the moment.

NegaGosalyn then appeared from her hiding spot and began shooting fully at Bulba. Following her example, Rowe and Quackerjack started shooting as well. Darkwing and the others quickly joined in after that. For a moment, Bulba was disoriented, but he quickly began shooting back, forcing his enemies to back off. Hammerhead, seeing his first task done, exited Negaduck's office and moved to the staircase leading down from it. Halfway there, however, a cloud of crimson smoke cut short his path.

"I am the heir to the cape! I am the computer who cannot establish a wireless connection!"

Hammerhead fired into the smoke with his sidearm, but it hit nothing. Then, suddenly, Crimson plowed into him from behind, knocking him into the fading cloud of smoke.

"I am the Crimson Avenger!" she concluded breathlessly, and grinned as she stood over Hammerhead, who was working at getting up. "Long time, no see, Hammerhead."

"Yeah, well, let's keep it that way." Hammerhead said, charging her.

Crimson dodged it, and dealt another blow to Hammerhead's back. He fell again, but he managed to wrap his feet around Crimson's legs and twisted, making Crimson stumble. She bumped against the railing of the platform they stood upon. She started to push herself off of it, but Hammerhead flipped her over the railing, letting her fall to the floor of the warehouse below. Fortunately, she landed on a stack of empty cardboard boxes, placed in such a way that it almost seemed like they had been purposely set there to prevent this from happening.

When she smashed into the boxes, Bulba, who was standing dangerously nearby, whirled around and fired his energy cannon in that direction. He was too late to hit Crimson, so the shot merely hit the wall behind her, and exploded, pelting her with dust and debris. Darkwing wasn't going to take the attack to his daughter lying down, however, and charged Bulba, firing blindly. He was merely flicked aside. Bulba then twisted around to fire a laser at Rowe, who was attacking at his exposed back, forcing the otter back, then at Quackerjack, the shot missing, but hit close enough that it knocked the singed clown back and to the floor, apparently unconscious.

Techno pulled out his three chemical bombs and began hurling them one at a time at Bulba, each one exploding in Bulba's vicinity as Bulba approached him. All the bombs ultimately ended up doing was getting Bulba dusty, slightly tattered, and very much more annoyed. He fired his arm cannon at Techno, making Techno be forced to jump to one side to save himself. This just left Agent Sandy, who was unwisely backing into corner she couldn't escape from, shooting uneffective bullets at Bulba as he advanced towards her.

"Sandy!" Agent Mia exclaimed from across the room, seeing her fellow agent's predicament.

Both she and Launchpad began hurrying over to help, but Bulba picked up a nearby steel beam and hurled it in their direction, cutting them off for the moment. He continued to advance towards Sandy, who continued backing away in fear of the cyborg, until she finally backed into Hammerhead's open arms. He grabbed her, struggled with her a moment, then with one strike, knocked her unconscious. He turned to Bulba for orders.

"We are done here." he said, and turned to leave, running. Hammerhead hurried after him, lugging his heavy load.

"They're taking Agent Sandy!" Mia exclaimed, panicked, as she and Launchpad worked to get around the steel beam that blocked their path.

NegaGosalyn hurried forward, her P90 blazing, Darkwing following, shaking off the blow he had received, also joining in the firing. They managed to follow Bulba and Hammerhead out of the warehouse and into an alley, but then the two, and their captive, just vanished from sight. Darkwing cursed, and ran back to the warehouse to regroup. NegaGosalyn followed, surveying the damage to the now silent warehouse.

It seemed everyone was a bit stunned from the beating they had all received from Bulba's attack. Launchpad and Mia had maneuvered around the fallen beam, and were now talking with Darkwing about their next course of action. Quackerjack still lay on the floor, unconscious, but showed signs of stirring, and would probably come out of the ordeal just fine. Rowe, looking a touch battered himself, knelt on his haunches while he talked to Bushroot, who was indeed in the process of growing back, looking like a little daisy at the moment. Techno sat on the ground, cradling his sore head that he had apparently knocked good in the fight. Crimson was still extricating herself from the stack of cardboard boxes she had fallen into, somehow having gotten all tangled up in them. NegaGosalyn headed towards her double.

"Stupid cardboard boxes." Crimson muttered as she shook one off her foot. "You wouldn't think they would be so easy to get entangled with, but they are."

"You should be thankful they were even there to break your fall, or you wouldn't be caring about that, if you cared about anything at all anymore." NegaGosalyn pointed out flatly.

Crimson glanced at her. "You know, I know why you left so suddenly now, earlier today." she said, pointing at her double. "You had gotten word of the attack occurring here, and you had hurried off to go help fight. I take it, then, that Bulba had moved positions from where you had first thought he was."

"Correct."

"Then why didn't you _tell _me?" Crimson paused. "What _were _you up to during that whole incident, anyway? Were you, as you said, just trying to help me, or is there some kind of scheme behind all of this?"

"There is no scheme, at least, not the kind you're thinking of." NegaGosalyn assured her double.

"Then start explaining." Crimson said. "I want to know the answers while we still have a chance."

NegaGosalyn looked nervously around. "This isn't the time or place for this." she pointed out. "People are watching, and they might listen, and..."

Crimson pulled her double behind another stack of cardboard boxes where they had privacy. "I know this isn't the best of times, but I want to know anyway, and we might not get another chance at this." she said. "We have privacy, now _tell _me."

NegaGosalyn hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "You _should_ probably know this." she admitted. Her double was silent for a moment. Finally, she just said it. "Remember my theoretical good side you keep going on about?" she asked. "It's not so theoretical after all."

Crimson gave her double a surprised glance.

"Yeah, I know, I bet you were starting to think I'd never admit it." NegaGosalyn said bitterly. "But now I am." she sighed. "You were right from the beginning. I _was _trying to stay neutral in the whole matter and be neither good or bad when it just couldn't be done. You said that sooner or later I was going to have to pick a side, and now that time has finally come. I'm fed up with it all, Crimson. Negs, the Fearsome Five, my life, everything." she sighed again. "It's time I took charge."

Crimson as silent for a moment, not questioning any of this. "Does Negs know?" she asked.

"He suspects." NegaGosalyn replied. "But he doesn't have enough to convict me just yet. And for now, I want it to stay that way. That's why I did what I did. I'm helping you now Crimson only because you need it. The rest of the time I'm going to continue playing the ruse I've always been playing, to keep Negs from thinking that I've betrayed him."

"That's a real gamble, no way you can keep that up forever." Crimson said.

"I know, but imagine what will happen when the other shoe drops?" NegaGosalyn pointed out. "Negaduck won't stop at punishing me this time. He'll know that I'm no longer of use to him and he'll...end it." she shook her head. "I want to postpone that for as long as possible, in hopes of finding some way out of this mess. But I may already be in it too deep. In that case, I hope you understand that I want to postpone the inevitable."

"I do." Crimson replied without hesitation. "And I hope that for your sake, it doesn't come to that."

NegaGosalyn nodded, her expression flat. "For now just think of me as a double agent, spying on the Fearsome Five for you and Darkwing." she said. "Beyond that, though, treat me like you always have."

"You know, maybe we can help, Darkwing and I." Crimson stated. "Maybe we can help you get out of this mess, alive, and ready to start over."

"And maybe you could." NegaGosalyn agreed. "But for what costs? Besides, there are bigger things going on here than just me. Not just Bulba, but other things. Negaduck's planning something, and because he doesn't completely trust me, he's left me out of the loop this time. But whatever it is, I think it's big. And if we have any hope of stopping him, we're going to have to work together, and work cautiously. If Negs catches on to all of this..." she shook head. "I don't even want to think about it." she paused, and sighed. "But like I said, now isn't the time or place for this. Bulba's still at large, and only he knows what he could be planning."

"Crimson?" Darkwing's voice called out. "We need to go!"

"He's right, you need to go and get Bulba." NegaGosalyn said. "Negs is likely to be back at any moment anyway, and if you're all still here..." she kept shaking her head. "Just...go."

Crimson hesitated for a moment, never having quite seen her double like this, but nodded, and turned to leave. "Keep safe." she said.

"You too." NegaGosalyn said, nodding, motioning for her to hurry. "Oh, and for now, don't tell Darkwing. I'd rather if it'd just be me and you in this little ordeal for now, and don't try to call me, I'll call you."

Crimson nodded, and then turned and left.

* * *

Darkwing and the gang searched all of St. Canard for any trace of Bulba, but for reasons they couldn't explain, he, Hammerhead, and his captive had inexplicably vanished.

"It's like he's had some kind of cloaking device that he just activated the moment he was out of sight." Darkwing explained to Hooter once they had retreated back to SHUSH HQ to report in. "Only that's not possible, is it?"

Hooter shook his head. "No, SHUSH had more than enough time to study Bulba and his hideout before he escaped." he said. "He had no such technology with him, so unless he recently obtained it, or had it hidden somewhere else, he had to have just been one step further than yourself, Darkwing."

Darkwing shook his head. "Dang it." he muttered. "J. Gander, I'm sorry. I feel responsible for Agent Sandy's capture."

"Don't be, no one could've predicted it." Hooter said, folding his arms on his desk. "No one knows even now why he might want Agent Sandy. What's important is that I'll know you'll help get her back."

Darkwing nodded. "Any word from The Agency?" he asked. "Are they even _trying _to help?"

"Yes and no." Hooter said with a sigh. "They say they are helping, but they haven't been forthcoming with it. They won't spare any of their agents or technology when I specifically request it, and they will only report the same things regarding Bulba as you have to me; he can't be found. I'm nearly at my wits end with them. I even tried turning to Norrin for support, but he sided with The Agency."

"No surprise there." Darkwing muttered.

"But, he did promise that they were working on something that should help." Hooter said. "I don't intend to wait and find out what it is, however. Darkwing, take whatever you need, and track down Bulba and take him down. I don't care how you do it."

"But that's the problem, J. Gander." Darkwing said. "At the moment, Bulba _completely _has the advantage. Not only can't we track him, but he has the superior technology and fire power, _and _a prisoner he can use as a bargaining chip and leverage to keep us at bay. One thing is certain, and that is fact that what ever it is that he's planning, he's been planning it for a very long time, and has planned it well. I wouldn't even know the first place to start."

"Curiously, though, you do not seem to be the target." Hooter noted.

"Not yet, at least." Darkwing admitted. "But I think that it won't stay that way. I think that whole attack at the Fearsome Five's hideout was a ruse to draw us there. Exactly why, I don't know. But clearly, he got what he wanted, and left the moment he did." he shook his head. "This is not going in our favor, J. Gander."

"A fact that I'm well aware of, Darkwing." Hooter said. He sighed. "Now, down to business. Dr. Bellum believes she can..."

But he got no further when the intercom on his desk buzzed.

"Director, Special Agent Rickaby here to see you immediately, sir." Hooter's secretary announced through the device.

Hooter frowned, but nodded. "You may send him in, Julie." he said.

Like Rickaby had just been waiting at the door for Hooter's authorization, the door opened, and the agent strode in with the usual neutral attitude. He wasn't alone, either, for following him was Professor Waddlemeyer, carrying a box-like case.

Darkwing rose in surprise. "Professor!" he greeted. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you here again."

"Frankly, Darkwing, I'm surprised I'm here myself, but _he _insisted." Waddlemeyer said none-too-lightly, jabbing at Rickaby while placing the box on Hooter's desk.

"What's this about, Rickaby?" Hooter asked.

"Director, I've read your report on the matter of Taurus Bulba, and I have read Darkwing's." Rickaby said. "Vice President Norrin also said you had requested assistance. So here it is."

He motioned to the box. Hooter and Darkwing looked at it, unimpressed.

"It's a box." Darkwing noted flatly, stating the obvious.

Waddlemeyer laughed. "No, Darkwing, it's what's in the box that's important." he said unlatching the box. "Come and see for yourself."

He lifted the lid, revealing a gun-like device inside that Darkwing and Hooter recognized almost instantly. It was obviously much smaller than the original, with a handle and trigger in place of a base, and in the place of the controls was a viewfinder, but the device was still recognizable. Hooter and Darkwing glanced up at Waddlemeyer, who grinned kindly at their obvious surprise.

"Presenting the Ramrod Portable." he said simply.

* * *

"Hammerhead, my patience is wearing thin."

"Sorry Boss, b-but there's a lot of data to sift through here, heh."

Agent Sandy watched quietly, and almost curiously as Hammerhead nervously sat at a hastily setup computer in the dark hideout of him and Bulba, while Bulba paced impatiently behind both. Sandy sat in a wooden chair that she was tied, completely disarmed and with a throbbing head, but otherwise unharmed. She wanted to find a way to escape, but quickly saw that it wasn't likely.

She wished she knew what exactly what Hammerhead and Bulba were up to, but as they already knew, they didn't have a need to explain what they were doing in full, much to Sandy's dismay. What was clear was that Hammerhead was looking for a certain tidbit of data from a thumb drive he had plugged into the computer that was proving difficult to find. Sandy didn't know exactly where the data had come from, but she suspected that it had been obtained at the hideout of the Fearsome Five.

Suddenly, Hammerhead grinned. "Found him, Boss!" he said, and scooted aside so Bulba could see.

The hulking form of the cyborg leaned over to study whatever was displayed on the screen of the computer, which Sandy couldn't see from her position, before he, too, grinned.

"Very good." he said, standing. "I will go and...pay him a little visit. Hammerhead, you stay here and stand guard over my prisoner."

"Yes boss." Hammerhead said, giving Sandy a cruel grin. Sandy merely gave him back a cold look before she turned her attention back to Bulba, who was in the process of exiting.

"What do you want with me, anyway?" she demanded.

For a moment, she thought she wasn't going to get an answer, but then Bulba's face turned to look at her, his laser eye glowing brightly. He grinned.

"Not much." he admitted with a shrug. "In short, you are really just bait."

He then left, leaving Sandy to wonder just what he meant by that...

* * *

"You know Crimson, we might still need that piece."

Crimson looked up at Techno, then back down at the part she had absentmindedly fiddling with. "Oh." she said, setting it aside. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Techno said, picking up a piece from the selection that sat before them to take back and work on the Thunderquack II. "We all have a lot to think about and have different ways to pass the time. That's the only reason I'm in here, so I can keep my mind off of things by working on the Thunderquack." he paused for a moment. "What are you worrying about, anyway? Agent Sandy?"

"Well, there's that..." Crimson admitted, glancing up at Techno briefly before looking back down at her feet, "...but there are other things."

"Like what?"

"Tech, what if I told you that I knew of a spy? A spy in the Fearsome Five?"

Techno blinked. "Really?" he asked.

"Really."

"Who?" he paused, realizing the answer. "You mean you, er, the other you?"

Crimson nodded. "She, uh, she declared she had a change of heart today." she said. "She's agreed to spy on the Fearsome Five in secret and relay the information to me, while at the same time continuing to play her part as Negs's second-in-command."

"Well...that's good...isn't it?" Techno asked hesitantly.

"I suppose." Crimson agreed. "But Techno, any information I get from her, I need you to take the credit for discovering."

"Why?"

"So Darkwing doesn't find out."

"Excuse me for asking, but why can't we tell Darkwing? Shouldn't he know?"

"NegaGos requested that I not tell him. I don't know why." Crimson sighed. "But seeing how much she's putting at stake just so she can do this, I'm not going to disobey her requests."

* * *

When Launchpad walked into Mia's office, he found the feline agent sitting at her desk, staring unemotionally at an open folder sitting there. Upon moving closer, Launchpad saw it was Agent Sandy's personnel file.

"Feeling bad about what happened, huh?" he asked.

Mia, who naturally knew that Launchpad was there, nodded. "I feel responsible for it all, even though I shouldn't." she said. "I feel like I should've done something to keep Bulba from getting his hands on her."

"We all have done everything we could." Launchpad pointed out. "And it's not too late, either. We'll get her back, you just watch."

"I don't doubt you, Launchpad, but I'm worrying about other things as well." Mia said. "Like the fact that I have new orders."

"New orders?"

"They were exactly what I was expecting, and that was help find Sandy and help take down Taurus Bulba. The problem is that they aren't going to let me go on this mission alone. They want me to find someone to team up with to temporarily replace Sandy until we get her back, _if _we get her back."

"Well, that's not so bad." Launchpad said with a shrug. "There are probably hundreds of capable agents here at SHUSH you can pick from."

"True, but..." Mia shook her head. "Launchpad, me and Sandy are a team. More than that, we're friends. I don't _want _to have to find someone else. Sandy's one in a million. I can't just...replace her, even if just temporarily. She'd be really hard to even _have _to replace."

Launchpad was silent for a moment, looking for the right thing to say. He couldn't find it, so he just shrugged. "Sorry." he said. "I wish I could help."

Mia then had a thought. "I don't think I could find a true replacement to Sandy." she said, standing. "So I guess you'll have to do."

Launchpad looked up sharply. "Huh?" he repeated.

"C'mon." Mai said, taking Launchpad's arm and leading him out the door. "I'll need to debrief you of the situation."

"What?" Launchpad asked, feeling lost as he allowed himself to be blindly led out the door.

* * *

"Careful Darkwing, don't move too quickly, or you'll break the connection."

"I get that, professor, just let me do it!"

With a gentle bump, the practice target they had been using the Ramrod Portable to practice levitating with set down on top of another, making for a neatly balanced stack. Darkwing released the trigger, breaking the beam of energy that connected the pistol-like weapon with the target and bowed.

Hooter began applauding. "Good work, Darkwing!" he praised. "I daresay you've got the hang of it now!"

"I only hope it'll work for what we intend to use it on." Darkwing said, looking down at the device in his hands. "I had always seen the Ramrod as a kind of tool, not a weapon to use against someone. Particularly someone such as Taurus Bulba."

"Remember, Darkwing, you don't have to use the Ramrod Portable on Bulba." Waddlemeyer reminded. "Instead, I would suggest using it on things around him and use them to slam into Bulba like a hammer or a ram."

"Yeah, I get that, but still, I worry that still won't be enough." Darkwing muttered.

A ringing sound suddenly went off. Hooter pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. "Excuse me for a moment, please." he said, walking off to the far side of the practice room, opening his cell phone.

"Darkwing, I personally believe that this device will give you the advantage you need." Rickaby stated calmly from nearby. "Bulba thinks that the Ramrod was not only destroyed, but that no smaller reproductions of it exist. He won't see the use of such a device coming, and will catch him by surprise. And as you should very well know, the element of surprise is a great tool for things such as this."

Darkwing nodded numbly as he continued to study the device.

"He's _what_?"

Everyone glanced at Hooter for his sudden outburst. He turned to face them, looking stunned, the cell phone still placed at his ear.

"Taurus Bulba is attacking the St. Canard Supervillain prison!" he explained in simple shock.

"He's _what_?" Rickaby said, looking genuinely surprised.

"What on earth does he want there?" Waddlemeyer asked.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out." Darkwing said, holstering the Ramrod Portable, and stepping forward.

"Yes, go, Darkwing, while we have time!" Hooter urged him. "I daresay we should take the opportunity of knowing where he is to attack! Just be careful! There's no telling what he's up to now."

* * *

Chaos reigned in the hallways of the St. Canard Supervillain Prison as Bulba stormed down it's many hallways, blowing aside the policemen that crewed the prison like they were gnats. The policemen and guards still tried to fight back, but they were severely outgunned and very disorganized, and Bulba wasn't holding back in his attack.

Yet he was very careful to not break open any of the prison cells he passed, especially the ones that had occupants in them. That is, until he reached one in particular. Making sure the hallway was cleared of any onlookers and anyone who could arrive and interfere, Bulba disabled the energy field keeping the cell sealed and stepped calmly into the cell.

The cell's only occupant looked up at him and grinned. "So, this is the famous Taurus Bulba I've heard so much about." he remarked.

"My reputation precedes me, then." Bulba remarked, bowing slightly. "That is good, for I have heard I great deal about you. Although, I had to go to great lengths to figure out where you were at, so far as stealing all the information Negaduck has on you."

"Yes, the twerp would keep a file on me at all times."

"Anyway, I propose a little offer. I need your services in a manner of ways, namely your...unique abilities."

"What's in it for me?"

"I help you obtain your freedom." Bulba said. "Furthermore, we share a common goal."

"Which is?"

"Revenge upon Darkwing."

The captive grinned at this, his red eyes glinting as he stood.

"Well good." Nanite commented. "You've come to the right person, then."

**To Be Continued...**


	62. Vengeance

Summary: Taurus Bulba and Nanite are now free to obtain their revenge. Can Darkwing and the gang survive long enough to stop them?

Rating: T

Author's Note: So very sorry this chapter is so terribly late, the forces of life have been out to get me the past couple of weeks. First there was that research report I mentioned last chapter, which after getting about halfway through, I willingly decided to scrap what I had and completely start over. Then I got a cold, which I'm _still _suffering slightly from. And there was the Fourth of the July, which naturally sapped up any writing time. Also, I had to stop and watch season five of Stargate Atlantis in it's entirety during all of this, which I did. Then I had all of the usual things I have to face throughout the week. But, it still didn't stop me from gradually working on this chapter, and now, here it is. Some fun facts are included for this chapter, last chapter ("Interlude") and the chapter before ("Truth Be Told") as they're all part of the same story arc. Enjoy! :)

62.

Vengeance

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_You all should feel privileged, you know. The Agency didn't plan on holding this meeting for another week, for which we would've given you more heads up for. But we recently discovered something that allowed us the perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone with this meeting, and permitted it be moved ahead."_

"_What discovery?"_

"_The current location of Taurus Bulba."_

_--  
_

"_Grandpa?"_

_--  
_

"_The Agency knew Bulba was going to try and take Waddlemeyer's life in an attempt to get the Ramrod he had been building, and we didn't want that, so we took him into protective custody."_

_--  
_

"_We will __**never**__ have normal lives __**again**__ because of what you did, grandpa! The __**moment**__ you agreed to The Agency's terms, there was no going back to the lives we once had!"_

_--  
_

"_Too much has happened since you left. I've grown up. More importantly, I've moved __**on**__. I have a new life now, and unfortunately, it doesn't include you."_

_--  
_

_While their backs were turned, a red light, like a bright laser light right about eye level shone out from within the darkness of the interior of the van. But it was quickly hidden from sight when the van doors were closed, locked, and the van itself drove away with it's cargo..._

_--  
_

"_What, or who, is this item?"_

"_Taurus Bulba."_

_--  
_

"_Apparently he wasn't dead after all, and has now escaped."_

_--  
_

"_It doesn't matter, though. I am ready to carry out my plans finally, and the time has come to begin."_

"_Begin what?"_

"_My revenge."_

_--  
_

"_They're taking Agent Sandy!"_

_--  
_

"_What do you want with me, anyway?"_

"_Not much. In short, you are really just bait."_

_--  
_

"_At the moment, Bulba __**completely**__ has the advantage. Not only can't we track him, but he has the superior technology and fire power, __**and**__ a prisoner he can use as a bargaining chip and leverage to keep us at bay. One thing is certain, and that is fact that what ever it is that he's planning, he's been planning it for a very long time, and has planned it well. I wouldn't even know the first place to start."_

_--  
_

"_It's a control nanite. It will be released into the necessary environment, and then begin to make even smaller service nanites. Together, they will all make a large control structure to house themselves in, and await further orders."_

_--  
_

"_Argh! Don't you get it? I'm not Lewis anymore! I've changed! The name is Nanite."_

_--  
_

"_Tech, what did you do to him?"_

"_I stabbed him. With this."_

"_A shock dart?"_

"_The tips are diamond plated. So they will penetrate most metals. And apparently that includes Nanite's armor. But better still, it seems Nanite's nanites can't break down diamond. It's too hard."_

_--  
_

_He started to sink down to his feet, but before he fell down, both Crimson and Darkwing fired ten more darts into Nanite's back. By that point, Nanite had already lost consciousness, and fell face first to the ground, and didn't move._

_--  
_

"_Anyway, I propose a little offer. I need your services in a manner of ways, namely your...unique abilities."_

"_What's in it for me?"_

"_I help you obtain your freedom. Furthermore, we share a common goal."_

"_Which is?"_

"_Revenge upon Darkwing."_

_--  
_

"_Well good." Nanite commented. "You've come to the right person, then."

* * *

_

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Darkwing urged as the Ratcatcher and the Avenger zoomed down the road with their respective drivers behind the handlebars. "Who knows what Taurus Bulba could be doing in that prison!"

"Why is he even _there?_" Techno asked from the sidecar of the Avenger. "What could possibly be there that he would want?"

"It's anybody's guess Techno, but whatever it is, it's important that we stop him!" Crimson said, adding an extra burst of speed to the Avenger.

They arrived at the St. Canard Police Station to find it in a panic. Officers ran all around yelling willy-nilly as they tried to make sense of the apparent lightning-quick attack and regroup, while at the same time getting their wounded out of the way. Darkwing, Crimson, Techno, Launchpad, and Agent Mia who was still under orders to be their bodyguard, simply pushed their way past all of this, stopping long enough only to ask where Bulba was (the best answer they got being 'somewhere in the supervillain prison') before they ducked into the supervillain prison itself.

Inside, the damage was very apparent. Bulba had gone in fighting, and he met resistence every step of the way, but by the look of things, that certainly didn't stop him. Thankfully, the prison had been completely evacuated, including even some of the prisoners, wherever possible. Red warning lights were flashing everywhere and an alarm was buzzing somewhere, but otherwise everything was quiet.

Darkwing shined a flashlight around in the slightly smoking corridor before turning to Techno. "Tech, see if the internal sensors are still online," he prompted.

Techno nodded, and hurried over to a nearby control panel. Agent Mia followed him, looking to be both curious and on the watch for Techno's safety. Within moments, he had accessed what remained of the prison's systems and had a report.

"The sensors _are _still online," he reported, grinning slightly at their stroke of good luck, "Scanning for any intruders," a brief pause followed, then "I'm only detecting one, and it matches Bulba's profile. He's in the maximum security quadrant of the prison, section upsilon, down this corridor and then turn right."

"Let's go," Darkwing urged, motioning everyone forward, "Mia, LP, stay here and guard the entrance. Stop anybody that tries to leave."

"Got it." Mia said, taking up a position near the entrance, Launchpad following her example.

The remaining three hurried down the corridors. They didn't even really need Techno's directions to the location of Bulba, for the destruction Bulba had wrought on his way in made a fairly clear path for them to follow. Darkwing eyed the damage as they went.

"He's ticked." he muttered.

Crimson, however, had her mind on other things. "Maximum security quadrant, section upsilon," she muttered., "Who's in section upsilon? Isn't that Darkwarrior?"

"No, Darkwarrior is in the moderate security quadrant, in section omicron," Techno stated, "Remember, without his technology, Darkwarrior is pretty much a pushover. It was agreed to save the space in the maximum security quadrant for someone that would really require it."

"Then who's in section upsilon?" Crimson asked, "Anybody we know?"

"I didn't take the time to look." Techno admitted, "I would guess that Bulba's looking for an ally, however."

"I know who it is." Darkwing said flatly. "We had better hope we get there before Bulba does, though."

They turned the corner in the corridor and found that section upsilon was filled with more smoke from gunfire and battle than the rest of the prison. The threesome slowed their pace and moved more carefully now, pulling out their respective weapons. Finally, a large shadowy shape came into view ahead of them.

"Taurus Bulba!" Techno exclaimed without thinking.

The shape turned, and Bulba's laser eye flashed out into the smoke.

"Duck!" Darkwing cried, pushing Crimson and Techno back around the corner quickly.

An echoing bang rang out as Bulba fired his arm cannon, blasting a hole into the wall at the end of the hallway that was meant for the group. In the resulting cloud of smoke and dust, everything was blocked from sight. A clattering noise then followed as the three picked themselves up.

"What's that?" Crimson asked.

Darkwing's eyes went wide as he looked behind her and whipped out the Ramrod Portable he still carried. "Nanite!" he cried in alarm.

Pushing Crimson downward, he fired the weapon at the supervillain robot as he lunged at them, yelling. Halfway through the leap, Nanite was stopped as the energy from the Ramrod Portable stopped him, leaving him under Darkwing's control. Nanite first looked in awe at the device that gripped him, then in panic at Darkwing. Darkwing grinned cruelly, and with a flick of his wrist, sent Nanite slamming into a nearby wall. Hitting hard enough to leave an indentation, Nanite toppled out of the hole and to the floor, temporarily stunned.

A pounding of metallic feet announced Bulba's approach, and he quickly came speeding around the corner of the hallway. Darkwing and the others instinctively ducked down. In all the smoke and dust in the air, Bulba failed to see them, and ran past them. Once he had, Techno decided to break cover and hurled a chemical bomb at Bulba's head. He missed, the bomb ricocheted off the wall beside Bulba and bounced ahead of the cyborg before it finally went off, blowing a hole in the floor.

By that point in time, Bulba had already spun around, lasers firing, boring holes into his surroundings. Everyone ducked again, but it wasn't any good. Bulba picked out his target, Darkwing, and charged towards him. Crimson was standing nearby and reacted by firing a canister of smoke around the both of them, hiding them from Bulba's view. Bulba stormed into the cloud of crimson smoke, but hit nothing. His prey had moved.

He started to turn around, but Crimson was already behind him again, firing two shock darts into his unprotected back. They didn't damage him much, but the resulting surge of energy released into his systems made him arch his back in agony. Roaring out in displeasure, he collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud. No sooner than he had hit the floor, however, Nanite was vaulting himself over the him, lunging again for Darkwing. But Darkwing was ready, and hit him again with the Ramrod Portable, this time knocking Nanite back into the far wall of the hallway. He smashed right through it into another room and crashed to floor, vanishing in the cloud of dust that filled the hallway once again.

Darkwing then turned the weapon on Bulba, who was starting to pick himself up, and fired. He lifted the cyborg off the ground, dragged him against the wall of the corridor over Crimson and Techno's heads, and then sent the cyborg hurtling down the very lengthy corridor, yelling loudly, sparking occasionally as his limbs brushed against something. He flew more than ten feet down the corridor and was still in the air before he vanished from sight in the smoke-filled, darkened, corridor.

Darkwing let out a whoop, and jumped for joy. "I _love _this thing!" he said, waving the Ramrod Portable over his head as he raced down the hallway after Bulba.

Crimson started to follow, but Techno stopped her, and silently motioned back to the wall Nanite had been knocked through. Nodding, she and him doubled back to look through the hole Nanite had made when he slammed through. The next room appeared to be small control room of sorts with it's only entrance, a small metal door, hanging open. Two police officers lay on the floor, both unconscious, it appeared. One had his back turned to them, but it didn't appear to be anybody they knew. No sign of Nanite.

"Dang it, he must have gotten away already." Crimson muttered, turning around. "C'mon Tech, let's go help dad before he gets too trigger-happy with that new toy of his."

Techno nodded and followed, and soon both where gone. If they had examined each of the fallen officers closer than they had, however, they would've discovered that one of them was Officer Matthew. As he had appeared from several months ago. He was also very much awake and conscious, and hopped to feet once Crimson and Techno had left. His eyes were glowing a blood red, he watched Crimson and Techno leave, then slipped out the open door...

* * *

Bulba finally came to a stop and crashed to the floor somewhere in section iota of the prison. Roaring, he picked himself up and ran back down the hallway he had flown up to get back to Darkwing. Somewhere back down the smoke-filled hallway, Darkwing was hurrying to catch up with him. They never saw each other coming, and ended up slamming into each other. With Darkwing being so much smaller than Bulba, he just stuck to Bulba's chest while Bulba continued running, having hardly felt the impact. He did feel it enough to glance down, though, and upon seeing Darkwing, skidded to a halt, gorging marks into the floor in the process.

Darkwing, barely conscious, toppled off of him and to the floor, dropping the Ramrod Portable in the process. It had barely clattered to the floor before Bulba had scooped it up again. It took one look at it, then looked at Darkwing and grinned. Darkwing looked up at him, clutching his head, saw what Bulba was going to do, and lunged for the weapon.

He wasn't fast enough. Bulba fired the weapon and stopped Darkwing before he could ever reach it. He hovered there helplessly before Bulba for a moment before Bulba slammed him into the nearby wall, and bent over to peer intently into his eyes. Whatever he planned to do next simply never happened, however, because Crimson and Techno finally caught up, Crimson firing more shock darts from her gas gun again at Bulba. Two zinged off him, not having been fired at the right angle to stick, while the third stuck slightly just below Bulba's neck.

He let out a yell, looked at Crimson and Techno gearing up for another attack, then back at Darkwing, still caught in the Ramrod's energy field.

"I'll deal with the likes of you _later_!" he vowed, and swung Darkwing into Crimson and Techno, knocking all three to the floor in a tangled heap. He then turned and ran for the prison's exit.

* * *

Up in section alpha where the entrance was, Nanite simply strolled into the room, completely undisguised, and was unsurprised the entrance was being guarded by Launchpad and Agent Mia. He rolled his eyes, and simply walked towards the entrance. At first, Launchpad and Mia were caught off guard by Nanite's lack of reaction or motions to attack and didn't react right away. Launchpad then finally surged forward and tackled Nanite. Nanite merely threw him aside, watching idly as the pilot skidded across the top of a table before he hit the floor.

He continued for the entrance, even though Mia blocked his way. The SHUSH agent unloaded all eight rounds at Nanite. All of them merely bounced off of him as he drew closer. Finally, as the weapon clicked as it's last round was used, Nanite reached her and slapped the weapon out of her grip with one hand and grabbed her around the throat with the other and lifted her into the air, gagging her.

Launchpad had picked himself up by this point, saw what was happening, and with a yell, jumped onto Nanite's back and started attacking the robot. Nanite wasn't even affected, and continued choking Mia.

Then Bulba quietly strolled into the room and brushed past them all as he started for the exit.

"Leave them," he told Nanite, "We must go."

Nanite shrugged. "Fine," he said, throwing Mia aside, then grabbing Launchpad and throwing him off his back and into a wall, "They weren't putting up much of a fight anyway."

They both strolled calmly up to the surface. Bulba looked around, then back at Nanite.

"Grab on." he commanded.

Nanite latched onto Bulba's back. The cyborg then extended his jetpack and took off into the air, flying away.

* * *

Back down at the entrance, Crimson and Techno arrived, both supporting Darkwing, who was unconscious. They saw Launchpad lying unconscious at the bottom of the flight of stairs that led out of the prison and Agent Mia starting to pick herself up from off the floor, clutching at her throat, and they instantly put two with two.

"Bulba came through here, didn't here?" Techno asked, leaving Crimson to support Darkwing herself as he went to help Mia up.

"And Nanite." Mia rasped. She coughed. "They seem to be working together."

"Oh, that's bad." Crimson muttered. "Because if there's anybody at the moment I would consider more powerful than Taurus Bulba, it's Nanite."

* * *

Back at the hideout of Taurus Bulba, Nanite worked slowly with the limited equipment he had available to him.

"You know, it would really help if you had the best of the best equipment." he muttered under his breath.

Bulba looked up at him from where he sat across the darkened room, weary. "I am sorry," he said apologetically, "I was not able to get a hold of such technology. I hope you understand."

"I do." Nanite said, turning around, holding a syringe full of a grey colored substance that he tapped with one finger. "Still, a guy can hope."

"I highly doubt you qualify as a "guy" anymore, Nanite." Agent Sandy commented flatly from the middle of the room, tied to her chair still as she gave Nanite a glare.

"Oh shush." Nanite said, rolling his eyes as he attached a needle to the syringe. He turned to Bulba. "I suppose you'd want to do her next." he said, jabbing a finger at the prisoner.

"No," Bulba said flatly, as he gingerly flexed his more robotic arm, "I do not need her getting an edge that she could use to escape. Besides, I require her just as she is."

"The nanites are very adaptable, Taurus," Nanite pointed out, "They can be modified for anything, including brainwashing. At the very least, it would make her more willing."

Bulba merely shook his head again. Nanite just shrugged, indifferent. He came to stand beside Bulba, raising the needle and syringe in preparation to inject Bulba with the grey substance in the vial.

"How is this supposed to help again?" Hammerhead asked, watching the whole situation a touch apprehensively from afar.

"I did not escape that prison unharmed, Hammerhead." Bulba pointed out, still favoring one arm. "I took some damage to both my biological parts and my technological parts. While all of it is minor, I need some repairs. Unfortunately..."

"...you don't have, nor can you afford to obtain, the materials you need to do it with." Agent Sandy noted.

Bulba nodded. "That is part of the reason why Nanite is here." he said. "He can help remedy this little problem."

Nanite grinned, and nodded in agreement. "All you need is a control nanite and a batch of worker nanites provided by yours truly to do it," he said.

He then jabbed the needle into Bulba's flesh just over the bull's heart and injected the syringe full of nanites into Bulba. Bulba gasped, and doubled over. Nanite removed the needle and stepped back, still grinning. Bulba remained like that for several moments, twitching intermittently. Then, suddenly, while breathing heavily, he sat up again.

And now, both of his eyes were glowing red...

* * *

"This is bad, this is very bad." Hooter muttered as he paced back and forth in the SHUSH infirmary.

"You said that already, J. Gander," Darkwing said pointedly, sitting on a cot as he pressed a bag of ice to his sore head.

"I mean it, Darkwing," Hooter snapped, "This is not a situation to take lightly!"

"Hey, I'm not taking it lightly!" Darkwing snapped back. "Okay, it's bad! But it's not like it wasn't _already _bad to begin with! We'll think of something! So Bulba's got Nanite on his side now, we'll stop them! Always have, always will!"

"But there is also the fact that they also have the Ramrod Portable." Techno pointed out, who stood at the far end of the infirmary, "That gives them both _another _advantage over us."

"At least they can't go robbing banks with it!" Darkwing snapped, then winced as his head throbbed, "Ooh, it does pack a punch, though."

"_I _think you need to rest easy for a little bit, Dad," Crimson stated, hovering over her father like a mother hen. "You got hit pretty hard back there."

"I can't!" Darkwing said, trying to stand up, wobbled for a moment, then sat back down, "There's evil to eliminate! Delinquents to defeat! Criminals to chase, and..." he trailed off as his head throbbed again. He pressed the bag of ice harder against it. "Oww..."

"Personally, DW, I certainly don't feel up for much of anything," Launchpad said, lying in the cot next to Darkwing, "We all took a real beating back at the prison."

"At least we all came out of it alive," Agent Mia pointed out, sitting on the cot on the other side of Darkwing. She had been cleared for duty, but was still massaging her throat gingerly. "I must admit I was surprised by that. Isn't the whole idea behind these attacks of Bulba's is to kill us in revenge, particularly Darkwing?"

"He said he'd deal with us later, so I guess he just decided it was time to go while he could and come back and finish the job later." Crimson said with a shrug.

"I don't remember that." Darkwing muttered blankly.

"You were hardly conscious at the time, Darkwing," Techno pointed out.

"Oh yeah."

"Look, does _anybody _have any ideas?" Hooter asked, still pacing, "Because I'm willing to hear them. The Ramrod was the only thing we had earlier, and we lost it. Though by the sounds of it, it didn't sound like it was making that much of a difference either, just making both Bulba and Nanite all that more angrier."

"Well, director, I don't know about Taurus Bulba, but I might have something we can use against Nanite besides shock darts," Techno offered, "Some time back, I was able to get some great scans of the control nanite that makes Nanite who he is. At the time, I wasn't able to do much with that data, but I've studied the data off and on since then, and have started to formulate a few ideas. Maybe if I focused all of my information on that, I can come up with an idea we can use."

Hooter considered this for a moment. "What will you need?" he asked.

"Just access to the supercomputer at Darkwing Tower, the data I need will all be there." Techno said.

Hooter considered it for a moment, then nodded. "Go ahead." he ordered, watching Techno instantly push off the wall and head for the exit to the room. "Agent Mia, go with him and stand guard. I'll arrange for several SHUSH commando teams, both on foot and in the air, to head over to the tower and stand guard around it. Bulba knew the location of the old tower, it might not take much for him to figure out the location of the new one, so I want every security precaution put to use in case he attacks!"

* * *

"So where does Darkwing Dork hang out these days?" Nanite asked, standing over Hammerhead as he worked at the computer again, "Remember, we're counting on you to turn up the information."

"I'm working on it," Hammerhead said in his defense, typing away hurriedly as he tried to ignore the robotic duck standing behind him.

"You know, I heard that his old hideout was attacked and destroyed by somebody." Nanite commented.

"You are correct," Hammerhead said simply. "When the Davidson Gang found out about it, they had us searching for any and all clues about where he might take up residency again. We didn't find much, but we did find out that SHUSH was helping with the project through a few outside contacts of ours."

"So SHUSH probably has the information you'd need." Nanite said.

"Yeah, but it'd be pointless to try and get at it," Hammerhead remarked, "Their security systems are through the roof. It'd take days to hack it all, and we don't have that kind of time."

Nanite thought about the problem for a moment. "What if you had some security access codes that would grant you access?" he asked aloud.

Hammerhead glanced up at him, then across the room to where Agent Sandy sat in her chair. Having heard the discussion, Sandy just gave them a glare.

"Like I'd really tell the likes of you my security passwords for the SHUSH network." she muttered.

"Oh, we have ways of finding out," Nanite said, moving towards her. Hammerhead rose and followed, grinning an evil grin.

"Look, it wouldn't do you much good, I only have limited access to the mainframe anyway." Sandy persisted, watching her captors move towards her. "More than have of the information in the SHUSH network would still be locked out even to me."

"But you would have access to information such as the location of Darkwing's new hideout, wouldn't you?" Nanite asked, stepping behind her and placing his metallic hands on the feline's shoulders.

Sandy was silent for a moment, looking a touch nervous. Finally, she narrowed her eyes.

"Sandingomm Verdauga, third rank agent, number oh-oh-oh-four-five-seven-six-alpha, member of the SHUSH agency." she related without a hitch.

"Ah, the classic name, rank, and serial number routine." Hammerhead noted with an amused grin.

"You underestimate me, Agent Sandingomm." Nanite whispered in Sandy's ear. "I do not intend to _torture _you for the information." he suddenly gripped the side of her neck tightly with one hand, squeezing. Sandy flinched, throwing her head back. "I intend to _get _the information from you."

He then closed his eyes and concentrated. Sandy continued to resist for a moment, but then she suddenly relaxed, her features going slack. A moment later, Nanite opened his eyes again and released her. She was barely conscious, but he didn't care about that.

"Her IDC is 2005200235, and her security code is D4576A," Nanite told Hammerhead plainly, "That should allow you to gain access to the SHUSH network."

"How did you do that, anyway?" Hammerhead asked as they walked back to the computer.

Nanite merely grinned. "Her mind was like an open book to me," he said mysteriously.

* * *

Hooter carried out his word to the letter. Despite the amount of unwanted attention it might draw, he had the Audubon Bay Bridge shut down and blocked off. It was now filled with SHUSH agents and commando teams standing guard. Circling the bridge from overhead where three SHUSH issued helicopters. They were all there under the cover story of a bomb threat on the bridge, though it was a slightly transparent cover story.

Techno wasn't going to complain about it at the moment, however. He got what he wanted, and that was access to the information he was confident could help their present situation. He sat at the supercomputer, sifting through the information that he had gathered on Nanite over the years, very thankful this information hadn't been lost when the old tower had been destroyed. Sitting at one of the eight smaller computers that circled the supercomputer platform was Agent Mia, ever alert as always, acting as Techno's bodyguard in case there was an attack. They were the only ones in the tower at the moment. Everyone else had vacated for safety reasons.

"Have you found anything yet?" Mia asked, sounding a touch bored despite everything.

"Well, nothing spectactularly new that really helps us." Techno admitted. "I'm still working on it, though. And I have managed to deduce a few new things about Nanite that I didn't know before that might prove useful someday."

"Hmm," Mia said, not really interested, "Techno, we don't have all the time in the world, here."

"I know, I'm working on it," Techno said. He looked up at the big screen when it suddenly beeped, having finished an analysis. He skimmed through the new data. "Well, now, this is interesting."

"What's interesting?"

"Nanite's control nanite has a wireless interface built into it. It actually makes sense, though. It'd be easier to communicate with the worker nanites it produces to carry out tasks with a wireless network than through any other means. It would also explain Nanite's lightning fast ability to adapt to any given situation, to take on new adaptations and technology in mere moments."

Mia turned her chair to face Techno full on. "How does this help us?" she asked.

"Well, with some further work and experimentation, I might be able to rig a device that could interface with the control nanite with Nanite and take control of it," Techno said, "Theoretically, if we can take control of the control nanite, we can command it to undo what it's done to Nanite, turn him back to Lewis Jakeway, and then have it deactivate itself. If we do that, we'll never have to worry about Nanite ever again."

"Okay," Mia said, "But can we do this in the short space of time we're allotted to?"

Techno bit his lip. "No," he admitted, "This would take a few weeks if not more to rig. It gives us something to work towards to later, if it comes to that, though."

"So noted."

Techno started skimming through the new information for a few moments. "Okay, this is interesting too," he said suddenly, "We already know that Nanite has a means of...secreting...worker nanites to operate for a limited amount of time outside his body, but it appears he also has a means of injecting small amounts of worker nanites into a given object, assigning them basic tasks to carry out remotely."

Mia sat up in alarm. "So wait, are you implying that Nanite can spread his nanites to other people to infect them and turn them into robots as well?" she asked.

"Well, no, the nanites he could inject aren't that complex, nor would they be that many. Furthermore, another control nanite would be required to be inside the body of whomever or whatever Nanite's injecting them into. And while the nanites would be able to survive longer inside another body than they would outside and exposed to the elements, once they are moved out of range with the wireless network of the control nanite that operates them, they would be deactivated and rendered useless."

"Then why mention it?"

"Because Nanite could do a few things with this little trick that I hadn't ever considered. Like he could inject them into a prisoner of his and use the nanites to probe the minds of his prisoner for information."

Mia paled at the thought of this. "Like Agent Sandy." she realized.

Techno looked up in alarm, having not thought of this. "What information could she give them?" he asked, already putting two with two.

"Enough information to give Nanite and Bulba access to the SHUSH network."

"But that access would be very limited. They couldn't possibly learn too much from that, now could they?"

"They could learn the location of this hideout, however."

Techno's eyes went wide in alarm, and he rose from his chair, heading for the staircase.

"C'mon, we need to warn the others," he said, motioning to Mia to follow him.

But they both stopped halfway down the stairs when they saw it was already too late for that.

Nanite was standing at the bottom of the stairs, calmly looking up at them and grinning.

"Good evening," he said.

"How did you get in here?" Techno asked.

"I walked in." Nanite said with a shrug. "You know me and my ability to change my appearances at will. Your guards out there never noticed they had one too many for a few minutes. Anyway, mind if I join you?"

Mia whipped out her sidearm. "Not if I have anything to say about it." she stated venomously.

Nanite chuckled. "You really think your little peashooter can hurt me?" he asked, "Don't you remember what happened at the supervillain prison?"

"These bullets are diamond tipped," Mia explained flatly.

Nanite blinked, and took a step back, seeing the danger that presented to him. He still seemed confident, though.

"It doesn't matter." he persisted. "In a moment, we'll get what we want."

That was when Techno realized that Nanite was the only intruder.

"Wait, where's Taurus Bulba?" he asked.

* * *

The three helicopters that circled Darkwing Tower were set up on a rather simple arrangement. The first helicopter circled the tower in a tight inner circle. The second circled around in a larger circle than the first. And the third made a larger still circle still, going around the entire bridge and skimming past the skyscrapers that made up the utopian part of St. Canard at regular intervals.

And it was during one of these intervals that Taurus Bulba lunged for it.

Jumping from the top of a building that sat under the helicopter as it flew over, Bulba slammed into it's side with a bone-jarring jolt, knocking the craft off course. Grabbing the side of the craft tightly with both hands and hooking his metallic feet on the chopper's runners, he straightened to his full height, placing his upper body in the road of the helicopter's spinning propeller blades.

The blades merely snapped off when they hit Bulba, however, who did not even flinch at it.

The chopper started to spiral downward, out of control. Bulba twisted with it, then pushed off the third chopper and jumped to the second one that was in the process of passing. Doing something similar with it, shooting his arm cannon into the craft as the agents inside moved to attack him quicker than the agents in the third chopper did, he leapt from it to the first helicopter. His aim was a bit off this time, and he smashed into the chopper's tail.

He was unconcerned about this, however.

His momentum snapping the tail off of the craft, he did a mid-air barrel roll, using the tail as a stabilizer to carry him the remaining distance to his location. Once there, he threw the severed tail aside and landed heavily on the stone brace that connected two of the towers together and helped them hold together.

He created a thump hard enough that it was both felt and heard inside Darkwing Tower. Techno and Mia both turned to look towards the source of the sound. Nanite grinned.

"Ask ye shall receive." he said plainly.

Bulba then smashed through one of the tower's windows and hit the floor with a crash. When he straightened, both Techno and Mia saw instantly that their problems had gotten worse.

The original robotic parts that FOWL had given Bulba eight years back where still the same as always, but they had were now completely void of any damage and looked to be in mint condition now. The rest of Bulba, his biological parts, however, had completely changed, having turned metallic and durable, both of his eyes now glowing red.

Like Nanite.

Bulba raised his arm cannon to point at Techno and Mia's stunned forms, and grinned. "Surprise." he said.

He then fired. Yelping in alarm, both Mia and Techno leapt from the staircase to avoid the shot, and fell to the floor, slamming into it, hard. The shot hit the staircase and blew a hole into it.

"Nanite, go!" Bulba ordered, as he quickly adjusted his aim.

Nanite moved forward and quickly like lightning, racing up the vacated staircase, over the hole in it, and to the supercomputer. Connecting himself to the device, he began copying all of the information on it to a portable hard drive he carried. Meanwhile, after a moment of indecision, Bulba turned his aim to Agent Mia, who had gotten up first and raised her weapon to shoot at Bulba. Her aim was wide, and the bullets either missed or skimmed past Bulba, causing little damage to him.

The reason Bulba didn't shoot before Mia fired was because he had opted to switch weapons. Lowering his arm cannon, he instead raised, in his other hand, the Ramrod Portable, and used it on Mia. Encompassing her in a bubble of energy, Bulba turned and threw her into Techno across the room, who was just getting up himself. They crashed into each other and fell to the floor in a tangled heap.

Nanite, who had already finished copying the data off the supercomputer and was hurrying back down the stairs, gave Bulba a cool look.

"Wow, nice shootin' there Rex," he quipped to his partner in crime.

"Thank you kindly," Bulba replied, bowing, "But now it is time to depart."

Nanite nodded and climbed onto Bulba's back. Bulba extended his jet pack, and took off into the air, smashing through another window and out into the frosty night air. A moment later, the chairs spun, and Darkwing appeared, racing straight to Techno and Mia as they started to pick themselves up.

"The intruder alarms just went off!" Darkwing explained breathlessly, "Where's Bulba and Nanite?"

"They just escaped!" Techno said, pointing at the broken window, "Bulba's flying with his jet pack!"

Darkwing nodded, and raced back to the chairs, sitting in one and thumbing a concealed controls under the table that the figurine that activated the chairs sat upon. Agent Mia quickly stopped him, though.

"Darkwing, wait!" she said, "You should know that Nanite's shared some his nanites with Bulba! He's now completely robotic and very powerful!"

Darkwing winced, but nodded before slapping his hand on the head of the figurine. The chairs spun and whisked him away. But instead of taking him home like it usually would, the chairs this time brought him straight to SHUSH Headquarters by his prompting. Once there, he was met with Launchpad, who was back on his feet, no worse for wear after the fight at the supervillain prison.

"DW!" Launchpad exclaimed, "You're back! Going to plan B?"

"Unfortunately, yes, LP, now let's hurry!" Darkwing said, racing out of the room, Launchpad hot on his heels.

They raced their way through the building, arriving in the room where the Thunderquack II was still being assembled. The jet was mostly built now, but it still wasn't ready for full use yet.

A fact that Agent Todd was determined to state.

He knew exactly why the two were here and moved to intercept them. "Darkwing, you can't do this!" he pressed, "She's not ready yet!"

"I know." Darkwing stated, as he and Launchpad headed to the jet regardless.

"She's barely operational!" Todd pressed.

"I know, Todd."

"She won't stand a chance against the likes of Taurus Bulba!"

"I _know _Agent Todd." Darkwing said as he and Launchpad hopped into the jet and started it's engine. "But we don't have a choice if we intend to catch Bulba. Launch the moment you're ready, LP."

"Roger Wilcox, DW." Launchpad said, closing the canopy hatch.

The control panels switched on, flickered, then went out. Launchpad slapped them with his hand, and they flipped back on again. "Ready as we'll ever be." he announced.

"Take off!" Darkwing ordered.

And, somewhat shakily, the Thunderquack II did just that, flying out a concealed door in the room and out into the night.

"All right, activate the targeting computer and find Bulba." Darkwing ordered.

"Uh, DW, the targeting computer won't be initialized until Tuesday." Launchpad commented.

"All right then, we do it the old fashioned way." Darkwing said, pulling out a pair of binoculars and looking around with them. "Take us higher, LP!"

Launchpad obeyed, but a touch apprehensively. "Are you sure this is such a good idea, DW?" he asked the jet rose in altitude to hover over the city in it's entirety, "There isn't too much we could do to..."

"There!" Darkwing exclaimed suddenly, pointing below them, "There they are! Takes us down Launchpad, and fire when within range!"

Launchpad dropped the jet lower, which was starting to shake and protest under the strain of having to fly such a high altitude anyway. After a moment, Bulba and Nanite came into view, flying along. They didn't seem to be aware just yet they had been spotted. Launchpad fired the Thunderquack's machine guns at the target, but he missed. He fired again, only to miss again.

"Launchpad, hit them, quickly!" Darkwing said, noticing that Bulba and Nanite had seen them and adjust their course to intercept.

"Sorry, DW, but they're too far away, and I can't line up a straight enough a shot on my own, without the targeting computer," Launchpad said, motioning to the controls, "Would you like to try, or..."

"How about you just fire off a missile?" Darkwing asked, "It'll lock on them on it's own."

"Uh, very true, but uh, the missiles won't be installed until Tuesday too."

Darkwing ground his teeth together as he sought a solution to their problem, conscious of the fact that his enemy was flying closer.

"There has to be _something_..." he muttered, scanning the dashboard urgently.

But then it was too late. Bulba fired as he shot past the pursuing jet with his arm cannon, and the shot hit home. The jet rattled, then it's tentatively operating systems all shut off and went dark. The jet glided forward for a moment, and then it's nose dipped downward and it started falling like a rock for the ground.

"Launchpad!" Darkwing yelled urgently as the jet fell.

Launchpad urgently tried to restart the jet, but it wouldn't. He finally gave up and shrugged.

"Deploy the emergency safety parachute!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"Uh, that won't be installed until Tuesday..."

"WHAT'S WITH TUESDAY, HUH?" Darkwing yelled at the top of his lungs in anger. "Just...DO SOMETHING!"

"Righty-o, DW!" Launchpad said, taking the controls and switching the manual.

Pulling hard on the controls, the nose of the jet started to level off, before finally, just before it would've hit the ground, it leveled off fully and began to pull back up again. At the same time, the systems suddenly flickered back on and the jet resumed flying under it's own power.

"Hey, what do you know!" Launchpad exclaimed, grinning.

"Oh good, turn us around and let's chase after Bulba!" Darkwing said.

But just as quickly as the jet's systems had rebooted, they failed again, and the jet started to sink again.

"...or not."

Fortunately, the jet didn't fall far before it crash-landed on the roof of a passing building and ground to a halt. Both Darkwing and Launchpad sat silently there for a moment, before Darkwing threw a frustrated fit in his seat. Launchpad tried to restart the jet once more, but the controls merely spat out angry sparks at him in response. He stared dejectedly at the controls for a moment before turning to Darkwing.

"You know," he began, "I'm starting to think Agent Todd was right, and that the Thunderquack wasn't..."

"Oh, shut up, LP!" Darkwing said. "I would rather _not _be reminded of how pointless that flight was, thank you very much!"

* * *

"I told you she wasn't ready," Agent Todd said in a I-told-you-so manner as the Thunderquack II was carefully pulled back into the shelter of SHUSH HQ while he, Darkwing, Launchpad, and Crimson looked on, "She won't even be ready for some real test flying until Tuesday."

Darkwing, meanwhile, was trying his best to keep his anger in check, making a spectacular grimace as he clenched his fists tightly. "It was worth a shot, okay?" he said, "Maybe it didn't work, but I wasn't about to let Bulba and Nanite go free like that without doing _something _in response!"

"They got away either way." Todd said with a shrug.

"That's exactly the problem." Crimson said.

"Exactly!" Darkwing agreed, "Now they'll come back and attack _here _next time."

He turned to leave, Launchpad following. Agent Todd, looking dejected, turned to help the workers fix the minor damage that had been dealt to the Thunderquack. Crimson hung in limbo for a moment, then trailed after Darkwing and Launchpad out into the hallway. She hadn't gone far when she heard a voice speak behind her.

"Gosalyn!"

Crimson half-turned to look behind her, saw Professor Waddlemeyer hurrying to catch up with her, and shook her head. She continued walking, not waiting to let her grandfather catch up.

"What are you doing here, Grandpa?" she asked flatly.

"No real reason now, admittedly." Waddlemeyer admitted. "Special Agent Rickaby brought me here with the Ramrod Portable."

"So I heard. It got stolen, by the way."

"I know. I thought we were going to leave at that point, but Rickaby is sticking around for some reason he won't tell me, and apparently I can't leave without him." he sighed in frustration. "It seems I can't do anything without The Agency's authorization anymore."

"I won't repeat what I've already said about the matter." Crimson said, staring straight ahead as she walked. "It would sound repetitious."

"I thank you for that. Besides, I completely agree with you, something _I've _already made clear before now."

They were silent for a moment.

"I, uh, heard about what happened a few moments ago." Waddlemeyer continued. "The jet going to be all right?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed." Crimson said. "And before you ask, Techno and Agent Mia are okay as well, but seeing that the location of Darkwing Tower has yet again been compromised, Hooter has ordered everybody stay out of there and the tower be placed into a lockdown in case Nanite and Bulba revisit it. I doubt it, though. They now where to strike next, and that's here, at SHUSH."

"Hence why all the added activity to prepare for it." Waddlemeyer noted as a pair of agents pushed past carrying a weapon of some sort. "What kind of battle are we expecting?"

"If we don't get an advantage soon, a very bad one," Crimson replied, "Now that Taurus Bulba is infected with nanites like Nanite is, he's going to be..."

She trailed off when the cell phone in her pocket went off. Frowning, she pulled it out and flipped open the top.

"You carry your cell phone while in costume?" Waddlemeyer asked, surprised.

"It's not usually on." Crimson said, seeing that she had a new instant message and opened it to read. "I'd rather carry it everywhere than loose it, though. Besides, nobody normally contacts me while I'm in costume anyway, so I have no clue who'd..."

She trailed off as she read the message. It was very brief:

"knw where 2 find bulba, c me at farland drv

-NG"

Waddlemeyer leaned over to try and read the message. "So you sent you a message?"

Crimson quickly closed the cell phone and pocketed it before he could read the message.

"Nobody." she replied quickly, hurrying away. "I, uh, need to be somewhere now."

She left. Waddlemeyer watched her go, frowning, and wondering what she meant by that...

* * *

"Oh yeah," Nanite commented as he transferred the data he had copied from the supercomputer at Darkwing Tower to the smaller computer at the hideout, "Lot's more information here."

"Is there enough information to stage an attack on SHUSH?" Bulba asked, pacing in front of the computer, in-between it and where Agent Sandy sat tied to her chair.

Hammerhead grinned as Nanite brought up all the relevant information on the subject. "I'd say that's a pretty safe bet, boss." he commented. "Come see."

Bulba stepped over to join them at the computer. He saw the complete plans and the layout of SHUSH Headquarters displayed on the screen. He, too, grinned.

"Perfect." he commented, moving away, "It is time I carried through my revenge against Darkwing and his allies. It already has been delayed for too long."

"Ah, you'll live," Nanite said simply as he sorted through the information, "It was smart to wait until now to start the _real _attack, to make sure we had all the information we needed and the strength and power we'd need. Now we can attack and be guaranteed a–hello, what's this?"

He pulled up a certain section of plans to study, and brightened.

"Hey, check this out!" he said, motioning Bulba to come back over.

He did, and glanced at the screen, unimpressed. "So?" he asked.

"So?" Nanite repeated. "This, my robotic friend, is a transdimensional portal generator!" He motioned to the plans displayed on the screen. Agent Sandy heard, and her head jerked upward in alarm. "SHUSH has been hiding it in it's basement for over a year now! It's capable of creating portals that led to any alternate reality you want!"

"It was probably made in response to Negaduck, he's allegedly from an alternate reality." Hammerhead reasoned.

"I could care less about such things." Bulba said turning away. "I will focus my attention on getting my revenge on Darkwing."

"Fine, I'm going to try and get a look at the portal generator." Nanite said, reading as much of the information he could before closing the window and rising from the computer.

"Fine." Bulba said, turning to leave. "Now is the time to attack. Hammerhead, you stay and watch over the prisoner."

"But boss!" Hammerhead wined. "I want to go and see the transdimensional portal generator too!"

Bulba gave him a single glare that got Hammerhead to reconsider. Bowing his head, he nodded, and backed off. Bulba continued forward again, talking to Nanite as they both left. As they went, Bulba handed the Ramrod Portable over to Nanite to use this time. Hammerhead pulled out his sidearm and walked over to where Sandy was tied to her chair.

"Guess it'll just be and you, sweet cheeks." he commented with a sneer.

Sandy rolled her eyes and gave him a glare. "Joy." she muttered.

* * *

Crimson pulled the Avenger up to the curb of the street and parked it, climbing off to look around. She remembered Farland Drive rather well, but it admittedly wasn't for the good memories. The t-shirt factory wasn't any better. In fact, it was worse now, for the factory was closed. It had been closed after the earthquake that had hit in Feburary earlier this past year and never reopened. It had been abandoned ever since. So in a way, Crimson wasn't surprised to find herself here.

Going carefully, Crimson made her way towards the factory's front door, going to open it to enter, but before she could she was suddenly yanked to one side, and into the shadows. Crimson went to yelp in surprise, but a hand clamped itself over her beak to stifle it quickly before releasing again.

"Don't bother, it's locked," a familiar voice said.

Crimson twisted around and saw NegaGosalyn standing there in full costume. She gave her double a glare.

"You startled me there, you should consider yourself lucky that I didn't lash out." she scolded.

"Sorry, but we needed to talk in private, and this is the best we're going to get on such short notice." NegaGosalyn replied.

"So you said you have information concerning Taurus Bulba's location." Crimson said. "How'd you get it?"

"Negaduck." NegaGosalyn replied instantly. "After what Bulba did at our hideout, Negs has been making sure we know where that cyborg is at all times. I just recently figured out where his hideout is at the moment. Unfortunately, because of that attack, the Fearsome Five is in no position to attack him."

"But me and everyone else are." Crimson deduced.

"Even if you weren't, I would have told you anyway, I hope you realize that." NegaGosalyn said. "I'm on your side now, I told you that. But if this is going to work, we both have to be truthful to each other and have reason to trust each other."

"Right, I trust you." Crimson said. "At least enough for this matter. So where is Bulba? He has a SHUSH agent captive as a prisoner."

"He's hiding in an abandoned store on Watterson Avenue." NegaGosalyn said. "But you should be warned. Bulba plans to attack. Very soon."

* * *

Crimson slammed the map of the street down on the table and pointed at the store in question. "Here." she said, pointing with one finger, "That's where we should find Bulba, Nanite, Hammerhead, and hopefully Agent Sandy."

Hooter rubbed at his chin for a few moments. "It is certainly something we can hurry and check out," he admitted, "Unfortunately, seeing that Bulba is likely to come here to attack next, I can't spare very many people to go with, and I would prefer if you, Darkwing, and Techno, at the very least, stay here where an eye can be kept on you at all times."

"I can go." Agent Mia offered, studying the map. "Sandy's my partner after all. I'd only need a party of SHUSH commandos, and I can have Launchpad come and back me up."

Launchpad gulped, but he didn't disagree.

"What I want to know is how did you manage to come by this information, Crimson?" Darkwing asked rather pointedly, seeing the obvious gap in that part of Crimson's story.

Crimson hesitated for a moment, but a cover story didn't take long to come. She pointed at Techno. "Techno figured it out."

Techno blinked, caught off guard by the credit for something he didn't do, and began stuttering as he searched for a response.

"Uh...uh...uh...that's right," he lied, "I, uh, detected some trace energy signatures here that match up with Taurus Bulba. The best theory is that this is Bulba's hideout, but even if it isn't, he's clearly been through the area recently. It would probably be a good place to look for clues."

Crimson gave Techno a wink.

"Good enough a reason for me." Hooter said, "Agent Mia, you have a go. You may leave immediately. Everyone else, I would recommend..."

But he got no further when Agent Grant suddenly hurried into the office.

"Director!" he said urgently, "I just got word! It's Taurus Bulba! He's on his way here!"

* * *

"Ah, SHUSH Headquarters!" Taurus Bulba reminisced as he and Nanite flew towards the building, "You know, I once considered raiding this building back in my mastermind days before Darkwing ruined it all."

"I've done it already," Nanite commented lightly, and shrugged, "Nothing too spectacular about that event, but I did get a few neat toys from it. I had no clue SHUSH had anything like a transdimensional portal generator at the time, though. Certainly wish I did, though. Oh well, no time like the present to catch up."

Bulba swooped in lower to the building. The armed guards that had been stationed on the roof for just a cause saw him and opened fire. As Bulba flew over, he fired at them with his arm cannon, and then blew away the power generator that provided the building with power in a blast of sparks, plunging the building into darkness...

* * *

In Hooter's office, the building shook, and then the lights flickered and went out. The room was dark for a moment as it's occupants started murmuring among themselves, and then the emergency lights flickered on, minimally lighting the building's interior again.

"Bulba's already here." Darkwing noted, drawing his gas gun.

"Director, we need to get you out of here and to the safe room." Agent Grant urged, motioned to Hooter to follow him out of the room.

"No, there are a few things I need to get first." Hooter said, hurrying to his desk to collect them. "Agent Grant, go and direct the fight against Bulba and Nanite and try and keep them at bay."

"But..." Grant began to object.

"Don't worry, I'll stay here and make sure J. Gander stays safe." Darkwing said, walking over to join Hooter.

Grant nodded, and left. Agent Mia grabbed Launchpad's hand and started dragging him out the door.

"Where are _we _going, Mia?" Launchpad asked, as he stumbled after her.

"We're going to go get Sandy while we still have the chance." Mia said. "I just know how to do it, too, so c'mon."

"Crimson, I think I have an idea for a weapon we can use against Nanite." Techno said suddenly to Crimson, "C'mon, follow me, and you can help me!"

Crimson nodded, and followed Techno out of the room.

"The attack's begun, J. Gander." Darkwing noted as he looked out the office window. "Think we can win?"

"We're about to find out, Darkwing." Hooter replied, and he placed a few items into a bag and zipped it up.

* * *

With a crash, both Taurus Bulba and Nanite landed hard on the street in front of the SHUSH building. A large group of agents posted around the outside of the building immediately started attacking, but it all had very little effect on Bulba and Nanite in their robotic forms. Quickly, the two robots began fighting back, forcing the agents to fall back. Windows in the upper levels of the building were opened, and agents started shooting down at them. Bulba quickly took care of them with a few shots from his arm cannon. Slowly, they both began to gain more and more ground.

"Better hurry and get inside so you can see that portal generator Nanite." Bulba remarked. "I will cover you."

Nanite nodded, and pressed his way towards the front doors of the building. Two guards had been posted on either side of the door, and quickly started shooting at Nanite. Their shots not affecting the robot in the slightest, Nanite pulled out the Ramrod Portable and with two shots from it, knocked both guards aside. Then, transforming one arm into a weapon, he blew open the front doors and stepped into the lobby of the SHUSH building virtually unchallenged.

Bulba continued holding back the agents outside long enough for Nanite to get inside. Then, seeing that was done, he looked up the side of the building and pinpointed the location of Hooter's office. Grinning, he raised his arm cannon and fired a very powerful shot up at it...

* * *

"Done." Hooter said, shouldering the bag he had been packing and heading for the door, moving in front of the windows that lined one wall of the office. "C'mon, Darkwing, you better escort me to the..."

He was cut off suddenly when something suddenly slammed into the wall just underneath the windows of the office and exploded. The explosion blew through all of the glass windows, the blast slamming into Hooter, who at the last moment threw his arms up to protect himself, and knocked him backwards and into the far wall. Darkwing was more out of the way of the blast and was knocked over and sprayed with glass, but he was quickly back up again.

"J. Gander!" he exclaimed in alarm, and started to move towards Hooter's limp form where it lay.

But then the wall with the windows exploded again, this time completely tearing the wall open, and Taurus Bulba flew in, his jet pack active, red eyes glowing in glee.

"My revenge begins now!" he declared.

* * *

A manhole cover on Watterson Avenue lifted up a touch, and a pair of eyes peeked out and around out at the surrounding street for a moment.

"All clear!" he announced.

Pushing the manhole cover aside, a SHUSH commando team numbering to a total of five, Agent Mia, and Launchpad, all clambered out of the hole. Launchpad looked around at the quiet street wistfully.

"Wow, good idea to use Elementary Underground to go around the battle at SHUSH to get here," he commented to Mia, who had pulled out her weapon and had taken up a defensive position to double check the area was indeed clear.

"Thank you, Launchpad," Mia replied, nodding her to the others and leading the way to the abandoned store.

"Still, I feel bad that we left everyone back there to fight on their own," Launchpad went on as he followed Mia and the group of commandos, "We should help them."

"We _didn't _leave them to fight on their own, Launchpad," Mia corrected as she stopped at the corner of the building and cautiously peering around to the back of the store to make sure it was clear, "Director Hooter gave us a direct order to go and retrieve Agent Sandy, and he never did recant it. Besides, this is a highly opportune time to do this, with both Nanite and Bulba being away from their hideout. Once we've rescued Sandy, we'll head right back and help out in anyway possible."

They entered the store through it's back door. The five commandos spread out and looked the relatively empty interior around for any sign of their target. Finally, one of the five a trapdoor that led into the basement of the store. Opening the door as slowly and carefully as he could so to make any noise, he peered down at the set of stairs beyond it.

"Agent Mia!" he called, drawing everyone's attention, "Over here!"

Mia took one look at the trapdoor and nodded. "This is it," she said, pulling out a second sidearm and handing it to Launchpad, "You've fired a gun before, right?"

Launchpad looked at the pistol he had been handed rather leerily. "No, not really," he admitted, "Not unless DW's gas gun counts."

"Close enough, let's go." Mia said, motioning everyone through the trapdoor and down the stairs beyond.

They wandered down the stairs a short distance until it suddenly opened up into a small cellar-like room, immediately clear that it had been hastily refit to serve as a hideout recently. The most readily apparent features of the room besides some possible leftovers from the building's days as a store was a computer on a table, another table with some minor scientific equipment on it, and in the middle of the room was a chair. Agent Sandy was tied to said chair, with Hammerhead standing behind her, his back turned to the stairs leading into the room.

Agent Sandy's eyes went wide when she saw Mia and the others come into the view, and seemed genuinely surprised to see them here.

"Mia!" she exclaimed without thinking.

Hammerhead spun around suddenly, sidearm in hand, and fired the moment he saw the intruders. Mia and the commandos quickly all ducked down and sought shelter and quickly began returning fire. Launchpad just followed Mia and ducked down where he felt it was safe from enemy fire.

Hammerhead at first sought shelter from multiple objects before he hid behind the computer for several moments. When the weapons fire from the intruders took out the computer in a fury of sparks, he ducked and hurried over to hide behind Agent Sandy and her chair, knowing that his attackers would be more hesitant to fire with one of their own being in the line of fire. He was right, Mia and the commandos, particularly Mia, suddenly became much more careful about shooting at Hammerhead.

But the firefight continued onward, regardless.

* * *

The SHUSH building trembled again as the attack hit some vital portion of it. Techno ignored it as he moved past the panicked scientists and determined agents that filled the hallways and into a specific lab, currently empty in the wake of the attack. With Crimson trailing after him, he walked up to a table where a spear-like item lay. Picking it up, he held it up for Crimson to see.

"Diamond plated spear," he remarked simply, "We can use it on Nanite. It'll be much more effective against him than small shock darts and diamond-plated bullets."

Crimson took the shiny spear for a moment and looked it over. "More effective, yes, but how the heck are we going to lob _this _huge thing at Nanite?" she asked, skeptical.

Techno hesitated for a moment. "Look, we'll figure it out on the way," he stated, "Right now, we should go and track down Nanite and see if we can even attack him where he is."

They both exited the lab and back out into the busy hallway, pushing their way through the swarms of people that were hurrying through.

"Gosalyn!" a voice suddenly shouted out from the sea of people, and Professor Waddlemeyer emerged into view ahead of them, a distraught Dr. Bellum trailing along beside him, "There you are, I've been looking for you!"

"Grandpa, not now!" Crimson said, hurrying forward still with Techno, "We're trying to help fight, here! What are you even doing here, anyway? Get to some shelter!"

"I tried, but I got cut off," Waddlemeyer admitted, following the two teens, "Then I met up with Dr. Bellum and learned just how desperate the situation is here."

"Nanite's in the building!" Dr. Bellum exclaimed, "He's heading down towards the portal generator! _My _portal generator!"

Techno suddenly stopped short and turned to face Bellum, spear still in hand. "He is?" he asked hopefully.

Waddlemeyer regarded the spear in Techno's hands for a moment. "What's this, some kind of specialized weapon for Nanite?" he asked.

"You could say that, yes." Crimson confirmed.

"I think I have an idea, then." Waddlemeyer said, taking the spear. "But we'd need to hurry and get down to the portal generator before Nanite does."

"I know a shortcut!" Bellum exclaimed, turning to head the other way, "Everyone follow me!"

* * *

Darkwing had his gas gun out in a flash and fired several shock darts at Bulba. Many of them hit their target, but it didn't seem to affect Bulba's hulking form as much as it would've for Nanite, and he just shrugged it off. Turning, he raised his arm cannon to fire at Darkwing. Darkwing yelped, and hurried to move out of the way.

Bulba fired twice, and both shots just barely missed its target. One shot hit Hooter's desk, blowing half of it away, while another shot hit the bookcase that perpetually sat behind said desk. Even though the shots missed their target, Darkwing, who was hurrying past both of these items, they hit close enough that the sheer blasts of them slammed into Darkwing from multiple angles. Disoriented, Darkwing stumbled as debris rained down on him, and he fell and did not immediately get back up.

Bulba adjusted his aim to end the matter once and for all, but then he heard Hooter moan from beside him as he slowly regained consciousness. Grinning, Bulba moved to point his weapons at Hooter instead of Darkwing. Hooter regained conscious just in time to see the situation and quickly lunge out of the line of fire. The shot intended for him instead hit the wall behind him, blasting a large hole into it, leading into the hallway that led adjacent to the room.

Enraged, Bulba turned to follow his target, firing both his arm cannon and the lasers mounted on his head at Hooter. But despite being injured, Hooter proved to be too quick, managing to successfully dodge all of Bulba's shots. Bulba was distracted yet again when Darkwing finally got back on his feet and fired another volley of shock darts at Bulba's exposed back. Bulba let out an yell, and twisted around to vent his anger on Darkwing for awhile, firing three more times with his arm cannon. Darkwing dodged the shots, but tripped on some debris in the process of dodging the third shot and crashed to the floor. Bulba then fired with the lasers mounted on his head, his aim wide at first, but was quickly being corrected as Bulba quickly moved the red-hot laser beams towards where Darkwing lay. Darkwing looked up in time to see the lasers coming his way and had enough time to register that he couldn't possibly get out the way in time.

But then, the floor unexpectedly gave way, collapsing itself into the room below Hooter's office, a kind of storeroom, taking its three occupants with it. Bulba's laser shots went wild in the process and ended up completely missing his target in the fall. When Bulba hit the floor of the next room down, he hit it hard, with a large amount of debris burying on top of him. Darkwing, too, hit the floor hard, and was momentarily stunned.

Picking himself up and out of the debris after a few moments, he looked around the dust-filled room momentarily. Bulba was plainly seen in the middle of the room, having left a bit of a crater when he landed. Hooter was gone from sight, no doubt buried with debris. Darkwing resisted the urge to go and find him and dig him out, as he knew he would still have to deal with Bulba, and even that was more important. He did take care to note that by being buried with debris, Hooter was sheltered from immediate attack, so at least he had that much.

Without warning, Bulba suddenly picked himself up at that moment, red eyes cutting intangible beams of light through the swirling dust, and with a very angry look, turned to face Darkwing. Darkwing weakly raised his gas gun in response, not really feeling up to a fight anymore, but knowing he had no choice. Bulba laughed im mockery at the feeble attempt.

"I've waited a long time for this, Darkwing." he said menacingly as he advanced towards his long-time enemy...

* * *

Hammerhead was still proving to be too quick to be stopped, as he continued to evade fire from Agent Mia and the five SHUSH commandos as he used the nervous form of Agent Sandy and the chair she was tied to as a shield and continued dealing out return fire. He hadn't hit anybody yet, but it seemed he had a near endless supply of ammunition with him, for he kept firing. Unlike his attackers, which were rapidly running out.

While ducking down long enough to reload her sidearm, Mia noticed Launchpad was still hiding behind the box they were using as cover with her, having not fired a single shot from the pistol she had given him yet. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

"Launchpad!" she said urgently, drawing his attention, "When I count to three, I need you to break cover and start shooting at Hammerhead, got it?"

"What?" Launchpad exclaimed in response, "But I..."

"One..."

"Mia, I can't..."

"Two..."

"But I really don't think..."

"Three!"

Launchpad obediently jumped up, pointed the pistol in Hammerhead's general direction, and after a spilt second of hesitation, started shooting the semi-automatic pistol until it clicked, not having any more ammunition to fire. All of his shots went wide of his target, but Hammerhead, who had also broken cover to fire at a SHUSH commando, was caught off guard by the sudden onslaught of bullets, and shielded himself as he quickly pinpointed the source of the weapons fire a few moments too late.

Once Launchpad had stopped shooting, who hadn't quite realized yet that his gun was empty and couldn't be fired again, for he was still trying to pull the trigger, Mia broke cover as well, and quickly took aim. She fired one shot. It hit home, slamming into the shoulder of Hammerhead's shooting arm. Hammerhead let out a yell, reflexively throwing his sidearm into the air and out of reach as he toppled down to the floor and clamped a hand to his wound. The commandos quickly jumped up and surrounded Hammerhead, pointing their weapons at the fallen goat in case he attacked, but Hammerhead seemed more interested in dealing with his injury than his attackers now.

Mia quickly jumped up and hurried over to Agent Sandy, untying her and helping her to her feet.

"You all right, Sandy?" she asked urgently.

"Yes, I'm fine, I'll be all right." Sandy replied, shooing Mia away. "Thanks, though, for coming to rescue me."

Mia grinned, then turned to Launchpad, who still stood where he was, looking a little lost now. "Nice shooting, Launchpad," she commented.

Launchpad blinked. "You didn't really expect me to hit anything, did you?" he asked.

Mia shook her head. "Nope, just to distract Hammerhead long enough for me to shoot him," she replied.

Launchpad looked dejected at this for a moment, but then he forced a grin. "Well, I suppose that _is _one of the many jobs of a sidekick," he stated, to Mia and Sandy's amusement.

* * *

Nanite was having a blast as he headed deeper and deeper down SHUSH Headquarters on his way to sub-level five. He met a great deal of resistence once inside the building, but this didn't matter. Most of the weapons and attacks used against him were completely ineffective on the likes of him, and the few that were, he easily blocked and quickly took care of.

Very soon, he was racing down the stairs that led to his destination, at a great advantage for both his speed and the narrowness of the stairway. If he met any resistence along the way, he could easily brush past it and continued onward, leaving whomever or whatever it was behind him. By this point, Nanite knew he was being pursued, but he also knew he could easily outrun them all, so this, like so many other things, didn't worry him at all.

Finally, he arrived at the hallway in question. He found only two guards standing there guarding the door that led into sub-level five, and found that so pitiful that for amount after he reached the bottom of the stairs and the guards first saw him, he just stood them and let them shoot at him. Their bullets merely bounced off his armor, not even leaving a scratch. Finally, they ran out of ammo, and then just stood there, unsure how to react now.

Nanite laughed at them. "You two are _so _stupid!" he remarked, and pulled out the Ramrod Portable.

He fired it at one guard, slamming him hard into the wall beside him, knocking him out, then used the weapon to knock the other guard further down the hallway, where he'd be out of the way for Nanite. Nanite then addressed the door that separated him from the portal generator. He noticed that it operated on a very complex security system and locking mechanism, and decided he couldn't be bothered to work it all out. Transforming one arm into a gun, he blew away most of the controls to the lock out of spite, and then used the weapon to blast the door clear off it's hinges. Grinning, he raced right into the massive room on the other side.

And promptly skidded to a halt, grin fading, and he realized what stood before him.

Hurriedly slapped together in front of the walkway leading up to the location where a portal would open was the generator active was a giant, but simple, crossbow, with the diamond plated spear laying armed on top of it. Pulling back the band of elastic that was serving as the bow's string was Bellum, Waddlemeyer, Crimson, and Techno. They reacted the moment Nanite came into view.

"Now!" Crimson exclaimed as Nanite skidded to a halt.

They released the crossbow's "string", launching the spear into the air and shooting it speedily towards Nanite. Nanite attempted to react to this by beginning to raise the Ramrod Portable again while at the same time backing up for the door to duck out of the way, but this time not even Nanite was fast enough to escape. The spear first hit the Ramrod, slicing it's barrel in half, then drove itself into Nanite's middle, knocking him backwards back through the door he had blasted open and into the opposite wall of the hallway. The spear had continued onward through Nanite's middle and embedded itself into the wall, skewering Nanite to it.

Dropping the now useless Ramrod Portable to the floor, Nanite gasped and grabbed weakly at the spear that had injured him to try and yank it out, writhing around in agony in the process. His red eyes flickered, then suddenly went dark, and Nanite went completely slack.

A moment of silence fell, then Bellum let out a cheer and embraced the surprised Waddlemeyer into a celebratory hug. Techno stepped around the makeshift crossbow and approached Nanite's body, Crimson trailing after him.

"Is he...dead?" Crimson asked hesitantly

Techno scanned him briefly with his visor. "Well, I'll be," he muttered in amazement, "No, he isn't dead. The spear missed his control nanite by a few inches, and that's apparently enough to keep him alive. He's taken enough damage, however, that he's powered down for repairs. Repairs that are going to take quite awhile. Plenty of time to take him back to jail where he belongs."

"Presuming that Bulba doesn't do something to mess things up, first." Crimson remarked.

* * *

Darkwing raised his gas gun quickly to try and shoot, but Bulba was faster. Slapping the gas gun so that it no longer pointed at him (although Darkwing still had it in his hand), he grabbed Darkwing by the throat and raised the gagging duck into the air.

"This time, Darkwing, there shall be no mixups." Bulba said menacingly. "No half-finished jobs. No more delay. This time, I shall see to it that you _DIE!_"

And with that, he threw Darkwing through the only door leading into the room, the door crumbling under the impact. Darkwing then hit the wall of the hallway outside and slid down it to floor as Bulba again advanced towards him. Weakly, he raised his gas gun to try and fire again, but Bulba dealt him an uppercut punch to the chin, with enough force to send Darkwing down the fall, flipping once through the air before he crashed again to the floor. This time his gas gun tumbled out of his hands and clattered to the floor just beside him. Darkwing reached for it, but Bulba, always the step quicker, kicked the gun aside and out a nearby row of windows. It flipped through the air for a moment outside before it dropped down to the ground four stories below.

Bulba then reached down to grab Darkwing, probably to do something similar to him. Half-conscious, Darkwing looked around for a means to escape, when he spied a shock dart still loosely stuck in Bulba's shoulder. Quickly, he lashed out, grabbed it, and drove it deeper into the robot's shoulder. Bulba let out a roar of displeasure, swinging Darkwing about as he failed his arms about suddenly, then stumbled and crashed into the row of windows, which naturally did little to support Bulba's massive weight.

They shattered, and Bulba tumbled out into the air, falling down one side of the building, dragging Darkwing along with him. He flipped in the air once, then, going to throw Darkwing away, jammed one of his arms into the wall of the building rushing past him, trying to slow his fall. The wall simply broke and shattered under the strain, and while it did slow Bulba's fall somewhat, he continued to drop down towards the ground. Meanwhile, Darkwing quickly latched himself onto Bulba's neck to avoid being hurled away, and fell with Bulba as the robot used his other arm to help the first as he dragged them against the wall moving past him as he fell, gorging long marks into it.

As they neared the bottom floor, Darkwing saw that Bulba was going to drag his arms against another row of windows, and braced himself as an idea came to mind. As the windows flew past, shattering as Bulba's arms smashed into them, Darkwing vaulted himself off Bulba and through the broken windows, crashing to safety into the hallway on the other side. Bulba fell one more floor before he crashed in a heap on a pile of boxes and trash. Darkwing looked down at him, and was semi-relieved to see that Bulba wasn't moving.

He thought too soon, though, for without warning, a grappling hook and rope sprang upward at Darkwing and wrapped itself around the hero. With a yank, the rope jerked hm back out the set of broken windows and down towards where Bulba lay on the ground, getting ready to hit Darkwing as the recoiling rope he had launched was reeled in. He too, however, was somewhat dazed, and his punch ended up getting swung a second too late and missed Darkwing. Darkwing instead slammed into Bulba's metal body.

He didn't stay there for long, however, and quickly jumped up and started running away from Bulba, unaware of the rope still wrapped around him until his mad run was stopped short as the rope pulled itself taunt and jerked him to a halt. Darkwing quickly twisted around and started to try and pull the rope free while Bulba, an evil glint in his eye, stood up and started reeling Darkwing in by hand.

The gunshot came without warning, and snapped the rope in two. Darkwing was caught off guard when the rope he was tugging against suddenly went slack. He stumbled backwards a few feet and then toppled over onto his back. Bulba whirled around and saw Agent Grant and two accompanying SHUSH commandos appear on the scene, weapons drawn. Upon seeing them he let out a mad yell and stomped towards them.

"Why must people keep interrupting me?!" Bulba demanded, knocking aside the two commandos like flies and then backhanding Grant, knocking the agent backwards onto his back. "Must I really work so hard to get some _peace_?!"

Then Darkwing suddenly spied his gas gun lying not far from him, and upon grabbing it, switched it to a very specific attachment.

"Taurus Bulba!" he shouted, turning to face Bulba.

Bulba turned his attention away from Grant and back to Darkwing, fuming. Darkwing raised his gas gun to point at him.

"It's time you went away." he said flatly.

And then he fired the Teryx teleporter attachment.

The white bolt of energy whizzed towards Bulba, who was too surprised to react. Upon hitting him, the energy rapidly started to spread over him at an alarming rate. Perhaps sensing that something very wrong was happening, Bulba tried to twist away from the energy, lashing out with one arm, reaching out for anything that could perhaps save him. Then, there was a bright flash of light and Bulba was suddenly gone. Vanished.

Whisked away to the Teryx sub-universe.

Silence suddenly fell. Darkwing lowered the gas gun with a sigh and gingerly lowered himself into a sitting position.

"I really wish I didn't have to do that." he muttered.

Agent Grant slowly picked himself, having watched the event in awe. "What _did _you do?" he asked, favoring a bleeding lip.

"I sent Bulba away where he won't bother us ever again." Darkwing replied simply.

* * *

"...so Nanite's been put back in jail, Hammerhead's being treated in the hospital, then he'll go to jail as well, repairs have begun, and nobody was life-threateningly injured," Agent Mia recapped a couple days later as she, Agent Sandy, Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno walked down the hallway of SHUSH HQ to the infirmary, "I have to say, this all ended better than I was expecting."

"Unless you're Taurus Bulba," Crimson said, with a shudder, "I can't imagine what it must have been like to end up where he did."

"Well, if its of any comfort, he probably didn't live long," Techno stated, "Even with him being entirely robotic now."

"Besides, we just weren't stopping him," Launchpad said with a shrug, "DW had to do _something_."

"Speaking of Darkwing..." Crimson said with a grin as they walked into the infirmary.

Darkwing, who was lying in a cot, reading a book, looked up upon hearing his name. He grinned when he saw he had visitors. Lying in the cot next to him was Hooter, who was also sitting up and doing some minor paperwork. He glanced up as the visitors entered, and grinned as well.

"Hey guys!" Darkwing greeted cheerfully.

"Hey dad, director." Crimson said, nodding to both people as they gathered around the two beds, "How are you doing?"

"Oh, still mending." Darkwing replied, taking care to show off his bandages, "The docs say we'll both only be here for a couple more days, though."

"A good thing, too," Hooter added, favoring his injured parts as well, "I'm terribly behind on my work. Agent Grant has said that Vice President Norrin has been trying to contact me ever since the battle with Bulba and Nanite was over. No doubt I'm going to hear some very choice words about this whole matter when I'm out of here. There are going to be a great many things he'll be getting enraged at."

"Like the fact that Bulba completely destroyed your office," Darkwing pointed out flatly.

"It'll be repaired," Hooter said dismissively, "It was due for a remodel anyway. There are many other things we need to be focusing on."

"Speaking of which, I just heard that some our scientists figured out how Bulba managed to come back from the, uh, "dead"." Mia said.

"Yes, I read the report," Hooter said.

"Well, I haven't," Crimson said, "How did Bulba do it?"

"It was simple matter, actually," Sandy replied. "The chamber we found him in actually _did _keep him alive in stasis, it just did it in such a way that we didn't detect it at all at first. Anyway, the device was rigged that when it was moved, it would deactivate and revive it's occupant. So when our teams from SHUSH started transporting him to that complex..."

"...we were unwittingly reawakening a very old and deadly enemy." Techno said.

Sandy nodded. "After that, Bulba just bided his time, waiting for his chance to strike," she concluded.

"And strike he did." Launchpad noted.

"If we had just left him where he was, none of this would've happened." Crimson.

"Forget about it, Crimson, it's in the past now," Hooter assured her, "Besides, there was no way we could've known. Not even The Agency suspected this might have happened."

"Speaking of The Agency, what are they doing to help?" Darkwing asked, thumbing through his book.

"They aren't," Hooter replied, "After it was all over, Special Agent Rickaby took Professor Waddlemeyer, what remained of the Ramrod Portable, and just left. I haven't heard back from them since." he paused, then added, "I did, by the way, inquire to them as to who or what these 'Teryx' you mentioned are, Darkwing, but they have yet to reply. I don't suppose you could just _tell _me."

Darkwing shook his head, grinning slightly. "No, I think that's something The Agency should have the privilege of telling you, if you really want to know." he said.

"Oh well, all that really matters is that we're all alive and well, and that everything is back to normal," Hooter said with a shrug.

"Or at least as normal as things get around here." Darkwing commented snidely.

"Very true, Darkwing." Hooter replied with a chuckle, as a ripple of laughter moved through the room. "Very true."

* * *

_Fun Facts: Okay, here are the fun facts for this chapter and the past two. Starting with "Truth Be Told":_

_In this chapter, I reveal the full names of several characters as an example of how much The Agency knows. For the first time, we find out that DW has a middle name. This stems from a theory I found on the web as to why Launchpad can call DW, "DW", whether or not he's in costume or not and get away with it. It had been suggested that the reason nobody suspected anything about that nickname is that they all believed that the "W" stood for some unknown middle name that Drake had. I decided to support that theory and came up with just such a middle name. Seeing that DW never mentioned it before, it needed to be an embarrassing middle name. Wilberforce was the first that came to mind, and it just stuck. _

_We also find out Agent Sandy's last name, which is Verdauga, and comes from the same book her full first name (Sandingomm) comes from, the book "Mossflower"._

_Herbert Muddlefoot Jr. actually is canonically Honker's full name. I've gone and confirmed it. This is actually a bit of an interesting revelation for me, as it means he's named after his father, Herb. He probably inherited the nickname "Honker" to avoid confusion._

_The idea of bringing back Pro. Waddlemeyer from the dead is one of the very many ideas I had when I first started "The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck", and the idea has changed little since I first concieved of it. Originally, I wanted to try have Bulba stay out of it entirely, but later decided it would make things go smoother if he did turn up, and also give me the chance to have a popular villain comeback. Also in the original idea, it was going to be SHUSH itself that had taken Waddlemeyer into protective custody for so long (although Hooter knew nothing of it) but upon coming up with the idea of The Agency in chapt. 10, "Origin", I liked the idea of having an organziation around that was more secret than SHUSH and opted to have them responsible for Waddlemeyer's faked death._

_The pickle jar that Gos breaks when arguing with her grandfather occurred simply because I was craving pickles at the moment when writing the scene. I am quite fond of pickles, by the way. :)_

_Of the several scenes that appear in "Truth Be Told", the one where Waddlemeyer looks over the many pictures in Drake's bedroom is one of my favorites. A little background on all of those pictures: the first one that was given to Drake by Cal and Lance is a blown up version of the picture Lance was planning to use with Cal's article as described in chpt. 59 "A Visionary Marten". It was given to Drake as thanks for his help in that chapter. The next picture, the painting of Gosalyn, we've seen before. Drake was working on it in chpt. 13, "Mr. McDuck". It is interesting that Drake decided to hang it upon finishing it, for he thought to himself while painting it that he wasn't entirely happy with it. The brown haired female duck that appears in the third picture is Christine. The fourth, fifth, and sixth picture are self-explanitory. A seventh is alluded to, but not described. I imagine it pictured Morgana._

_There was going to be a scene in this chapter in which NegaGos suddenly showed up on the Mallard's doorstep, announced she had switched sides, and needed the gang's help to quickly stop some plan of Negaduck's, but ran out of space to include it, and opted to just stick with the talking theme I had used for the rest of the chapter anyway. No real loss anyway, as all of that stuff with NegaGos I was able to fit into the next chapter._

_I hadn't really considered Drake being afraid that Gos would leave him to be with her grandfather until I was writing it. In the end, I liked having the idea, as it revealed that Drake was hit just as hard and made the ending that much more bittersweet._

_Fun facts for "Interlude":_

_The title for this chapter was originally "Vengeance", but as the chapter turned out to be more slow-paced and more interlude-ish, I naturally decided to dub it "Interlude"._

_"Whiffle Boy: Unleashed" is named after the game "Sonic: Unleashed". No real reason why I did that other than to give the game's title a little resemblance to a real game title._

_We also see the new Darkwing Tower for the first time, and in all of it's new, restored, goodness. Actually, it was quite hard for me to come up with ideas to improve upon the original design of the tower, but I managed._

_We also see the new Ratcatcher and the band new Avenger motorbikes for the first time. The Ratcatcher is mostly the same, but as we'll see in later chapters, it has a few new tricks up it's sleeve. The Avenger came about because I was getting annoyed that whenever I had the Thunderquack grounded, it was hard to squeeze everybody into one motorbike. The Avenger will hopefully resolve that issue._

_I also further show in this chapter that The Agency aren't as cracked up as they first seem. The idea is eventually make them seem like guys that are both allies and enemies, if I haven't done so already._

_I really did plan to get Bulba and the gang all back together again, including Clovis, Hoof, and Mouth. But I quickly saw that as these three characters were always more minor characters, I feared they would just be getting in the way and wouldn't play a large role on the chapter no matter what beyond some comic relief. Therefore, as Hammerhead I knew would actually be of assistance to Bulba, I stuck with just him. I also gave Hammerhead some background with the Davidson Gang, wanting to mention these guys again, and because they seemed like the kind of guys Hammerhead would associate himself with._

_NegaGos switched sides as part of a little story arc for the next few chapters that I have planned. Not saying much more it than that at the moment._

_This is also the first time we see the Negaquack in action for the first time. We'll see it yet again soon. ;)_

_Fun Facts for "Vengeance":_

_This chapter was originally going to be titled "Solutions" but when the chapter before it had a title change, I went with "Vengeance" instead. It was more fitting anyway._

_Nanite's new mind-reading capability and Techno's techno-jabber explaining how it worked will be mentioned again in a future chapter, where this ability will play a major role in that chapter._

_This is the first time we see the Thunderquack II in action, although it was kind of pointless. Clearly, she's not ready yet, but she will be soon. And then we'll REALLY get to see her in action. ;)_

_The fact that some of the most vital parts to the Thunderquack II wouldn't be installed until Tuesday is a pun stolen from "Star Trek: Generations," in which the Enterprise-B faced similar problems. :p_

_The t-shirt factory on Farland Drive that Crimson visits to meet with NegaGos at is the same factory that appeared in chpt. 4, "Broken Hearts". I would assume NegaGos selected this as the location to meet at as both she and Crimson knew it well already._

_As Techno promised he would in the chapter before, he takes credit for the information that NegaGos provided so that Darkwing and the others could continue to remain unknowing that NegaGos has switched sides._

_Since I first introduced the Teryx teleporter attachment that Darkwing and the gang got from Trellis in chpt. 42, "The Wanderer", I've been looking for a chance for somebody to use it to get rid of a villain. I had made several plans in the past to do just that, but they always seemed to fall through for one reason or another. Finally, I decided to use it on Bulba, as that seemed like an adequate way to get rid of him. Practical, too, for Bulba seemed to be more powerful than Nanite by that point, and was quite possibly undefeatable through any other means._

_And so begins a new season of "The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck". In the next thirteen chapters, we'll see more story arcs, more darker-themed chapters, the return of old villains and the introduction of some new ones, more with time-travel, more with other alternate realities, and much, much, more. So, in short, the fun is really just beginning. ;)  
_


	63. Future Predictions

Summary: When a lab accident freezes Darkwing solid, he wakes up again, he finds that some serious time has passed...

Rating: T

Author's Note: As the summary would suggest, a fun little time travel-like adventure. Darkwing is the predominate character, but Crimson and Launchpad do make a brief appearance. Fun facts at the end...y'know, all of the usual jazz. :)

63.

Future Predictions

"Stupid politics," Darkwing muttered as he paced back and forth in the lab, "Stupid insecure bosses, and, of course, stupid project!"

He kicked at a box as he paced by it in frustration, and let out a yell that echoed around the mostly dark room, vacant of anybody besides him.

"Why me?" he asked himself as he continued pacing, "Why do _I _get stuck with the menial guard work instead of some lowly SHUSH agent, hmm?"

Almost immediately, he had the answer, as the memory came back to his mind all too quickly.

"'Because, Darkwing, this is a very important project, and therefore, it needs to be guarded by a very important person,'" Darkwing said aloud in a mocking tone, quoting the phrase exactly as Vice President Norrin had said it earlier that same day, "Ha, yeah, right. Like Norrin's ever cared about what I did before. To him, I'm only a nuisance; not at all anybody important. I'm only stuck here for two reasons. One, because Norrin hates me, and isn't at all secretive about it, obviously. And second, because I just happened to be conveniently available for this. He did it right at the start of the new year, too. I hope this won't start a trend." he kicked at the box again as he walked past it. "What irks me is the fact that J. Gander decided to go along with this."

And he did. After the video conference with Norrin, Hooter backed up what the vice president said, and requested Darkwing fulfill the request. He said it would only be polite, and it would allow things to go smoother. Besides, he, too, thought the project was important, and therefore couldn't be guarded by just anybody. Hooter said it himself that Darkwing was the best of the best, and it therefore made sense that he be asked to stand guard over it. The project was _that _important.

But to Darkwing, it wasn't. Sitting on the far side of the lab was the device itself, a massive thing that filled up that whole side, and was currently the room's only source of light. It was composed of some machinery that sat mostly at the device's bottom, but stretching up from there, almost to the roof were to large cylinders made from some kind of foggy-colored synthetic material that blocked out the cold that were currently glowing a faint blue color, something to do with the processes of the machine.

The machine's purpose: to synthetically produce some kind of super coolant, the chemical's exact scientific name alluding Darkwing at the moment, that was supposedly colder than liquid nitrogen. It wasn't any kind of spectacular feat. Hooter had even stated it had already been done before with a similar device, although in smaller amounts. So the only _important _thing about the machine was the fact that it was jointly assembled. SHUSH built one half (and thus proudly sported the SHUSH logo), while The Agency built the other half (and thus remained unmarked, to maintain the extreme secrecy of The Agency). Today the two halves were put together, and now the machine was spending the night producing the mysterious coolant as part of some kind of final test of the device's capabilities.

It was downright boring.

But, because it was oh-so-important that it be kept safe from any harm, like it would get any this deep within SHUSH headquarters, someone had to guard it. And not just anybody. It had been agreed Darkwing should be the one to spend his night guarding the device while it did its thing. Not Crimson, not Techno, not Launchpad. Just him. So now he was going to be stuck here from ten at night to four in the morning guarding this thing while SHUSH was closed for the night.

"If I don't _die _of boredom before this night is over, I'm going to hang somebody for this," Darkwing muttered as he continued pacing, "And while I'm stuck here, Crimson and the others are out on patrol, doing exactly what _I'd _want to be doing! But nooo! I have to stay here and guard a stupid coolant maker! Argh! I would rather be back at the tower playing solitaire on the supercomputer like I was doing before I ended up here, than to stand here all night and guard this..."

His rantings were cut short when a loud beeping noise began to be emitted from a nearby computer that was monitoring the machine's progress. A red light was flashing on its screen. Darkwing turned to look at it, puzzled. Then, another noise rang out from a different portion in the room. Turning again, Darkwing saw with alarm that a metallic blast door was closing over the lab's one and only door, the only thing in the whole room that led in or out.

Alarmed now, Darkwing ran over to the door, just before it closed, and tried to pry it back open again, but the mechanism it operated upon was stronger than he was, and it closed anyway. Darkwing pounded on the door for a moment, then looked around the room urgently for some way to open it again. He noticed a crowbar lying on the desk next to the computer that he faintly remembered was used to open the crates The Agency's half of the machine arrived in, and hurried over to grab it.

As he did so, he glanced for the first time at the computer and read what it said before continuing on. Then he froze and quickly backed up to do a double take. Flashing it's background with a red color, a single error message in a box was on the screen.

"Storage unit failure eminent. Safety hazard detected.

Immediate evac protocols engaged.

Security lock-down of affected areas now complete."

"What?!" Darkwing exclaimed, as he started to quite roughly begin typing commands into the computer to try and override it, "You announce an evacuation, but you lock me in here before I can _do _that? You stupid computer! C'mon, there must be some way to override you!"

But apparently, there wasn't, for every time Darkwing pressed a key on the computer, it merely made a binging noise. The screen refused to change in any shape or form. And, more importantly, the metal door that was sealing Darkwing in never moved. Darkwing kept pounding away at the computer anyway, now more out of pure frustration, until he heard a pop and a low hiss. He whirled around in time to see the machine rattle slightly, the blue light illuminating the two cylinders flickering. A crack had appeared on one of them.

With a yell, Darkwing took the crowbar and ran back to the sealed door, trying to wedge the bar into the narrow space where the door slipped into its alcove in the wall. The space proved to be too narrow for the crowbar. Yelling in frustration, Darkwing then instead started beating at the unmoving door with the crowbar, as if he could beat down the door. It did no good, he was still tightly sealed into the room.

Another pop and a hiss rang out, merging with the first one, and a very audible cracking sound quickly followed. Darkwing froze, then slowly turned around to face the machine. The cylinder that had cracked had cracked even more, and the other one was beginning to crack as well. A heavier-than-air mist was seeping down from around the bottom edges of both cylinders. Another crack rang out, and the cracks spread rapidly across both cylinders. Finally, the more cracked cylinder finally shattered, quickly followed by another, spilling a clear liquid that steamed like liquid nitrogen and quickly began to flood the lab.

Darkwing dropped the crowbar and pressed himself against the sealed door, squeezing his eyes shut in the process as the liquid surged towards him. The last thing he remembered was feeling a wash of an impossibly cold chill washing over his body, numbing it almost instantly, before consciousness left his body completely...

* * *

The next thing Darkwing remembered was feeling the chill, much weaker in comparison now, slowly begin to return, slowly followed by slight sensation returning to his appendages. He felt weak, like the energy had been completely sapped out of him, and his eyelids felt heavy, like he had been sleeping for years. His beak suddenly popped open and he automatically drew in a ragged breath.

More sensations slowly started to follow, including a damp sensation covering his whole body. His costume felt drenched and soggy. A dank smell assailed his nostrils, but that was the least of Darkwing's concerns. He tried to move, but didn't have the energy. Finally, he got his eyelids to unseal and he managed to force the heavy lids open. His eyes didn't want to focus, but he looked blurrily around anyway. He seemed to be in some kind of metallic room, void of any furniture or anything, and with the exception of some kind of metal door that sat to one side, the room was completely seamless.

A humming sound was audible, but it quickly faded away. The temperature in the room rose to more comfortable levels, so much so a cloud of steam started to form. More feeling returned to Darkwing's body, and he found he could weakly wave his arms and legs about. He tried to sit up, but still didn't have enough energy to do that. Then, without warning, the sliding door popped open and slid aside, letting in a cold draft that made Darkwing flinch and weakly try to curl into a ball. Several figures entered the room, all of them dressed in white save one, who wore navy blue, carrying what looked dimly like a small mattress or cot with them. It was hard to tell, Darkwing's vision was still a little fuzzy.

The white figures then suddenly bent down and picked him up, their hands feeling very warm to Darkwing. They lifted him up loosely and then placed him on the cot-thing that certainly felt like a bed. His hat fell from his brow in the process and hit the floor with a soggy slap. Darkwing barely noticed. Blankets were brought in and wrapped around Darkwing to keep him warm, which was very grateful for. An oxygen mask was also pressed over his beak, but again, Darkwing hardly noticed.

The cot thing was then pulled out of the room by all of the white figures, totaling about five by Darkwing's count. They started to quickly pull cot down the hallway that was outside. Darkwing didn't recognize any of his surroundings, what little of it he could see clearly, but for the moment, he didn't let it bother him. The figure in the navy blue was hurrying to keep up with the cot as well, looking down at Darkwing. His head appeared to be upside down to Darkwing. After a moment of blankly looking up at him, he realized the figure was speaking.

"Darkwing...can you hear me?" he was saying.

Darkwing couldn't find his voice in his condition, and couldn't have spoken with the oxygen mask over his face anyway, so he just nodded as best as his present condition would allow.

"Can you remember where you were at last?" the navy blue figure asked, "SHUSH Headquarters in Lab 4F?"

Darkwing had to think about it for a moment, but then finally nodded again.

"Can you remember anything between now and then?"

This time Darkwing shook his head. The navy blue figure didn't look surprised.

"Darkwing, this isn't going to be easy to explain, but you were accidently frozen in a lab accident at SHUSH. You've remained as such between now and then."

Darkwing nodded to indicate that he understood and waited for the figure to continue. He didn't need to wait long.

"You should also know that a great deal of time has passed during that time. In fact, the date is no longer January 4th, 2004, as you no doubt remember, but August 25th, 2314. Approximately three hundred and ten years since the time you were frozen in the accident."

* * *

Darkwing didn't remember anything else until he awoke on a cot in a small, white, room an unknown amount of time later. Feeling completely restored to his usual self again and full of energy, he promptly sat up and whisked the covers off of him. He shuddered involuntarily at the sudden chill that produced, but ignored it, standing up. The first thing he noticed was that he had been changed out of his costume into a sea green medical smock and pants. He still wore a mask, but upon looking into a mirror that sat directly across the room from the bed, he saw it wasn't his mask but a makeshift replacement. He wasn't going to complain to it, though.

He looked around the room for anything else to note, but there really wasn't much. On one end of the room was another sliding door with a little square window embedded in it. On the other end was an average sized computer screen, displaying the word "ready". Darkwing fiddled with it for a moment, but he couldn't figure out how to get it to work, and eventually gave up. He then tried to door, but couldn't find anyway to operate it either, much less open it.

He looked around the room again, wondering what he should do now. "H-hello?" he asked hesitantly, "Hello? Is anybody there?"

He got no response, but not long after he said this, the door beeped, and slid open to reveal the figure in the navy blue outfit. Now that he was perfectly healthy again, Darkwing got his first real good look at him. The blue outfit seemed to be some kind of uniform, although Darkwing didn't recognize it at all. The figure was a male duck with short brown hair. He looked vaguely familiar, but not familiar enough for Darkwing to pinpoint it. For a long moment, they both stood there looking at each other.

"Um, hello." Darkwing greeted, extending a hand for the other duck to shake.

He accepted it warmly. "Hello, Darkwing." he said. "I hope you don't mind, but we took your clothing to be pressed and cleaned. Its been through a lot. However, I'm sure you've noticed we have given you a mask to wear in the meantime, however."

"Yeah, I noticed, thanks for thinking of my secret identity." Darkwing said, feeling the mask that went over his eyes.

"You're welcome." the figure said. "It's not really necessary, though, both you and your superhero alias are well known here."

"They are?"

"Yes. But we'll get to that shortly. I'm General Cameron Christofferson."

"Christofferson..." Darkwing repeated, "I know that name."

"You should," the general said, "One of my ancestors was a Matthew Christofferson, who served in the St. Canard Police Department in your century."

"That's right, I'm in the future now..." Darkwing repeated to himself distractedly. He blinked as he realized what he just said. "The future! Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, how did this happen again?"

"As I said when you were revived, you were accidently frozen in a lab accident," Cameron explained, "You were then kept frozen for the time, with the hopes that someday in the future you could be thawed and revived. The amount of time that was going to pass between now and then, however, was greatly underestimated, and it was only until recently that such a means was created. You stayed frozen until just such a time."

Darkwing sat and thought that through for a few moments. "So...how long did I stay frozen?" he asked.

"About three hundred and ten years."

Darkwing whistled in amazement. "So that would make the year...?"

"2314."

"Making the current century..."

"...the twenty-fourth century."

"Dang it, another forty years, and I could say I was in the twenty-fourth and a _half_ century." Darkwing grinned at the thought, but it quickly faded as he realized the enormity of his situation. He sighed. "Times have changed, haven't they, general?"

"That's putting it bluntly." Cameron replied, "But yes, times have very much changed since the times you remember."

"And everyone I ever knew in my century is..."

"...long dead, I'm afraid, yes. I took the liberty of trying to track down some information about them for you, but...three hundred years is a very long time, and I didn't have much time to search. I wasn't able to find much. In fact..." he pulled out a small case from behind his back and handed it to Darkwing, "...that's pretty much everything I could find for the time being."

Darkwing accepted the case and opened it, peering inside. Cameron hadn't been lying, there wasn't much, mostly just a handful of unrevealing papers and a couple of odds and ends. Among them was a gold locket and chain, which Darkwing pulled out to examine further.

"I was told that belonged to your adopted daughter, Gosalyn, in the later years of her life." Cameron said. "I don't know what's in it, however, because it's locked, and the only key that could unlock it has long since been lost. The lock is designed in such a way that it can't be picked or forced open, either."

Darkwing didn't seem so terribly concerned about this, however, as he cradled the unopenable locket in his hand.

"Gosalyn," he muttered to himself, looking depressed, "I'm never going to see her again, am I?"

"Well, I wouldn't think that just yet," Cameron said, smiling. "We might just have a way to get you back."

Darkwing perked up immediately at this news. "Really?" he asked, "How?"

"It may have taken us three hundred years to develop a means to unfreeze and revive someone, but it certainly didn't take us that long to develop a means of time travel. In fact, I believe the science was already being experimented with in your century, in case you were unaware."

"But I _was _aware," Darkwing said, then shook his head, "So wait, you're saying you can just send me back with a time machine?"

"Yes, but there is a catch. We've know enough about time travel now that we understand that while as great it is, it has far too much potential of being abused. In fact, it _has _been abused several times in the past, very nearly creating some very dire results. As such, time travel of all sorts is illegal in this century. No time machines exist anymore."

"Then why tell me this at all?"

"Because I've been pulling a few strings, and I've managed to get you clearance to temporarily overlook the rules and build a time machine long enough to send you back to the century you belong. We just have to build the time machine now, which will be no easy process, having to manually create or obtain all of the necessary parts ourselves. Not to mention all of the annoying paperwork that'll be required to be filled out."

"Oh I'll bet." Darkwing said with a grimace. "So what organization is behind all of that, anyway? I bet it's The Agency, isn't it?"

"Actually, Darkwing, The Agency was disbanded sometime after you were frozen."

"Really?"

"Yes, about two hundred years ago. Same with SHUSH. We simply didn't need such organizations anymore."

"What on earth for?"

"Earth joining the Galactic Federation changed a lot of things, Darkwing."

Darkwing paused for a moment. "Wait, the Galactic Federation, I've heard of those guys. They were around in my century."

"Yes, but they were much smaller back then, being composed of only about two scores of worlds in one galaxy. Now, the Galactic Federation is composed of most of the worlds in this galaxy, and most from two more galaxies, with a third likely to begin joining here soon."

"Wow. So I bet you guys do a lot with space travel and the such these days."

"Very much so. In fact, that's part of the reason why I'm here." Cameron turned and opened the door leading out of the little room. "Follow me, and I'll show you what I mean."

* * *

Now fully dressed and back in costume, Darkwing followed Cameron into another room in the lengthy facility they were in. This room was much bigger, having two doorways that led inside of it on either side. Inside were a handful of people of varying species within the room, all similarly dressed to Cameron. Darkwing noticed that one of the people in the room was an alien, but he wasn't too surprised by this, knowing what he did about this future already.

A long control panel sat in the middle of the room with a couple of people sitting at it, then the rest of the room was covered with screens of all sorts and sizes, displaying a wide variety of information. So much so that Darkwing was struggling to take it all in even in portions and not all at once.

Cameron clearly didn't have this problem, however, stepping into the room completely calm, and ready to continue his conversation with Darkwing. "You see, Darkwing," he said, "By being a part of the Galactic Federation now, we have contacts with people all over the galaxy. A lot of them we trade with, to gain goods that we normally couldn't get very easily on our own world. So it was the same with our time machine problem."

"You see, Darkwing, we anticipated your revival sometime before it actually occurred today, and got right to work to start sorting out the things that would need to be done. Among them is the time machine. We got started working on it right away. It's currently halfway finished, actively being worked on further as we speak. But, we hit a little snag."

Cameron leaned over the control panel in the middle of the room, and tapped a few controls. One of the screens changed to depict a spaceship of some sort. Cameron motioned to it with one hand.

"A very vital part to the time machine, called the temporal stabilizer, was being imported to here from another planet on the other side of the galaxy on this ship." Cameron explained. "On its way back here, the ship was attacked and boarded by a group of space pirates, and among the good they stole was the part we need to finish the time machine. We can't order a new one, so we instead need to somehow retrieve the one that was stolen."

"This is where I come in, isn't it?" Darkwing asked.

"Yes, I figured that since this time machine is dependant upon your fate, you wouldn't mind if you helped it come about." Cameron said, "Besides, your expertise may just prove to be useful to us."

"How so?"

"The space pirates are a well known band of pirates known as the Corallians, and they inhabit one of the star systems not under Federation control, here." Cameron pressed a button on the control panel, and the star system in question appeared on the screen. One planet in particular was marked out with a red box. "Their home planet is the third planet from the system's star, a barren little desert planet kind of like Mars, but with a naturally breathable atmosphere. They are led by a person called Negis."

The picture now changed to show a duck standing what appeared to be a walltop with the backdrop of the night sky behind him. He wore a menacing look and wore a golden-colored outfit that seemed to be both expensive and important-looking, fitting for a leader of this guy's caliber. He reminded Darkwing a little bit of Negaduck, but with a few subtle differences. That wasn't what caught his attention about the guy, however.

"He's a duck." he noted to Cameron.

"Yes, he's Pinnatellian."

"Pinnatellian?"

"Yes, the survivors of the late planet Pinnatel eventually relocated to a another habitable planet to colonize. They now have a sprawling civilization there on that planet, which they call Ekardia."

"Huh."

"Anyway, all captured goods Negis's followers obtain are taken before him for inspection. He takes what he finds the most interesting to keep for himself, then let's everyone take the rest. We have reason to doubt that Negis _didn't_ take the temporal stabilizer for himself, so it's a pretty safe presumption it's with him."

"Okay, so what's the plan to get it?" Darkwing asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"We send some people over there and take it back by force." Cameron replied simply.

"Okay, so how am I going to get over there?"

"By ship. And you aren't going to be going there alone, Darkwing."

* * *

Which was how Darkwing found himself standing among a large group of people and aliens all working to try and board the right transport shuttle that would take them to the right ship. Carrying a simple duffle bag and knowing what ship he was bound for, but very much lost, Darkwing wandered about aimlessly, trying to get directions to the shuttle he needed to be at.

"Excuse me, can you direct me to the shuttle heading for a starship by the name of _Exodus_?" Darkwing asked politely to a passing group of aliens.

The aliens did not respond and simply walked right on past, but they would not be the first ones. Everyone was ignoring Darkwing for one reason another, but Darkwing didn't give up. He was going to keep on trying to get the directions he needed until he either got them, or missed the shuttle. Preferably the former over the latter.

"Excuse me, could you direct me to..." Darkwing continued, drawing to draw the attention of other passerbys unsuccessfully, "Hi, maybe you could help me...I'm looking for shuttle BC-304? Bound for the _Exodus_? Hello? Anybody? Can _anybody _tell me which of these confounded shuttles is heading for the _Exodus_? Hey, I need help here, so could somebody _please_–OOF!"

Crashing into one of the passerbys, Darkwing toppled to the ground, and groaned as he got up again.

"Oh, I'm sorry sir, I didn't see you there!" the youth Darkwing had bumped into said as he helped him up again. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Darkwing muttered, dusting his costume off. "At least my cape didn't get wrinkled."

The youth looked Darkwing and his flamboyant costume (which didn't stand out as much in this crowd as one would think) over while Darkwing looked the youth over.

"You know, you look familiar, kid." Darkwing noted, rubbing his beak with his free hand.

"So do you." the youth said, looking back at Darkwing. "Are you Darkwing Duck?"

"Uh, yeah! How did you know that?" Darkwing asked, surprised.

"I read the mission briefing on you." the youth said, setting down his own duffle bag to hold out his hand for shaking, "We happen to be bound for the same starship. I'm Cadet Herbert Muddlefoot the Fourth."

Darkwing took the offered hand and shook it, all the while giving the cadet an odd look. "Herbert Muddlefoot the _Fourth_, huh?" he repeated.

"That's right." Herbert replied with a grin. "This'll be my first official mission in the Galactic Military."

"Mine too, but I don't think that matters all that much for me." Darkwing said.

"Yes, I heard about that." Herbert said. He looked around conspiratorially, then leaned closer. "Were you _really _frozen for three hundred and ten _years_?"

"So they tell me." Darkwing said, picking back up his duffle bag. "Anyway, do _you _know how one gets to this ship, the _Exodus_?"

"Sure, just follow me." Herbert said, leading the way through the mass of people that was moving through the giant outdoor launching center they were at. "This is the way to our shuttle."

He led the way to a long line of shuttles, waiting for it's passengers to finish boarding. Finally they arrived at the shuttle Darkwing had been looking for which had a significantly fewer people climbing aboard than all of the others.

"Here it is!" Darkwing exclaimed in relief as he and Herbert climbed aboard. "About time I found this darn shuttle!"

"A good thing too, because it's going to be taking off soon." Herbert said, glancing at his watch as he sought out a seat. "I wouldn't want to miss this for anything, though. The _Exodus _is a brand new ship, by the way! This'll be it's first official mission, too!"

"Good for it." Darkwing said, as he sat in the seat next to Herbert. He shook his head, though, grinning. "Herbert Muddlefoot the _Fourth_?" he repeated once again in near disbelief.

"Yes, but everyone calls me Herb." the cadet replied, clearly not understanding why Darkwing was so fascinated by his name.

"Not Honker?"

"What kind of nickname is Honker?"

"You got me, kid, but I just thought I'd ask." he looked around, feeling a touch antsy to begin. "So when does this shuttle leave again?"

Right after he asked this, the door to the shuttle closed with a hiss. A light appeared in the cabin that said to fasten your seatbelts. Herb promptly did so, then motioned to Darkwing to do the same. With a low hum, the shuttle's engines could be heard engaging, and the craft started to lift into the air, rising above the launching center. Darkwing looked out the window to watch the ground fall away, then looked around again at the mostly empty cabin.

"Who's flying this thing anyway?" Darkwing asked, looking towards the front of the craft and not seeing anybody.

"It's automated," Herb said, who was busy looking out the window. "Look, we've nearly reached orbit."

Surprised, Darkwing turned to look back out the window and saw that Herb was right. The surface of the planet below had already fallen away to form whole continents that from here looked small enough for Darkwing to hold. Meanwhile, on the horizon, the sky had changed from the trademark blue to the inky blackness of space, riddled with stars. Space had gotten a heck of a lot busier in the past three hundred years, filled with space whizzing back and forth over the planet. Darkwing watched with mild fascination as these ships hurried back and forth.

"Wow." Herb suddenly commented, his eyes focused on something else.

Darkwing followed his gaze, and had to agree on that sentiment.

"The _Exodus, _I presume." Darkwing commented.

The ship sat in the middle of a large wireframe docking bay of sorts that floated out in space, going through the final preparations for launch, and it looked very beauty, a fact that was made more and more clear the closer the shuttle came to the ship. It's body looked something like the rocket ships Darkwing used to watch on TV when he was a kid, with a kind of curving, bullet-like shape with a pointed nose. Two little fins protruded from just under the nose, the fins themselves tipped with small cannons. Further down the length of the _Exodus's _body where two large wings, similar in shape to the little fins, only much larger, and curved forward slightly. They, too, were armed with cannons of some sort, but on the rear side on each of these cannons was a small thruster probably used for maneuvering.

As the shuttle flew up to pass along side the _Exodus_, Darkwing and Herb got a chance to get an even better look at the ship than before.

"Look, there's the command module!" Herb said, pointing at a large hump that rose out of the top of the ship, towards the back, about three or so more decks than the rest. A tail fin of sorts that was probably there more for cosmetic effects than nothing else protruded from this section as well. "That's where the bridge is! It'd be the topmost deck. Man, I'd love to get a chance to step in there."

"Maybe you will." Darkwing said being optimistic.

"_You _might, but a lowly cadet like me probably won't for this mission." Herb sighed, "Oh well, I'm sure just being on the ship will be good enough."

The shuttle moved to the back of the ship where a platform-like structure jutted out from overtop the two main engines of the ship. The shuttle headed for this, and slipped through the pair of large hanger doors that were open just past it, settling to land on the floor of the hanger bay within with a gentle thump. The hanger bay doors slid closed behind the shuttle, and the room repressurized. The moment it was done, the door leading off the shuttle popped open with a hiss, and the occupants within climbed out.

Waiting for them outside the shuttle was a twosome of officers, which greeted the new arrivals from the shuttle. Everyone including Darkwig saluted them, although Darkwing was a touch slow, and only did it to follow the example of the others.

"Welcome to the _Exodus _one and all." one of the officers said, looking to be the highest ranking officer present. "Before we continue any further, however, there is one matter I need to address. Is Darkwing Duck present?"

Darkwing waved his hand in the air. "That would be me, sir!" he exclaimed.

"Very good, Mr. Darkwing, I need you to please follow Colonel Nicholson." the officer said, gesturing to one of the other officer, an otter, who stepped over to join Darkwing.

"C'mon mate, ye're scheduled t' meet with th' cap'n." the colonel said cheerfully, motioning Darkwing to follow him out of the room.

"The captain?" Darkwing repeated, surprised.

"The rest of you will please follow me to the crew quarters, where you will be assigned rooms," the first officer said, motioning to Herb and the others to also follow him out the door.

They went together as far as the door leading into the hallway beyond, and then the two parties went different ways. Herb and the other new recruits went down one direction in the hallway, while Darkwing and Colonel Nicholson went another direction on their own.

"Um, bye Herb!" Darkwing called quickly, twisting around to wave at his new friend.

"Bye Darkwing!" The cadet called back, "Maybe we'll see each other again a little later!"

"Aye, mayhaps ye will." Nicholson said, nudging Darkwing forward. "But later. I'm under orders t' take ye t' the cap'n."

"Why does the captain want to see me?" Darkwing asked as they walked down the hall and to what appeared to be an elevator.

"Didn't say, but seein' this mission we're about t' do 'as everythin' t' do with ye, I'd think that has somethin' t' do with it." Nicholson replied as the elevator doors opened and they stepped into the cab.

The ride was surprisingly short. Darkwing suspected that there had been several technological advancements made to things such as elevators in the past three hundred years. When the door opened, it opened straight into an office like room that stretched forward for several feet and then stopped, ending with a large window that looked out into the space, down the length of the _Exodus_. Darkwing saw that he was in one of the three levels that made up the command module that Herb had pointed out when the shuttle was flying into the ship. Standing just behind a desk was a tall duck, mostly cast in a shadow, as he looked out the window.

Nicholson led Darkwing out the elevator, the doors closing behind them, and stepping a few feet into the room. He then cleared his throat.

"Cap'n, I brought Darkwing up 'ere like ye requested." the otter announced loudly.

"Thank you colonel." the captain said calmly with a deep voice, turning to face him and Darkwing, giving Darkwing a good look at him.

He was an elderly duck, with greying hair and feathers, but despite his age, he looked very athletic and perfectly capable of doing his job. He also seemed very wise, but the stern look he was giving Darkwing made Darkwing wonder.

"Darkwing," the captain greeted finally, "I am Captain Leonard Dodger. Welcome aboard the _Exodus_."

"Thank you, sir." Darkwing replied, nodding. "Glad to be aboard."

"You should consider yourself lucky," Dodger went on. "I was against letting you come aboard when this mission was assigned to my crew and I, regardless of how involved you are in this matter."

"What?" Darkwing repeated, looking a little put out. "But General Christofferson..."

"The general was being polite when he invited you to join in this mission, but I fear you will be of little use, Darkwing." Dodger interrupted, but then his expression softened slightly. "Please don't take this the wrong way, however. Your name is very well known in this day and age. Your exploits are recorded in several books across the globe, and what you did for the planet is much appreciated. But Darkwing, that was more than three hundred years ago. Times have changed. You are terribly out of touch with today's culture and how things are _now _done. Furthermore, I do not believe you have ever faced a situation such as this before."

"Well...no...not..._exactly _like this..." Darkwing admitted, "But still, seeing that the only reason you've even got this mission is because of me, I think it's only fair that I _try _and help."

"Which I am willing to permit now that you're onboard." Dodger explained. "We'll be leaving shortly for the Corallian system by Jumpgate here soon, so you should know what I plan on doing. The _Exodus _will sneak into Corallian space and to their home planet, hopefully without being detected, and then two teams will be transported down to the surface. One will infiltrate Negis's palace and retrieve the temporal stabilizer, while the other team stands guard outside. I wish you to be on the guarding team."

Again, Darkwing looked slightly put out by this, but he didn't let it show for long.

"Understood, Captain Dodger." he said, saluting.

Dodger grinned. "Thank you for understanding, Darkwing." he said politely, "Colonel Nicholson, could you please take him to the prep. room to prepare for the mission? I believe the others will be there being debriefed by now."

"Aye-aye, cap'n." Nicholson said, stepping up to led Darkwing away again, "C'mon mate, t'ain't hard t' get to."

Dodger watched them leave, then turned back to look out the window in silence.

* * *

True to his word, the _Exodus _left about a half-hour later, soaring out of its docking bay and turned away from Earth and flew out towards deep space, accelerating to full thruster speed to the edge of the solar system. Out here, orbiting the entire star system, was a massive sized Jumpgate, large enough for the _Exodus _to fly through, which it, of course, did, jumping through hyperspace from the Sol system to the Corallian system in a matter of seconds.

Exiting via a similar Jumpgate floating on the edge of the star system the Corallian pirates occupied, the _Exodus _face little resistence as it discreetly and carefully made it's way towards the third planet so to not to be detected. Upon exiting the Jumpgate, the _Exodus _had gone into alert status, and had its crew standing by. This including the two landing parties that were going down to the planet's surface.

Darkwing stared out the viewport as they neared the planet, looking thoroughly depressed.

"I can't believe I'm going to be stuck on guard duty for this," he muttered, "I might as well still be back at SHUSH in my own century."

"At least there is the chance that we might be attacked while doing said guarding," Herb noted, who had, by chance, been assigned to the second away team that was to stand guard for the length of the mission.

Darkwing held up the weapon they all had been given for the mission, examining it. "Yeah, at least I get a laser gun." he admitted.

"Actually, it's a neurological disruptor weapon." Herb corrected.

"Which means?"

"It's a stun gun."

"Ah."

Darkwing holstered the weapon, and continued looking out the viewport. "Oh well, at least once this is over, I'll be going back home where I can get back to my proper life." he said.

He sat down and pulled out the locket and chain Christofferson had given him and fingered with it. Herb watched him curiously.

"You miss it, don't you?" he asked.

"Terribly." Darkwing replied.

"You don't show it."

"Well, I can take comfort in that much, then." Darkwing tossed the locket into the air deftly and caught it again. "Probably just my superhero training kicking in. But even it's having a heck of a time handling it. Things have...changed so much that..." he trailed off. "I've been thinking about the discussion I had with Captain Dodger. Maybe he's right, and I am in way over my head for this."

"I don't think so." Herb said. "I once did a report about your century for school, and you were a very predominate feature in it. I could tell then that you could handle just about anything, and I think that even more now that I've actually met you. I think the captain is overreacting and just playing it safe. If we could only prove that to him..."

"Forget it, it's not worth the effort." Darkwing said, pocketing the locket again with a sigh. "I don't intend to stick around in this century for much longer, as great as it is."

The _Exodus _suddenly shuddered as she slowed.

"We're here." someone in the group gathered for transport announced, and everybody stood up and gathered together.

"Attention crew," the voice of Captain Dodger was broadcasted over the intercom system, "We have arrived at Corallian III. Please remain alert for any trouble. Away teams, stand by for transport."

A moment later, a flash of light engulfed the team of guards-to-be, and when it faded, they were standing on the planet's surface. Darkwing pulled out his stun gun, and surveyed the land. As General Christofferson had described to Darkwing, the planet was very desert-like, alternating between rocky and sandy, but was overall dry. The area was virtually empty, save for a large and impressive fortress-like structure that Darkwing presumed was Negis's palace, and a smattering of much smaller buildings surrounding it. From afar, Darkwing could already see the other away team heading for the palace to begin the infiltration.

"Area secure!" Herb reported loudly. His reply was echoed by several other similar ones from the rest of the group.

"Take point, and await further orders." the leader of the group proclaimed.

"I guess we just wait for the other team to do their thing, then." Darkwing muttered, watching the group make their way to the palace.

They didn't stay there for long, however. The palace turned out to be guarded by simple patrols, and the first team had to take their time to avoid them or quietly subdue them, delaying their actual entrance into the palace. Seeing that they couldn't stay in one spot forever and wait for them, the team of guards eventually agree to break up into pairs and start doing circular patrols around the area themselves, to make sure no one slipped past without their noticing and caught the first team unawares. Darkwing was placed with Herb, and together, they started patrolling the area, wandering away from the other pairs from their team so that it was just them They hadn't been at it long when they received the sudden transmission.

"Away team one, to away team two, there's a shield in place around the palace, we're presuming the generator is located somewhere in your area, could you please remedy the issue?" the radio earpieces Darkwing and Herb had crackled suddenly.

Herb paused and pulled out a scanner, scanning the area. "There." he said, pointing at a small nearby building. "That's the building that contains the shield generator." he turned back to his radio. "Away team one, we acknowledge, and are en route. Please stand by. Team two leader, we are moving to remedy the situation."

"Acknowledged, good luck, but don't try anything fancy." the team leader radioed back.

Darkwing looked at the building for a long moment. "Think it's guarded?" he asked.

"It might be." Herb admitted. "It's hard to know with these space pirates."

"Then I know just what to do to play it safe."

"Like what?"

"A little twenty-first century trick that I know of."

* * *

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the supply of Illudium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom, that has run out! I am Darkwiiing Duck, in the twenty fourth and not-quite-one-half century!"

Darkwing stepped out of the purple cloud of smoke he had created with his gas gun and into the one-room building, only to find that it was completely empty save for the shield generator itself. Darkwing narrowed his eyes in disappointment.

"Dang it, that's probably the only time I'm ever going to get to use that catch phrase." he muttered, letting his arms fall to his sides.

"Impressive theatrics, though." Herb noted as he poked his head into the room, saw it was clear, and stepped inside. "Actually, I guess it makes some sense. The pirates have reason to suspect that they're about to be attacked."

"Ah well, let's just get this over with." Darkwing said, moving to the control panel that controlled the shield generator and scanning the controls. "Let's see, where's the off button? Maybe this one?"

He pressed it, but the metal radioactive shielding in the center of the core pulled aside inside, revealing the pretty, but deadly, radioactive blue center of the generator. Darkwing quickly pressed the button again to close it. He then pressed a different button, but that merely activated a complicated power transfer procedure.

"Maybe I should do it." Herb offered, stepping up to the console.

Darkwing put his hands into the air and took a willing step back. "Be my guest." he said.

With a few press of a buttons, Herb had the generator shut down. He grinned, and switched on his radio to relay the good news.

"Away team two to away team one, we have completed objective and the shield is down." he announced proudly. "You are clear to proceed."

He waited for a few moments for a reply, but none came. He frowned.

"Why aren't they responding?" Darkwing asked, worry beginning to sink into his gut.

"I'm sure they have a perfectly liable reason." Herb said. "Maybe the radiation in the room is blocking our transmissions, or maybe they're just out of..."

A sudden flash of light whisked the two away to a much larger room lit with red lights. Two scruffy looking alien pirates of vary species stood guarding the only way in and out the room, and they were well armed with more than one weapon. Darkwing gulped, and pulled out his stun gun, although he knew it was going to do him little good. Herb seemed to shocked to react, though.

"...range." He finally finished his last statement, then frowned. "Wait a minute. It was all a _trap_?"

"Of course it was a trap, and you two unwittingly sprung it, among other things."

Darkwing and Herb froze, then turned around to face the voice. Standing behind them against the back wall of the room was a tall podium with a set of stairs that led up to it. But of more importance was who sat in the throne in the center of the podium, looking down at his captives. Darkwing recognized him instantly from the picture he had seen of him.

"Now, you and the rest of your away team are my captives." Negis said in a pleased voice, one that reminded Darkwing greatly of Negaduck. "And the Galactic Federation will pay a pretty penny for your lives too...if they ever get to find out about it."

* * *

In high orbit above the planet, the _Exodus _circled it lazily, looking harmless and calm. But within the ship, a panic was beginning to arise.

"Still no contact with the away teams, sir, I don't know what happened." the communications officer on the bridge said.

"How much longer until they're next scheduled check-in?" Dodger asked, his chair in the center of the room turned to face the officer.

"Another hour sir, according to standard procedures." the officer replied.

Dodger frowned. "That's too long." he said, turning to face the front of the bridge and looking out the viewport that sat there, looking out it for a long moment before making a decision. "All right, something went wrong, time to revise the plan. Begin a scan of the planet, look for our missing crewmembers. But be careful to not let the Corallians notice."

"Already done sir." the science officer across the room said. "According to the sweep, they're all in the palace. I think they may have been captured."

"Th' question is how an' why." Nicholson said, standing beside Dodger, ill at ease.

"'Why' is simple." Dodger said. "Negis thinks he can get something out of them." he shook his head. "Dang it, I should've known this would've happened." he sighed. "We're going to have to blow our cover and improvise from there." he turned to the science officer again. "Lock onto the away teams and beam them back aboard, and then..."

"Sir, weapons fire, coming our way!" one officer suddenly exclaimed.

Dodger spun around. "What?" he managed to say.

Then something struck the ship, and it jerked violently. The lights flickered, and something sparked and exploded in the room. Alarms started to blare noisily across the ship. Everyone on the ship started talking at once as they reacted to the sudden attack.

"Direct hit, hull breech on decks ten, eleven, and twelve, we are venting atmosphere!"

"Intermittent systems failure on those decks! Sending repair crews!"

"Medical teams on their way to affected areas, casualties still unknown!"

"Three pirate ships bearin' in on our position cap'n, and are firin' now!"

Another impact rocked the ship, jostling the crew once again.

"Return fire!" Dodger exclaimed urgently, then turned to the science officer. "I need shields, but they'll interfere with the teleporters, so quickly, beam the away teams back, now!"

"Teleporters were disabled in the first hit, sir!" the science officer said. "ETA two hours at present conditions until they come back online!"

That settled the matter for Dodger. "Raise shields!" he ordered, just in time for another impact to hit. He continued talking with the science officer regardless. "Did you manage to beam anybody on board?"

"I didn't get the _chance _to, sir!" the science officer said. "We're going to have to think of a different way to get them, if we can at all!"

"Cap'n, two more ships closin' in!" Nicholson reported urgently, leaning over the weapons console, helping the officer there.

"Work on a solution as best as you can!" Dodger said to the science officer and then turned around to take charge of the situation. "Bring us about, pilot, bring weapons to bear on those ships, and fire! Maintain our position until told otherwise!"

* * *

As they were taken to their cell at gunpoint, Darkwing reasoned that maybe they could hope for rescue from the rest of the two away teams. But that hope was dashed when the door to their cell opened to reveal the rest of the two away teams already captured and inside. Darkwing and Herb were roughly shoved inside, and then the cell door was slammed shut behind them.

Darkwing grumpily dusted off his jacket. "That Negis certainly doesn't waste any time to act." he noted.

"He's like that." one of the captured members of the first away team said dejectedly. "Negis is well known in being a very skill tactician. He probably knew we were coming whole hours in advance."

"He would've had to, in order to rig so effective a trap." the member's cohort remarked. "Think he knows the _Exodus _is in orbit?"

"We tried to radio the ship for help when we were about to be captured." the team leader of the second away team remarked. "The pirates couldn't have helped but to have noticed. If they didn't know now, they probably do now."

"Did you get through?" one member asked.

The team leader shook his head. "No."

"Meaning either that the transmission was blocked before it could get through, or the _Exodus _was attacked and was too busy to reply." Herb reasoned.

"Or is already space dust." one of the captives commented.

Darkwing shook his head. "The more I hear about this Negis guy, the more he reminds me of Negaduck." he commented, "I certainly hope he's not related in anyway to him."

"I don't think Negaduck had any offspring, Darkwing." Herb remarked.

"Who the heck is Negaduck anyway?" someone in the group asked.

"A nasty villain from my century." Darkwing replied. "Be thankful you don't have to deal with him." he started pacing. "Anyway, we need ideas on how we can get out of here, and complete our mission if we can manage it."

"Are you crazy, Darkwing?" the leader of the first team said. "We can't possibly get out of here, much less finish our mission!"

Darkwing ignored him, and instead looked at the door sealing them in for the moment. "Herb, think you could pick the lock?" he asked.

"Of course not, it's electronic." Herb said flatly.

"Really? Then why didn't you just say so?"

Darkwing whipped out his gas gun and fired a shock dart at the lock mechanism showing inside the cell. It hit, and sparked. The door sagged for a moment, and then swung slightly inward, the lock short-circuited by the dart. Before anyone could react, especially the two guards that stood outside, Darkwing switched attachments on his gas gun and fired a canister of sleeping gas out into the hallway beyond. It burst into a cloud of yellow smoke that filled the hallway. Some of the two away teams hurried forward hopefully, but Darkwing held them back until the smoke had completely faded away. Then, slowly opening the door fully, they saw that the two guards had been knocked out by the sleeping gas.

Darkwing turned to the others and grinned. "Any questions?"

The two away teams looked at each other with renewed hope.

"Let's finish our mission." Herb said, looking determined.

"I was going to say, 'let's get dangerous,' but that works." Darkwing said with a shrug.

* * *

With the two guards being as well armed as they were, the escaping away teams found nearly enough weaponry for everyone to have one weapon, with only a handful left without any. With Darkwing leading the way, they carefully made their way through the inner workings of the palace, relieved to find it mostly empty.

"Guess Negis isn't expecting us to escape." Darkwing commented.

"More likely he had to spare everybody he could to crew the ships to attack the _Exodus_." Herb theorized.

"That too."

One of the away team stopped suddenly, who had managed to hang onto her scanner throughout the affair. "Hold on, I'm detecting a large spike in temporal energy." she said suddenly, looking at the scanner in her hand for a long moment. Finally, she pointed at a nearby door. "It's coming through there."

"What could be producing temporal energy?" someone asked. "The only things that I can think of are all illegal, and have been for some time."

Darkwing and Herb glanced at each other. "The stolen temporal stabilizer." they said together, and quickly went to the door.

Herb pushed it open a crack, and Darkwing fired another canister of sleeping gas into the room. They waited long enough for the smoke to disperse, and then they all walked inside. Only one guard had been stationed in the room, and the sleeping gas had made short work of him. Sitting on a table beside him, all on it's own, was the stolen part. Herb carefully picked up the device, smaller than Darkwing had been expecting, and pocketed it.

"Now what?" someone from the away team asked.

"Now we find a way off this rock." Darkwing said, leading the way back out of the room.

It didn't take them long to find a hanger bay of sorts, containing a variety of small craft, including several craft that looked like the shuttles Darkwing saw back on Earth. The room was completely unguarded, further pressing the theory of Herb's that Negis was employing everybody to man battleships and to attack the _Exodus_.

"We can hijack one of those shuttles and get out of here." one of the away team proposed.

"Can we do that?" Darkwing asked skeptically, remembering that the shuttles were automated.

"Sure, they have a manual control system." the team member said as they hurried to the nearest shuttle and began boarding it. "All I have to do is hack into it, and then I can pilot the shuttle myself."

"Good enough for me." Darkwing said as he climbed aboard last of all and closed the hatch behind him.

"Won't take a moment." the member said as she sat down at the console in the front of the shuttle and began working with the controls. A genuine moment later, she grinned. "Done."

"Gee, you weren't kidding." Darkwing said, throughly impressed. He shook his head. "Okay, get us out of here." he said, and then hurried back to go take a seat.

"I hope the _Exodus _won't be too engaged in battle to let us onboard." Herb said as Darkwing strapped himself in beside him.

Darkwing nodded, and didn't reply. He was hoping there was going to be an _Exodus _to come back to.

* * *

A moment later, the shuttle took flight and flew out of the hanger bay and into the sky. A few cannons from the ground fired at them as they went, but the shots all missed. Soon the shuttle was well on it's way into orbit.

"Another direct hit! Shields are about to collapse!" an officer exclaimed as the bridge was rocked by another barrage of impacts, all of which were coming in rapid succession now

"Keep returning fire!" Dodger exclaimed, coughing slightly on the smoke that filled the sparking bridge. "Don't back down until I say so!"

"Cap'n, if we don't get out of 'ere soon, we aren't goin' t' be goin' anywhere!" Nicholson exclaimed urgently across the bridge as he helped the crew work.

"I'm aware of that colonel, but I'm not giving up on this battle just yet!" Dodger persisted.

"Four more Corallian cruisers detected entering the planetary system and approaching our coordinates!" the weapons officer announced.

Then the science officer suddenly had good news to present. "Sir!" he exclaimed to Dodger. "Remember that you asked me to alert you if I got any ideas to rescue the away teams?"

"Yes, did you come up with something?" Dodger asked.

"No need sir, the away teams are coming to us!" he said. "I'm detecting a shuttle closing in on our position, and the lifesign readings match up with that of the two away teams!"

"Confirmed sir, I'm getting a transmission from them, requesting to dock!" the communications officer announced.

Dodger grinned, even though the bridge rocked yet again from another impact. "Open the hanger bay doors!" he ordered.

"Doors open!" the science officer announced. A moment later, then, "They're safely inside, sir, closing hanger doors!"

"Pilot, break orbit, and set a course for the Jumpgate, best possible speed!" Dodger ordered, pointing at the pilot quickly. "We're getting out of here! Weapon's officer, keep returning fire!"

As quickly as she could in her damaged state, the _Exodus _flew away from the planet and the armada of pirate ships that had gathered to attack and shot off as fast as it could towards the edge of the system, where the Jumpgate leading back to Earth lay. Several of the pirate ships followed, however, not about to let their prey escape so easily.

The firefight continued all the way to the Jumpgate. Now that she was on the move and not so much of a sitting duck, the _Exodus _was proving to be able to defend herself well in a fight, driving the pirate ships back somewhat. She arrived at the Jumpgate in time for another wave of pirate ships to jump in from another star system, but the pilot of the _Exodus _simply pulled off a very fancy maneuver and flew over them and into the Jumpgate, heading home to the Sol system.

On the other side, the ship shot out of the Jumpgate like it was being chased by bandits (which, in a sense, it was), then stopped a few kilometers out from the device and came about, weapons at the ready, to face the Jumpgate in case the pirate ships followed them through the Jumpgate.

On the suddenly silent bridge, all eyes were on the Jumpgate.

"Will they follow us, or will they not, that is the question." Dodger commented, steepling his fingers together as he wanted anxiously.

"They wouldn't dare." Nicholson said with a snort. "They know they'd be enterin' Federation space, an' would face both th' threat of th' law, an' th' threat o' attack."

"We shall see, colonel."

Several long moments passed. The Jumpgate remained silent and inactive.

"If they would've followed us, they would've done so by now, sir." the science officer pointed out.

"Told ye." Nicholson said with a half grin.

Dodger shared the grin. "Doesn't hurt to play it safe." he said, letting out a sigh of relief, then turned to the pilot. "Lay in a course for Earth. No hurry, so take your time. It's clear that the worse of this is now over."

* * *

"To a mission well done!"

"A mission well done!"

Clicking their drinks together, Darkwing and Herb drank on the proposed toast, enjoying the alien drink that they had ordered.

"Mm, this Talyarian Space Punch is great." Darkwing said, smacking his lips. "And here I was feeling skeptical about it."

"Told you that you'd like it." Herb said, grinning.

It was several hours now after the _Exodus _had escaped Corallian space, taking it's time on it's way home to ease the stress of it's damaged parts. The damage wasn't pretty either; the once pristine ship was now marred by a scorched hull and some severe damage to some of it's more minor systems. Casualties were light, thankfully.

During the long trip back to Earth, though, which they were to arrive at shortly now, word of the away teams' mission-to-the-planet-that-went-awry-but-managed-to-succeed-wonderfully-in-the-end-anyhow spread quickly, and Darkwing suddenly found himself admired by most of the crew by being the person who made it happen. During those several hours, he had been approached by many of the crew and had a quick word with him about the subject. Some recommended locations on the ship to visit as a form of thanks, including the officer's lounge, the bottom most deck in the command module where he and Herb were at now.

Better still, the temporal stabilizer was back in it's rightful hands, no worse for wear, and would be quickly put to use where it needed to be once it reached Earth. Darkwing was told it wouldn't be long before he would be going back to his century, and as much as he had grown to like the twenty-fourth century, he was ready to go back home.

"So what do you think Negis's expression was like when he found out what happened?" Herb asked.

"If he's anything like Negaduck, I can already picture it." Darkwing said, making a faraway look as he envisioned it longingly. "Ah, too bad we couldn't have stuck around to see it."

"Oh well, I'd rather be here than back there, anyway." Herb said, sipping his punch again.

"You got that right."

They laughed, and then turned to look out the nearby viewport at Earth, which was slowly beginning to come into view. Without warning, Colonel Nicholson strolled up idly, grinning.

"Excuse me, ye two, but I need t' interrupt yore liddle celebration." he said in his curious accent, then turned to Darkwing. "Darkwing, th' cap'n wants a word with ye."

"Of course he does." Darkwing said with a grin, setting aside his punch and rising from his chair. He nodded at Herb. "Be right back, Herb."

"I'll still be here." Herb said, taking another sip from his drink.

Nicholson led Darkwing through to the officer's lounge to the elevator entrance that sat in the back. The doors opening on their approach, they stepped inside the cab to head to Dodger's office. Which happened to be exactly one level above them anyway. Above that was the bridge, which Darkwing still hadn't seen, but he figured this was as close as he was going to get. Obviously, however, the ride was short, and within moments, Darkwing was entering Dodger's office once again, who was again turned away from the elevator and was looking out the window behind his desk, Earth in plain view already, and coming closer.

This time Nicholson held back, and stayed in the elevator, letting the doors close without him exiting, so that it was just Darkwing present in the office. Looking back at the doors for a moment, Darkwing then turned to look at Dodger, and cleared his throat.

"Captain Dodger?" he greeted.

Dodger turned and grinned when he saw Darkwing. "Darkwing, thank you for seeing me." he said. "I thought it might interest you to know that you will not need to take a shuttle back to Earth."

"Oh?" Darkwing asked, mildly surprised, "It's how I got up here."

"Yes, but because of the damage the _Exodus _received, she will need to set down on land to receive some repairs."

Darkwing winced. "I'm sorry, I guess none of that would've happened if it weren't for me, would've it?"

"Don't blame yourself, Darkwing, a lot of things happened during that mission that no one really expected, and even if we had, we probably would've done it anyway."

"Oh, well, thank you."

Dodger grinned, and looked back out the window, watching as the _Exodus_ begin to enter the atmosphere. "You know, Darkwing, I must admit, I underestimated you." he said without turning back to look at Darkwing. "I really didn't think you could handle a situation such as the one we just escaped. But not only did you prove that you _could _handle it, you managed to save the whole mission, pulling off the very task we were set out to do. Now, thanks to you, we have the temporal stabilizer, you can return to your century, and the rest of us can rest easy tonight." he sighed. "I guess, Darkwing, what I'm saying is that you managed to prove you could do the very thing I thought you could not, and I feel guilty about it. I really should've just given you the chance, like what General Christofferson was certainly willing to do; that's why he sent you here, I'm sure."

"Well, in all reality, I've been given a lot of thought about what you told me in our first meeting, and I can see where you were coming from." Darkwing said. "As captain, you're responsible for every person on this ship, even if they are from three hundred years into the past. You were simply thinking of me and my safety, that's all, and no one's going to blame you for that. I mean, there's not much point to doing the whole mission if I went and got myself killed or something."

Dodger chuckled at that. "Somehow I doubt that would've happened." he said. "In fact, judging from what I've been told, you were pretty much safer with the away team than you were on the ship. If I hadn't sent you down to the planet at all, things could've ended very differently." he paused, looking out the window, watching as flames lapped at the _Exodus _as she continued to descend into the atmosphere. "Fate's funny like that, isn't it? You never really know how badly something could've turned out if you made the other choice until after it's all said and done, and then you're glad things turned out as they _really _did."

"And then there are times where you still don't know what could've happened, leaving the outcomes of those unchosen choices completely blank." Darkwing added.

"You can't keep making new choices if you aren't over the choices you made before it. One would just have to forget about it, hope that the choice they made was good enough, and move on with life, to face the choices you still have yet to face."

"Nice statement."

"Thank you. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for it. It was actually a quote made by a very wise and famous person just before he died."

"Really? Who said it?"

Dodger merely grinned, and didn't reply.

By this point in time, the _Exodus _was well within the Earth's atmosphere now, and was currently flying through a bank of thick rainclouds, heavy with rain that they were probably dropping down to the ground somewhere below. The two onlookers watched it fly past as the _Exodus _calmly continued to slide forward.

"Well, I guess we'll be landing soon." Darkwing noted.

"Yes, and soon this adventure will end, ready for a new one to begin." Dodger said, turning to look at Darkwing. He paused, and then moved for his desk. "Which reminds me, Darkwing, for record-keeping reasons, I need you to fill out some paperwork regarding the mission. Nothing too terribly important, at least in my opinion, but I would certainly get a real telling-off if I let you off the hook and not fill this out..."

Darkwing, however, was still looking out the window behind Dodger. He thought he saw a distant shape somewhere ahead of them in the bank of clouds, but he couldn't be sure. But then, the shape suddenly materialized out of nowhere, revealing itself fully. It was the very last thing he expected to see. Urgently, he took a step forward towards Dodger, who couldn't see because his back was turned.

"Captain Dodger...!" he began to exclaim.

He got no further, however, when the Corallian pirate ship that had literally appeared out of nowhere in front of the _Exodus _fired a volley of shots at the ship, one of which struck the office head on. The resulting explosion completely blew the window and it's surrounding wall away, knocking Dodger forward into his desk before he was suddenly lost from Darkwing's sight as the same blast slammed into him and knocked him across the room and into the hard, closed, doors of the elevator.

He must have blacked out in the process, if only for just seconds, because the next thing remembered was suddenly awakening again, finding himself lying on the floor, debris scattered everywhere, and a harsh wind billowing all throughout the office. Alarms were blaring, but they seemed distant to Darkwing's foggy mind. Carefully, he picked himself up, and looked back to the back wall of the room. Like he had seen, the blast had completely blown it away, exposing the office directly to the open atmosphere of the planet. Darkwing was somewhat thankful this hadn't happened in the vacuum of space.

His thanks ended there, however. Among the debris scattered about the room lay Dodger, his body heavily beaten and damaged, and clearly dead. Outside, the pirate ship was still visible as it continued to fire upon the _Exodus, _and was now joined by another one that seemed to have materialize out from within the clouds itself. Both ships were firing relentlessly on it's target, and were facing no resistence. The _Exodus _itself had slowed, and seemed to be listing heavily to one side, dead in the water, so to speak.

Darkwing realized that the crew hadn't expected this attack anymore than anyone else, and saw that the _Exodus _was at risk of being destroyed. Urgently, Darkwing forced himself up no matter how much his body protested, and tried to open the elevator doors. They were sealed shut, however, and were not responding at all to Darkwing's presence. He was stuck. Turning around to look back out the gaping hole in the wall, Darkwing wondered what he should do now, if there was anything he could do.

The wind swirling around the room blew his fedora from his head, but Darkwing hardly noticed as he stood there, watching the pirates continue battering the _Exodus_, making her rock constantly. One shot finally hit closer to the command module, shaking the section enough that Darkwing was thrown off his feet and crashed into a wall. With his head already hurt, he barely noticed as the world vanished in a sudden veil of total darkness...

* * *

"Dad...Dad....Daaaaad! DAD!"

Darkwing let out a startled yelp and fell from his chair and hit the floor in a tangled and undignified heap. Rolling over, he saw Crimson and Launchpad looking down at him, their faces cast with early morning sunlight as it shown through the windows of Darkwing Tower.

Darkwing blanked out for a moment. "What?" he said, blankly. "Wha...what happened?"

"You were asleep." Launchpad said simply, with a shrug. "Seemed pretty out of it, too. Gos had to get out a megaphone in order to get you wake up."

Darkwing shot Crimson a glance, who quickly hid the device by hiding it behind her back. Darkwing was still too confused to really care at the moment, however.

"I was asleep?" he said.

"Uh-huh, you fell asleep playing solitaire on the supercomputer again." Crimson said, pointing towards the control panel and command chair Darkwing had fell out of.

Darkwing's eyes wandered up to the big screen above them, and saw that a half-finished game of solitaire was being displayed on it, waiting patiently for the user to make the next move.

"Wait," Darkwing said, sitting up. "The _Exodus_, the space pirates, the temporal stabilizer, Captain Dodger...you mean it was all a _dream_?"

"Keen gear, a pretty cool dream by the sounds of it." Crimson said, her eyes glistening in interest, "What were the space pirates like, were they big slimy balls of goo?"

Darkwing didn't answer as he blearily got up to his feet, wobbling slightly. Lauchpad supported him up.

"You okay, DW?" he asked. "You look pretty out of it still."

"I must have _really _been out of it for _that _dream." Darkwing muttered, rubbing at his head.

"Yeah, and while you were here dreaming about space pirates, that coolant maker thing of SHUSH's and The Agency's was left completely unguarded." Crimson said with a snort. "Let's just say that Director Hooter wasn't exactly pleased you bailed on your duties."

"Wait, I _missed _the guard duty?" Darkwing asked, feeling more puzzled.

"Yeah, but it's not so bad." Launchpad said. "They're actually kind of glad you didn't show up, because the machine malfunctioned, and ended up spilling that freezing cold coolant all over the lab, flooding it."

"It did?"

"Yeah, if you were in there, Dad, you would've been frozen solid." Crimson added with a shudder.

"I would've?" Darkwing said, his beak hanging open slightly.

"Yeah, who'd have thunk it?" Crimson asked, with a shrug. "Anyway, when we heard about it, we were just about finished with patrol anyway. Techno already went home. We were just about to go change, but decided to wake you up first."

"Right." Darkwing said, his eyes vacant.

Crimson gave him an odd look. "Shocked that you've gotten frozen, Dad?" she asked.

"More like I'm shocked that I _didn't _get frozen."

Crimson and Launchpad gave him a blank look.

"Uh-huh." Launchpad said finally, which pretty much summed it up.

"Guess you're just one lucky duck, Dad." Crimson said, giving him a pat on the shoulder and turning and walking off, Launchpad following. "Anyway, we're getting changed. Feel free to do the same whenever you want."

Darkwing, however, simply paused and then patted at the pockets of his costume before, with a surge of hope, found something in one of them. He reached into it and pulled out the locked locket and chain General Christofferson had given him.

Which supposedly only happened in a dream.

"One lucky duck." Darkwing repeated to himself, looking the locket over for a moment.

Finally, he grinned, tossed the locket into the air and caught it again before he pocketed it, and then went to go get changed out of his costume himself...

* * *

_Fun Facts: While this chapter still does it with more than one genre, this chapter was originally planned to be a parody of Looney Tunes's "Duck Dodgers" (which in turn was a parody of "Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century"). Much of that still remains somewhat, but eventually it did grow to evolve into a more serious and unique adventure that parodied more than just Duck Dodgers. Orignally, it was to be titled "Darkwing Dodgers" but after the chapter took the turn to what it is now, I decided "Future Predictions" was more fitting._

_The coolant maker device thingy that Darkwing's guarding in the beginning was originally to be just SHUSH's creation. The Agency came into play later, right around when the past couple chapters were written._

_Darkwing whining about the fact that he couldn't profess to have seen the twenty fourth and a half century is one of those Duck Dodgers parodies. In all reality, it would probably be one of the first things out of my mouth too, if I were in DW's position._

_Negis underwent several changes since this chapter's original conception, but he was always going to be very Negaduck-like. At one point, he was going to be related in some way to Negs, but I couldn't reason how it happened, so I dropped any official ties to Negs. Negis was also going to have a lot more scenes and speaking lines, including a scene in which he and Darkwing deck it out on the outer hull of the **Exodus**_**, **_but it was all cut for space reasons. Part of me wished I did some of those scenes anyway, but oh well._

_Speaking of Negis, at one point the device he had in his posession was a rebuilt HLEDD (a reference to "The Animator" chapter) but that little aspect never really took flight, and it just made more sense to have some necessary part to the time machine that was being built for DW be the thing he had._

_Had Negis gotten more page space, I would've also introduced a few of his pirate friends, which would've included a dragon-like alien that was his right-hand man, and an otter-like alien that was going to be similar to Rowe (right down to the "mates")._

_The number designation of the shuttle DW takes to get to the **Exodus** happens to be a class of ships in "Stargate SG-1" and the rest of it's genre._

_Herb is a direct descentant from Honker._

_Captain Dodger's name is another, more obvious parody to "Duck Dodgers", and so was DW's catch phrase (which, by the way, I had planned out months in advance, and had just been **dying **to get the chance to use :p)._

_Colonel Nicholson's last name is the same as Lance Nicholson's the photographer otter from the "A Visionary Marten" chapter. I never decided if he was actually related tho. Certainly has the right accent. :p_

_The suprise attack on the **Exodus **in Earth's atmosphere had a heck of a lot more to it than what there is now, which is why it seems to end abruptly._

_And the ending...I'm just going to leave that up to the reader's interpretation for now. ;)  
_


	64. FOUL Ball

Summary: FOUL has a new device that they are threatening to use to destroy SHUSH Headquarters if they don't get what they want. Additionally, the Fearsome Five nearly have their new Negaquack repaired and ready for action. The gang's best hope resides with the Thunderquack II which they are racing to finish. Can they do it in time?

Rating: K+

64.

FOUL Ball

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Wh-who are you?"_

"_Who am I? I'm everything you __**aren't**__ Megavolt! I'm GIGAVOLT!"_

_--  
_

"_Look, we all agree that we just don't have the means to beat Gigs at this time. Well, we've got enough ideas to do it with, but no time to pull any of them off. That's what it all boils down to, is the lack of time. That, and the fact that Gigs is even deadlier with the memories he's got than without."_

"_So what are you proposing?"_

"_We scramble Gigavolt's memories, make him forget all of those restored memories if not more."_

_--  
_

"_I'm convinced that once we wipe his memories, he'll not only be no longer so serious a threat to Darkwing, it should also disorient him and keep him busy from causing trouble again for a little while until we can come up with a more effective means of fighting him."_

_--  
_

"_What happened? Did it work? Did the plan work?"_

"_Oh, it worked all right. Gigs has seemed to have lost those troublesome memories and has Swiss cheese for memory again. No one's seen any trace of him since, either, stating that he probably has gone and hid somewhere long enough to get his act back together again, just as you theorized."_

_--  
_

_The threesome cautiously walked to the door and slipped through it. The room beyond was dimly lit, but very spacious. Worktables of all sorts sat lining the walls, all covered with tools and equipment. But Megavolt's eyes were drawn to the centerpiece of the room, sighing as he remembered the project undergoing here._

_There stood a half-completed Negaquack jet plane._

_--  
_

_NegaGosalyn obediently moved out of the way, as an engine started, and the cockpit closed around Negaduck. A few moments later, the whole wall dividing the back room from the rest of the warehouse where the battle was occurring shattered, and exploded, spraying debris everywhere. The battle was suddenly forgotten as everyone, including Bulba stopped to stare in awe as the fully operational Negaquack inched out the whole in the wall it had made._

_--  
_

_No longer under Negaduck's controls, the jet soared forward and smashed through the window that ran along the roof of the warehouse, taking out part of the wall with it. Outside, the jet wobbled dangerously, then ricocheted off a nearby building before crash landing, backwards, on the roof of a slightly shorter building. Negaduck quickly worked to get the jet flying again, but he was out of the fight for the moment._

_--  
_

"_Remember my theoretical good side you keep going on about? It's not so theoretical after all."_

_--  
_

"_I'm fed up with it all, Crimson. Negs, the Fearsome Five, my life, everything. It's time I took charge."_

_--  
_

"_I'm helping you now Crimson only because you need it. The rest of the time I'm going to continue playing the ruse I've always been playing, to keep Negs from thinking that I've betrayed him."_

_--  
_

"_For now just think of me as a double agent, spying on the Fearsome Five for you and Darkwing. Beyond that, though, treat me like you always have."_

_--  
_

"_Negaduck's planning something, and because he doesn't completely trust me, he's left me out of the loop this time. But whatever it is, I think it's big. And if we have any hope of stopping him, we're going to have to work together, and work cautiously."_

_--  
_

_They raced their way through the building, arriving in the room where the Thunderquack II was still being assembled. The jet was mostly built now, but it still wasn't ready for full use yet._

_--  
_

"_She's not ready yet!"_

"_I know."_

"_She's barely operational!"_

"_I know, Todd."_

_--  
_

"_You know, I'm starting to think Agent Todd was right, and that the Thunderquack wasn't..."_

"_Oh, shut up, LP! I would rather not be reminded of how pointless that flight was, thank you very much!"

* * *

_

"Mmm, hot chocolate." Gosalyn said with a pleased grin as the store clerk was pouring the steaming liquid into styrofoam cups, as Gosalyn and Honker had ordered. "Nothing better to drink on a cold day in the middle of January."

Honker looked around the café-like shop in curiosity, his hands in the pockets of his coat. "I didn't even know they served hot chocolate here." he said. "Just things like coffee and those little bite-sized sandwiches."

"It's not a coffeehouse shop, Honk, they serve other things besides that." Gosalyn said, watching as the clerk dropped two marshmallows each into either cup, and then handed them to Gosalyn. Gosalyn paid him, then turned and handed one cup to Honker before taking a sip from her own cup, making a pleased expression. "Besides, as Dad always says, hot chocolate is guaranteed to warm your very soul, whereas coffee does not."

"That's an odd thing to hear coming from your dad." Honker noted sarcastically, blowing on his hot chocolate before taking a sip himself.

"Well, I did add the part about the coffee myself; we all know Dad wouldn't last a day without his usual morning cup of coffee. Besides, as I see it, coffee's merely some bitter fluid you drink to stay up late doing things like paperwork."

"Well, I suppose I can't argue that point."

They took their drinks and walked outside onto the cold city street in St. Canard. They continued talking, moving on to other topics, as they headed towards Gosalyn's motorbike parked further up the street.

"Did you see the new episode of _Jumpgate: Universitas _last night?" Gosalyn asked.

"Yeah, I was kinda disappointed with it." Honker admitted. "Ever since we found out about the existence of Project: Bluebook, the _Jumpgate _TV shows have seemed to have lost all of their charm."

"Not for me." Gosalyn said with a grin. "I still really enjoy that show, even more now that I know it's based on real events."

"Careful Gos, we are out in public."

"Honker, you worry too much sometimes."

As they arrived at the parked motorbike, Honker changed the subject. "So, did you finally beat that video game of yours that you got for Christmas?" he asked, as he picked up one of two helmets from the bike and began strapping it on.

"Yeah, it turned out the solution to beating that final boss was simple." Gosalyn said, looking down at her pants pocket as her cell phone was heard ringing suddenly. "You can't beat him with your own shots, but you can use the mirrors that are around in the room to bounce the boss's own shots back at him...excuse me for a moment, Honk."

She opened her phone to find that she had a new text message. Opening it, she also saw it was very short.

"look bhnd u

-NG"

Gosalyn turned around as requested, and saw a relatively empty, but dark, alleyway behind her. Without saying anything, she started to head down the alley. Honker looked up from what he was doing when he noticed what she was doing, and followed her.

"Gos?" he questioned as they went.

Gosalyn didn't reply, but held up the cell phone so Honker could read the message it still displayed.

"'Look behind you.'" he read. He looked around. "Okay, so what are we looking for?"

"That would be me."

Gosalyn and Honker turned to face the voice in time for NegaGosalyn to step out from within the shadows, dressed in civilian attire.

"We need to talk." she said.

* * *

"Director, we've been over this before." Norrin said flatly, his face appearing to be annoyed on the screen it was being displayed on.

"I know we've been over this before, Mr. Vice President, but you still haven't given me a straight answer." Hooter replied, leaning forward in the chair to press his face into the screen. "This joint venture between SHUSH and The Agency means we are supposed to share information freely between each other. Now, despite my better judgement, I have allowed SHUSH to do just that. However, The Agency hasn't been so forthcoming. I _know _you are still hiding information from SHUSH, and I want to know what and why."

"Director, you can't rush this process." Norrin said, trying to soothe Hooter's temper. "The Agency is involved with a great many things that would boggle your mind. If we were to reveal all of these secrets at once, you would be quickly overwhelmed by it all, and I don't want that. Eventually, all of the secrets will gradually be revealed, starting with the more down-to-earth ones and working up from there."

Hooter was silent for a moment. "I'd buy that explanation if it wasn't for one thing." he said. "The fact that you have already revealed a great many major secrets to SHUSH already, mostly when this venture began, such as Project: Bluebook. Surely you don't have something that could top that."

"Don't be so sure, director." Norrin said monotonously, "But as I said you will simply....wait...gradual...Hooter....?"

The image of Norrin suddenly vanished in a sea of static. Frowning, Hooter worked with the controls, trying to get the image back on the screen again, but it didn't come. Finally, still frowning, he picked up his phone and dialed his secretary in the other room.

"Julie, could you please connect me to the IT department?" he asked.

"IT Department. Agent Todd speaking."

"Hello, Agent Todd, this is Director Hooter. I was just in the middle of a video conference with the vice president when the connection suddenly broke. Now all I have is a screen full of static. Is it a problem with our end?"

"Hold on, director, sir, and I'll check." There was a moment of silence, then Todd quickly came back on the line. "According to things on my end, sir, everything checks out. Your computer is still talking with the network, and according to the reports, it _is _receiving a transmission of some sort. I'm still in the process of verifying the IP address, though, just to double check."

It was then that the sea of static on Hooter's screen suddenly vanished, and a face reappeared on it again. But it wasn't Norrin's. It was instead someone else's, someone who was quite possibly worse.

It was Steelbeak.

Hooter looked at the grinning face on the screen for a moment, then returned his attention to his phone. "Thank you, Agent Todd, but that is not necessary at this time. Again, thank you for your assistance, I'll call you back if I need anymore." he then hung up without waiting for a reply, and turned to face the figure on the screen fully, his eyes narrowing. "All right, what is it that _you _want?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothin' much Hooter." Steelbeak replied, examining his nails casually as he spoke. "Just a little bit of ransom money t' help fund all the things I do here at FOUL."

"And why would I give you that?"

"Because, believe it or not, I have ya captive."

Hooter blanked out for a moment. "You do?"

"All of SHUSH, in fact. And if I don't get what I want, I can take y'all out whenever I please."

Hooter's face grew grim, taking the threat very seriously, but wondered just how Steelbeak planned to do it. "With what?" he asked.

"That, my friend, would be a surprise." Steelbeak said with a grin. "Tell ya what, though. If ya don't believe me still, send a few of your agents out t' that ol' mill outside of St. Canard, and in about an hour, I'll do a little demonstration. Then, if my demands aren't met another hour after that, then ya can kiss SHUSH HQ g'bye!"

Hooter wasn't quite sure how to respond to this unexpected threat, and therefore didn't respond at all.

"I'll let ya chew on that fer a little bit." Steelbeak continued, "I'll get back t' ya later t' tell ya FOUL's demands. 'Till then, Hooter! Ciao!"

The screen broke into static again for a moment, and then Norrin's face suddenly reappeared on the screen again. He, too, was on the phone.

"Director, there you are." Norrin said, hanging up the phone without saying goodbye into it. "What happened? I lost contact with you for a moment."

Hooter didn't reply for a moment, then shook his head to clear his thoughts. "You better connect me with the president, Mr. Vice President." he said urgently. "SHUSH has just been threatened."

* * *

"So what's happened, NegaGos?" Gosalyn asked, folding her arms, sipping at her hot chocolate in the process. "What is it that you need to tell us?"

"It's all about Negaduck." NegaGosalyn replied. "He's going to be causing you guys some serious trouble here soon."

"Right, you alluded that he was planning something big late last month." Gosalyn said, nodding.

"And he still is. Unfortunately, I don't really know anything new about that. As far as I can tell, though, whatever it is that Negaduck is planning, it's still going to be awhile before he carries through on his plans."

"Well then, that means we have some time to learn more about it and figure out how to stop him." Honker remarked.

"That's not what you need to tell us, though, is it?" Gosalyn asked, already a step ahead of her double.

NegaGosalyn nodded. "How close are you guys to completing your new jet, the Thunderquack II, I believe?" she asked.

"It's getting there." Honker replied. "A couple more days, and it should be ready for some active service."

"That's good, I was worried you guys would be more behind than that." NegaGosalyn said, with obvious relief.

"Why? What makes you think that?" Gosalyn asked.

"Negaduck and the rest of the Fearsome Five saw and heard of your failed attempt to use the jet to try and attack Taurus Bulba a couple weeks back, and it heartened Negs to no end." NegaGosalyn explained. "He thinks that with you guys grounded, it would be a great time to attack." she paused, then added, "From the air."

Honker blinked. "You mean with the Negaquack." he stated.

NegaGosalyn nodded. "Negs has had us working around the clock to repair it and get it ready for active use after Bulba trashed it when he attacked our hideout." she said. "It'll be fully operational within two days, if not less. And if you guys don't have something to fight back with by then, he'll mow you down without a second thought. And I don't even want to think about what will happen then."

* * *

Drake sorted through the information Honker had provided. He looked up at him skeptically. "How did you get this?" he asked.

"I assure you, it was no easy process." Honker assured him, having practiced this story a number of times in private before now. "But I'm working on a whole number of ways to try and spy on the Fearsome Five. Most of them only work intermittently, some of them so much so that they'll probably only work once. But the point of the matter is that my information makes it fairly clear that Negaduck's chief priority is to get the Negaquack ready for use, and it will be. Soon."

"Right." Drake said, buying that much, and setting the sheet of information to one side on the table. "But how did you get that information, and why isn't that explained on that piece of paper?"

Honker hesitated for a moment. He glanced over at Gosalyn briefly, but she avoided eye contact, and wasn't going to offer help. As part of the arrangement NegaGosalyn had going with her double, Drake was to be left out on the secret that NegaGos was on their side and spying on the Fearsome Five for them. To support that, Honker had been selected to take credit for the information NegaGosalyn provided and come up with cover stories to explain how he had obtained it.

To him, however, it would be simpler to just let Drake in on the secret, and couldn't fathom why Drake couldn't know. Not even Gosalyn seemed to know, though she had admitted that she have a few theories. She agreed with Honker, though, and reasoned that sooner or later Drake was going to find out regardless of whatever they did. But until then, due to the tentative nature of this little arrangement, Gosalyn was willing to favor her double for the time being.

Leaving Honker to come up with reasons why they were inexplicably coming up with such vital information.

"It's a collection from a number of sources all pieced together, Mr. Mallard." Honker explained finally. "It would take too long to list them, and besides, most of them just couldn't be copied and pasted onto paper anyway, at least not easily. Some of it would be over your head anyway, so I decided to opt for this, simpler, way."

"That's not what you've done in the past." Drake pressed.

Again, Honker hesitated, before he finally shrugged. "I'm trying something new." he reasoned. "It was really Gos's idea anyway."

"Point of the matter is, Dad, that Negs is soon going to have quite an advantage over us." Gosalyn said, finally coming to Honker's rescue. "We need to work to be ready to fight that advantage as soon as possible."

"Agreed." Drake said, nodding. "But the only way we're going to be able to stop Negs's Negaquack is with the Thunderquack, and she's not ready. And seeing what happened in that fiasco with Bulba when we tried to rush things, I'm not using her until the moment she is."

"So we can hurry and finish her real quick." Launchpad suggested simply. "She's nearly done, anyway. We may not to get to run through those last few simulations like Honker and Agent Todd want, but that's better than nothing, right?"

"True, but I worry about how this will fly with the powers that be." Drake said, rubbing his beak.

"Hooter will authorize it, you know he will." Gosalyn said.

"It's not Hooter I'm worried about." Drake said flatly, making it clear just who he _was _worried about.

Then a sudden beeping noise rang out from within the tower. Honker recognized it instantly and hurried out of the situation area of the hideout and hurried up onto the supercomputer platform, sitting down in the command chair.

"It's the Flashquack Early Alert System!" he reported as the others followed him. "The Flashquack should arrive soon!"

Sure enough, the toy-like version of the Thunderquack popped into the tower through a special doorway and floated over under it's own power to Drake. It's top then popped open to reveal a written message within, which Drake pulled out. It's job done for the moment, the Flashquack then buzzed off.

"What's the message, Dad?" Gosalyn asked, curiously, trying to look over Drake's shoulder.

"It's from J. Gander." Drake said, reading the message. His face turned grim as he looked up to look at the others. "Apparently, FOUL is threatening to attack, and destroy, SHUSH HQ if they don't get want they want in less than an hour and a half. We are to report to Hooter immediately."

* * *

Moments later, they were arriving at Hooter's office, Darkwing throwing open the door casually as he stepped into the office as he normally would, the rest of the gang following him. "Hey, J. Gander, what's–whoa."

There were two things about the room that had caught him off guard. First, was the fact that the office had indeed been renovated when it was rebuilt after Bulba destroyed it last month. Most of it stayed the same, but Hooter now had a new desk, a new, sleeker, computer sitting on top of it, and displayed proudly on the right wall was an enlarged version of the SHUSH logo. Underneath it in slightly smaller text, the full meaning of the acronym was spelled out. Techno and Crimson were immediately drawn to this fact.

"Oh! So _that's _what SHUSH stands for!" Crimson exclaimed.

"The 'Special Handlings Union of Spies Hub'?" Techno read aloud, sounding skeptical.

"Yes, and as that is a national secret, I must request that you keep it as such." said an all too familiar voice in the room.

Which was the second thing that was unexpectedly present in the room. Vice President Jonas Norrin.

"Okay...what did we do now?" Darkwing asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Today, nothing Darkwing." Norrin said. "Don't think I'm not looking for a reason, though."

"The vice president is here upon special request from the president himself." Hooter explained. "Given recent matters, I can't object. His help may actually be needed here. For once." he gave Norrin a glare indicating that no one hadn't forgotten how infamous the vice president was here while Darkwing and the others took their seats. He then turned his attention back to them. "On a side note, I must concur with what the vice president said regarding the secret of the SHUSH acronym. I must also ask of you to keep what it stands for secret." he again gave Norrin a glare. "Even though it _is _apretty stupid secret."

"Ah, don't worry, Director Hooter, I probably couldn't even remember it all anyway." Launchpad said dismissively, grinning. "I can see why you like to use the acronym so much."

"So what's this about FOUL threatening to blow SHUSH HQ off the face of the planet?" Darkwing asked, changing the subject.

"It's just that, Darkwing." Hooter said with a shrug. "Steelbeak hacked into a video conference I had going on with the vice president here, spoke to me for no more than a couple of minutes, delivered his threat, ultimatum, and alluded to his demands, promised to demonstrate what he intended to do, and then cut the transmission. We really don't have much more to go off of than that."

"Could it possibly be a bluff, then?" Techno asked, looking at all the possibilities.

"It's possible, but we are going to take this threat seriously for the time being until we have more evidence." Norrin stated plainly. "If it is a bluff, however, Steelbeak is going well out of his way to try and pull it off as truth."

"What makes you say that?" Crimson asked, curious.

"SHUSH has already done some investigating, and it wasn't long before we got a little bit more evidence to go off of." Hooter said, turning his computer screen around for the others to see. "We were able to promptly snap this picture with a spy satellite not too long ago."

The still-frame picture displayed a patch of green ground circling the edges of the picture, but the middle was blocked mostly by a large patch of white clouds. Sitting just above the very center of the cloud, however, was a massive zeppelin. The FOUL logo was displayed quite proudly on both of it's sides.

Darkwing leaned closer to further examine the picture. "Where's that zeppelin at?" he asked, pointing a finger at the image.

"Right above us." Norrin replied.

Everyone looked instinctively upwards.

"Its over St. Canard?" Crimson asked, slightly surprised.

"Yes, and its still there now." Hooter replied. "We just can't see it, because it's hidden behind those clouds. We believe the zeppelin has some kind of device that is generating a kind of artificial cloud that it's using as cover."

"That explains why it's been so cloudy and overcast today." Techno remarked, leaning back in his chair to peer out a window.

"Sounds to me like Steelbeak was trying to hide from us." Darkwing said.

"He was keeping himself out of sight, yes, but it wouldn't have lasted." Hooter said. "We can easily see him with a spy satellite. I think the cloud was merely used as cover to sneak in over us, only. Steelbeak knew he wasn't likely to get away with anything more than that once that was done, especially after he started making his demands."

"We don't know why he's still hiding behind it, but it's actually helping to keep this secret from the public." Norrin added. "A mass panic is the very last thing we need on our hands."

"No doubt of that." Crimson agreed. She clapped her hands together decisively. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, we can't do anything until we're know what it is Steelbeak plans to do in response." Hooter said. "Therefore, it has already been decided to wait until Steelbeak does his little demonstration, to get a better idea of what we're dealing with."

"That would only leave us with a single hour to stop Steelbeak before he carries out his threats, though." Techno said, adding two with two.

"Cutting it a bit close, aren't you, J. Gander?" Darkwing asked, a little apprehensive.

"We don't have a choice, Darkwing." Norrin said. "No one is going to do anything against Steelbeak without knowing what we're up against. For all we know, he could have some kind of superweapon that could be used to wipe out any resistence with one shot. That would be putting lives at risk unnecessarily, and I don't want any life lost needlessly."

"Why, Mr. Vice President, I didn't know you cared." Darkwing quipped a touch mockingly. Norrin shot him a stern glare as a result.

"Once we do know what we're dealing with, how do we plan to fight back?" Crimson asked, curiously. "Surely, you must have _some _ideas about that."

Launchpad was studying the picture of the zeppelin still displayed on the screen carefully. "Seems to me that the best way to take out Steelbeak is with an air assault." he reasoned slowly and carefully.

"Exactly." Hooter confirmed. "We've already made arrangements to have a squadron of fighter jets ready to take off on my order. Also, with your permission, Darkwing, I would like to hurry and see if we can't rush the Thunderquack into service in time for this. I daresay it would be a great asset for this conflict."

Darkwing nodded. "Absolutely, J. Gander, just so long as nobody's cutting corners." he said. He paused, and then sighed. "Besides, we have new intel that would've merited just such a choice anyway."

Norrin gave him a mildly curious glance. "Such as?" he asked.

"We have reason to believe that Negaduck nearly has the Negaquack, his own version of the Thunderquack, ready for use." Techno explained. "When he does, he plans to use it to begin an air strike on his enemies, namely us, while we're still defenseless. He's planning on us to not be ready in time to fight back adequately with something such as the Thunderquack II."

Hooter sighed, and rubbed at his forehead in frustration. "Of course something like this was going to come up, too." he said to himself aloud, then shook his head. "Unfortunately, that matter will have to wait. This issue with Steelbeak and FOUL is much more pressing. Besides, I daresay if Steelbeak succeeds, there's not going to be much point in worrying about Negaduck's plans anyway."

"So about this demonstration Steelbeak has planned." Crimson asked. "Do we have any idea what to expect?"

"Not very." Hooter admitted. "However, Steelbeak said he was going "demonstrate" whatever it is that he has planned with the old gristmill that resides about a half mile past the eastern boundaries of St. Canard."

"Gristmill?" Launchpad repeated, unfamiliar with the term.

"It's one of those places where they grind grain into flour." Techno explained. "The Canard Gristmill was originally built during the early 1940s in the midst of World War II, for the use of the city to use to support itself, as many shipments of materials were being used instead for the war effort. It lasted about a decade, then shut down in the 1950s due to lack of use, and the attention of the city moving on to other things. It became a museum for a while in the late 1970s, but was eventually condemned in 1997 due to the deterioration in it's structure. The city has talked about tearing it down several times, but so far it has just been left to fall apart."

"It would make for an ideal target for Steelbeak's little demonstration." Norrin added.

"I've already sent Agents Mia and Sandy over with a squadron of commandos to witness the event." Hooter said. "We are also surveying the event remotely through with a camera that is at the scene. If and when Steelbeak preforms this little demonstration of his, I don't want to miss a single detail of it."

* * *

"This is boring." Agent Sandy remarked, leaning against the hood of the SHUSH van, one of several parked near the decaying mill.

"We have our orders, Sandy." Agent Mia said, still standing at attention, though she looked a little bored herself. She checked her watch. "Besides, in about another...two minutes...Steelbeak is scheduled to conduct his "demonstration". Presuming he's not bluffing or anything like that, things should get more exciting around then." she paused. "If we really want to look at it that way."

"Suppose it _is _a bluff." Sandy said, looking up at her superior and friend. "We'll have wasted a whole half hour or so out here doing nothing but waiting when we could've been _doing _something about this."

"Ah, but by waiting for the demonstration, we'll see if it's a bluff or not, and if it is, then we have nothing to worry about." Mia said with a grin. "Somehow I think it's not, though. Steelbeak doesn't strike me as the bluffing type, not for something such as this, where he holds all the cards."

"Okay, then suppose it _isn't _a bluff." Sandy said. "What then?"

"Then I suppose we're in for a heck of a show." Mia replied. "We will also know what we're up against, another advantage we have by staying here and waiting."

"That's another thing I have a problem with." Sandy remarked. "Why do _we _have to be out here? Technically speaking, we're only here to be witnesses to this event, if it even happens. So why take two high ranking agents, that's us, and stick them out here to watch, when a bunch of commandos would've worked just as well?"

"We're playing it safe, Sandy, we don't know if Steelbeak will stick with _just _a demonstration." Mia said.

Sandy thought about that for a moment. "Okay, I'll give you that one." she admitted with a shrug.

At that moment, Mia's radio crackled. The feline placed a hand to it to engage it.

"Agent Mia, here." she reported.

"Mia, this is Director Hooter." replied Hooter via the radio. "We're getting ready to watch via the camera you have set up on the site, is it ready?"

Mia looked back at the simple camera standing on a tripod standing just behind her, pointed at the mill and filming. "Yep, it's ready." she said.

"Okay, good." Hooter said. "We're getting the feed now. To double check, how much longer until Steelbeak is scheduled to begin this demonstration?"

"A little more than a minute by my watch, sir." Mia replied. "So unless Steelbeak begins early, we still have a few more moments to..."

She was cut off short when something rumbled out from the sky above them. It sounded like thunder, but the thin layer of overcasting clouds weren't thick enough to be rain clouds. Everyone looked upward at the sky for the source of the sound as it continued to ring out. The SHUSH commando operating the camera pointed it upward to look as well. For a long moment, nobody saw anything. Then, suddenly, one commando, looking back towards St. Canard, pointed at the sky directly above it.

"Look!" she exclaimed.

Everyone turned, camera included, to look. A series of flashing lights were lighting up the clouds that hung over the city, looking like lightning. Then, suddenly, without warning, a large ball of bright light shot out of the cluster of clouds, arcs of electrical energy jumping out of it frequently, lapping at it's surroundings. It looped around over the city for a moment, and then shot off for the mill like a bullet, speeding over the bay and ground below until it was upon the mill within moments.

Swooping down lower, so much so that it was nearly touching the power lines it seemed to be following, the ball of light shot into the mill with a slam, and like it wasn't even there, plowed right through it, leaving a large hole in it. On the other side of the mill, the ball flew out of the building in a cloud of dust and shot out into the sky again. More arcs of energy jumped between it and the row of power lines nearby. Then it came about and came at the mill again. And again.

Within moments, the mill had enough holes that it looked almost like Swiss cheese. The ball of energy was slamming into it fast enough, hard enough, and frequently enough that the mill almost seemed to be torn apart by a series of explosions. Finally, the structure couldn't take it any longer and it collapsed in a cloud of dust. The ball whizzed around for a moment, circling over the destruction it had dealt for a moment, then whizzed over the heads of the amazed agents watching dangerously, and then shot back up into the clouds hanging over head, and a few flashes of light later, followed by more rumbling, it was gone.

Stunned, the group from SHUSH stood where they were a few moments, the few that had ducked when the ball had flown over their heads now rising again. Agent Sandy checked her watch.

"Steelbeak was a little early." she noted unnecessarily.

Mia slowly reached for her radio again. "Director Hooter, I presume you saw all of that?" she asked into it.

"Every bit, Agent Mia." Hooter responded gravely. "Every bit. Return to base. You saw what you went out there to see."

* * *

When it came to hideouts, Negaduck generally preferred something along the lines of a warehouse or something of the sort. Abandoned and forgotten was a must. Unfortunately, even St. Canard had so many of those, and seeing that their old secret hideout was no longer secret anymore (which was a pity for Negaduck; he liked that hideout) Negaduck had to improvise to come up with a new one.

Fortunately, just such a thing quickly presented itself. On the shore of the Audubon Bay, over looking it, was an old four-story hotel. Having been around since the 1930s, the building was finally condemned, and was scheduled to be torn down. The owners were originally going to do it, with the idea of building a new hotel in it's place, but recently hit rough times and had gone bankrupt. They no longer could afford to do it. The St. Canard City Council had planned to meet about the matter and discuss having the city do it, but the necessary paperwork, plans, dates and the such was mysteriously lost, and for the moment, the hotel had been forgotten.

Negaduck had enjoyed making sure that happened.

Now it was the Fearsome Five's new secret hideout. While it wasn't exactly glorious for the hotel was quite run down, and had been stripped of most of the usual things one would find in a hotel in preparation for it being torn down, it would do. Negaduck had gone to great lengths to make it work, so it had better work anyway. He was confident it would, at least for the time being. The only hard part was getting the Negaquack here, some supplies, and some furniture. Oh, and electricity, which was only temperamental at the best of times. Usually Negaduck would leave such things to Megavolt, only he wasn't around anymore.

Oh well, they managed.

In the other room, Negaduck could hear Rowe, Bushroot, and Quackerjack, working away, finishing up the Negaquack. In the background, he could hear the TV that had been set up in the room, broadcasting a game of water polo at the moment, which was understandably Rowe's favorite sport. He knew that most likely the threesome of minions were more likely distracted than working, but at least they weren't fighting or something of the such.

Still, Negaduck wished they would hurry up so he could start flying his beloved Negaquack. He would be already by now if it hadn't been for Taurus Bulba, forcing him to make use of the jet like that, forfeiting their old hideout at the same time. The Negaquack technically wasn't even finished by that point, and shouldn't _have _been used as it was. But it did, and was dealt some severe damage. Negaduck managed to get it flying long enough to regroup with the others and fly out of there to a new location. Once there, the jet had a critical system error and the engines were burned out as a result, wiping the onboard computer core in the process, a fact Negaduck was not pleased about at all.

Too bad Darkwing got rid of Bulba before he had the chance to. He would've _loved _to have spent some real quality time with that annoying cyborg...

Anyway, the Negaquack was now very slowly receiving the necessary repairs it needed, having its engines be completely replaced, and the computer core reprogrammed among other things. Then the final finishing touches that needed to be added but didn't get before Bulba came along would be added and then she'd be ready. And just in time, because Negaduck already had plans for her.

Of course, those plans were merely little detours in the _real _plan.

Sitting in his comfortable desk chair, Negaduck scanned the two computer screens he had sitting before him. Displayed on them both were several long lines of mathematical equations. Negaduck was running them through to make sure there weren't any mistakes. He had been planning this plan for more than two months now, and it still had a very long way to go still. He wasn't about to mess it up one of the vital beginning stages due to a minor error in his math.

So preoccupied with these calculations, that he failed to notice NegaGosalyn, dressed in costume, enter the room and begin looking over his shoulder at the screens. Her brow was furrowed as she recognized the equations that were being displayed.

"Transdimensional formulas?" she asked aloud, puzzled.

With one swift keystroke, Negaduck cleared the two screens, then spun around in his chair to face NegaGosalyn.

"What do you want?" he growled, annoyed at her for spying.

"I want to know what it is that you're planning." NegaGosalyn said hotly, folding her arms. "You can't hide it from me forever."

"Watch me."

"Why are you keeping me out of the loop, anyway?"

"Because, Gos, you've been acting too good for your own good. To be perfectly honest, I don't trust you as much as I used to."

"Well, if it's any constellation, I don't trust _you_."

"See, that's another thing, this annoying cheekiness you've seemed to have developed. If you _really _want back into the loop of things, that has to go."

"Really, Dad, how are we _ever _going to accomplish anything if we don't trust each other? We can't work together like this!"

"Oh, yes we can. Besides, _I'll _be the one to decide if and when we can't work together anymore."

NegaGosalyn fell silent for a moment, not entirely sure she wanted to trust Negaduck with that task. Finally, she shook her head and got back on topic.

"I've got the sneaking suspicion that you never trusted me to begin with." she said accusingly.

"I trust no one but myself." Negaduck said, giving her a glare.

"And what on earth for? You act like everybody you meet is actually spying on you and relaying information to your enemies!"

"Which you aren't doing...are you?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, I have to wonder sometimes, Gos." Negaduck said, jumping up and pressing his face into NegaGosalyn's. "In fact, I'm wondering so much that I've half tempted to make you prove it."

"Then go ahead." NegaGosalyn challenged, pressing her face back into Negaduck's. "If you're so confident that I can't, then what's stopping you?"

They stood there staring at each other in silence for several long moments, waiting for each other to make the next move in their argument. They were still like that when Bushroot cautiously poked his head into the room.

"Um...is this a bad time?" he asked hesitantly, seeing the two staring each other down.

"What is it, Bushy?" Negaduck snapped, turning to face the mutant plant-duck.

Bushroot jumped, startled at the sudden outburst, but quickly recovered. "Uh, you might want and come what's on the TV, boss." he said politely, pointing back into the other room where the Negaquack was being worked upon.

Negaduck and NegaGosalyn glanced at each other, then followed Bushroot into the other room. It was a fairly large room, about twice the size of a usual hotel room, but it was clear it had been used for something else. The Negaquack was the central feature of the room, it's hood and various other hatches open as the gang worked to repair it. Tools and their cases also littered the ground. Quackerjack was leaning against the side of the jet, looking at the TV that sat in one corner of the room curiously. Rowe sat on the floor a few feet closer to the TV, also watching it, but with annoyed look. On the TV was a breaking news special report.

"It came on just a few moments ago." Bushroot explained, as Negaduck and NegaGosalyn moved to better see the TV.

"Interrupted the water polo game, too." Rowe muttered, dejected. "Just right when my favorite team was winning."

"It's clear somebody's been having fun, though." Quackerjack said with a giggle.

On the TV screen was the usual news reporter, talking about the breaking news monotonously. The volume was turned down, however, so it was hard to hear her. Displayed beside her in a little box was a picture of some structure collapsing, taken from afar. Negaduck pointed at it.

"Where's that?" he demanded.

"The old gristmill that's sat just outside St. Canard for decades." Bushroot replied. "It was attacked by something."

"Attacked?" NegaGosalyn asked, shooting Bushroot a surprised look. "By who?"

"That's what _they _want to know." Bushroot replied, pointing at the news reporter on the TV. "Nobody knows why and how exactly it happened."

"'cept maybe SHUSH." Rowe said glumly. "They've gone and blocked off the area around the mill and were the first to tell everybody not to panic. I think they know something."

"Oooh, look!" Quackerjack suddenly squealed, pointing at the TV. "They're going to play the recording again!"

Sure enough, they had. The screen had changed to show a brief recording of a ball of light dropping out of the sky somewhere above St. Canard (for a skyscraper could be seen to one side) and then shoot off in the direction of the mill, just barely visible on the horizon.

"Some cameraman was lucky enough to have a camera on hand when this all happened." Bushroot explained. "It's the only recorded footage the media has of it right now."

"So I take it that ball thing is what attacked the mill." Negaduck said, tapping at the orb of light displayed on the TV screen.

"That's what they say, mate." Rowe replied. "Nobody knows what it is and how it works, though."

"I'm more interested in knowing where it went when it was done."

"According to the report, it just shot back up into the sky over the city and vanished into the clouds." Bushroot replied with a shrug.

"So it's up _there _somewhere?" Crimson asked, pointing upwards at the sky, was it visible from in the room.

"It might." Bushroot said with another shrug.

"I want to know for sure." Negaduck growled, very intrigued with the mysterious globe of light.

"Sink me rudder mate, how do you plan on doing that?" Rowe asked.

"Easy." Negaduck said, walking over to the Negaquack and giving it a pat. "We fly. So everybody back to work so we can do just that!"

"But...this special report has to be over soon, and that water polo game isn't over yet!" Rowe whined, "There's still a chance I could see how it..."

Negaduck's reply was pulling out his pistol and shooting the TV screen, shattering it and ruining the TV.

"I said _back to work_." He growled threateningly. "Everyone! Don't stop until that jet's finished! I want to be able to fly after that ball within the hour!"

* * *

"I don't get it!" Dr. Bellum muttered as she reviewed the footage of the attack on the mill for a fifth time. "I'm not even sure if it's possible! I mean sure, one could create a big ball of energy to hurl at something, _or _create a means of manually guiding a fired projectile at something, but unless that ball of energy has something underneath all of that energy, it's not possible!"

"One thing _is _clear, though." Techno said, pointing at things of interest on the video as it played. "The ball seems to be drawing its power from its surroundings. See how there are arcs of lightning jumping from the ball and those power lines? That might also be how it's discharging the excess power."

"We _did _monitor some brief power fluctuations in that area of the Audubon power grid." Bellum admitted. "But where does _that _get us?"

"Not very far." Techno admitted, stopping the recording as it reached it's end and rewound it. He sighed. "Let's just face it, we can stare at this thing all day long, and we're not going to learn much."

Bellum sighed as well. "You're right, the only way to know how that thing, whatever it is, works is by studying it up close."

"Unless Steelbeak decides to just tell us, which I would highly doubt." Crimson remarked, who sat across the lab, watching the two theorize and speculate.

"Well, one thing _is _for sure, and that's the fact that Steelbeak knows that he's got us in a jam." Hooter said as he and Norrin stepped into the room. "We just got off the line within, listening to his demands."

"Oh?" Darkwing asked, who was sitting in a chair, looking restless and bored. "What does he want?"

"A million dollars from SHUSH itself, and a trillion dollars from the government itself, all of which is to paid within the hour in very small bills." Hooter replied, exasperated. "That includes tax. Oh, and a lifetime supply of polish, presumably for Steelbeak's beak."

"But of course." Crimson said with a grin.

"I'm sure you told him where to put his demands, though, right J. Gander?" Darkwing asked with a cruel grin.

"Actually, it was Vice President Norrin here who answered Steelbeak's video transmission." Hooter said, pointing behind him at the neutral-faced feline. "I just stood off-screen and listened.

"Oh really?" Darkwing asked, looking impressed as he turned to look at Norrin. "And how did that go for you?"

"Well, I will say this much." Norrin replied flatly. "I much rather would deal with pompous foreign diplomats from some obscure country like, say, Greater Llewellynland, than deal with Steelbeak."

"Well, that's something we can all agree on." Darkwing said with a grin.

"Of course, we have no intention of fulfilling Steelbeak's demands at this time." Hooter said. "But unless you've all come up with a plan of action, we may ultimately have no choice."

"Um, nope, we're fresh out." Launchpad admitted with a shrug.

"I thought the plan was to _fly _up there." Crimson muttered.

"Originally, yes." Norrin stated. "However, seeing now what Steelbeak is capable, we fear it would be too dangerous. This FOUL Ball, as Steelbeak called it, can easily plow through seemingly any object, planes included. We also don't know how many of these things Steelbeak has. A coordinated attack with a squadron of planes would prove to be disastrous."

"Okay, but suppose only _one _plane went." Darkwing said. "Like...say...the Thunderquack II?"

"For one thing, Darkwing, she's not ready, and I fear she might not be in time to try and stop this." Hooter said. "For another, one plane might not be enough to stop this either. Still, I see your point. The Thunderquack _would _stand a better chance against the FOUL Ball than much of anything else we could throw at Steelbeak."

Techno turned and approached the director slowly, his brow furrowed indicating he had a plan. "How far away are we from getting the Thunderquack fully operational, anyway?" he asked.

"According to the work crew, they claim they can have her ready by tonight, maybe a little earlier if they cut corners." Hooter said. "They can't get her ready soon enough for our purposes."

"But they could if they had more help." Techno said. "Suppose we got as many people as we could helping to get the Thunderquack ready for use. Could we have her ready by then?"

"Oh, absolutely." Dr. Bellum said immediately with confidence. "Even if the people didn't know how to help with the actual building, they could still be a great help."

Darkwing turned to Hooter with a grin. "Director, permission to get everybody we can and going to work on the Thunderquack?"

Hooter and Norrin exchanged glances. Surprisingly, it was Norrin who nodded. "Might as well." he said with a sigh. "We don't really have any other options at the moment."

Darkwing nodded, and with a rallying shout of "follow me", he led the way out of the lab to head for the room where the Thunderquack II was being built. Crimson was in the process of following when her cell phone rang suddenly. Dropping back to the end of the procession, she pulled out the phone and flipped it open. The caller ID labeled it as an unknown number. Hesitant, Crimson answered the call.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Crimson?" came the voice of NegaGosalyn. "Where are you?"

"Where do you think? Isn't this a little out of the ordinary for you to be calling me like this?"

"I don't have time to arrange for another impromptu meeting, I have an update on the status of the Negaquack."

"And that alone says it's not a good update."

"See, Negaduck's caught wind of the attack on the mill. Speaking of which, I presume you know all about that by now."

"Yeah, FOUL's behind it. Steelbeak destroyed the mill to demonstrate he can do the same to SHUSH HQ if we don't give him what he wants. We're working on a way stop it now."

"Likewise here, but for different reasons. Negs has clearly taken interest in this weapon or whatever you want to call it that FOUL, apparently, has. He's ordered us to step up our work on the Negaquack and to have it ready within the hour. And by the looks of things, he's going to get his wish."

Now NegaGosalyn had Crimson's undivided attention.

"That soon?" she asked, alarmed. "You told me it was still days away!"

"And that would've still been true had none of this stuff with FOUL not happened! Clearly, though, Negaduck's decided that he wants this weapon of FOUL's, and if he beats you guys to it, it's quite likely he'll get it too. And when he does, he won't stop with destroying just SHUSH HQ."

* * *

Crimson spread word of Negaduck's interest in the FOUL Ball quickly, hiding how she managed to obtain this information as always. Few seemed to notice that fact, however, being very alarmed at the idea of Negaduck getting control of the FOUL Ball, all of which only added more incentive to get the Thunderquack II ready before Steelbeak's deadline.

Like busy bees, the workers at SHUSH, Darkwing and the gang, and everyone else SHUSH could spare at the moment scurried back and forth preparing the jet for use. Parts were called for, assembled, and quickly added to the Thunderquack. Systems were tested and tried, making sure they operated correctly. Slowly, the jet started to take it's final shape.

It looked very much like the original Thunderquack, only its body was much sleeker and incorporated a new kind of armor provided by SHUSH. Also, unlike the original, the jet's wings were swept upward for maneuverability, and instead of folding up when the jet wasn't in use, the wings retracted. Other than that, the jet was identical to the original, but now featured several new tricks up it's sleeves that would give it a whole mess of new advantages. Halfway into the project, hopes started to soar as it became clear that they might actual be able to meet their planned deadlines.

Across the city, however, Negaduck was thinking the same thing. About just as quickly as the Thunderquack II slowly became ready for use, so did the Negaquack, although at a slightly slower rate. Like the Thunderquack II, it was identical to it's original Posiverse twin. However, it lacked the upgrades the Thunderquack II sported, being no better in design that the original Thunderquack, the only exceptions being the fact that it sported Negaduck's colors of red, yellow, and black, and was armed to the teeth.

Regardless of how close they all were to completing their individual projects, though, the jets were ready almost simultaneously, and were quickly prepared for take-off.

Their target: Steelbeak's zeppelin hidden somewhere over St. Canard.

* * *

"Pre-flight check, all systems go." Techno reported happily from within the Thunderquack. "We're all set to go."

"All right!" Darkwing said, strapping himself into the passenger's seat while Launchpad warmed up the engines. "We should have just enough time to try and stop Steelbeak then, if we hurry."

"You have roughly about twenty minutes before Steelbeak is scheduled to carry out his threat, Darkwing." Hooter said, standing beside the Thunderquack as it prepared for take off. "Hopefully, that _will _be time enough for you to do _something_. Inform us the moment you do, but until then, it would be best if you maintained radio silence. We don't know if Steelbeak's monitoring any radio transmissions in the area, so it's best to not take any chances."

"Agreed, it'd be better if we use as much of the element of surprise as possible." Darkwing said, nodding.

"Any ideas if Negaduck's ready yet, too?" Crimson asked, as she climbed into the back to sit beside Techno.

"None, but I imagine you'll be among the first to know." Hooter replied. He quickly took a few steps back as the whine of the jet's engines grew in volume. "Good luck, Darkwing, I have the utmost confidence in you!"

"Right, but on the slight chance that we fail..." Darkwing began.

Hooter nodded, one step ahead of him. "I've already ordered all non-essential personnel to evacuate the building." he said.

"Right." Darkwing said, with a nod, then turned to Launchpad. "You ready, LP?"

"Absolutely, DW, the Lovell Air Engines the Thunderquack's running on are working perfectly!" Launchpad replied. "Just give the word to take off, and I'll take us off!"

"I don't know if that's grammatically correct, but sure, take us off, LP." Darkwing said with a bemused half-grin and a shrug.

Launchpad nodded, and closed the cockpit's canopy. As it closed, the holographic HUD kicked in, flashing a wide variety of diagrams and information as it booted up, telling much about the jet's surroundings. The whine from the engines grew in volume as Launchpad gently pulled back on the controls and lifted the Thunderquack into the air. Turning it around to point towards the pair of doors that had been opened, the jet gracefully flew out the opening and out into the wintry air outside. Banking slightly, the jet turned around as it soared over St. Canard in preparation to flying to Steelbeak's zeppelin.

"Oh yes." Darkwing said with a pleased grin, as he leaned back in his chair. "This flight it going much smoother than that first one."

* * *

However, at the same time, the Negaquack was preparing for takeoff as well.

"You knobs strapped in yet?" Negaduck growled as he tapped controls, preparing for takeoff.

"Bushroot's on my side of the jet!" Quackerjack whined childishly from the back.

"How could I be?" Bushroot objected. "I'm on the _other _side of the jet! Rowe's closer to you than I am!"

"And I'm stuck in the middle between both of you loudmouths!" Rowe snapped.

"Look! Just shut up or else!" Negaduck roared, grinding his teeth noisily.

There was a moment of silence.

"Or else what?" Bushroot asked curiously.

"Or you'll turn this jet around?" Quackerjack asked, sounding a touch hopeful.

"We haven't even left yet, mate, more likely it's 'don't make me come back there' or something to that extent." Rowe said, folding his arms.

He blinked when he found Negaduck's pistol pointed at his nose.

"Exactly, Rowe, and you won't like it when I _do _have to come back there." Negaduck growled. Once the point was sufficiently across, he turned back around to face the controls, closing the canopy to the cockpit. "Okay, let's get this over with." he muttered.

"Engines are operating normally." NegaGosalyn reported as the engines started up, sitting in the passenger's seat. "You're cleared to take off."

"Gladly." Negaduck said, and pushed the controls forward.

The jet took off, shot out of the hideout and shot out over the Audubon Bay before it flipped around and shot back into the city, rising in altitude.

"Status report?" Negaduck barked.

"All systems go." NegaGosalyn replied.

Negaduck grinned. "Perfect."

* * *

A set of crosshairs on the canopy's HUD suddenly narrowed in on an object barely visible outside as the Thunderquack continued to fly over the city.

Darkwing squinted at it. "The sensors are detecting something." he said slowly. "I can't quite make out what, though."

"Data feedbacks suggest that it's a potential threat." Launchpad provided, reading the readouts that were displayed next to the crosshairs.

Crimson blinked, then turned to Techno. "Techno, can you use your visor to get a better look at that thing?" she asked.

"I can give it a shot." Techno replied, and used the magnify tool on his visor to zoom in on the distant object. His eyes widened suddenly as he realized what he was seeing.

"It's the Negaquack!" he reported, alarmed.

* * *

Rowe blinked as he spied a large object heading in their direction. "What's that?" he asked, pointing.

Quackerjack frowned as he studied it. "It looks like a jet."

Negaduck eyes went wide slightly as he recognized it. "Tell me it's not what I think it is."

"It is!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed with a discreet tone of relief. "It's the Thunderquack II!"

Negaduck's eyes grew wider still. "How is that possible?" he asked. "They should still be days away from completing that thing!"

"Apparently not." Bushroot said, then thoughtfully added, "Maybe they hurried and finished it to do the same thing as us."

"Well, whatever the case, I'm laying in an intercept course and arming weapons." Negaduck said, his eyes narrowing. "I'm not going to let those goody-good guys get in my way!"

* * *

"The Negaquack's coming our way!" Launchpad warned.

"Their weapons are armed!" Techno added urgently.

"Launchpad, wait until the last possible second, and then bank out of the way!" Darkwing instructed.

Launchpad nodded, and waited until the Negaquack was virtually on top of them before jerking the jet to the right suddenly. The Negaquack as shooting by that point, but most of it's shots missed it's intended target or bounced harmlessly off the Thunderquack's superior hull. The Negaquack shot past them, but quickly came about for another attack.

"Come about, LP, and arm the shock dart launchers!" Darkwing ordered.

Launchpad did as he was requested, maneuvering the jet around in a graceful loop twisting around so that it came out of the loop upside-up. When the Negaquack came into view, Launchpad fired off a swarm of shock darts, slightly larger and more powerful than their gas gun counterparts, which hit the Negaquack in random areas and discharging.

The systems on the jet flickered and fluctuated, stunning the enemy jet momentarily. Negaduck struggled with the unresponsive controls for a few moments angrily, but it still didn't change anything. The Thunderquack swooped over the hovering jet and turned upward to point at the sky. With a quick burst from the orbital thrusters, the jet shot into the overhanging bank of clouds that hung over the city. A moment later, as the Negaquack's systems recovered, it gave chase.

Shooting into the blinding layer of clouds, the Negaquack fired blindly at the jet it was chasing, but missed. It started to catch up with the Thunderquack, but the Thunderquack quickly put on an extra burst of speed to outrun it. Not to be defeated, the Negaquack launched a missile in retaliation. The Thunderquack evaded it quickly by doing a vertical barrel roll and launching several clusters of chaff that lured the fired missile away from it's target and caused it to detonate prematurely.

At that point, the two jets broke free of the layer of clouds and shot upward a few feet in clear skies. Reorienting themselves to skim along the top of this layer of clouds, they got a good view of Steelbeak's zeppelin, and all action stopped suddenly as everyone looked in awe at the craft's massive size.

"Keen gear." Crimson muttered to herself.

"That thing is bigger than the Hindenburg!" Darkwing exclaimed.

"_Easily _twice the Hindenburg's size!" Techno exclaimed. "What could Steelbeak possibly need with all that space?"

"Look, the control car looks to contain two levels." Crimson said, pointing. "There can't be that much space needed to control such a thing."

"No, even with it's enlarged size, it wouldn't." Techno reasoned. "That added space must be used for something. Maybe it's where the FOUL Ball is actually located."

The jet rocked suddenly as the crew of the Negaquack snapped out of their shock and fired upon the Thunderquack. Darkwing looked out the glass canopy at the neighboring ship with a look of annoyance.

"Launchpad, head for that control car and look for a way in." Darkwing ordered. "In the meantime, keep trying to evade the Negaquack's firing, while the rest of us think of a way to get rid of her."

* * *

"Sir, two unknown craft are converging on our position!" Edward exclaimed suddenly from the zeppelin's steering wheel, turning to face the president of FOUL.

Steelbeak, who had been in the process of being spoon-fed Jell-O by a lady Eggwoman, gagged in surprise on some of the Jell-O, and quickly jumped up.

"Say what?" he demanded, facing his 2IC. "Who? SHUSH?"

"Doubtful, the two craft, while generally similar in design, are fighting with each other." Edward said, moving towards the viewport. "Look, sir, you can see them from here."

Steelbeak hurried over, and looked for himself. He noted everything Edward had already told him, and identified both craft almost immediately and determined who was piloting which through the process of elimination soon thereafter.

"It's Darkwing and Negs!" he realized. "Darkwing's probably here at SHUSH's request, but Negs I have no clue on! I can't let 'em get any closer, though. Deploy the antiaircraft guns and fire at will at those two jets! Ready the FOUL Ball and some fighters should we need 'em!"

* * *

The zeppelin fired upon the two craft without warning. Surprised, both craft veered off from their present course to evade the fire, although both were hit by a number of shots. Damage was minimal to both craft. The attack distracted the two craft again, however, and they stopped fighting with each other to instead favor attacking the zeppelin. The Thunderquack kept it's distance while it fired pop-shots at the zeppelin's exposed antiaircraft guns. The Negaquack favored a more direct approach, and got up close and personal with the zeppelin, shooting at the offending guns at close range in a series of flybys.

Apparently seeing that the guns weren't going to be enough, a pair of doors on the underside of the control car opened, and small squadron of little fighter planes propelled with a propeller rather than a jet engine shot out and zoomed towards the two jets, firing blindly. They purposely overshot their targets, going past them, and then came about for another pass. Before they did, however, another hatch opened in the control car and the FOUL Ball was ejected. Sparking brightly with the usual aura of energy, it shot towards the two jets rapidly.

"Uh-oh." Techno said, alarmed.

Darkwing, however, was not. "Okay, enough fooling around." he said. "LP, engage the _best _upgrade we got from The Agency for this jet."

"Righty-o, DW!" Launchpad said, and pressed one control. "Engaging cloaking device!"

And without warning, the Thunderquack suddenly vanished from sight.

* * *

"Whoa." NegaGosalyn exclaimed when the Thunderquack suddenly and inexplicably vanished. "Keen gear, I didn't know it could do _that_!"

Negaduck didn't reply as he quickly jerked the steering wheel of the Negaquack, avoiding the FOUL Ball as it shot past them, energy sparking between it and the jet as it passed. The ball quickly came about along with the swarm of fighter planes and began to pursue the Negaquack. Negaduck began a series of maneuvers to try and loose their pursuers.

"Typical Darkwing." Negaduck muttered as he did this, bringing them close to the zeppelin. "Saves his own skin, but leaves the rest of _us _to fend for ourselves."

"But then we wouldn't have as much fun that way, Negs!" Quackerjack retorted.

The Negaquack rocked suddenly as it took a series of shots from the pursuing fighters, the FOUL Ball slowly gaining on them.

"I wouldn't call this fun, Quackerjack!" Negaduck snapped, twisting the controls suddenly.

The jet titled so that it was flying sideways, and flew dangerously close to one side of the zeppelin's envelope. The FOUL Ball backed away for this, probably for safety reasons and avoiding the risk of damaging the zeppelin in some way, but the fighters continued to tail the Negaquack, although they did loose some distance in the process.

Reaching the end of the zeppelin, Negaduck piloted the jet around the airship's dorsal section and out of sight as it flew around to the other side. The fighter planes followed, but were surprised to see that on the other side, the jet had simply vanished. At first, the pilots of the fighters thought that they had just somehow lost sight of the jet in the fading light from the setting sun and looped around the zeppelin again in search of the missing jet. However, they found nothing.

They continued searching, regardless. But no one looked on the zeppelin itself, for tucked away against one of the zeppelin's tail fin elevators was the Negaquack, safely parked and out of sight for the moment.

Negaduck leaned back in his seat, pleased for the moment. "Ha, let those knobs look as long as they want." he said. "Eventually, they'll give up, and then we'll have another shot at this."

"Hate to be the devil's advocate, mate, but what if they _do _find us?" Rowe asked politely.

Negaduck patted the gun controls. "That's why we have _these,_ Rowe." he said wickedly.

* * *

"Sorry sir, but both jets seemed to have vanished." Edward reported in the control car, reading the reports. "Maybe they gave up and left."

"Nah, too soon for that, they've hardly tried." Steelbeak retorted, glancing at his watch. He sighed. "I don't have time t' deal with this, though. Recall the FOUL Ball, I want it fully charged for when we attack SHUSH HQ in ten minutes. The fighters can keep lookin' for now."

* * *

The hanger bay in which the zeppelin's fighter planes had been launched was fairly quiet for the moment. With it's hanger doors still hanging open, Eggmen operators wandered about making sure everything was ship shape. Two machine guns were mounted on a platform that sat directly above the open doors, and two Eggmen were posted at them, ready to start shooting should they see any threats coming their way.

But they didn't see _this _threat coming.

"Pinpointed all the targets, LP?" Darkwing asked from where they watched within the Thunderquack II.

"Good enough, DW, and I have the machine guns on crowd control mode." Launchpad said, fingering the weapon controls nervously. "You sure you want to do this?"

"We can't do anything else until we do, Launchpad." Crimson pointed out. "We can't exit the Thunderquack while it's cloaked."

"Nor can we fire while cloaked." Techno pointed out.

"Ah, but we still have the advantage at the moment, and that should be good enough for my purposes." Darkwing said, then nodded at Launchpad. "Go ahead, LP. Let 'em have it."

The Thunderquack suddenly uncloaked within the hanger bay, startling all of the Eggmen present in the room. They quickly moved to react, but weren't quick enough. Firing the jet's machine guns, Launchpad spun the jet around in a circle, watching as little electric bullets, which are pretty much small balls of low-level electric energy, were fired around in the hanger bay. Sparking when they hit something, every Eggman hit was zapped enough to pass out or to be stunned enough to be put out of condition for the time being. The bullets also doubled as low-level shock darts, although not nearly as effective. Several systems were scrambled, destabilized, or in the case of the alarm system which took several hits, completely burned out. Within moments, the room was clear.

Landing the Thunderquack in the space of the other fighter planes, the group clambered out.

"Okay, so what are we looking for?" Crimson asked, as she double checked to make sure the area was clear, gas gun drawn.

"I think I saw the FOUL Ball re-enter the cab before we started the attack." Techno said. "We should focus on finding it and disabling it."

Darkwing checked his watch. "We have about five minutes before the ball is launched again, this time to destroy SHUSH Headquarters." he said urgently. "We need to hurry and find anything pertaining to it, quickly!"

They began looking around the hanger bay for any clues. Finally, on the other side of the bay, Techno found a small unsuspecting door, looking like a submarine hatch, that told enough.

"Darkwing, look at this!" he called, pointing at the door's label. "It says: 'FOUL Ball Recharging Area'."

Darkwing, Crimson, and Launchpad all hurried over to the door. Keeping his gas gun at the ready, Darkwing carefully and slowly unlatched the door, and threw it open. Crimson pointed her gas gun inside and fired two canisters of sleeping gas into the room. It contained only two Eggmen, of the science sort, who were gathered around a control panel. They didn't even see the cartridges coming until too late, and dropped like rocks. When they fell, though, they gave the gang a good look at the FOUL Ball.

Powered down as it was to recharge, the ball appeared to be nothing more than a large ball of transparent glass with empty space in it's center. Two metal rings looped around it's outside, one on its equator, the other on its prime meridian. The ball was nothing more than that, and were that all, the gang would've been at a loss for how it worked. But the one item the ball contained explained that actually rather well.

Crimson stepped towards the ball, mouth agape. "Gigavolt?" she asked, surprised.

Gigavolt twisted around from where he stood within the ball, the perpetual aura of energy that surrounded him flickering, and shot a glare at the newcomers.

"You!" he exclaimed, his voice muffled slightly by the walls of the ball. "I don't know who you are, but I hate you!"

"Sounds like his memory is still scrambled." Darkwing muttered, folding his arms satisfactorily.

"Explains why we haven't seen him in awhile, though." Techno noted, scanning the orb with his visor while Gigavolt ranted on about how much he hated them, despite not remembering who they were. "FOUL must have nabbed him for this very project. It's _Gigavolt _that provides the power for the FOUL Ball. In fact, he's the only thing that even makes it possible!"

"Not because I choose to!" Gigavolt snapped, who proved to be listening after all. "I was forced into this!"

"Like I really pity your situation, Gigs." Darkwing muttered, not having forgiven Gigavolt for all the destruction and trouble he caused the last time they met.

"Actually, though, he's probably telling the truth." Techno noted, and then pointed at the two rings the ball sported. "Look, you see these? They're frequency modulators. They, uh, release pulses of low-level energy at certain frequencies. When modulated correctly, it's theoretically possible to use these pulses to kind of 'force' Gigavolt into his bolt form, where he releases all of the energy he's collected in the form of a bolt, engulfing the ball. That's what creates the sphere of energy that we saw destroy the mill. FOUL controls it by remote control through some sort of...anti-gravity system, it appears." Techno took a step back and looked the whole contraption over again with a frown. "To FOUL, Gigavolt's merely a tool to them."

"I'm more interested in find out how FOUL got Gigs in there." Launchpad remarked, scratching his head as he puzzled about this detail.

"I don't suppose _you _would tell us, would you?" Darkwing asked Gigavolt.

"I...I...don't remember how." Gigavolt admitted with a shrug.

"Well, don't take this the wrong way, Gigs, but that's actually kind of a reassuring thing to know." Crimson said, stepping towards the ball to peer through it at Gigavolt.

"Okay, so...if we get Gigs out of there, then we can stop FOUL's little plan." Darkwing summarized. "Tech, can you get him out of there?"

Techno moved to stand behind the control panel the two Eggmen had been gathered around and scanned it, tapping controls at random. "Actually, it'll be pretty hard, seeing that I have no clue how FOUL got him in there to begin with either." He said, growing frustrated. "The ball appears to be completely seamless. I have no clue how to get him out."

"Well," Darkwing said, glanced at his watch, "You have three minutes to think of something Tech, or SHUSH HQ is toast. So no pressure."

* * *

"Two and a half minutes until our deadline, sir." Edward reported from his station.

Steelbeak nodded, and pressed a button on the arm of his chair. "Hey ya guys in the rechargin' room, ya done rechargin' in time for us t' have a ball? Heh-heh-heh!"

But the only response he got was silence. He frowned, and looked at the button he had pressed in annoyance, like it was all its fault.

"Hello?" he called again. "Is there anybody down there in the hanger bay at all anymore?"

When he continued to get no response, he turned to Edward. "Edward, bring up the security cameras for the hanger bay." he ordered.

Edward nodded, and brought up the first camera in the series on a nearby screen. Steelbeak strolled over and peered at the screen as Edward rotated through each camera's display. At first, all they saw was lots of unconscious Eggmen lying around. But then, finally, one camera showed the Thunderquack II parked in one corner of the hanger bay. Steelbeak jabbed a finger at it.

"It's Darkwing!" he exclaimed, clenching his fist. "Rr! The very last thing I need t' deal with right now!" he turned to face two nearby Eggmen. "You and you, you're comin' with me. So c'mon!" he hurried for the staircase that would lead down to the hanger bay, the two Eggmen following. At the top, he paused, and turned back to Edward. "Edward, when we reach our deadline, ya fire th' FOUL Ball as planned, no matter what, ya got it?"

"Understood sir." Edward said, and turned back to his console.

* * *

"One minute left!" Darkwing exclaimed urgently. "Techno, now would be a good time!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not getting anywhere, here!" Techno exclaimed back, frustration as he pounded on the control panel in frustration. "I'm beginning to think that the controls to release Gigavolt, if they even exist, must be located in the control room, somewhere above us. I can't even find a launch control here, not that we want to do that."

Crimson was busy pounding away at the clear material that made the ball with the butt of her gas gun. "This thing seems to be unbreakable, too." she commented as she banged fruitlessly upon it.

Gigavolt inside the ball, hands over his ears, in annoyance. "Will you stop that infernal din already?" he snapped. "I'm getting a headache!"

"You know, you _could _help me here!" Crimson said. "If you really want out of there..."

"I've _tried,_ okay?" Gigavolt said, frustrated. "If there was a way for me to get out of this thing myself, I would've..."

He trailed off suddenly as he clutched at his head as if in pain. A high-pitched wine began to ring out. Crimson stopped banging on the ball to watch in curiosity.

"Thirty seconds!" Darkwing exclaimed, watching the seconds tick by on his watch.

"It's too late." Techno realized. "There's nothing I can do to stop it now!"

Gigavolt let out a moan as he collapsed to lean against the side of the ball in agony, his image beginning to distort as the frequency modulators began to kick in. Suddenly, Gigavolt's features melted away into a mass of brightly glowing energy that was quickly beginning to grow and fill the ball.

"Crimson, look out!" Techno warned, moving around the control panel and throwing himself onto Crimson, knocking her and himself to the floor.

It was just in time, for shortly thereafter, the FOUL Ball powered up fully, and began zapping at it's surroundings with bolts of lightning. It was allowed to do this for a few moments, and then it suddenly dropped through the floor, and was launched out into the air outside.

* * *

The occupants in the Negaquack saw the FOUL Ball drop out of zeppelin and down towards its target down below like a rock. They all leaned over to get a better look.

"Hey, there's the ball!" Bushroot announced unnecessarily, pointing.

Negaduck raised the jet's throttle. "We're going after it." he announced, looking determined.

NegaGosalyn glanced at him. "We are?"

"Oh yeah." Negaduck assured her.

And with that, the Negaquack shot out of it's hiding spot suddenly, shot down one passing fighter plane and slammed into another, and then dipped down to chase after the FOUL Ball, rapidly gaining on it...

* * *

When the ball dropped through the floor, Darkwing and the others hurried back out of the recharging room to the hanger bay to watch the ball sail towards its target through the open bay doors.

"We've got to stop it!" Darkwing said, pounding his fist on the railing they were gathered at.

"But how?" Launchpad asked, at a loss. "We don't have the time to start up the Thunderquack and chase after it!"

Then the Negaquack suddenly zipped into view, chasing after the FOUL Ball, and was beginning to overtake the ball before both vanished into the bank of clouds. Crimson blinked, and then suddenly grinned as an idea struck her.

"Rowe." she whispered.

Techno heard, and glanced at her. "Rowe?" he questioned.

"Rowe!" Crimson repeated.

Techno paused to think that through. Then he, too, grinned. "Oh! Rowe!"

And without warning, grabbed Crimson around the middle and the pair jumped out the open bay doors, Techno activating his rocket boots in the process to give chase.

"Crimson! Techno!" Darkwing exclaimed, alarmed, as he watched the two fly away.

But he was cut short when he heard guns cocking. Launchpad turned, and put his hands in the air. Darkwing slowly did the same, already knowing what he was going to find behind him.

"Well, well, well, Darkwing." Steelbeak remarked, smirking, flanked by two armed Eggmen. "Looks like you're all dressed up with nowheres t' go."

* * *

With the air rushing around them violently, Techno and Crimson shot downwards to the earth rapidly under the thrust of Techno's rocket boots, operating with the boosters on. Gravity itself helped speed them up faster. Within seconds, they were within the embankment of clouds and shooting through them. Part of the way through, they caught up with the FOUL Ball, very nearly running into it in the process. Overtaking it, they continued on through the bank of clouds. Shooting on through that, St. Canard came back into view again, as well as the Negaquack, which had successfully overtaken the FOUL Ball and was flying ahead of it, turned backwards so that it's guns would be pointing at it in preparation of shooting it. Crimson and Techno knew it would do little good.

They then passed the Negaquack, which was braking to slow it's descent slightly, and flew on into St. Canard itself, heading straight for SHUSH Headquarters. Once there, Techno braked, and while still holding Crimson in his arms, turned around to face the oncoming FOUL Ball and the Negaquack and hovered there. At first, they did nothing, watching as the Negaquack staged it's unsuccessful attack, and then was forced to break off before it ran into a building, flying by near Techno's and Crimson's position. Then, as the FOUL Ball came as close as Crimson was willing to risk, Crimson made on action that saved SHUSH HQ.

Drawing magical energy from her familiar on the Negaquack, which she had reforged a connection with while in passing and was still within range, Crimson created a magical barrier between her and the oncoming FOUL Ball. And it was a big one, completely encompassing SHUSH HQ below, shielding the building from the FOUL Ball, or so was the hope. It was possible that the magical energy wouldn't affect it.

But it did. The FOUL Ball hit the barrier full force, and bounced harmlessly off it, spiraling away haphazardly before coming around to strike again from a different angle, again and again. But every time it hit the shield, it zapped energy from Crimson, who was the only thing keeping the barrier there. Techno knew this, and quickly began to worry that she wouldn't be able to keep it up forever.

"Crimson, try to use your magic to free Gigavolt!" he urged her.

"I...I can't!" Crimson said, flinching as the energy recoil of the rebounding FOUL Ball hit her like a physical object. "I don't know how! And Rowe's moving away, I can feel the energy draining away!"

Techno turned, and saw that the Negaquack was indeed moving away in a banking turn. The turn would eventually take it back within range, but Techno feared it would be too late by then, and searched for a way to buy them more time.

"Techno, a shield of this size takes extra energy to maintain!" Crimson reminded him. "I can't hold it for much longer!"

Techno suddenly had a thought. "Crimson, does this shield block things from both sides?" he asked.

"N-no, I think it's only one-way." Crimson said, though she wasn't sure of that.

Techno decided to chance it, as they had little to loose. Pulling out a chemical bomb, he waited until the FOUL Ball struck the shield within throwing range, and then hurled the bomb in that direction. At first, techno couldn't tell if the bomb made it through, or if it even went far enough, but a moment later, an explosion rang out on the other side of the shield, and right in the path of the FOUL Ball as it slammed into the shield. It bounced off it harder than the times before, the strain of it hitting Crimson hard, but the ball itself seemed to have taken a hard blow as well. It hovered there for a moment, then spiraled around to the ground, struggling, it appeared, to regain the altitude it had lost, but failing.

It was then that Crimson suddenly passed out, taking the shield with her in an undramatic pop. Techno was confident that on the Negaquack, Rowe had probably just passed out himself, although in all the excitement, he somehow doubted if anybody noticed it. And speaking of the Negaquack, it had finished it's banking turn and was now coming back. It rushed past Techno very close to him with a roar, and rushed towards. As it did some, Crimson suddenly snapped back to consciousness with a jolt. Meanwhile, the Negaquack narrowed in on the FOUL Ball fired two missiles in rapid succession at it, both hitting their target with a bang.

Now on fire, the FOUL Ball finally hit the ground with a heavy thud...

* * *

"Nice, ya've got a new set of wings, Darkwing." Steelbeak noted as he ran an admiring hand across the hull of the Thunderquack II.

"Enough chit-chat, Steelbeak, and get to the point!" Darkwing said, being held at bay by gunpoint from the two armed Eggmen.

"Very well." Steelbeak said, leaning casually on the Thunderquack. "Seein' that I've got ya now Darkwing, I'll just have t' lock ya up and throw away the key back at HQ."

Darkwing snorted. "SHUSH'll stop you."

"Oh, SHUSH HQ is long gone by now, by my calculations." Steelbeak said, checking his watch. "Granted, that won't get rid of 'em entirely, but it'll leave 'em reelin' for awhile."

Darkwing had already thought of this, and knew that it was a distinct possibility, but he wasn't going to let that show.

"Anyway, I _want _SHUSH t' intervene anyway." Steelbeak continued. "They like ya too much Darkwing, though I can't imagine why. They'll be willin' t' pay through the nose t' get ya back unharmed."

"If they didn't give in to your demands regarding the FOUL Ball, what makes you think they'll give in to your demands now?" Darkwing asked hotly.

"Well, it'd be your loss if they don't, Darkwing." Steelbeak said, with a sly look, his metal beak grinning.

Launchpad gulped nervously.

"So, uh, how do ya work this thing, anyway?" Steelbeak asked, poking his head into the cockpit of the Thunderquack and touching controls at random.

Darkwing and Launchpad glanced at each other.

"It's actually rather complicated, Steelbeak." Darkwing replied flatly.

"Oh c'mon, if _he _can fly it, I certainly can." Steelbeak said, jabbing a finger at Launchpad as he continued to press controls at random to no avail. "Really, you guys need to label these controls."

"No need when you have them all memorized." Launchpad stated without warning.

Steelbeak glanced up at him. "So which one turns this puppy on?" he asked.

"Well, first you have to unlock the controls first."

"And I'll bet that requires a password of some sort, right?"

"Yep."

"Okay, so...what...am I supposed to guess, or ya just gonna tell me what it is?"

"Like we'd really tell you what the password is, Steelbeak." Darkwing snorted.

"No, wait, forget I asked that, I think I already know what it is." Steelbeak said, beginning to type in a possible password, saying it aloud as he went. "'I...am...the...ter...ror...that...flaps...in the...night.'" He grinned as the screen changed, and took a hold of the jet's steering wheel. "Darkwing, your ego will someday be your undoin' ya realize that, don't ya? I mean, couldn't ya have come up with a more original password?"

"Ah, but who said that _was _the password?" Darkwing asked, a sly grin of his own spreading across his face now, "The computer's actually scanning you before it authorizes the password, making sure that you are someone with authorization to be in that jet."

Steelbeak paled for a second, glancing back at the screen in time for it to flash a new message that read: 'intruder detected, disabling threat.' He then looked back at Darkwing and Launchpad, who were both grinning victoriously.

"Oh no." he said aloud.

And then the jet sent an electrical current through out the cockpit that zapped Steelbeak into passing out. The moment this was done, both Darkwing and Launchpad simultaneously twisted around, grabbed the gun arms of their two Eggmen guards, yanked the arms forward, bringing the two Eggmen closer to them, and then jointly rammed their elbows into the faces of both guards. They dropped like stones. The hero and sidekick then ran over to the Thunderquack, heaved Steelbeak out of the cockpit and dropping the rooster unceremoniously on the floor, and then climbed in themselves, closing the canopy.

"So DW, if the password Steelbeak used wasn't the right one, what _is _the right password?" Launchpad asked once they were inside.

"'Jumpgate93.'" Darkwing replied as he typed it in. He paused, then added, "Don't tell Gosalyn."

"I won't."

Starting up the engine to the Thunderquack II, they took off, exited the hanger bay, and shot away from the zeppelin, anxious to see if there was a SHUSH HQ to return to...

* * *

Techno landed on the roof of SHUSH Headquarters, and gently set Crimson, who was too exhausted to stand, but was conscious, down. He then peered down at the FOUL Ball lying in the street below, burning. The Negaquack still circled overhead.

Crimson glanced up at the jet. "I though Negs was interested in taking the ball for himself, not destroying it." she remarked weakly.

"Maybe he hopes to salvage it." Techno reasoned. "Well, at least we know it's disabled for the moment."

"Think Gigs is okay?"

Just after she said this, the ball suddenly exploded, and a streak of white energy shot upwards and into the sky as Gigavolt finally escaped. They both watched it fly away.

"Yeah, I think so." Techno remarked with a grin.

* * *

Groaning, Steelbeak picked himself off the ground and looked around the hanger bay, unsurprised to see that Darkwing, Launchpad, and the Thunderquack II were both gone. With a groaned, he let himself collapse back onto the floor again.

"Sir!" came Edward's voice suddenly. Steelbeak turned to see his 2IC hurry over with another group of Eggmen. "Are you all right?"

"Just peachy." Steelbeak muttered, annoyed, getting up with Edward's help. "Please tell me ya have good news."

Edward bit his lip. "No." he admitted.

"Oh great, what happened _now_?"

"Well, first, we couldn't destroy SHUSH Headquarters as planned, because it had some sort of shield in place that the FOUL Ball couldn't penetrate, and then the ball was successfully attacked, disabled, and destroyed."

"Gigs?"

"Escaped. At least, so far as we know."

"Don't you _know _for _sure_?"

"It's difficult to find these things out from this distance with a bank of clouds blocking your view."

Steelbeak sighed, rubbing at his head in dismay. "Are we at risk of being attacked?"

"Not yet, but I imagine if we stay here for much longer..."

"Right, right, give the pilot the order to break position and head home, best possible speed." Steelbeak said, waving his hand. He sighed as he watched the group walked off to carry out his orders, then shrugged. "Well, on the bright side, at least there's nobody higher up than me that I have to report this utter failure to."

Turning around, the zeppelin started it's long trip back to base, leaving St. Canard in peace.

* * *

When the Thunderquack returned to the location of SHUSH HQ, both Darkwing and Launchpad were pleased to see that everything here was still very much intact, and the FOUL Ball was destroyed and it's sole occupant escaped unharmed. The Negaquack was still in the area, but it was beginning to turn away and leave, seeing there was little left of value for the crew of the jet to obtain.

But it wasn't going to leave without having the last word, however.

"Receiving a transmission from the Negaquack." Launchpad reported, surprised.

"Put it through." Darkwing said, also surprised.

"Darkwing, I don't know how you did it so quickly, but you clearly have a means of getting around again." came Negaduck's voice.

"Yes we do." Darkwing said proudly. "Jealous?"

"Hardly. Nor am I afraid of you anymore than before. Because as you can see, Dipwing, the Fearsome Five now has a means of keeping with you, and I assure you, I intend to use it to the best of it's abilities."

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't, Negs."

"This time you may have emerged from this situation the victor, but let me be the first to tell you, Darkwing, that your days for peace are numbered. And I mean it, too."

And with that, the transmission ended.

* * *

Techno watched the Negaquack sail away and the Thunderquack fly over head in preparation to land on the roof of SHUSH HQ before he turned to help Crimson up carefully. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, no permanent damage." Crimson said, accepting the help gratefully.

"The connection between you and Rowe?"

"Already severed. Did it just before the Negaquack went out of range."

Techno grinned. "You know, this magical ability of yours has been proving to be pretty handy to have around." he remarked.

"Yeah." Crimson agreed with an exhausted sigh, wiping her brow. "But I am sure glad I don't have to do it everyday."

Techno grinned, and patted Crimson on the back as they both walked off to join Darkwing and Launchpad at the Thunderquack II...

* * *

_Fun Facts: This is the first chapter since chpt. 21, "Liquify" that does not have an author's note at the beginning. I...just didn't have anything to say today. :p_

_The term "IT", for those of you who don't know, is short for "Information Technology", or in short, most of today's computer technology. Therefore, an IT Department would be responsible for all of the maintence and operations for the computer technology in it's area; in this case, SHUSH Headquarters._

_It's been awhile since a Flashquack had appeared in this fanfic, seeing that SHUSH usually contacts DW and the gang by video transmission these days. Figured it was time we saw it again. Really, though, I don't have much use for the thing anymore. :-/_

_Yes, I have devised a possible meaning for the acronym "SHUSH", (The Special Handlings Union of Spies Hub) which was no easy task. It really is kind of an ackward acronym to figure out what it might stand for. I almost didn't do it, in fact, with the idea of stating that the meaning was there, and could be seen, but was never spoken out loud. I felt that was cheap, though, so I worked to complete it. The original meaning was actually going to be the "Special Handlings Union of Spies Headquarters", but I felt the word "headquarters" implyed that the organization was limited to just SHUSH HQ, when it most certainly is not. "Hub", which is a snyonym of sorts to "Headquarters," was used instead because it seemed more...broad._

_Norrin's really only present in this chapter because I wanted to have him appear again. It would work just as well without him (though there would be a few less gags. :p)._

_The idea of a FOUL Ball is actually bit of an old one that I've had, and actually did not originate with NADWD at first. For a long while, I didn't know how the FOUL Ball was going to work, which made me worry that this chapter wasn't going to work out when it came time to write it. However, after writing chpt. 57, "Gigavolt", I realized Gigavolt could actually work to power the device, and shortly thereafter came up with the plot you see now. :)_

_On a side note, the original FOWL once created a device they called "FOWL Ball" themselves, which appeared in the episode "Smarter Than a Speeding Bullet". It was basically a giant sized rubber ball that was remote controlled, and was to be used to cause panic by slamming into things and destroying them. Personally, I think my version of the FOUL Ball is cooler. B)_

_Of course, though, this chapter's really about the new Thunderquack II, and showing off everything this thing can do. And I've still got a few ideas for a few other gizmos for it that I might show off in another chapter. ;)_

_We get our first clue as to what Negaduck's "big plans" are in this chapter. Trandimensional formulas...hmm...wonder what Negs wants with those...;)_

_I figured Rowe would be the kind of guy who'd like water polo for a sport, and it was the only water-based competitive sport I could find that wasn't too obscure for anybody to know about (did YOU know there's such a thing as underwater hockey?). I've never heard of any water polo games being broadcasted on TV for anything other than the Olympics, though._

_When Norrin states he'd rather deal with diplomates from Greater Llewellynland than deal with Steelbeak, the reference to "Greater Llewellynland" is a reference to the comic "Ozy & Millie". Diplomats from there probably would not be very fun for a true politian to deal with (it'd be funny to watch, tho). Although, I don't think the word "pompous" even applies to Greater Llewellynland..._

_I had plans at first to have Steelbeak's zeppelin to come crashing down in a firey ball of fire kind of like the Hindenburg did, but later thought against it._

_Because DW has always persisted that he's not a **Jumpgate **fan, the fact that he made the password to unlock the Thunderquack's controls be something pertaining to it would say otherwise. Hence why DW askes LP to not tell Gos, or Gos would never let DW live it down. If we wanted to be realistic, though, all four of them should probably know the password already._

_Originally, I planned to have Techno and Gigavolt talk briefly after Gigs got out of the FOUL Ball, but I couldn't think of anything for them to say, so I scrubbed it._

_This is the new longest chapter, just barely totalling to thirty pages in a word processor (minus the summary, rating, and fun facts, of course. Those are all added later after the chapter is uploaded to FanFiction)._

_Also, I meant to do this last chapter (but completely spaced it), but I'm going to try something new and announce the title of the next upcoming chapter to try and spark your guys's interests (not that I need to :p). So be sure to catch chpt. 65, "Fight Or Flight". ;)  
_


	65. Fight Or Flight Part I

Summary: When the gang heads off on a brief three-day weekend trip to unsuspecting Cape Suzette, they're expecting a relaxing and quick sight-seeing vacation. But they quickly realized that they are being watched by more than one person...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Yeah, I know I didn't say anything about this being a two-part chapter, and that's because it wasn't supposed to be. But the chapter rapidly proved to be _way _too long to squeeze into one chapter, so I reluctantly revised my plans and have made it a two-parter. As a result, we are going to be loosing a chapter (otherwise all my carefully planned out chapters will be terribly derailed) but more on that will be explained in the fun facts that'll come with part 2. Anyway, this chpt is a DW/Talespin crossover (c'mon, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later :p) and this first part, I think, turned out remarkably well. So enjoy. :)

65.

Fight Or Flight Part I

**September 1937, off the coast of Cape Suzette.**

The ocean was calm that night.

But the skies above it were not.

A series of fighter planes shot over the ocean and, their guns firing in a loud, percussive, ratta-tat-tat, shot towards the massive bulk of a large airship that was shooting back at the swarms of planes that spiraled around it. On the horizon, the cliffs of Cape Suzette could be seen, the cliff cannons taking occasional pop-shots at it's target, but it was too far out of range.

The pirate airship, called the _Iron Vulture_, continued on it's attack the planes swarming it. Occasionally, a burst of light would flash from the airship's beak-shaped nose, resembling lightning. The bolts of energy would occasionally hit its targets, with deadly results, or miss. Either way, the airship had the advantage with this superior weapon that it had.

A fact that Kit Cloudkicker knew well.

As he hurried quickly through the dark, but thankfully empty metallic corridors deep within the _Iron Vulture_, he paused at a viewport and peered out it at the battle taking place outside. As he had feared, it was going badly. It was a miracle that the squadrons of fighter planes hadn't already been overwhelmed leaving the _Iron Vulture_ free to enter Cape Suzette and plunder it, as was the plan.

Hence why Kit was here. He intended on turning the tables on the air pirates.

Of course, there were other objectives to this little mission anyway. The whole reason this mess even started was because the air pirates were able to nab their cargo. It shouldn't have happened; they had been specifically entrusted with this cargo because they knew the dangers of it falling into the wrong hands. And the amounts of money promised to be paid in full once this task was done was so large that Miss Cunningham declared it would be their most profitable delivery of the year. As such, they had taken on the job, specifically promising to not let anything happen to the cargo, but they did anyway.

Now they were going to pay the price if things weren't set right.

Fortunately, Kit was already halfway there. Clutched tightly under one arm was a small box. Small enough that nobody would ever think that something that could cause this much trouble would ever fit into it, but it did. And it didn't even take up the whole box either. But things were only halfway set straight, because the item in this box had a twin. And currently the air pirates were making full use of it.

It would not be leaving the airship intact, either, Kit knew that much. There was far too much risk involved in getting it out of here safe to do that. Fortunately, everyone had...somewhat...come to terms with that. It would be a loss, but Kit personally didn't care that much. One would survive this mess if everything went according to plan. That would have to be enough.

Reaching the end of the corridor, Kit reached a door, hearing noise behind it. Carefully twisting the latch open, he pushed the metal hatch open and peered into the room beyond. The room in question was the _Iron Vulture's _largest, doubling as both a hanger bay for it's own squadron of fighter planes and whatever cargo (usually a sizable one) she might be carrying. Currently, it was mostly empty, which proved to be problematic as Kit slipped into the room, as there was little place to hide. A nearby CT-37 pirate fighter provided cover enough for Kit as he ducked behind it, and moved to duck behind others that were lined up a row next to it, moving towards the front of the airship.

At the front was the _Vulture's _beak-like nose, that opened up like a "jaw" that doubled as both a doorway and a platform to stand upon. A small number of pirates, no more than three or four, stood on this platform next to the one weapon that gave the _Iron Vulture _it's massive advantage in this conflict.

The Lightning Gun.

A near perfect facsimile of the original weapon the air pirates had first constructed more than a year ago, the Lightning Gun was currently in the process of turning slightly to the right to fire at a passing target, one of the many fighter planes that were circling the _Iron Vulture _and attacking it. Getting his target, the operator of the gun (whom Kit could not identify from here) fired without hesitation. With a flash of light, the weapon fired off a bolt of energy near identical to a bolt of lightning and hit the offending plane in the wing, making it spiral out of control.

The on-looking pirates whooped and danced with joy at this, and each had some praise to give to the operator, though the loudest of these was from the pirate's leader, who stood out to Kit.

"Very good, very good!" Don Karnage exclaimed with glee in his curious accent, doing an almost child-like hop-skip in victory. "These puny planes do not stand the _tiniest_ chance against my Lightning Gun!" the general euphoria of the victory seemed to evaporate at that moment for Karnage, though, for he quickly calmed down and pulled out a pair of binoculars to watch the battle with. "Now hurry up and destroy the other planes, now." he told the operator briskly and flatly, waving him on with one hand.

The operator shrugged, and did as requested. Kit moved as close as he dared, but knew every step closer ran a greater risk of him being seen, which of course, he didn't want. He had been lucky enough to avoid detection for this long when he had been dropped here in a planned infiltration that, frankly, didn't go quite as planned. He had actually been onboard the _Iron Vulture _for the better part of an hour, which was well spent in trying to work out an improvised plan.

During this planning time, Kit put extra special attention on how he was going to get back the stolen cargo, having known the locations of both well in advance. It didn't take him long to decide that one was going to escape this flying aircraft carrier while the other likely was not, not intact, at least. Kit knew that unless luck was _really _on his side (which the course of events today had proven it was not) he was going to have to somehow destroy it. His initial plan at first was to steal it and then just as quickly dispose of it (because stealing it wouldn't go unnoticed by the pirates), but he now saw that there were far too many pirates gathered around the Lightning Gun to even do that. He was going to figure out a different way.

It didn't take long to figure it out. Embedded in the wall nearby was a rack of weapons, containing mostly rifles, muskets, pistols, and grappling hook rifles. Kit took a small six-round pistol from it's hook and started to scale a nearby ladder. He had never fired a gun such as this before, and hadn't any intention to do so today, but he saw that the pistol actually could help him.

Arriving on a platform higher up in the hanger bay, Kit took the pistol and took aim, searching for his target. From this angle, he could hit somebody if he wasn't careful, which wasn't at all his plan. Instead, he aimed the pistol as the crystal-like power source of the Lightning Gun, the very thing that allowed the gun to be even possible. A sub-electron amplifier, a artificial crystal that could contain limitless amounts of energy at any given moment through some kind of science that Kit couldn't be bothered to learn.

He had encountered such a crystal before, however. He knew how to handle it and what it could do. He didn't know how strong it was, however, and how durable it might be. It seemed throwing it hard against a hard surface wouldn't shatter it, so Kit had no guarantee a bullet would harm it either, but it was the best plan he had. Confident he had lined up a shot, he fired.

The bullet struck the sub-electron amplifier right on, and ricocheted right off. Jostled, the crystal started to spark and surge with power, releasing small arcs of energy that zapped at its surroundings. The pirates, despite hearing the gunshot, all initially turned to look at the crystal. The Lightning Gun wined as the resulting surge of power the crystal was producing overworked its circuitry.

Kit had been knocked backwards a step in the recoil of the pistol firing, but he quickly stepped back into position and lined up another shot. His aim had to be adjusted slightly as the sub-electron amplifier was nudged slightly out of place. At the very least, Kit could hope that another gunshot would knock it free, rendering the Lightning Gun useless, and maybe the crystal would then fall off the platform and into the sea. But the second gunshot proved to be more powerful than Kit had suspected, because when the second bullet hit the crystal, it whizzed through it, shattering it explosively, ricocheted off the backside of the Lightning Gun, and then hit part of the hydraulic mechanism that opened and closed the beak.

Shards of the sub-electron amplifier scattered all over the area, sparking violently as they impacted something, some sticking into the floor and walls. Startled, the pirates scattered, and the operator of the now useless Lightning Gun threw himself from it's control platform. Don Karnage was the only one who didn't scatter, but that was only because he happened to be the closest to the crystal when it shattered, raining shards down on him. Throwing his arms up to shield himself, he overbalanced and fell over with a yelp. Picking himself up, stunned, one cheek cut by one of the shards and was now bleeding freely, Karnage fingered at one of the shards for a moment with his fingers, then finally twisted around to look in the source of the bullets, and saw Kit.

"Ah!" Karnage exclaimed in surprise, jumping to his feet. Drawing his cutlass, he pointed it at Kit. "Get him! Get him, get him, get _HIM!_" he ordered the neighboring pirates.

Kit then turned and ran, dropping the pistol in the process, but not for the reasons one would think. As had already been noted, the second bullet he had fired had hit a part of the hydraulics system for the beak after the bullet hit the crystal. In doing so, the bullet must have pierced a part of the piping and pierced it, for hydraulic fluid was now leaking from the system, spraying over the shards of the sub-electron amplifier in a fine mist. Kit wasn't sure how this would affect the shards of crystal, but the last time he saw a sub-electron amplifier get wet, it exploded violently shortly thereafter. He didn't want to be near if and when that happened here.

And it did. The shards began to spark as they reacted to the fluid, whatever it was (it couldn't be water, but didn't seem thick enough to be an oil either), and then, one by one, each shard blew, creating an explosion at least twice the size one would expect from something of this size, blowing holes into the platform. The pirates were already off the platform by this point, but the blast knocked them down regardless.

The explosions quickly caused a chain reaction, going on to ignite other shards into exploding, taking more with them. Finally, a series of explosions occurring in rapid succession on the beak tore it apart, the bottom part of the beak falling away to fall into the sea. It was right about then that the spilt hydraulic fluid proved to be flammable at the right temperatures, for it suddenly ignited, and flames began to spread across the hanger bay.

Kit was amazed that this all happened because of him, slightly shocked, even. But then there was an upside. All the activity couldn't have gone unnoticed by the pilots outside, including one in particular that Kit knew of. Now that the pirates were distracted with the fire, Kit was free to make his escape attempt, and slapped his hand on the bomb bay doors control. Alarms rang out as a pair of large doors in the floor of the hanger bay swung outward to open out to the air outside.

A couple of the pirates turned their focuses towards this. Karnage himself spied Kit still standing on platform a level up from the floor of the hanger bay, and ordered for someone, anyone, to grab him. But by that point, the flames had spread to some of the neighboring CT-37 fighter planes and igniting them in flames as well, drawing the pirates attention.

There was little Karnage could've done at this point, anyway, for with a leap, Kit vaulted over the railing of the platform and fell out through the open bay doors and outside the _Iron Vulture_. Once outside, he quickly pulled out a metallic device and pushed a button on it. A spring-loaded mechanism allowed a set of telescoping wings to spring out from either side to form a kind of board. Quickly, Kit placed his feet on the air foil and used the device to slow his fall and to bring himself into a much slower glide towards the ocean far below.

But he never went as far as the ocean. As Kit had hoped, one plane witnessed his fall, and broke away from where it had been circling the battle. Quickly, the modified Conwing L-16 cargo plane swooped down and soared under Kit, giving him something to land on. Land he did, but none to gracefully, crashing gently onto the roof of the plane and rolling towards the back of the craft, caught in the slipstream of wind for a moment. At the back though, finding the plane's rear cargo doors open already, Kit swung himself into the safety of the plane. Picking himself up and gathering up his possessions, he pulled a switch that closed the cargo doors, and then hurried up to the cockpit in the front of the plane.

"Get us out of here, Baloo!" Kit exclaimed urgently.

"Already on it!" the scruffy grey bear who sat at the pilot controls, operating with great skill replied.

The cargo plane turned around and started to fly back towards nearby Cape Suzette.

"You got the cargo?" Baloo asked as Kit took the co-pilot's seat as he usually did.

"Part of it." Kit admitted, holding up the box he still carried.

Baloo winced. "Shere Khan isn't going to like that." he stated.

"Hey, I tried to get them both back, but there was just no way!" Kit quickly said in his defense.

"Hey, I ain't blamin' you, Kit, and neither will Becky." Baloo quickly assured him. "You did the best you could do in unfavorable conditions. Much more than what was asked of you. If things had gone according to the plan, the _first _plan, we wouldn't _be _in this mess."

All further conversation was cut short when a distant bang could be heard in the distance. Baloo peered out the window to look back at the _Iron Vulture _for an explanation. The air carrier had veered off course, and seemed to be circling out of control now. The fighter planes that had been attacking it still circled it, but were holding back from attacking as much now. Through what remained of the craft's beak, one could see fire burning in the hanger bay within.

Baloo turned to Kit and jabbed a finger at the airship. "You do that?" he asked.

"Yeah, kind of." Kit admitted. "Not on purpose."

"Well, whatever you did, it's really causing those pirates problems." Baloo said, looking back at the massive craft.

A explosion suddenly belched out one side of the _Iron Vulture_, followed by several more smaller explosions, no doubt a result of the chain reaction Kit had inadvertently started. Without warning, the air carrier suddenly lurched downward, and, it's engines now burning with fire that appeared out of nowhere, the airship crashed nose-first into the ocean below and quickly sank...

* * *

**Present Day.**

"...and after that, the air pirates just kind of fell apart." Gosalyn said, skimming through the back of the brochure, eyeing a sepia-toned picture of the _Iron Vulture _nose diving into the ocean that was shared space with the text. "Parts of the original group that had been put together and maintained by Don Karnage, who was presumed killed in the crash, survived and broke away to form a splinter group of sorts, using what they had left available to them, but they had been dealt too hard a blow. Air pirates of any sort never had the kind of power and influence that Don Karnage's group had again, and shortly after World War II, they vanished altogether."

"Hence why I can enjoy this flight in peace, without fear of attack and getting robbed." Drake remarked jokingly, leaning back in his seat onboard the commercial passenger jet they were riding. "So, unless you want to drone on about something else Gos, I'd like to catch some shuteye before we arrive at our destination."

Gosalyn turned around in her seat a row ahead of Drake and gave her adopted dad a glare. "Well,_ I _thought it was a very interesting read." she said hotly. "There's so much history and intrigue about Cape Suzette to learn that it nearly gives me chills just thinking about it."

"I thought you hated history." Drake remarked, closing his eyes in preparation for sleep.

"Well, not everything about history involved aerial dogfighting and air pirates and stuff like that!" Gosalyn said, folding her arms. "_This _history is exciting. Not at all like the stuff about who wrote the Constitution."

"Well, _I _enjoyed listening to what you had to say on the matter, Gos." Honker assured her, sitting in the seat beside her. "Cape Suzette is a very fascinating place indeed, and, as you say, is full of history."

"And to think, we're actually going there for a visit!" Gosalyn squealed, excited.

"Yeah, great idea for a vacation, DW!" Launchpad agreed, who sat in the row in front of Honker and Gosalyn.

"Well, I figured that with St. Canard in such a cold spell at the moment, and all the schools closed for the weekend, I figured a group vacation like this wouldn't hurt." Drake remarked. "Besides, Gos has been begging to come here since she was ten."

"Well, I'm with both Gosalyn _and _Launchpad." Christine commented, who sat beside Drake. "It was both a great idea to come here, and _I _can't wait for it either! Like Gosalyn, I've always wanted to visit here myself!"

"I can't wait to get there, either!" Launchpad said, sampling some of Charlie's snack food, who sat beside Launchpad. "Being a pilot, there's going to be a whole lot of things for me to check out."

"That's great, LP." Drake said, stretching and then yawning. "Wake me when we get there."

"C'mon, Drake, aren't you excited too?" Christine asked, prodding Drake with a finger. "I mean, this _was _your idea."

"Yeah, I know." Drake said. "But there was just one unexpected downside to all of this that I should've known better than to try and shake."

"And what's that?"

"Oh, Drake, before I forget, I should tell you about the new recipe I've been experimenting with!" Binkie Muddlefoot said, sitting a row behind Drake and Christine with her husband, poking her head over Drake's seat.

Drake squeezed his eyes shut. "The Muddlefoots." he grumbled, then turned his focus to Binkie. "That's great, Binkie, but really, I think I have recipes enough at home that you've given me that I haven't even tried yet." he paused, then added under his breath, "...for good reason."

"Oh, but you really should, Drake, they're so scrumptious, and good for your health, too!" Binkie said. "I'll bet Gosalyn will love them! Honker certainly does, and he's Gosalyn's age."

"Yes, well, Gos isn't like other kids her age." Drake said.

"And while we're on the subject, I also wanted to talk to you about Gosalyn's behavior, and how I worry it's not feminine enough." Binkie said, almost like an afterthought.

Christine frowned. "What does that have to do with recipes?" she asked, lost.

"Oh, well, it was a really roundabout chain of thought, dear." Binkie assured her.

"See, Chrissy, my Binkers here is like that, thinking things up at random like that." Herb commented with a laugh, his chair groaning as he leaned forward. "That's part of the reason I like her so much."

"Oh, Herb, you charmer." Binkie said with a nervous giggle.

"Yes, charm away, Herb." Drake muttered sarcastically.

"Anyway, thanks for the invite t' come with ya, Drakester." Herb continued, patting Drake in the shoulder. "Cape Suzette, wow. Only seen it on TV, y'know."

"All to well, Herb." Drake replied.

"And it's going to be such a great family get-together for all of us!" Binkie said, clapping her hands together. "Even though we're not all related to each other." she added, glancing at Christine.

Christine shrugged, not offended. "It's nice to be considered family." she said, giving Drake a look he couldn't read. "But family friend would be more...accurate."

"Maybe we can change that someday, hmm, Drake?" Binkie asked, patting Drake shoulder as well.

Drake blushed, and didn't reply.

"Too bad Tank couldn't come." Herb remarked longingly. "Then us Muddlefoots could've been a whole family too. We sent him an invitation t' come with, but I guess he decided he didn't want to come."

"Joy to the world." Drake remarked with a pleased grin. Christine elbowed him in the ribs for this.

"Hey guys, we're almost there!" Techno exclaimed suddenly, looking out the window. "I can see the cliffs from here!"

Gosalyn pushed him aside so she could see, and gasped at the sight of the magnificent cliffs, grinning broadly. "Keen gear, will you look at that!"

"Attention passengers, we will be landing shortly at the Cape Suzette National Airport." the plane's captain announced suddenly on the intercom, the 'fasten seatbelts' light blinking on suddenly. "Please fasten your seatbelts and put your seats in the upright position for the landing. Thank you for flying Conwing Airlines, and we hope you enjoyed your flight."

Drake groaned as he did as was instructed of him. "So much for my nap." he muttered.

"Well, look at it this way, Drake." Christine said as she buckled her seatbelt. "When the day's all over, you'll be that much more entitled to that nap."

"Darn straight, Chris."

* * *

"Keen gear, keen gear, keen gear!" Gosalyn exclaimed, practically skipping out the airport entrance and outside. "Oh, _keen gear_! This is great already! Look at that view!"

As everyone else gathered outside to join her, they all had to admit that the view of Cape Suzette was rather pretty. The sun brightly down on the once prosperous city, not at all shrouded with the smog one would come to expect with a city of this size. It was also very warm, despite it being late January still; no snow in sight. Many of the skyscrapers that towered in the sky were the classical 1930's design, with few modern-day skyscrapers present. Cape Suzette had grown little since it's heyday days had ended, but it hadn't shrunk in size either. It was more it like it had simply frozen in time.

"Golly, that sure is a mighty fine city." Herb commented.

"Okay...so where should we go first?" Drake asked, pulling out the map. "Personally, there's this restaurant I want to try that's here, and then after that..."

Gosalyn snatched the map from Drake and shoved her brochure into his hand. "We go _here _first." she demanded.

Drake glanced at it. "The Higher for Hire Museum?" he said questioningly.

"You really think she came here to look at anything else, Mr. Mallard?" Techno asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Does it have planes?" Charlie asked innocently, holding onto Christine's hand.

"Only one of the greatest planes ever built, Chuck." Gosalyn said with a grin.

"Charlie."

"Right, Charlie."

"I personally think it's a great idea." Christine offered. "Might as well start there anyway."

"Exactly what I was thinkin' Chrissy." Herb agreed.

"Ooh, and look at all the neat things the gift shop has." Binkie observed, who had taken the brochure from Drake and was looking through it. "See, those vintage Higher for Hire curtains will go _beautifully _with my carpet back home."

"I'll go wherever you guys go." Launchpad said with a shrug.

"Fine, fine, fine." Drake said, putting away his map. "We'll go here first, since it seems to be so popular." he walked up to the side of the street and stuck out a hand. "Yo, taxi!"

But while Drake hailed down a cap and they all clambered in (or tried to at least, the Muddlefoots agreed to hail down another cab and meet the rest of them there), they didn't know that they were being watched...

* * *

The elevator binged softly, and the doors slid open to reveal a massive office. The grey furred tabby cat within, the only occupant in the elevator, was not bothered about this, and quickly hurried out, running for the other end of the office where an impressive desk and chair stood. The occupant that usually sat at said desk, however, actually wasn't this once. Instead, he was standing behind it, looking out a window that filled the room's back wall, his back turned to the tabby. In the light shining through the window, only his silhouette was visible.

The tabby arrived at the desk, paused to catch his breath, absentmindedly adjusted his wide-brimmed sky-blue colored fedora, forced a grin, and without doing much else to announce his presence, started speaking.

"Excuse me sir, but I have an update that you will probably be interested in hearing." he said. "See, we just heard..."

"Rocky, what have I told you about wearing that hat in my office?" the silhouette interrupted sternly, not turning around.

"Oh, right, sorry sir." the tabby said, quickly whipping the hat from his brow. "Anyway, sir, we just got word from the agent. Our targets have arrived in Cape Suzette, and were last seen exiting the airport and entering a cab, heading for the north side of the city."

"That is good news."

"Yeah, I figured you'd like that...which is why I saved the...uh...bad news...f-for last."

"What?" the silhouette asked sharply, annoyed that things weren't going perfectly. "What bad news?"

"Our targets were joined by some other people, which we, uh, weren't expecting." Rocky replied nervously. "Our little spy friend is wondered what to do about it."

"Hmm." the silhouette was silent for a moment as he thought about the matter. "For now, have the agent stand by and watch. The moment our targets are alone and in the open, grab them."

"Yes, sir, I'll tell her that straightaway." Rocky said cheerfully, placing his fedora back on his head as he backed away from the desk. "Be back with any new reports as they become available Mr. Khan."

"I would expect nothing less from you, Rocky."

* * *

"How much longer?" Drake asked, glancing at his watch. "Isn't this tour supposed to start right at the hour? Because it's five minutes after that."

"Oh hush, Dad, this will all be well worth it." Gosalyn shushed him, as they stood amongst a group of other tourists and visitors to the museum, standing just within it's entrance.

It was a rather impressive building, but it wasn't the original building that the Higher for Hire cargo business, which still stood below the museum itself, down the side of a hill, at the Cape Suzette waterfront. As the materials going into this museum wouldn't fit in the original building, though, this one was apparently built fairly recently to house it all. The first room one would arrive in was a lobby where one would buy tickets, view some more minor artifacts that was stored in the building, get some food from some small stands that sold their food here as well, and await tour guides to arrive.

This is what the gang was doing now, although Drake wasn't for the idea. The museum could be viewed two ways, with one walking around freely to look at their own leisure, or under the direction of a guide. Gosalyn opted for the tour guide, and then after the tour, go back and get closer looks at the good stuff, an idea many in the group found reasonable. So Drake relented, thankful at least that the tours were free once you had gotten admittance into the museum.

Now if only he could say the same about the food.

"Mmm, at least we've got some food to eat while we wait." Launchpad remarked, biting into an overpriced hotdog that Drake had, unfortunately, paid for. "It's really good stuff, too."

"Good, because it coast quite a _few _pretty pennies for it." Drake grumbled.

"Oh Drake, quit being such a spoilsport." Christine scolded, who was kneeling down, wiping ketchup from Charlie's face. "Honestly, Charlie, were you eating your hotdog or wearing it?"

"Ah, don't bother him, Chrissy, he's just eatin' like any growin' boy would." Herb commented, ketchup smeared on his own face as he ate his fourth hotdog.

Of the food that was bought, Launchpad only got roughly about half. Herb got the rest. Thankfully, the Muddlefoots paid for their own food at their own insistence, which Drake readily agreed to. He intended to have _some _money left over after this trip.

"Look, here comes somebody." Honker said, pointing. "I think it's our tour guide."

Sure enough, it was. She was a tall bear wearing simple causal clothes and carried a cheery disposition about her, wearing bows in her blond fur. Her age suggested she was in about her early seventies, but she was far from elderly, for she didn't act her age. Clearly, she still had some youth in her heart and soul, with the energy to match.

"Good afternoon, everybody, sorry to keep you waiting, but we're a bit backed up today." she said happily, standing at the front of the group. "Anyway, hello, and welcome to the Higher for Hire museum. I'm Molly Cunningham, and I'll be your tour guide today. If you'll please follow me, we'll get started right away."

* * *

"Higher for Hire was an air cargo delivery service that specialized in carrying cargo to locations around the globe." Molly explained as she led the group down a hallway that would lead into the museum itself. "Originally, it was a struggling service owned by ace pilot, Baloo, who, quite frankly, couldn't run a business to save his life with, bless his heart. As such, it was eventually bought by my mother, Rebecca Cunningham, and shortly thereafter reorganized the service and founded Higher for Hire, early in 1936. I was only about six years old at the time, but I remember it very well. We faced some tough times that first year and were going up against some very fierce competitors, but by the end of our second year, we began making a name for ourselves, a name that has, quite obviously, survived through the decades."

"So you were actually _there _during the business's golden days?" Gosalyn asked suddenly, eyes alight with interest and envy.

"Oh yes." Molly assured her with a grin. "No better person to be the tour guide, don't you think? Any other questions before I continue?"

"Yes, what kind of name is 'Higher for Hire,' anyway?" Drake asked contemptuously. "It doesn't make sense, much less is it proper grammar."

Molly's grin broadened. "Mom thought the name was cute." she replied with a shrug, then turned to continue on with the tour. "Anyway, as I said, we faced some tough times, and it's probably by surviving all of that that we managed to become as famous as we are now...or...were. Sometimes it was for making some impeccable deliveries, sometimes it was for Baloo's skill at flying, sometimes it was simply beating the odds of an unfavorable situation."

She paused beside a display on one side of the hallway and motioned to it. "Unfavorable situations such as dealing with enemies." she said. "And among our worst were probably the air pirates."

The display was dedicated to simply just that. It was mostly composed of pictures of the air pirates in action, rarities even back in the day, as well as several to-scale models of some of their aircraft and diagrams of the same. The group stopped to look at it all.

"Right from the beginning, Higher for Hire had enemies with several fractions of air pirates, but none of them more troublesome than the most famous, not to mention powerful, group of pirates that were led by the pirate, Don Karnage." Molly explained, as she, too, looked the display over. "Even before Higher for Hire was founded, we were unknowingly encroaching upon Karnage's plans. In our first encounter, we were interfering with his plans to build what would be later known as a Lightning Gun, which Karnage would quickly use to defeat Cape Suzette's cliff cannons and invade the city, attacking it with this weapon and plundering it of it's riches. The city took some heavy damage in that incident, but it was us, Higher for Hire, that helped stopped Karnage by taking the Lightning Gun out of the picture. More on that later.

"Over the course of the following year, we had many conflicts with Karnage, most of them much smaller than that first initial attack, some of them even just being outright comical, all of which we got the better hand over. Then, late in the second year of Higher for Hire's operation, we were hired to transport some highly valuable cargo belonging to Khan Industries. In it was the key for Karnage to rebuild his lost Lightning Gun, although he never knew it until he by chance happened to raid our plane during this run and made off with the cargo.

"In the resulting fight from us to get the cargo back before Karnage put it to use, and the fight from the officials trying to keep Karnage from infiltrating Cape Suzette and attacking it with a Lightning Gun before as he neared the city, the _Iron Vulture_ was destroyed in the fight, taking Karnage, the Lightning Gun and all associated materials, and most of the airship's crew, with it. The ruins still lie somewhere under the sea. Shortly thereafter, the air pirates fell apart, and they were never a problem again." Molly paused for a long moment to allow everyone to get one last look at the display before they continued on to their next stop. "Moving on." she said, waving to them to follow her.

"Many things could probably attributed to Higher for Hire's rousing success." Molly continued as she led them to a pair of double doors at the end of the hallway. "A spectacular pilot is probably among them. But it also helps to have a spectacular plane."

And with that, she threw open the doors and led the group into the very heart of the museum. The room was large, roughly about two to three stories tall. A bank of floor-to-ceiling windows covered the far wall, giving a spectacular view of the bay Cape Suzette centered around. Displays of all sorts lined the walls, with a few sitting in the middle of the room. But none of this compared to the room's centerpiece. For there stood a Conwing L-16 cargo plane, permanently parked within the building, it's yellow and orange paint glowing in the light shining in through the windows.

Molly grinned when she saw it, and motioned to it proudly. "Presenting," she said dramatically, "the _Sea Duck_."

* * *

"The crew of Higher for Hire was and is surprisingly thin." Molly said a little later in the tour, as she led the group along the back wall of the museum's main room. "As I said, my mother owned and ran the business, and for better or for worse, always pulled through. She was a remarkable business woman with a business major to show for it, being both resourceful, creative, and tenacious. She did have a temper, though, which we would all see fairly regularly whenever Baloo would step on her toes, metaphorically speaking. She saw through Higher for Hire's daily work and issues until the very end...when she passed on due to unexpected health problems in 1950."

Molly's usually cheerful attitude faded somewhat at this, and was silent while the group studied the display that was dedicated to the late Rebecca Cunningham. She then moved them on to the next display.

"Higher for Hire only had one mechanic during it's days, and never needed more than that." Molly said as she led the group to the next display. "This job always stayed with Wildcat. He's...shall we say...not entirely there at the best of times, but there's no denying that he knew something about mechanics. He could fix anything in no time flat, so much so it was astonishing. He was also a difficult person to talk to at times, not always making much sense, but he has a heart of gold. You would almost never see him get angry at anyone or anything, and was good to one and all."

As the group looked at the display dedicated to the mechanic, someone in the crowd spoke up with a question.

"When did he die?" he asked, with probably unintentional lack of caring. Gosalyn gave him an annoyed look for asking so heartless a question.

Molly, however, perked up at this question. "Actually, he's still alive and lives here in Cape Suzette at age ninety-seven and just as good a mechanic as always." she reported happily. "He used to work here at the museum, but due to his increasing age and slowly decaying health, he has since retired, and now lives a peaceful life on his own. Now, moving on."

She led them to the next display. "Now we'll get to know a bit more about the pilot himself, Baloo." she said, motioning to the display. "As I said, Baloo used to work alone and operated his own freelance cargo service, 'freelance' meaning to him as 'just whenever he absolutely had to.'" This drew a few chuckles from the crowd. "So I suppose it shouldn't come as any real surprise that his service became at risk of dying and was bought by my mother, who quickly turned things around. Baloo was very much against this, and didn't want any part of it, but when he lost the property the business sat upon to my mother, he also lost his plane. Ownership of the _Sea Duck _went to her when she bought the deed to everything. However, knowing that the plane meant something to Baloo, she offered that he could have it back if he paid the right price. In the meantime, he was welcome to continue flying it if he worked as the staff pilot. Baloo reluctantly agreed, not having the funds at the time to buy back the _Sea Duck_.

"Baloo probably was ill-fitted to such a job, and complained of such fairly frequently, and acted like he didn't like it at all, scraping and saving every penny to someday get back his plane. He never did, despite coming close, but in the end, I don't think he minded so much. Because eventually Baloo warmed up to the idea of Higher for Hire, and he became a good friend. More than that, he was practically family." Molly trailed off for a moment, but it wasn't a long one. "Baloo continued flying for Higher for Hire for many years, demonstrating his flight skills with each passing day, and occasionally toying with death in various aerial feats. Ironically, however, he died in a simple, but tragic, car accident in 1948. Right about then, Higher for Hire began to turn for the worse, and understandably, as it was now without it's star pilot. It wouldn't be too much longer before my mother would close down the service on her own choice." Molly again paused, looking depressed. "But it at least neither didn't die without being very well remembered." she added, looking heartened by this, and then led them to the next display.

"After Higher for Hire came about, Baloo never went anywhere without his trusty navigator, young Kit Cloudkicker." she said, showing off the display. "Being only twelve at the time, Kit helped direct Baloo to his various locations and helped with the cargo runs and various adventures they both had together. They were very good friends. Kit had a turbulent history, losing his parents at a very young age, and drifting blindly around for a few years after that. For a brief while, he even teamed up with the air pirates, but eventually decided he couldn't stand them and broke away and ended up with Baloo and the rest of us, where he finally found his place."

"Right away, Kit demonstrated interest in learning to fly and become a pilot, like Baloo, but being as young as he was, it would be sometime before he would get that chance. In the meantime, he settled with other air-related hobbies, including cloud surfing, involving the remarkable air foil board." Molly paused and motioned to the display. "Unfortunately, you will not find the ir foil here, having been lost over the years." She then continued with her original train of thought. "Eventually, though, Kit became old enough to get his flying license, and learned quickly from Baloo and became very skilled at flying, just as much as Baloo was. It wasn't long before Kit obtained his own plane. It was much smaller than the _Sea Duck_, but it was big enough and designed well for hauling cargo as well. At that point, Kit helped making cargo runs for Higher for Hire as well as another staff pilot."

Molly again paused, looking depressed once more Gosalyn wondered if she was like this frequently, and if so, pitied her. "When Baloo died, Kit took it hard." she continued on. "For nearly a month, he wouldn't fly. He seemed to have just...lost the will." she sighed. "He eventually snapped out of it, as we all did, and life moved on, but it just wasn't quite the same. My mother hired a new pilot to replace Baloo, who took over flying the _Sea Duck_. Kit was offered to fly it instead of the new pilot, but Kit refused. I never saw him board the _Sea Duck _again. He continued flying in his own plane.

"Finally, a year later, it all came to a crashing halt. In 1949, on a routine cargo run, Kit encountered some bad weather somewhere over the ocean. At first, he simply braved the storm like he always done, but about an hour into the storm, he radioed a brief mayday. After that, no one heard anything from him again, and he, the plane, and everything onboard vanished without a trace." Molly paused, looking more crestfallen than ever. "We theorized that the plane lost control and crashed into the sea and was lost, although there's no real way to ever know what happened." she shrugged. "Mother took Kit's disappearance hard, and now it was her who seemed to lose her will. She already had a few health problems shortly after Baloo's passing, but after Kit disappeared, her problems grew worse, until yet another year later, she passed on as well, but not before she closed down Higher for Hire."

She fell silent for a long moment. The group, feeling her pain, didn't break the silence, in fear of disturbing her. Someone in the crowd sniffed, and Gosalyn realized it was the same person who asked if Wildcat had died yet. Finally, Molly shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"Sorry, I got a bit distracted." she apologized. "I don't normally let myself do that." she shook her head again. "Anyway, moving on."

She led them to the next display, which contained a scale model of the _Iron Vulture_. "More about the air pirates now." she said, pointing to the display. "Specifically, the item that made them famous, or rather, infamous. The _Iron Vulture_. This class of aircraft is virtually unknown, as it never saw real service, but despite popular belief, the air pirates did _not _build this air carrier. The military did, during the Great War, or World War I. Part of an experiment to see if flying aircraft carriers could somehow be built for use in the war, five of these monstrosities were built. They were never used, though, because the war ended before they were done, and they proved to be too expensive to build anyway. Of the original five, two were dismantled, two remain in military possession, and the fifth was stolen by Don Karnage and his fellow pirates in a daring plundering mission early in his career. The details about this robbery remained unknown for years, as the military kept it classified for sometime, but finally, more recently, they told all in a press conference..."

Molly kept talking, but despite herself, Gosalyn found herself not listening. Instead, she was watching a member of the group sneakily slip away. It was the same person who had asked if Wildcat was dead and sniffled during Molly's tale of woe a few minutes earlier. He seemed to be trying to slip away discreetly, so to not to be noticed. And he was succeeding; only Gosalyn had noticed him, and that was because she happened to be looking the right way. Curious now, she took a slightly closer look at the person.

She couldn't deduce much about him. He was tall, an adult, but still very young. He wore a plain overcoat that covered most of his body, a backpack, and a cap, with the bill turned backwards, as well as a pair of sunglasses that covered his eyes. He looked like he had something to hide, like he didn't want it to be known that he was here, fearing someone would recognize him, and Gosalyn's hero training told her that was suspicious.

But the person was walking in the direction of the exit, so Gosalyn theorized maybe he just had enough of the tour and was ready to leave. Furthermore, Molly had began to talk about the inner workings of the _Iron Vulture_, and that drew her attention back to the tour.

After a little bit, the whole incident was forgotten.

* * *

After the tour, everyone gathered together within the museum to discuss what to do next.

"It's already past noon." Drake remarked, checking his watch. "I think we should go and check into our hotel now, before it gets too much later."

"Aw, but Dad, I want to stay here a little longer and keep looking." Gosalyn pleaded, having approached the parked _Sea Duck _and was running her hands over the hull of the twin-engine plane.

Honker turned to look at her. "Gos, you aren't supposed to be over there." he whispered urgently, and pointed to the crowd control ropes that encircled the plane. "You're supposed to be on _our _side of the rope."

"Aww, fine." Gosalyn grumbled, and dejectedly ducked under the rope and joined them.

"Besides, Gos, the sooner we check into our hotel, the sooner we can go and look at _other _sights." Drake pressed.

"I'm with Drake on this one." Christine said, who was cradling Charlie in her arms. "Besides, Charlie's getting tired. I think all the excitement is wearing him thin, and he needs a nap."

"But I haven't even _looked _at half the museum in full detail yet!" Gosalyn whined.

"Well, I'm ready to leave, but for different reasons." Honker opted. "I want to go to the cliffs and look at the old cliff guns that they have on display out there."

"Ooh, that sounds like fun." Binkie remarked, who carried a bag filled with items she bought at the museum's gift store. "I wonder what _their _gift store has."

"I don't think they have a gift store, mom." Honker commented.

"Well, I personally think there's time enough for us t' go see this cliff gun thingies still." Herb said, glancing at his own watch. "So I'll tell ya what. Me, Binkie, and Honker will go see the guns while you, Drakester, take everyone else and go check into your hotel room."

Drake was instantly for that. Anything to keep the Muddlefoots out of his hair for awhile. "All right, let's do that." Drake said, heading for the exit. "We can meet back at the hotel before dinner. C'mon Gos."

"I'm not going." Gosalyn said, stamping her foot, and not budging.

"Gosalyn..." Drake groaned, looking back at her, "C'mon, I'm in no mood to fight over this. Let's just go."

"No, I'm not going, and you can't make me." Gosalyn stated flatly. "I am eighteen, after all."

Drake grumbled incoherently for a moment. "Why must you always play that card?" he bemoaned. "Furthermore, why don't _I _ever have a card to play in response?"

"Oh, Drake, she's right though." Christine said. "She is old enough to choose for herself. She knows where the hotel is, and how to get there."

"I even have some pocket change for a taxi." Gosalyn added.

"And Cape Suzette is much more friendly than St. Canard, anyway." Honker added. "Statistically speaking, there's much less chance of something bad happening to her here than in many other places in the world."

Drake still looked hesitant, so Launchpad spoke up with an idea.

"How about I stay here and look after her?" he asked, and upon seeing Gosalyn's look, he added, "I promise to stay out of your way, Gos."

"Ooh, oh all right." Drake said, throwing his arms into the air in frustration. "But I expect you both at the hotel on time for us to all head out for dinner, got it, Gos?"

"Yes, dad." Gosalyn replied, turning to go look at a different display.

"Got it, Launchpad?"

"Got it, DW."

"Guess it's settled, then." Herb said, also turning to leave with his family. "See ya after we're done at the cliffs, Drakester."

"Take your time, Herb, there's no rush." Drake said, as he and Christine turned to leave as well with Charlie still in Christine's arms.

"So Gos, what is it you'd like to see?" Launchpad asked, rubbing his hands together anxiously.

"Oh, just a little bit of everything." Gosalyn replied. "How about you?"

"Well, I kinda wanted to look at those diagrams for those CT-37s, see how they work and how maneuverable they are." Launchpad said, pointing at the diagrams that hung on the north wall.

"Okay, so how about this; you go look at those diagrams, and I'll just wander around, looking at anything that interests me." Gosalyn suggested.

"Works for me." Launchpad said, and walked off.

Soon, Gosalyn found herself alone in the museum. Looking around to make sure no one else in the museum was looking, she slipped back under the rope circling the _Sea Duck _and went to one of it's side doors. With a little work, she managed to unlatch it and pull it open enough for her to slip inside, undetected.

The _Sea Duck _looked great on the outside, but now Gosalyn wanted to see the inside.

* * *

The bus pulled to a stop at a corner, and then opened it's doors for it's passengers to walk out. Among the smattering of them was Drake, holding a up in front of his face, reading it, and Christine, who carried Charlie still, the six-year-old in a deep sleep now.

"Okay, it should only be a quick walk this way." Drake said, pointing ahead, down the sidewalk.

"Drake, why couldn't we have taken a cab straight to the hotel?" Christine asked.

"Too costly."

"You didn't seem to mind when we took that cab to the Higher for Hire Museum."

"Yes, well, I didn't expect there was going to be expensive food being sold there that everybody was going to want. Bus is much cheaper, and anyway, the walk's good exercise for people like us."

"Yes, but don't forget I'm carrying a six-year-old who turns into a dead weight the moment he's asleep." Christine adjusted Charlie to res on her other shoulder.

"It's not too much farther, Chris." Drake assured her, still looking at his map. "So presuming that nothing goes wrong in the next few minutes, we'll be there momentarily, and then..."

"Oh look, a limo." Christine remarked curiously, watching a limousine slide gracefully to the curb just ahead of them and stop.

Drake looked up from his map, watching as it's driver climbed out, and frowned. "Probably just some rich guy's ride, trying to show off." he muttered.

"Actually, Mr. Mallard, the ride's for you." the driver said, overhearing as he moved to stand in front of them.

Drake and Christine both stopped to stare at him, this message not quite fully sinking in.

"What?" Drake asked. "Why?"

"A number of reasons, but that'll all be explained later." the cheerful tabby cat driver remarked. He extended his hand out for Drake to shake. "Hi, I'm Rocky."

"Now, wait, hold on a moment." Christine said, stepping forward. "Why would you want to give us a ride in a limo to somewhere for some random reason?"

"Actually, it's just for Mr. Mallard, and it's because I have orders." Rocky replied, adjusting his fedora briefly.

Drake saw where this was going, and folded his map up and tucked it under one arm, giving the driver a glare. "So, I take it this limo's heading to one location, and that one location only, whether I like it or not." he said flatly.

"Yes, but...afterwards I can take you wherever you want." Rocky offered, trying to be helpful.

"I'll pass, thank you." Drake said, trying to walk around Rocky.

But Rocky moved to block his path. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid I have to insist you come with me, Mr. Mallard." he said. "My employer is very anxious to meet with you."

"What on earth for?" Drake demanded, fed up with this.

Rocky paused, and looked around to make sure there wasn't anybody nearby to overhear. Fortunately for him the street was virtually empty, for whatever reasons. He leaned closer to Drake, and motioned to Drake to do the same. Christine leaned closer to listen as well.

"It's because a matter has come up that requires the skills of Darkwing Duck." Rocky explained. "Who, I'm told, is you."

* * *

"Well, ya certainly have a pretty nice view way up here." Herb commented, looking over the edge of the cliff out at the horizon beyond the sea. Behind them, over Cape Suzette, the sun was starting to sink into the opposite horizon in precursor to the sunset. "Be nice t' stick around and see the sunrise tomorrow mornin'."

"Yes, it's very nice, dearie, but I can't find a gift store here anywhere." Binkie said, wandering around aimlessly.

Honker stood not far from his parents, studying one of the cliff gun relics, jotting notes into his notebook. No one else was around save a few officials who stood at the entrance several feet back. The whole area was fenced off to keep people from wandering too close to the edges of the cliffs. It was very quiet.

Herb checked his watch. "Okay, kiddo, about fifteen more minutes, and then we need t' be joinin' Drake at the hotel!" he called to Honker. "In the meantime, I'm gonna help your mom find that gift store!"

Honker grinned slightly and rolled his eyes, having given up trying to convince them that there was no gift store here. "Okay dad, I'll be right here." he called back in reply.

He studied the cannon for a few moments longer, then started to circle it to get another view, taking more notes as he went.

"Man, if I ever have to write a report on these things, I'll be ready." Honker remarked aloud.

"Good for you, Honker."

Honker looked up suddenly at the unexpected voice, looking around the seemingly barren clifftops. "H-hello?" he called. "Is there somebody there?"

"Over here, Honker!" the voice called, from behind the next cannon over.

Honker moved towards the voice, recognizing it now. "Gosalyn?" he asked hesitantly as he rounded the cannon to look at the owner of the voice.

"Not quite, Honk." NegaGosalyn replied, leaning causally against the side of the cannon.

* * *

The interior of the _Sea Duck _was very dimly lit. The only light shining through into the back portion of the cargo plane was through the windows of the smattering of viewports that was scattered through it's hull. Gosalyn looked it up and down. It was very empty, most of the items it usually contained save for the usual required equipment like first aide kits and the such.

Almost like someone hoped the plane would someday fly again.

Gosalyn poked around a bit, looking in a storage locker towards the back, under a pair of basic cots that sat nearby, sat in a seat intended for passengers and basically just looked around. Done here, she turned to the bulkhead door that led into the cockpit, and moved towards it. Again moving carefully to avoid detection, she twisted the latch and carefully pulled the door open and peered inside.

Unlike the back of the plane, the cockpit was bathed with light, it source coming from the museum's bank of windows outside, which the nose of the craft was pointed towards. With all this light, Gosalyn could look around at the cockpit and see it all in full detail. But she did so carefully, in case somebody happened to look into the cockpit and see her from outside.

She was just debating whether or not she dared trying to sit in the pilot's seat and finger at some of the controls when she heard a click behind her. Slamming the bulkhead door shut and twisting around, Gosalyn saw a person standing in the plane with her, closing the hatch he had used to climb inside behind him. Gosalyn saw it was the same person who had snuck off during the tour. Apparently he had stuck around.

He gave Gosalyn a cold and disapproving look. "You shouldn't be in here." he said.

"Neither should you." Gosalyn said flatly, giving the guy an odd look. "What are you up to?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Well, for me, I'm just a tourist getting an extra hard look at the sights. You, however, are up to something, I'm sure of it."

"And what makes you say that?"

"I saw you sneak off during the tour, and you seem to be a very shady person indeed."

"Very perceptive." the person took a few steps towards her, stepping into somewhat better lighting in the process. "But seriously, you shouldn't be in here. The inside of this plane is off-limits to everyone but museum officials."

"Then why are you in here?" Gosalyn asked, doubtful, folding her arms. "You clearly don't fit into that category."

The person sighed, looking around longingly. "Because," he said finally, "it's been a long time since I've been in this plane."

Suddenly, Gosalyn was swept with another wave of deja-vu, and became more convinced that she had seen this bear somewhere before. She squinted at him, hard, just inches away from making the connection, it felt like.

"Just who are you, anyway?" she asked. "Really. You look annoyingly familiar to me. Have we met?"

The person sighed, rubbing his chin. "No, we haven't met before." he admitted. He paused for a moment, looking to be debating with himself. "But you have probably seen a great deal of me, as I have of you." Without warning, he removed his sunglasses, giving Gosalyn her first good look at the person's face. "I'm Kit Cloudkicker, at your service, ma'am."

* * *

"All right, how did you know that?" Drake demanded, shocked by Rocky's revelation, but hid it well. "I don't care who you're working for, you shouldn't know information like that! It's a governmental secret!"

"As I said before, Mr. Mallard, everything will be explained when you meet my employer." Rocky promised, opening the limo's back door. "Now please, come with me."

Drake hesitated for a moment. Christine looked around anxiously.

"What about me?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, only Mr. Mallard can come with me." Rocky said.

"Then forget it." Drake said decisively. "If she stays, I stay."

Rocky paused for a moment, then made a frustrated face. "Fine, she can come." he said. "_Now _will you get in the car?"

"Yeah, but only to get to the bottom of this." Drake vowed.

They started to climb into the car. Christine held Drake up for a moment.

"You didn't have to do that." she told him.

"Well, I did anyway, so get in the car while you can." Drake replied.

Once in the car, Rocky climbed into the driver's seat and drove off, heading deeper into Cape Suzette. At some point during the ride, Charlie woke up again, still being held in Christine's arms. He looked curiously around, but made no comments or questions about where they were and why they were here. Awhile later, they arrived at an extremely tall tower, one of the tallest in the city. As Rocky pulled the limo into an underground parking garage that sat directly under the building, Christine caught a glimpse of the building's sign in passing.

"'Khan Industries.'" she read aloud with a perplexed expression. She turned to Drake. "What the heck does _Khan Industries _want with you?"

"Nothing good, I can tell you that much." Drake muttered grumpily.

Parking the car in the garage, Rocky hopped out of the car and opened the back door of the limo and motioned for his passengers to climb out and follow him. Together, they walked across the relatively empty parking garage to a row of elevators. Thumbing the up control for one, the doors slid open, and Rocky stepped aside to allow his accompaniment to enter first before entering last. Once inside, he selected the second-to-topmost floor as their destination.

The ride up the eighty or so floors that made up the building was surprisingly short, and it wasn't long before the elevator arrived at it's location, and after a brief bing, the doors silently opened. On the other side was an massive and cavernous office that towered at least another two floors upward. It was very dimly lit, however. The only sources of light came from hidden lamps on the surrounding edges of the room, and from the large window at the end of the room from which light from the setting sun shone in. Most of it was blocked by long, deep red, curtains that were mostly drawn, though. Lamps also flanked the elevator doors and on either side of the window, adding some additional light, but not much.

A long walkway led from the elevator to the other side of the room, laid with expensive tile. On either side of this walkway was a massive private garden filled with exotic jungle plants watered by two ornate fountains, one for each row of plants. At first glance, they looked pretty, but to Drake, the unsuspecting plants looked like evil lurked within them. He was proven right when Charlie, spying a colorful flower he liked, reached out to touch it and was startled when the flower snapped at his fingers. The six-year-old gasped in surprise, and Christine leerily moved him further away from the plants.

Rocky noticed all of this. "Uh yeah, look but no touch." he advised wisely with a wince.

The grey-furred tabby then led the way down the walkway that led to an black oak desk with a black leather revolving chair seated behind it, turned away from the desk to look out the window. The desk itself was sparsely furnished, equipped with only a set of ornamental pens, an intercom, a small stack of papers, and a flatscreen computer. Once at the desk, Rocky motioned to the unwilling visitors to wait for a moment, and then approached the desk. He moved to speak, paused, quickly removed from his brow with a flourish, then announced his presence.

"Mr Khan, I brought the guests you requested for." he announced politely.

The chair revolved around slowly, and Drake, Christine, and Charlie got their first look at "Mr. Khan."

Drake didn't know too much about Khan Industries, but he knew that the organization was founded very late in the 1800s and rapidly grew after that, especially after the first world war. He also knew that Shere Khan had been the chairman and CEO of the organization for many, many, years. Given the attitude of this whole situation, Drake fully expected the tiger himself to be sitting in that chair, whom he had only seen pictures of.

But the begnal tiger that was sitting in that chair was _not _Shere Khan. Granted, he was a tiger, and his aura of personality suggested he was easily related to Shere Khan, but he was not him. This tiger was taller, younger, and much more slender, lacking the broad muscular build of Shere Khan. He also carried a walking stick, also made of black oak and had a gold handle, that he held in his lap at the moment. It was clearly for decorative purposes; this Khan clearly had little use for such a thing.

Once facing his guests and studying them for a brief moment, he stood, and held out his hand to Drake.

"Good day, Mr. Mallard, I am Ricardo Khan." he said, taking Drake's hand and shaking it. He turned to Drake's accompaniment. "And who is this?"

"Dr. Christine Merriweather." Christine replied, clearly apprehensive of the business executive.

"And Charlie." Charlie added, not to be left out.

"They came at Mallard's insistence." Rocky quickly added in his defense.

Khan ignored his lackey, and redirected his attention to Drake. "I am sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused you, but it is extremely important that I speak with you." he said smoothly, but humorlessly.

"Uh-huh." Drake said numbly. "So...Ricardo Khan, huh? Direct relation to Shere Khan?"

"He would be my father, yes." Khan replied.

Christine's eyebrows went up. "I never knew Shere Khan had any kind of family." she remarked.

"Well, never mind that, I want to know what this is about." Drake said. "Because everything about this little meeting sends up little warning flags in my brain, because it suggests you've been spying on me, following me around, you brought me here mostly against my own will, you clearly know just what else I do for a living in St. Canard, and who knows what else!"

"Yes, I am aware of your secret identity as Darkwing Duck." Khan said, skillfully getting right to the topic that irked Drake the most. "I require the skills you have as him. Never fear, though, what we are about to discuss regarding him will not leave this."

"That's not what I'm worried about!" Drake snapped. "Heck, that's the very last thing on my mind! What _is _on my mind is wondering how the heck you managed to find out about it! It's a governmental secret!"

"I have very high connections in the government, Mr. Mallard." Khan said cooly.

"Not high enough!"

"Regrettably, you are correct."

"So who told you?"

"That would be me, Mr. Mallard."

Everyone turned to look at the new voice. Now Drake's eyebrows went up as he instantly recognized the newcomer.

"What the...?" he asked, ludicrously.

"Ah yes." Khan said, turning to the newcomer as she stepped out of the shadows. "I believe you already know SHUSH Agent Sandingomm Verdauga, Mr. Mallard."

* * *

"Okay, I did not expect to see _you _here." Honker remarked, pointing at NegaGosalyn.

"Nor did I expect to find myself here until about three days ago." NegaGosalyn replied with a frown. "As you've probably guessed, Negaduck's got a new plan, and it's going to take place here, in Cape Suzette."

"Why here?"

"That's anybody's guess." NegaGosalyn shrugged. "Negs has really been keeping me out of the loop for this one, much more so than usual. He does have an ally here, but whomever it is, I don't know. From what I've heard, though, I'll bet he's unsuspecting, and is really being manipulated by Negs to do what he wants. When this is all over, no matter how it turns out, Negs is probably planning to double-cross him."

"Unsurprising."

"Yes, but this plan of Negs is top-top-secret." NegaGosalyn said, looking around nervously, which wasn't like her. "The Fearsome Five aren't even involved with this. It's just me and Negs that are here. And like I said, Negs is going out of his way to keep me out of the loop, and making sure what I _do _know stays secret. I went to great lengths to track you down and meet you here."

"So what do you know?" Honker asked, curious as to what this oh-so-secret plan of Negs was.

"Not a lot." NegaGosalyn admitted. "Probably isn't going to help you very much, to be honest."

"Then why even tell me?"

"Because it's so important that SHUSH has caught onto it, and have actually left _you _guys out of the loop." NegaGosalyn said. "Negs let it slip days ago that SHUSH was onto us, not enough to do anything yet, but enough to cause trouble. And yet you clearly haven't heard of this matter yet."

"This _is _the first I've heard of it." Honker admitted. "We were told just before we left from St. Canard that everything was okay, and there would be no problems stopping us from going on vacation. So if they really know something about this, then why haven't they told us?"

"I can think of only a couple of reasons." NegaGosalyn replied. "One, is that they know something, but not enough to do anything about it, and are waiting to learn more before they get you involved. Second, is that they know, but for some reason think that it'll be awhile still before we try anything and decided to wait for you guys to come back. Third, the one I'm leaning towards, involves The Agency."

"The Agency?" Honker asked, perplexed for a spilt second before he made the connection. "The Agency has the power to overrule SHUSH and keep them at bay."

"Exactly. They're keeping SHUSH from acting, for whatever reasons those are."

"Okay. So why is The Agency not telling us anything?"

"Easy. _They don't trust you_."

Honker frowned. "Guess I should've seen that coming." he muttered. He shook his head. "Okay, so Negs is up to something, something important enough that it has SHUSH alarmed, and The Agency ordering them to keep the likes of us out of the loop. So just _what _is this plan?"

"I...don't..._know_." NegaGosalyn repeated, annoyed. "I've told you that! To be perfectly honest, Honk, none of it makes any sense. I think Negs been involved with this project for awhile now, but it doesn't fit in with any of his other schemes as I understand them." she paused, sighing. "Still, it's deadly enough that you need to know what little I do know."

"I'm all ears."

"Negs is building something. A very powerful aircraft, to be specific."

"Like the Negaquack?"

"Heck, no, this thing is..."

She stopped short suddenly when a twig snapping was heard near the cannon relic they stood behind. NegaGosalyn straightened, listened for a spilt second, then grabbed something from her pocket and threw it on the ground. It burst into a cloud of red smoke, engulfing Honker, who started coughing. He suddenly couldn't see anymore with the smoke hanging around, but didn't need to to know that NegaGosalyn was gone.

"Honker?" the voice of Herb rang out, coughing on the smoke as he rounded the cannon. "What the...what happened?"

"Uhhh...I found a North American Bursting Flower." Honker quickly explained. "Yeah, they, uh, burst in clouds of red smoke if you get too close to them. They're very rare."

"Oh." Herb commented as the smoke started to clear. "Well, me and Binkie never did find that gift store, and those fifteen minutes I told you about earlier are up, so time t' go."

"Yeah." Honker said, looking around at the empty clifftops that weren't so empty a moment ago and feeling grave. "Definitely time to go."

* * *

Gosalyn was virtually floored by this unexpected announcement.

"_The _Kit Cloudkicker?" she repeated, bewildered. "But you vanished more than fifty years ago!" she looked the bear that stood before her now over again and found numerous other flaws with this. "No, no, no, this can't be! You're far too young! You look to be roughly about twenty years old when you should be more like...I don't know...seventy-eight...seventy-nine..."

"Eighty, actually." Kit offered. "I would be eighty years old."

"You don't look like it!"

"I know I don't, but what I say is true." Kit promised. "I _am_ Kit Cloudkicker. Back in the year 1949, my plane did not crash and I did not die. Nor did I really vanish without a trace, but that was just a theory I've supported over the years."

Gosalyn gave him a bewildered look. "Well, I would presume you have a good reason, then!" she snapped hotly.

"A very good reason." Kit assured her. "But I should warn you now that it's a reason that has very nearly cost me my life several times."

Gosalyn gaped at him for a moment, then shook her head. "Then if that's true, why the heck are you telling _me?_"

"Because you asked."

"Oh really?" Gosalyn clearly didn't believe it.

Kit made a frustrated face. "Okay, to be perfectly honest, I'm telling you because I was going to tell you anyway." he said. "_That's _why I'm here now. I've been following you ever since you arrived in Cape Suzette."

"Why?"

"Because you can help me." Kit said. "You and your teammates."

Gosalyn gave him a surprised glance.

"I know who you are, Gosalyn Mallard." Kit said. "And who you are also know as. The Crimson Avenger, from St. Canard."

Now Gosalyn was really floored by all of this.

"How the heck did you find _that _out?" she demanded.

"I found out from these." Kit said, pulling off his backpack and pulling out a bundle of worn documents.

Gosalyn took them and studied them. They were SHUSH documents, several years old, but recent enough to tell Kit what he needed to know. Gosalyn glanced back up at him, awed.

"Where did you get these?" she asked.

"The same way I got this." Kit said, and pulled out another item from his bag.

He withdrew a red crystal, which he carefully handed to Gosalyn. It was very small, and was shaped like an hourglass, only with both ends coming to a point. The crystal, whatever it was, seemed to glow from within, like it contained some unknown power, or was somehow producing it on it's own.

Gosalyn held it up. "What is it?" she asked.

"That's a sub-electron amplifier." Kit explained. "And I've been on the run with that thing, fighting for my life, for the past fifty-five years."

Gosalyn blinked, and looked back down at the mysterious crystal as it glowed dimly in her hands, casting a blood-red glow on her hands...

**To Be Continued...**


	66. Fight Or Flight Part II

Summary: When the gang heads off on a brief three-day weekend trip to unsuspecting Cape Suzette, they're expecting a relaxing and quick sight-seeing vacation. But they quickly realized that they are being watched by more than one person...

Rating: T

Author's Note: And here's part 2, but it stretched on longer than I expected too, so i split it again, making a part 3, which will be up immediately after this one. As such, we're losing yet another chapter from the line up, but that'll be explained in the fun facts in part 3.

66.

Fight Or Flight Part II

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_A explosion suddenly belched out one side of the Iron Vulture, followed by several more smaller explosions, no doubt a result of the chain reaction Kit had inadvertently started. Without warning, the air carrier suddenly lurched downward, and, it's engines now burning with fire that appeared out of nowhere, the airship crashed nose-first into the ocean below and quickly sank..._

_--  
_

"_Parts of the original group that had been put together and maintained by Don Karnage, who was presumed killed in the crash, survived and broke away to form a splinter group of sorts, using what they had left available to them, but they had been dealt too hard a blow. Air pirates of any sort never had the kind of power and influence that Don Karnage's group had again, and shortly after World War II, they vanished altogether."_

_--  
_

"_We go __**here**__ first."_

"_The Higher for Hire Museum?"_

"_You really think she came here to look at anything else, Mr. Mallard?"_

_--  
_

"_Anyway, sir, we just got word from the agent. Our targets have arrived in Cape Suzette, and were last seen exiting the airport and entering a cab, heading for the north side of the city."_

_--  
_

"_Anyway, hello, and welcome to the Higher for Hire museum. I'm Molly Cunningham, and I'll be your tour guide today."_

_--  
_

"_Then, late in the second year of Higher for Hire's operation, we were hired to transport some highly valuable cargo belonging to Khan Industries. In it was the key for Karnage to rebuild his lost Lightning Gun, although he never knew it until he by chance happened to raid our plane during this run and made off with the cargo."_

_--  
_

"_Ironically, however, Baloo died in a simple, but tragic, car accident in 1948. Right about then, Higher for Hire began to turn for the worse, and understandably so, as it was now without it's star pilot. It wouldn't be too much longer before my mother would close down the service on her own choice."_

_--  
_

"_Finally, a year later, it all came to a crashing halt. In 1949, on a routine cargo run, Kit encountered some bad weather somewhere over the ocean. At first, he simply braved the storm like he always done, but about an hour into the storm, he radioed a brief mayday. After that, no one heard anything from him again, and he, the plane, and everything onboard vanished without a trace."_

_--  
_

"_Unfortunately, I'm afraid I have to insist you come with me, Mr. Mallard. My employer is very anxious to meet with you."_

"_What on earth for?"_

"_It's because a matter has come up that requires the skills of Darkwing Duck. Who, I'm told, is you."_

_--  
_

"_What the heck does __**Khan Industries**__ want with you?"_

"_Nothing good, I can tell you that much."_

_--  
_

"_What is on my mind is wondering how the heck you managed to find out about it! It's a governmental secret!"_

"_I have very high connections in the government, Mr. Mallard."_

"_Not high enough!"_

_--  
_

"_I believe you already know SHUSH Agent Sandingomm Verdauga, Mr. Mallard."_

_--  
_

"_As you've probably guessed, Negaduck's got a new plan, and it's going to take place here, in Cape Suzette."_

_--  
_

"_Yes, but this plan of Negs is top-top-secret. The Fearsome Five aren't even involved with this. It's just me and Negs that are here. And like I said, Negs is going out of his way to keep me out of the loop, and making sure what I __**do**__ know stays secret. I went to great lengths to track you down and meet you here."_

_--  
_

"_Then why even tell me?"_

"_Because it's so important that SHUSH has caught onto it, and have actually left __**you**__ guys out of the loop."_

_--  
_

"_The Agency has the power to overrule SHUSH and keep them at bay."_

"_Exactly. They're keeping SHUSH from acting, for whatever reasons those are."_

"_Okay. So why is The Agency not telling us anything?"_

"_Easy. __**They don't trust you.**__"_

_--  
_

"_I __**am**__ Kit Cloudkicker. Back in the year 1949, my plane did not crash and I did not die."_

_--  
_

"_What is it?"_

"_That's a sub-electron amplifier. And I've been on the run with that thing, fighting for my life, for the past fifty-five years."

* * *

_

"Attention everyone, the Higher for Hire Museum will be closing in ten minutes. Attention everyone, the Higher for Hire Museum will be closing in ten minutes."

Launchpad tore his gaze away from the aircraft diagrams he had been studying ever since he and Gosalyn had parted ways. Puzzled, he first glanced up at the ceiling where the intercom system had announced it's message, then at the windows at the far end of the room to see that the sun had already dipped below the protective cliffs that shield Cape Suzette, and then at his watch to double-check the time. It said it was ten minutes till ten o'clock at night, but then Launchpad remembered his watch was still tuned to Calisota time, and mentally jumped back a few hours to get ten minutes until seven o'clock at night. That sounded about the right time for the museum to close. Besides, it was probably time to meet everyone at the hotel to head off for dinner.

Leaving that display, he started to look around the emptying museum for Gosalyn. Ten minutes later, he still hadn't found any trace of her and was starting to worry when Gosalyn found him.

"Launchpad!" she began quickly, coming up behind him unexpectedly.

Launchpad jumped, and whirled around. "Gos, there you are!" he said, relieved. "C'mon, time to go, they're going to be closing the museum here soon. Besides, I think we're late to meet up with Drake and the others anyway."

"Never mind that, something much more important has come up!" Gosalyn said urgently.

"Gos, stop kidding around to try and stay here longer, it's time to go." Launchpad said calmly.

But one look at her face showed that she was dead serious. Launchpad was silent for a moment.

"All right." he said. "What's up?"

"Well first, you're right, the museum's closing, so we should leave." Gosalyn said. "You go on ahead and exit, and I'll catch up with you outside."

"But..."

"Launchpad, please. I have my reasons, which I'll explain shortly. But first, please do what I ask. I have my own way of getting out."

Launchpad hesitated, and debated whether or not he should refuse. Looking for a moment into Gosalyn's pleading eyes made him decide to play along.

"All right, I'm going." Launchpad said, turning to leave. "Meet you outside, I guess."

He joined the line of visitors that were exiting the museum, and filed outside along with them. Once there, he milled around the entrance, waiting for Gosalyn to turn up. Slowly, the stream of visitors exiting the museum dropped to a trickle, and then vanished altogether. At promptly seven o'clock, the museum closed and locked its doors. Just when Launchpad was about to again begin worrying, Gosalyn suddenly appeared a little further up the street, running towards him.

"There you are!" Launchpad said. "How did you get out? Well, never mind, c'mon, we need to meet up with–hey!"

Gosalyn grabbed the pilot's arm and started to lead him back down the street she had just ran up. "Come with me Launchpad, and we'll get an explanation for all of this." she said.

She led him into a nearby alley where another person stood and nervously waited for them. He turned to look at them when he entered, and regarded Launchpad with curiosity. Launchpad did likewise back.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"Kit, this is Launchpad McQuack." Gosalyn said, motioning to Launchpad. She then turned to Launchpad and motioned to Kit. "LP, this is Kit Cloudkicker."

Launchpad looked at her for a moment, then at Kit for a long moment. Kit, looking nervous still, politely waved. Launchpad blinked, then turned to back to Gosalyn.

"I thought he vanished without a trace flying over the ocean." he said to her. "Wasn't that what the tour guide lady said?"

"Molly." Kit said. "And...she did. But it's not true. Well, in a way, it is, but...uh..."

"Point is that he's really here, and he needs our help." Gosalyn said. "He's been on the run for the past fifty-five years, or so he claims."

Launchpad looked back at Kit for a moment. "Now wait," he said, "if that's true, shouldn't you be a little older than that?"

"That's what I said, but he has yet to provide an adequate explanation for it." Gosalyn said, giving Kit a look.

"I know, and I will." Kit promised. "Just not here. We need to talk somewhere private." he paused, looking around. "I think I know where, too."

"Lead the way." Gosalyn said, stepping aside.

Kit nodded, and started forward. Gosalyn started to follow, but Launchpad held her back for a moment.

"But Gos, what about the others?" Launchpad asked. "We're supposed to meet them at the hotel by now."

"Dad'll understand, now c'mon." Gosalyn said.

And off they went as Kit led the way to their destination, which he, and only he, knew quite well...

* * *

"Agent Sandy!" Drake exclaimed, surprised. "_You're _in on this, too?"

"Regrettably." Sandy replied, coming to stand beside Khan's desk. "I had my orders, though."

"She is here at SHUSH's request, and not my own." Khan said, sitting down in his chair. "She is the one who did the spying you accused me of."

Drake and Christine stared at the agent.

"Why?" Christine asked.

"Is Agent Mia in on this too?" Drake asked venomously.

"No, Mia was supposed to be, but she refused to have any part of this." Sandy said quickly in the defense of her friend and fellow agent. "She didn't like the idea of this and refused a direct order and would've lost her position if the director hadn't intervened."

"And pray tell how J. Gander fits into this." Drake asked.

"Director Hooter is against this too." Sandy assured him. "But he was overruled by the vice president and was ordered to obey."

"Oh, so even Norrin's in on this." Drake said. "All right, I want answers. _Why _is everybody spying on me without my knowledge?"

"It's not as bad as you think, Mr. Mallard." Khan said, fiddling with his walking stick. "All Agent Verdauga was doing was keeping track of your movements once inside of Cape Suzette. The moment you were alone, I wanted you brought here for this meeting."

"So what's this meeting about?" Christine asked. "All you've said is that it's important, and that it involves Darkwing Duck."

"This isn't my territory." Drake pointed out. "I have no superhero involvement here in Cape Suzette."

"You do when one of your enemies comes here." Khan said.

Drake paused, then squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. "Which one?" he asked.

"Who else, Mr. Mallard?" Agent Sandy asked, like the answer was obvious.

It was.

"Negaduck." Drake grumbled through clenched teeth.

"SHUSH monitored his movements to this location a few days ago." Khan explained. "Ever since then, criminal activity of a certain group Khan Industries has been monitoring has gone up. We believe there is a connection."

"Hence why SHUSH and Khan Industries are cooperating for this." Sandy stated.

Drake sat himself in a nearby chair, deciding he might as well stop and listen to this. "All right." he said. "Give me the details. What's this connection, and what interests does Negaduck have in Cape Suzette?"

"To do that, I'll have to give you a little background on the matter." Khan said, steepling his fingers together. "You see, back in the year 1935, my father and predecessor Shere Khan met with his cabinet of executives in a very important meeting and proposed a very daring and intriguing project; to divert resources from _all _of the divisions of Khan Industries to work to develop a power source that matched Khan's specifications. This power source had to be limitless, that never deteriorated and could be used again and again. If all of Khan Industries ran on this inexhaustible power source, the cooperation would be revolutionized. Despite much skepticism and scoffing, the project went forward."

"Betcha they failed." Christine remarked, who was skeptic herself.

"Actually, quite the opposite, Miss Merriweather." Khan remarked. "A year later, Khan Industries produced what will later be known as a sub-electron amplifier, the result of millions of dollars worth of time and effort, and exceeded everyone's expectations."

"A sub-electron amplifier?" Drake asked, intrigued now. "I think I've heard of it."

"It would have to be very little, Mr. Mallard, because the science involved alone would baffle most scientists." Agent Sandy commented. "Even Dr. Bellum admitted she is not fluent in the science. Furthermore, due to the power of the sub-electron amplifier, it has been kept mostly secret ever since it was first created."

Drake and Christine exchanged glances. Charlie, who was listening too despite some of it being over his head, spoke up. "How does it work?" he asked.

Khan grinned a rare smile. "Well, first, you must understand how sub-electron amplification works." he stated. He turned the screen of his computer around so everyone could see what it displayed; an hourglass-shaped crystal. "As I understand it, the purpose of it is to, in short, excite the power levels of normal elementary particles far above their usual levels. A sub-electron amplifier..." he motioned to the crystal on the screen, "...achieves this only under special circumstances. Built out of a special electrical alloy, the atomic structure of the amplifier consists of a certain balance of electrons and ion particles. Under normal circumstances, these particles are usually inactive, but are still rather unstable, which can be triggered easily by outside forces."

"Sounds dangerous." Drake remarked.

"It can be." Khan agreed. "Sub-electron amplification begins when that outside force stimulates the particles in the amplifier into motion. It quickly begins a chain reaction that spurs the particle structure of the amplifier into moving faster and faster until massive amounts of power are produced. Ideally, this produces an electrical charge that is quickly supercharged, or amplified, into the levels Shere Khan demanded when the project began. The danger lies in the fact that whenever another object touches it once it's amplified, the energy discharges through it. And since the power levels reach extraordinary levels..."

"...that object receives quite a shock." Christine concluded.

"And the amplification process can be started frightfully easily, as well." Agent Sandy commented. "Just dropping a sub-electron amplifier can set it off."

"In a controlled environment when the amplifier is being used properly, though, it is fairly more controlled and safe." Khan said. "When placed in a device it is supposed to power, the amplifier can be activated with a simply low-level electrical current, which sets it off, and the power is fed along the same conduits that produced the current, called a priming current. Through this process, sub-electron amplification can be much more controlled, and not so chaotic."

"Okay, so now we know how it works." Drake remarked. "Now, you were saying that Khan Industries actually managed to _build _one of these amplifier thingies."

"Ah yes." Khan said. "Early in 1936, a successful sub-electron amplifier was built, and upon conducting some final tests, it was packaged up and was sent to be transported here, Khan Tower, for an inspection." he paused, and sighed. "Unfortunately, it never arrived."

"What happened?" Charlie asked, still listening.

"The plane carrying it was raided, by air pirates, who somehow found out about it, and they stole the amplifier to use for their own purposes." Agent Sandy said. "And use it they did, by building a very power weapon that was powered by the amplifier."

Christine blinked. "A Lightning Gun." she realized, remembering the tour.

"Ah, I see you're already familiar with the tale." Khan remarked. "Yes, they did build a lightning gun, a very devastating weapon even by today's standards, and used it to attack Cape Suzette. They caused a great deal of damage to the city, and injured several, but fortunately they were stopped, and the Lightning Gun was destroyed. Unfortunately, so was the amplifier."

"How was it destroyed?" Drake asked, curious.

"To be perfectly honest, we're still not entirely sure." Khan admitted. "We do know that it fell into the bay during the attack, and created a massive explosion, although we're not entirely certain why. We do know, however, that water can trigger sub-electron amplification in the amplifier, but in a different manner. Continued contact with water prolongs the process of sub-electron amplification indefinitely. It is quite possible that being exposed to that much water forced the amplification process to keep going far longer than it should, creating a build up of energy that couldn't be discharged, and eventually there was too much power for the amplifier to contain and released it the only way it could, in an explosion."

"So ended that matter." Drake stated.

"For the time being." Khan agreed. "Seeing how much resources it took to build the one amplifier with no profit coming from the ordeal in the end, Khan Industries wasn't very inclined create another. The project was discontinued."

"But by that point in time, the amplifier wasn't so secret anymore." Agent Sandy said. "Several other organizations and corporations found out about it and wanted to learn more. SHUSH as it stood at the time conducted its own investigation into the matter, and became very interested in the sub-electron amplifier."

"They approached Khan Industries and inquired if we were continuing with the project." Khan said, continuing the story. "When we said that we were not, SHUSH offered to strike a deal. Build them another amplifier that they could use for their own series of experiments, while SHUSH provided the funding. In addition to the promised share of the benefits from these planned experiments, Khan Industries agreed, and by the next year, 1937, another amplifier had been made."

"The problem we then faced was transporting it to the proper location." Agent Sandy said. "According to the records, SHUSH was against coming to pick up the amplifier themselves in fear of drawing too much attention to themselves."

"Khan Industries faced the same issue." Khan agreed. "There had been a massive influx of air pirate raids as of late during that year, and cargo ships belonging to this industry was among the targeted, and were thereby more likely to be raided. So we sought some discreet, but quick, way to deliver the amplifier to where it needed to go, to a SHUSH laboratory located on an island in the ocean. A means in which nobody would suspect anything of which power would be there."

"Higher for Hire." Christine guessed, again remembering what she had learned at the tour.

"They certainly fit what we were both looking for." Agent Sandy agreed. "Higher for Hire had made quite a name for itself by this point in time, capable of transporting very important goods around the globe safely and effectively, and had an impeccable record at avoiding and evading the air pirates. They also knew very, _very,_ well just what the amplifier was, and how important it was for it to get where it needed to go. So they were hired to deliver the cargo."

"But they didn't meet our expectations." Khan said darkly. "They were, by chance, raided by air pirates, who took the cargo without knowing beforehand what it was. When they did, they of course jumped on it, and again we were threatened by the Lightning Gun."

"Fortunately, the pirates were headed off by an attack force before they reached Cape Suzette and in the battle that ensued, the pirates were again stopped, and their air carrier was destroyed in the process." Agent Sandy said.

"Taking the amplifier with it." Christine guessed.

"Or so we thought." Khan stated.

This drew a few surprised glances.

"I take it this is where I start coming in." Drake mumbled.

"Despite what everyone says, the air pirates still exist, but their numbers have dwindled significantly, and they certainly must lack the resources to conduct many raids, for reports of air pirate raids are rare and few these days." Khan said. "Both SHUSH and Khan Industries have been keeping tabs on them in the past. They've caused some trouble, but usually nothing too major."

"So how does that fit in with the amplifier?" Drake asked.

"It all boils down to Negaduck." Sandy explained. "It's the air pirates that he's joined forces with, but seeing that the Fearsome Five would have more power than they do, there doesn't seem to be anything Negaduck would want with them." she paused for a moment. "Unless...they have some kind of extra incentive that Negaduck would have interest in."

"Oh, don't tell me..." Drake began, seeing where this was going.

"We have reason to believe that the air pirates have a sub-electron amplifier, or have the means of getting one." Khan said. "And if so, they have probably struck a deal with Negaduck to split the profits, if not more."

"Negs would only be interested in the amplifier, though." Drake noted. "If he got his hands on that...what he could do with that thing would put whatever trouble the air pirates have caused with that thing to shame."

"I don't get it though." Christine said. "If the air pirates really do have an amplifier, or have a means of getting one, then why _haven't _they? It's been more than sixty years since they last tried a major attack. That seems like a very long time to wait."

"You guess is as good as ours, which is why we wanted to ask Darkwing to investigate further into the matter." Agent Sandy said, looking straight at Drake. "We know the air pirates and Negaduck are up to something, we just need to know what."

"Well, if that's all, then why didn't you just _ask _me?" Drake asked. "You could've told me all of this _days _ago, long before I even got here in Cape Suzette! Why the delay?"

"Because, The Agency found out about all of this, and wanted to conduct their own investigation into the matter." Sandy explained with an exasperated sigh. "As such, they made sure that those of us at SHUSH didn't try anything until they were done. Furthermore, they know possibly more about the sub-electron amplifier than we do, and probably weren't keen on the idea on getting you involved, Mr. Mallard. It wasn't until that it was clear that they weren't turning up any new information that they relented and allowed SHUSH to act. They're also the ones who requested for all the subterfuge in employing you for the assignment."

"Needlessly." Drake snorted, standing and preparing to go. Christine followed his example, scooping up Charlie into her arms again.

"Regardless, though, you can see why they did it." Khan said, watching them. "The secret of the amplifier has been kept classified first by Khan Industries and then later by SHUSH for several decades now. They are not at all ready for such a secret to be getting out."

"Mr. Khan, I know of much more secret stuff than that, stuff that would blow your mind." Drake said, placing both hands on the CEO's desk and giving him an annoyed look. "I can handle this kind of secret. Now, are we done here?"

"Yes, Mr. Mallard, we are done, so long as you agree to help." Sandy said.

"Well, it doesn't seem like I have much choice, so Darkwing Duck will go forth and scope things out!" Drake said semi-dramatically, heading back for the elevator, Christine trailing in his wake.

"Rocky, go with them, and give them a ride to any location they desire." Khan instructed his lackey, who had been silent for most of the meeting.

The tabby looked up from the paperclip chain he had been making, and nodded, placing his hat back on his brow. "Yes Mr. Khan, sir." he said, and hurried to catch up with the others.

Once in the limo and heading towards the hotel at Drake's request, both Drake and Christine reviewed the meeting in their heads.

"Well, so much for a vacation." Christine remarked.

"Mm." Drake grunted. "It figures, actually. Now I'll have to dedicate my time on this unexpected case and come up with a story to tell the Muddlefoots." he shook his head. "Gos is going to throw a fit when she hears of this, too, but I'll need her help for this."

"Right, this is going to be a very potentially dangerous case." Christine agreed with a nod.

"It's more than that." Drake said. "Something about all of this just doesn't add up." he paused. "I think there's something they aren't telling us."

* * *

Down the side of the hill on which the Higher for Hire Museum stood the original building that had housed the Higher for Hire cargo delivery service during the years it was in service. It was an extremely run-down looking building that appeared to be part warehouse and part watchtower. Regardless, though, the building still stood as sturdy as before, thanks to the work of the Higher for Hire Museum keeping it maintained.

The building's main office had been restored to look as it had back in the day in the 1930s, and was used for visitors to occasionally enter and explore. A service for photographing visitors standing in the office was also available. Since it was after-hours, now, the office was closed for the evening, and was locked. The rest of the building, though it's structural integrity was regularly maintained, had been cleared out and was mere empty rooms. They, too, were kept locked up to prevent people from nosing where they shouldn't.

With the except of one room, which Kit knew perfectly well was free for their use.

Sitting behind the main levels of the building was the watchtower that rose up above the rest of the building. Back in the day, it was this structure that housed the service's observation deck for visitors to stand and enjoy the sights and Higher for Hire's radio room. Now the tower was empty and supposedly locked, but Kit knew a way into it without anyone knowing, that led straight to the former radio room. It was here that Kit led Gosalyn and Launchpad.

Upon entering, it was clear that Kit had been staying here for a few days already, as it had been sparsely adapted for his use. A sleeping bag lay stretched across the floor, with an oil lamp sitting next to it. A few knickknacks Kit had apparently picked up over the years were scattered about the room, but weren't underfoot. An empty can and a spoon sat on top of a small crate that had probably served as a table indicating that Kit didn't have that much to eat. More cans, unopened, sat in a corner.

Upon entering, Kit sat down to scoop up the oil lamp and lit it, looking around the mostly empty room. "Well, this is it." he said. "It's not much, but given the circumstances, it works."

Gosalyn sat down on the floor, and motioned for Launchpad to join them. "How long have you been staying here?" she asked. "Not ever since you disappeared, did you?"

"Heavens, no." Kit said, setting the oil lamp down and pulling off his backpack and overcoat. "It's far too risky to stay in one place like that for that long. About every year or so I move to a new location, unless I have reason to do it sooner. Been all across the country doing that. Even passed through St. Canard once, but I'll explain that further later." he paused to pull out the items from his backpack, including the SHUSH documents and the sub-electron amplifier he had shown Gosalyn at the museum. "This is actually just a temporary place to stay, somewhere to go to for eating and sleeping." he explained further. "Currently, I have an homey apartment in a fishing village about a mile to the west from here. I work moving cargo there. Not much pay, and the hours are lousy, but it keeps me busy. Although, seeing that I left there without warning, and have been gone for a couple days now, I'm probably out of a job by now."

Gosalyn looked at Kit sympathetically as Launchpad picked up the amplifier Kit had set aside and began examining it. "It sounds like you've had a hard life since you 'vanished' without a trace." she said.

Kit shrugged. "Couldn't be helped." he said. "But I'll explain all of that here shortly." he paused, sighing. "This all really began a few decades go, all the way back to September 1937." he said. "Higher for Hire was only into it's second year of operation. I was thirteen, and still Baloo's navigator on the _Sea Duck_. We had just gotten a deal from Khan Industries to make a delivery to a secret location that they were willing to pay through the nose for. The cargo..." he gently took the amplifier from Launchpad, "...was this. It was safely locked in a box which was locked in a bigger box. By this point in time, we knew what a sub-electron amplifier was, what it was capable of, and what it could be used for. Baloo and I knew the danger we faced if something happened to this cargo, and Baloo wasn't keen to take the job, but Miss Cunningham, Molly's mother, knew what it would mean if we took this job and finished it, and how much we would get from it, and talked Baloo into it. I backed her up, pointing out that we could hurry and get the amplifier there and then be done with it. Besides what could happen anyway?"

He snorted suddenly, smiling a bittersweet grin at the irony of the statement. "A lot I knew." he muttered. "Halfway there, Don Karnage and his usual legion of pirates attacked us and forced us to land. He then boarded and raided our plane, looking for anything of interest in our cargo. He didn't know we had an amplifier onboard. He couldn't have. It was purely by chance that he even found it, poking into boxes and crates at random until he nosed his way into the one that contained the amplifier." he paused. "And then we all made a discovery that caught us by surprise."

"What?" Gosalyn asked.

"There were actually two amplifiers." Kit said. "_Two _of them. Each one placed in their own separate box. Khan Industries had only told us there was one. We took their word for it and didn't take the time to see for ourselves. Now I don't know why there were two. Maybe it was for some safety reason, in case something happened to one of them, they would still have the other. Or maybe, they had a practical reason for having two. I don't know. What I do know is that Karnage, overjoyed at this stroke of luck, took both and despite us trying to stop him, he escaped.

"We reluctantly radioed home, told them the bad news. Miss Cunningham was beside herself in anger, but I think Khan Industries was even madder. Once they found out, they promptly took control of the situation and forced us out of the loop. I mean, they had every reason to. It was pretty much our fault that this even happened. They began working to stop Karnage before he was able to put the amplifiers to use. It turned out that Karnage was ready sooner than we all thought, as the _Iron Vulture _was quickly seen heading towards Cape Suzette, armed with a Lightning Gun I presume Karnage had kept lying around in the event he ever got his hands on a way to power it.

"Then Baloo got a crazy idea on how he could set things right. We knew that the _Vulture _was coming, and what direction it was likely to come from. Baloo was confident that he could discreetly intercept the air carrier in the _Sea Duck _and head them off, secretly boarding to steal back the amplifiers before Karnage caused any harm. The plan wasn't entirely solid, and depended a great deal on luck being on our side, but it was the only plan we had, and Miss Cunningham wanted to set things right too. She agreed to the plan, and let me and Baloo go.

"The plan didn't go according to plan at all, though. Baloo managed to get the _Sea Duck _there undetected and landed on top of the _Iron Vulture_ long enough for me to get onboard before the pirates found us and chased Baloo in the _Sea Duck_ off. He hung around, though, because I had been left onboard. I managed to slip through the attack undetected and wandered around in the air carrier for a few hours, trying to decide what to do now. I managed to find one of the amplifiers, but the other one was gone. The pirates had already taken it to put to use in their Lightning Gun.

"Finally, when the _Vulture _arrived at Cape Suzette and was attacked by the city's squadron of fighter planes, I decided I couldn't wait any longer for a perfect plan that would keep everybody happy. I had one amplifier, but there was no way I could get the other. So I destroyed it, by shooting it from afar, and then escaped, getting picked up by Baloo. The rest was history. These events sparked a chain reaction that ended in the downfall of the air pirates, Higher for Hire getting back some of it's trust, but not all of it, and Khan Industries got back the remaining amplifier, which they quickly confiscated.

"Years passed. Life went on as normal. I grew older, old enough to get my pilot's license and my own plane, and started flying cargo for the business like Baloo. Then...things started to go wrong. First Baloo died in that car accident. That alone was heartbreaking enough, but like Molly said in the tour at the museum, we all managed to move on. Then came the day I allegedly disappeared. At first, things went as the story says; I was doing a run when I encountered bad weather. At first I braved it, but when it turned for the worse, radioed a mayday while looking for shelter. What happened then was that I didn't find shelter. It actually found me, in a way.

"Without warning, I was suddenly surrounded by planes, military planes, ones that I had never seen before. They boxed me in, forced me to land on an unseen island down below. Once there, I was met by a party of SHUSH agents."

Gosalyn, who had taken the SHUSH documents to flip through while listening, glanced up sharply. "SHUSH?" she asked, sounding surprised.

"Apparently, the island was under their control, and housed a small secret base." Kit explained. "They showed me around a little bit, and then told me why they had led me here. Apparently, ever since that incident with the air pirates in September 1937, they had been monitoring the movements from everyone at Higher for Hire for sometime, having reason to believe that the air pirates were plotting to extract revenge on us by killing us."

Launchpad snorted at this. "The air pirates?" he chuckled. "Hah, from what I've heard, they were in no position to do such a thing."

"Exactly what I thought." Kit said. "I even mocked the idea like you are doing now." he paused, and sighed. "But...they had evidence. Evidence that the car accident Baloo died in really _wasn't _an accident. It was set up. Baloo was murdered."

There was a long moment of stunned silence.

"SHUSH had also deduced that I was likely to be the next target." Kit continued gravely, curling up his legs into a ball. "In fact, they weren't even sure why I hadn't already been killed. But being unable to trace the air pirates so to stop them, they decided they needed to warn me, and waited for their chance. When they saw that I was flying over them, that was their chance. That wasn't all they had to tell me, too. They had reason to believe that the air pirates knew that one of the sub-electron amplifiers had escaped the _Iron Vulture's _crash back in 1937, and were searching for it. SHUSH believed that the air pirates thought Khan Industries still had it, but in reality, they did. The amplifier was, in fact, right at the base. They showed me it to prove it. I asked why they felt I needed to know this, but never really gave me a straight answer."

"So what happened?" Gosalyn asked. "What happened that kept you from coming back?"

Kit sighed. "SHUSH's little theory about whose hands the air pirates thought held the amplifier was proven wrong that very day." he said. "They also proved that they had more resources and manpower available to them than we had all been led to believe. While I was at the base, the air pirates attacked in their fighter planes without warning, laying waste to most of the base, killing most of everyone. I managed to escape on my own in a boat, being overlooked in all the turmoil. In leaving, I also got this." he held up the amplifier again. "I knew that the air pirates were looking for this, so I took it with me, and hung onto it. But I also knew that they were after me, and if they had some reason to believe I had been at the base when they attacked, which I thought that they did, and didn't find my body, nor the amplifier they wanted, they knew I had escaped with it. So I couldn't go back to Cape Suzette.

"Instead, I wandered around the coast, moving randomly and frequently for the first few months using an assumed name to try and loose the air pirates. They nearly caught up with me a few times, but eventually I did manage to loose their trail. I knew they were still looking for me, though, so I kept going, wandering around aimlessly across the country, taking the amplifier with me, keeping it close to me at all times.

"The years again went by, slowly and depressingly. I led a lonely and hard life, but I had decided I didn't have much choice. I had no clue if the air pirates were still out there and if they still had plans to carry out, so I didn't want to risk it. I checked the news frequently for any word of their activities, but there was never anything to be found. Either they had finally broken apart, or the likes of SHUSH was keeping their continued existence a secret for the time being.

"I got my chance to find out just last year, when my wandering led me your native St. Canard. Got a temporary job working in a supermarket. While there, I found out that was being followed by someone. Thinking that my fears had come true and that the air pirates had tracked me down, I turned the tables and followed my follower back to his house to the suburbs. There, however, I discovered that my followed was actually a retired SHUSH agent, an Agent Jamison, who had managed to, in his spare time, put two with two. When I showed up at his house, he was actually glad to see me.

"We got to talking about things. He asked what I had been doing and what had happened to me. I asked him if the air pirates were still around and working at their plans that had landed me in this mess, and he admitted that they were, and were still tracking me, which was what had led him to find me. He assured me, though, that this mess would end right here, that the amplifier could be returned back to it's proper owners, and SHUSH would provide protection from the pirates from me. I instantly agreed, and instantly surrendered the amplifier that very night.

"But again, SHUSH had underestimated the opponent. Just as I was exiting the house to go retrieve my belongings, Jamison's house exploded. The pirates had planted a bomb there, as I had later found out, with the hope of killing him. Well, it worked. While I managed to escape the event unscathed, Jamison didn't. He was killed in the blast."

"I remember this!" Launchpad exclaimed. "Me and DW were ordered by Director Hooter to investigate the matter. We figured out that the explosion was caused by a bomb, but we never figured out who did it. We eventually presumed that FOUL did it, although DW never did quite believe it."

"So I heard." Kit said, nodding. "Because I managed to salvage two thing the night of the explosion besides myself. One was the sub-electron amplifier, which wasn't hurt. The other was those documents you hold now, Gosalyn, which gave me enough clues to figure out your secret identity of you and your adopted father. I think it was a pet project of Jamison's, but I don't know if he managed to make the same conclusions. Whatever the case, I knew I was in danger, and started running again, this time heading back towards Cape Suzette before I ended up at that fishing village I told you about a few months ago.

"While I did so, I worked to learn more about Darkwing and company, mostly out of curiosity. Eventually I realized that you might actually be able to help me escape this mess, so when I found out you were all coming here, I jumped on the chance. And, well, here we are."

Gosalyn and Launchpad looked at each other for a moment. Then Gosalyn looked back at Kit and grinned comfortingly.

"I don't know how we'll do it yet, but we'll figure out some way to help you, Kit." she said. "You've certainly been through more than you ever should've."

"Thanks." Kit said, grinning, and looking both relieved and comforted.

"Although, I still have some questions about all of this that you haven't answered." Gosalyn said. "First and foremost is your age. You said you'd be eighty years old by now, but you most certainly aren't."

"Actually, I think I am, I just don't look like it." Kit said.

"Any idea _why_?"

"I think this has everything to do with it." Kit said, holding up the amplifier again, and handing it to Gosalyn to hold. "I mean, think about it. I aged like I always should've until that thing fell into my possession, always keeping it near. So I think that amplifier has somehow kept me from aging."

"But...why?" Launchpad asked, taking the crystal and peering into it.

"And how can we prove such a theory?" Gosalyn asked.

"Well, I did some experimenting, of course." Kit said. "At first, I never thought much about my lack of aging. I just figured that time was being extra gracious to me. But then, about forty years ago, when secretly celebrating my fortieth birthday in Louisiana, it suddenly occurred to me that I should be looking a whole lot older than I actually do. As I had plenty of time to think during those long days, I gave the matter some thought, eventually beginning to wonder if something had happened to me that was keeping me from aging. For a long while, I couldn't figure out what. Then I realized that maybe it was the amplifier. I had always kept it with me since I had gotten it, either in a pocket, or in a bag that I carried with me so that it was never more than a foot away from me. I even slept with it, I was that paranoid something would happen to it, although, looking back, I probably should've destroyed it when I had the chance, and give me one less thing to worry about.

"Anyway, I decided to set the amplifier somewhere safe in the apartment I was staying in at the time, and went to bed on the other side of the apartment, well away from the amplifier, just to see what would happen. First night went okay, and so did the day that followed. On the second night, however, that changed. At first, I slept soundly enough for the first few hours of the night. But then, in the early hours of the next morning, my night took a turn for the worse. I started to ache all over. I got chills, and a terrible headache. My stomach churned like I had eaten something bad. It was bad enough that in the morning I went and retrieved the amplifier and started keeping it close to me again. Once I did that, I quickly recovered. That was more than enough proof for me to prove that the amplifier was playing a part in all of this.

"I didn't think too much of it again in the years that followed, despite being aware that I wasn't aging for some reason. Then, when I met up with Agent Jamison and was telling him what had happened to me over the decades, I brought the matter up, asking his opinion. He gave the matter some thought, then examined the amplifier with a variety of tools he had on hand. He quickly discovered that the amplifier produced more than just electrical power and visible light. It also produced trace amounts of other, harder to detect, energies on various frequencies, such as x-rays, microwaves, radio waves, and more. The one he took the most interest in, however, was what he called life energy."

"Life energy!" Gosalyn repeated, and then slapped herself. "Of course! The very energy that makes life possible! It would make sense that being exposed to trace amounts of it would prevent you from aging!"

"That's what Jamison said." Kit said, nodding. "Only problem is that I think I've become unknowingly addicted to it. Getting exposed to that energy doesn't stop aging, it just prevents it. Once the life energy is taken away, though, the body quickly works to catch up, aging speedily. My problem is that I've gone long enough without aging that to allow my body to 'catch up', so to speak, would be extremely uncomfortable and painful. The shock may even kill me, although there's no way to know without more experimentation." he took back the amplifier and stared into it's red glow. "Good thing it seems to take about twenty-four hours before those ill effects kick in."

Launchpad looked at the amplifier too. "Why do the air pirates want that thing so badly, anyway?" he asked. "You don't think they might have a use for it, do they?"

"I don't know." Kit admitted, fingering the crystal gently. "Maybe we can find out."

"Yeah, maybe." Gosalyn said. She stood up and turned to Launchpad. "LP, we need to find Dad and tell him what's going on."

Launchpad nodded, and rose. "Kit, you better come with us." he said.

Kit nodded, and got up as well. "Might as well." he said. "It's not like I have anywhere else to go."

They started for the exit, but they all froze when they heard a thump somewhere below them. They kept silent for several moments as they strained their ears to hear for anything else.

"What was that?" Launchpad finally asked.

"Well, there _is _a security guard who drops by to make sure everything's locked up, but he's not due for several more hours." Kit admitted.

They heard another thump, followed by shuffling feet moving towards them. Gosalyn gasped, and dropped down, blowing out the oil lamp.

"Somebody's in here, and coming our way!" she said urgently, as the others followed her example and ducked down

"Who? Pirates?" Launchpad asked.

Kit moved towards the top of the staircase that led up into the room, looking down them. He quickly jerked back suddenly, closing his eyes in exasperation.

"Yep." he said. "I'd recognize that bad attire anywhere." he let out a moan, despite ignoring Gosalyn's urgent shushing, and slid down the side of the wall. "Not this, not now, and not again!" he bemoaned. "Why is it when things are suddenly going good for me that they quickly turn wrong? I can't keep going like this!"

"You aren't going to!" Gosalyn snapped in a harsh whisper, clamping Kit's mouth shut. "Now quiet, I think I have an idea. How close are the pirates?"

"They're nearly at the bottom of the stairs!" Kit hissed. "They _know _I'm here!"

"A fact that I'm counting on." Gosalyn said, taking the sub-electron amplifier from him. "Launchpad, get those cans and get ready to throw on my mark."

"Throw?" Kit repeated.

Gosalyn ignored him, carefully handling the amplifier as she peered down the stairs. Sure enough, two scruffy characters that matched what Gosalyn envisioned as air pirates were arriving at the bottom the stairs, both of them armed. Gosalyn waited a moment, and then despite Kit's shocked yelp, threw the amplifier down the stairs. It bounced off a wall, and then rolled down the rest of the stairs, sparking as it went, before it came to a stop at one air pirate's feet.

"Hey look!" he exclaimed in a dumb voice, bending over to pick up the crystal. "Isn't this the..."

He got no further when the amplifier discharged the energy it had built up in it's fall into the pirate shocking him violently and knocking him down. Gosalyn then turned to Launchpad to give the word, but Launchpad didn't need any bidding, and started throwing the cans he had collected at the second pirate. The pirate took a few hits before one can knocked him in the head and knocked him out cold, toppling over...

...to reveal Negaduck standing directly behind him, gas gun already drawn, a cruel smirk on his face.

Nobody had any chance to react when the canister of sleeping gas shot up into the room and burst, filling the room almost instantly with the smoke. Gosalyn, being the closest, took a full blast, and collapsed to the floor, the energy draining away from her, dimly aware that she had just been terribly outsmarted as she faded into a deep sleep.

* * *

When Drake, Christine, and Charlie finally arrived at the hotel well into the night, they found the Muddlefoots waiting anxiously for them in the lobby.

"Well, there ya are, Drakester!" Herb exclaimed when the threesome entered. "Whew! We were beginnin' t' worry that something had happened to ya!"

"Oh, no, we just got a little..." Drake began, wondering how to explain this, "...sidetracked, is all."

"Well, we're just glad to see the three of you all right." Binkie said, who walked over and started looking the three over. "At first, we just thought you had gotten held up, or you had gone to get Gosalyn and Launchpad, so we went and had dinner without you at the Savoir Faire Restaurant. Speaking of which, we saved you some of the leftovers. Should be more than enough for all of you. But then, when we got back, and found that you three weren't here, nor Gosalyn and Launchpad, we..."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold it!" Drake said, grabbing Binkie's hands and stopping her from continuing her examination of him. "What do you mean Gos and LP aren't here?"

"Exactly that, Mr. Mallard." Honker said, walking up. "They haven't arrived at the hotel all evening, and they aren't at the museum. We called and checked. I've been trying Gos's cell phone repeatedly, too, but I haven't been getting any answer."

"Well, where could _they _be?" Christine asked, clearly frustrated.

"I'm almost afraid to ask." Drake muttered, rolling his eyes. "Okay, I'll go look for them. The rest of you...go ahead and go to bed. No need for all of you to stay up and fret."

"I'll stay up and help you, Mr. Mallard." Honker offered. "Besides I have something to tell you."

"I might be able to guess what it is, seeing how this night has been turning out." Drake grumbled, heading back out the door, Honker following. "Good night everybody."

"G'night Drake!" Herb said, as he had his wife walked off to head to bed. "See ya in the morning!"

"C'mon, Charlie, it's way past your bedtime." Christine said, leading her adopted son away.

"Oh, but I want to stay up and stop the bad guys!" he bemoaned, turning back to look back at the doors, through which Drake and Honker could be seen, talking animatedly.

Christine followed Charlie's gaze. "Wish we could, little buddy." she said truthfully. "But Drake's right. No need for us to stay up any longer."

* * *

Meanwhile, Honker had just begun telling his rather lame cover story explaining what NegaGosalyn had revealed to him without revealing it was NegaGosalyn who had told him.

"See, while we were on those cliffs, one can look around and see quite far." Honker said. "And...uh...while I was up there, I saw quite a few things. And....among those things I saw...was...er..."

"What you're trying to say is that Negaduck is here in Cape Suzette, that he's allied himself with some local bad guys and is probably planning something very bad and now we need to stop him somehow." Drake recapped, clearly annoyed.

"Er..." Honker began, caught off guard by this. "Yes. And that Negs is building an aircraft of some sort, although I don't know exactly what."

"Hmm, that's a new detail." Drake muttered. "But setting that all aside, I want to know how _you _managed across all of this information _this _time. You and Gos have _both _been getting facts like this out of seemingly thin air, and never having an adequate explanation for it." he paused for a long moment, giving Honker a long stare. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"

Honker gulped. "Admittedly...yes."

"I knew it!"

"I can't tell you what and why, though."

"Why not?"

"I promised not to tell you. Besides, I don't know why I can't tell you anyway. Though, I do have a few theories, but given the situation of everything, I can't tell you that, either."

"Well, I'm on to you, so you might as well."

"I'm not the one to decide that. You should ask Gosalyn."

"Unfortunately, Honker, in case you haven't noticed, she's not here." Drake sighed. "I see two possible explanations. Either that there's some other fraction of people involved in this that I don't know about that have nabbed her to ask for her help, or Negs got to her and LP. Personally, I'm hoping for neither, and that she's being stubbornly disobedient again."

"Whatever the case, sir, what should we do now?" Honker asked.

"First, we need equipment." Drake said. "Honker, you better activate the call systems for the Thunderquack. I think we'll need her."

Honker nodded, and pulled out his wristwatch and pressed a secret button on it. On the other side of the country, within Darkwing Tower, the Thunderquack II automatically switched on and powered up. Moments later, it took off under it's own power and control, and shot off for Cape Suzette.

* * *

Kit wasn't sure how long he had been out, but he knew ever before he woke back up that he was in deep trouble.

Opening his eyes as the sleeping gas wore off, he quickly saw how true that was. First off, he was sitting in a hard wooden chair, and was tied to it. Beside him sat Gosalyn and Launchpad, identically tied to identical chairs, both also beginning to reawaken. Looking around, it was clear that all three of them had been moved to an undetermined location, although Kit could make several guesses as to where. Wherever it was, it was underground, for the walls were made of unevenly carved volcanic rock. The room at first glance didn't appear to be too big, looking to be some sort of planning room with two tunnel that branched off of it, but this illusion was deceptive. Ahead of Kit, the room abruptly ended and dropped away as it joined with cavernous room. It's exact size couldn't be determined from this angle, but the edge of the smaller room formed a balcony that overlooked it. It large cavern was also likely filled with sea water, for one could both hear it and smell it.

Kit, however, focused most of his attention on the pirate guards, four being present in total with two standing beside the prisoners and the other two at the railing of the balcony, and Negaduck, who stood before the three prisoners, wearing an evil smirk.

"Good morning." he commented.

"Negs!" Gosalyn snapped, blinking rapidly to clear her sleep-filled vision. "I should've know you'd turn up sooner or later! You've had a hand in all of this, haven't you?"

"Not for as long as you'd think." said NegaGosalyn, as she suddenly stepped out of a tunnel and into view in full costume like Negaduck. She looked annoyed at something.

"Normally I'd deny such statements as not being true in situations such as this, but she's right." Negaduck commented. "I've only had a helping hand in all of this for little more than a week, and I've only been actually _here_ for a few days, hold that thought please." he turned to NegaGosalyn. "You do what I asked?" he growled.

NegaGosalyn nodded. "I delivered your message as requested, he said he'll be up here shortly." she said flatly.

"Great." Negaduck said, turning back to his prisoners. "Guess we'll have a quick question-and-answer session while we wait."

"What makes you think we'll answer your questions, Negs?" Gosalyn snorted.

"Yeah!" Launchpad added, trying to act brave.

Negs merely grinned. "You misunderstand, I was actually thinking of you guys asking the questions, and me providing the answers as I see fit." he said.

Kit was taken aback by this. "You'd really do that?" he asked.

Negs shrugged. "You three aren't going anywhere." he said. "Which, on a side note, I'm rather proud of, as I managed to accomplish several things with that. Managed to catch you, Mr. Cloudkicker, in three days once taking the task. The air pirates have been chasing you for fifty-five years, and they never managed to catch you." he chuckled. "Boy, did I ever get one up on them. And I managed to catch two of my biggest enemies by a sheer stroke of luck to boot."

"So you got what you wanted." Kit said. "Now what?"

"Now I make your lives miserable." Negs said. "But one thing at a time here, I still need to wreak havoc for the public along the way and collect what I originally came to get."

"That's what I don't get." Gosalyn said. "What could the air pirates possibly have that you'd want?"

"We're both understandably curious." NegaGosalyn added, giving Negaduck an annoyed look as she toyed with her P90.

"Let's just say that they have potential for now." Negaduck said. "Besides, they specifically requested for my help, as they were all but ready to carry out a plan they've been working on for nearly sixty-seven years, and just one thing was holding them back. They promised me a more than hefty share of the loot, so I struck a deal with them. Besides, I wasn't doing anything spectacularly special at the moment, and was up for the challenge."

"So wait, are you saying that you're merely the...the...er...what's the term..." Launchpad muttered.

"The mercenary?" Gosalyn repeated in disbelief. "The hired gunman?"

"Bounty hunter, more like." Negaduck replied.

"That's not like you." NegaGosalyn remarked, also surprised.

"Ah, but there are several benefits to all of this that make it worth my while." Negaduck said with another one of his trademark grins.

"So just what is your plan, or rather, the air pirates' plan?" Kit asked. "If they've been working on it for more than sixty year then, by my calculations, they've been working on this since the 1930s."

"Absolutely correct." Negaduck said. "They've been working over the decades and generations to scrimp and save, nip and steal, work and build on this little project. They might have actually finished sooner if it weren't for you, Cloudkicker, you knob."

Launchpad frowned. "Just what have they been working at building for so long?" he asked.

Negaduck grinned. "C'mon over here, then, and I'll show you." he said.

And whether or not they actually wanted to see, the guards moved the chairs the prisoners were tied to and moved them to the railing of the balcony, so that they could overlook the cavernous room it overlooked. As had been noted, the room was monstrous, being several floors deep, and at least a half-mile wide. A crescent-shaped portion of land hugged one side of the clearly naturally formed room. The rest of it was filled with sea water, looking cold and foreboding from this distance and lighting. Kit recognized the room, and identified it as the main entry room of Pirate Island, which stood to reason, given the present situation.

He also recognized what sat in this room, the item Negaduck clearly wanted them to see. Easily being about half the rooms length alone, it had several modifications done to it, most of them to upgrade it to the modern-day level and give it a few added advantages than before, but the rest of it looked exactly the same. For there floated a completely rebuilt _Iron Vulture_.

The three prisoners gaped at it in awe. Yet Kit wasn't too surprised, admittedly.

"This makes sense, actually." he remarked. "The _Iron Vulture _always was the one thing that gave the air pirates their one big advantage. Of course they'd want to rebuild it."

"And rebuild it, they have." Negaduck agreed, leaning on the railing as he watched the prisoners. "And the _Iron Vulture II _is done and ready for action. All she needs now is a power source to make her work, which..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out the sub-electron amplifier with a flourish, "...it'll have plenty of."

Gosalyn looked the air carrier from stem to stern. "So this is your plan?" she asked. "Rebuild the _Iron Vulture_ and use it to wreak havoc?"

"Haven't you been listening?" Negaduck asked, shooting Gosalyn a glare. "This wasn't my plan. As I already said, the air pirates have been working on this thing well before I ever got involved. But now that it's finished, they needed my help to get the last key it needs to help power it and all of it's little upgrades and new trinkets."

"The amplifier." Kit said.

Negaduck nodded, pocketing the crystal again. "I did my part." he said. "Now the proper leader of this ragtag gang will take over and put _his _plans into action."

"And just who is, pray tell, is this leader?" Gosalyn asked contemptuously.

At that moment, footsteps could be heard approaching as someone walked through one of the tunnels that lead into the room. Everyone turned to look in the direction of the noise.

"Speak of the devil, here he comes." Negaduck said with a grin.

The figure came into view soon enough. He was a tall and lanky figure, with a long orange tail, which was bushy, but less so than say a fox's. He wore black boots, and the leggings of his pants were colored light blue. The rest of him was hidden under a long, black, cloak with it's hood pulled up over the figure's head, and his head bowed to hide his face. Immediately, something about him struck Kit as wrong, yet familiar, but he couldn't place it.

Gosalyn seemed to have other opinions, for she snorted. "_This _is the leader?" she asked. "A mysterious guy who hides under a cloak?"

"Ah, but the cloak merely is providing for the dramatic effect, something you should know well, yes-no?" the figure asked.

Kit gasped as he recognized the voice, and suddenly Gosalyn made the connection as well, and her face paled. Launchpad, who was still lost as always, leaned over in his chair to get a better look at the figure. Seeing he had gotten the desired effect, the figure stepped forward, raising his head and grinning victoriously.

"Yes, it is I!" he cried, throwing back the hood of the cloak with a flourish, "Don Karnage!"

* * *

The glow of the rising sun could be seen on the eastern horizon, but the sun itself was still hidden behind Cape Suzette's barrier of protective cliffs. The morning was still young enough that most of the city was still shut down and hadn't reopened for the morning just yet. This included the Higher for Hire Museum, which would not open still for a couple of hours. Darkwing and Techno, now in costume, weren't too concerned about this, because they were fairly certain that Gosalyn and Launchpad had left the building when it had closed.

At least, the footprints they had found indicated as such.

Darkwing peered at one such print in the dust with his magnifying glass. "Yep, that's Gos's shoe tread all right." he remarked.

"And over here is Launchpad's." Techno said, standing nearby. "I can also make out a third pair of shoes that I don't recognize. Might be nothing, though." he straightened, and looked up and down the narrow alley. "But why did they step in here?"

"I'm not sure." Darkwing said, still bent over, following the footprints while still peering at them with his magnifying glass. "But they eventually left again, and walked out here."

Techno followed him out into the street as Darkwing continued following the footprints. "So where could they have gone then?" he asked. "Maybe taking some indirect route back to the hotel?"

"No, they were heading for somewhere else." Darkwing said. "The owner of those unknown shoes went with them. In fact, I'd say he was leading them to...wherever it was. The question is, where?"

They followed the footprints until they led to a long stretch of grassy ground that led down a hill to waterfront below, where they could no longer trace the footprints.

"Great." Darkwing muttered, straightening and pocketing his magnifying glass. "Now where did they go?"

Techno peered down at the waterfront, something in particular catching his eye. "I think I might have a hunch." he said, and started forward again, leading the way to the original Higher for Hire building.

Once there, Darkwing quickly began looking around for the lost trail. It wasn't long before he found it again.

"Yep, they went in there all right." he said, following the footsteps into the building, Techno trailing in his wake. "I'm also seeing a couple more sets of prints that I can't identify...I don't like the looks of them."

They followed the footprints up a staircase and into the former radio room of the business, where they found Kit's meager possessions.

"Well, somebody was definitely here at one point." Techno noted, kneeling down the examine the fallen oil lamp.

Darkwing found a bundle of papers left abandoned on the floor and scooped them up to examine. "SHUSH documents?" he asked questioningly aloud. "And they deal with us, too."

"I've found Gosalyn and Launchpad's footprints." Techno announced suddenly. "As well as their unknown companion. They walked around the room a lot but..." he paused, following the prints for a moment, "...they didn't leave the room again. However, those new prints that you found on the way in did, however."

Darkwing glanced up at him. "Possible intruders?" he asked.

"Checking." Techno said, scanning the room with his visor. He grimaced. "I _am _detecting trace signatures of sleeping gas having been used in the room."

"What kind of mix?"

"Similar to ours. But not quite."

Darkwing frowned, knowing what that meant. "Dang it." he muttered. "Negs _did _get them after all."

* * *

"Greetings and salivations, you prisoner-type of personages!" Karnage said happily as he circled the prisoners, inspecting them. "Goodness gracious, what a very, very, good job you have done Mr. Negaduck, sir!" he bowed dramatically to Negaduck. "I take my hat off to you, my good sir!" he paused. "At least I would if I had a hat."

Negaduck merely rolled his eyes in response.

"Any-ways, what kind of plunderings where they a-keeping on their personages?" Karnage asked, straightening and rubbing his hands together eagerly, anticipating some loot.

"Over here cap'n!" one pirate said, dumping out the contents of a burlap bag on a table.

"Ooh hoo, very good, very good, yes-no?" Karnage said excitedly, and hurried over the examine the valuables, as meager as they were.

While he did this, Kit examined the air pirate for a moment. Save for the cloak he still wore, and a long scar that ran down one cheek, he looked the exactly the same as Kit remembered him, even right down the attire.

"Only that was sixty years ago." he muttered to himself, and then raised his voice to be heard. "Karnage, you haven't aged!"

Karnage paused his sorting, and turned to look at Kit. "Very observant of you to observe, Kit Cloudkicker." he said slowly, approaching him while drawing his cutlass, pointing it at Kit's throat. "And now, if I may do the observing for a moment, I should say that neither have you."

"So how did _you _do it?" Gosalyn asked hotly.

Karnage merely grinned, and straightened, pointing at a ruby-embedded broach that secured the cloak he wore to his neck. It wasn't really Karnage's style to wear such thing, but the crafty wolf quickly proved why. Using the tip of his cutlass, he tapped the large ruby on the broach roughly. It sparked with energy, proving that it wasn't really a ruby at all.

Kit's eyes grew large. "A piece of a sub-electron amplifier!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, yes, all that remains of the one _you destroyed sixty years ago!_" Karnage yelled, slamming the blade of his cutlass into the armrest of Kit's chair, making him jump. "There was no thanking to be done to you once that day was over." he wrenched the cutlass free again, and turned his back on Kit. "I have spent the past sixty-seven years of my very long life searching for you and the item you held onto during all of that time, Kit Cloudkicker. And now, at long last, I have finally have what I, the brilliant Don Karnage, have so valve-iantly searched for! You..." he stepped over to Negaduck, who wordlessly pulled out the amplifier again to hold up, "...and this!"

"Okay." Launchpad said. "Now, and excuse me if the answer for this is obvious, but why couldn't use that piece you got in your pin thing?"

"Alas, despite having held onto it for so long, 'twas not enough for my purposes, which was to build a _bigger _and _better _version of the air ship I so proudly call the _Iron Vulture_!" Karnage said, striking a pose as he pointed out at the parked air carrier outside the balcony with his sword. "Because you, Cloudkicker, made it all jiggedy-jigsawed! No, I needed a non-jiggedy-jigsawed stone to power my new craft! And now, hee-hee, I have got it!" he snatched the crystal from Negaduck. "And I have you to thank for it, Negaduck!"

"It was a pleasure, Karnage." Negaduck replied with a grin. "Even managed to get a few things for myself out of it." he nodded his head at Gosalyn and Launchpad.

"Yes, yes, I do not care what becomes of them." Karnage said with a shrug. "Merely unfortunate innocent bystanders in my plans. No, all I care about _now _is preparing for the biggest plundering that has ever been accomplished by the likes of Don Karnage!" he grinned, then added, "Which is me!"

And with that, he left, laughing excitedly. Negaduck grinned, and turned to follow.

"Lock 'em up." he ordered the pirates that were standing guard of the prisoners. "C'mon Gos."

NegaGosalyn paused long enough to give her double an unwilling grimace, and then obediently followed. The guards then moved forward to untie them from the chairs to move them to a cell, no doubt.

"Well, look on the bright side." Launchpad commented as they did this, trying to stay optimistic. "At least we can say we've met Don Karnage in person now."

"Yeah, and here I thought _Dad's_ ego was bad." Gosalyn grumbled in response.

* * *

"If the Negaduck really does have your companions as prisoners, then that should mean that much more incentive for you to stop his plans." Khan remarked cooly, his face looking transparent on the holographic image of the Thunderquack's HUD.

"I _already _had enough incentive!" Darkwing exclaimed. "Now I have to worry about rescuing them _and _stopping Negs!"

"Unfortunately, Darkwing, at this point we need to prioritize and focus on stopping Negaduck first." Agent Sandy said, who stood beside Khan in the video transmission. "I know you're worried about the well being of Crimson and Launchpad, and so am I, but if we allow ourselves to get distracted, that could give Negaduck the edge he needs to succeed."

Darkwing sighed. "I know." he admitted. "But still..."

"We will, of course, do everything in our power to see that they are rescued safely in the end." Khan assured him. "We merely need to set our priorities."

"That's all very good, but we've already lost the trail Negaduck left, and it didn't lead us anywhere." Techno remarked, who sat in the Thunderquack's pilot's seat, imputing commands into the jet's autopilot. "We don't know where to go from here."

"Clearly, they took their prisoners to their hideout." Khan commented.

"And you know where that is?"

"Unfortunately, we don't." Agent Sandy replied.

"Head for Khan Tower regardless." Khan suggested. "Perhaps if we all put our heads together, we can come up with a place to begin searching."

* * *

Gosalyn peered through the little barred window in the door of the cell in the dungeons at the foursome of guards that were gathered about on the other end of the room, uncorking some rare wine of their to sup in victory. She narrowed her eyes at them and pounded her hands on the door before turning away.

"Dang it." she said. "We can't do anything to stop Negaduck and Karnage when we're locked in here."

"What makes you think we can do anything at all?" Kit asked, depressed, sitting on the board that served a crude cot.

"Now, that's not the way to think, little buddy!" Launchpad said, nudging Kit, whom he sat beside. "Besides, if I know DW, he's already fast at work at trying to rescue us!"

"Huh, if I know Dad, he's probably already tried and failed!" Gosalyn muttered, now working to try and pick the lock, before giving up. "Dang it, the one place a hairpin won't help me at all!" she slapped the door again.

Outside, the guards could be heard laughing as they drank the wine. Gosalyn looked back out the window at them, and frowned.

"What's worse is that they're out there rubbing it in by celebrating within earshot!" she muttered. "Keen gear, I hope that drink of theirs gives them indigestion or something, or at least puts them out of commission for a few hours!"

And then, within moments of her saying this, the guards began to become drowsier and drowsier, beginning to yawn more and more and so tired they laughed at anything. Finally, one sat down and was quickly asleep, quickly followed by the other three. Soon, all four were out like lights.

Launchpad and Kit, who had come to watch, were impressed.

"Wow." Launchpad said. "How did you do that, Gos?"

"I didn't do anything!" Gosalyn snapped.

"But I did." NegaGosalyn commented, overhearing as she entered the dungeon, stepping over the sleeping guards.

"NegaGos!" Gosalyn exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting _you _out of here!" NegaGosalyn replied, taking a ring of keys ans searching for the right one to open the cell door. "If anybody can stop Negs and Karnage now, you three certainly can!"

"What about the guards?" Launchpad asked, looking leerily at them.

"Don't worry, I laced that drink of theirs with a sleeping draft." NegaGosalyn said, glancing back at them. "They won't wake for hours."

"Really?" Gosalyn asked. "What kind of draft?"

"The one that taste like strawberries." NegaGosalyn replied, thinking her double would know which one that was.

She did. "Ooh, a good choice!" Gosalyn praised, as she watched her double find the right key and open the door. "But what about you? Negs will never let you get away with this!"

"Hopefully, he won't ever find out!" NegaGosalyn said, motioning them out the door, handing them the stuff that had been taken from them. "But I know the risk I'm taking, and that I'm probably good as dead if Negs _does _find out, but heck with it all, you guys need to get out of here!" closing the door behind the escaping prisoners and locking it again, she pointed down a nearby tunnel. "This will led you to a makeshift hanger bay filled with fighter planes. You can use those to get back to Cape Suzette and rally together an attack force."

"And tell Dad what's going on." Gosalyn added, rolling her eyes.

"He should already know by now, I managed to explain some of the basics of what's happening to Honker last night." NegaGosalyn said, pushing the group out of the dungeons. "Now go! Before somebody catches you! I'll try and stall Karnage and Negs!"

* * *

"And now, I, Don Karnage, shall put in the very important last piece to the very important key part in my very important plan, hee-hee!" Karnage said, as he held up the sub-electron amplifier, ready to put it in place in the engine room of the _Iron Vulture_.

Negaduck stood nearby, looking bored. He looked away from what Karnage was doing when NegaGosalyn came running in, panting.

"There you are." he remarked to her. "Where did you get to?"

"Sorry, I uh...got a little lost in those tunnels." NegaGosalyn said.

"You could've just followed the signs." Negaduck pointed out.

"_What _signs?"

"Shh!" Karnage scolded suddenly. "Your noisy mouths are spoiling the moment!"

Then, turning back to what he was doing and grinning, he gingerly placed the amplifier into it's slot with one hand. Once in place, the crystal glowed brightly, sparked a few times, and then a low hum rang out as the surrounding machinery began to come to life. Karnage let out a whoop.

"Yippities and hoorays, it works!" he crowed.

"Now that little rock will provide an endless supply of power to the entire ship for it to use as it pleases." Negaduck said with a grin.

"_And _to power my cleverly built-in Lightning Guns that I had created especially for the occasion!" Karnage added gleefully. "Now, let us go test this wonderfully new ship of mine and plunder something of its valuables and knickity-knacks!"

But that plan was put on hold when the distant shrill of an alarm began ringing outside.

Negaduck grimaced. "Now what?" he asked.

"Probably just a false alarm." NegaGosalyn commented, unconcerned.

"What!?" Karnage asked, pressing his face into hers suddenly. "Blasphemy and lies and...and the such! There is no such thing as false alarms in _my _island!" he drew his cutlass dramatically. "Come! Let us find the source of that impudent ding-a-linging!"

He took a few steps forward, sword still raised in that dramatic pose, and then promptly tripped on a pipe that stretched across the floor and fell over.

Negaduck laughed. "Glad I stuck around to see that." he said, stepping over Karnage as he walked out of the room, NegaGosalyn reluctantly following.

"Hey!" Karnage said, dizzily getting back up again. "Be waiting for me, please! I _am _supposed to be leading, after all!"

* * *

"C'mon, those pirates are going to be after us at any moment now!" Gosalyn urged as the three escaping prisoners rushed into the cavernous hanger bay, filled with rows upon rows of CT-37 fighter planes.

As red lights flashed and buzzing alarms rang, they hurried to the closest of the parked planes, and climbed in, Launchpad and Gosalyn taking one, while Kit took another.

"Follow me lead!" Kit yelled as he started the engine of his plane. "I know how to get back to Cape Suzette!"

He taxied the plane into the lane, Launchpad following in his plane, and headed for the opening at the end of the cavern, sitting directly above the hideout's main entrance. Once both planes were outside, they quickly turned west and flew as fast as they could for the horizon.

* * *

By the time Karnage, Negaduck, and NegaGosalyn had exited the _Iron Vulture_, they had already missed everything.

"Sirs!" an air pirate yelled as he hurried up the three. "The prisoners just escaped in two of our fighter planes!"

"What?" Karnage yelled. "How could have this annoying event occurred? Did they escape?"

"We don't know, cap'n, we checked their cell, but it was still closed and locked!" the pirate replied fearfully. "Just...not with them in it."

"Huh." NegaGosalyn remarked. "Imagine that."

Negaduck suddenly spun around and grabbed her by the shoulders and angrily slammed her into the side of the air carrier. "_What did you do_?!" he demanded.

"What makes you think I _did _anything?" NegaGosalyn demanded back.

"Oh, no you don't, don't you _dare _play dumb with me!" Negaduck yelled. "Now answer me before I kick you from here to next week, so help me..."

He trailed off when Karnage proceeded to tap him on the shoulder. He turned around to face the pirate leader. "What?" he barked.

"Sorry to be interrupting," Karnage began, "But I am thinking that the prisoners are of little concern now. Now that my air ship is fully powered, we can hurry and head for Cape Suzette and attack before they have had any chance to be stopping us!"

Negaduck paused to stop and think about this for a moment, then nodded. "Fine." he said, releasing NegaGosalyn. He pointed an accusing finger at her. "But don't think we aren't going to discuss when this is all over. You have some explaining to do."

NegaGosalyn didn't reply, and merely gave him a defiant glare. Karnage was oblivious to all of this, having already turned around to board the _Vulture _again.

"Prepare for takeoff men!" he exclaimed happily, as air pirates began hurrying about to carry out the order. "There is pirating to do! Ha-ha-ha!"

* * *

Outside, the main entrance doors to the hideout, disguised to look like part of the rocky side of the volcanic island the whole hideout was placed within, slid open to omit the _Iron Vulture _as it taxied out of the cavern and floated out into the ocean around it for a few feet, the blades of it's prop engines spinning rapidly, and already beginning to pick up speed. After it had traveled about a dozen meters from the island, fourteen vertical propellers began twirling. This, combined with tanks of helium contained within the airship providing buoyancy, allowed the craft to lift into the air.

Once it had risen about fifty feet into the air, the air carrier's main engines switched to full throttle and began propelling it forward. Soon it was achieving speeds in and around a hundred miles per hour and rapidly speeding towards land.

Their destination: Cape Suzette.

**To Be Continued...**


	67. Fight Or Flight Part III

Summary: When the gang heads off on a brief three-day weekend trip to unsuspecting Cape Suzette, they're expecting a relaxing and quick sight-seeing vacation. But they quickly realized that they are being watched by more than one person...

Rating: T

Author's Note: And here's part 3. Whew. Quite an effort to write it all, but I managed, and here it is for your reading pleasure. :)

67.

Fight Or Flight Part III

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Parts of the original group that had been put together and maintained by Don Karnage, who was presumed killed in the crash, survived and broke away to form a splinter group of sorts, using what they had left available to them, but they had been dealt too hard a blow. Air pirates of any sort never had the kind of power and influence that Don Karnage's group had again, and shortly after World War II, they vanished altogether."_

_--  
_

"_Unfortunately, I'm afraid I have to insist you come with me, Mr. Mallard. My employer is very anxious to meet with you."_

"_What on earth for?"_

"_It's because a matter has come up that requires the skills of Darkwing Duck. Who, I'm told, is you."_

_--  
_

"_I __**am**__ Kit Cloudkicker. Back in the year 1949, my plane did not crash and I did not die."_

_--  
_

"_What is it?"_

"_That's a sub-electron amplifier. And I've been on the run with that thing, fighting for my life, for the past fifty-five years."_

_--  
_

"_Sub-electron amplification begins when that outside force stimulates the particles in the amplifier into motion. It quickly begins a chain reaction that spurs the particle structure of the amplifier into moving faster and faster until massive amounts of power are produced. Ideally, this produces an electrical charge that is quickly supercharged, or amplified, into the levels Shere Khan demanded when the project began."_

_--  
_

"_The plane carrying it was raided, by air pirates, who somehow found out about it, and they stole the amplifier to use for their own purposes. And use it they did, by building a very power weapon that was powered by the amplifier."_

"_A Lightning Gun."_

_--  
_

"_Seeing how much resources it took to build the one amplifier with no profit coming from the ordeal in the end, Khan Industries wasn't very inclined create another. The project was discontinued."_

"_But by that point in time, the amplifier wasn't so secret anymore. Several other organizations and corporations found out about it and wanted to learn more. SHUSH as it stood at the time conducted its own investigation into the matter, and became very interested in the sub-electron amplifier."_

_--  
_

"_It was purely by chance that he even found it, poking into boxes and crates at random until he nosed his way into the one that contained the amplifier. And then we all made a discovery that caught us by surprise."_

"_What?"_

"_There were actually two amplifiers."_

_--  
_

"_The rest was history. These events sparked a chain reaction that ended in the downfall of the air pirates, Higher for Hire getting back some of it's trust, but not all of it, and Khan Industries got back the remaining amplifier, which they quickly confiscated."_

_--  
_

"_While I was at the base, the air pirates attacked in their fighter planes without warning, laying waste to most of the base, killing most of everyone. I managed to escape on my own in a boat, being overlooked in all the turmoil."_

_--  
_

"_He quickly discovered that the amplifier produced more than just electrical power and visible light. It also produced trace amounts of other, harder to detect, energies on various frequencies, such as x-rays, microwaves, radio waves, and more. The one he took the most interest in, however, was what he called life energy."_

"_Life energy! Of course! The very energy that makes life possible! It would make sense that being exposed to trace amounts of it would prevent you from aging!"_

_--  
_

"_You three aren't going anywhere. Which, on a side note, I'm rather proud of, as I managed to accomplish several things with that. Managed to catch you, Mr. Cloudkicker, in three days once taking the task. The air pirates have been chasing you for fifty-five years, and they never managed to catch you. Boy, did I ever get one up on them. And I managed to catch two of my biggest enemies by a sheer stroke of luck to boot."_

_--  
_

"_The __**Iron Vulture**__ always was the one thing that gave the air pirates their one big advantage. Of course they'd want to rebuild it."_

"_And rebuild it, they have. And the __**Iron Vulture II**__ is done and ready for action. All she needs now is a power source to make her work, which...it'll have plenty of."_

_--  
_

"_Haven't you been listening? This wasn't my plan. As I already said, the air pirates have been working on this thing well before I ever got involved."_

_--  
_

"_Yes, it is I! Don Karnage!"_

_--  
_

"_That's all very good, but we've already lost the trail Negaduck left, and it didn't lead us anywhere. We don't know where to go from here."_

"_Clearly, they took their prisoners to their hideout."_

"_And you know where that is?"_

"_Unfortunately, we don't."_

_--  
_

"_NegaGos! What are you doing here?"_

"_Getting __**you**__ out of here! If anybody can stop Negs and Karnage now, you three certainly can!"_

_--  
_

"_Prepare for takeoff men! There is pirating to do! Ha-ha-ha!"

* * *

_

When Darkwing strode into Khan's office at Khan Tower along with Techno, Rocky leading them both, he instantly sensed that something else had gone wrong. This was empathized by the fact that Khan was currently leaning over in his chair to peer at his screen, and Agent Sandy stood over the CEO's shoulder, pointing at things on the screen with one finger. Both wore expressions of concern. And with Darkwing already being frustrated and very sleep-deprived, this did not help things.

"Oh, _now _what?" he bemoaned as he arrived at the desk.

"Darkwing Duck and Techno have arrived, sir." Rocky announced unnecessarily.

Khan gave him a look. "Yes, I can see that, Rocky, thank you." he said, then turned to Darkwing. "To answer the question, Darkwing, Khan Industries's long range telemetry has just detected a large object leaving an area in the southwest and rapidly approaching on our position here in Cape Suzette."

He turned the screen around so Darkwing and Techno could see the blinking dot on it, hovering over a map of the coast.

Darkwing squinted at it for a moment. "So?" he asked.

"Darkwing, this object is massive." Khan said passively. "And it's heading this way, leaving from a direction that only trouble has been known to come from before. That alone should be cause enough for concern. Besides that, while we aren't entirely sure what it is, it _does _appear to be flying, and we have only known of one craft of that size that can fly."

"How can you be so sure?" Techno asked.

"Well, fortunately, SHUSH is going to help confirm just what this thing is." Agent Sandy said, and leaned over and did a keystroke on Khan's computer.

The screen changed to show a live video feed of a face they knew very well.

"J. Gander!" Darkwing exclaimed. "Great, you know I've got a bone to pick with you about all of this."

"Take it up with Vice President Norrin, Darkwing, he's the one you want to talk to, and besides, we currently have more pressing matters to focus on, as I understand it." Hooter said flatly, looking just as annoyed and frustrated about this whole mess as Darkwing. "Anyway, I've spoken with Dr. Bellum about your request, Agent Sandy, and she already has a spy satellite in position and focused on the location you requested. I'm patching through a live feed now."

The screen changed yet again, to show a sky view of the sea. A little purple speck was making it's way across it slowly. Darkwing pointed at it, frowning.

"Is that the dot you showed us on that map?" he asked.

"Yes." Khan said, moving the screen slightly so he could see too. He looked impressed. "SHUSH really has the technology to track an object like that from space, in real time?" he asked aloud.

"What is it?" Techno asked, his brow furrowed.

Sandy's brow was furrowed too. Using another screen stroke, she switched back to the screen with Hooter's face on it. "Director, can you zoom in on the image a bit? Grid 21-B, please."

The screen then switched back to the view of the sea with the speck on it, and zoomed in greatly on the speck until it was close enough to make out other features about it. When that was done, everybody blinked in surprise as they recognized the object.

"Wait!" Darkwing exclaimed, leaning closer. "I know what that is! I've seen it somewhere before!"

"At the museum!" Techno exclaimed. "Darkwing, that's the _Iron Vulture_!"

"It can't be!" Khan declared. "That was destroyed sixty-seven years ago!"

"Maybe the air pirates rebuilt it." Sandy reasoned. "Maybe that's what they've been up to for all these years."

"It has to be." Techno said, studying the image. "I can already make out little differnces in the design. But this makes sense. Clearly, they've included a few new improvements to keep up with today's technology, some of which Negaduck might have provided. And maybe the amplifier is key to this design's operation."

"Whatever the case, we need to stop this thing before it reaches Cape Suzette." Khan said, reaching for his phone. "Connect me to the airfield." he said into it.

"Now wait, Crimson and Launchpad might be on that thing!" Darkwing objected. "We can't just destroy it!"

"I am aware of this fact, Darkwing, but which would you rather have?" Khan asked, covering the phone's receiver with one hand. "Destroy the _Vulture _now while we have the chance or wait until it comes to us and destroys Cape Suzette?"

Darkwing bit for his lip for a moment, then nodded. "Point taken, continue." he said.

Khan returned to his call. "Yes, deploy all planes, and have them converge at the following coordinates; 28.84 degrees north, -79.7 degrees west. They are to fire upon target the moment they are within range. Thank you."

"How many planes are at the airfield?" Techno asked.

"Usually there are sixty, but twenty are grounded for upgrades." Khan replied.

"That's too few." Darkwing said. "You're going to need all the help you can get to bring this thing down. Me and Techno will join them in the Thunderquack II."

"But...neither me or you can fly the plane." Techno objected.

"Don't need to." Darkwing said. "The autopilot has a series of evasive and combat maneuvers programmed into it, right?"

"Only at your insistence." Techno retorted, placing his hands on his hips. "I told you that it wasn't likely to actually work as effectively as you're hoping it will."

"Well, it doesn't matter, they're still going to need every plane we've got." Darkwing said with a snort.

"He's right, do what you can." Khan urged. "I'll inform the planes that you're coming."

Techno and Darkwing nodded, and hurried off to head back to where they parked the Thunderquack.

"And I'll speak with SHUSH and see if we can rally together more help from them." Sandy said, walking away.

Khan rose from his chair and looked out his window out at the horizon. Rocky watched him closely.

"Think that'll be enough help, sir?" he asked.

Khan glanced at his helper. "We'll see, Rocky." he replied.

* * *

The fighter plane jerked yet again as it grew closer to Cape Suzette. Gosalyn gave Launchpad a glare.

"Launchpad, can't you keep this plane steady for five minutes at least?" she asked harshly.

"I can't help it Gos, the plane's nearly out of fuel!" Launchpad replied, tapping the nearly empty gas gage.

"These planes aren't meant to fly for so long and for so far!" Kit exclaimed from the neighboring plane. "But look, you can already see the cliffs! We should have just enough fuel to get over them and to land somewhere!"

Both planes rocked dangerously as their engines sputtered.

"I hope!" Kit added.

The cliffs veered closer. Almost haphazardly, the two stolen fighter planes managed to get over them, but hardly a point further than that. The engines of both planes really sputtering now, their propellers slowing significantly, and the planes beginning to dive out of the sky. Their pilots struggled to keep them airborne long enough to clear the bay, and then land safely.

Kit's plane hit the ground first, landing at too sharp an angle to have landed appropriately, and the nose of the plane ground into the dirt, destroying the propeller, but Kit was unhurt. Launchpad and Gosalyn's plane came in at a bitter better angle, bouncing once as it's wheels touched the ground, but then slamming it's nose into the ground, the plane flipped completely over and landed on its wheels backwards, grinding its tail into the ground.

Kit was shocked by the event, and Gosalyn was speechless, but Launchpad calmly shut off the already-dead engine and climbed out, unfazed by the whole event. Seeing Kit's expression, the pilot shrugged.

"I've seen better crashes." he said.

"Show off." Kit muttered.

"Keen gear, that was _awesome!_" Gosalyn exclaimed suddenly, finding her voice again as she climbed out of the plane as well. "And we got away, too!"

"Where are we exactly?" Launchpad asked, looking around.

"Technically outside the populated part of Cape Suzette, far on the northen side of the bay, but still in Cape Suzette's boundaries." Kit replied. "So where to now?"

"Now we track down dad, tell him what's going on, and while we're doing that, inform the authorities." Gosalyn said, heading towards town. "Hopefully, we can do all of this before it's too late."

But before she could go much farther, a large fleet of aircraft zoomed by overhead, heading over the cliffs and out to see.

"I think it's already too late, Gosalyn!" Kit said, pointing up at the planes. "Those planes are from the Cape Suzette military airfield! They're only launched in the event of an emergency! This would count as an emergency!"

"All right, then we just track down Dad, and get him to help!" Gosalyn amended.

"Look, the Thunderquack!" Launchpad suddenly exclaimed, pointing upward.

Sure enough, the Thunderquack was among the craft flying by, bringing up the lead. It flew practically right over their heads and out to sea.

"Now where are _they _going?" Gosalyn demanded.

"Negaduck and Karnage must have launched the _Iron Vulture _and are heading here!" Kit said. "That's the only explanation there can be for this! And it makes sense too, I mean, what is there that can stop them from doing that?"

"So they're all flying off to take down the _Iron Vulture_?" Gosalyn asked. "I hope that's not all of them, then!"

"Unfortunately, I think that was." Kit said with a sigh.

"But they'll still need help!" Launchpad objected. "As much as they can get!"

"Then why don't we?" Gosalyn asked, rejoining them. "I mean, we still have the fighter planes!"

"Gos, not only are these airplanes out of fuel, they aren't going to fly again without some serious repairs." Launchpad said, tapping the dented hull of one of the two fighter planes.

"Well, where else can we get another plane?" Gosalyn asked.

Kit suddenly brightened as an idea came to him. "I know where." he said.

* * *

It was still too early for the Higher for Hire Museum to open just yet, but Molly Cunningham still had lots she needed to do before it did open for the day. Carrying a box of brochures across the lobby, she was in such a hurry that she almost didn't notice the two people banging loudly on the locked front doors of the lobby.

Frowning, she stopped and looked in their direction for a few moments. Seeing that they had her attention, they waved her to come over to the doors. They did so urgently, like there was something important they needed to tell her. Molly sighed, set down the box, pulled out a ring of keys, and walked over to the door and unlocked it.

"Can I help you?" she asked, opening the door a notch to peer through the space.

"Yes, we need to come in." one of the two, a young teenaged female duck, said. "It's urgent."

"Well, I'm sorry, but we won't open for another hour." Molly said. "Can it wait until then?"

"There may not _be _a museum by then!" the teenager snapped. "Now really, we need to come in! We'll explain on the way."

She tried to force her way in, but Molly blocked her path. "Whatever it is, you can tell me right here." the elderly bear said stubbornly. "So if you really want to get in here now, you'd better start explaining."

"Well," the second person, a middle-aged duck dressed like a pilot, began, "It's like this, see, er...it's...uh...uh..."

"Look, we can't just go blabbing it out everywhere." the teenager stated. "That's why we need to come in first."

"Well, I'm sorry, but that's not reason enough for me." Molly pressed. "So unless you've got something you can tell or show me to convince me otherwise, I'm not letting you in."

That was when a third person joined the group. One she recognized, even after all these years.

"Molly." he greeted calmly.

Molly's eyes went wide. "Kit." she said. She slowly slipped out the door to get a better look at him. "Kit! Is it really you?"

Kit mumbled something, and avoided eye contact. He also nodded slightly, which was answer enough for Molly, for she suddenly rushed forward and grabbed him in a hug.

"You're alive!" she cried. "Alive! After all these years of thinking you were dead and gone, you're really alive!" she suddenly broke away from him and slapped him across the face, making Gosalyn and Launchpad hurry forward and restrain her as her joyful attitude switched to one of anger. "Where the _devil _have you been, Kit?"

"A-a-around." Kit stuttered. "Look, it was for your own good, Molly..."

"My own _good_?" Molly repeated. "Kit, when you vanished, you crushed the hearts of several people, including my mother! It was because of you conveniently _vanishing _for a few decades that _killed _Higher for Hire!"

"And I'm sorry!" Kit exclaimed back. "I did a lot of things that I probably shouldn't have in retrospect, but I did all of it for your own good! After the day I 'vanished', I've been running for my life, being chased by some very deadly enemies! I'm lucky I've managed to get this far alive! And now I've gone and put _their _lives, and hundreds of others, on the line! You can't begin to imagine what I've been through these past fifty years!" he paused, breathing heavily. "Molly, if I had gone against my instincts and come home...things could've been a whole lot worse. In fact, we could _all _be dead now." he sighed. "Molly, I've got one last chance to set this all straight. But I need you to play along and help me for now. Can you do that?"

Molly didn't reply, and instead gazed vacantly at Kit for several long moments. The fight did seem to drain away from her, though, so Gosalyn and Launchpad carefully released her. Slowly, Molly stepped closer to Kit, and touched him on one shoulder. Her brow then furrowed.

"Why do you still look so young?" she asked, curiously. "You must be older than I am by now."

Kit grinned. "It's a long story." he said, taking her hand off his shoulder, but holding onto it still. "But you need to know the general gist of it. Don Karnage is alive. He's rebuilt the _Iron Vulture_ and he has a sub-electron amplifier in his possession. He's coming here, now, to attack Cape Suzette. The defense squadrons from the Cape Suzette airfield have already left, no doubt to go intercept the _Vulture _before it gets here. It's not going to be enough, though. They need help, and we _can _help. But...we need a plane."

Molly suddenly grinned in understanding. "You mean the _Sea Duck_." she stated.

"Uh, yeah, can we borrow it for a little while?" Launchpad asked.

"Can it even still fly, though?" Kit asked, worried about this particular detail.

"Of course it can still fly!" Molly said. "I saw to it that the entire plane stayed in mint condition, including the engines. All we need to do is give it a few adjustments real quick, and we're set to roll. And I know just who can do it."

* * *

"There it is." Techno announced as the _Iron Vulture _started to come into view. "Last chance to turn back."

"Turn back?" Darkwing asked. "You have got to be kidding, Tech. If we let this thing reach Cape Suzette, there isn't going to _be _a Cape Suzette anymore."

"I meant _us_." Techno pressed, as he worked with the controls of the autopilot. "I really think this is a really bad idea, flying into this battle without an experienced pilot flying the Thunderquack."

"Just input a series of combat maneuvers to execute at a push of a button." Darkwing said with a shrug. "Besides, _we_...have an advantage. Activating the cloaking device!"

The Thunderquack, which had somehow gotten to the front of the group of planes that was flying towards the airship, shimmered, then vanished from visible sight. Invisible now, the jet swooped towards the _Iron Vulture_, it itself reorienting to face the attackers, leading the other planes in to engage the air carrier into battle...

* * *

"Golly, it's certainly been such a long time since I've seen ya, Kit." Wildcat remarked, the gangly lion looking the same as always except frailer, with perfectly grey hair, and a hobbling walk. His memory didn't seem to be the best, either. "I can't tell ya how long it's been. In fact, I can't quite remember how long. How long was it, about a week, you think?"

"Now Wildcat, let's focus on the task at hand." Molly urged as she led him through the empty Higher for Hire Museum towards it's center room where the _Sea Duck _was. "There'll be time to talk to Kit later."

"You sure he can handle this?" Gosalyn asked, skeptical.

"Wildcat may have a few screws loose, with a few more coming undone in more recent years, but there's no denying that he's a good mechanic." Molly assured them. "He'll have her ready in no time."

"Who's her?" Wildcat asked, only half-listening. "Do I know her?"

"Very well, Wildcat." Kit assured him as he opened the doors leading into the next room for him. "See?"

Wildcat looked at the _Sea Duck _for a few moments. "Nah, you're silly, Kit, that's not a person, that's a plane!" he said with a silly grin. "That's the _Sea Duck_. She's a mighty fine plane, y'know."

"Can you get her ready to fly?" Launchpad asked. "And if so, how quickly?"

"Why, are ya going somewhere, Lunchpail?" Wildcat asked innocently.

"It's Launchpad. And yes, I guess you could say that."

"Hmm, well, let me see here..." Wildcat looked the plane over for a few moments. "Looks to me that I would just need to adjust a klinklenheimer or two, maybe adjust that thingamajiggy thing, prep up the whatchamacallit, so...I'd say about fifteen minutes oughta do it." he poked his snout into the plane's refueling port. "You'll need fuel, though."

"Not a problem." Molly said, hurrying to one corner of the room and opening up a closet door and pulling out a large barrel, rolling towards the others.

Kit was stunned. "You keep whole barrels of useable aircraft fuel sitting around?" he asked.

"Kit, I've always known that the _Sea Duck _was one day going to fly again." Molly said flatly, leaning on the barrel. "I'll be darned if that day ever came and I wasn't ready for it."

Gosalyn watched for a few moments while Wildcat opened up one of the engines and started poking around in it. "We're also going to need some kind of weapons system installed." she said. "It doesn't have to be complex, but..."

"Weapon's system?" Wildcat repeated. "This is a cargo plane, Rosalyn, not a fighter plane. Just what are you guys planning on doing?"

"I want to know if you can do it." Gosalyn stressed, avoiding the answer.

"I have a few aircraft guns on display and some unused ammo." Molly offered. "They might need cleaning, but there shouldn't be any reason why they can't work."

"Well, I suppose I can come up with something." Wildcat muttered, getting back to work. "But you'll have to bring it to me, and it's gonna add five minutes to how long this is going to take."

While Wildcat worked, Gosalyn, Launchpad, and Kit, worked to equip the _Sea Duck _with any materials they might need, which wasn't much, and Kit took a moment to familiarize himself with the controls, as he was going to be flying the plane. Finally, right at the time Wildcat said he'd be done, he was.

"There, that oughta do it." he said, closing up the plane's engine and climbing down. "Dunno how you're gonna get her out of this room, though."

Gosalyn blinked, not having thought of that. "How _are _we going to get this plane out of here?" she asked.

"Maybe there's a door or something we can roll her out of?" Launchpad asked.

"No-no, the museum was built in such a way that the _Sea Duck _was placed in it, and then built around it." Molly said. "The plane's practically sealed in here."

"You mean to say that you were so confident that the _Sea Duck _would fly again, and yet you didn't make sure there was going to be a way to get the plane _out _of the building?" Kit asked.

"Hey, _I _didn't design the building." Molly said in her defense.

"Maybe we can fly the plane through here." Gosalyn said, pointing at the windows that filled one side of the room.

They all gathered at the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out them. Kit immediately shook his head.

"Oh no, we're not doing that." he stated.

"Kit, I don't think you're going to have a choice." Molly said with a frown.

"Besides, I think it should be possible." Launchpad said, pressing his face into the window to get the best view possible. "The ground immediately drops away after these windows for several feet. If we fly the plane out these windows at full throttle, the drop that follows _should _provide for enough lift for the plane to take flight before it hits ground."

"Sounds good for me." Gosalyn said, patting Kit on the shoulder, who still seemed very unsure about it all. "You'll do fine, Kit."

* * *

A few moments later, she, Launchpad, and Kit were all strapped into their seats in the _Sea Duck_, Kit gripping the controls anxiously.

"Okay, I guess we're ready." he said nervously, reaching for the engine starter. "Here goes nothing."

He gave the ignition a twist. The plane's duel engines sputtered, and then came to life, the propellers beginning to spin lazily, generating a light wind in the museum room. Kit forced a grin, and then reached for the throttle controls, and pushed them all the way up to maximum. The propellers spun faster, generating a vortex of wind that rushed around in the enclosed room, generating a roar that echoed loudly in the room. Molly and Wildcat, who were watching from a safe distance, shielded themselves from it, but still kept watching.

Slowly, the plane started taxiing forward. Knocking over the crowd control ropes and rolling over them, the plane quickly began picking up speed.

"Good thing that the path's mostly clear to those windows." Gosalyn commented as the plane bumped a display, knocking it over.

"Still not a very adequate runway, though." Kit grumbled.

The plane pressed further, gaining more speed. It's front landing gear tire smashed into a glass case and shattered it before it pushed it out of the way. Now it was only seconds away from hitting the glass windows that were keeping the plane in the building.

"Here we go!" Kit said loudly.

The plane's nose hit the windows first, smashing right through it like it wasn't even there. The wings quickly followed, the spinning propellers working to help clear away the shattering glass. When the front landing wheel went off the edge, the whole plane jerked downward, and gravity rather than it's own momentum took over, allowing it to slide out the broken windows and dive down the side of the hill the museum sat upon, heading nose-first towards the ground.

Letting out a yell, seeing the ground rushing up towards him dangerously fast, Kit yanked the controls upwards in hope of leveling out the plane. At first, it did nothing, but then, ever so slowly, the nose started to rise up, and up, and up, until the plane leveled out just in time for it's still-lowered landing gear to scrape the ground before shooting back up into the air again. Once the _Sea Duck _had achieved a level spot in the sky as it flew out to see, it's crew relaxed.

"There, you see?" Launchpad asked. "Piece of cake."

* * *

Despite it's outward appearances, the _Iron Vulture II _had teeth to spare, and was currently using all of it to fight the small armada of planes that had come to try and bring her down. Of it's deadliest weapons was the _four _built-_in _Lightning Guns the airship now sported, with one in it's prow, one on it's starboard side, one on it's port side, and one in it's aft section, nestled in-between engines. The attacking planes stood little chance against these weapons.

On the bridge, Karnage let out a whoop as he watched one of these planes get shot out of the sky. "Whoo-hoo-hoo!" he yelled. "I am not having had so much in a very, very, very long time!" he turned to Negaduck, who stood on the bridge as well, surveying the pirate crew as they worked at new, computer stations and consoles that filled the room. "You are having fun, no?"

Negaduck looked up from a screen, and shrugged. "I suppose." he said. "I would've done things differently, but this is your ship and your battle, so you get to do whatever toots your horn."

"Ah, very true!" Karnage said, sitting down in his extravagant command chair in the center of the room. "And there is more to this than just the plunder. There is also the revenge! These Cape Suzetteians have always have been a sore in the proverbial backside to me, and they have always shooted at me when I got too close to their precious city. Sometimes not even for that, but just for fun! Fun, I tell you!" he grinned. "But now, it is me, Don Karnage, who will be doing the shooting, yes-no?" he turned to face his pirate crew. "Status report, my scruffy minions!"

"A bunch of new aircraft just joined the battle, with a couple more on the way, cap'n!" a pirate sitting at a console. "They aren't standin' a chance against our weapons either!"

"Oh, very good!" Karnage said gleefully.

NegaGosalyn leaned over the glance at the screen. "They're of SHUSH configuration." she noted. "Not that this is a big problem for us, but how did SHUSH know come to attack? Because of Darkwing?"

"Probably not." Negaduck said. "I mean, have _you _seen any sign of Darkwing in this battle?"

"Whoa!" the pirate at the console NegaGosalyn had just peered at suddenly exclaimed. "An object just appeared on the radar, right in front of us, and heading straight at us!"

NegaGosalyn, Negaduck, and Karnage all looked at the pirate, and then ran for the front window to see.

Speeding towards them, it's machine guns blaring, the Thunderquack surged towards the airship's bridge, then, at the last moment, pulled up to shoot over it, firing a spray of bullets towards the front window. Most of the bullets missed, and those that didn't, didn't hit anything vital, except giving the ship's pilot, standing at the craft's steering wheel, a real fright.

"The Thunderquack!" Negaduck exclaimed, pushing his way through the crew of pirates. "It's Darkwing! Shoot it down! _Shoot that plane down, NOW!_"

* * *

The Thunderquack did an impromptu barrel roll two dodge two blasts from the _Vulture's _port and starboard Lightning Guns, both shots coming dangerously close to hitting the craft.

"There, you see?" Techno snapped, as he manually entered evasive maneuvers into the autopilot. "The autopilot wasn't designed to work like this! Those shots came far too close for comfort!"

"But they didn't hit us!" Darkwing urged. "Keep at it!"

The Thunderquack swooped around and fired at the air carrier's hull as it swung around it. It's attack was cut short when the _Iron Vulture's _weapons retaliated back at the little craft.

"Maybe we should cloak again." Techno suggested as the jet was buffeted around by the weapons fire aimed at them.

"No, keep shooting!" Darkwing urged. "We can handle this!"

The Thunderquack shot underneath the airship and then upon reaching the other side, spun about, it's cannons firing at the air carrier as quickly as possible. It was then that it's luck ran out, and a shot from the starboard Lightning Gun slammed into the left wing of the Thunderquack, boring a hole into it.

Darkwing gripped the control panel as the jet rocked violently from the blast. "What happened?" he asked. "How did we get hit?"

"Because we were a sitting target!" Techno snapped, as he worked at the sparking control panel to try and salvage as many systems as he could. "The autopilot couldn't implement the combat maneuvers fast enough to keep going!"

"Well, that doesn't help us much if it's too slow for use in actual combat!"

"I _told _you!" Techno surveyed the controls for a few moments, then glanced up sharply at Darkwing. "We're dead in the water." he reported gravely. "All we can do is hover here."

Darkwing stared at him for a moment, then shot a glance out at the starboard Lightning Gun visible on the _Vulture_, charging up to take another shot at it's target.

And then, without warning, a hailstorm of anti-aircraft bullets whizzed down on the gun and destroyed it. Seconds later, a large Conwing L-16 cargo plane rushed past the Thunderquack and towards the opposing air carrier.

"What the-?" Techno exclaimed, peering at the airplane.

"Oh, _Sea Duck _to Thunderquack, _Sea Duck _to Thunderquack, come in please." the radio crackled suddenly.

"Gosalyn?" Darkwing responded back into the radio, surprised.

"The one and only." Gosalyn replied cooly. "Figured you might need some help, so we rushed right on over with the best plane we could get. Now you just sit tight, and we'll sort this out."

* * *

Kit piloted the _Sea Duck _around the _Vulture _a few times, firing sporadically at it, but did so sparingly, as the plane's jury-rigged weapons only had a limited amount of ammo. Eventually, he pulled the plane up to circle above the battle to watch it continue.

"Okay, here's the plan." he said, turning to Launchpad and Gosalyn. "We can fight the air pirates for as long as we want, but we're not just going to take them down using mere brute force like this. So, I'm going to take the _Sea Duck_ in and fly her right over the roof of the _Vulture_. When I do, I'm going to drop one of you guys off onboard, so you can find the amplifier, remove it, and then get rid of it somehow."

"Sounds good." Gosalyn said, sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "But how do you actually plan on getting one of us onboard?"

While keeping one hand on the controls, Kit reaching into his pack and pulled out a metallic object. "Gos, think you can figure out how to use this thing?" he asked.

He thumbed a button on it, and the air foil extended to it's full length. Gosalyn took it and examined it for a moment. She gave Kit a grin.

"Only one way to find out." she replied.

* * *

When the rear cargo doors swung open, Gosalyn didn't hesitate to jump right out them, holding tightly to a long and sturdy cord with a handle on it. When the rope went taunt, she was jerked to a stop, the wind blasting into her as she was towed along behind the plane. Carefully stabilizing herself with the air foil she had strapped to her feet, she gave thumbs up to Launchpad, who stood in the back of the plane, watching her. Seeing the thumbs up, Launchpad relayed the signal on to Kit, who nodded.

Maneuvering carefully, he piloting the plane lower, heading towards the roof of the _Iron Vulture_. He very nearly got there, when the _Vulture's _port Lightning Gun fired up at the cargo plane. Kit quickly jerked the controls and flew the plane out of the way without warning. Outside, Gosalyn swung to one side of the plane, holding onto the cord, and noticed that Kit had changed course.

A moment later, it became clear why. He maneuvered the plane around and then fired rapidly at the port cannon, destroying it, then banking around the air carrier's backside. But by doing so, the pirates were forced to resort to a new tactic, for a squadron of pirate fighters were launched and quickly joined the melee, adding to the havoc.

Suddenly finding the _Sea Duck _surrounded by the fighters, Kit fired the plane's makeshift cannons to try and ward the CT-37s away. Then, quite suddenly, the cannons stopped firing. Kit frowned, and glanced down at the control, pressing it several times with no results. He realized that they had run out of ammo for their weapons.

"Kit, look out!" Launchpad exclaimed suddenly from the cockpit's doorway.

Kit looked up and saw that the plane was zooming towards the starboard side of the _Iron Vulture, _just moments away from a collision. With a yelp, he yanked on the controls, bringing the plane's nose up to point upwards, rising upward above the _Vulture_. The whole plane tilted vertically. Launchpad scrambled to get a handhold, but slipped. His feet slipping out from under him, he slid down the length of the plane and out the open cargo doors, tumbling out into the air in a free-fall.

"Launchpad!" Gosalyn exclaimed as the pilot fell past her. She tried to grab him, but missed.

Launchpad continued falling a few feet, but then his fall was broken when the Thunderquack quickly moved in the way, letting him slam onto the nose of the craft. A little sore from the impact, Launchpad peered into the cockpit of the jet to see Darkwing and Techno waving at him. Meanwhile, Kit leveled off the _Sea Duck _above the _Iron Vulture_ and looked around at the battle still continuing, watching as the airship adjusted it's course to continue the battle.

It suddenly occurred to him that this battle would go a lot better in favor of the good guys if the _Vulture _would stop reacting to events in the battle. If it's crew was distracted, particularly the bridge crew...

"Okay, new plan." he muttered to himself.

He thumbed a control, and Gosalyn, still surfing along behind the plane, found the cord she held onto came free in her hands, and she started to sail away from the plane, taking the mechanically detached cord with her. Now that it was just Kit onboard the plane, he set the plane on a new course, bringing it about to face the _Vulture _head on.

Once this was done, he sighed, and placed a hand on the control panel before him.

"Sorry Baloo." he murmured.

And then he bumped the plane's engines up to full throttle and aimed for the _Vulture's _bridge...

* * *

"There's the _Sea Duck_!" Karnage exclaimed, pointing from his chair at the oncoming plane. "Quick, shoot it!"

"It's already too close, cap'n!" one of the pirate cried in alarm.

"She's on a collision course!" Negaduck noted, backing up for the door.

Karnage glanced at the plane speeding towards the bridge, and realized Negaduck was right. "RUN!" he exclaimed, turning and heading for the bridge's only exit.

Nobody needed a second bidding, but the door was a very narrow hatch that could only fit one person at a time, and there was quickly a blockage as too many people tried to press through it at once. Furthermore, they didn't get much chance to escape, as the _Sea Duck _was upon the bridge mere moments after that, slamming into it.

The cargo plane first hit the upper portion of the _Iron Vulture's _beak-like nose, it's own nose grinding across the slant of the prow at an angle. Jostled by the impact, but still partly in the air, the plane tilted to one side, allowing the blades of one of it's two propellers to slam into the hull of the airship, promptly snapping off as it struck the hard surface. The real damage came however, when the plane smashed nose first into the front window of the bridge.

Both wings were snapped off from their bases on the main body of the plane, but as the wings and the engines they bore also helped to form the _Sea Duck's _tail section, the wings continued onward as though as one. The tail slammed into the back of the plane's main body, wedging it further still into the bridge. One wing slammed into the outer side of the bridge's starboard wall and bent upward, forcing itself into one of the fourteen twirling vertical propellers on the _Vulture's _upper hull, destroying it. The other wing simply hung helplessly to one side, it's engine still sputtering on slightly as it worked to twirl a useless propeller that was missing a blade. Finally, all was silent was the _Sea Duck _came to rest, now ruined, half of it poking out from the airship's bridge.

Inside the bridge, all was silent as well, as most of the bridge crew had been knocked unconscious in the crash. Half of the _Sea Duck's _main body had shoved itself into the bridge, a room hardly big enough to fit it. The roof of the _Sea Duck's_ cockpit had caved inward slightly as a result, and the ceiling of the bridge had been bent upward as well.

The airship's steering mechanisms had been completely crushed and destroyed when the cargo plane plowed itself into the bridge, the steering wheel now sitting on it's own in one corner of the room. Many of the additional high-tech control panels that the bridge also sported had been crushed, or destroyed, or just plain short-circuited. One had even managed to spark a small electrical fire that was slowly spreading.

Karnage's command chair had been snapped off from it's perch when the prow of the _Sea Duck _slammed into it, throwing the heavy metal chair into the crowd of bridge crew that had been trying to squeeze out the bridge's only exit. Because of this chair banging around, most of the crew had been knocked unconscious and most now lay in heaps around the exit. The chair itself now lay sideways in front of the door, partially blocking it. Any crew members who hadn't been knocked unconscious in the crash had quickly fled either in panic, or to go get help.

Karnage was not among those, but he had faired the crash better than others, for he came to again only a few moments after the crash, moaning as he rubbed at his sore head. Blearily, he looked around, and was dismayed to see his bridge in a total mess, and turned to look into the cockpit of the offending airplane that had caused this mess.

Sitting in the pilot's chair, also coming to after having slammed his head into the controls in front of him in the impact, a gash over one eye bleeding freeily, Kit lifted his head and looked around, surveying his work. He quickly spied Karnage already getting up, and froze.

"YOU!" Karnage roared, and grabbed the closest weapon available to him, NegaGosalyn's fallen P90, and turned and fired the weapon at Kit.

Kit yelped and quickly threw himself out of the pilot's chair and onto the floor of the plane, covering his ears as the bullets sprayed into the cockpit, bouncing around as they ricocheted off the metal interior of the plane. Karnage kept firing until the gun clicked, having exhausted all of it's ammo. Throwing the weapon aside, he drew his cutlass with a flourish.

"You!" the air pirate captain exclaimed again. "You did this! Why did you fly your stupid plane into my precious bridge?"

Kit carefully climbed out of the _Sea Duck_, picking up a piece of a broken pipe to use as a weapon should it come to that in the process. "By doing that, I have just pretty much destroyed this bridge, dealing a heavy blow to this aircraft." he said, advancing carefully on Karnage. "Without it's bridge, she's virtually crippled, thus buying my friends and allies time to deal with this ship properly."

"But...but..." Karnage stuttered for a moment, "...you flew your stupid plane into my bridge! Your plane that you are cherishing so much! She'll never fly again!"

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Kit remarked, though he was very much aware of what he had done, and how much it pained him to think about it. "Besides, something had to be done to stop you."

Karnage fumed for a moment, then without warning, let out a wild yell and charged Kit, slicing wildly at him with his sword. Kit quickly raised up the pipe in his hands to block as many of the blows as he could, which was relatively easy, as Karnage was swinging his blade mostly out of anger and nothing else. The force of the attacks was slowly driving Kit backwards and to the front of the bridge, though, forcing him to squeeze between the side of the _Sea Duck's _body and the starboard wall of the bridge. Soon, he found himself unable to squeeze himself any further, and looked for a means of escape.

Seeing that one of the bridge's side windows had broken in the crash, he quickly jumped out of it, stumbling on the curving hull outside and slid into part of the _Sea Duck's _tail section that had snapped off in the crash and had driven itself forward from the rest of the plane. Karnage followed him, also slamming into the side of the plane's former tail section, and continued the fight, still driving Kit backwards.

But now Kit had room to move, and simply backed up until he stood on the room of the bridge and then onto the airship's runway roof and moving along down it, Karnage following him every step of the way.

* * *

What neither of them knew, however, was that the two's departure had been witnessed. Negaduck had begun to regain consciousness himself when the fight began, and saw the two leave the bridge, and decided to follow, lagging behind a few paces.

Soon, he stood on the runway roof of the _Vulture _as well, and watched from a distance as the two long-time rivals fought it out a few feet from him. Deciding he could end this mess once and for all, Negaduck pulled out his pistol and began to take aim.

"Heads up, Negaduck!"

Negaduck turned around in time for Gosalyn to sail in on the air foil and deck Negaduck a high-velocity punch, knocking him over. Gosalyn then quickly landed, pulled the air foil off her feet, twisted around, and then used the air foil to slap Negaduck's pistol out of his hands. The pistol spun off into the air, was slapped aside by one of the twirling blades of the vertical propellers, and vanished from sight.

Negaduck and Gosalyn watched the pistol fly off, then turned back to look at each other, Gosalyn looking victorious. Negaduck then suddenly ran off to the right, circled around Gosalyn, and began running down the roof runway. Gosalyn quickly spun around to follow him. Negaduck ran as far as a target marked out on the deck, and then slid to a stop, dropping to his knees and pulling a concealed switch. Gosalyn got as far as the edge of this target before it all started to sink into the airship, revealing it was really a hydraulic lift. It had sunk in about a foot before Gosalyn jumped onto it, with the intent of going along for the ride, dropped the air foil in her hands, and went to attack Negaduck, who was expecting the attack and was ready.

As the lift continued to drop lower, leading them into the _Iron Vulture's _main cargo bay, they fought on for a few moments, until Negaduck got the upper hand on Gosalyn, and managed to shove her off the railing-less side of the platform to fall. Gosalyn fell a few feet, fumbling wildly as she fell, and managed to stop her fall by wrapping her fingers around the railing of a middle-deck platform that ran around the side of the bay, and dangled there.

Negaduck watched for a few minutes, kicked the air foil down onto the platform she dangled from, then continued to ride the lift down to the bottom deck of the bay, where his means of escape peacefully sat, waiting for him. Parked not far from the closed bomb bay doors was the Negaquack, ready to take off at a moments notice. Once the lift came to a stop, Negaduck started for it, pausing only once to glance back at Gosalyn.

He was unsurprised to see that Gosalyn had managed to pull herself up onto the platform she was dangling from, and upon having retrieved the air foil, was now racing along the platform. At first, Negaduck simply thought she planned to catch up with him and continue the fight, but to his surprise, she ran past a stairwell that led to the bottom deck and continued running on down the platform, heading for something else. Puzzled, Negaduck traced her path to determine her end destination, and saw she was heading for the air carrier's engine room.

Where the sub-electron amplifier was.

"Dang it." Negaduck muttered, and hurried forward to chase after Gosalyn, to keep her from getting her hands on that amplifier...

* * *

Up on the runway roof, Kit and Karnage were still fighting, virtually oblivious to everything happening around them as they fought. By this point in time, Kit had stopped letting himself be constantly be driven back, and was trying to fight back with his weapon, the broken pipe. Using it somewhat like a real sword, he was soon dueling with Karnage, and was slowly getting the upper hand, moving towards the starboard edge of the ship.

Finally, while interlocking the pipe and cutlass together during the duel, Kit gave the pipe a swipe to force the sword off of it. In the process, it clipped the broach embedded with a piece of a sub-electron amplifier Karnage wore below his neck and knocked it free. It bounced once off the deck with a spark, and then tumbled over the edge and was gone from sight.

"My broach!" Karnage exclaimed, scrambling after it, even though it was already gone from sight. "By beautiful, life-prolonging broach!"

His scrambling was stopped by Kit, who moved to stand in his way.

"Good." he remarked, pointing the end of the pipe at Karnage. "Now we can _both _age normally."

Karnage gave him a glare. "Not if you're already dead!" he pointed out.

And with that, he swung his leg around and knocked Kit's feet out from under him. With a yelp, he toppled over, and fell off the edge and onto the curving starboard hull of the _Iron Vulture, _sliding down it at an increasingly fast rate. Karnage watched him go, and started laughing loudly, jumping up and doing a celebratory dance. Until he accidently slipped and tumbled off the edge of the roof as well.

Fortunately for the both of them, about halfway down the side of the airship was a small platform that ran around the outer edge of the ship. With a crash, both landed on this platform, one after the other. Getting dizzily up, they both peered over the edge of the platform, consciously aware of how close they had come to falling to their deaths in the sea far below, then up at one another.

Then Karnage gave Kit a grin, and charged at him, waving his cutlass wildly. Kit brought up the pipe to block the blow, and with that, the fight was on again.

* * *

Gosalyn had enough of a head start that she beat Negaduck into the engine room by a handful of minutes. Confident, though, that he would get there with enough time to stop her, Negaduck hurried determinedly onward, and arrived in the engine room after Gosalyn had been alone in the room for only a few minutes.

However, when Negaduck stepped into the room, it was clear that was a few minutes too long.

Sitting just within the engine room was a rack of weaponry, containing about five pre-loaded muskets. Gosalyn had taken one of these, and by the time Negaduck had gotten into the room, she was already taking aim with the weapon to shoot at the exposed sub-electron amplifier still nestled in its slot.

"No!" Negaduck exclaimed, moving forward to stop her, but didn't move fast enough.

Gosalyn fired, and her aim proved true, the musket ball slamming into the amplifier, cracking it. The crystal then began to spark, producing a burst of energy due to the impact, and then, due to it's weakened structure, the energy blew it apart, spraying shards down onto the floor. A moment of silence fell as Gosalyn lowered the musket, and Negaduck stared at the shards of red crystal that littered the floor.

Then, without warning, the whole airship suddenly shuddered as it suffered from a severe power loss. Backup batteries kicked in all over the ship to try and keep her in the air, but it wasn't enough power, and the shaking continued, only getting worse with each passing moment. Gosalyn dropped the musket and turned to head for the door. Negaduck quickly moved to block her way, and reached out to grab her.

Then the airship suddenly jerked hard to port, the deck tilting sharply under their feet. Surprised, they both fell over, and slid over to the far wall, dodging other items sitting in the room as they slid with them. Slamming into the metal bulkhead hard, Gosalyn winced as the resulting shock of pain traveled up her legs and rolled to one side. She then saw with a start of surprise that a hatch sat closed beside her.

Seeing Negaduck roll over with a groan and beginning to reach for her, Goslayn quickly grabbed the handle of the hatch and wrenched it open, seeing that it opened right to the outdoors. Grabbing the air foil tightly in one hand, Gosalyn hurled herself out the open hatch just before Negaduck could grab her to fly out into the air. Quickly placing her feet on the air foil, she stabilized her fall into a slow glide, and soared away.

Negaduck watched her fly off, and then cursed and worked his way back to the engine room's exit. Now he _really _needed to get off this airship.

* * *

When the _Iron Vulture _veered suddenly to port, Karnage and Kit found themselves thrown into the side of the hull that ran along one side the of the balcony, interrupting their fight briefly. Seeing this, Kit, who had noticed a doorway nearby, moved towards it, throwing it open. Karnage, not to be outdone, quickly followed him, and tackled just as Kit started to slid through the door.

They slid across the balcony that sat on the other side of the door and through the spaces in its railing, quickly grabbing onto it to prevent themselves from flying across the hanger bay they found themselves in. In the process of this, Kit lost a hold on his pipe, and watched it in dismay as it tumbled away from him. Fortunately, Karnage was too busy holding onto the railing to attack at his now defenseless opponent.

This continued on for a few moments, and then without warning, the _Vulture _vibrated again as it lost more power still, and then suddenly straightened its path, leveling out again. Now dangling straight down from the railing of the platform, about a floor or less up from the bottom deck of the hanger bay, Karnage freed his sword hand, and took a swung at Kit. Kit ducked the blow, and the cutlass's blade clanged off the railing instead.

Startled by the jolt, Karnage lost his grip and fell to the floor, his knees buckling when he hit and crumpled slightly, but then quickly got up again. Kit let himself drop shortly after Karnage, and hit the floor in a similar manner as Karnage. He recovered from the landing faster than the air pirate, though, and dove into Karnage with a yell.

They both toppled over and skidded across the smooth deck of the hanger bay, coming to a stop somewhere just short of the middle. Worn and tired from the long fight, they were slow to get back up again. Then, without warning, loud buzzing alarms started ringing in the hanger bay, mixed in with a series of red flashing lights.

It was then that Kit realized that he and Karnage were sitting right on the edge of the bomb bay doors. Both quickly moved for safe, solid, floor as the alarms continued ringing, but weren't fast enough as the doors dropped out from under them and swung open. Kit managed to grab a hold of the edge of the floor immediately adjacent to the bay doors and dangled from it, keeping himself from falling. Karnage wasn't so lucky, being slightly further back, but he, too, managed to save himself for the moment by latching onto the lip of the door under him as it swung open, dangling from it, losing his cutlass in the process, but that was the least of his concerns.

"Ah! Ah!" he squealed. "Help! I do not want to fall! Don Karnage, which is me, should not die simply because some dumb idiot opened the bay doors whilst I was standing atop of them!"

"Oh, shut up, Karnage!" Kit snapped, working to climb up onto the solid deck of the hanger bay where it was safe. "Just...give me a moment, okay?"

He had nearly climbed to safely, when a webbed foot suddenly stepped into his view, making him stop and look up at the face of the owner with dread.

"Well, darn, neither of you fell after all." Negaduck remarked with a mildly disappointed look.

He then planted a kick to Kit's face, knocking him from where he dangled and started to fall. He hadn't fallen far before he managed to grab one of Karnage's flailing legs and stop himself. Negaduck peered down at both of them and grinned wickedly.

"But I'd like to see you both get yourselves out of this." he concluded.

* * *

Gosalyn sailed onward on the air foil, gliding several feet away from the _Iron Vulture_, her altitude slowly dropping as she went. Just as she was starting to think that she was going to continue doing this until she reached the sea below, the Thunderquack suddenly hovered into view, Launchpad at the controls again. She landed the air foil carefully on the jet's nose, and then clambered into the cockpit as the canopy opened briefly to omit her.

"Gos, thank goodness, you're all right!" Darkwing said, clearly relieved as she gave her a hug. "C'mon, the _Vulture _is losing altitude and by Techno's calculations, should be crashing soon, so let's get out of here while..."

"No!" Gosalyn interrupted. "Kit's still onboard, and Negaquack is onboard as well! I think Negaduck is going to try and escape with it!"

* * *

When NegaGosalyn regained consciousness, she found that the ruined bridge was mostly empty, with what few remaining pirates still in it quickly hurrying out, yelling as they did so. Puzzled, she looked around to try and find out why. It didn't take her long. The little electrical fire that had started when the _Sea Duck _plowed into the bridge had spread rapidly, and now engulfed one corner of the room. Worse still, the _Sea Duck's _fuel tanks had sprung a leak, and fuel was now pooling around on the floor, with the flames quickly inching towards it.

Gasping, she grabbed her P90 from where it lay on the floor, and quickly jumped to her feet, and out the door, racing along the balcony she found herself on in the hanger bay. A few moments later, and explosion of flames burst out the bridge door as the fuel ignited violently.

Negaduck, who stood on the bottom deck of the hanger bay, prepping the Negaquack for takeoff, looked up in NegaGosalyn's direction when the blast occurred, and spied her, as she spied him. He narrowed his eyes at her, but opened his mouth to address her.

"If you want to survive the next fifteen minutes of this, Gos, then you had better get in the plane, now!" he called harshly.

Seeing that Negaduck was right, NegaGosalyn hurried down the bottom deck and climbed into the waiting jet. Negaduck then followed, closing the canopy over the cockpit. The jet then took off, lifting into the air, and then hovering down and out the open bomb bay doors, with Kit and Karnage still hanging onto the lip of one of the doors. Once outside the _Vulture_, the Negaquack extended it's wings to it's full length, and then accelerated, beginning to fly out from under the sinking airship. As it left, it was shot at by the Thunderquack, which was just starting to arrive under the airship.

"Look!" Launchpad exclaimed suddenly, his attention being drawn away from the fleeing jet, pointing at the open bay doors. "There's Kit!"

"And Don Karnage!" Gosalyn added, seeing the two. "They're going to fall!"

"LP, maneuver the plane under them, quickly!" Darkwing ordered.

Launchpad nodded, and started to fly the plane towards them as quickly as he dared. Meanwhile, Kit and Karnage were scrabbling to both get the same handhold on the open door to try and keep themselves from falling. Kit had already managed to get up high enough to grab at the lip of the door too, but there wasn't enough room for them both to hold onto the door. Both began fighting each other awkwardly for the handhold, either unaware that the Thunderquack was flying towards them, or just weren't focusing on it.

Then, without warning, Karnage's grip slipped, and he started to fall. In doing so, he grabbed Kit's foot, wrenching the lip of the door from Kit's grip as well in the process. The Thunderquack was just feet away from them when this happened.

But it wasn't close enough. Kit and Karnage both tumbled from the door and down towards the sea that was more than three hundred feet below.

Gosalyn let out a yell of alarm when they fell and sprang forward from her seat in the back of her jet like she could reach out and save them. Launchpad seemed to be too dumbfounded to speak. Darkwing himself appeared to be stunned as well, and joined the others in trying to look down at the water below to see where they hit.

"There's no way they could've survived that fall!" Darkwing exclaimed.

Gosalyn wasn't going to give up hope, however, and spun around to face Techno. "Tech, scanned for their life signatures!" she exclaimed.

Techno was already on it, and was silent for several anxiously long moments while he used his visor to search. Finally, after conducting the scan twice, he slowly turned to face Gosalyn.

"I'm sorry, Gos." he said apologetically. "But I'm not detecting anything."

All further conversation on the matter was cut short when the airship above them suddenly bumped into the jet's top, it's metal hull grinding into the jet's tail fin. With out needing any prompting, Launchpad quickly dropped the jet's altitude, and maneuvered it out from under the crashing airship and clear of it's path, stopping to hover nearby. They all watched as the _Iron Vulture _dropped past them, and plowed nose first into the ocean and slowing to a bobbing float.

* * *

With the bomb bay doors open, water quickly surged into the interior of the _Iron Vulture_, flooding most of it from the inside out. But there was enough air still trapped inside of it that it managed to just barely stay afloat enough to keep the upper decks above the surface of the water for the time being.

The planes that had all fought with the air carrier landed in the sea around it, or on the crippled vessel, and boarded it, arresting any of the surviving pirates that were still onboard, which were few. Most of the ship's crew had been launched in fighter planes (nearly all of which had been shot down), or had already jumped ship, the survivors from both methods bobbing around in the sea, awaiting rescue, even if they were just going to be arrested.

The Thunderquack and the various aircraft from SHUSH currently sat on the _Vulture's _runway roof while people from those craft double-checked to make sure nothing had been missed. Launchpad stayed with the jet to conduct some rudimentary repairs, particularly on the wing that had been damaged by the Lightning Gun. Gosalyn also stayed in the jet as well, but mostly because she didn't feel like doing anything else.

When Darkwing returned to the parked jet, he saw that she was sitting calmly in the jet, running her hand over the edges of the air foil she still possessed. Sighing, he cleared his throat to draw her attention to him.

"They, uh, just recovered what remained of the sub-electron amplifier." he reported calmly. "SHUSH is going to take the remains and destroy them, but there isn't much left for them to destroy. You did a good job making sure that thing couldn't ever be used properly again."

Gosalyn merely nodded numbly.

"What about Negaduck?" Launchpad asked, half-heartedly working on the damaged wing.

Darkwing shook his head. "In all the turmoil, he was able to get away." he stated. "But at least we can be confident that he didn't get much from this, and certainly less than we were all expecting. And on another note, nearly all of the air pirates were captured or shot down today, so I think it's officially safe to say that this legion of air pirates are going to be gone for good."

He frowned when he saw that this news wasn't getting much of a response from either of them, and sighed.

"You two really liked Kit, didn't you?" he asked.

Launchpad nodded. "He would've been a good friend." he said with his own sigh, sitting down on the deck, looking depressed.

"He _was _a good friend." Gosalyn corrected. "He was _our _friend. We should've been able to do more to save him."

"No." Darkwing said flatly. "Do _not _go blaming yourself for this, Gosalyn. Or you, Launchpad. He knew the risks, and yet he chose to help. And help he did."

"And he had to pay the price." Gosalyn murmured.

All three of them fell silent until Techno arrived a few moments later, looking depressed himself.

"The, uh, Cap Suzette Coast Guard just finished their search and reported in their results." he reported, pointing his finger back the way he came.

Gosalyn looked up, a faint glimmer of hope shining in her eyes. "And?" she asked.

Techno shook his head. "I'm sorry, Gosalyn." he said. "Kit and Karnage didn't...er..." he trailed off, unable to say it.

He didn't need to.

Gosalyn suddenly slammed the air foil nosily on the side of the cockpit. "This is all Negaduck's fault, I know it!" she exclaimed. "He did this! He the one that killed them! Karnage I could understand, But _Kit_?" she cursed suddenly, drawing a disapproving look from Darkwing.

"Actually, Gos, I've been thinking about what you told me about him, Karnage, and the effects from their prolonged exposure to the life energy the amplifier's emitted." Techno said. He paused and sighed. "Seeing that they would both be permanently separated from them in the end, no matter what had happened, I really don't think it would've made a difference."

"Wait." Darkwing said. "What are you saying?"

"That when the effects of their last few moments of being exposed to the life energy that had prolonged their lives for so long ended, the turmoil of their bodies working to catch up, to reach the right age as speedily as possible would've been too much for either of them to bear." Techno explained flatly.

"You mean they would've been as good as dead anyway." Launchpad said flatly.

Techno reluctantly nodded. "Maybe this way is better, as it just ended it all for them that much sooner." he reasoned.

"How can you say that, Techno?" Gosalyn asked. "Death is still death, and neither deserved it, not even Karnage." she sighed. "Kit especially didn't deserve this. He spent most of his life fleeing from this threat. What he needed was to survive this mess and to live the rest of his life peacefully, like a normal person." she shook her head. "It was the least he deserved."

They all fell silent as they stopped to think that thought through to the end.

* * *

The Negaquack shot over the ocean at it's usual speedy pace, taking the long way back to St. Canard. Inside, it's two occupants had stayed relatively quiet for the whole trip thus far.

"Well." NegaGosalyn finally began. "I suppose that could've gone better."

"It could've, yes." Negaduck replied bitterly. "A lot of things could've gone better during all of that." he paused, then added, "You didn't help any in that area."

"You don't have any proof." NegaGosalyn pointed out flatly.

"I don't need any proof. I _know _what you did."

"Do you, now?"

"Gos, did you really think you were going to get away with it?"

NegaGosalyn was silent for a long moment. "One can hope." she finally admitted.

"Well, you aren't."

"I figured as much." she gave him a glance. "But at least I can rest easy tonight knowing that you didn't get out of this mess any better than anyone else."

But when she saw the evil grin that suddenly began to spread across Negaduck's face, she felt her stomach plummet.

"You sure about that?" Negaduck asked.

NegaGosalyn paled. "What did you get?"

"See for yourself."

He handed her a PDA from his pocket. NegaGosalyn took it, turned it on, and skimmed through the text and diagrams that was displayed on it.

"Plans for a sub-electron amplifier?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"For building my own, of course."

"What the _heck _do you want _this _for?!"

Negaduck's grin grew bigger and he focused on piloting the plane. "You'll see."

* * *

_Fun Facts: This one's obvious. This chapter was never intended to stretch on for so long. But in a way, I suppose I shouldn't be suprised that it did. See, the idea for this chapter goes way, way, back, predating NADWD, even. See, back when I was still planning a potential novel-length sequel to "Darkwing Duck Returns", this was one of the ideas I had for that potential sequel. Although, back then it was a bit different in a few minor details, and bore a different title ("The Pilot's Request" or something like that). When I came up with the idea for NADWD, this story arc was one of the ideas that promptly went into the list, naturally being adjusted along the way. It bounced back and forth between being a one-parter and a two-parter for awhile, before finally, to try and fit all the ideas I had, opted to try and make it a one-part chapter. Clearly, that didn't work out. :p_

_Because this chapter gained an extra two parts, we lost two chapters from the planned line-up. You could say that they're the "lost" chapters of NADWD. Since I'll bet you'll all be curious as to what they are, the two lost chapters were called "Oppotunity" and "Kidnaped". "Opportunity" would've been chpt. 67, and took place in the future, when Gosalyn wakes up one day with no memory of the past twenty years or so. It would've revealed more about the mysterious future of Future Gosalyn, but in a way I'm not upset to see it gone, as I always had my doubts if it'd work well. "Kidnaped" would've been chpt. 73, and would've been a follow-up chapter from a past chapter, and was about how Negaduck had kidnaped Christine and DW and the gang's attempts to rescue her. It also would've revealed more about Negaduck's mysterious master plan, but other than that, it wasn't too special a chapter. I'll miss it though. Maybe I'll write them up as separate one-shot fanfics one day for you guys to read. :)_

_Most of the information about the Talespin universe that I got for this chapter came from "The Talespin Sourcepage" website that I found, which had more than enough for my purposes. Wish there was a Darkwing Duck Sourcepage out there somewhere, as I'd have a real use for that kind of thing. :)_

_CT-37 is apparently the canonical designation of the fighter planes the air pirates fly. Despite the official looking name, though, no such plane actually exists. This did not surprise me. What did surprise me was learning that there's no such thing as a Conwing L-16 cargo plane (aka the Sea Duck) which surprised me, as I had always thought the plane was based off a real plane, or one of similiar design. :|_

_Christine and Charlie wasn't going to appear in this chapter at first, but that was only because I didn't think of it until sitting down to begin writing. Tank was also going to appear, but was dropped so to not have too many excess characters to keep track of._

_Gosalyn and Honker were originally going to be the ones who met up with Kit, and not Launchpad. Things ran smoother with Launchpad, though._

_Gosalyn never appears in her superhero costume, despite plans to have her do so._

_Writing Don Karnage was a real effort, but well worth the effort. Besides, you can't have Talespin without Don Karnage. :p_

_The coordinates Khan gives to the airfield in part 3 would put the location somewhere off the coast of Florida. I, of course, don't expect this to be accurate for Cape Suzette's world, but I didn't just want to make up numbers, so I guessed. :p  
_

_Khan's yes-man, Rocky, is based on both the appearances, mannerisms, name, and some characteristics of Rocky Rickaby from the webcomic "Lackadaisy"._

_I think the real reason this chapter went on for so long was because it took so long to explain everything and to tell the backstory. Thereby, I declare this three-parter to contain the most complex backstory for one story arc to date in this series._

_There are a couple of deleted scenes from the ending. One scene which would've protrayed Drake and Honker meeting back up with the Muddlefoots and Christine, and one where Gos and LP break the bad news to Molly. Also in that latter scene, Molly would've given the air foil to Gos to keep, saying it "doesn't belong in a musuem". Despite this scene not appearing, Gos will still keep the air foil, albiet reluctantly at first. There are also probably a whole mess of little scenes that were dropped that I'm not thinking of that would've probably just been humorous, and built on characterization._

_We now have another clue to Negaduck's master plans. He needs a sub-electron amplifier, but not right away, he can take the time to build his own..._

_Next chapter will be "Devil in Disguise" and will be another dramatic and important chapter in the series. :)  
_


	68. Devil In Disguise

Summary: In the past, it was a project of Bushroot's that usually only brought about trouble. But this time, it's bringing about a trouble like none before...

Rating: Very much T.

Author's Note: A curious chapter that turned out to be a little less than what I had hoped, but one I think will leave you all...well...shocked. Be warned: this chapter is unnaturally dark, but thankfully nowhere near as dark as I was expecting, so I can be reassured by that much. Some fun facts at the end will explain some of the "whys" you no doubt will have at the end, to the best of my abilities.

68.

Devil In Disguise

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_And with that, he grabbed NegaGosalyn, standing nearby, and kissed her on the lips._

_NegaGosalyn was caught completely off guard, but surprisingly did not resist. After a moment, Rowe took the chance to look at the others. Quackerjack and Megavolt were both giving him a look, as if to say "have you gone mad?" Bushroot was trying to stifle a chuckle, and Negaduck just looked downright disgusted. He reached for his pistol, probably so to shoot Rowe, but before he could, Rowe felt the telltale stinging in his paw._

_Right on time, he thought, as time reset itself._

_--  
_

"_A more personal relationship?"_

"_I know what it sounds like, but..."_

"_A __**personal**__ relationship, Darkwing?"_

"_Now we're not implying anything here. That's just what...er..."_

"_Are you suggesting that I..."_

"_No! Just...that...maybe you guys aren't the arch enemies you've always acted like."_

_--  
_

"_I wish you could say we could be friends. But seeing that we'll still be enemies after this..."_

"_Aye, it wouldn't work out."_

_--  
_

"_I know why that magical connection between them got so strong so fast."_

"_How?"_

"_Rowe has a...er...thing...for Crimson."_

_--  
_

"_So he actually __**admitted **__that he...er...likes Crimson?"_

"_Yes. And I, like you, saw problems with that instantly. Rowe probably did too, but not enough to get himself to snap out of it. So I did all this, the blackmailing, and everything, in an attempt to...well...help Rowe."_

_--  
_

"_Bushroot, how did you plan to get Rowe and Crimson together?"_

"_I didn't. I was going to leave that up to Rowe. Figured things would go smoother that way."_

"_Perhaps a little too smoothly. Because I'm worried your plan has completely backfired, Bushroot."_

"_You mean, you think Rowe didn't enact on the chance to get Crimson?"_

"_No, that Crimson didn't turn him down."_

_--  
_

"_Crimson, Not to sound ungracious or anything like that, but uh, about you and Rowe back there..."_

"_What about it?"_

"_Nothing, really, but I'm just curious. It seemed apparent to me that you were content to stick with Rowe up until the moment I announced my presence, then you quickly left him for me. Why?"_

"_Because, Techno, up until then I thought I didn't have you anymore."_

_--  
_

"_But Rowe...maybe this is all for the best. Do you really think it would've worked out, even if you did have your way? You're a villain, a convicted criminal. Crimson's the exact opposite, and a respected hero. You contrast each other too much. Besides, you saw how quickly she left you for Techno."_

"_Don't remind me, mate."_

"_The point is, Rowe, is that she already has someone, and unfortunately it's just not you. The sooner you come to terms with this fact, the sooner you __**both**__ can move on."_

_--  
_

"_You were right from the beginning. I __**was **__trying to stay neutral in the whole matter and be neither good or bad when it just couldn't be done. You said that sooner or later I was going to have to pick a side, and now that time has finally come. I'm fed up with it all, Crimson. Negs, the Fearsome Five, my life, everything. It's time I took charge."_

_--  
_

"_For now just think of me as a double agent, spying on the Fearsome Five for you and Darkwing. Beyond that, though, treat me like you always have."_

_--  
_

"_But setting that all aside, I want to know how __**you**__ managed across all of this information __**this**__ time. You and Gos have __**both**__ been getting facts like this out of seemingly thin air, and never having an adequate explanation for it. There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"_

"_Admittedly...yes."_

"_I knew it!"_

"_I can't tell you what and why, though."_

_--  
_

"_But what about you? Negs will never let you get away with this!"_

"_Hopefully, he won't ever find out! But I know the risk I'm taking, and that I'm probably good as dead if Negs __**does**__ find out, but heck with it all, you guys need to get out of here!"_

_--  
_

"_**What did you do?!**__"_

"_What makes you think I __**did**__ anything?"_

"_Oh, no you don't, don't you __**dare**__ play dumb with me!"_

_--  
_

"_But don't think we aren't going to discuss when this is all over. You have some explaining to do."

* * *

_

Crimson hit the floor hard, her ears ringing from the bang of the gun. She was dimly aware of NegaGosalyn hitting the floor as well behind her. At first, too shocked at what had just happened, she just lay there, unable to bring herself to move. Then, slowly, she carefully brought herself up into a kneeling position, and slowly looked around. She first saw Rowe, who looked too stunned to move. Next was Detective Matthew, still holding the smoking gun, who seemed as equally stunned. In the background was Techno, the visor hiding his eyes, but his shock apparent all the same. Turning further still, she saw Daisy and Bushroot, who had both been knocked out of the way of the gun and were unharmed. Bushroot was white with terror, while Daisy merely looked cruelly satisfied with herself.

It was then that Crimson noticed the blood on the floor, and looked down at it, seeing that it was pooling at her knees. Alarmed, she at first thought the blood was hers, meaning the fired bullet had hit her somewhere and injured her. But a quick examination revealed that she was perfectly fine.

It was then that she turned to look at NegaGosalyn. She lay flat on her back, her limbs splayed out like she had just been dropped there. Her open eyes staring vacantly upwards at the ceiling, her beak open slightly.

Over her heart was a bullet wound, piercing right through her chest to her heart, blood flowing freely from the wound.

Crimson gasped, and moved to help NegaGosalyn, but she quickly saw it was too late.

She was dead.

* * *

**Two And A Half Hours Previous...**

The sun rose slowly over St. Canard, casting a golden glow across the city, reflecting upon the still waters of Audubon Bay. It was quite a pretty sight.

But Negaduck didn't care about that.

However, NegaGosalyn did.

"You have to admit it's real pretty." she remarked from the door of the abandoned hotel room.

Negaduck turned briefly from the window to give her a glare. "Makes me want to launch some serious pollution into the air." he remarked, disgusted. "What disturbs me, however, is the fact that you think otherwise and are actually admitting it."

"We both know that you're onto my real intentions." NegaGosalyn said flatly. "No need for me to keep telling lies." she frowned, giving Negaduck an odd look. "What I don't get, however, is why you haven't done anything about it."

"I'm still working out the details of your punishment."

"And yet, you let me keep working with the rest of the Fearsome Five like before, and not locking me away somewhere to keep me out of the way until you're ready." NegaGosalyn said. "In fact, I'm surprised I'm even still _alive_."

"I'm surprised that you're even still _here_, seeing that I've done nothing to stop you." Negaduck remarked.

They both stared at each other for several long moments, neither providing a reason why they had done what they had done.

"Anyway, you wanted me for something?" NegaGosalyn prompted.

"Yes, I have a little assignment for you."

"Must be a very _little _assignment, seeing that you're trusting me with it."

"It is. It's also a matter that I'll probably need someone of authority, even one as dubious as yours, to carry it out."

"Meaning Rowe, Bushroot, and Quackerjack are out."

"Quackerjack, yes, Rowe I'll get to, and Bushroot, no, because this whole matter revolves around him."

"Okay, I think I see where this is going already."

"He's late. Very late. That walking shrub hasn't shown up here at the hideout in three days. I want to know why."

"Knowing Bushroot, he's probably just gotten caught up with some experiment of his and can't pull himself away from it."

"Probably. If so, I want you to intervene."

"I suppose I can do that."

"But of course, I'm not about to let you go alone, not after recent events."

"This is where Rowe comes in, isn't it?"

"Yep. ROWE!"

The otter was at the door in an instant, poking his head inside cheerfully. "Yes mate?" he asked.

"You go with NegaCrimson, follow her, and make sure she stays out of trouble." Negaduck ordered, pointing at NegaGosalyn.

"Got it, mate." Rowe replied, saluting.

"Now get going." Negaduck snapped, turning back to the window.

NegaGosalyn watched him cautiously for a few moments, wondering what he was thinking about, then nodded, and walked out of the room, Rowe following her. About five paces down the barren hallway, Rowe finally asked the question that was bugging him.

"So, where am I following you to and making sure you stay out of trouble at again?"

* * *

As always, Bushroot's greenhouse stood calmly on it's usual hill, looking innocent enough. NegaGosalyn knew better, though, knowing that a whole boatload of troubles had arisen at this place because of the mutant plant-duck that typically resided here and his experiments. After pausing at the bottom of the path, NegaGosalyn proceeded to walk up to the greenhouse's front, gripping her P90 loosely, alert for trouble. Rowe followed beside her.

"So what do you think Bushroot's gotten himself into now?" he asked.

"We don't know if he's _done _anything." NegaGosalyn replied.

"Oh, come off it, mate, you know that when this happens, Bushroot's gotten himself in over his head again." Rowe pointed out. "I could list a couple of times since I joined the gang, and a couple times more after that occurred before I came along."

"So could I." NegaGosalyn said. "Still, we don't know anything, that's why Negs sent us to investigate."

"He sent _you _to investigate, I'm just supposed to keep you out of trouble." Rowe corrected. "What's that supposed to mean, anyway? Keep you out of _what _trouble? Is somebody after you?"

"No, it's nothing like that."

"Then what is it? I don't get it, ever since you two came back from wherever it was you went a few weeks ago, you two have been treating each other differently. What's going on between you and Negs anyway?"

"None of your beeswax, Rowe. It doesn't concern you."

"It does when I get sent to keep you out of trouble."

"Look, Rowe," NegaGosalyn began, turning to face the otter, "let's just say that I gave Negs reason to distrust me. So, for punishment, he's sending me on a menial task with a blabbermouth."

She started forward again. Rowe stared after her for a moment, then hurried after her.

"I am _not _a blabbermouth, mate." he objected. "And I would hardly call this a menial task, particularly if Bushy's done some experiment that has spiraled out of control again. It's February, the start of a new month. We all know that Bushroot starts work on a new project at the start of every new month."

"I know." NegaGosalyn said. "But until we are proven otherwise, I'm just going to believe that he's gotten distracted with his work and hasn't thought to report in at the hideout for awhile, and that's all." she stepped up to the door. "So, how do we want to go about this?"

"Here, I'll knock." Rowe said, stepping forward. "Me and Bushy are mates. More likely to get a proper response from him if he thinks it's just me."

He knocked politely on the door, and waited for Bushroot to answer the door for a few moments. When he didn't, Rowe rapped again on the door, harder this time.

"Bushroot, you there, mate?" he called through the door. "C'mon, open up, haven't seen you in a few days! Whatcha up to, me matey?"

There was still no response. By this time NegaGosalyn had lost patience and pushed Rowe aside to get at the door, and pounded on it hard.

"Bushroot, it's NegaCrimson." she called loudly and angrily. "You haven't reported in at the hideout for three days, and we want to know what you're up to! Now open the door!"

Some shuffling could be heard inside the greenhouse, but there was still no response of any sort. NegaGosalyn rapped again on the door.

"Bushroot, if you don't open this door by the count of three, I'm going to shoot it open!" she threatened, raising her P90. "One! Two!..."

The door suddenly flung open, and Bushroot appeared at the door, breathless. He appeared worn and tired, but excessively excited none the less, and was struggling to keep it under control.

"Hi guys!" the mutant plant-duck said cheerfully. "What's up?"

"We were just wondering where you've been, Bushroot." Rowe said, trying to look around Bushroot and into the greenhouse. Bushroot moved to block his view, which got NegaGosalyn suspicious.

"What are you up to, Bushroot?" she asked flatly.

"Oh, nothing much." Bushroot replied.

NegaGosalyn jabbed her P90 at Bushroot. "With you, Bushroot, you're always up to something, and I want to know what!"

And with that, she harshly pushed him aside and stormed into the greenhouse. Bushroot gulped, but stood to one side and let her conduct her search. Rowe moved to stand beside the mutant plant-duck.

"You'll have to excuse her, mate, she's in a bit of a bad mood." he explained to his friend.

NegaGosalyn scanned the worktables that Bushroot had perpetually up in the greenhouse, P90 held at the ready. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary on them, but that only made her more suspicious and widened her search, moving to another section of the greenhouse.

"What are you hiding, Bushroot?" she asked as she did this.

"Uh...who says I'm hiding anything?" Bushroot asked with a brief moment of hesitation.

"I do." NegaGosalyn snapped. "You're up to something, and you don't want us to know about it."

"What? No!" Bushroot said, following her. "Really, I haven't been up to much of anything lately. No experiments, no projects, no nothing. Just me and my plants."

NegaGosalyn walked past a chalkboard filled with mathematical equations, paused, then glanced back at it.

"Then what's this?" she asked, tapping the board with her P90.

"Oh, that, well..." Bushroot said, hurrying over. "Nothing, really, at least nothing that would interest you. Just running a few mathematical equations through my head to pass the time."

"Now wait a minute, mate." Rowe said, joining them at the chalkboard, looking the writings over. "I recognize these equations, you've shown them to me before, Bushy. Aren't they for your attempts to..."

"No, no, no, no, Rowe, you're mistaken!" Bushroot quickly interrupted, clamping a hand over the otter's mouth while chuckling nervously. "Remember, you're no mathematician, you said so yourself. A lot of equations look alike, and some can be used in multiple ways. I'm sure you're mistaken."

Rowe wasn't buying it, and was now looking at Bushroot in mild shock. "Bushroot, you didn't." he said. "After you told me the story of the last time you tried it, you promised to never try it again!"

"Try _what_?" NegaGosalyn pressed.

"Rowe, you're overreacting." Bushroot assured his friend. "Of course you'd know that I would never try it again."

He looked at the two unexpected visitors for a few moments, grinning. His grin gradually faded as he realized that neither of them were buying this. He sighed dejectedly.

"Okay," he admitted, "I was confident I had ironed out all the problems, so..." he trailed off, shrugging.

"Bushroot!" Rowe said. "I've heard _so _many horror stories about the _last _time you did this!"

"Did _what_?" NegaGosalyn pressed.

"Things worked out better this time, and I took many extra precautions to make sure things didn't repeat themselves, like making her grow more slowly this time." Bushroot said, ignoring NegaGosalyn and focusing on Rowe. "Besides, those stories you've heard are probably far-fetched; the last event occurred well before the Fearsome Five had been founded. And anyway, Spike can be blamed completely for the last event."

"Blamed for _what_?" NegaGosalyn exclaimed, getting annoyed. "Who's _her_?"

"You said you weren't going to try it again, anyway!" Rowe argued, also ignoring NegaGosalyn. "You said that it was probably a _bad idea _anyway!"

"It was the only idea I ever had on the subject that had any _hope _of working, though!" Bushroot argued back. "Besides, I'm lonely being here all by myself, so I had to try _something_! Furthermore, I kept her here and secure for observation, to make sure that everything _had _gone right before I continued, that's why you haven't seen me the past couple of days. And so far, everything has worked out perfectly!"

All further conversation was cut short when a gunshot suddenly rang out from within the room. Bushroot and Rowe flinched and ducked, Rowe clapping his hands over his ears. They both turned to look at NegaGosalyn, who was holding her P90 up at the roof of the greenhouse, it's barrel smoking. She gave them both a frustrated glare.

"Will _somebody __**please **_explain what is you're both going on about?" she demanded.

Bushroot and Rowe glanced at each other, and shifted about awkwardly, not saying anything.

"Well?" NegaGosalyn prompted.

"Okay, you said that you've heard plenty of horror stories about some of Bushroot's past experiments, right mate?" Rowe asked finally.

"Yes."

"You remember any about a...vampire potato?"

NegaGosalyn's eyes went wide, revealing that she did. "That was _true_?" she asked, bewildered. "I always thought that was just some story Negaduck had whipped up to give me nightmares!"

"Oh, it's...uh...true all right." Bushroot said nervously. He cleared his throat. "Like I said, though, my pet, Spike, could be mostly blamed for that, and I hadn't thought the plan through that well anyway. I changed a whole _lot _of things this time around."

"_This _time around?" NegaGosalyn repeated. "You mean you tried this little experiment _again_?"

"_Now _you see why I'm upset, mate?" Rowe asked.

"Look, you're both overreacting!" Bushroot said, pushing past them both and moving to the back of the greenhouse. "I'll show you. Things worked out perfectly this time! I can't find anything wrong with her! She certainly has turned out to be everything I expected of her."

"_Her_?" NegaGosalyn repeated, turning to watch Bushroot, and shot a glance at Rowe. "You mean you aren't alone here anymore?"

"And never again." Bushroot said determinedly. He opened the door to a small closet and motioned to something hidden within it. "C'mon, come on out, they won't hurt you, I'll make sure of that."

Something stirred within the closet, and then stepped out into full view of Rowe and NegaGosalyn. She was roughly Bushroot's height, and over all looked to be almost identical in appearance, although her body was a touch more feminine in shape, and her pedal-like hair was longer, and white instead of pink. The new mutant plant-duck studied Rowe and NegaGosalyn for a moment, then grinned an almost mischievous grin.

"Hello." she greeted, with a nod.

"Guys, meet Daisy." Bushroot said, motioning to the plant-duck almost proudly. "The wife I grew myself."

* * *

Outside the greenhouse, watching from afar, Detective Matthew lowered his binoculars and grinned.

"Yep, all three of them are in there." he said happily. "I even caught sight of a possible fourth person in there, which means yet another added bonus to this case."

"You're welcome." Officer Frank said, proud of himself. "Good thing I was watching, wasn't it?"

"Good luck for all of us today, it seems." Matthew agreed. "I mean, we've been watching Bushroot's movements in there for the past three days, gearing up to pounce on him and bring him in, and then on the very day we plan on doing it, two more wanted criminals join him, Rowe and NegaCrimson." he laughed. "Ha, ha, Chief Luke is going to be pleased to hear _this _news."

"Well, I wouldn't start celebrating just yet, we still need to nab these guys." Darkwing remarked wisely, kneeling beside the two officers. "Luck may seem to be on our side for the moment, but you never know when it might suddenly run out."

"Very true, which means we'll need to act quickly." Matthew said. "Let's go tell the others."

He turned away from the row of bushes they were kneeling behind, and led the way back towards the two police cars that were parked beside the Ratcatcher and Avenger. Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno stood there waiting for them, along with a nameless cop who had tagged along to help if need be. They perked up with Matthew, Frank, and Darkwing returned to join them.

"So?" Crimson asked hopefully. "What's the verdict?"

"It's just as Officer Frank claimed." Matthew said happily, smoothing out the white shirt and tie he had started wearing after he had been promoted to detective. "All three of them are in there. Bushroot, Rowe, NegaGosalyn, and possibly a fourth person who could be Quackerjack, though it's hard to know from here. If we want to nab these guys, now would be the time to do it."

"And thereby deal a crippling blow to the Fearsome Five." Techno deduced, liking the idea.

"So we're going to strike." Crimson said, anxious to get to the chase. "How do we plan to do that?"

"Well, I was thinking that we just storm the place." Officer Frank suggested. "If we all go, we'd outnumber them, and should easily overpower them."

"Mm, we could, but I think we'd need to catch them even more by surprise than that." Darkwing said. "I mean, we've all tried the storming-in tactic before and had it fail terribly for us in the past, haven't we?"

"Yeah, we have." Launchpad agreed, nodding. "Like that one time years ago when you, DW, were trying to nab Tuskerninni at the bubble gum store he was attacking with that heat ray he had stolen for filming a fire scene, and the bubble gum melted, and it..."

"Yeah, yeah, we get the idea, LP." Darkwing interrupted, annoyed at being reminded of the unwanted memory.

"I don't remember that, where was I for that case?" Crimson bemoaned.

"Anyway, I'm with Darkwing on this one, guys." Matthew said in agreement. "I don't want to let this possible bust slip through my fingers, so we need to make it count."

"If I might make a suggestion, detective, but we could try a more stealthful raid if not all of us stormed the building." Techno suggested politely. "Then we could slip in, secretly block all the exits, and then confront the villains."

Matthew thought about it for a moment. "Sounds like a good idea." he said. "So, we just need to decide who's going to be participating now. I'll go, since it was my idea to try this in the first place."

"Okay, then I'll stay here with this guy, and we'll watch." Frank said, putting an arm around the other, nameless, officer that stood silently nearby.

"Me and LP will go too, seeing that we've had the most experience with these guys." Darkwing added.

"What?" Crimson whined. "But I want to go, too! Besides, it was Techno's idea, so he should go too! And since he's my sidekick, I should come with!"

"Then that would be too many people, Crimson." Darkwing pointed out. "Someone has to stay behind."

"Okay, that can be you."

"I don't think so, Crimson."

"Oh, c'mon! Can't I have a turn to make a bust like this? You usually get to do it, and not me. It's time I got a chance, don't you think? I can handle it, you know I can!"

Darkwing stopped to consider it for a long moment.

"Darkwing..." Matthew said, anxious to get going, "...we don't have time for this."

"Oh, all right!" Darkwing concluded. "Seeing that you'll be with Detective Matthew, I suppose it'd be all right for you to help for a change." he gave Crimson a stern look, though. "However, if _anything _goes wrong, you call the rest of us to come in as backup, got it?"

"Got it." Crimson said, pulling out her gas gun and saluting Darkwing with it. She turned to face the greenhouse with Techno and Detective Matthew. "All right, then. Let's get dangerous."

* * *

NegaGosalyn circled Daisy slowly, looking both curious and apprehensive, while Daisy watched her out of the corner of her eye. "Well, it certainly looks like things went according to plan." she admitted with a frown. "Still...Bushroot, I wish you had _told _someone about this first."

"If I had, you guys would've just talked me out of it!" Bushroot pointed out. "Besides, I got what I wanted, and everything seems to be working out okay, so can't a mutant plant-duck get what he wants for once?"

"He's got a point, mate, he's been looking for love for a long time now." Rowe admitted, having taken a seat on a nearby stool. "Now he's finally going to get his chance to be happy."

"Negaduck doesn't want anybody to be happy." NegaGosalyn pointed out. "And I still say you shouldn't have just done this without telling anybody first."

"Does it anger you, the fact Reginald did this without consulting someone like you, first?" Daisy asked smoothly.

NegaGosalyn gave the homegrown mutant plant-duck a glare. "Maybe." she replied. She paused. "I suppose it's too late to do anything now, though."

"That's right, it is." Bushroot said, putting an arm around Daisy. "What's done is done. Besides, I've already got my heart set on this. I've found that I love Daisy."

"And I love Reginald." Daisy added, putting her arm around Bushroot.

NegaGosalyn still didn't look convinced, looking like she didn't trust Daisy.

"So, what should we do know?" Rowe asked.

"Somebody needs to tell Negaduck." NegaGosalyn replied instantly.

"What? Tell _Negs_?" Bushroot asked, dismayed. "But you can't! He'll ruin everything!"

"Bushroot, it's not like you can hide this from him forever!" NegaGosalyn pointed out. "He's going to find out eventually!"

"But...but..." Bushroot stuttered, "...he'll ruin everything!"

"Sorry, mate, but I'm with NegaGosalyn on this one." Rowe said. "Negaduck would know what to do."

"If it involves mercilessly slaughtering something, yes!" Bushroot snapped. "You _know _that's what he'll do! I don't _want _him to do that! I would hate him for all eternity for doing that!"

"I sense you hate him already, Reginald." Daisy commented. She looked at the others. "You all do. Why do you follow someone you hate so much?"

The threesome looked at each other, at a loss for an answer to the unexpected question.

"Well...it's complicated." NegaGosalyn replied, like that explained everything.

"Personally, I'm just in this partly because I had nowhere else to go, and because Negs kind of forced me to." Rowe said.

"Then why don't you stop him?" Daisy asked, her brow furrowed.

"We've tried in the past, but Negs always has the upper hand." Bushroot said. "Look Daisy, I know things seem confusing, but just trust us on this. We know what we're talking about."

"Perhaps you haven't talked about the matter enough." Daisy proposed, sounding like she didn't full understand.

"Bushroot, forget it, she clearly doesn't understand." NegaGosalyn pressed. "And that still doesn't change the matter at hand. We need to decide what to do about this."

"Why can't I just be allowed to do what I want?" Bushroot asked. "Why can't I?"

"Because, if somebody doesn't stop your bad ideas, who will, mate?" Rowe asked.

"Hey, I resent that, Rowe!" Bushroot snapped.

"Hey, there's no need to get angry here!" NegaGosalyn quickly intervened. "But I will in a moment if we keep changing the subject!"

Then, suddenly, a cloud of crimson smoke erupted from the back of the room, in front of the back door, spreading out to fill the room. Everyone turned to look at it.

"I am the heir to the cape!" Crimson exclaimed as she launched herself out of the cloud and grabbed Bushroot and Daisy, wrapping her arms around their necks. Rowe jumped up, only to be confronted by Techno. NegaGosalyn spun around to face Detective Matthew, and was quickly relieved of her P90. "I am bill that comes with your expensive wedding plans! And, you know the rest."

"What?" Bushroot exclaimed, caught completely off guard by this sudden turn of events. "How did you guys get in here?"

"Where did you even _come _from, mates?" Rowe asked, as Techno worked to place a pair of handcuffs on the struggling otter.

"We've been watching this place for three days, preparing to make a bust like this." Matthew explained, restraining NegaGosalyn. "We planned things through carefully, as evidenced by the fact that we're succeeding!"

"Oh, you'll never get away with this!" Bushroot exclaimed, struggling against Crimson's hold on him.

"Bushroot, shut up, and go along with this!" NegaGosalyn instructed hotly, who had surrendered herself peacefully. "If you go quietly, things will work out in the end, I promise!"

"No!" Bushroot said, still struggling. "I'm not just going to play along!" he struggled for a few moments longer against Crimson's grip. "Daisy, do something!"

"Okay." Daisy replied calmly, and closed her eyes as if to internally focus on something.

Suddenly, something within her pedals popped, and a burst of fine powder flew out from them, quickly spreading to fill the room. Within moments, everybody but Daisy was coughing and gagging on the dust-like substance, growing weak and dropping to the ground. Just before she passed out, Crimson glanced up at Daisy, saw her cunning grin, and realized that something in their plan had just gone terribly wrong...

* * *

Bushroot was first to reawaken. Groaning, and rubbing at his head, he slowly picked himself up and looked around the greenhouse. It was eerily quiet in the room, and faint wisps of whatever powder Daisy unexpectedly released still filled the room. With the exception of himself, everyone else still appeared to be unconscious. Daisy stood motionlessly in one corner of the room, silently observing all of them. Bushroot glanced around the room, then back at his homegrown wife.

"What did you do?" he asked Daisy.

Daisy shrugged. "You asked me to do something, Reginald." she replied simply. "So I did."

"Yeah, but...what did you do?" Bushroot asked, standing. "What _is _this powder?" he wiped a finger along the floor, sweeping up some of the powder that had settled there. "Pollen?"

"Of a sort."

Bushroot frowned, but decided to drop the matter for now. "Well, whatever you did, it worked." he said, hurrying to a door. "We need to get out here so we can..."

He trailed off when he saw that vines had wrapped around the door's latch, effectively sealing it shut. Turning, he saw the only other door leading out of the greenhouse was similarly blocked. Frowning some more still, he concentrated on the vines, mentally asking them to free the doors. But to his great surprise, he got no response whatsoever.

"They won't answer, Reginald." Daisy assured him, having only moved enough to keep Bushroot in her vision.

Bushroot glanced at her. "Why?" he asked. "Did you do this?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I have my reasons."

Bushroot gave her a perplexed look, then shook his head. "Well, never mind, there's more than one way out of here." he said, and stepped over to NegaGosalyn's body, gently shaking her awake. "NegaCrimson, wake up. Please wake up, I need your help."

At first, NegaGosalyn didn't respond, then she suddenly lashed out with one hand and grabbed Bushroot around the neck, giving him a glare.

"Give me one good reason, Bushroot." she said venomously.

"It's not my fault!" Bushroot gasped out. "I didn't know Daisy could even _do _that, much less what it's effects would be! And it effected me just as much as it affected you!"

NegaGosalyn stared at him for a moment, then released him, and rolled over to look at Daisy, who still stood where she was, watching bemusedly. NegaGosalyn narrowed her eyes at the mutant plant-duck.

"So what did she do?" she asked Bushroot.

"I'm not entirely sure." Bushroot admitted, straightening, rubbing at his throat. "But we should get out of here while we have the chance. Everyone else is still out of it, but the doors are sealed shut. I need you to force them open."

NegaGosalyn nodded, retrieved her P90, and started picking herself up. "Fine," she said, "Go wake Rowe."

Bushroot nodded, and hurried over to wake the otter. NegaGosalyn rose and moved to the closest door, and noted the vines.

"Bushroot, can't you just command the vines to unseal the door?" she asked.

"I tried, they aren't responding to me." Bushroot said, failing to get Rowe to wake through shaking, and was now trying to left the heavy otter into a chair to try something else. "Daisy has something to do with, but again, I don't know why."

NegaGosalyn glanced at homegrown wife, and gave her a suspicious glare. "Just what are you up to?" she asked.

"I'm making the best of a situation." Daisy replied calmly, unafraid of NegaGosalyn.

"For who? Us...or you?"

Their attention was drawn away when Bushroot, having succeeded in getting Rowe propped up in a chair, took a nearby bucket of water and splashed it in his face, successfully bringing the otter back to consciousness. Groaning and stretching, completely ignoring the water that was dampening one side of his face, he looked around groggily.

"What happened, mates?" he asked.

"Long story short, we've got a chance to get out of here without being caught." Bushroot said, helping the otter to his feet.

But then someone started pounding on one of the doors, trying to get it open.

"Crimson?" the voice of Darkwing called. "Crimson, Techno, Detective Matthew, respond, please! Me and Officer Frank are looking for a way in, just sit tight."

And then a groan could be heard as Techno suddenly shifted positions as he began to reawaken, while Crimson and Matthew were beginning to stir.

NegaGosalyn groaned. "Well, so much for escaping without being caught." she said, pulling out a knife and moving towards the door Darkwing was pounding on. "Wonder where this will land me next." she started to slice through the vines holding the door shut with the blade. "Hold on Darkwing, you can enter in just a moment, just as soon as I..."

"No, wait, STOP!"

Everyone turned to look at Techno, who had propped himself up on one elbow, and was holding out a hand at NegaGosalyn to stop. Seeing that he had succeeded, he switched on his helmet radio.

"Darkwing, this is Techno, do not enter the greenhouse without hazmat protection, repeat, do not enter without hazmat protection!" he said loudly into his radio. "We have a Level A situation in here, repeat, Level A situation!"

Darkwing quickly fell silent on the other side of the door. NegaGosalyn gave Techno a look that was a mixture between annoyance and uncertainty. Techno merely returned the look.

"What's a Level A situation?" Rowe asked, puzzled.

"That there's a lot more to this powder she released than meets the eye." Techno replied, jabbing his head in the direction of Daisy.

Everyone turned to look at the mutant plant-duck, who in return gave them a mischievous look that made them all wonder just what it was that she was up to...

* * *

Darkwing took the threat seriously, and called everybody he knew of that could help. Within a half hour, the greenhouse was now crawling with officials of all sort. Whole squadrons of officers from the SCPD had been dispatched and now surrounded the premise, keeping everyone unauthorized out. SHUSH had also had been informed, and sent a small part of agents to help supervise. As per requested by Techno, hazmat suits were also sent for, and now everyone going to and from the greenhouse wore them. Darkwing also put in a request for someone he was confident could help significantly in this matter, which by doing so, required Launchpad to be sent elsewhere to babysit the adopted son of this certain someone.

"Hold on just a second longer, Crimson, I almost have enough blood." Christine commented through the bulky hazmat suit she wore while she finished drawing blood from a very annoyed Crimson. She withdrew the needle suddenly. "There, done."

"How much longer is this going to take?" Crimson bemoaned.

"Just long enough to make sure there is absolutely nothing wrong with you." Darkwing assured her, who stood behind her, also wearing a hazmat suit. "We take possible Level A contaminations very seriously, you know."

"But I feel _fine._" Crimson snapped. "I think that if something bad was going to happen, it would've happened by now!"

"Normally, I'd be inclined to agree with you, Crimson, but my visor has been flashing a warning message in my eyes ever since I regained consciousness, warning that it had detected a hazardous material in the air." Techno said, sitting nearby, having already had his blood drawn. "The powder Daisy released coincides with this, so the two must be connected. But my visor can't identify the hazardous material, just that it's there."

"Thereby, we won't know a thing about what this thing is and if it even is a threat until we do some tests." Christine remarked, carefully placing the vile of blood into a case with the others she had collected from everyone in the greenhouse. "Until then, we're going to treat this situation with the utmost precaution."

NegaGosalyn snorted. "So does drawing our blood help?" she asked, who hadn't enjoyed the experience of having her blood drawn either.

"To see if there are any foreign elements dissolved into it." Christine replied. "I'm just going to run some tests on them, and then we'll have a better idea about where we stand. SHUSH brought some portable equipment here, just outside, that I can use, so it shouldn't take long."

Nodding to the group, she and Darkwing headed for the door and exited, leaving the effected members of the group in the greenhouse to wait. Detective Matthew sighed from where he sat.

"Not exactly the thing I was looking forward to putting in my report." he muttered.

"You'll live." Crimson said.

Rowe rubbed at his forehead, exasperated. "I swear, if we get out of this lot unharmed, I'm gonna kill you, Bushroot." he vowed.

Bushroot, who was sitting beside Daisy, gave him an annoyed glare. "What did _I _do?" he demanded.

"It was _your _wife that started this mess!" NegaGosalyn snapped. "On purpose, too, I suspect!"

"I...I..." Bushroot stuttered, trying to find some way to logic the blame off the wife he had grown himself. "Well, I _did _ask her to do something! And she did! But seeing that I didn't expect her even being able to do that, maybe it bounced both ways! Maybe she didn't even know this was going happen, either!"

He looked at Daisy for some support, but besides giving Bushroot a curious look, she said nothing.

"How can you not know how she works?" Crimson asked, annoyed herself. "_You _made her!"

"Yes, but it doesn't work like that!" Bushroot said. "It's not like I have precise control over every aspect of her body and personality! All I can do is chemically induce some of the major things I'd _like_, and leave the rest to chance!"

"Precisely." Daisy confirmed. "Physics and nature dictated most of my birth and growth. Reginald merely stood by and guided it in a certain direction. He didn't, and couldn't, have complete control over the process."

"Stands to reason, but clearly, something went wrong." Techno remarked. "Go back tot he drawing board, Bushroot. This little experiment is a failure."

"She's not an experiment, she's a living being, and she's my wife!" Bushroot snapped, standing up and motioning to Daisy. "We should treat her as such!"

"Bushroot, she's a test tube baby you put together yourself!" Rowe argued, also standing and advancing on Bushroot, who stood his ground. "And clearly, somewhere you goofed, because it's because of her, and thus you, indirectly, that we're stuck in this mess!"

"Like you'd know, you riverdog!" Bushroot barked back.

Insulted, Rowe moved to swing a punch at Bushroot, but NegaGosalyn quickly intervened, grabbing the otter by his wrist.

"That's enough, both of you!" she snapped. "I don't know what's gotten into you two! But there's no need to be so venomous to each other! I _know _that we're in a bad situation, and I _know _that somebody is probably at fault for this, but now isn't the time to be pointing fingers, so just shut up, and sit tight until this is over!"

"Actually, they have every reason, and right, to be so mad at each other." Daisy remarked calmly from where she sat watching them. "Leave them be."

NegaGosalyn gave her a look. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were edging them on."

The look Daisy gave in reply was both innocent and calculating. "Maybe I am."

* * *

Christine stared at the test results that were now displayed on the computer screen that had been set up in the tent that housed the lab equipment, and bit her lip as she went through the results again. They weren't good. A fact that she already knew. But she just hadn't realized _how _bad.

She turned when she heard the flap on the tent flutter, and saw Darkwing enter. Like her, he still wore his hazmat suit minus the helmet. With him was Officer Frank and Agent Grant from SHUSH. The three of them looked as worried as she felt.

"You have the results from the tests, Dr. Merriweather?" Grant asked right away, getting down to the point.

Christine nodded, and gestured to the results displayed on the screen behind her. "They aren't good." she said. "Techno was right to be worried."

They all gathered at the screen and peered at the results. They didn't mean much of anything except to Christine, but just looking at the results gave them a feeling of dread.

"So...is this life threatening?" Frank asked finally.

Christine sighed. "Not yet." she admitted. "And hopefully, we can set things straight before it gets to that point, but yes, if this goes on for long enough..." she trailed off for a moment, "...it can be life threatening."

Darkwing frowned, worry creasing his brow. "How so?" he asked.

"Well, first off, I should let you know that I've identified the powder that Daisy apparently released into the room." Christine said. "Like Bushroot had said when everyone explained what had happened, it's very much like pollen. But only in looks, the powder is much more than that. Unsurprisingly, it's mostly composed with a kind of compound that works like an anesthetic or sedative. When enough of it is breathed into the body, it puts the subject to sleep."

"That doesn't sound too bad." Frank said.

"It doesn't, but the thing is that these scans SHUSH got of the greenhouse's interior quite clearly indicate that Daisy is still releasing minute bursts of this powder into the air." Christine explained. "Not in such large amounts as the first time, but still enough to make a difference."

The other three were a little slow to catch on to the significance of that.

"Wait," Darkwing finally said, "If that's true, then why aren't those guys still asleep?"

"Exactly." Christine said. "The moment I realized that, I knew I had something to work with. It turns out that the sedative in the powder isn't that strong. After a certain amount of prolonged exposure, the body begins to work to fight it's effects and begins losing it's effectiveness."

"So they develop an immunity to it?" Grant guessed.

Christine, however, shook her head. "No, nowhere close to an immunity." she said. "It may not put the body to sleep anymore, but it still affects the body in numerous ways. It's like one of those illegal drugs. All it does now is cause harm to the body."

Grant folded his arms. "What kind of harm?"

"Headaches, achy joints, at first. Later, nausea and fever-like chills, probably lightheadedness and fainting, too. Eventually, seizures as the body begins to fail from fighting it for so long. Not long after that, death. And the clincher; all during this time, continually rising feelings of aggression. Everyone in that greenhouse is just going to get madder and madder until it's purely random hysteria against anything."

The others looked at each other uneasily.

"Anyway to stop this?" Frank asked. "Seeing that this Daisy mutant plant-duck that Bushroot is apparently behind all of this, can we just take her away and wait for the effects to wear off?"

Christine shook her head. "I'm afraid it's not that simple." she said.

"What, the effects won't wear off?" Darkwing asked, more alarmed now.

"Oh no, it'll wear off, within only a few hours, in fact, but it's not that simple." Christine said. "Like I said, this is like a drug. It is _extremely _addictive. So much so, the moment those guys in the greenhouse breathed it in for the first time, they were probably hooked. And they've just spent the past hour breathing large amounts of this stuff, letting it be dissolved into their systems. Their so addicted to it, that their bodies have become dependant upon it. The shock of just suddenly taking away the source of this drug and letting them shrug off the effects would probably kill them."

There was a long moment of silence after this.

"So you're saying that if we leave them there and allow them to overdose, they die, but if just take the source away, letting them shrug the effects off cold turkey will kill them as well." Grant summarized grimly.

Christine nodded. "I know it's not good news." she said. "Fortunately, I believe that letting them gradually wing themselves off the drug through some kind of treatment, they could pull through no worse for wear in a few days at most."

"Well, that's good!" Darkwing said, instantly brightening. "We can do that!"

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple." Christine said. "I'll have to come up with some kind of artificial alternative for them to use, and do it within four hours, before they begin suffering from overdose symptoms."

"Now wait, why can't you just use the natural substance in controlled amounts?" Frank asked.

"Because, in order to get enough, I would have to get it straight from Daisy herself, using equipment that couldn't be easily and safely brought into the greenhouse." Christine explained. "Meaning she'd have to come out here to do it, where the others would no longer be affected by the sedative she is for some reason producing. Then I'd have half the time to pull it off in"

"Yes, but if you're using the natural substance, shouldn't it take far less time to come up with the treatment?" Frank asked.

"Yes, but _only _if Daisy willingly participates." Christine remarked. "If she resists, it'll take far longer, possibly too long. I am _not _willing to gamble the lives of the people in that greenhouse like that, and neither should you."

"But who says that Daisy will resist?" Darkwing asked, still trying to be optimistic. "Maybe she'll willingly participate."

"No, she won't, I can guarantee it." Christine said. "When I drew blood, I drew her and Bushroot's blood as well. Including Bushroot, everybody had trace amounts of the sedative dissolved into their blood, but _not _Daisy. Her blood is clean."

"I suppose that makes sense, seeing that she's the one who is producing this chemical." Grant reasoned.

"Yes, but it got me thinking about it." Christine said. "See, at first, I just thought this was a byproduct of Bushroot's experiment that brought her to life, some unforseen flaw. But seeing that she's completely immune to it, and perfectly so, I realized that there has to be more to this than meets the eye. And besides, why is Daisy even producing this stuff, anyway, particularly when she seems to have control over it?" she sighed. "Finally, I realized there could only be one explanation."

Darkwing was one step ahead of her. "She's doing this on purpose." he realized.

* * *

"On _purpose_?" NegaGosalyn repeated, looking very angry, probably due to the effects of the drug. "On _PURPOSE_?"

Darkwing glanced at Daisy through his hazmat helmet to see her reaction to this. She seemed completely unconcerned. "Yes." he confirmed.

NegaGosalyn rose angrily, with the intent to attack in her eyes. But to Darkwing's surprise, she attacked Bushroot instead of Daisy, who was completely ignored. And she wasn't the only one. Everyone else in the room started moving angrily towards Bushroot to get a part of the action, Bushroot himself fighting back as NegaGosalyn got to him first and started to choke him. Darkwing quickly moved forward and pried Bushroot from her and stepped in the way of everyone else.

"Hey, hey, hey, HEY!" he yelled. "Getting mad and lashing out isn't going to solve this! Now I know that you're angry and you want to attack someone, but it won't help! The anger you're feeling is from the effects of the drug! I know it's hard, but you need to fight it, just long enough to not kill each other and give us time to come up with a treatment!"

"You make it sound easy, Darkwing, but it isn't!" Matthew accused.

"And don't you _dare _say you know how hard it is, because you _don't _know!" Crimson added. "You aren't trapped in here under the influence of a drug that could kill us like we are!"

"And besides _Bushroot's _the one who made the thing that caused this, so this is _all his FAULT_!" Rowe roared suddenly, and pushed Darkwing aside and dealt Bushroot a punch, knocking him to the ground.

He was about to hop on top of Bushroot to deal more damage, but Darkwing quickly intervened, pulling the struggling otter away.

"Snap out of it!" he demanded. "You don't..."

He got no further when Bushroot jumped back up and suddenly pounced Rowe from behind, knocking him down, and beating the otter from every angle. Suddenly, they were all on top of each other, even Techno, fighting fiercely whatever they could get their hands upon, while Darkwing tried to single-handedly pull them apart. Daisy sat gracefully on a worktable across the room and watched, hints of a grin tugging at her lips.

Finally, out of desperation, Darkwing pulled out his gas gun that he had brought in with him just for this purpose, and fired a canister of smoke into the melee. The group promptly started coughing on the purple smoke, and the fight quickly broke apart, and they all more or less calmed down.

"Look!" Darkwing said once they had settled down. "I know Bushroot inadvertently triggered this mess, but he already has stated that he didn't intend to! He had no idea this was going to happen, and even if he did, beating him up won't solve a thing! If you should blame anybody, blame _her!_" he pointed at Daisy. "She's causing this on purpose, although I have no clue why!"

Daisy merely looked at him, and clearly wasn't about to elaborate things.

"No!" Bushroot pressed. "She wouldn't!"

"Well, you'll have to ask her and find out, then." Darkwing said. "Now look, we'll be checking in every now and then to make sure you don't kill each other, and after seeing how badly you guys all want to kill each other, I'll make sure we'll be bringing in a camera of some sort to further monitor you guys. In the meantime, stop fighting, and just sit tight. We're working on a solution to this mess as quickly as humanly possible."

And with that, he turned and walked out of the greenhouse. The occupants in the greenhouse all moved to sit in opposite corners of the room, away from each other, giving each other glares.

"I still say you shouldn't have done this little experiment, Bushy." NegaGosalyn growled. "It would have saved us a whole lot of trouble."

"It's not my fault, and neither is it Daisy's." Bushroot said, coming to the defense of his wife. "This is...a mere side effect, completely unintentional."

"If it's a mere side effect, then why doesn't she stop?" Matthew asked venomously.

"She _can't _stop, not now, or we're all dead." Techno pointed out. He glanced at Bushroot. "Still, the detective has a point, Bushroot. If this were a mere side effect, this wouldn't have gotten so far."

"You can't blame her!" Bushroot said. "I won't let you!"

"That won't stop them, Reginald, and yes they can blame me." Daisy replied cooly.

"Shush, you aren't helping!" Bushroot snapped.

"You really _are _edging us on, aren't you?" NegaGosalyn snapped at Daisy. "I want to know why!"

"It...isn't...her...fault!" Bushroot exclaimed through clenched teeth.

"Quit telling yourself that, mate, because it ain't true!" Rowe snapped.

"You know, there is something about this that I don't get." Crimson remarked suddenly. "Bushroot, you said that the process that created Daisy worked mostly on controlled chance, where you guided it go in a certain direction, but left most of the end result to the rules of science."

"That's right."

"Then I fail to see how a mechanism for producing this drug that affecting us could have been created by random chance."

There was a moment of silence as everyone realized that Crimson had a very good point, then all eyes turned to look accusingly at Bushroot. Bushroot looked at all the eyes glaring at him, then lowered his head, and sighed.

"All right." he admitted, lifting his head again. "I'll admit it. Seeing how my last attempt at creating a wife ended, I didn't want to create her without any means of fighting back any resistence...so I created a kind of biological system for her to produce a sleeping powder of sorts that would knock out any foes temporarily."

"Bushroot, you idiot you..." Rowe muttered, shaking his head.

"So you _did _know that Daisy could do this!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed.

"I didn't think it would turn out like this, with such serious effects, especially on myself!" Bushroot snapped in his defense, rising to his feet. "And it still doesn't change anything! If I couldn't have predicted these results, neither could she! This isn't her fault!"

"Then if it's not her fault, then maybe you won't mind if we get rid of her." Matthew suddenly growled darkly, rising to his feet and advancing on Daisy, who had narrowed her eyes, but was still calm and unworried.

Crimson jumped to her feet, and moved to stand behind Daisy, ready to hurry and pounce on Matthew if need be. "Detective," she warned, "be careful; don't do anything you'll regret."

"I highly doubt I would regret this." Matthew said, glaring into Daisy's eyes.

His fingers hovered near his holster, which Crimson realized with a shock still had his sidearm. For several tense seconds, nobody did anything, except stand for those who had still been sitting. Matthew continued to stare at Daisy, who stared back, looking almost as if she was daring Matthew to try. Matthew hesitated, perhaps considering Crimson's warning, and debating about heeding it. Daisy, however, shattered that hope.

"Don't you have the nerve, detective?" she asked challengingly.

Matthew had his sidearm out in a flash. Bushroot let out a made yell and dove for Daisy to push her out of the way. NegaGosalyn quickly hurried over and slammed into Crimson, standing behind Daisy, to push her out of the line of fire as well. Matthew wasn't thinking straight enough to consider these actions, and ignored them.

He fired the gun.

* * *

Darkwing entered the tent with a sigh, pulling off his hazmat helmet. "It's getting pretty bad in there, Chris." he remarked with a heavy sigh. "How close are you to finishing the treatment?"

"Nowhere near close enough." Christine admitted as she worked tirelessly at a table. "The chemical structure of this drug is terribly unique, and I'm quickly discovering it'll be very hard to reproduce." she sighed, leaning back in her chair dejectedly. "Oh, Drake, what am I going to do? If I don't pull this off, I'll have the deaths of six people hanging over my head."

"Don't give up just yet, Christine." Darkwing assured her, hurrying over and putting a comforting hand around her. "You're making progress, and you have help from SHUSH and the SCPD, and I'm trying to help too. Together, we'll work something out."

Christine grinned. "Thanks, Darkwing." she said, but she still sighed one final time. "I still feel like I'm trying to achieve the impossible. And I only have..." she checked her watch, "...two and a half hours to go, to preferably be completed about an hour before that time limit is up." she rubbed at her forehead. "I've been stressed to save a life before, but never like this. I don't know how you do it, Drake. You have to deal with this kind of thing everyday. I don't think I ever could do that. Not without going insane, at least."

Darkwing was forced to grin. "It's not easy at times, I'll admit it." he said. "But somehow things always work out in the end. This will be the same, I think. So we can take comfort in that much."

Christine grinned. "I wish I could point out that it can't get much worse than this, but I know that's not true." she said.

"Oh yeah, things can get a lot worse than this." Darkwing agreed.

And he was proven right when they heard the gunshot ringing out from within the greenhouse. They both turned to look in the direction of the greenhouse, then at each other before quickly jumping up to race out the tent to investigate.

* * *

**The Present....**

An eerie silence fell within the greenhouse as everyone stared at the body, stunned speechless. Matthew, probably the most shaken of them, slowly lowered the gun that had fired the fatal bullet, then let it fall from nerveless fingers with a clatter. Crimson stared at NegaGosalyn's motionless and already pale face, terrified at the fact she was technically looking at her own face.

Finally, it was Rowe who broke the silence, who cursed vividly and quickly looked away, beginning to look green. Crimson sat back on her haunches, unable to take her eyes off NegaGosalyn's face. Matthew suddenly sat down hard, looking ready to pass out from shock. Slowly, Techno rose, as did Daisy and Bushroot.

"I don't believe it." Techno murmured after a moment. "She's really dead."

The greenhouse door suddenly banged open, and Darkwing and Christine entered, decked out in hazmat suits.

"What happened?" Darkwing demanded as he stormed worriedly into the room, "We heard a gunshot, and..."

He trailed off when he saw NegaGosalyn's still body, and froze instantly. Christine, not paying attention, bumped into his back, then followed his gaze. Gasping when she saw NegaGosalyn, she hurried over to the limp form to help, only to deduce the same thing as Crimson and deduce that it was too late.

"_What happened_?" Darkwing demanded again, finally finding his voice.

"I killed her." Matthew murmured, still stunned. "I-I didn't mean to, b-but..." he shook his head, "I did."

"Daisy was edging him into firing the gun." Techno elaborated softly, stepping over. "His target was Daisy, but Bushroot pushed her out of the way at the last moment." he took Darkwing's hand and pressed what weaponry he carried into his hand. "You need to take all the weapons we've got, so we can prevent this accident from repeating itself."

Darkwing nodded blankly, and started moving around, collecting weapons from everyone, who all surrendered them peacefully.

"It would've been me." Crimson realized suddenly, still staring at NegaGosalyn's body while Christine grabbed a cloth from a nearby table and draped it over the body. "I would've been the one who got shot, had she not pushed me out of the way at the last moment." she paused. "She sacrificed herself to save me."

Christine sighed, kneeling at the floor and looking at the cloth that covered the body. "Well, it'll be reassuring to know, then, that she probably died quickly." she remarked sadly. "The gunshot probably sent her into cardiac arrest almost instantly. If not, she couldn't have lived for much longer than that."

"But _why_?" Bushroot asked, lost. "Why did she do it? She was your enemy!"

"There was much more to her than what met the eye." Crimson remarked softly.

There was a moment of silence.

"Crimson," Darkwing said, having finished collecting the weapons and stepping over, "The information you and Techno were getting from seemingly nowhere. That all came from her, didn't it?"

Crimson nodded silently.

"Wait, you mean that she was _spying _on us and giving _you _the information and we never realized it?" Rowe exclaimed, realizing this. Then he paused. "Actually, that might explain why she and Negs haven't been getting along lately, always at each others throats."

"Wait, you mean to say that Negs knew, and he didn't do anything about it?" Crimson asked, shocked.

"I'm just surprised she wasn't _already _dead." Bushroot remarked, looking down at NegaGosalyn's body.

"Oh, Negaduck is going to kill us, mate." Rowe bemoaned.

Darkwing and Christine suddenly exchanged glances as they realized there was one person who didn't know about any of this who should.

"Negaduck." they repeated together.

* * *

Contacting someone like Negaduck wasn't an easy process, particularly when Negaduck didn't trust the caller. But Darkwing managed, and vowed that no harm would befall, regardless of how tempted he might be, and pointed out that they'd made such deals in the past and he hadn't ever broken them before. Therefore, Negaduck reluctantly agreed to come and meet them at the greenhouse.

He arrived in the Negaquack, landing it gracefully in the nearby street, and climbing out. he then had to travel up a narrow aisle of armed SCPD officers and a handful of SHUSH agents, all of which were ready to attack if Negaduck did anything he shouldn't. But he didn't, and as promised, neither did they. Once he was in the tent, Darkwing briefly explained the situation to him while Negaduck silently listened, and Christine watched. They also showed him a live video feed from a camera that had been set up in the greenhouse since NegaGosalyn's death.

Then, they showed him the body.

It had been moved into the tent, still covered with the cloth, but otherwise hadn't been touched. When Christine pulled the covering cloth back to reveal NegaGosalyn's still face, Negaduck's eyebrows went up ever so slightly, but otherwise he didn't outwardly show any other kind of expression. He was silent for a very long moment.

"Who did it?" he finally demanded calmly.

"Detective Matthew." Darkwing replied. "But it was on accident. Like I said, the drug is making them all very aggressive, and the detective lost control of his anger briefly. He was actually aiming for Daisy."

"The mutant plant-duck Bushroot made to be his wife."

"That's right."

"The knob."

They were silent for a moment.

"When can I get Rowe and Bushroot back so I can chew them out for getting into this mess?" Negaduck asked next.

"Hopefully within two hours." Christine replied. "Any later, and it won't matter."

"You close to saving their lives?" Negaduck asked, and sounded like he genuinely cared.

"I think I am, but I still have a way to go still." Christine replied.

"Then you better get back to work."

Christine looked at Darkwing for confirmation first, then nodded and went to go do it. This left Negaduck and Darkwing standing there, staring at the body of NegaGosalyn.

"I have to keep telling myself that's not my Gosalyn lying there." Darkwing murmured suddenly, just barely keeping his own head on straight over this. He glanced at Negaduck. "How _are _you handling this?"

Negaduck was silent for a moment, folding his arms as he gave the question some thought. "Well..." he said, calmly, "...it is a surprise. Beyond that, I admittedly can't tell you."

Darkwing looked again at the body. "You realize she was spying on you and relaying the information to us, right?" he asked.

"I know." Negaduck replied.

"And you did nothing?"

Negaduck didn't reply for a moment, then shrugged half-heartedly. "I still had a use for her." he said simply.

Darkwing suspected that was the closest to a heartfelt comment he would ever get from Negaduck.

"This Daisy..." Negaduck said, changing the subject, "...you say she's behind this?"

"Most definitely. There was no real reason for her to continue this charade. She could've stopped it long before it got this bad."

"Okay, but why? What's in it for her?"

Darkwing sighed, rubbing at his bill. "I wish I knew, Negs." he replied.

* * *

There was one upside to the unexpected death of NegaGosalyn. It had left everyone still in the greenhouse too shocked to fight for several moments.

But eventually, even that started come to an end.

"I killed her." Matthew repeated again for the fifth time in the past five minutes.

"We know, mate." Rowe muttered from where he sat, leaning his head against the wall, getting annoyed.

"You don't get it, though, do you?" Matthew snapped. "I killed her, when I had no reason to! It's because of me that she's dead! Worse still, she was a double agent, working for _my _cause. And even if she was just the enemy, she was still a defenseless person! I had no right to kill her!"

"You didn't mean to, Matt, and we can all understand that." Crimson assured him. "No one is going to blame you."

"Yes there will." Matthew said. "Me."

There was silence for a moment.

"This is all your fault, Bushroot." Rowe muttered, pinching the bridge of his snout to try and ward off the headache he was feeling.

"Oh, let's not start that again!" Bushroot whined. "It was because of that argument that got NegaCrimson killed in the first place!"

"Yeah, and it's all because of you, mate!" Rowe snapped. "You and your obsession to have a wife!"

"You seem to be a bit touchy about the subject, Rowe." Techno observed, having a good idea why.

"I'm just mad to see a fellow teammate murdered in cold blood!" Rowe barked. "She was a valuable asset to the group!"

"Or was it the fact that she was like me?" Crimson asked suddenly. "I mean, you did have a crush on me for awhile."

Rowe gave her a glare. "Don't you _dare _touch that subject. Not now. NegaCrimson had no interest in me, and you know that! I _told _you that!"

"You also told me that you kissed her, and enjoyed it, too."

This drew several surprised glances from everyone, and earned Crimson another glare.

"When did this happen?" Bushroot asked. "Was I there?"

"Technically speaking, aye." Rowe grumbled through clenched teeth. He jabbed a finger at Crimson. "I didn't need to just blab that out, though! I _trusted _you to keep that a secret!"

"I remember making no such deal!" Crimson said.

"Oh, that's right!" Rowe said bitterly. "That was before you pushed me aside and left me in the dirt, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was!" Crimson snapped. "I had good reasons for doing that, too! You _know _it wouldn't have worked out!"

"You seemed to be pretty fine with the idea that one night back in late November!" Rowe pointed out.

"That was under special circumstances, and you know it!" Crimson snapped. "Neither of knew the full story! We were both being manipulated! By _Bushroot_, no less!" she gave the mutant plant-duck a glare. "Can't you do _anything _right?"

"What does any of this have to do with anything?" Matthew demanded, standing. "One of us is already dead because of all of this!"

"Because of a drug that is making us loose control of our anger." Techno pointed out calmly.

"No, it's because of _her_." Matthew said, and spun around to point at Daisy.

Everyone turned to look at the homegrown mutant plant-duck, who, as usual, didn't react. Matthew narrowed his eyes at her.

"You made me fire the gun." he accused. "You _wanted _me to shoot, didn't you?"

"It didn't seem fair to force you to keep that anger bottled up within you, detective." Daisy replied cooly.

"But somebody died because of it!" Rowe snapped. "A person who didn't need to die at all!"

Daisy gave Rowe a look. "Are you sure?"

Finally, Crimson couldn't stand it any longer, and jumped up and faced Daisy. "All right, that's it." she growled. "Why are you doing this? And quit shirking the answer! You have a reason for doing all of this, so tell us!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone watched Daisy, waiting for her to make a response. She glanced over at the camera that had been set up on a tripod on one side of the room, where it watched the proceedings silently.

"Well," she finally said, "I can assure you it's not because I like you guys."

"What?" Bushroot exclaimed, shocked.

"Oh, c'mon Bushroot, it wasn't like it wasn't obvious." Techno remarked, joining them.

"Well, I know she didn't like _you _guys, but..." Bushroot frowned, "Don't you like me?"

Daisy shrugged. "It doesn't really concern you, Reginald." she replied. "But I have a task to fulfill."

"And this is part of it?" Crimson asked. "Mass producing this drug that might kill us?"

"The intent is that it _will_ kill you." Daisy replied calmly.

This drew a moment of stunned silence.

"Well, you've already got one down." Rowe remarked bitterly.

"And I intend to finish the rest of you." Daisy said. "Either you will die by overdose of the sedative that Reginald so kindly provided for me to use when he created me, or you'll kill either other in your anger."

Crimson grabbed the mutant plant-duck by the front and shook her in anger, but it didn't faze Daisy.

"Wait, what about me?" Bushroot asked. "This is affecting me too, you know!"

"A minor loss." Daisy said with a shrug. "I suppose you don't have enough plant in you anyway, Reginald."

Another stunned silence fell, but by now, everyone but Bushroot was giving Daisy glares. Bushroot himself had turned away, looking heartbroken.

"But _why_?" Matthew asked. "What could you possibly get from this?"

"Well, actually, my original hope was to get outside this greenhouse before beginning my plans." Daisy said.

Techno made the connection from there. "So you could spread your drug over a greater area." he realized.

"The range is remarkably far, you know." Daisy said. "I could pull a quarter of St. Canard under it's influence."

"But if you did that, St. Canard would tear itself part in the chaos." Rowe remarked.

Daisy gave him a dark grin. "Exactly." she commented.

"You want to destroy St. Canard?" Crimson asked.

"I want to destroy as much of your civilization as possible, to be more precise." Daisy said. "Destroy it, and then let the plants take over."

"So this is some kind of crusade for the plant kingdom?" Matthew asked, angered at the idea.

"We would never let you get far." Techno stated.

"I knew this from the start." Daisy assured him. "But if I was going down, I was going to take as much of the animal kingdom with me."

Crimson, still holding onto Daisy, slammed her into a worktable. "One life is as much as you're going to take." she vowed.

"Bushroot, how could have she possibly gotten like this?" Techno asked out loud. When he didn't get a response, he turned to look at the mutant plant-duck.

Bushroot was sitting on the floor, turned away from the others. At the moment, his head was bowed, looking at the ground. It didn't stay that way for long, however, for soon he lifted his head upwards. If one could see his face, they would've noted that his expression had turned very dark with narrowed eyes.

"Enough is enough." he mumbled, and stood, approaching the camera that stood at one end of the room.

* * *

In the tent, Christine was hard at work, still trying to come up with an artificial treatment. She had gotten further still, but more and more it was quickly becoming apparent that it was entirely possible she wasn't going to succeed in time. Refusing to think that, though, Christine pushed herself to keep working. There was time still to finish this.

By this point in time, she had been dimly aware that Darkwing and Negaduck, who had been standing around the tent speculating about the finer aspects of the situation up until now, having been drawn to a TV screen that showed the live footage the camera in the greenhouse was getting to watch and listen to the soft audio they were getting as well. She didn't think too much of it, though, until she heard a voice speaking quite clearly from the feed.

"Dr. Merriweather."

Christine turned to look at the screen, and saw Bushroot's face filling the screen, having pressed his face into the camera's view.

"You said that you could create a treatment for the effects of this drug much faster if you could obtain enough of the natural powder that Daisy is producing." Bushroot continued without preamble. As he couldn't see or hear who or what was in the tent watching this, he was just counting on the fact that Christine would be within hearing range and he now had her attention. "You were hesitant to do this, however, because it would actually give you less time to do it in. At the time, I would agree with you, but now that time is running out, and we need results. And I have a solution that will probably help us all resolve this problem."

And with that, he moved away from the camera, and walked somewhere off screen, the people in the background moving their heads to watch Bushroot move. Darkwing and Negaduck took their eyes from the screen, looked at one another, then moved for the tent exit. Sensing their urgency, Christine quickly scrambled to follow them, sensing that she was somehow going to be needed for this.

* * *

Bushroot moved across the room to a cabinet, opened it, and started rooting through it, ignoring all the looks he was getting from the others.

"What are you doing, mate?" Rowe asked, his brow furrowed.

Bushroot didn't reply right away as he sorted through the cabinet. Finally, he sighed. "About a month before Megavolt left the gang, he gave me a gift that he made himself." he explained calmly. "He had gotten tired of constantly hearing me whine and complain about weeds and how hard it is to get rid of them. So he came up with a means for me to get rid of them, his style. Created a kind of taser rifle designed specifically in electrocuting plants enough to kill them. I've used it a couple of times since, and it has proven fairly effective. Now I'm going to use it to get rid of a rather large weed." he turned around, revealing a very large rifle-like weapon, and raised it, taking aim. "Crimson, you will need to move."

By this point, Daisy had already began to resist, seeing where this was heading, and was on the verge of panic as she fought against Crimson's grip. Crimson, however, held on, and with a well practiced move, twisted around and pushed Daisy away from her and towards Bushroot. Daisy stumbled forward a few paces, then whirled around to face Bushroot, in time for Bushroot to fire the weapon at her.

Two small dart-like projectiles were fired from the weapon and hit Daisy in the chest. Instantly, Daisy let out a sudden yell as electricity surged through her. She wobbled on her feet for several moments, twitching violently, then fell to her knees, then to the floor. She continued twitching once there, then eventually fell still. Everyone looked down at her unmoving body. Bushroot slowly lowered the weapon, a dark look on his face.

The greenhouse door suddenly banged as Negaduck, decked out in a hazmat suit, stormed into the room, Darkwing close on his heels. He gave the room one look over, and then stormed forward.

"Bushroot, you knob!" he exclaimed, storming towards the mutant plant-duck.

"Negs?!" Rowe exclaimed, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Negaduck ignored him, and slapped Bushroot upside the head the moment he was close enough. "You just shortened your life expectancy in half, you twit!" he roared.

"That was the idea." Bushroot said, giving Negaduck a glare. "I'm not happy I did it, but something needed to be done."

"She had some pretty nefarious plans in mind if she got out of this mess alive." Crimson explained to Darkwing.

"We heard." Darkwing said, jabbing a finger at the camera, then peering down at Daisy's still body. "I was actually considering doing something like this myself, and I know Negs was real tempted. I'm just surprised it was Bushroot who beat us to the punch, considering she was his creation."

Everyone looked at Bushroot, who still wore his dark look. By this point, Christine had arrived as well, and quickly hurried over to check Daisy.

"It was an experiment gone terribly wrong." Bushroot said simply. "As the person responsible, it was up to me to end it."

"Well, it worked." Christine said, looking up at Bushroot, her fingers at Daisy's neck. "She's dead."

Bushroot nodded. "Now you'll be able to get enough of the natural drug she was producing with ease and create a treatment with it." he said.

"Good seasons, he's right." Rowe realized.

"Fine." Negaduck said, grabbing Daisy and lifting her body up, Darkwing moving to assist. "You've got less than two hours to do that, Doc, so let's hurry up and get started."

Christine nodded, and after giving Bushroot one last look, hurried off after them. Once they were gone, every gathered closer to Bushroot, who had slumped his shoulders and bowed his head, and just looked overall depressed now. Crimson placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You did the right thing, Bushroot." she told him. "Someone had to stop her."

"And if you hadn't done it, one of us probably would have eventually." Matthew added, not looking sorry for Daisy's death.

"If only to avenge NegaCrimson's death, at least." Rowe agreed.

"I know." Bushroot said. He sighed. "But Daisy was one of my last hopes of never feeling so...alone...in the world again."

Everyone fell silent after this. There was nothing left to be said.

* * *

By the time night began to fall over St. Canard, the issue had been resolved. Christine had quickly produced a treatment within an hour, and began administering it to those affected to begin winging them off it. It worked wonderfully, and after a few hours of periodic treatment, they were over the worse of it. Christine predicted that a couple days more of daily treatment should be enough to deal with any residual effects, and provided enough for everyone to take.

After that, everyone packed up to go home. Agent Grant took the team of SHUSH agents back to base. The SCPD all left. Christine packed up to return home and relieve Launchpad from babysitting Charlie for so long. Darkwing took Crimson and Techno back to the hideout. Negaduck, Bushroot, and Rowe all carefully packed NegaGosalyn's body into the Negaquack, and they departed as well.

Soon, the greenhouse was empty and quiet.

As the night wore on, life gradually resumed to normal. At SHUSH Headquarters, Agent Grant took several hours to write a report about the incident that had occurred, and once he was satisfied with what he had, he took it to personally deliver to Director Hooter. He silently entered Hooter's office, approached the director, nodded at him and placed the report on his desk, then turned and left without saying a word. Hooter looked at the report, who had been waiting for it, and took it, and began to read the depressing paper.

At the police department, Chief Luke had given Detective Matthew the rest of the day off, understanding that he probably wasn't in the best of moods now after all that had happened, but Matthew stayed late anyway. He wanted to file a report, as he knew he was going to have to do it eventually, so he might as well do it now and get it over with. He got as far as writing the title, but not a word more. He spent the next several hours just staring at the computer screen, wondering what to write next. Understanding the situation, Officer Frank more or less left him be, but he did bring Matthew a drink or food occasionally, which Matthew always gratefully accepted.

When the whole situation was over, NegaGosalyn's P90 was left behind, still fully armed. Negaduck had shown no interest whatsoever in hanging onto it, so Crimson took it back to Darkwing Tower, and mounted it in a glass display case on the tower's armory platform. Once done, she sat back and thought about her double who had fallen, while the others watched from afar, giving her space as needed.

And finally, at the hideout of the Fearsome Five, minus one, NegaGosalyn's body was being prepared to travel from the Posiverse to the Negaverse one last time.

Negaduck peered at the body's still face, then draped the black cloth over the body, covering it fully where it lay on the stretcher. Once done, he then turned to where a transdimensional portal was already swirling, NegaLaunchpad and NegaHonker standing on either side of it, awaiting commands. The look Negaduck gave them being command enough, they both silently moved forward, each taking an end of the stretcher, and then lifted it and started carrying it towards the portal.

Watching the proceedings was Rowe and Bushroot, there partly out of curiosity and mostly because it just felt right. Quackerjack was not present as he had already left the hideout for the day, and couldn't be contacted. Besides, nobody was entirely sure how the demented clown would react when he found out about this, but it would probably be less than heartfelt.

Rowe sighed as he watched the body and it's carriers slip through the portal. "Another team member down, mate." he remarked sadly. "Guess that makes us the Fearsome Four now."

"And it's all my fault." Bushroot added, feeling even more depressed than the otter.

"Yes, Bushroot, it is." Negaduck said, overhearing, and turning to face the two. "And I could punish you severely for it."

Bushroot gulped. "Will you?"

Negaduck was silent for a moment. "You may have acted too late to save NegaCrimson, but you did save Rowe, so at least I'm not short yet another member of the gang." he remarked coldly. "I suppose I can thank you for that much."

And leaving that as his answer, he turned and moved to follow his compatriots through the portal.

"Negs," Rowe began suddenly, "What are you going to do with her body?"

Negaduck glanced back at them. "I have plans to take care of the body properly, and some unfinished business to attend to." he remarked plainly.

And with that, he turned and stepped through the portal to attend to this business.

* * *

_Fun Facts: Believe it or not, but this chapter when originally conceived was completely different. Originally titled "Don't Have a Rowe", the plot device of the chapter was pretty much the same in short. Bushroot was trying again to grow his own wife, and this time was much more successful, creating what we would later know as Daisy. The only problem was that the wife he had grown didn't love Bushroot, but rather, Rowe, who was present for the event. The chapter would've then told of Rowe and Bushroot's attempts to fix things all the while Rowe avoids the clingy would-be Daisy. It was going to be a chapter for laughs, but boy did that ever change._

_The beginning of this chapter also had various different variations. Originally, it was to begin right at the greenhouse with Bushroot well on his way to making Daisy, with Rowe and NegaGosalyn being already present. Rowe was there to help and to watch, NegaGosalyn was there to supervise at Negaduck's order, which was originally be her punishment for events in "Fight Or Flight". Then, I decided I wanted to address the fact that Negs knew what NegaGos was up to, and no longer on his side, and yet had done relatively little about it, and came up with the scene of him and her tlaking at the hideout and then her being sent with Rowe to check up on Bushroot. Finally, in a stroke of genius halfway through writing the chapter, I decided to put in that brief blurb taking immediately after NegaGos was shot at the beginning, to throw the reader in the middle of the situation to make them wonder "what the...?" and then bounce back to the real beginning and explain things leading up to that point._

_The reference to a vampire potato refers to the episode "Night of The Living Spud" from the original TV series where Bushroot attempts to grow his own wife, but ends up with a, well, vampire potato. One of the more off-the-wall episodes and ludicrous episodes of Darkwing Duck, and it's funny I refer to it in so serious a chapter._

_Spike is mentioned in this chapter, but Spike has yet to appear in NADWD._

_LP only has one speaking line in this chapter, and then is absent for the rest of it. I highly debated not even including him in this chapter because of his so limited role._

_Note that NegaGos surrenders herself peacefully to the crime fighters when they invade the greenhouse. Her way of helping them, but maintaining her cover at the same time._

_Bushroot calls Rowe a "riverdog" as an insult during this chapter. This insult is a reference to the Redwall books, where otters are typically called "riverdogs" when being insulted._

_Agent Grant and Officer Frank appear in this because it had been a little while since we had seen them last. They actually didn't have as big a role in this chapter as I had expected._

_I had planned a lot more scenes with the group in the greenhouse arguing, which would've been done for characterization, but was ultimately dropped. I also planned to do more with the Crimson/Rowe relationship than I did, but found what I had was enough, and was getting off-topic anyway._

_There's also a cut scene where just before the group was treated for withdrawal for the drug and were beginning to succumb to the effects of going cold turkey from it after Daisy is killed, Crimson goes beserk and takes it out on the camera watching the proceedings, yelling and screaming various things while Darkwing watches from the other end. It was cut due to not really being needed, and the chapter felt like it was resolving too well already to need it._

_I had also planned a scene at the end where Crimson and Techno talk about NegaGos's death at the tower, a scene which still is alluded to somewhat, but I later decided it wasn't needed, and that silence was better. Likewise, I also planned more for the very end scene with Negaduck, Bushroot, and Rowe, but also decided it wasn't needed._

_NegaGos was originally planned to be shot in the head and killed, but I changed that as I felt that was too graphic. Daisy was also to meet her end by Bushroot taking an axe to her, but I don't know why I even considered that, because that was even more graphic. :|  
_

_And now, the answer to the question all on your minds: why did NegaGos bite it. Curiosity, admittedly, to see what the reaction would be not only from you guys, the readers, but also the characters themselves, particularly Negaduck, Crimson, and Rowe. It also felt like, to me, that I was building up to such a thing, and felt I should go with the flow._

_Finally, it should be noted that NegaGos died literally saving the life of Crimson. So she died honerably._

_Next chapter will be "Death of a Friend", a Techno-centric chapter that will also be morbid and depressing.  
_


	69. Death Of A Friend

Summary: Honker morns for the sudden unexpected death of a friend...then discovers that his friend had actually been murdered...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Another majorly dark themed chapter dealing with a character death. So for all of these character deaths lined up in a row. If "Fight Or Flight" hadn't stretched on for three whole parts, there wouldn't been a chapter or two in there dividing them up. Oh well. Actually, this chapter turned out fairly well, and I thought the ending was particularly touching. :) Fun facts at the end as usual.

69.

Death Of A Friend

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Henry Bantamock at your service. Owner of this fine store."_

"_Honker Muddlefoot."_

_--  
_

"_One more thing while you're here. I believe you forgot this last time you visited."_

"_D-did I? Oh, well, thank you. You didn't look through it...did you?"_

"_I admittedly did skim through it. Very interesting life you lead, young Techno."_

_--  
_

"_You won't..."_

"_Your secret's safe with me. Besides, I don't really have anybody to tell it to."_

_--  
_

"_What are you doing then?"_

"_Sitting here in the airport's waiting room, working at building a clock."_

"_A clock?"_

"_Yeah, after having watched Mr. Bantamock build one, I decided to give it a try myself. It's not an easy process, I assure you."_

_--  
_

"_Who is this Mr. Bantamock guy, anyway?"_

"_According to Gos, he's a watchmaker that Honker made the acquaintance of nearly a year ago, and has been friendly with ever since."_

_--  
_

"_It's not as bad as you think, Mr. Mallard. In a way, it has actually helped Honker. Being a teenager is a stressful enough time in of it's self, but add to that his role as Techno and everything he and the rest of you do, and it can get to be a touch overwhelming. Furthermore, he had to keep it all secret. He couldn't tell anyone, not even his own family, save you. And that wasn't enough. Honker needed somebody to confide to, to get his worries off his chest, and by golly he has done so."_

_--  
_

"_Lately, we've been monitoring the movements of minor FOUL agents, nobody you guys know, moving around in St. Canard."_

"_In St. Canard, why?"_

"_At first, we were at a loss for an explanation ourselves. But then we discovered these agents were meeting up with contacts. Contacts from an organized group of criminals known as the Davidson Gang."_

_--  
_

"_As I understand it, they're a gang of mafia-like mobsters that cause the occasional crime here in St. Canard. An entire block of the city is allegedly under "their" control. On occasion I had to deal with their actions, but usually their crimes were low-level enough that I just let the police handle them, so I could focus my attention on guys like the Fearsome Five, as they are more of a threat than the Davidson Gang."_

"_They weren't always like that. Back in the nineteen twenties, they all but ruled the streets of St. Canard, and were running a bootlegging operation smuggling illegal alcohol into the city."_

_--  
_

"_As I can't risk sending in another SHUSH agent without knowing more about the situation, I wish to send in you Darkwing. But not like in the past. This time, I need you to be...more under the radar."_

_--  
_

"_You two Drake Mallard and Honker Muddlefoot?"_

"_Yes, that's us."_

_--  
_

"_Anyway, I'm Ethan McCaffrey, one of the powers that be, you might say. Welcome to the gang."_

_--  
_

_Oh, and forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. I know you, but you probably don't know much about me. I'm Kevin Davidson."_

"_D-Davidson? The Kevin Davidson?"_

"_The last living member of the Davidson family line, the same family that started the Davidson Gang and gave it them their name, yes. I take it then that I wasn't who you were expecting."_

"_Well, to be honest I thought you would be...taller."_

"_Your friend Honker said something similar."_

"_So you've talked with Honker already."_

"_Yes. And I must say that despite misgivings about his age, he is quickly proving himself very useful, quite skilled at hacking."_

_--  
_

"_As per requested from you and Techno, SHUSH has raided the building containing the FOUL portal generator and now have it under our control."_

"_Well, that's good!"_

"_It was a simple matter, really. The Davidson Gang, probably predicting that SHUSH was going to raid the building, had all but evacuated the building and scattered. They provided no resistence. As for the portal generator itself, it's very useless at the moment, as if requires a portal generator on the other side in order to operate, and your report said you destroyed the one in the Negaverse."_

"_Yep. Although, FOUL did help somewhat with that."_

"_Speaking of FOUL, they haven't done much concerning the recent turn of events. Probably their way of acknowledging we've got them beat. There were rumors in the grapevine of the Davidson Gang putting a price for you and Techno's heads, but those rumors have since stopped. No doubt FOUL talked them into dropping the matter, fearing the wrath of SHUSH would befall them."

* * *

_

"Hmm, the weather's really been warming up lately." Gosalyn remarked as she walked down the sidewalk, wet with melting snow. "Unusual for St. Canard, seeing that it's only mid-February, and that we usually have plenty of snow on the ground."

"Seeing that you were bored with winter only two days after the first snowfall, I would've thought that you'd be happy for this." Honker remarked teasingly as he walked beside her.

"Well, I am." Gosalyn admitted with a shrug. "But I'm hesitant to get my hopes up just yet. You never know. Just when you think the snow's all melted and spring is here...a blizzard strikes without warning!" she slapped a fist into her hand for emphasis. "Weather is unpredictable, Honker. Sure, maybe weathermen can guess what will happen, but they never know for sure. Usually what the weathermen predict, the opposite will happen."

"The weathermen are predicting more snow at the end of the week." Honker stated flatly.

He grinned as he saw Gosalyn pause for a brief second, then continue on like nothing had happened.

"Okay, maybe spring is here, and winter's ending." she said with a shrug.

They continued walking down the street.

"So what's in the bag, anyway, Honker?" Gosalyn asked, eyeing the brown paper bag Honker carried.

Honker reached in and pulled out a fairly simply designed, but impressive, mantel clock with a wood exterior, colored with a dark brown stain with a metallic silver trim. It wasn't ticking at the moment, therefore, it's hour hand, minute hand, and second hand, were all unmoving. But Gosalyn was impressed, and carefully took the clock from Honker and held it in her hands.

"This is the clock you've been working on for so long, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, and I finally finished it." Honker said, excited. "Put the final touches on it during some free time during my last class of the day. I just need to wind it up, and it'll work nicely. I'm taking it to go show Mr. Bantamock, seeing that it was him that inspired me to start working on it."

"Ah, so that's why you wanted to walk to and from school today." Gosalyn said grinned, handing back the clock, which Honker returned to the bag.

"Well, actually, it's as I said, Gos." he explained innocently. "That reversed-engineered Lovell Air Engine I've been putting on your motorbike isn't quite entirely installed yet and working."

"Uh-huh, sure." Gosalyn said, knowing Honker better than that. "So, I suppose you and me are going to be parting ways here soon."

"Yeah, I'll have to turn this way to head to Mr. Bantamock's shop." Honker said, pointing at an upcoming intersection and pointing to the right. "You're welcome to come with."

"Can't, I should go home and do my homework." Gosalyn said. "I've been procrastinating it a lot lately. It's really built up."

"Again?"

"Yeah, again."

Honker rolled his eyes. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then, probably tonight when we go on patrol." he said, grinning.

"Yeah, I'll see you then." Gosalyn said.

They walked on to the intersection, and then once there, bid farewell to each other, and went their separate ways, with Honker turning right, while Gosalyn continued forward. Smiling, Honker continued on to the watchmaking corner store that belonged to his friend, Mr. Bantamock. As always, when he walked into the store, filled with softly ticking clocks, Henry Bantamock, a middle-aged mouse, was not visible. Honker guessed he was in the back workroom, working on something, like he always did when business was slow.

"Mr. Bantamock?" he called. "It's me, Honker. I finished my clock!"

There was no response. Honker frowned. Usually Henry was very quick to respond when called for, particularly by Honker. Maybe he was just extra busy with something, and was too distracted to respond. Honker didn't mind. Pulling his backpack off, he pulled his clock out and proudly placed it on the store counter, turning it so Henry could see it the moment he stepped through the workroom door. Then he waited for a few moments.

"Mr. Bantamock?" he called again.

Again, there was no response. Now Honker began to worry, but not enough to evade Henry's privacy. Deciding it couldn't hurt, he tapped the "ring for service" bell a few times. But there was still no response. Frowning, he walked around the counter and to the workroom door, where he presumed Henry was; he supposed it was possible he could be somewhere else, though.

"Mr. Bantamock?" he called, stepping up to the door, suddenly feeling like he had reason to dread what was beyond the door.

He was right. One quick glance over the workroom told him enough. Henry had been sitting at his worktable, tinkering with a disassembled a pocketwatch while nibbling at his lunch that sat nearby, when something happened. Whatever it was, Henry had fallen from his stool, knocking it over, and was laying, motionless on the floor, his eyes closed.

Honker's eyes went wide in alarm. "Mr. Bantamock!" he exclaimed, hurrying forward to help his friend, but wasn't sure where to begin. He didn't seem to be injured. He checked for a pulse, and found one, but it was very weak.

Panicking, Honker quickly whipped out his cell phone, and jabbed in a number before pressing it to his ear, impatiently waiting for the other end to pick up. The moment he heard the click of the line connecting, he didn't wait for a response before he began speaking.

"911?" Honker asked urgently and breathlessly, then, without waiting for a response, continued, "You need to send an ambulance to the watchmaking shop on Tealeaf Lane, the address number being 237! Something's wrong with the owner, Mr. Bantamock, and he needs medical help! Now!"

* * *

An ambulance arrived at the store roughly about fifteen minutes later, which seemed like an eternity for Honker. By this point in time, he and the operator speaking to him by phone had deduced that Henry was likely suffering from a heart attack or possibly a stroke. The operator was just in the process of instructing Honker on what to do in the meantime when the ambulance arrived.

The medics didn't waste any time. Once Honker had told them what he knew, he was gently pushed to one side as they quickly worked to stabilize Henry and keep him alive. Honker could merely sit to one side and watch. Shortly thereafter, Gosalyn arrived at the store, all out of breath. She had seen the ambulance pass her as she was heading home, and getting a bad feeling, followed it, backtracking back to the store and finding the worse. She helped to try and keep Honker calm while struggling to stay calm herself while they watched the medics work. Despite everything, though, Henry's weak pulse continued to grow weaker still before his heart finally just stopped.

He was declared dead about a minute later.

By that point, there was nothing to do but clean up, wait for the police who were to investigate, attempt to determine the cause of death for the watchmaker, comfort a distraught Honker who had taken his belongings and went to sit out on the street curb outside, unable to stay in the store, and for Gosalyn to begin making calls, spreading the word.

The afternoon wore on. The police arrived, who began questioning everyone present, saving Honker for last, as he was still too distraught. A crowd began to gather to watch what was going on, but kept their distance. The medics took care of Henry's body, placing it in a body bag and loading it onto a van to be taken care of properly. Herb and Binkie Muddlefoot arrived at Gosalyn's request and tried to soothe Honker, although for Binkie, it backfired, who ending up weeping bitterly into a handkerchief for several minutes. Herb ended up doing the soothing himself, and was doing a fair job of it.

Drake had also been called, who promised to head over there straight away, but had been held up and didn't arrive until well over the most of the situation was over. A fact he quickly noticed when he pulled up to the store in the Mallard family car, seeing only a pair of police cars and the Muddlefoot's family car. The medics had already departed with the body.

Sighing, Drake climbed out the car and went to find Gosalyn, who stood leaning against the front of the store, sadly watching Honker and the Muddlefoots quietly talk from afar.

"Hey." he greeted as he approached.

Gosalyn turned, and managed a weak grin. "Hey, Dad." she said. "Thanks for coming."

"I'm just sorry I couldn't come sooner." Drake muttered. "I got caught in rush hour traffic." he paused, joining Gosalyn to watch the Muddlefoots, Honker in particular. "How is he?"

"Not good." Gosalyn admitted. "He...he's taking this pretty hard."

"I'll bet, those two were pretty good friends." Drake said. "Did they say how Mr. Bantamock die?"

"Likely a sudden heart attack, but they're going to do an autopsy to be sure."

Drake eyed his adopted daughter for a moment. "How are _you _doing?" he asked.

Gosalyn shrugged. "I don't really know." she admitted. "Death is never an easy thing to deal with. And with NegaGosalyn's death only being a few weeks ago..."

"I know, it is a bit much to handle." Drake admitted, folding his arms. He watched the Muddlefoots for a few moments longer. "They look like they have this pretty much under control Gos. I don't think we need to stick around any longer." he eyed a police officer who was sitting in one of the two patrol cars, walking into a radio. "Unless the police want to keep you around for a little longer."

Gosalyn shook her head. "They already asked me a few questions." she stated. "There wasn't much for me to tell. They haven't spoken to Honker yet, though, but that's for obvious reasons."

Drake nodded. "So, shall we go?" he asked, paused, then added, "Or shall we stay for a little bit longer?"

Gosalyn was silent for a moment longer. "Let's stay." she said finally.

Drake nodded, and did not press the matter further.

* * *

Honker stared down at the clock he had built, holding it in his hands, watching the flashing lights from the police cars glitter off it's face. "I wanted to show this to him today." he murmured aloud to nobody in particular. "He would've been happy to see it."

"It is pretty impressive Honker, and I know you've put a lot of work into it." Herb said calmly, sitting beside his son and giving him a warm pat on the back. "But...these things just happen sometimes."

"So sad." Binkie muttered, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief, having finally gotten her tears under control. "But, Honker, sweety, you should know that there wasn't anything you could've done."

"I know." Honker murmured.

A police officer then strolled up, and hesitantly stood nearby, clearly not wanting to intrude. Honker glanced at him, recognized him, but otherwise didn't react much to his presence. When he glanced at him, though, Herb followed his gaze, and saw the officer for the first time.

"Yes, officer?" he said, addressing the cop's presence.

"Yes, hi, I, uh, want to ask some questions from the boy here." he said, and moved to face Honker. "Hi. I'm Officer Frank Llewellyn. Mind if I ask you a few questions? It won't take long."

Honker was silent for a moment, then shrugged.

"Good enough." Frank said, and knelt down to meet Honker's eye level. Honker gazed at his face for a moment, and saw sympathy in the rat's eyes, and clearly understood Honker's grief and didn't want to force anything on him. "Now, to begin with, about what time did you arrive at the store and find Mr. Bantamock in the condition he was?"

Honker shrugged. He wasn't sure. "School had just ended for the day." he reasoned. "Maybe fifteen to twenty minutes after that."

Frank paused to do some calculating, then jotted down the resulting numbers in a notebook. "He was still alive at the time you found him, correct?"

"Yes. But just barely."

"When you found him like that, what was the first thing you did?"

"I tried to help him, checking for a pulse and the such, but wasn't sure exactly what needed to be done. About a minute later, I called 911 on my cell phone."

"Yes, we already have records of that. When the paramedics arrived, what did you do then?"

"I just...watched. There was...there was little for me to do at that point except watch."

"During this time is when everyone else we found on the scene arrived, correct?"

"I would presume so." Honker sighed. "Gosalyn arrived not long after the paramedics did, and she called a few other people, including my parents. I guess everyone else was just drawn to the excitement."

"How does Gosalyn fit into this?"

"She's my friend. We were walking home from school up until we reached the street Mr. Bantamock's store resides on. I wanted to show Mr. Bantamock the clock I had been working on, so we parted ways there. Gosalyn continued on her way until she saw the ambulance heading this way, and followed it back here."

Frank paused to glance at the clock Honker held in his hands. "What was your relationship with Mr. Bantamock?" he asked.

Honker shrugged half-heartedly, not really wanting to say at the moment. "He...he was a friend." he said. "I first met him as a customer visiting his store more than a year ago. He was...friendly, and we got to talking about various things, and...we just became friends. He'd...he'd give me advice about...things and teach me a little about the trade of watchmaking that I had taken an interest in after meeting him. In return, I occasionally helped him in his shop." he shrugged again. "That's pretty much it, I guess."

"They really were good friends though, and he seemed like such a nice person." Binkie added, having heard much about Henry from Honker, although she hadn't ever met him.

Frank took note of all of this in his notebook. "Does Mr. Bantamock have any relatives?" he asked.

Honker frowned, not sure. "I don't know." he admitted. "He had a wife once, who was a pilot, but she died in a plane crash some years ago. Beyond that, I don't know. He didn't talk much about his family."

"Did he have any other friends that you know of?"

Again, Honker wasn't sure. "He might, but again, I don't know. He never mentioned any to my knowledge. He did seem like a lonely man when I met him."

Frank made a curious grunt at this, jotting it all down in his notebook, then skimming back through it again to see what he had. "Did Mr. Bantamock have any kind of health problems or anything of the such that could be attributed to his death? Perhaps a history of heart attacks from the past?"

"No, not to my knowledge." Honker replied. "As far as I knew, he seemed healthy enough." he shrugged, realizing suddenly there was a lot about Mr. Bantamock that he didn't know. "Guess not, though."

Frank nodded, and solemnly wrote this down as well. "I think that's it." he said finally. He gave Honker a comforting grin. "Thanks for your time. Could I possibly have you name and number in case we need to call you?"

Herb nodded, and wrote down the requested information on a slip of paper for Honker and gave it to Frank, who accepted it. Frank looked like he wanted to say more, but apparently decided against it, and walked off.

Herb glanced at his watch. "Y'know, it is gettin' pretty late." he said. "We should be headin' home." he looked at Honker. "That okay with you, bud?"

Honker was silent for a moment, then nodded, and stood, quietly heading for the car. Without debate, his parents followed him without urging anything else from him. Drake and Gosalyn, seeing that they were leaving, prepared to leave as well, although Drake stopped long enough to send his condolences to Honker. Soon, it was only the police who were left at the scene.

Frank entered the quiet store, and walked to the workroom in the back, where another officer was working, this one of a higher rank than him. This officer was busy individually examining the items scattered about the workroom, each in turn.

Frank cleared his throat to announce his presence. "I finished the questioning." he announced, holding up his notebook. He paused to glance at his notes again. "Seems to me that this guy died of natural causes and nothing more, Matt."

Detective Matthew Christofferson half-grinned, running his hand along the worktable as if checking for dust. "You sure of that, Frank?" he asked.

Frank hesitated for answer. "You don't seem to be." he finally replied, shirking the question.

"No, I'm not." Matthew admitted, straightening. "Call it a gut feeling, but I think there's more to this case than what meets the eye." he looked at Frank. "When is the autopsy scheduled to take place?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"I want to see the results by noon, then."

"You think the docs will find something?"

"Like I said, Frank, it's a gut feeling." Matthew raised up a glass of water that was part of Bantamock's lunch before he died and examined it. "I'm just playing it safe."

* * *

As night fell, the gang prepared for their usual patrol around the city as crime fighting vigilantes in Darkwing Tower. Darkwing was already set to go, as was Launchpad, who was sitting in the sidecar of the Ratcatcher, waiting for the others. Crimson was still working on the final touches of her costume. Honker, however, was moving less than half-heartedly to get dressed, only having gotten far enough to slip on one rocket boot. Now he just sat in a chair, toying with his visor.

Darkwing gave him a concerned look. "Honk, are you sure you're feeling up for this?" he asked. "It's okay if you aren't, you know. I'll understand if you don't want to come."

Honker didn't reply, or make any motion he had even heard. Darkwing sighed.

"Look, Honker, you've had a rough day today." he said. "How about you just head home and rest easy, hmm? There's no need to rush and get over what happened so quickly. In fact, I don't want you to, that'll only make things worse. Really, you can take all the time you need." he paused, waiting for a response from Honker but got none. "Understand?"

"I can handle things on my own tonight, Honk." Crimson added, making one final adjustment to her hat before turning to indicate she was ready. "It's promising to be a quiet night tonight."

Honker was silent for several moments longer, then finally nodded, and set aside his visor and slowly proceeded to remove the one boot that he had put on.

"Then it's settled." Darkwing said, hopping on the Ratcatcher. "We'll see you later, Honk."

He drove the motorbike out of the tower. Crimson climbed onto the Avenger, but paused and looked at Honker. "Hope you're feeling better soon, Honk." she said.

Then she drove out of the tower to go on patrol as well. Honker quietly proceeded to redress back into his civilian outfit and put away his costume. He then sat there for a moment, silent dwelling on today's events, then rose to head home for the night.

* * *

The following day, Honker wasn't present for school. Gosalyn wasn't too surprised, and decided to instead follow through on her day as usual. Nobody else seemed to notice Honker was absent, but that wasn't surprising as Honker wasn't very popular with the other kids. The teachers naturally noticed, but most simply took the matter in stride and merely marked him absent for their class without comment. One inquired aloud as to where he might be, to which Gosalyn volunteered to explain by raising her hand, but was either overlooked, or ignored.

It wasn't that big a deal. And Gosalyn figured Honker would probably prefer it if the whole school didn't know why he wasn't here, as that probably wouldn't help matters for him. So Gosalyn decided that the school merely wasn't interested, and thereby would never get to know, and she should just be happy that Honker would get privacy concerning the matter.

Or so she thought.

She had stopped at her locker in-between classes at one point to collect a textbook from it when she heard an all too familiar voice speak behind her.

"Hey, Gos, can I have a word with you?"

Gosalyn's eyes instinctively narrowed. "Jax." she muttered. She glanced behind her at the now long-time foe. "Okay, what do I need to punch you for _this _time?"

The vixen gave Gosalyn a look of annoyance. "It's not like that." she said. "I heard about what happened yesterday."

Gosalyn narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Jax as she shut her locker. "How?" she demanded.

Jax rolled her eyes and held up the obituaries section from a newspaper as evidence. Gosalyn took it and studied it. Sure enough, Henry Bantamock's name was at the top of the page, next to a picture of him.

She glanced up at Jax. "So?"

"So, I know he was Honker's friend." Jax pressed, tapping the picture.

"Oh really?" Gosalyn asked, folding her arms, tucking the paper under one arm in the process. "And, pray tell, how did you learn _this _little detail? You aren't still stalking Honker, are you?"

Jax hesitated, ears folding flat, and avoided the question. "Look, the point is that I heard his friend died, and felt sorry for him." she explained. "Seeing that he doesn't appear to be here today, I just wanted to ask you to send him my condolences, okay?"

"Sure, fine." Gosalyn said dismissively. "Now will you go away?"

Jax gave her another look, and then stalked off. Gosalyn watched her go, and then sighed, shaking her head.

"It's the thought that counts." she admitted as she walked off to her next class.

* * *

If there was one thing that Binkie Muddlefoot was quite proud of, it was her ability to create picture perfect foods. Her family loved the dishes she made for dinner, and it was through her cooking that she managed to meet Herb for the first time. Everyone seemed to like these dishes. That is, except for Drake. She was always giving him recipes for these wonderful dishes, but he was never using them, and she wasn't sure why. Maybe he didn't like trying new things, or maybe he wasn't as good a cook and couldn't reproduce them as accurately on his own.

Anyway, today she was making a lovely cherry pie to serve for dessert later tonight. Already, she had the pie most of the way done, and was currently in the process of placing on the top when the phone suddenly rang.

She glanced up at it, then quickly hurried towards it, brushing flour from her hands.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." she said aloud as the phone continued to ring. She picked up the wireless receiver and held up to her ear. "Hello, you've reached the Muddlefoots, how can I help you?"

"St. Canard Police Department, ma'am." a voice said politely on the other end. "Could I speak with Honker Muddlefoot, please?"

"Oh, oh dear." Binkie said, wondering if she could get Honker to answer the call. "Well, let's see. Just give me a moment, please."

Taking the wireless with her, she walked upstairs to Honker's bedroom, and politely knocked on the door.

"Honker, sweety," she called, "Can I come in?"

There was a paused, then followed by a mumbled and barely audible 'yes'. Binkie opened the bedroom and let herself in. She found Honker sitting at his desk, staring at the clock he had made, which sat upon the desk. It still hadn't been wound, and thereby still wasn't ticking away the seconds like it had been built to do. Binkie winced at the sight of her son looking so depressed, but resisted the urge to bring the subject up.

"Phone dear, it's for you." Binkie said, holding out the wireless receiver. "It's the police department."

Honker gave his mother a puzzled look, and then took the phone. "Hello?" he said.

"Honker Muddlefoot?"

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"We have a few more questions we'd like to ask you concerning the recent demise of Henry Bantamock. Could you please head on down to the police department at the next available opportunity?"

* * *

Taking the Muddlefoot's family car, Honker drove down to the police station by himself. His mother had offered to come with, but he turned down the offer. He'd rather face this himself, and besides, he had a feeling of unease about this. Gathering his wits about him, he exited the car and entered the station. Officer Frank was there, waiting for him.

"Ah, Honker, thank you for coming so quickly." he greeted.

"You said you wanted to ask me some questions?" Honker asked.

Frank nodded. "Follow me, and we'll find someplace to that in private."

He led the way down a nearby hall. Honker calmly followed. Frank arrived at a door and opened it, motioning for Honker to step inside first. Honker did, then noticed what the room he was stepping into looked like. It was virtually empty, save for a cold metal table that sat in the exact center, with a chair on either side. It was lit with one flourescent light fixture. On the left side of the room was a one-way mirror, with the opaque side facing into the room. It was like those rooms on TV where the good guys accuse the bad guys of their crimes. As Officer Frank closed the door behind them, Honker caught sight of a sign that said "interrogation room" hanging on it, confirming his theory.

Why had he been brought here?

"Please have a seat, Honker, and we'll get started." Frank said, motioned to the seat on the opposite side of the table from the side Frank was now sitting down at.

Hesitantly, Honker took a seat. Frank placed a manilla folder on the table and made himself comfortable, clearing his throat.

"Honker, how close were you to Mr. Bantamock?" he began simply enough.

"Well...fairly close." Honker admitted. "We were friends, I told you that."

"Yes, you did." Frank said. "At what time did you enter the store again?"

"I told you, I don't know for sure."

"Exact numbers, please, Honker."

Honker frowned, but concentrated. School ended at 3:15. It took him possibly about fifteen minutes to go from the school to Henry's store. Add that to 3:15, and he got...

"3:45 in the afternoon, I think, or at least very close to that." Honker said.

"Did Mr. Bantamock know you were coming?"

"No, I don't usually plan on dropping by his store in advance, just when ever I feel like it."

"About when did you make the call to call 911?"

"I don't know!" Honker said, frustrated. "It couldn't have been too long after I arrived. Within minutes, even. Look, if you doubt me, then here, check my cell phone. It lists the times of when I made calls."

He pulled out his phone and held out to Frank. He took it and checked the times. He glanced at Honker. "This says you made the call to 911 at 3:51, that's six minutes after the time you said you arrived at the store."

"I said, I think!"

"Did you give Mr. Bantamock anything to eat in advance, or upon, your arrival?"

"No!"

"Any drink?"

"No!" Honker snapped. "Look, what is this about?"

Frank paused for a moment, and opened the manilla folder, sorting through the papers within. "Mr. Bantamock didn't die of natural causes." he said as he did this. "He was murdered."

Honker was so shocked, that for a moment, what he said didn't quite sink in, and for a few moments after that, he was certain he had misheard.

"What?" he asked.

"The autopsy report revealed a large amount of a certain poison in Bantamock's blood that can induce heart attacks and seizures." Frank said, setting the report on the table before Honker. "Further analysis revealed that the poison was ingested, probably from the lunch he was eating at the time. Somebody put it there, and we want to know who."

Honker, upon reading the report in brief, set it down, realizing where this was going. "You think I did it." he said.

"We're merely covering all the aspects, Honker." Frank assured him.

"I didn't do it." Honker said flatly. "How could I?"

"Very easily, actually." Frank said, pulling out more papers. "We did a background check on you. The poison can be artificially created, and your records indicate you are very proficient in chemistry."

He was right. Honker was very good at chemistry, having passed all of his chemistry classes with flying colors, and knew more about the subject than most because of his ties with Darkwing.

"You are also very proficient in several other fields of science that would help in this matter, and we can neither confirm nor deny how long you were in that store, alone, unsupervised, with Bantamock. By all accounts, you had time enough to try something."

"But _why _would I try to kill someone who's a friend to me?" Honker asked. "There's no motive!"

It was then that the interrogation room door opened, and Detective Matthew stepped into the room. Honker realized he must have been listening, perhaps on the other side of the one-way mirror.

"Oh, you had a motive all right." Matthew said, placing a paper on the table in front of Honker. "You're Bantamock's only benefactor."

Puzzled by that, Honker took the paper, and studied it. It was Bantamock's last will and testament, and was actually fairly short. It more or less ran like this:

"_I, Henry Bantamock, leave upon my death my business, property, finances, _

_and all belongings to Honker Muddlefoot, the son I never had._"

Honker blinked, and read it again, hardly believing that it was his name listed on the paper. He then read it again, just to triple check. There was no denying it. Henry Bantamock and pretty much left everything he owned to Honker. Everything. His watchmaking business, his possessions, everything. Seriously stunned now, Honker reread the last few words of it.

"_Honker Muddlefoot, the son I never had."_

He never knew he meant that much to Henry.

Honky looked up at the officers eyeing him and swallowed. "I didn't know about this." he promised. "Not one bit. I didn't even know I was _in _the will until now!"

"Unfortunately, Mr. Muddlefoot, we only have your word on all of this, and currently have no means of backing it up." Matthew said. "You are, until we get more evidence, our chief suspect."

Honker rose from his chair and faced the detective angrily. "I didn't kill him." he pressed hoarsely. "I had no reason to! No need to! No _will _to! I would have _never _hurt Mr. Bantamock for _any _reason!"

There was a moment of silence as the two officers looked at each other.

"Honker, do you know of anyone who _would _want to kill Mr. Bantamock?" Frank asked.

"No."

"Any enemies? Competitors, maybe?"

"Competitors, ha! He had none in this city!"

"Any family members mad at him? Possible turmoil in his family history?"

"I don't _know _his family history, other than he had a wife who was a pilot, and a father who was a watchmaker too!"

"Until we can find another suspect, Muddlefoot, we have to stand by what the facts in this case so far suggest." Matthew said flatly. He didn't look convinced to Honker, which only made Honker madder still.

"Then why don't you arrest me now?" he challenged.

"We can't, we don't have enough evidence." Frank said.

"Then can I leave?" Honker asked. "I think you've caused me _enough _grief as is."

Frank looked to Matthew for confirmation. The detective paused, narrowing his eyes at Honker. Finally, he nodded. "You may leave." he said. "But don't leave town."

Snorting at the cliche, Honker angrily pushed himself past Matthew and let himself out of the police station. Nobody stopped him. Honker climbed back into the car he arrived in, and slammed the door shut as hard as he could, then pounded his fists a few times on the steering wheel until his hands hurt. Finally, he broke down and with a moan let his head fall on the steering wheel, fighting back tears.

"Murdered." he murmured. "They think I murdered him when I didn't." he sniffed, then sat upright, his brow furrowed. "But if I didn't...who did?"

It was then that he realized that this was just as much his mystery as it was the police's. More so, considering his connections to the matter. And as such, Honker decided right there and then that he was going to get to the bottom of this, to not only clear his name, but to also make sure justice was delivered on the murderer, whomever that was. Starting the car, he drove off with a glare, planning to not rest until this issue was resolved.

* * *

Honker knew Henry had owned an apartment before he died, which he stayed in whenever his shop was closed, but Honker had never been there, and had no clue where it might be, other than it was somewhere in the urban section of St. Canard. He knew how he could find out, though, therefore, his very next stop was Darkwing Tower.

He entered the tower discreetly, through a secret maintenance tunnel used mostly for wiring power circuits and was a remnant of what the tower used to be. When reaching the hatch that led into the tower itself, he opened hatch only a crack to peer through and make sure that the tower was vacant. It was, completely void of any life at the moment.

This actually struck Honker as a touch odd. It was now late afternoon, and school was over now. Usually, there was usually _someone _in the tower by this time of day. Sometimes it would be Gosalyn hanging out, sometimes it was Drake tinkering with some pet project, or Launchpad doing maintenance work, or even all of the above. Today, however, it was empty.

Honker paused to think, wondering if there was something special happening today that he had forgotten. And as it turned out, there was. SHUSH was celebrating it's anniversary today, and as such, was holding a party at SHUSH Headquarters to celebrate, which was to start right about now. Darkwing and the others had been invited to attend, but Honker had already had been told he didn't have to attend if he didn't feel up to it.

Good, that meant he'd have some time alone.

Clambering out of the maintenance tunnel, Honker hurried straight to the supercomputer and sat down at the master control panel, bringing the computer out of screensaver. Bringing up the search program, he typed in the name, "Henry Bantamock" and hit enter. A few moments later, it brought up the most relevant result, the one Honker wanted, and opened the attached profile, listening all that was in the records about Henry.

Honker ignored most of that, and instead scrolled down to where the address of his apartment was listed. Taking note on this and writing it down on a slip of paper, Honker then cleared the screen and exited the tower again, heading back to where he had parked the car and drove off to the location the address listed.

It led him to the Pinchester Apartment Complex on Thorndyke Street, a multi-story skyscraper that had been around since the 1930s. In retrospect, Honker wasn't too surprised he had been led here. He knew that the Bantamock family had lived in St. Canard for a very long time, so it stood to reason that Henry lived in a place that had been around for a very long time.

Honker had no trouble getting inside the building, and finding the right apartment. The door was locked, but Honker was well practiced by this point at picking locks. Normally he didn't like doing it for ethical reasons, but was making an exception today. When the door opened, he found a that the apartment was currently dark, save for a faint glow coming from a window hidden behind some curtains. Slipping inside and closing the door behind him, Honker move to flip a light switch, then thought against it, and inside pulled open the curtains, allowing the late afternoon light to shine into the room.

He looked around at the small living room he found himself in. A couch sat in the middle not far from the short entry way that led into the apartment. Sitting in front of it was a short coffee table with a half-disassembled watch sitting on it, next to a picture of Henry and his wife before she passed on. On one side of the room, on either side of the entrance to a hallway was a bookcase filled with various books and other trinkets. An old TV sat beside the window on a TV stand, but it didn't look like it had been used in a long while. The hallway led to a study, bathroom, and a bedroom, and on the other side of the living room was a doorway leading into a kitchen.

Honker looked around, almost as if he expected a vital clue to this mystery to just jump out at him, but he knew it wouldn't be so easy. He started looking more closely. He sorted through the books on the bookcase, he looked under furniture, checked the kitchen for any tampering of food (and found none), checked out the bathroom, and examined Henry's bedroom in detail. He turned up nothing unusual. Getting frustrated, he finally turned to the one room he hadn't checked; the study.

It was pretty much a smaller version of the living room, except with no couch, TV, and coffee table. Instead, a desk sat against one wall, housing various tools and projects from Henry's watchmaking life. Three pictures also sat on the desk in frames, but they were much older. One portrayed a stunningly pretty female mouse in pilot's attire standing next to a silver airplane. Honker presumed it was Henry's wife. This theory was proven true in the next picture, which showed a much younger Henry sitting in his shop with his future wife standing beside him. The third picture showed the two together, this time at their wedding, Henry dressed smartly in a tux, his wife dressed in a pure white wedding dress. Marked on the frame was the following text: "Henry and Linda Bantamock; Happily Married 1980."

Honker gazed at the picture for a moment, then moved on. Eventually, he found a stack of letters that had been opened on top of a locked metal box. Honker hesitantly sorted through them, finding them mostly irrelevant to what he was looking for anyway. Two were ordinary letters, one from a friend in Chicago, another from an aunt in Washington. One was a credit card offer, and two more were merely bills. There was nothing here.

Honker moved the stack and then turned to the box. It probably contained something like money or finance information that Henry wouldn't have wanted people just looking at. Seeing that he had no interest in that, Honker decided to look anyway, again picking the lock. Upon opening the case, however, Honker found that while there was some financial papers in the box, it mostly contained other things that one wouldn't normally consider worth locking. Things like an antique, but very worn, pocketwatch that didn't work, a plain ring, a handful of other pictures, a paperback booklet, and various other odds and ends.

Honker realized that the box merely contained treasured items Henry had collected over the years, and instantly regretted opening the box. He proceeded to close it again, when he spied a letter in an envelope tucked into the back. Drawn to it, Honker pulled it out and examined it. Save for a post office box number serving for a return address, and Henry's name and address being written on it in typed letters, it had nothing on it. Pulling out the letter within, Honker discovered that it was like that for good reason. The letter, typed out and not handwritten, said:

"Tell us all you know about Honker Muddlefoot by the end of next week.

Or else."

It was yet another shock to Honker. The letter had to have been sent by the murderer, or murderers, whomever they were, wanted to know everything Henry knew about Honker. Henry presumably did not comply, and was murdered simply because he refused to cooperate. Honker doubted Henry even took it that seriously, though, but it would explain why the letter was kept in a locked metal box.

But...why? Why would someone do this, and why the fascination with Honker?

And then Honker suddenly suspected knew. With a chill, he wondered if the murderer knew of his connections to Darkwing, and perhaps suspected Honker's relations with Techno specifically. And the murderer apparently though Henry knew of this.

Which, of course, he did. But like the friend he was, Henry wasn't going to tell them.

And thus paid the price.

Honker crumbled the letter into a ball in both anger and sadness for this mess, then mentally scolded himself. This was evidence. Not very solid evidence, but evidence nonetheless. If Honker presented this to the police, hopefully, that would help clear his name. Smoothing out the letter and putting it back into it's envelope, he locked the case and exited the apartment with the intent of showing this evidence to the police straightaway.

* * *

Detective Matthew was less than impressed, however.

Having read the letter, he now looked up at Honker speculatively. "You realize that this isn't very solid evidence, right?" he asked.

"It's still evidence." Honker pressed, annoyed.

"Hardly." Matthew said, slapping the paper down on the desk that divided them. "For all I know, you could've hurried home and whipped that together in an attempt to try and clear your name. The fact that it's so wrinkled doesn't help anyway."

"But I _didn't _fabricate it." Honker pressed angrily. "I found that in Mr. Bantamock's apartment!"

"If so, you should have let the police search the apartment and let _us _find it." Matthew said.

"Oh please, you mean to tell me the SCPD hasn't done that already?" Honker asked.

Matthew hesitated.

"Admit it, you missed this clue, didn't you?"

"That could merely be further proof that this is false evidence."

"Matt, do you _really _believe I would kill anybody? I've never done anything wrong my entirely life! My records would prove that! Furthermore, Mr. Bantamock was my friend! I can't stress that enough! Seriously, how likely would it be for someone like me to murder someone?"

"In St. Canard, anything can happen."

"My evidence indicates more than one person was involved in this!"

"Your "evidence" isn't trustworthy."

"I didn't kill anybody! Can't you see that?"

"Mr. Muddlefoot, I'd like to believe you." Matthew said sternly. "Really, I would. But right now, I can't, because currently, all the evidence points towards you, and as that makes you the principle suspect, I have to treat you as such until I can prove otherwise."

"Well, then, how else can I prove it to you?" Honker demanded.

"You can start by staying out of this!" Matthew snapped, standing. "Bringing me weak evidence such as this letter isn't helping me any, and is just slowing us down! If you really _are _innocent, then sit back and wait for us to confirm it instead of trying to make it go faster than it should! We've already been very lenient with you about this, so at least do us a favor and stay out of this!"

"But I _can't!_" Honker pressed. "I can't just sit back and pretend this didn't happen, because it _did _happen! Right now, you think I've killed a good friend of mine when it's not true! Do you _know _what that feels like to know that other people think I killed someone?"

"No, I don't, and I don't see any reason to continue this conversation." Matthew said, turning to leave.

"Oh, yes there is! Because I could tell you felt the same way when you shot NegaCrimson!"

The words were out of Honker's mouth before he knew it, and he quickly clamped a hand over his mouth to stop anything else from escaping. But it was too late by then, the words were out, and Matthew had heard them plain as day. Stunned, he turned slowly to look back at Honker with wide eyes.

"How do you know about that?" he asked.

Honker hesitated, then sighed. "I'll be right back." he promised, and reluctantly walked out of the building.

He half expected Matthew to stop him, but the detective did no such thing, and quietly waited for Honker to return. A few moments later, Honker walked back inside, carrying his backpack. Reaching into it, he pulled out his trademark visor, and put it on in place of his glasses, looking at Matthew expectantly.

Matthew stared at him for a long moment. "Techno." he murmured.

Honker pulled off the visor and returned it to his bag. "Now you know, detective." he said simply.

Matthew continued to be silent for a very long moment. "Wow." he said. "This changes everything. You should've just told me this to begin with."

"Wait, so you trust me now?" Honker asked, surprised.

Matthew nodded. "Without a doubt." he said, then grinned. "Actually provides more solid evidence for everything. And besides, I know Techno well enough to know he would never try something like this."

* * *

They returned their focus to the letter. With Honker's permission, Officer Frank was let in on the secret, and was asked to help look for fingerprints on the letter, but all they found were Honker's and Henry's.

"Well, guess that proves these guys knew what they were doing." Frank muttered, putting away the fingerprinting equipment.

"It's definitely some kind of group that's behind this, though." Matthew said. "Tech–I mean Honker, who do you think might be behind this?"

"Seeing that it's a group, my first thought would be the Fearsome Four." Honker reasoned. "They've been known to blackmail people before. But that doesn't make any sense. They aren't known to be this stealthy when working together, and besides, Negaduck already knows most of everything about me. He wouldn't need to know more about me, and if he wanted something from me, he'd go straight to the source."

"What if it was just one member of the Fearsome Four acting alone?" Frank reasoned.

"Then it wouldn't be a group, and he wouldn't use terms such as 'us'." Matthew said pointedly.

"Unless, they're trying to get us to think they aren't acting alone." Honker pointed out. he shook his head. "Even then, I find it unlikely the Fearsome Four would be behind this."

"Anyone else?" Matthew prompted.

"Hmm, maybe FOUL."

"You mean that wacky terrorist organization SHUSH typically deals with?"

"The very same. They don't know of my connections as Techno _officially_, but I imagine they could know enough to begin to suspect."

"And thought Henry might confirm it for them."

"Probably. But something about it still doesn't add up."

"I agree." Frank said. "This strikes me as a more common villain's scheme. Is there anybody else who operate as a group that might be behind this?"

"None that are still together and in operation." Honker admitted. "Though, it does seem like I'm forgetting something..."

At that moment, the phone on Matthew's desk rang. He answered it by pressing speaker phone. Frank and Honker continued silently to work on the mystery of the letter.

"St. Canard Police Department, how can I help you?" Matthew said politely.

"Detective Matthew Christofferson?" a deep male voice responded.

"That's me."

"Listen carefully. Drop the case involving the death of Henry Bantamock, or we will be forced to take action."

Matthew blinked, caught off guard by the threat. Frank and Honker, overhearing, looked up in surprise.

"Who is this?" Matthew demanded.

"Never mind that, just keep listening. We know that Honker Muddlefoot is currently in your office with you. We want to talk with him at a location of our choosing."

"Over my dead body." Matthew stated plainly.

"It involves the murder of his friend, the dear Mr. Bantamock."

Honker was suddenly on his feet, eyes narrowed. "This is Honker." he said loudly into the speaker phone, despite Matthew urging him not to. "Did you kill Henry?"

"Indeed we did. It was very unfortunate he decided not to take us seriously. We mean no serious harm, however. We merely wish to talk to you. Peacefully. If you cooperate, we won't cause you any harm."

"We only have your word on that." Matthew said flatly.

"Then you'll just have to trust us."

"Where do you want to meet?" Honker demanded, again going against Matthew's urgings.

"There is a warehouse in town that is a former hideout of the Fearsome Five that they used shortly after their return to crime fighting two years ago. We will meet there."

"And if we refuse?" Frank asked.

"Then, as I said, we will be forced to take action."

And with that, the call ended with a click, followed by the buzz of a dial tone. The three just barely had time enough to look at each other before something silently whizzed through the window and hit the other wall with a dull thud. They instinctively ducked, then, when it became apparent nothing else was going to happen, Matthew rose and shot to the window, peering out it. Frank went to the other wall to examine the bullet embedded in the wall.

"Sniper." he deduced instantly.

"Probably shot from the other side of the street." Matthew said, still looking out the window. "It had to have been only a warning shot, though, to prove that they're serious. The sniper is already gone." he turned to Frank. "Frank, new priority. I want to know who that was in that phone call, pronto."

"Then it's your lucky day, detective." Honker said, sitting calmly in a chair, glaring at the phone. "Because I know who it is. I recognized the voice almost instantly."

Matthew turned to look at him. "Who is it?"

"Ethan McCaffrey."

Matthew blinked. "You mean the McCaffrey from the Davidson Gang?" he declared.

"Absolutely. The Davidson Gang are responsible for the murder of Mr. Bantamock."

* * *

"So what you're saying is that for a mission for SHUSH, you went undercover as Honker Muddlefoot to infiltrate the Davidson Gang." Matthew recapped once Honker finished relating the tale. "You succeeded, but then got caught, but you escaped, and SHUSH took added precautions to make sure that the Davidson Gang would leave you alone."

"That's correct." Honker growled, pacing angrily. He hadn't been calm since the phone call with McCaffrey ended.

"Seems to me that they slipped up somewhere, then." Matthew said flatly, a little disappointed.

"Most likely, they just didn't expect the Davidson Gang to try and get at Honker through someone like Mr. Bantamock." Frank remarked.

"True." Matthew said. "But the important thing to do now is to stop them."

"Exactly." Honker said. "And I intend to do it by meeting them as proposed."

Matthew jumped up. "Honker, you can't do that!"

"Yes I can, and I will!" Honker snapped. "It's me they want! It's me they're going to get!"

"But can't you see? It's a trap!" Matthew exclaimed. "They have no intention of following through on their word! They want to get at you to get revenge, and they're using this to lure you right into their hands!"

"Matt! They killed my friend, for no good reason other than the fact that he wouldn't give them what they want!" Honker snapped. "I _know _what they're probably planning to do, but I'm not going to let them do it! And I know how to do it, how to bring them to justice!"

"To get revenge, you mean!" Matthew snapped back. "This isn't about them, you, Bantamock, or anything! You just want revenge, and will stop at nothing to get it."

Honker glared defiantly. "So what if I am?" he asked threateningly. "You won't stop me!"

"Just watch us." Matthew said, and planted Honker heavily in a chair, grabbed Frank by the arm, and led him out of the office, closing the door behind him and locking it.

"There." Matthew said, and then turned to Frank. "But if he gets mad enough, that probably won't stop him. Someone will need to watch him."

"Understood." Frank said. "But what about the Davidson Gang?"

"Easy, they told us exactly where a party of them are bound to be at. One of the old Fearsome Four hideouts, ones we've found out about. All we have to do is get the troops together and search all the likely candidates and sneak in and grab them. Once we have them, we can either use that to tell the Davidson Gang to back off, or as bartering chips to get Honker safety."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Good, I'll go tell the chief. You stay here and watch Honker."

"Got it."

Matthew walked off to go carry out his task, while Frank opened the door to the office to watch Honker. He paused. "Uh, Matt?" he said hesitantly. "You better get back here."

Matthew paused, and walked back, joining him in the doorway and looking into the office. He sighed.

"Great." he muttered.

Honker was gone. The window was open, letting a breeze flutter in. Frank went to it and peered down the four floors to the ground in time to see Honker drive off in the Muddlefoot family car.

"Crafty fellow." he muttered. He turned to Matthew. "Now what?"

"If we don't stop him, he's going to get himself hurt." Matthew said, reaching for his phone. "Unfortunately, we're not going to be enough to stop him. We're going to need some very specialized help."

* * *

"Megavolt!" Darkwing exclaimed happily, moving through the crowd of celebrating SHUSH affiliates attending the SHUSH anniversary party to catch up with the former villain that was now an ally. "How are you? I haven't seen you in awhile!"

"DW!" Megavolt said back, equally happy to see his new friend. "I'm doing good! Life's actually been a heck of a lot better since I left the Fearsome Five!"

"Well, glad to hear it!" Darkwing said happily. He looked the rat up and down, observing that Megavolt wore tonight a nice suit with a matching hat, making him look unnaturally normal. "So what have you been up to?"

"Well, a thing here and there." Megavolt said. "Mostly I'm just trying to get my life back in order again. But SHUSH gave me a job here as a technician, and J. Gander hopes to someday to get me out in the field. Seeing that I still have my powers, it'd be a waste to not be able to put them to use."

"Well, just so long as you use them for good, I have no complaints." Darkwing said with a grin. "So how about on a more personal level? Things going good there?"

"Oh, Elmo, there you are, I brought you a drink."

Megavolt turned to face the beautifully dressed female rat moving towards him, and grinned. Darkwing blinked in surprise.

"Darkwing, I believe you remember Agent Jewel Ampere?" Megavolt said, motioning to Jewel, who waved sheepishly. "She agreed to be my date tonight."

"Really?" Darkwing asked, happily surprised. "Well, good for you both. How's it been working out so far?"

"Pretty good, this would be our fifth date." Jewel said, grinning, as Megavolt put an arm around her and accepted the drink she offered him.

"How about you, DW?" Megavolt asked, having picked up the nickname from Launchpad. "I've been meaning to ask you how you're doing in that area in life."

"Oh, well, good." Darkwing replied, thinking of Christine who was unfortunately unable to attend tonight.

"Did you and Morgana ever hook up, or are you still delaying the inevitable?"

Darkwing's face fell. "Uh, actually, we, uh, broke up." he admitted reluctantly. "She...she found someone else, and married him while I was trapped in the Negaverse for all those years."

"Oh." Megavolt said, his own face falling, embarrassed he had presumed otherwise. "Sorry to hear that."

Darkwing shrugged. "So was I, but I guess it was for the best." he said. "It's not so bad, now I'm dating another girl, but..." he paused, "...but sometimes I wonder what life would've been like if things had been different."

Megavolt shrugged. "I guess we'll never know, will we?" he then changed the subject. "Anyway, where's the rest of your little gang of do-gooders? I'd like to say hi to them before the night's through."

"Well, I last saw Crimson somewhere over there." Darkwing said, pointing over to where a group of people were dancing to the music that was playing. "And LP's over there, telling adventure stories." he pointed in a far corner of the room.

"Okay, I'll go talk with them, then." Megavolt said, tipping his hat at the hero as he and Jewel walked off. "Nice seeing you, DW."

"You too, Megs!" Darkwing said in reply, and turned to walk elsewhere.

It wasn't long before he met up with Hooter.

"Hey, J. Gander, quite a party you've got going here." Darkwing commented. "Never thought SHUSH would do this kind of thing."

Hooter smirked. "Well, I think we all need a chance to unwind every now and then." he said. "Anyway, Darkwing, I wanted to talk to you about a couple things."

"Sure, what's up?"

"First, I just got an interesting report from Dr. Bellum that I want your opinion on." Hooter said. "As I'm sure you know by now, our transdimensional portal tracking system is now fully operational, with the system operating in both the Negaverse and the Posiverse."

"Yeah, I did hear about that." Darkwing said. "Took Bellum long enough to fix the Posiverse system."

"Yes, but when the system went up, we made a bit of a discovery. Apparently, even though the Posiverse system wasn't operating correctly, it was still recording all the portals it detected during all this time. Just to confirm this, we compared the list with the list produced from the Negaverse system, and saw there was a problem."

"Like what?"

"Many of the portals opened in the Negaverse, particularly in recent months, did _not _lead to the Posiverse."

Darkwing gave him a surprised look. "Really." he said.

"Yes." Hooter said. "Do you have any idea what this might imply?"

"Not with any certainty." Darkwing admitted. "Techno would be a better person to ask."

"Which reminds me." Hooter said. "There's a phone call waiting for you from a Detective Matthew."

Darkwing blinked. "Matt?" he said. "Really? But what does that have to do with Techno?"

"Apparently it concerns him." Hooter said. "I don't know the details."

Darkwing was silent for a moment. "Excuse me, J. Gander." he said, and slipped out of the crowd to find a phone.

Upon finding it, he promptly accepted the call still waiting for him. "This is Darkwing." he said.

"Darkwing!" Matthew exclaimed on the other end. "Thank goodness, I've been trying real hard to contact you!"

"What about, Matt?" Darkwing asked, worried. "What does this have to do with Techno? Is he all right?"

"For the moment, I think he is. But I think he's going to get himself killed if you don't help me stop him."

* * *

The warehouse appeared quiet enough on the outside, but a faint glow of light could be seen inside. This told Techno he had the right place. Fully dressed in costume, he parked the car he arrived in, and climbed out, carefully moving towards the entrance.

He remembered this warehouse very well. It had indeed served as the Fearsome Four's hideout for awhile until SHUSH tracked a transdimensional portal to here and raided the building, capturing most of the gang of villains in the process. They, of course, eventually escaped again, but it was a great victory for them at the time. Since then, the hideout had remained abandoned, until now, when the Davidson Gang decided it would serve as a good meeting place.

Techno hoped to prove them wrong.

Carefully, he slipped into the entrance, and to the edge of a stack of crates that perpetually sat in the warehouse and peered inside. Most of the scantily few items the Fearsome Four, then Fearsome Five, had brought into the hideout for their use remained still. Examples of such included a card table sitting in the middle of the room, a stack of empty pots sitting in one corner, next to a roll of electrical wire, and signs of water damage in the floor, a sure sign of the late Liquidator.

Four bare lightbulbs hung from the ceiling glowed with yellow light, providing the only light in the room, not lighting the room very sufficiently, but enough for Honker to see what he was going up against. Four gangsters stood in the room, wearing professional looking suits, a sure mark of the Davidson Gang, and were armed with pistols. Ethan McCaffrey himself stood in the center of the room, the muscular lynx standing out in the group. Today, he was wearing a pinstriped suit with a matching short-brimmed fedora that merely added to the classic gangster look the Davidson Gang typically supported. All together making five, the group was merely milling about, no doubt waiting for Honker to show.

Well, better not keep them waiting, then.

Making sure he was completely hidden in the shadows, Techno leaned heavily on the stack of crates and gave McCaffrey a dark glare, even though the lynx had no way of seeing it. "Well, well, well, all dressed up with no where to go, hmm, McCaffrey?" he said.

The gangsters turned to look at Techno, although all they could see was the indistinct shape of a figure standing in the shadows. One of the gangsters moved towards him, but McCaffrey stopped him, half-grinning like he believed he had the upper hand already. He turned to face Techno and addressed him.

"Honker Muddlefoot, I presume?" he inquired.

"You had any doubt?"

"I had wondered if the cops were going to try and stop you from coming."

"No chance of that." Techno then changed the subject, straightening. "I want answers, McCaffrey. What do you want me for?"

"Well, you did cause us from the Davidson Gang a great deal of grief the last time we encountered each other. You paved the road for SHUSH to capture our former base of operations and robbed off a good employer all in one fell swoop."

"You had it coming to you, and did you really think FOUL was going to pull through on whatever form of payment you two had agreed upon anyway?"

"It was a gamble, yes, but that's what we do. Unfortunately, we would have managed to succeed in the end anyway if it weren't for you."

"So this _is _about revenge."

"Actually, no." McCaffrey grinned. "You are a very mysterious person, Mr. Muddlefoot. According to your records, you are nothing more than an insignificant teenager living the life the brainiac teenagers like you usually live. But there are a few inconsistencies. A few unresolved questions. Unexplained events. Allusions to things that you wouldn't think would be there. And then of course, the clincher; the fact that we _both _know you have a history with SHUSH, and yet there is no record of it, _whatsoever_." he paused. "I wonder, how much did they offer you in return for your services?"

Techno glared at the lynx. "A lot more that you're going to get from this, McCaffrey." he vowed.

McCaffrey simply kept on grinning. "We shall see."

* * *

The moment the Ratcatcher and the Avenger had both jointly driven into the tower, Crimson was off her bike and looking around anxiously.

"Techno?" she called hesitantly, looking worried.

"Don't bother, Crimson, you know he's not going to be here." Darkwing said, gently pushing past her and heading up to the supercomputer.

"Think he's already going to be halfway there, DW?" Launchpad asked, moving to stand with Crimson.

"If not worse." Darkwing said, as he commanded the supercomputer to locate the tracking beacon on Techno's visor. A brief moment later, it brought up the results, showing the location of the visor being exactly where Darkwing feared it would be. "And it is worse." he muttered, turning away from the supercomputer and climbing down from the platform, pulling out a radio. "Too late, Matt, he's already there."

"I'll send a patrol and raid the place." Matthew said quickly on the other end of the radio. "Hopefully, we can get there before much harm is done."

"Good, I'll meet you there, Darkwing out."

Darkwing put away the radio and moved for the armory platform and started up it's staircase. Crimson and Launchpad followed.

"We'll come with you, Dad." Crimson said quickly.

"No, I want you both to stay here." Darkwing said, glancing back at them as he moved through the racks of weapons, looking for his trademark weapon.

"Whatever for, DW?" Launchpad asked, puzzled.

Darkwing paused and sighed. "Because I have a pretty good feeling that no matter what happens now, whatever we find in that warehouse won't be a pretty sight." he muttered. He turned back to the rack, only to discover that the weapon he was looking for wasn't there.

"Where's my gas gun?" he asked curiously.

* * *

"You know, you're still shirking the _real_ answers I'm looking for. " Techno stated plainly to McCaffrey, still out of sight from the other gangsters, hidden in the shadows. "How does Henry fit into this?"

"Ah yes, the late Mr. Bantamock." McCaffrey remarked. "Well, as I said, there were a fair number of mysteries about you that we wanted answers to. After that incident early last October, and despite pretty much being ordered by FOUL to not to, we've been keeping tabs on you, Muddlefoot, and your companion, Mr. Mallard. Mallard we weren't too worried about, as we had fears he was going to be a security risk to us from the beginning, and even if he was recruited permanently into our ranks, he would've just been another expendable gunman, with little use. No, our real focus was you, and we wanted answers. But we couldn't just ask you for them, and there was going to be few other people we could count on to know those answers."

"That's where Henry comes in." Techno deduced.

"Correct. We discovered him by chance, and we quickly saw how close you to were as friends. We decided that if anybody was going to have the answers we were searching for, it would be him. However, the only way he would tell us would be threat, so yes, we did blackmail him."

"And he refused to help."

"And yes, we did murder him."

"He probably didn't even think your blackmail was real, just some hoax!"

"That would be his undoing, not mine."

Techno worked to keep his already dangerously hot temper under control for a moment longer.

"At least you didn't get those answers you're looking for." he noted darkly.

"Ah, but now we don't need them." McCaffrey said. "An advantage of killing Bantamock, it drew you out of hiding, forced you out into the open to find the answers to all of this. It led you, to us, and well...here we are!"

"And it's back to revenge, isn't it?"

"This was never about revenge, Honker. We like you, and your skills. You'd be of a real use to us, but you're currently affiliated with the wrong sides. A fact that it'll have to change if this is to go forward."

Techno narrowed his eyes. "I see where this is going." he growled.

"Oh yes, we want you with us." McCaffrey said dramatically. "And we've gone to great lengths to try and get you recruited back into our ranks."

"And what makes you think I would agree to _that_?" Techno asked.

"I don't recall giving you a choice." McCaffrey said with a grin.

The other gangsters pulled out their pistols and they all pointed them at Techno. Techno watched the group for a moment. Then he laughed mockingly.

"Oh, but I _still _have a choice." he commented.

And with that, he whipped out Darkwing's gas gun and fired it repeatedly. Within moments, the room was filled with thick blue smoke. Two of the gangsters, surprised, fired blindly at the last spot they knew Techno to be, but their shots missed completely, and were heard impacting the wall of the warehouse instead with dull thuds. A moment of silence fell after that, and then suddenly, something impacted one of the gangsters, knocking him over. The others turned to look in that direction, then turned again when another toppled over. McCaffrey, sensing danger, pulled out his own pistol and sought a target in the fading smoke.

"Surprise!"

Something rushed past behind McCaffrey and tackled another gangster. When McCaffrey spun around to look, he came face to face with Techno.

"Remember me, McCaffrey?" he asked tauntingly, and then slapped the lynx's weapon away and slammed the butt of the gas gun he still carried into McCaffrey's head, knocking him down.

The smoke had pretty much cleared by this point, and the gangsters now had a clear view of their target. Those who still stood took aim, while the others quickly worked to get back up to join them, retrieving their fallen weapons. But Techno wasn't about to let them shoot him, and was already in motion as the first of the gangsters moved to shoot.

Quickly dodging out of the pistol's line of fire just seconds before it actually fired, Techno grabbed the offending gangster by his gun arm and twisted around so that the gangster was swung around to slam into another gangster that was beginning to line up a shot on Techno. Techno then twisted around again, gas gun in hand, switching attachments quickly, and fired a spray of shock darts at two other gangsters, the darts both stabbing at their flesh and shocking them.

Techno didn't care. He wanted revenge for the death of his friend.

Switching attachments again to the Teryx teleporter attachment, he turned to face McCaffrey with the intent of stopping this now. But McCaffrey was one step faster and lunged at Techno, slapping the gas gun aside and out of Techno's hand just as he pulled the trigger. It fired blindly, the white shot of energy zipping across the room and striking a box, teleporting it away. The gas gun itself clattered into one corner of the room.

By that point, it had been forgotten.

While dealing with the lynx tackling him, Techno slapped a control on his wristband and a remote controlled probe launched itself from it and towards McCaffrey. McCaffrey tried to duck it, but wasn't quite fast enough, and the probe slapped right into his head, knocking off his hat, and dazing him enough for Techno to roughly shove him aside and into the card table. The probe continued on, traveling blindly as Techno had relinquished control of it until it hit a wall and just stopped.

Techno's visor warned him a gangster was charging towards him. He turned to look at the foe with narrowed eyes, and then quickly activated his rocket boots briefly to give him enough forward momentum to slam the charging gangster hard into a stack of crates. His visor again alerting him of another gangster moving towards him, Techno pulled out a chemical bomb and hurled it in the direction of the gangster. It exploded violently directly behind him, knocking him clear off his feet, additionally starting a fire at the same time.

Techno turned away from the explosion, saw that one of the gangsters he had shot with shock darts begin to pick himself up, and quickly sprayed a overly large dose of sleeping gas in his face, knocking him back out. He took two more steps before a wooden board suddenly swung out of nowhere and slammed into the side of Techno's head. His helmet absorbed most of the blow, but it cracked the lense of his visor and made its HUD burst into a field of semi-transparent static.

Overbalanced, Techno stumbled to one side for a few feet, then toppled over. It was as he did so that McCaffrey came into Techno's view, looking pretty mad himself, still holding the wooden board he had used as a weapon menacingly, and was moving closer to continue the fight. As Techno hit the ground, he quickly reacted by firing off a grappling hook and rope at the far wall, the rope whizzing along past McCaffrey's feet. Not having enough time to stop, McCaffrey tripped on the rope and toppled over, dropping his board.

Neither of them to be out done, though, both were quickly back on their feet, ready to fight some more. With a yell, McCaffrey made a break for the right, moving as if to circle Techno. Techno quickly pulled out another chemical bomb and hurled it, but missed, instead blowing out one wall of the warehouse. Within moments, McCaffrey was upon him, and dealt him a mad punch to the face.

Techno stumbled backwards into a wooden beam that had fallen in the chaos, and pushed himself off it to charge McCaffrey. The lynx was ready for the move, however, and landed a heavy kick with his foot to Techno's chest, knocking him down to the ground. Techno scrambled to get back up, grabbing at one of his wristbands to pull something out, but McCaffrey didn't give him the chance, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up to his eye level.

"I'll admit that I didn't expect you to have such an upper hand in this fight, Muddlefoot." he growled at Techno, glaring at him with wild eyes. "But you've caused far too much trouble for it to continue. _It ends here_!"

By that point, Techno had managed to pull the last chemical bomb from and threw it at the ground immediately adjacent to them. With a fiery blast, the resulting explosion slammed into them both and knocked them halfway across the room, Techno coming free in the process. They both hit the floor hard, and rolled several more feet before coming to a stop, debris raining down on them. Battered and singed, Techno weakly picked himself up, turned to see McCaffrey lying on his side nearby, and with renewed energy, rolled the lynx over, and angrily threw himself on him.

"And I've...had enough...of YOU!" Techno roared, pommeling McCaffrey as hard as he could, and with everything his fists could offer.

He didn't know how long he was at it, nor when McCaffrey passed out, nor when somebody arrived and they were no longer alone, but suddenly, Techno felt hands trying to pull him off of the lynx. At first, he just shrugged the hands off, not wanting to be pulled away from the fight. The hands grabbed at him again, this time more forcefully, and successfully pulled him away and into a standing position, turned to face the newcomer. Annoyed, Techno merely turned his hitting on this newcomer. The newcomer reacted to the blows and worked to stop him.

"Techno! Techno! TECHNO!"

Techno suddenly froze as Darkwing grabbed him by both wrists and stopped him. He stared for a long moment into Darkwing's alarmed and concerned eyes. At that moment, his anger evaporated, and Techno's grief finally proved to be too much, breaking down and crying, clutching Darkwing tightly. Darkwing merely let him go on, and turned to look as the SCPD officers stormed the room and examined the damage of the fight. Detective Matthew bent down to examine the beaten gangsters.

Darkwing winced at the condition most of them were in. "Matt, you better send for an ambulance..." he began.

"...yeah I know, so that can treat these guys." Matthew replied, checking the pulse of one person. He winced. "Those that are still alive."

Darkwing glanced up sharply. "You mean..."

"Yeah." Matthew said gravely. "This one is dead."

Darkwing glanced down at Techno, who was still weeping. "Just how bad did they hurt you, Techno?" he whispered.

* * *

The surviving gangsters and Techno were taken promptly to the hospital for treatment. Darkwing hadn't gone with them as he was needed to help clean up the scene of the fight. By the time dawn of the next was starting to begin, however, Darkwing was able to pull himself away from that and pay a visit to the hospital, starting first with Techno, now undressed to be Honker.

When there, he was unsurprised to find Christine there, standing outside the window of Honker's room. He didn't even have to ask Christine to help with this, she automatically took up the chore. With worried eyes, she alternated looking from a clipboard to looking through the window at Honker. Darkwing silently joined her, and she silently acknowledged his presence. For a long moment, neither of them said anything.

"How is he?" Darkwing finally asked.

Christine sighed. "More or less fine." she replied. "He had a few bruises, cuts, and scrapes, but otherwise got out of it fine. I think his suit helped to protect him from the worse of the damage."

Darkwing paused. "What about mentally?" he asked.

Christine sighed. "I don't know." she said. "I mean, just look at him."

Darkwing did. He saw Honker sitting in a cot, staring straight ahead, his eyes unfocused and unblinking.

"He's just...stunned." Christine said. "Probably just by everything."

"Will he snap out of it?" Darkwing asked.

"Most certainly." Christine said. She shook her head. "That's not what I'm worried about." she turned to face Darkwing. "Darkwing, you need to understand that Honker will probably never be quite the same again after this."

Darkwing nodded, unsurprised. "I already knew this." he admitted. "He hasn't been the same ever since Mr. Bantamock died."

They were silent for a long moment.

"What about the gangsters?" Darkwing asked finally.

Christine rolled her eyes. "That's a whole other ball of wax." she muttered. "Well, as you know, one of them is dead, but I don't think that's so much Techno's fault as it was an accidental death. That is, he simply hit the ground the wrong way and broke his neck. One's in serious condition, but will live, and the other two are merely beaten up pretty good. Same with that lynx, what's his name, Mc...Mac..."

"McCaffrey." Darkwing offered.

"Yeah." Christine said, and shrugged. "A broken snout is the worse of his troubles, and it'll heal well." she shook her head. "Just what did Techno _do _to them, though?"

Darkwing hesitated. "I could speculate, but there's no real way to know." he admitted. "I just know that he got very, very, angry, and...lost it." he sighed. "I had never seen him be so mad before."

There was another long silence as they gazed through the window at the unresponsive figure of Honker...

* * *

McCaffrey lay in his own cot some distance from Honker's room, and was under guard. He was conscious awake, but was still resting. Traces of blood still darkened the fur around his nose, and it was bandaged for the break. He also had a light black eye, and various bruises and cuts, but otherwise was physically fine. At the moment, he preferred to be alone.

But Darkwing thought otherwise.

With Detective Matthew opening the door to the room for him, Darkwing stormed into the room. With McCaffrey watching him with mild interest, the hero moved to stand at the end of the lynx's bed, and planted both hands on the footrest with a slap.

"All right, what did you do?" he demanded.

"Do what?" McCaffrey replied.

"You know darn well what! What you did to Honker!"

"My dear Darkwing, I did absolutely nothing. Honker acted on his own will."

"Over my dead body! You did something, and I suspect on purpose, to make Honker lose it like he did!"

"I assure you Darkwing, that was never the plan." McCaffrey adjusted his position before continuing. "All we wanted was Honker in the gang. We took the steps to try and do so, and now we have the results."

Darkwing gave him a long and cold glare. "You _hurt _him." he said. "You hurt him, not just physically, but mentally! You _killed _his best friend for no good reason, and when he confront you about it, you threw it in his face!"

"So I did."

"Don't you _care _about what you're doing to him?"

"Not very. I figured that if I could perhaps break him, he'd be more willing to cooperate. The death of his friend was one blow. Rubbing it in pushed him the rest of the way."

Now Darkwing was the one who was trying to keep his anger in check. "You..." he growled, "You...you..." he slapped the bedframe angrily and turned to leave, addressed Matthew as he stormed out. "Matt, you'd better lock that heartless idiot up before I _shoot _him."

"Oh don't worry, Darkwing." Matthew said, looking back at McCaffrey with narrowed eyes as Darkwing slipped out the door. "I'm half tempted to shoot him myself."

McCaffrey merely glared back.

* * *

Honker eventually returned home later that day. Everyone was concerned for him, but there was little more one could do than to make sure he stayed healthy. For a long while, he merely lay in bed, not appearing to have any will to do much else. He missed several days of school, which made Gosalyn, who was already worried enough about him, more worried still.

About a week passed without change. Finally, Honker began to get up and move around again, interacting with his surroundings again. The next day, he started actively speaking again, engaging in conversations with his parents. He started to become a little more cheerful. Finally, by the third day, he was still looking quite depressed, but had otherwise reverted back to his usual self. By the fourth day, he was ready to return to school.

During all of this, Gosalyn had been kept away from him, worried that her attitude to the situation wouldn't help matters, and was more than glad to see him again on his first day back to school after Henry Bantamock's death, who's funeral had been the day previous. Arriving at his home to pick him up to go to school, she found him in his bedroom, working with an item on a shelf. Gosalyn paused to watch him for a few moments.

"Hey Honker." she greeted.

"Hello Gos." he replied distractedly, focusing on what he was doing.

"You...uh...feeling better?"

Honker didn't reply right away. "I'd...rather not talk about it." he said.

"What about the will?"

"All rightfully mine as Mr. Bantamock requested. The watchmaking business is going to have to be closed for now, though."

"Until you're old enough to take the time to reopen it."

Honker nodded.

"And everything else?"

"Being put in storage. Like I said, though, I don't really want to discuss it much."

Gosalyn nodded. "Fair enough." she said. "Just...tell me you won't ever do this again."

Honker sighed, and turned away from the shelf. "No promises." he said.

"Agreed." Gosalyn replied.

They were silent for a moment.

"You ready to go back to school?" Gosalyn asked, pointing behind her to signify their departure.

For the first time in days, Honker grinned, and scooped up his backpack. "Yeah." he said. "Let's go."

Gosalyn grinned herself and turned to go. Honker started to follow, but paused again at the shelf. He glanced at the sole item it carried, half-grinned, then left.

Sitting on the shelf was the clock he had made himself. Now happily wound up and ticking away the seconds as it had been designed to do.

* * *

_Fun Facts: This is only Mr. Bantamock's third appearance since his debute. Wish I could've done more with him, but I think it was time I did something like this. Additionally, while Bantamock technically appears in this chapter, he had no speaking lines._

_This is the third time Jax and Bantamock appeared in the same chapter, and for the last time._

_Jax was thrown in because I felt like doing a scene with her acting more sympathetic for Honker for a change._

_Originally, the clock Honker made was going to be a cukoo clock, but I later settled for a mantle clock as that was simplier._

_Most of the streets referred to in NADWD are named after authors of books I have read. That tradition more or less continues with the two street names that appear in this chapter (Tealeaf Lane and Thorndyke Street) but these streets are named after fellow writers here on FanFiction. :)_

_Frank's full name is revealed for the first time to be Frank Llewellyn. I came up with it after making the reference to "Greater Llewellynland" in chapter 64, "FOUL Ball", thinking it would be a good last name for Frank._

_I like the scene were I describe Binkie making the pie, as it's a chance to do a touch of characterization with her, something I don't get to do often enough with her or Herb._

_The apartment complex Bantamock lives in is named after a fictional town from a not well known series of mystery books I've read, which star a watchmaker mouse of the name of Hermux Tantamoq. Yes, Bantamock is heavily based off the star of this book series. :) His wife as well, but that was a choice I made later, after Bantamock's creation._

_Speaking of which, I've mentioned Bantamock's wife, Linda, once before in chapter 58, "A Change of Heart" when Bantamock briefly mentions her to Launchpad. Even now, a great deal about her is still unknown, and I think I'll keep it that way. :)_

_The fact that Bantamock was wed in 1980 says to me that he would be in his late forties, only a few years older that DW is now._

_Before writing this chapter, I had toyed the idea of Matt finding how that Honker was Techno, but wasn't sure how. When the direction of the conversation moved towards a subject I'm sure was still touchy for Matt (his unintentional shooting and killing of NegaGos), I decided that was how I wanted him to find out Honker was Techno. In that scene, Honker was originally just going to pull his visor from his pocket, but then I decided it seemed unlikely he have it so readily avaliable, so I altered it so he had to go fetch his backpack from the car first._

_Just so we're clear (because I kind of blurred over this detail) Frank was told that Honker is Techno, which I did to make things go smoother for me._

_When originally, the Fearsome Five were going to be the star villains of this chapter, not the Davidson Gang, but later thought the Davidson Gang would be more fitting and I think adds to the hint of "CSI" attitude this chapter touches in areas, and it gave me a chance to do something with them again. :)_

_I believe I concieved of the basic plot of this chapter after watching one too many episodes of "NCIS", and made me want to do a murder mystery of sorts. More or less succeeded, although the murder and the mystery thereof isn't really the focus. :p_

_Megavolt appears because it was about dang time I gave some sort of update about him, so I allowed myself to get a touch off-subject to give Megs and DW a chance to have a very friendly chat. Clearly, they've put all hard feelings behind them now. :)_

_Originally, it was going to be Julie, Hooter's secretary, that came and told DW that Matt was trying to reach him, but then remembered I needed to mention the deal with the Negaverse portals not leading to the Posiverse (which is another clue to Negaduck's master plan, BTW) and knew Julie wouldn't know much about that, so Hooter took her place._

_The meeting place for Tech and McCaffrey was oringinally going to be a tall, abandoned building, and the fight was going to be on the top floor of this building. Upon deciding that I couldn't reason why such a plce would be chosen as a meeting place, however, I decided to pick an old Fearsome Five hideout for nostalga reasons. It's the same hideout the FF where at in chapter 17, "Darkened Mirrors"._

_This chapter is special, because we see Techno loose it big time for a change. Before, we've always seen Techno being so mild mannered, so much so, I realized I never got to write him being terribly mad and loose control of his temper before. Jax getting on his nerves doesn't even compare to this. So Basically, the idea of this chapter was to show a side of Techno we have never seen before, and just how scary a person driven that mad can be._

_Today, I kind of had the opposite of deleted scenes. I'll call them "unexpected" scenes, as I didn't really plan on doing them beforehand. First scene was when DW and the others drop by the tower to determine Techno's current location. I threw in this brief scene because I felt I needed to explain why Crimson and LP did not tag along to stop Techno (as was my plan) and to establish that Techno had taken DW's gas gun, or at least hint at it. The next scene is most of the sequence at the hospital. The scene where DW and Christine talk about Honker was added late and wasn't planned. Like many times before, Christine wasn't planned to appear. The scene where DW confront McCaffrey was planned, but was originally meant to take place at the police station. The setting was changed to the hospital for smooth transitions and the such. Finally, there's the closing scene, which was also unplanned before writing. The chapter was going to end the scene before it, but then I got the idea to close with Honker winding up his clock, which I felt was symbolic of Honker coming to terms with what happened, and prepares to move on._

_The few lines where Gos and Honker discuss the will in the ending scene were added after having already uploaded the chapter to FanFiction. I realized I had overlooked this detail and quickly added it, last second._

_Next chapter will be titled "Laws of History", and will be a nice change-of-pace chapter. :)  
_


	70. Laws Of History

Summary: History follows some very touchy laws. If you change any one part of it, the resulting outcomes will forever be different...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Presenting chapter 70 of NADWD. Kind of funny, actually, that his chapter should end up here. Kind of fitting, even. Anyway, really pleased with how this chapter turned out, and I think you'll all like it. Few surprises. I put great trust on how well versed with the fanfic you readers are by not putting in a chpt. recap in this, so I hope that won't cause problems. Fun facts at the end, the usual drill. Enjoy! :)

70.

Laws Of History

**August 31****st****, 1995, Saint Canard.**

Megavolt was grumbling to himself as he balanced on the self-propelling skateboard through the dark and relatively powerless streets of St. Canard.

"Of all days for my getaway car to break down." he mumbled to himself. "Stuck on this battery with wheels instead, which doesn't even have a decent headlight...had to rig these streetlights to glow in order for me to see where I'm heading...going to draw Darkwing Duck here like a magnet...can't travel faster than thirty miles per hour on this thing...didn't even need to do this at all if-"

He stopped when he heard a faint hum. He looked up in time to see Darkwing Duck get dropped out of the Thunderquack on the Ratcatcher, revving the motorbike's engine as he landed to keep up with Megavolt.

"Oh no, not you!" Megavolt bemoaned. "Isn't there somebody else you could be going after?"

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing Duck answered, pursuing after the rat as they both sped up, shooting down the dark road. "I'm the superhero who had nothing else to do! I'm Darkwing Duck!"

Gulping, Megavolt looked for an escape route, knowing that Darkwing's motorbike could easily outrun him. Seeing an narrow alley, he steered his self-propelling skateboard into it. Darkwing easily kept on Megavolt's tail, keeping him in the motorbike's headlights.

"You can't escape me, Megavolt!" Darkwing shouted as they both exited on the other side of the alley.

"Maybe not now!" Megavolt called back, realizing he had just unwittingly just took a shortcut in his original escape route, and was now much closer to his destination.

In sight directly ahead were a set of power poles with the lines running above the nearby buildings, crossing over the street. On one of the lines, speeding towards them was a contraption wheeling down the line like a bike on a tightrope. Dangling down from it was a handle on a long cable. As it passed over Megavolt jumped and grabbed it, and began to be carried away.

But he didn't go fast enough, for a moment later, Darkwing latched onto his feet, and he too was pulled away, as both of their vehicles zoomed onward a few feet by themselves until they crashed into each other.

"Go away!" Megavolt shouted at Darkwing, trying to shake the crime-fighter off his feet. Darkwing hung on tight, regardless.

"I'll only go away when you're safely in jail, Sparky!" he shouted at Megavolt.

"Don't call me Sparky!" Megavolt whined, trying to send an electrical charge through is suit to shock Darkwing off, but Darkwing was prepared, wearing thick gloves that shielded his hands.

They zoomed along the power lines for several moments more. Megavolt wanted to pull off Darkwing with his hands, but he needed both to hang onto his contraption.

"Give it up, Megavolt!" Darkwing shouted persistently, knowing Megavolt didn't have any means to get rid of him at the moment, "There's no way you would have gotten away with causing a black out!"

"You think I wanted to cause a black out?" Megavolt exclaimed, frustrated, "I mean, sure, I do that from time to time, it's how I relax, have a bit of fun, but I had to this time, because the power converter on my getaway car broke down, and I needed to study another one in order to make a replacement, and the power plant just happened to have one!" He motioned to a small, chip-like, device he held between two fingers. "I was going to put it right back once I was done!" he promised.

"Sorry, Megavolt, but if it interferes with this city's everyday operations, I gotta stop you from doing it!" Darkwing said, shifting his position from where he hang off of Megavolt's feet.

"See, I knew you'd do that!" Megavolt continued, "I knew you'd find me if I kept those streetlights lit to mark my escape path, but I didn't have a choice there either, cause I can't see in the dark!"

"Well, neither can I, so at least we have that much in common." Darkwing admitted. He grunted as he tried to find a more comfortable position to hang from, "How much farther until your hideout Megs? I'm getting tired from hanging here, so let's hurry up and get this over with!"

"Not much farther now." Megavolt assured Darkwing. "See, there it is!"

The power line suddenly dipped and lead towards a short, three-story building, stopping to connect with the wiring in the building next to a window on the top floor. Megavolt began to skillfully swing into it, but he forgot to take Darkwing's presence into consideration, and fell short. Grabbing the windowsill, he hung there, wondering what to do now. Darkwing was one step ahead of him, and quickly scrambled up Megavolt and clambered through the window.

Safely inside the building, he turned back around the face the window and pulled the power converter from Megavolt's grasp.

"Hey!" Megavolt complained, swiping at it and nearly losing his grip and falling, "I need that!"

"Sorry, Sparky, St. Canard needs it more than you do." Darkwing said, holding the converter in his hand and studying it.

"DON'T...CALL...ME...SPARKY!" Megavolt said, pulling himself into the window, and took Darkwing's distraction as an opportunity to aim a bolt of energy at him.

Darkwing dodged the bolt at the last possible moment, whipping out his gas gun from his belt. "Suck gas, evil-doer!" he shouted, pulling the trigger.

The capsule containing a fair amount of sleeping gas shot towards Megavolt, but as Megavolt slid through the window, he slipped and fell to the floor. The capsule zipped over his head and out the window. Megavolt reacted quickly, and let loose another bolt of electricity. This one struck Darkwing's gun, knocking it from his grasp and into a corner.

Before Darkwing could move to retrieve it, Megavolt tackled him. They fell to the floor, and rolled about for several moments, fighting, occasionally knocking into the worktables Megavolt had lined around his hideout. Finally, Darkwing managed to get both of his webbed feet under Megavolt, and kicked the villain off of him and into a nearby chair. Darkwing grabbed the first thing that would work as a rope, in this case some kind of electrical cable, and began tying Megavolt up to the chair.

Megavolt sighed, allowing himself to be tied up. "Guess I lose." he said, "Again."

"Cheer up." Darkwing said, wrapping the end of the cord around Megavolt's arms, "The police department has been building a cell just for you."

"Yeah, I've heard of it." Megavolt admitted. "They're building individual cells for every supervillain, each one designed to keep it's occupant in, neutralizing each one's special abilities. In my case, it'd be electrocution proof. Which means that unless a miracle happens, I'm not getting out of there anytime soon."

Darkwing nodded in agreement. "If it makes you feel any better, once you're in jail, I'm pretty much out of a job." he said, starting tie the cord. "With these new special cells and St. Canard's crime rate at an all time low among other things, no one really needs a crime fighter anymore."

Megavolt was slightly surprised by this news. "So..." he said, cautiously, "What are you going to do when that happens?"

"I don't know." Darkwing admitted. "I might retire, or, more likely, find crime somewhere else in the world."

He was still tying the knot. Megavolt was watching intently. "Um, you may want to be careful." he said suddenly. "That cable is touching my power battery, and sometimes it'll discharge without warning. And seeing that your improvised rope is a power cord, the electrical current would carry through it up to your..."

He didn't need to say anything more after that, for the event he was describing actually happened, and the end result was that it shocked Darkwing, who had at one point lost both of his gloves in the fight. Surprised, the crime fighter staggered backwards towards the window on the other side of the room. Just before he reached it, Darkwing tripped and fell over, and being as close to the window as he was, he slammed right into it, his face smashing into the glass panel of the closed window and slid to the floor.

Megavolt laughed. Darkwing shot him a glare.

"Shut up." he muttered. "I can blame that all on you, you know."

"Sorry." Megavolt said, still smiling. "Actually, you should consider yourself lucky. That window's big enough that, if it had been open, you would've fallen right out of it and into the river."

"Oh please, like I'd really let that happen to myself." Darkwing muttered, stepping over to finish tying up Megavolt then glancing at his watch. "Where the heck is Launchpad?"

Megavolt, however, was still looking at the window. "Funny, though." he said aloud. "I could've sworn that window _was _open when we first entered the room..."

And he was right. And standing out of sight on the roof of the building was the person who had discreetly closed it. Or at least was. For one moment he was there....and the next, he wasn't...

* * *

**Present Day.**

Drake opened his eyes slowly, and took in his surroundings. As expected, he was in his bedroom, and for the most part it looked the same as always. The same pictures hung on the wall, with the same furniture sitting about the room. Turning to his head to one side, though, he realized that his bedside table was now sitting on the opposite side of the bed.

And upon noticing the pictures that sat upon it, he happily knew why.

He rolled to look on the other side of the bed, and saw it was larger now, done to accommodate one more person. Grinning, Drake watched Morgana sleep peacefully beside him, her back turned to him. He had presumed that she was in a deep sleep, but he was proved wrong when, perhaps sensing that Drake was awake, Morgana sleepily rolled over to look at him.

"Drake," she murmured, rubbing at her eyes. "You're awake. Is there something wrong?"

Drake didn't reply right away as he noticed the wedding ring Morgana perpetually wore on her ring finger.

The ring _he _gave her.

"No, everything's fine." Drake replied happily. "Just as it should be."

Morgana grinned, and rolled back over to sleep. Drake did likewise, but before he did, he looked one final time at the picture sitting on his bedside table. A picture of him and Morgana on their wedding day...

* * *

Drake slept in for a little bit the following morning, enjoying happy dreams, feeling the happiest he had ever been in a long time. But finally, he did wake up, and stretching his arms, sat up in bed and looked around the bedroom, lit with late February morning light streaming in through the window.

He was just about to clamber out of bed when the door to the bedroom opened, and Morgana strolled in, already fully dressed for the day.

"Well, good morning, sleepyhead." she said with a grin, moving towards for her own bedside table on the other side of the bed, opening a drawer to pull something out. "Did you sleep well?"

Drake yawned. "Very well." he said happily. "I feel great this morning."

"Good." Morgana said. "Breakfast is already on the table. Better hurry and get down there if you want to catch Gos before she goes to school."

"Gos." Drake said distractedly. "Right."

"Meet you down there." Morgana said, and then exited the room.

Drake rose, grabbing the things he'd need to get changed, and quickly got dressed into his usual outfit and hurried downstairs, taking the steps two at a time as he went. Reaching the bottom, he bounded into the living room, where he found Launchpad sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"Hey DW." Launchpad greeted as Drake hurried past. "Boy, you sure seem happy today."

"I've got good reason to be, LP." Drake said, now stepping into the dining room to sit down at the kitchen table and began pouring himself a bowl of cereal.

Across the table, Gosalyn looked up from her own bowl of cereal. "There you are, dad." she remarked. "Slept in, did you?"

"Yeah, slept like a rock." Drake said, going at the cereal with a gusto, scanning the headlines of the paper that was already sitting on the table.

"Hmpf." Gosalyn grunted. "And what ever happened to that talk about 'early to bed, early to rise?'"

Drake gave her a look. "It's my own advice, so I can decide if I follow it or not."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Gosalyn said, finishing her breakfast and checking her watch, grabbing her book bag and jacket. "Well, I need to get going, or I'm going to be late for school."

"Taking a friend today?" Morgana asked as she swept into the room carrying her own breakfast, which appeared to be simple oatmeal to Drake's surprise.

"Nah, he's already up there at the school for...something." Gosalyn said, rolling her eyes as she rose from her chair. "You know him and his studies."

Morgana grinned knowingly and didn't comment. Drake also did not comment, but inwardly thought that sounded typical of Honker.

"Anyway, here I go." Gosalyn said, heading for the door of the garage.

"Bye Gos." Drake mumbled as she walked out the door.

A few moments later, she walked back in.

"Aren't you coming, Dad?" she asked, annoyed.

Drake looked up from his breakfast. "Coming?" he repeated hesitantly.

"Yeah, dad, winter may be on the verge of ending now, but it's still _frigid _out there." Gosalyn mumbled, wrapping her jacket tighter around herself. "You aren't going to make me walk are you, or are you going to give me a ride like always?"

"Um..." Drake began, unsure, then rose from his chair. "No, I'll...I'll give you a ride as always."

"Well, hurry it up, then!" Gosalyn snapped, and marched back out the door.

Drake quickly grabbed a jacket and began to put it on. As he did so, he noticed that Morgana had taken her breakfast into the living room and sat beside Launchpad on the couch, also watching the TV.

"What are you two watching?" Drake asked.

"The latest episode of _Jumpgate: Universitas _that I recorded last night." Launchpad replied, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"It's already proving to be a very interesting episode." Morgana added, also completely engrossed with the show.

Drake merely grinned and rolled his eyes, and walked out into the garage. Gosalyn was already sitting in the car waiting for him. Drake noticed first that the car wasn't the 2004 Windstorm car he had been expecting but rather the sporty car the family had owned before that which Gosalyn loved, and then second noticed that this car was the only vehicle in the garage.

"No motorbike." he noted aloud as he climbed into the driver's seat.

"What?" Gosalyn asked, giving him a look.

"Nothing." Drake replied, and started the car, pulling out of the garage. "Same place as always?"

Gosalyn gave him another odd lock. "Yeah..." she said slowly.

"Just making sure." Drake said nervously, and headed on down the street.

* * *

St. Canard was as busy as it always was this time of day. Life here was going on like always had been. It was cold out, but not as cold as Gosalyn had implied it would be. Spring was well on it's way. A thin dusting of snow lay on the ground still, but otherwise all of the snow that had accumulated during the past winter had all but melted away already. At the high school, things were going on as they usually did too, and Drake took comfort in that as he pulled the car up beside the school.

"Thanks dad." Gosalyn said, clambering out of the car. "I'll see you after school. I'll be coming right home to get ready for the dance."

Drake perked up at this. "The dance?" he repeated.

"Yeah, the yearly winter's end dance the school holds every year." Gosalyn remarked, annoyed. "I've been planning this date with..."

"Oh yeah, I get it, never mind." Drake quickly said, catching on. "Sorry, guess I'm not fully awake still."

"Yeah, I guess so." Gosalyn said, giving him yet another look.

Drake put the car into gear. "See you then, Gos." he said as he pulled away, waving.

He then merged into traffic, and began driving home. As he did so, he reflected on things thus far.

"So," he remarked aloud to himself, "I guess this means Gos and Honker have gotten together."

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?"

Drake jumped in surprise, and looked in the rear view mirror to see someone sitting there who hadn't been there before. Stomping on the brakes to bring the car to a stop in the middle of traffic, Drake turned around to look at the newcomer in shock.

"Crimson?" he inquired.

"In a sense." Crimson replied, giving him a look.

"How did you get here?"

"The question you should be asking yourself is actually 'why am I here'?"

Drake just stared at her for a moment. Then a loud honking horn rang out behind the car. Drake twisted back around in his seat to look out the window and behind the car to see that traffic was building up behind him. By the time he had twisted back around, however, Crimson was gone again. Shocked some more, Drake blinked, then shook his head, and returned to driving, continuing forward in the car again.

He sensed he hadn't seen the end of this matter, however.

* * *

Back home, however, things were still as he hoped they were. Launchpad was still sitting in the living room watching TV, having finished the show he was watching when he left had having moved on to another. Morgana had lost interest in the show and had moved on to do other things, sitting elsewhere in the living room.

"Welcome back, Drake." Morgana greeted as she worked.

"Hey, Morg." Drake said, and moved over to stand near her simply because he felt like it. After a moment's hesitation, he added a kiss to the cheek, to which Morgana did not protest. He glanced at the papers she was working on. "Whatcha doing?"

"Working on ways to teach Gos a new spell." Morgana replied simply.

"Oh really?" Drake prompted, taking interest in that.

"Yes, amazing that she turned out have magical blood." Morgana murmured. "Who'd' have thought it, right? And she and her familiar are learning so much. Gos has already expressed interest in attending a magical school when she's done with high school to learn more, you know."

"Of course." Drake remarked, who was again glad for this.

"Anyway, your breakfast is still on the table." Morgana said, pointing. "I imagine that you'll want to finish it before you do much else."

"Oh. Oh yes!" Drake said, and moved to the table.

Actually, he didn't want to leave Morgana's side, and hoped to do something special with her, but he _was _still hungry, and decided to sit down and finish the meal. As he did so, he pulled aside the newspaper and continued skimming through it, heading the headlines like before. He paused when he found a headline that surprised him in the national news section.

"**Air Pirates Still At Large!**"

"Cape Suzette Still Reels From Unexpected Attack!"

Surprised, Drake read through the article. Apparently, the air pirates had made an unexpected comeback about a month ago, and attacked Cape Suzette without warning, dealing the city a great deal of damage, and robbing it of most of it's valuables. Now the air pirates were wandering about the coast, striking without warning on unsuspecting targets.

This was not how Drake remembered events turning out.

He decided then and there that before he did much else, there was one thing he should do first. Finishing his breakfast, he moved to Darkwing Tower.

The original Darkwing Tower.

Drake grinned at this, but then moved straight to the supercomputer and logged on. Bringing up the search program, he did a search for the Fearsome Five. The results that were brought up only listed the original five members of the team, Negaduck, Megavolt, Bushroot, Quackerjack, and The Liquidator. It also stated that the team was disbanded. Drake then did a search on each individual members, and discovered why the team was disbanded. All of them but Negaduck were locked up in the supervillain prison, and had been like that for more than eight years now. Negaduck was still at large, but had been lying low lately. NegaGosalyn and Rowe had never joined the group.

Drake then searched for Gigavolt. He found no references of him. Same for Nanite, however, he did find references to Lewis Jakeway, who was in jail for attempted assault on Darkwing and the murder of Police Chief Hugo. There was also no reference of Darkwarrior Duck, another upside for Drake. FOUL, however, did exist, and so did various minor villains such as Frogduck.

But, it seemed that most of Darkwing's major villains either didn't exist, or had been defeated.

And Drake knew why.

Heading back home, he went to his study and closed the door, and found exactly what he had hoped to find. A scrapbook covering major details of his life. Launchpad had started it, then Drake continued it himself, and now had control over what in it. Pulling it out of the desk drawer it was kept in, he flipped through it. His life had gone on exactly as he remembered it.

Up until August 31, 1995.

On that day, Darkwing battled Megavolt for the last time before he was thrown into jail.

But he never fell out any windows afterwards.

He was never abducted and brought to the Negaverse.

He had never gone missing for seven whole years of his life.

No Bob, the magician psychiatrist, had ever entered the picture.

Drake got Morgana instead, and married her on June 24th, 1998, and the two had been happily wed ever since.

And it had all gone _exactly_ according to Drake's plan.

* * *

He spent the next several hours flipping through that scrapbook, learning about his new life, his grin growing bigger with each passing moment.

"Oh, this is going even better than I planned." he muttered aloud.

"Oh, but just wait for when the other shoe falls."

Drake looked up and saw Crimson standing in the study with him, leaning on a wall while giving him a dark look. Drake narrowed his eyes at her.

"How did you get in here?" he demanded. "No wait, I'm supposed to ask _why _you're here, right?"

"Oh, you _know _why I'm here." Crimson replied, folding her arms.

Drake nodded. He had more or less deduced things. "You're from the future, aren't you?"

"The _old _future." Future Crimson corrected hotly. "No thanks to you."

"Oh, I don't know, seems to me that things are even better off now."

"_You _haven't seen everything that's changed yet. I have. There are going to be a few things you won't like."

"I haven't seen any."

"Just give it time."

"Well, if you're here to get me to change my mind, you can just forget it."

"C'mon dad, you know me better than that. You know I won't give up."

"There's a first time for everything. Besides, why should I listen to you, who is from a point in time that doesn't even exist anymore?" Drake paused. "For that matter, how can you even _be _here?"

Future Crimson tapped a round device located on her arm. "Paradox Inducer." she explained flatly. "Forces time to allow me to continue to exist for a brief period of time. Time I intend to spend setting things right."

"Things _are _right."

"Not if I'll have anything to do with it."

"Right back at you."

Then there was a sudden knock on the door, and Drake turned to look at it in time for Morgana to enter. "Drake, who are you talking to?" she asked, puzzled.

Drake glanced from her to the spot Future Crimson had been standing, saw that she wasn't there anymore, then looked back at Morgana. "Uh, no one." he said. "Just me."

"Oh." Morgana muttered, looking around the room nervously. "Well, I suppose I have heard you talk to yourself before, but never have you raised your voice at yourself before."

Drake chuckled nervously. "Well, I was mad at myself there for a moment." he covered weakly. "I'm over it now. Hey, I've got an idea, how about we go out for lunch, just you and me?"

Morgana grinned. "That's sounds great, Drake, we haven't done that in a long time." she said.

"Good, then let's go." Drake said, grinning happily as he led Morgana out of the room.

But he shot one last glare back into the study in case Future Crimson was still watching.

* * *

The impromptu trip to a restaurant for lunch went well. They talked about a lot of things, but Morgana did most of it, talking about the new past that Drake was still catching up on. Drake let her, as it enabled him to absorb new details about his new life.

And it had never seemed to be more perfect.

Afterwards, they went to a movie, again unplanned, and saw a film Morgana had been wanting to see. They both had a great time, and to Drake, it felt just like old times, and wished this little trip out on the town would never end.

But eventually it did, as Morgana stated they needed to get home so there would be time to make dinner before Gosalyn's big date tonight. They went home, and Drake helped Morgana cook, who had gotten quite skilled at preparing dishes for normal, non-magical, people like himself. Gosalyn came home soon thereafter, greeted everyone politely as she entered, then hurried upstairs to get ready. She came down only long enough to have dinner, then promptly went back up again.

Everyone else sat around the house passing the time after dinner, waiting to send Gosalyn and her date off. To pass the time, they all did various things. Morgana continued working on her project of teaching Gosalyn a new spell, Launchpad watched the TV like always, and Drake read a book. Finally, about a half hour before the dance was scheduled to start, Gosalyn came out of her bedroom, and from the top of the stairs, announced that she was ready.

"Okay guys, come and tell me that I don't look too terrible." Gosalyn pleaded.

"Ha, little chance of that, Gos." Drake said, setting aside his book as he, Morgana and Launchpad all gathered at the bottom of the stairs and looked up them at Gosalyn.

Morgana gasped in joy at the sight of her.

"Wow." Launchpad said, impressed.

Drake, too, was impressed, but settled to just grin. Gosalyn slowly made her way down the stairs to join them. She was wearing a fine, white silk dress, a rarity for Gosalyn, that sparkled in the light. Her hair had been let down and was brushed and styled so that the red hairs looked as silky as the dress she wore. As simple as the whole outfit was, she looked positively stunning.

Finally, she reached the bottom of the stairs, and grinned hopefully. "So?" she prompted. "Good?"

"Better than good, Gos, you look beautiful!" Morgana cried happily.

"I can concur with that." Drake added helpfully.

"Thanks guys." Gosalyn said, relieved. She took a deep breath. "Now I just need to wait for my date to arrive."

"He should be here soon, I think." Launchpad offered, checking his watch.

"Oh, I don't know, he does tend to arrive late for these kind of things." Gosalyn muttered as she began pacing across the entry hall.

"Nonsense, I'm sure he'll hurry right over here for this." Morgana said. "I mean, he's going out with you, Gos, that has to be incentive enough."

"Yep, Honker's a lucky guy." Drake added, thinking he should add his two-bits.

Everyone glanced at him in surprise, making Drake realize he just said something he shouldn't.

"Did you just say Honker?" Gosalyn asked, surprised.

Drake hesitated, feeling his face grow hot. "Did I?" he asked.

"You did, Drake." Morgana said, also surprised.

"Oh, well, I...uh...didn't mean to." Drake covered lamely.

He could tell that they didn't completely buy it, but it was enough, and they turned their focus to other things. While they discussed the dance and Gosalyn's apparel further, Drake stood to one side and mentally thought this new development. Up until now, he had just presumed Honker to be Gosalyn's mystery date, but this certainly indicated otherwise.

But then, if Honker wasn't Gosalyn's date, who was?

The doorbell rang suddenly, and everyone turned to look at the door.

"He's here!" Gosalyn said, and moved to open the door quickly to reveal her date.

He was exactly the very last person Drake expected to see.

"G'evenin' mates!" Rowe greeted cheerfully.

* * *

It took all of Drake's willpower to try and keep his beak from unhinging and clamped tightly shut.

"Rowe, you made it on time for a change!" Gosalyn said, clearly relieved as she looked the tuxedoed otter up and down. "You look great!"

"Of course, mate, I want everything to go great tonight." Rowe promised. "You look great too."

"Oh, well, thank you." Gosalyn said, blushing slightly.

They were both silent for a moment. Rowe then cleared his throat.

"Uh, these are for you." Rowe said, pulled out a bundle of flowers from behind his back and held them out to Gosalyn. They were daffodils, her favorite.

Gosalyn happily accepted them and sniffed them. "They smell wonderful." she noted.

Rowe looked relieved. "Oh good." he said, tugging at his collar slightly.

"Nervous?" Gosalyn asked.

"Aye." Rowe replied.

"Well, so am I, so I guess we can both relax." Gosalyn said, handing the flowers to Morgana. "Anyway, we should be going."

"Right you are, mate." Rowe said, and offered her his arm.

Gosalyn accepted it, and they both walked out into the night.

"Bye guys!" Gosalyn called.

"Bye, Gos!" Launchpad called back, waving.

"Have a good night!" Morgana added, then nudged Drake, who was silent. "Come on, Drake, tell them goodbye!"

Drake wanted to, but worried that if he opened his mouth for anything, he'd blurt out something he'd regret.

Finally the two had gone. Launchpad closed the door, and walked back to the living room. Morgana, however, was giving Drake an odd look.

"Drake, are you all right?" she asked. "You seem stunned."

Drake resisted the urge to say that he was. "Uh, I just remembered something I need to do." he said, and quickly headed for the chairs and activated them to be whisked away to the tower, leaving Morgana and Launchpad looked at each other, frowning at his odd behavior.

* * *

Darkwing Tower may be the original tower, but when Drake saw it earlier that day, something about it seemed off to him. He didn't think too much of it at the time. But now, he looked the tower over more closely, and realized it lacked that personal touch of Techno's many enhancements. Drake sensed that Techno hadn't ever been there to make those enhancements a reality.

And he had a sneaking suspicion he knew why.

He quickly sat himself down at the supercomputer and did a search on Rowe's name. When the profile came up, he read through it quickly, realizing that everything about the otter was different now.

As he had already observed, Rowe never joined the Fearsome Five. That was because Darkwing, having never vanished for seven years, was always around to make sure it's four captured members stayed in jail. Negaduck couldn't do many of his master plans without them, and thereby Rowe never met up with the team.

Instead, when Rowe left Neptunia's group as Drake knew he would, he went out and tried to become a villain on his own. He failed poorly. Eventually, when Neptunia caught up with him again, she didn't know what to do with him, and petitioned SHUSH to take the otter of her hands. They did, but weren't entirely sure what to do about him until Darkwing himself came up with a villain reconditioning program that was tested on Rowe.

It worked, and Rowe swapped sides. The first year or so afterward was rough for him, but later he got his life in order again, going back to school to catch up for the years he had missed since he had dropped out, and was now living happily. Especially now that he had Gosalyn. They had first met late during Rowe's reconstitution, and rapidly grew to be closer and closer friends as more and more time went by.

Around then, Morgana accidently discovered that Gosalyn had magical blood while working on a magical project, and the two began working to see what kind of powers Gosalyn had. Gosalyn couldn't cast any spells, however, until she accidently cast one in Rowe's presence, then allowing everyone to discover that Rowe was a familiar. The two then paired up to begin learning magic off-and-on. Around then, Rowe joined Gosalyn as Crimson in crime fighting and became her sidekick. Shortly after that, they started dating.

Drake was shocked by the time he reached the end of the profile, and then nervously did a search for Techno, almost fearing the results.

The search turned up nothing.

Techno had never come to be.

Drake pounded his fist hard on the master control panel. "How could've this happened?" he asked aloud.

"Simply enough. You didn't vanish for seven years."

Drake turned around to see Future Crimson sitting idly at one of the six smaller computers that sat on the supercomputer platform. He glared at her.

"You." he said flatly. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"I told you, I know a lot more about this new timeline than you do." Future Crimson commented calmly.

"Well, I didn't."

"You do now. And it was only a matter of time before you found out."

Drake continued to glare at her. "You didn't tell me this because you knew that me discovering it on my own would deal the greater blow." he accused.

"Ah-ha!" Future Crimson said, standing up. "You _hate _this little development, don't you? Having second thoughts, are we?"

"No, not seconds thoughts." Drake quickly assured her. "It's just...a minor setback." he turned back to the supercomputer. "I can fix this."

"There is no way to undo this now." Future Crimson said, moving closer to him. "Those two are stuck together forever now, you can't change that. At least, not without keeping the girl at the same time."

Drake narrowed his eyes. "Okay, you made your point." he said. "Will you go away now?"

"Will you undo what you did?"

"No!" Drake said, spinning back around to face her. "No, I won't undo it! I've worked too hard to come so far just to loose it all over a minor setback. Maybe I can't fix it, so I'll just have to learn to live with it. All of the rest of it..." he motioned to their surroundings to indicate to the new timeline, "...makes up for it completely, and outweighs the minor setbacks!"

"But this isn't the _only _'setback.'" Future Gosalyn stated. "There are plenty more out there."

They fell silent, staring at each other. The console behind Drake began beeping. Drake ignored it. Finally, Future Gosalyn motioned to it.

"You going to answer that?" she asked.

"If I take my eyes off you, you'll vanish." Drake pointed out.

"Exactly."

They stared at each other for a few moments longer. Finally Drake relented and glanced back at the console to see there was incoming message from SHUSH. Looking back at Future Crimson, he saw that she had vanished. Sighing, Drake rose and changed into his Darkwing Duck costume and accepted the call. Hooter appeared on the screen quickly thereafter.

"Ah, Darkwing, thank you for answering my call." Hooter greeted.

"My pleasure, J. Gander." Darkwing replied. "What's up?"

Hooter sighed. "Nothing good, I'm afraid." he admitted. "It's The Elements. They're at it again."

* * *

"Liz, are you _in_ that network yet, or not?" Jack O'Hara asked hotly.

"Almost, Jack, just give me a few more minutes!" Elizabeth Guire said, tapping away at a computer in annoyance. "Sheesh, you think this is easy?"

"You aren't going to get away with this!" Mayor Kim said from one corner of the room, where he and a fair share of his staff was being held there by Jack, who was menacing them with his fire powers. "There is no way your crazy plan will work!"

"Oh, tell that to Steelbeak, I'm sure he'd _love _to hear you say that." Garth Miner said sarcastically from the doorway.

"Got it." Elizabeth announced suddenly from the computer, grinning. "I have access to the city's financial accounts. Now, I think I'll just transfer some of the money in those accounts to FOUL..."

"Oh, jolly good, eh wot?" Sally McHare said, looking over Elizabeth's shoulder. "See if yeh can add a fifty percent raise t' our paychecks while yeh're at it, wot-wot?"

"Good idea, Sal." Elizabeth said, grinning as she made the necessary arrangements. "Hmm, looks like the city will be dangerously low on money after I do all of that, though. Maybe I should boost that raise by _another _ten percent..."

"But if you do that, you'll electronically bankrupt the city of St. Canard!" the mayor's aide exclaimed.

"Exactly the idea." Jack said, pointing a finger at them and smirking a cruel grin.

Then the doors to the mayor's office suddenly banged open, and a cloud of purple smoke gushed into the room.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the very last person you ever expected to see again! I am...Darkwing Duck!"

With a leap, Darkwing exited the cloud of smoke and skidded to a stop before the group, gas gun drawn, Launchpad following him none too gracefully.

"All right, guys, enough is enough." Darkwing challenged, brandishing his gas gun at each member of The Elements in turn. "Put the money back and let the mayor go, and maybe I'll only throw you guys in the supervillain prison for _fifty _years."

Jack gave Darkwing a grin, alighting his hand in fire, and creating a ball of flames that he tossed idly with that one hand. "I don't think so, Darkwing."

He hurled the ball at Darkwing, who quickly dodged it, then fired a canister of sleeping gas at Elizabeth who was still at the computer. Almost idly, Elizabeth created a small gust of wind that blew it away from her and to fall to the floor, hitting it without enough force to trigger the canister to released it's contents. Still standing beside the door, unnoticed by Darkwing and Launchpad, Garth slammed his foot down and generated a small earthquake that shook the room. Darkwing and Launchpad wobbled on their feet for a moment, then toppled over onto the floor. Garth hurried over to the other side of the room to join the others.

Sally spun around and used her powers to burst a water pipe in the wall beside her, and sprayed the water that gushed out at Darkwing and Launchpad. It hit Launchpad who was first to get back up, who the slammed into Darkwing. They both crashed to the floor again. Using the same water, Sally then formed a wall dividing the room in half and froze the water the wall was made up of.

"I'm done." Elizabeth announced shortly thereafter, rising from the computer.

"Let's go, then." Jack said, and burst fully into flames and launched himself through the office window, shattering it.

Elizabeth was next to follow the fox out the window, using her powers to generate a cushion of air for her to walk on. Garth and Sally followed her, using the same cushion of air to escape. In the office, there was a sudden flash of light as Darkwing used the Teryx teleporter attachment the get rid of the wall of ice, and then surged into the other half of the office.

"Dang it!" he exclaimed when he saw that he was too late. "They got away!"

"Not before they emptied the city's financial accounts first." Kim remarked, he and his staff finally moving out of the corner they had been driven into. "But you did what you could, Darkwing, I suppose I can't ask for more."

Darkwing gave him a look for the tone the mayor said that comment in.

"So what should we do now, DW?" Launchpad asked, shaking water from his scarf.

"We better go after them, and try and stop them or...something." Darkwing muttered, racing for the door. "C'mon LP, we'll need to at least report in to SHUSH and explain what's happened, which I am _not _looking forward to."

"Gee, DW, no need to be so hard on yourself." Launchpad said as he hurried out after him. "It's not like these guys haven't gotten the better of us before. I mean, they did something similar just last week."

"For you, maybe." Darkwing muttered under his breath.

* * *

They returned to the Ratcatcher and drove around town, searching for any sign of The Elements. After about an hour of searching, they still hadn't found any trace of them.

"Still no sign of them, DW." Launchpad remarked from the sidecar, having pulled out a pair of binoculars and was looking around with them. "You think they're still in the city?"

"Yes...no...I don't know!" Darkwing admitted as he drove. He rubbed at his eyes for a second. "I really wasn't expecting to have to fight these guys."

"Yeah, I suppose we should be a bit surprised they're at it again so quickly, seeing how things went last week." Launchpad remarked. "But if we beat these guys once, we can do it again." he shrugged. "Too bad we can't count on them being overdue for another injection like last time."

"Injection?"

"Yeah, you know, the injections FOUL developed to keep the powers The Elements have from wearing off? Those injections."

"Oh."

They were silent for a long moment.

"Launchpad," Darkwing began, being careful on how he said this, "this may seem a little off topic, but...when was the last time you saw Honker?"

Launchpad seemed a little taken aback by the question. "Well, actually, I see him every now and then at the Muddlefoots." he admitted. "But the last time I've spoken to him is entirely different question. I think it's been about a year...I don't know, haven't really been keeping track. Why do you ask?"

"I dunno." Darkwing admitted. "I just...got to thinking about him."

"Kinda of depressing, though, isn't it?" Launchpad asked. "He was such a good kid, never thought he'd end up like this."

There was another moment of silence. Darkwing was debating how he could discreetly ask Launchpad what he meant by that, but in the end didn't have to, as Launchpad answered the question without knowing by suddenly continuing.

"You know, one could blame that all on Rowe, though that wouldn't really be fair." he remarked. "Rowe didn't mean to do anything. In fact, he didn't. It was all Honker and Gosalyn, and he just got caught in the middle. Although, he and Honker never did seem to get along, and him and Gos getting together didn't help. The closer Rowe got to Gos, the further that drove Honker away. Then Honk finally asked Gos the question. Which did she like more; him or Rowe? And...well..." he trailed off, not needing to elaborate. "I guess Honker took the blow hard, letting himself getting caught up with the wrong crowds, particularly that Jax girl as a result. And everything went downhill from there. I look at Honker now and I barely recognize him." he shook his head. "The Honker I knew four or five years ago might as well be dead, you know what I mean, DW?"

Darkwing sighed. "Yeah." he admitted. "I think I do, LP."

* * *

They continued searching the rest of the night, but they never did find another trace of The Elements, which in the end, Darkwing had to admit was to be expected. They had an uncanny knack for that. So, tired and weary, they headed back home. All Drake wanted by that point was some food, a hot drink, and nothing to stop him from crawling into bed.

However, when arriving home, he saw that something _did _stand in his way of that. A couple of somethings.

When the chairs stopped spinning, Drake found that a very angry Gosalyn was there waiting for him. Also present was Morgana and Rowe, although Morgana simply seemed worried about Drake and Rowe looked like he'd rather stay out of it. Therefore, Drake focused his attention on Gosalyn, and resisted the urge to groan.

"Gos, I'm really not in the mood for this." he said, trying to push past her.

She stopped him. "Well, I am." she said. "Why didn't you send for me for help when you found out The Elements were causing trouble?"

"Because, you were at a dance, I didn't want to interrupt that, and I figured I could handle it on my own." Drake said, to which Launchpad promptly agreed to, who had been thinking the same thing and would followed Drake without question anyway.

The truth, though, was that Drake figured he could've greatly benefitted from the help of Crimson at the conflict with The Elements. But he knew that if he asked for her help, Rowe was likely to tag along whether he liked it or not, and Drake didn't really want to have to put up with Rowe, regardless of what side he was now on. He started forward again, again trying to slip past Gosalyn, but she continued to block his path.

"I would've understood." Gosalyn said. "You know I would've. Furthermore, I could've helped you _stop _The Elements from what they were doing. You _know_ that it takes a group effort to stop those guys!"

"It wasn't so bad, SHUSH was able to block most of the transaction The Elements made with the money they stole from the city and sent it back, so FOUL only ended up with a fraction of the money they were hoping for, which won't change things much for them." Drake said, who was personally relieved this happened.

He again tried to push past Gosalyn. This time Morgana intervened, placing a caring hand on Drake's shoulder and gently pushing Gosalyn to one side.

"Drake, are you all right?" she asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine, Morg, just really tired." Drake said, continuing onward to head out of the living room.

Gosalyn started to follow, but Rowe, sitting on the couch, stopped her.

"Gos, mate, leave him be for a little bit." he urged. "He really does look tired, and besides, I think he got the message. It's not like you can change what's already happened anyway."

Drake, who overheard, let out a snort of ironic laughter at that, drawing surprised looks from everyone.

"Drake, are you _sure _you're okay?" Morgana asked again, this time not bothering to hide her concern.

"I'm fine, just tired." Drake muttered, exiting the living room. "I'll be upstairs napping if you need me."

He vanished into the entry room. Those left in the living room watched him go, then quietly began talking amongst themselves. What about, Drake didn't know, but he didn't care either. Reaching the stairs, he started to climb up them. He then suddenly paused, sensing that he was being watched, and turned look back at the door of his study, which was open ajar. He saw a figure within.

Sleep suddenly forgotten, he narrowed his eyes and slipped into the study and locked the door.

"What do _you _want?" Drake snapped at Future Crimson, moving to go sit at his desk.

"To see if you've decided this was a bad idea yet." Future Crimson replied, watching him as he went.

"Oh no, if you really think you can just get me to change my mind and undo this on my own, you can just forget it." Drake said, plopping himself heavily in his chair. "Besides, you really think it's that easy?"

"Yes." Future Crimson replied flatly. "We both know how the device works, dad, you know you could undo what you've done easily."

"Well, I'm not going to, despite everything." Drake said.

"C'mon, you mean to tell me that The Elements even won't get you to have regrets?"

"The Elements is a comparatively little deal in the grand scheme of things, Crimson. Nearly all of my other major enemies have been defeated or thrown in jail, including a better part of the Fearsome Five. The Elements are the only ones left I'd have to deal with. If it's just them, I could easily handle them."

"What about Rowe?"

"Rowe, I'll fix. Somehow."

"And what about Honker?"

Drake was silent for a moment. "I don't know about Honker." he admitted, placing his head on his desk with a thud. "Boy, am I tired."

"Then you better get some sleep, because The Elements aren't the end of the unexpected curveballs."

"Oh great, what's left?" Drake asked, looking up at her.

"You tell me." Future Crimson remarked, shrugging. "There are so many aspects to this new timeline that you haven't even considered yet. So you tell me. Are things even still going according to your plan?"

Drake paused. "Well, no, not perfectly. Not anymore." he glared at her. "But that still doesn't change anything. Things are still are still better off this way?"

"What about Honker?" Future Crimson asked. "And what about some of the other people you haven't thought about yet? What about Christine? What about Charlie? Have you even stopped to think what's happened to them?"

Drake paused again. "No." he admitted. "But...things couldn't have gone wrong for them too...could they?"

"Well, that's a matter of opinion, dad." Future Crimson remarked. "Christine's still single and lives a very lonely life on her own. Charlie hasn't ever been adopted. That may not seem bad to _you,_ but what about _them_? What do you think their opinions would be about all of this?"

"I'm...sure they'll understand."

"Would they?" Crimson asked, giving him a questioning look. "But then I guess we won't ever know, will we? Right now, neither of them know that you exist."

"Then why even bring the subject up? If they don't even know what's happened, then what's the problem?"

"Because _I _know what happened, dad. And so do you."

Drake was silent for a very long moment.

"Let me tell you a little bit about the future I come from." Future Crimson said, sitting down on the floor. "Believe it or not, you being gone for those seven years actually allowed for several things to happen that would eventually lead to a very bright future. Not perfect, but most certainly well on it's way towards that. Now, however, that's all changed. Because you _were _there for those seven years, many of those things now can never happen. Those that can, won't have the same outcomes. Simply because _you _changed things so that you _were _there for those years, you have derailed the entire course of history. Who knows where time will take us now?"

"You know." Drake pointed out.

"I do." Future Crimson agreed. "But you don't, and neither does anyone else. Suppose that history goes completely wrong after this. Could you live with yourself knowing that it happened all because of you wanting something, and by being greedy, absolutely had to get it?"

"I...might."

Future Crimson gave him a look. "Really."

"Is it your place to judge, young lady?" Drake asked.

Future Crimson grinned. "In case you haven't noticed, dad, I'm not quite a young lady anymore." she pointed out.

"Not from where I'm standing." Drake said. "From where I'm standing, you're still an eighteen-year-old teenager, you just aren't currently in this room."

"Technically, I'm an adult, and I'm also not supposed to be in two places at once, but I see your point." Future Crimson said. "Now you see mine. Because of what you've done, I don't exist anymore, at least, I'm not supposed to. The future of your Gosalyn is now completely blank."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Only if you can guarantee it to be good. Can you do that?"

Drake couldn't, but that wasn't stopping him. "I still stand by my choice." he persisted.

"Fine." Future Crimson said, frowning. "I suppose you couldn't protect everyone from the political fallout anyway."

Drake blinked. "Political fallout?" he asked.

"You really didn't think last night incident with The Elements didn't go unnoticed by the powers that be, did you?"

Drake's eyes widened slightly, and he rose from his chair, one step ahead of her. "Norrin." he mumbled, and quickly hurried to the study door.

Unlocking it, he rushed back out of it and hurried into the living room. Everyone else was still there, and they looked up as he rushed into the room.

"Drake?" Morgana asked. "Something wrong?"

"Oh yeah, if I think what's happened has happened or is about to happen, there is." Drake said, sitting himself in an armchair. "And if I _am _right, and let's pray that I'm not, then this would all affect you too."

"Then I'm coming with." Gosalyn said, planting herself in the other chair.

"Count me in too, mate." Rowe added, squeezing himself in beside Gosalyn.

"I'll come too." Launchpad said, squeezing in beside Drake.

"I'll come as well, but by a different, more magical, means." Morgana said. "Seeing that there's no more room for me in one of those chairs anyway."

"Fine, see you there, Morg." Drake said, and slapped his hand on the head of the figurine on the table between the two chairs.

The chairs spun, and whisked it's occupants away to Darkwing Tower, where, with another spin, the group arrived. A second later, there was a pop, and Morgana appeared in the tower as well.

All of them had come face to face with several armed people, raising their weapons to point at the newcomers.

Vice President Norrin moved to the front of the group of intruders who had raided the tower. "Well, well, well, it would appear that we have some unexpected guests." he declared.

Then the armed people fired.

* * *

"Darkwing...Darkwing..."

Drake groaned, and his eyes fluttered open to see Hooter hovering over him. Suddenly alert, he sat up and found himself sitting in a cot in SHUSH Headquarters infirmary.

"J. Gander." he said breathlessly. "What happened?"

"Norrin." Hooter said, his eyes narrowing, indicating that he wasn't happy with the vice president. "He found out what happened last night with The Elements. He now says he has reason to believe that you can't be trusted, that you are actually a double spy, a FOUL operative working undercover. The Agency is now conducting an investigation on you to see if it's true."

Drake slapped his face. "Norrin..." he muttered. "Leave it to the vice president to mess things up this badly." he rubbed at his neck where the tranquilizer dart the commandos accompanying Norrin at the tower fired had hit him. "Why was he at the tower?"

"Conducting the investigation further." Hooter said. "I had no knowledge of it. You weren't supposed to turn up at the tower and find out, so when you did, he had you shot with the tranquilizers and brought here."

Drake turned to look around the infirmary, and saw that Gosalyn and the others were also here, and were working at waking up. Morgana was already awake and was sitting up.

"I hope you've protested this." Drake commented to Hooter.

"I did, but Norrin promptly overruled me." Hooter remarked. "I fear he may have this one in the bag, Darkwing. If he finds even a shred of evidence, no matter how irrelevant, that he can use against you..."

"Dang it." Drake said, getting off the bed, and looking around. "I better change into costume and find a way to clear my name."

"Speaking of which, that's why I had you woken up." Hooter commented. "Norrin wants to interrogate you in my office."

Drake looked at him exasperatedly. "Commandeered your office, did he?"

Hooter nodded.

"Great." Drake muttered. "Okay, let me change into costume, and then let's see if I can avoid yet another disaster."

* * *

A few moments later, Hooter and Darkwing, now in costume, arrived in Hooter's office. Norrin sat at Hooter's desk, looking to be in command, and every confident.

"Darkwing, I hope you can see why I've done this." Norrin commented when the two arrived.

"I do, but that doesn't mean I like it." Darkwing said. "You must be an idiot to seriously believe I have any ties with FOUL."

"Darkwing..." Hooter said, wincing.

"What?" Darkwing snapped. "Might as well be truthful, right?"

"That's exactly what I want, Darkwing." Norrin said. "Truthfulness. Now, be truthful and explain to me how you're connected to FOUL, and why you let The Elements go last night."

"Didn't you listen to me?" Darkwing asked. "I _don't _have _any _involvement with FOUL. And I didn't let The Elements go, they escaped!"

"Rather easily, too, I note." Norrin said. He peered at Darkwing over the rim of his glasses. "Too easily. That's very suspicious, Darkwing, and I want answers."

"I can't give you answers for things I have no involvement in." Darkwing stated flatly.

"Then," Norrin said, plainly, "we have a problem."

* * *

On the roof of the building across the street from the SHUSH building, Future Crimson sat and peered through the windows of Hooter's office, watching the conversation take place in there, and she could see it wasn't going well, even though she couldn't hear it. She sighed.

"This isn't going well." she muttered.

Then, as if to make matters worse, a wave of nausea suddenly swept over her, forcing her to break into a cold sweat, and her body suddenly ached all over, making her wince and double over slightly. As quickly as it had come though, it was just as quickly gone again. Breathing heavily, she shook the aftereffects of the event off, and glanced at the paradox inducer attached to her shoulder. A little red light was now glowing brightly on it. She frowned.

As she had told Drake during one of their chats, the paradox inducer, when activated and worn, forced time to more or less 'ignore' the presence of that person or object, even if time was altered so that person or object should no longer exist or be at such a location. In instances like this, where history has been severely altered or is at risk of being altered, it can prove be very useful when going to fix things.

But due to the laws of time itself, the effects the paradox inducer created couldn't last forever. It required a great deal of power and effort for the device to pull it off, and eventually the device would fail and the effects would none too pleasantly wear off. Theoretically, it was possible to rig a paradox inducer to last longer than that, but that itself ran into more problems. According to temporal physics, when a point in time has been altered and thereby conflicts with the already existing timeline, the old timeline is 'canceled' out to favor the new one that had been created. Forcing time to do otherwise, even to allow one artifact of that old timeline to continue to exist, put unbelievable strain on the fabric of space and time, and if stressed for too long, could create a whole new boatload of problems that could very well be irreversible.

So, long story short, Future Crimson's paradox inducer was rapidly reaching the end of it's failsafe time, and could fail completely within a matter of hours. And when it did so, whatever objects, or in this case, people, it had been protecting would be canceled out and replaced by their new timeline's counterparts and be erased forever from time.

She was running out of time.

"Sorry, Dad." she muttered, glancing back at the windows of Hooter's office. "But I can't waste time trying to get you to undo this yourself anymore." she rose, and turned to walk off. "It's time I took matters into my own hands."

* * *

Rowe sat on the cot, looking bored, hugging his knees and resting his chin on top of it. "Think things are going well, mateys?" he asked flatly.

Morgana looked up from her feet, and sighed. "Probably not." she admitted. "Otherwise, they would've been done by now."

"I hope DW's all right." Launchpad said softly, sitting on a cot.

"I hate Norrin." Gosalyn muttered, leaning against the wall of the infirmary. "If I could've voted in the last election, I would've voted against him."

"But then, you would've been voting against the president himself as well." Rowe pointed out. "As I understand it, the president and his vice president come as a packaged deal, right?"

Morgana shrugged. "I wouldn't know, I haven't participated much in these non-magical elections." she said. "In the magical community, our leaders are usually determined by heritage and nobility, like a king or queen would be. In rare instances when neither of those methods could be used, the Mystic Supervisory Council will elect and select the next leader. The rest of the populace generally stays out of it."

"Sounds like you don't have much democracy in the magical community." Rowe noted.

"Perhaps not, but then the magical community likes to hold on to traditions of times past more than the rest of the world." Morgana pointed out.

"While this is all very interesting, it doesn't help our present situation." Gosalyn remarked, annoyed.

"No, no it doesn't." Morgana agreed. "Unfortunately, I do not believe there is much else we can do."

"We could escape." Gosalyn remarked.

"And then what, mate?" Rowe asked. "And besides, if we _did _escape, somehow I think that wouldn't help Norrin's opinion of us."

"I think Rowe's right." Launchpad agreed. "If we do anything to displease Norrin, or give him possible evidence to support his claims. So, if we escape, Norrin's opinions of us get worse, and that wouldn't help everyone else's opinions of us.

"No, it wouldn't, but at this point, nothing you do now will do otherwise."

Everyone turned to look at the source of the new, unexpected, voice, and saw Future Crimson standing there. Rowe blinked, and sat up. Gosalyn pushed herself off the wall and moved towards Future Crimson, silently studying her, stunned. Morgana rose to her feet. A moment of silence followed.

"Well..." Gosalyn began finally, "...I didn't see this coming."

"Plagues and pestilence." Rowe murmured.

"Okay, am I seeing things, or am I really seeing double?" Launchpad remarked.

"Oh, this is real, all right, Launchpad." Future Crimson remarked. "And I can explain how that's so."

"Time travel." Gosalyn deduced instantly.

Future Crimson gave her double a look of praise. "Very good." she said. "I gather that you noticed the age difference between us?"

"Well, it is a little obvious, you look to be about anywhere from twenty-five to thirty, to thirty-five and..."

"Why are you here?" Morgana asked, interrupting.

"To save the future." Future Crimson replied, turning to look at Morgana. "My future. The timeline has been altered and brought to this current state. It's my job to restore it to it's original state."

"Say what now?" Rowe asked. "When did this happen?"

"I was going to ask how." Launchpad said.

"I was going to ask who." Gosalyn said.

Future Crimson looked at her past self. "Drake is who." she said. "Drake Mallard."

Morgana's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" she asked, not quite believing this revelation.

"The Drake Mallard you've been interacting with ever since yesterday morning is not the Drake Mallard you're thinking of. He's actually a foreigner. He's from an alternate timeline, the original one, where things have turned out a bit differently. For instance, The Elements have been disbanded and defeated in this other timeline."

"Well, that's good, one less villain to worry about." Rowe remarked.

"Not necessarily." Future Crimson said, turning to the otter. "For in this alternate timeline, the Fearsome Five are still at large, and you, Rowe, are a member of it."

"Say what now?" Rowe said, blinking in surprise.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that my boyfriend is a convicted criminal in the 'original' timeline, as you call it?" Gosalyn asked. "So just who am I dating with in that timeline?"

"Currently, you aren't really dating anyone, but you are quite friendly with a Honker Muddlefoot."

"Honker?" Launchpad said, standing up. "You mean he turned out all right in that timeline?"

"More than that, he helps fight crime with the rest of you."

"Keen gear." Gosalyn commented. "That is one twisted timeline."

"Not for me." Future Crimson pointed out. "I come from the future of the original timeline."

"Now wait, you said that Drake is somehow responsible for this." Morgana said urgently. "How?"

Future Crimson sighed. "There is one major difference in this timeline to the original timeline." she said. "On the day August 31st of 1995, Drake, as Darkwing, fell out a window while fighting Megavolt and was swept away in the nearby river. This started a chain of events that eventually led Darkwing to be kidnaped by Negaduck and imprisoned in the Negaverse for the next seven years before the Gosalyn of that timeline freed him. It's because of this one event that the original timeline varies so much with this new, alternate, one."

"So why did Mr. Mallard change history?" Rowe asked.

"It all boils down to Morgana." Future Crimson said, turning to look at the witch. "In the original timeline, during the seven years Drake was missing, you Morgana, thinking he was gone forever, married someone else. Drake apparently can't come with terms with that just yet, which is why he did what he did."

Morgana sat back down on the cot, stunned. "To get me." she murmured.

"How did DW do it, though?" Launchpad asked. "With a time machine?"

"You could call it that, but technically that's not what it is." Future Crimson explained. "See, SHUSH has a device, located in this very building, that is capable of tinkering with time itself. To the untrained eye, one could consider it a time machine, but theoretically speaking, all it does is warp, bend, and twist time. So it _looks _like you're moving through time, but you're not. It was built as part of an experiment in SHUSH's ongoing time travel project, and was assembled by Titan Laboratories, and it's designed to take the user of the device, mark the user so that it can know who, where, and when he is, move him to whenever he wants to go to do whatever it is he wants, and then resent time afterwards back to the start of the present day."

"I don't think we've ever encountered such a device." Gosalyn remarked aloud.

"Not in this timeline, no, but Rowe, you had a bit of an mix-up with it once in the original timeline." Future Crimson commented. "Apparently, you accidently switched it on improperly and apparently got stuck in a time loop for...well...I don't know how long, you indicated that you had lost track in the end. But you claimed to have done some...shall we say...interesting things during it."

"Like what, mate?" Rowe asked.

"Something to do with filling Audubon Bay with bubble bath...?"

Rowe blinked. "By the fur." he mumbled, pulling at one of his whiskers in thought. "Wish I thought of that."

"So...Drake used this device to create this timeline we're all in now." Morgana summarized.

"That's right." Future Crimson confirmed. "He used it to warp to the night he vanished for seven years, and changed things just enough to prevent that from happening. Because he was the device's user, with the exception of me, he is the only one who is even aware of the original timeline, for once he was done changing history, the device merely put him back at the start of yesterday, with all of his memories intact."

"But...how do you fit into this?" Launchpad asked, puzzled.

"It's a long and complicated story, and would reveal more about the future than I'd care, but basically, we in the future caught onto what Drake planned to do, and I took steps to try and stop him. I wasn't fast enough though, and he carried through with the plan. Managing to keep myself from being wiped from the history books, I came here to try and talk Drake into undoing what he's done. I think I'm slowly getting through to him, but I'm running out of time. In fact, that's why I'm here, telling you guys this."

"To try and convince us to restore the timeline." Morgana deduced.

Future Crimson nodded.

"And what makes you think we'll be anymore willing to undo things than Drake?" Rowe asked hotly.

Future Crimson hesitated. "I held off telling Drake this for a variety of reasons, but I think I have no choice." she admitted. "I've done some exploring of this new timeline, examining both the past, present, and a little bit of the future. The past and present are okay except for a detail here and there, but the future...that's an entirely different issue. This situation you're having today with Norrin is just the start. It gets worse from here. Norrin continues to begin to distrust you more and more, particularly Darkwing, and begins gathering several followers in the political world. Using that, he manages to fire Hooter from his position as director of SHUSH and replaces him with a lackey that starts changing things for the worse within the organization. You all cut your ties from SHUSH as a result, but that wasn't enough. Finally, Norrin got clearance to arrest Darkwing, and after a three-month manhunt, succeeded, and threw him into the supervillain prison.

"Your crime fighting attempts go into disarray after that. Gos, you try and continue things on your own, but things are already out of hand by that point. Old criminals start getting out of jail, and there's a sudden influx of new ones I haven't even heard of before. Then FOUL produced the cream of the crop in these events, so to speak, and they and The Elements launched a plan to capture various major world leaders and hold them hostage, demanding lots of money. In the political chaos that followed, World War III is accidently sparked in a desperate attempt to stop FOUL. After that, I stopped following history to see what happened. It's clear that it's nothing good, though. And I'm sure not many of you survived the aftermath."

There was a very long silence after that.

"If we restore the timeline back to it's original form, I can promise that we can avoid all of that." Future Crimson promised.

Her audience glanced at each other, mentally reviewing everything that they've just been told.

"Well, I can certainly see the benefits." Gosalyn admitted.

"But...there are downfalls." Rowe pointed out. "All of our lives will be changed forever. I mean, according to you, mate, I'll be convicted criminal in this other timeline." he paused. "I don't know if I want that."

"And I'm sure Drake didn't so this without thinking it all through." Launchpad added. "I'm sure he has good reasons to want this timeline over the other one."

"And we only have your word on what this other timeline is like, anyway." Gosalyn added, thinking of this suddenly. "Maybe dad did act rashly and without thinking, but you're talking about changing history. History we only have your word on what's been changed. For all we know, you could be the enemy, and this is just some elaborate plot to get us to change time so things will benefit _you _and not us!"

"What I'm telling you, is true." Future Crimson said sternly. "You _have _to believe me."

"Give me proof, then!" Gosalyn said. "How about you show me some of this future you claim is going to happen? If what you say is true, then maybe we'll believe you."

"I can't, I don't have that kind of time!" Future Crimson said.

Then without warning, and almost as if to prove her point, she suddenly doubled over as if in great pain. Gosalyn, being the closest, instinctively hurried forward to help her in anyway. The others also rose to their feet and started forward to also help, but by that point, Future Crimson had recovered.

"You all right?" Gosalyn asked, as Future Crimson breathlessly sat down to shake off the effects of the event.

"Yeah, I am." she replied. "For now. But you see this?" she pointed at the paradox inducer on her shoulder. "This thing is the only thing that's keeping me from being wiped from history. It can't keep it up forever, though, and it's starting to fail. I only have a couple of hours, maybe less, before it fails completely, and the alterations to the timeline force me to be erased from existence. I have until then to make sure time is restored. Not enough time to prove to you what I say is true, so you're just going to have to trust me."

The group looked at one another, then gathered together to discuss their options. Future Crimson allowed them to do so, watching them rather animatedly argue the situation. As she felt recovered from the spell of illness, she stood up again to watch them, trying to see if she had gotten any of them on her side.

Rowe looked to be opposed to siding with Future Crimson, but that did not surprise her. Rowe had things to loose from restoring the original timeline, and he didn't want to loose them. She couldn't blame him for wanting that. Gosalyn and Launchpad seemed torn, seeing the advantages of both arguments. This both pleased and worried Future Crimson, as they both had the power to throw the vote, which could become a double-edged sword without warning. The one person Future Crimson wanted on her side the most, however, was Morgana. And Morgana was currently unreadable, and she couldn't tell where the witch stood on the matter.

Finally, the arguing ceased, and the group took the matter to a vote, doing it in such a way that Future Crimson couldn't see the results. When it was over, there was some bickering, and then it was taken again. The results seemed to be the same, for more bickering broke out afterwards. Finally, though, the issue seemed to have been sorted out, for the group broke up, and Gosalyn stepped forward, apparently having been elected the spokesperson.

"Okay, we came to a decision." she said, and sighed. "We're...more or less...willing to help you, _if _you can give us adequate enough proof of what you say is true, first."

"What?" Future Crimson asked. "Is that it?"

"It's a take it or leave it deal." Gosalyn said. "We're not all entirely convinced if we want this. I mean, you have to see that you're asking a lot of us, changing history to a timeline we know nothing about, except what you've told us."

"I don't have time to give you proof, though, not like what you're asking!" Future Crimson said.

"Look, it doesn't have to be a lot." Gosalyn said. "Something simple will suffice like...I don't know, maybe you used logic..."

"Haven't I _already _been doing that?" Future Crimson asked. "What more do you want? An actual trip to the future to see if it's true?"

"If it'll help, aye." Rowe said flatly.

"I don't have the time to do that!" Future Crimson said. "Doing that could take hours, hours I don't have! And besides, doing that is _dangerous_! What if something went wrong? _Then _where would we be?"

Gosalyn bit her lip. "It all boils back down to time, doesn't it?" she asked wistfully.

"And the lack thereof." Launchpad observed.

"Look, I know you don't fully trust me, but that's going to have to be enough." Future Crimson said. "You're just going to have to go with me on this."

"No." Rowe said flatly, stepping over. "No, mate. Not without proof."

"I can't _give _you proof." Future Crimson said.

"Yes, you can."

Everyone glanced at Morgana.

"There is a way you can prove yourself, and I know how do it." Morgana said determinedly, having made her choice. "We confront Drake about this."

* * *

"Norrin, I think you need to have your ears checked out." Darkwing said, getting very frustrated with the vice president. "Because you can't seem to hear what I'm telling you."

"Which is?" the feline asked, also annoyed at Darkwing's cooperation. Hooter was wisely staying out of the matter now.

"The fact that I'm telling you that I have nothing to do with FOUL." Darkwing pressed. "I'm _against _them, just like you are!"

"I'd like to believe that, Darkwing, but you haven't been doing a very good job of proving that lately."

"Then, Mr. Vice President, you are blinder than a bat."

Norrin narrowed his eyes at Darkwing for that comment, and shot a glare at Hooter to see his reaction. Hooter didn't say anything, but it was clear from the smile he was trying to suppress that he agreed with Darkwing on that sentiment. Norrin glanced back at Darkwing.

"Darkwing, this discussion isn't going to end until you either give me the answers I want, or can somehow prove that you are innocent of all charges." Norrin demanded. "If not, then so help me..."

He never got to finish that statement, for suddenly, an alarm started to go off, and lights started to flash outside in the hallway. Everyone in the office suddenly jumped to their feet in surprise. The building's intercom system suddenly clicked on, as an alert message began to be broadcasted.

"Security alert, intruders detected in science lab alpha 42 on level four." it said. "Repeat, security alert, intruders detected in science lab alpha 42 on level four."

Darkwing's eyes went large as he recognized the designation of that lab. Norrin, however, did not.

He turned to Hooter questioningly. "What's in science lab alpha 42?" he asked curiously.

The moment he took his eyes off Darkwing, however, the hero was in motion, and had thrown open the office door and was racing down the hallway outside. He heard Norrin shout in protest, but that didn't stop him. He knew what was in lab alpha 42, why someone would want in there, and exactly who was doing the intruding.

He hurried down the halls, pushing past people as he went, not really caring whomever they might be, desperate to reach his destination before it was too late. He passed a party of SHUSH commandos that were hurrying to the location, but for unknown reasons, they took a less direct route than Darkwing, perhaps in case the intruders were armed. They didn't seem to notice Darkwing.

Darkwing was the first to arrive at the lab, and he quickly saw that it was no false alarm. The lab's door had been forced open, and the two guards that had been stationed at it lay on the floor, unconscious. Slowing, Darkwing pulled out his gas gun, and slowly inched to the door until he stood directly beside it. He paused, gathered his courage and counted to three, and then surged into the lab.

He found three things in the room. One was an object, sitting against the center of the back wall. It looked something like a photocopier, except sleeker, and lacking a few of the usual features. Standing on either side of it were two people.

One was Future Crimson, who had a futuristically modified gas gun drawn, but lowered.

The other, was Morgana.

Darkwing slowed to a stop when he saw them and narrowed his eyes. "You." he said, pointing at Future Crimson. "What did you do?"

"You forced me to take drastic action." Future Crimson said. "This can't continue. You wouldn't to, either, the future of this timeline will go very badly if you let to continue."

"_Now _you're telling me this?" Darkwing demanded.

"Not before she told us, Dark." Morgana said calmly.

"Told you?" Darkwing repeated, glancing at Morgana, then back at Future Crimson. "You _told _her?"

"She did, now I want to know if it's true." Morgana said. "So Darkwing, did you, or did you not, change the course of history so that you could have me as your wife?"

Darkwing was taken aback by the sternness of the question. "W-well..." he began, stuttering, "I...er..." he sighed. "Yes. Yes, I did do as she says, Morgana. I...well...I wanted things as they could've been. Wouldn't you?"

"But Drake..." Morgana said, looking saddened by this revelation, "You already _had _a wonderful life. Maybe the reason things didn't work out in the original timeline was because we weren't meant to be together."

"But look at us, Morg!" Darkwing said, moving forward. "We've been married for so long now and without any problems! Proof that it _can _work!"

"But at what price, Darkwing?" Future Crimson asked, leaning on the device. "Your life maybe perfect by your definitions. But what about everyone else?"

"You got what you wanted Darkwing." Morgana said. "But did everyone else in the world? What about Honker? What about Gosalyn? What about Launchpad? What about Rowe? What about _me_? You _altered _all of our lives, because _you _decided you had to have the perfect life. Did you ever stop to think that we might not be okay with that?"

Darkwing opened his mouth to speak, but found he had no answer, nor could he look Morgana in the face anymore.

"And besides, it's not the perfect life after all." Future Crimson said. "I've seen the future this timeline has to offer. Things will go very badly very quickly for everyone on this planet very soon because of the changes in time, yourself included. In fact, in many ways, you may end up being the worst. Your so-called 'perfect' life will only lead you to ruin and misery unless you undo what you've done while you still have the chance."

Darkwing was silent for a very long moment, staring at his feet as he listened to the alarms still blaring all over the building. "Maybe you're right." he admitted, looking up suddenly. "But maybe, I just didn't do enough. Maybe I can still fix things and make it so everyone is happy. Maybe if I just go and later a few more things with history...maybe _then_ can things work our perfectly."

"Don't even go there, Darkwing." Future Crimson said, looking appalled. "I've seen that attitude in my future. There are many people in my time that think just like you, who think that they're doing the world a favor when they try and alter time, but they aren't. They just make things worse for everyone. The perfect world they're trying create can't be achieved, not through the tampering of time. Don't you dare try and talk yourself into thinking the same as them."

Darkwing narrowed his eyes at her for a moment. "I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that." he said. "If I can just change a few things, I can do it, I know I can. If it can't be done, then let me find that out on my own."

Future Crimson narrowed her own eyes at Darkwing. "I'm sorry Darkwing, but I can't permit that." she said.

And then she suddenly dove for the controls of the device. Darkwing yelped and hurried forward to stop her, and Morgana hurried forward as well as if to stop Darkwing. They all got to the device in time for there to suddenly be a flash of light.

And then they found themselves in the same lab, in the same building. But it was furnished differently, there were no alarms blaring in the distance, the door was now closed and locked, and the room was very dark. They all paused and looked around in puzzlement.

"Where are we?" Morgana asked.

"Not where, when." Future Crimson replied, who knew. "August 31st, 1995." she looked at Darkwing. "If you won't do it, then I will."

She yanked a remote control for the device from a slot on it and raced to the window, throwing it open and launching a grappling hook from her gas gun and swinging away. Darkwing panicked and hurried after her, chasing her through the same means, hopping out the window and swinging to the next building on grappling hook. Morgana did not seem to follow.

Future Crimson had enough of a head start that she stayed ahead of Darkwing as they swung from building to building, across street after street. By the time they caught up to a street partially lit by streetlights, the only one in the city that was at the moment, Darkwing was beginning to gain on her.

Then Darkwing chanced a glance downward at the street below and saw Megavolt gliding down the street on a self-propelled skateboard. A moment later, he heard an all too familiar hum, and looked up in time to see the Thunderquack swoop by. Being launched from it was himself on the Ratcatcher, giving chase after Megavolt the moment he hit the ground.

The timing for this was going to have to be just perfect.

He continued chasing Future Crimson across the rooftops, ever gaining on her. She didn't seem to notice, and was instead watching Megavolt and Darkwing's past self as they chased each other down the street, and then into an alley as Megavolt worked to try and shake Darkwing's past self. Firing off another grappling hook, she swung across the street to keep after them. When she reached the other side, Darkwing finally caught up with her and tackled her as he swung onto the roof as well. Future Crimson merely threw him aside and continued following Megavolt and Darkwing's past self below. Darkwing, having lost ground, continued chasing her, working to catch up with her again.

By this point in time, Megavolt's powerline-riding contraption had arrived, and Megavolt had snagged a hold of it, Darkwing's past self snagging a hold of him in the process, allowing both of their vehicles to continue onward for awhile before smashing into each other. Riding the powerlines, they left the street and began to move over and past buildings as the contraption took them to Megavolt's hideout. Future Crimson worked to overtake them both and arrive at the hideout first. Very soon, taking a shorter, more direct path, she was succeeding, Darkwing still hot on her heels.

Soon she was just a street away from the hideout in question, the three-story building with Megavolt's hideout being in the topmost floor. Megavolt himself and Past Darkwing were still more than a minute away from arriving. Feeling victorious, she fired off a grappling hook over to the roof of the hideout and started swinging across. Halfway across, Darkwing suddenly slammed into her from behind, knocking her the rest of the way, letting him slam her onto the roof.

"Ha-ha!" Darkwing cried victoriously, wrenching away the remote control Future Crimson held, keeping her pinned to the roof. "I win!"

"Doesn't mean I'll give up!" Future Crimson snapped, and struggled against Darkwing's grip.

Darkwing held her tightly, though, his eyes alight with victory. "Let's see, you said this thing you're wearing on your shoulder is what's keeping you from being wiped from history, right?" he grabbed at the paradox inducer on Future Crimson's arm. "Then let's see what you can do to stop me without it."

He was just about to yank it off when a calm voice spoke.

"Dark, stop."

Darkwing looked up to see Morgana stepping across the roof towards him, her eyes showing her to be both frightened and urgent.

"Morgana." Darkwing murmured, releasing his hold on the paradox inducer, leaving it where it was. Future Crimson relaxed in relief. "How did you get here?"

"Magic." Morgana said simply, half-grinning. It quickly faded. "No amount of magic can change what I see here, though." she went on. "Dark, look at yourself. Just look at yourself. You look more like the enemy than the hero at the moment, especially while fighting with your own adopted daughter."

Darkwing paused, glancing down at Future Crimson. "She left me with no choice." he stated plainly.

"She gave you plenty of choices, but you refused to cooperate." Morgana pointed out. "She decided you were a hopeless case, but I'm not willing to believe that just yet. Can't you see what you're doing is wrong?"

Darkwing again paused, and fell very silent for a long moment.

"Dark," Morgana continued, kneeling down to be on the same eye level as Darkwing, "I know what you want and why you want it, but you can't have everything in life. You, of all people, should know that. And trying to change things so you _do _get what you want doesn't fix anything, and only causes problems for yourself and everyone else with you, who didn't have much choice in this mess at all. Not to mention just how greedy and selfish this makes you look." Morgana paused, biting her lip for a moment. "Darkwing, if you truly are the hero I have always believed you to be, then you know what you need to do."

Darkwing was silent for a long moment, playing with the remote for a long moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Megavolt and his past self begin to arrive, coming in from an angle where they couldn't see the time travelers on the roof, but he could see the two just fine. He watched them come for a moment in silence.

He looked at Morgana. "What about you, Morg?" he asked.

"Let me go, Dark." Morgana said softly. "It just wasn't meant to be."

"Wasn't meant to be." Darkwing whispered softly to himself.

He was silent for another long moment, then rose, and let Future Crimson up. She moved to stand beside Morgana, and turned to look at Darkwing expectantly. Darkwing looked at the remote, and hesitated. He turned and glanced back at Megavolt and his past self, who were just about at the hideout now for a long moment. It would be so easy to prevent history from repeating itself. All he had to do was close and window and hope no one would see him.

But it wasn't the right thing to do.

"Be the hero." he mumbled to himself, looking back at Morgana and Future Crimson.

Holding up the remote so they could see, he pressed the reset button on it.

Just before time reset itself back to the original timeline and everything in Darkwing's vision was washed out in the resulting flash of light, he saw Morgana smile with pride.

* * *

Drake opened his eyes slowly, and took in his surroundings. As expected, he was in his bedroom, and it looked the same as always. The same pictures hung on the wall, with the same furniture sitting about the room. He looked to one side of the bed to see nothing but empty space. Rolling over, he looked on the other side of the bed to again see nothing but his usual bedside table. The bed was it's usual size now, just enough for one person, and Drake saw that he was alone.

He felt...he felt...

At peace. And nowhere near as crestfallen as he had expected.

Silently, Darkwing laid back down in his bed and quickly fell back to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Drake slept in for a little bit, doing so unintentionally. When he did wake up, it was already apparent that the day had started without him. Slowly rising, dressing, and heading downstairs, he found life going on in the Mallard home as he had always come to know it continuing.

"Hey DW." Launchpad greeted, sitting on the couch and watching TV. He glanced at his friend. "Sleep well?"

"You could say that."

"Well good, it's always good to sleep well." Launchpad remarked. He pointed behind him at the dining room. "Gos is in there having breakfast already."

"Yes, don't I get any praise for getting up and ready for school on time for a change?" Gosalyn called from the dining room.

Drake was forced to grin, and wandered to the table, sitting down and pouring himself a bowl of cereal.

Across the table, Gosalyn looked up from her own breakfast that she was speedily eating. "There you are." she remarked. "Slept in, did you?"

"Yeah."

"Hmpf. And what ever happened to that talk about 'early to bed, early to rise?'"

Drake had to grin again. "Good point, Gos."

"I should think so." she finished her breakfast, checking her watch as she grabbed her backpack and motorbiking jacket from the nearby chair. "Well, I need to be going." she said, rising. "Honker's going to be wondering where the heck I am now, and seeing that my motorbike now runs perfectly on a Lovell Air Engine, I see no reason why we can't ride to school today." Grinning, she walked to the door leading to the garage. "See you later, everybody!"

"Bye Gos." Drake called.

"See ya, Gos, have a good day!" Launchpad called as well. He twisted around on the couch to look at Drake slowly munching away at his breakfast and frowned. "Hey DW, you seem a little out of it this morning. Is there something wrong?"

Drake was silent for a moment. "No, everything's fine." he replied finally, grinning. "Just as it should be."

* * *

_Fun Facts: I had debated heavily on whether or not I wanted to include a chpt. recap for this chapter, because I pulled a lot of unexpected things out of the woodwork that I worried that you guys, the readers, would've forgotten all about. I eventually didn't, though, because I feared it would've given too much away about the chapter too soon, and I'd rather have you guys entered the chapter not knowing much about it anyway. Of course, the chpt. recap, had I gone through with it, would've included so much random stuff that didn't seem to connect that maybe you guys wouldn't have deduced much from it anyway. Oh well.  
_

_I also heavily debated whether or not I wanted to include that little blurb at the beginning detailing events just before DW's historic start of his seven year absence that I have now proven is vital to NADWD's continuity. At first, I was very much against it, as I again felt it hinted to too much too soon, and originally began the chapter at the next blurb where Drake is waking up in bed. But I quickly realized that was much too vauge a beginning for even me, the writer, to work with, and decided it would be better if I gave the reader some idea of what had happened before getting into the actual story itself, so I relented and added it._

_That opening section, while we're at it, is copy and pasted directly from "Darkwing Duck Returns" opening chapter, but it was edited slightly for clarity reasons, and I did fix a few errors that had gone overlooked in the original posting as I saw them. And of course, it ends differently here than it does in "Darkwing Duck Returns."_

_I liked how I begin the story taking place in the altered timeline, treating it like the story has always followed this altered timeline and that nothing is different, but gradually begin having Drake take note of various contradictions between the new timeline and the old one (like his metal note that Gos did not own a motorbike in the new timeline)._

_**Jumpgate: Universitas** must be a pretty good show, for even Morgana's interested in it. :p_

_When I first came up with this chapter, I instantly knew that I wanted to include Future Crimson, and to have her appear at odd intervals to talk in private with Drake and try and get him to undo what his done while not all-out explaining everything. Halfway through writing the chapter, though, I decided that a possibly better way to have done it was to have Future Crimson of the new timeline's future travel back in time to try and stop Drake rather than Future Crimson of the original timeline, but by that point, it was pretty much too late to change things without more work than I cared for._

_It was fun looking back at the history of NADWD and figuring out what would've happened and what wouldn't have happened in the new timeline, particularly when it came to figuring out what villains would be around and who wouldn't be._

_The scene where it is revealed that Rowe is Gos's date was probably the very first scene I came up with for this chapter, as it made for a great surprise (at least for me). I suppose in retrospect, though, it would've seem like something you should've seen coming, though, right?_

_I actually like "good" Rowe. I'm trying to see if there's anyway I could possibly bring him back. Personally, I think he'd make for a fun ally for the gang. :)_

_I hadn't realized just how much I missed The Elements until faced with the prospect of bringing them back for this chapter, which was great fun, even though it was for a relatively brief scene. I had planned more scenes with them for this chapter, but it ended up not happening. I think it would've distracted from the story anyway._

_This is the first time we have seen any member of The Elements since chpt. 39, "The Air Engine" and the first time since chpt. 31, "Aqueous Part II" that we've seen them together as a group._

_This is also the first time we have seen Mayor Kim since chpt. 21, "Liquify"._

_Despite being referred to frequently, Honker never actually appears in this chapter._

_Norrin was an impromptu addition to the chapter. As I mentioned earlier, I had planned to do more with The Elements in this chapter, and the plan was to have them stage an attack on SHUSH and quickly begin to overwhelm them. When that fell through the floor, Norrin took their place. I like Norrin's aspect better, as it's calmer, fits better with the story, and actually gave me something to build off of for the 'bad' future the alternate timeline would've eventually presented._

_The paradox inducer was an item created out of necessity, and I hadn't really put too much thought into how it works before writing this chapter. Therefore, all of the technobabble I give about it was written on the spot._

_I included the time device thingamabob from chpt. 32, "Death Rowe" in this chapter, because I never did really fully explain how the device was supposed to work. Feeling kind of guilty about that, and a little curious about how it **would **work, I included it so I could have the chance to better explain it's exact function._

_I had expected the scene where Morg and Fut. Crimson talk DW into restoring the original timeline to run on for much longer than it did, but it turned out that I didn't need to do much more for DW to see what he needed to do._

_Be sure to catch the next chapter, "Daughterless", another kind of 'what if?' chapter that goes in a different direction than this one did. ;)  
_


	71. Daughterless

Summary: When journeying back to the Posiverse via transdimensional portal, Crimson discovers upon her arrival that she somehow missed her intended destination...

Rating: T (mostly for later parts, though)

Author's Note: This should've been up on Friday, but instead encountered a whole mess of problems that delayed me until now that I'm not going to go into detail about right now. :( On the upside, though, this would be the first time I was able to jointly upload a new chapter to this fanfic along with all of my other fanfics (which is only one other) on the same day in months. :) Anyway, as I said, another "what-if" chapter, but of a different sort, achieved through a different manner. Crimson centric. Some other goodies mixed in. ;)

71.

Daughterless

"Sheesh, I've never seen a storm so bad before." Crimson remarked, staring out the window of the Underground Independence Organization base at the stormy sky in the Negaverse. "I mean, just look at that lightning!"

As if to emphasize her point, a large fork of lightning suddenly flashed brightly dangerously close to the base, the resulting thunder loud enough to shake the walls of the secret facility.

"Yeah, a real whopper of a storm, just imagine all the electricity it's producing." NegaMegavolt remarked longingly. He glanced at Crimson. "Out of curiosity, is the weather this bad currently in the Posiverse?"

"No, actually, it was a pretty nice early March morning back home." Crimson admitted, with a shrug.

"See, I don't get that." NegaBushroot remarked. "We may be two entirely different alternate realities, but you'd think that for something like weather, it'd be consistent in both universes."

"Not necessarily, Bushy." NegaMegs commented. "We _are_, as you say, two entirely separate alternate realities and each are ruled on slightly different rules of physics. That alone can explain everything. Composition is also key in this. The Negaverse is made up of more negatrons than the Posiverse. Likewise, the Posiverse has more positrons than our universe. Therefore, that difference could be just enough to account for the changes in weather."

"I'm sure what you do to your surroundings in both universes plays a part in this too." Crimson remarked, glancing out at the horizon where the smog filled outline of NegaCanard could just barely be seen in the stormy weather.

"Yeah, I'll bet all that pollution Negs cracks out daily has somethin' t' do with it." a voice suddenly added from behind them.

They turned to see NegaSteelbeak stepping towards them. In the Negaverse, NegaSteelbeak was the founder and leader of the UIO, and was thereby considered good. Beyond that, he was more or less the same rooster and the Posiverse Steelbeak. He had the same accent, and the same metal beak. He wore a brown, pinstriped, suit with a black shirt underneath and a contrasting white tie. He strolled up to the group idly, carrying a package of papers.

"Hey Steelbeak." Crimson greeted. "You got the information?"

"Yep, everythin' the UIO has on Negs's movements to and from the Negaverse." NegaSteelbeak said, handing her the package. "Sorry we couldn't just send th' data t' the Posiverse electronically, we've been havin' some troubles with our systems th' past couple of days."

"No problem, Steelbeak, I had nothing else to do at the moment, anyway." Crimson remarked, opening the package and flipping through the papers within. She frowned. "It doesn't look like you know much more about those mysterious portals that don't lead to the Posiverse that Negaduck has been creating than we do, though."

"Nah, Negs's actually been lyin' low a lot lately, particularly ever since early last month." Steelbeak said. "Speakin' of which, is it really true? NegaGos got shot, and bit it?"

Crimson nodded her head sadly, returning the papers to it's package. "It was a bit of a shock for everyone." she admitted.

"Well, even as bad as that sounds, it might have actually helped us." NegaMegs commented. "See, because Negaduck has been lying low so much, we haven't been getting much trouble from him or his lackeys."

"Which means we've been able to a lot of things done that helps our cause." NegaBushroot added. "The Friendly Four hasn't had such a productive month in years."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that much." Crimson remarked. "Still we _all _need to play it safe. It's quite clear now that Negs is planning something big, so we need to be ready for it when he carries his plans through."

"Just wish we knew more about 'em." NegaSteelbeak mumbled. "We've got lots of clues about what he's doing, but they don't connect."

"It's like we're putting together a puzzle." Crimson agreed. "We've got the edges put together, now we just need to fill in the middle."

"Exactly." NegaSteelbeak agreed.

They were cut short when more thunder and lightning flashed and roared outside the window. NegaSteelbeak frowned.

"Ah, well, we get the idea though." He said, leading the way down the hall as the others followed. "Let's get you back home Crimson, before that storm knocks out th' power or somethin' like that."

They stepped into the spacious room that housed the UIO's transdimensional portal generator, very similar in design to SHUSH's but somewhat smaller in size. The technicians that gathered at a control panel promptly began charging up the device for use. While they waited, the group continued talking.

"So, NegaMegs, I heard you met your Posiverse double not that long ago." Crimson remarked, tucking the package of papers under one arm.

"Yeah, he came through with a couple SHUSH agents a few days back to help with an electrical problem we had here." NegaMegs replied. "You know how the base is. It's all slapped together and jury-rigged, and parts of it break down or need maintenance on a regular basis. Anyway, I was introduced to PosiMegs, and we got to talking about things. He's actually a pretty nice guy, and we have a lot in common."

"Interesting." NegaBushroot commented, intrigued. "I wonder how alike me and my double are."

"Maybe someday ya'll get t' find out." NegaSteelbeak commented, with a wink.

At that moment, a transdimenional portal flared into existence in it's usual spot on the far side of the room, forming a mass of swirling multicolored energy. Crimson pulled out a radio and switched it on.

"Crimson Avenger to SHUSH HQ, calling to report that I have the package, and requesting permission to step through the portal at this time." she said into the radio.

"Crimson, this is SHUSH, you are cleared to come through." a voice on the other end replied.

Crimson grinned, and turned to the others. "Well, guess I'm off." she said, starting up the ramp to the portal. "Thanks again for the information."

"Bye Crimson, have a safe trip home." NegaSteelbeak said, while NegaMegs and NegaBushroot waved their goodbyes.

Crimson continued on up to the portal, paused when she reached it to prepare herself for the trip, and then stepped through.

She exited the portal on the other side much faster than she had entered, and flew forward a couple of feet before she crashed to the ramp hard and rolled a foot or two. When she came to a stop, she was facing towards the portal, which was stunned to see was writhing with energy, sparking and flickering, before it finally winked out of existence. Stunned, Crimson quickly grabbed the package of papers she dropped and rose to her feet, turning.

She came face to face with a squadron of SHUSH commandos, their weapons armed, raised, and pointing at her. Crimson stared at them in surprise.

"Um..." she began, "Something wrong?"

"Hands over your head!" one of them ordered.

"But I..."

"_Hands over you head!_"

Crimson quickly dropped the package and threw her hands into the air, wondering just what the heck was going on. Two of the commandos stepped forward and searched her, taking her gas gun and the package of papers. When they were done, they continued pointing their guns at her.

"Just what is going on here?" Crimson demanded finally, getting impatient, and her arms getting sore from having to be held in the air for so long.

"Perhaps you can tell me that." remarked J. Gander Hooter, gently pushing his way to the front of the encirclement of commandos to look at Crimson.

"Hooter!" Crimson exclaimed in relief, lowering her hands slightly. "Thank goodness. Director, sir, is there something going on here that I don't know about?"

Hooter was silent for a long moment, adjusting his glasses as he peered curiously at her. "Have we met before?" he asked.

"_Have we met?!_" Crimson repeated ludicrously. "Is this some kind of practical joke? Director, we spoke to each other just fifteen minutes before I left earlier this morning!"

Hooter frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about or where you came from." he said sternly. "But I can assure you, miss, that I have never seen you before in my life."

* * *

Which was how Crimson found herself dejectedly locked in a standard SHUSH cell, sitting at a table, tapping her fingers on the tabletop in annoyance. Sitting across the table, debriefing her, was Hooter.

"All right, let's go over it again." Hooter said with a sigh, flipping through his papers back to the beginning.

"I've told you before." Crimson repeated. "I'm the Crimson Avenger, a.k.a. Gosalyn Mallard, you've known me for the past ten years. This morning, the UIO got back in touch with SHUSH regarding their request for any and all information regarding Negaduck's transdimensional movements, to see if we could clear up some inconsistencies with our own records concerning the matter. But, the UIO was reporting that they were having trouble with their computer systems and couldn't transmit the information through a portal. I was sent by my own choice through the portal to the Negaverse to physically pick up the information from the UIO and then return." she threw her hands into the air. "Well, I'm back, and this is the welcome I get."

"All right, I understand that, and the papers we found in the package you were carrying seem to support this story." Hooter said, folding his arms. "Now let me tell you something, Miss Mallard. I have never met, to my recollection, any Crimson Avenger or Gosalyn Mallard, nor have I heard of any UIO or someone called Negaduck."

"Really? You haven't met Negaduck?" Crimson remarked, surprised. "Consider yourself lucky."

"Additionally," Hooter continued, "SHUSH never sent any of its operatives through any portal. The portal generator you saw in that room is still under construction and highly experimental. We weren't scheduled to open any kind of portals with it until next week, and that would've only been a test."

"Okay..." Crimson stated, "That conflicts with the SHUSH I know, for the SHUSH I know has been using that portal generator successfully for well over a year now."

"Then clearly, this is not the SHUSH you know." Hooter said sternly, leaning forward.

Crimson frowned, and thought things through for a moment. Suddenly she snapped her fingers.

"Parallel universe." she deduced.

"Excuse me?"

"This is a parallel universe. Well, not for you, but for me. Maybe what happened is that when I stepped through that portal, I somehow ended up in this universe rather than my own."

"I hardly think..."

"No, no, I think I've nearly got this figured out. Hmm, the portal looked like it was suffering from a power surge of some sort when I got here. Now, there was a pretty bad storm going on at the Negaverse when I left. Maybe what happened is that as I was going through the portal, some lightning or something struck and overloaded their generator and it sent me here."

Hooter opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, stopping to think. "I must admit, that makes a certain amount of sense." he admitted.

"Yeah, it does." Crimson agreed, proud of herself. "Okay, so this will be easy to fix. I know the dimensional coordinates for the Posiverse, the, uh, universe I come from. We just enter that into the computer system of your generator, open a portal, and send me through it, and there, you're done with me."

"Okay." Hooter said. "There's just one problem. Our generator isn't ready for use, nor was it fully charged. Plus, your arrival caused for some of the systems to be damaged. Even if it was ready for use, we couldn't use it until it is repaired."

Crimson frowned, and bit her lip. "Okay, that is a problem." she admitted. "How long is it going to take to repair it?"

"I don't know yet, but probably more than a day if all of our top scientists work on it."

"Hoo boy." Crimson slapped the table. "Drat. What am I going to do in the meantime?"

"For now, you are going to stay in this cell while I discuss the situation with my superiors." Hooter said, rising from his chair.

"Wait, that's it?" Crimson said, watching as Hooter walked out the door. "You're just going to leave me in here? Can't you at least give me a book to read or something to pass the time?"

* * *

Apparently not, for she was still in the room alone and by herself an hour later, and was very much bored.

Finally, she heard footsteps as someone arrived at the door, and the noise of the guard stationed outside the room unlocking the door. Crimson turned to look at it, her hopes rising.

"Oh thank goodness, please tell me Hooter's going to get me out of here." she muttered to herself.

When the door opened, however, she was quite surprised to find that it wasn't Hooter who was entering, but it was someone else she knew well.

"Launchpad?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"That's Agent McQuack to you." Launchpad said hotly as he entered the room, hands on his hips. "Wait, how do you know my name?"

"We've met where I come from." Crimson explained simply, looking Launchpad up and down.

He wore a plain, untucked, white shirt with a black tie with black slacks. Over this, he wore a light brown overcoat. Beyond that, though, he looked like the same Launchpad as always. He even wore a pilot's cap on his head. Accompanying him, however, was a lady duck that Crimson was fairly certain she had never seen before. Like most SHUSH agents, she wore a business suit, although at the moment she wasn't wearing the jacket.

"Don't know you, though." Crimson said, rubbing her chin as she looked at the lady.

"Feathers Gallore." the lady duck replied with a European accent. "I've read the report on you, I know you're from a parallel universe, but clearly it must not know the true Launchpad there. He'd never be without me."

Crimson glanced at Launchpad, who shrugged.

"We met during our first mission together." he explained. "Not under the best of circumstances, either. But I've been stuck with her ever since. Actually, that mission was what got me started on my career as a secret agent, and I could've really used the help, so it wasn't so bad having Feathers around."

Feathers grinned.

"Wait, I _do_ remember this, you told me about this." Crimson said. "In my universe, though, you did the one mission for the DIA, but then quit after that, saying it was too dangerous for you."

"Really?" Launchpad remarked, then furrowed his brow. "Wonder why I thought that. I love my job. Especially after we got transferred to SHUSH to work."

"Well, whatever toots your horn." Crimson said dismissively. "I just want to go home, so I assume the reason you two are here has something to do with that."

"The generator will not be repaired until sometime tomorrow, and then it is unsure if it can be used for anything at that time." Feathers replied calmly. "In the meantime, we have orders to transfer you to another facility where you will be further questioned."

"What?" Crimson objected. "But I already told you everything I could possibly know about how I could've gotten here! What else is there to tell?"

"Actually, we wish to question you about what you know about transdimensional travel, your universe, and of course, the Negaverse." Feathers explained further. "_Especially _the Negaverse."

Crimson gave them a suspicious look. "Now wait, why do you want to know about the Negaverse?" she asked, not quite believing them.

"Kid, if you know anything about the Negaverse, we need to know it." Launchpad said, as he gently took her by the arm and led her towards the door. "We can't afford to pass up this chance to learn more about confirmed enemy territory."

"Now wait, I was under the impression you guys hadn't even heard of the Negaverse before I came here and mentioned it." Crimson said, struggling lamely against Launchpad's grip.

"Miss Mallard, part of the reason we are even working on a portal generator is to try and gain access to the Negaverse." Feathers said, also grabbing Crimson and leading her out of the room.

As they stepped out into the hallway, the only guard, a female feline of particularly low rank snapped to attention.

"Shall I help escort, Agent McQuack?" she asked politely.

"No, we've got it, thanks Agent Mia." Launchpad replied, turning to led Crimson down the hall.

Crimson stopped arguing long enough to try and glance back at the guard to confirm that it was indeed the Agent Mia she knew before continuing. "Okay, fine, I'll answer some of your guys's questions." she said flatly. "The moment you're able to, though, you're going to send me back to _my _universe, correct?"

Launchpad and Feathers jointly glanced at her, then at each other. Apparently opting to not say anything, they continued forward. Crimson narrowed her eyes at them.

"_Aren't _you?" she repeated hotly.

"Sorry, Miss Mallard, but we need that information, and you have that information." Feathers said, keeping her eyes straight ahead. "Besides, we have our orders."

Launchpad kept quiet, clearly not liking those orders very much, but wasn't going to go against them. Crimson stared at them both, wide-eyed.

"You going to _keep _me here?" she asked in dismay.

"Oh, don't look at it that way." Launchpad said as they escorted her into the SHUSH garage, where rows upon rows of parked SHUSH-owned vehicles sat. "Besides, it won't be so bad. They'll probably give you a job working here at SHUSH as a junior agent or something like that so you can always be there to give information when we need it, and they've already promised the best living conditions for you that are available."

"But I'll still be a prisoner." Crimson remarked, struggling against her captors.

"Hardly." Feathers said as they moved towards a parked van. "You'll be given permission to go wherever you want in our universe in due time."

"But I won't be able to _leave _this universe, will I?" Crimson asked, watching them open the back doors to the van while keeping a hold of her.

Both Feathers and Launchpad paused.

"Not likely." Feathers admitted.

"Then your whole _universe _will be a prison!" Crimson said, struggling as they pulled her into the van. "You can't do this! I don't belong here, anyway! Go and find your own Crimson Avenger!"

"We did, we didn't find anything." Launchpad said apologetically, as Feathers forcibly sat Crimson down on a bench and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "Look, I'm sorry for all of this, but it's out of our hands."

"Hold still." Feathers muttered as Crimson continued to struggle. Finally, the handcuffs snapped into place, holding Crimson to the seat. "There. We have the crate of the items she had when she came here, right? They will want that as well."

Launchpad silently pointed at a box sitting the back of the van. Crimson stopped struggling against her bonds to look at it, suddenly getting an idea. Meanwhile, Launchpad and Feathers were climbing back out the van.

"You aren't going to get away with this!" Crimson shouted as they closed and locked the back doors to the van. Her shout fell on deaf ears.

Outside, Feathers and Launchpad moved to climb into the front of the van, Launchpad sitting in the driver's seat.

"Feathers, do you really think we should be doing this?" Launchpad asked slowly as they buckled themselves up. "Is it really right for us to force her to stay here in this universe, even though we could potentially get a heck of a lot of knowledge about the multiverse in the process?"

Feathers hesitated for a moment. "No." she finally admitted. "It's not. But we have orders, Launchpad. And we can't go disobeying them without dire consequences."

Launchpad nodded reluctantly, started the van, and pulled it out of the garage. "I hope it will all at least work out in the end." he said.

"If she cooperates, she will eventually find that she can fit in here." Feathers remarked. She was interrupted briefly as a loud pounding sound rang out as Crimson pounded her feet on the floor of the van in anger. "That may take awhile, however."

They drove on, heading deeper into St. Canard. In the back of the van Crimson continued to struggle with the handcuffs that held her in place. Finally, there was a click, and one cuff came free. Crimson pulled her hands out from behind her back with a grin, the cuffs still dangling from one wrist.

"Did they really think I wouldn't have a way to pick these cuffs?" she asked snidely and with a self-satisfied smirk as she removed the other cuff and dropped the cuffs carelessly on the floor.

She stood up, and strode over the box Launchpad had pointed out. She tried to pry the lid off of it, but it was sealed shut. Frowning, she contemplated the matter for a little while, then picked the box up, backed up a few paces, and then threw it at the back wall of the rear compartment of the van, watching as it slammed against it loudly.

In the front of the van, Feathers and Launchpad heard the noise, and glanced at each other in alarm. Meanwhile, Crimson had retrieved the box, saw that the impact and nearly forced it open, then geared up and threw it again at the back wall. The box cracked when it hit the back wall, and crashed to the ground, spilling it's contents onto the floor of the van. Crimson quickly withdrew the package of papers and her gas gun from within it, then straightened, raising her gas gun, and switching through attachments quickly.

In the front of the van, Feathers and Launchpad continued looking at each other in alarm, although Launchpad was careful to keep his eyes on the road. Feathers turned to look at the wall that divided the front of the van from the back in time for the tips of two shock darts to pierce through, sparking as they discharged their usual pulse of electric energy. Feathers went stiff in her chair, eyes wide in alarm.

"She's gotten loose!" she exclaimed.

Launchpad quickly stomped on the brakes, slowing the van, and pulled over to one side of the road. Quickly, he hopped out, Feathers following him, and they ran to the back of the van, drawing their sidearms. Carefully, they jointly unlocked the back doors and carefully unlatched them, slowly pulling them open.

The first thing they saw was that the inside of the back portion of the van had been filled with crimson smoke. Then, before they could even pull open the doors all the way, something grabbed both of the doors and forced them open, slamming the doors into the very agents that were trying to open them. One door slammed into Launchpad who stumbled backwards a few paced and then ran into a lamppost. The other knocked Feathers over and into traffic. With a yelp, she quickly rolled out of the way of an oncoming car to avoid getting ran over.

By this time, a grappling hook shot out of the back of the van and up to the roof of a nearby building. Without hesitation, Crimson swung out of the van, package of papers in hand, and began ascending up to the roof of this building. Feathers saw this, and let out a frustrated shout, and hurried over to Launchpad, helping the dazed agent back on his feet.

"Hurry, Launchpad, she's getting away!" she cried, pulling up to his feet.

Within moments, though, Crimson arrived on the roof of the multi-story building with a hop. Grinning, and unhooking her grappling hook, she ran to the other edge of the roof and jumped off, using her grappling hook to safely lower herself to the ground. Once there, she looked around hesitantly, wondering where she should go next. Then she realized she was going about it all wrong. She didn't need to get away.

She needed to hide. Right in plain sight, too.

Later, Launchpad and Feathers ran past, looking out for Crimson as they hurried past. So dedicated were they in their search for Crimson, that they failed to notice that they passed a tall eighteen-year-old female duck with red hair pulled into pigtails, wearing a purple jersey with the number one on it, and blue jeans. If one were to remove Crimson's mask, one would see this girl looked remarkably like the crime fighter...

* * *

Gosalyn knew she couldn't hide forever, though, and since she couldn't go back to SHUSH just yet, not until she was sure they wouldn't try to lock her away for all eternity, she sought some place to reside until it was safe to come back out again. She racked her brain for possible places, but she struggled to come up with a location she could use safely with certainty. The big problem she faced was that she didn't know enough about the variances with this universe and her own universe. Already, several things had proved themselves to be fairly different. She didn't want to blow it because she found an unforseen difference.

She ultimately decided that her best bet would have to be Darkwing. She had no reason to doubt that he hadn't come about here. For some reason, she didn't, at least not in the form of the Crimson Avenger, and apparently the Gosalyn Mallard of this universe was completely unknown to SHUSH, which again puzzled her. But she didn't know anything about Darkwing, and she presumed that would at least mean that Drake Mallard existed, and hopefully right where she knew to find him. If anyone could help her, he might be able to.

If not, though, she knew that Honker would be right next door to her destination, which was the Mallard home on 537 Avian Way. She had decided against on just going straight to Darkwing Tower, as she had no idea if Darkwing would be present, and just popping up in the tower might cause alarm, and she would need to explain herself. Besides, it would look suspicious if she went in just her civilian clothes.

However, upon taking a bus to St. Canard's suburbs and walking the rest of the way to the house she knew and love, she saw right away that she might have found an unforseen complication and difference in this universe and her own universe.

For one thing, the house at 537 Avian Way was painted white, not it's trademark yellow. At first, after a moment of hesitation, Gosalyn merely decided that maybe the house got repainted at some point in this universe, and continued forward. Then she started noticing other differences, such in the way the lawn was cut and styled, and various decorations both the house and the yard sported. She hesitated to continue. Something about this wasn't right. Maybe she had underestimated the differences in this universe yet again. No Drake Mallard lived here, at least, not one she knew.

She glanced over at the Muddlefoot home, but was dismayed to see that it was dark. Even from here, a pile of newspapers could clearly be seen on the porch of the house. The Muddlefoots didn't seem to be home. Which meant no Honker to turn to.

Now what? She didn't really have anywhere else to go to.

She looked back at the house she had presumed to be the Mallard home. Maybe a Drake Mallard _had _lived here once, but had since moved out. She remembered that in her universe Drake did actually consider doing just that once about a year back, but eventually decided against it. Maybe that didn't happen in this universe. Whatever the case, if a Mallard _had _lived here, but had since moved out, maybe the current owner would know where he was at.

After another moment of hesitation, knowing she couldn't risk staying out in the open for much longer, Gosalyn knocked politely on the door. There was a long pause. Just when she was beginning to wonder if there might not be anybody home here either, the door opened, and revealed the true owner of the house, looking at Gosalyn curiously.

Gosalyn blinked as she recognized the sable-furred marten. "Cal?" she asked in surprise. "Calvin McClure?"

"That's me." Cal replied, grinning politely. He looked identical to the Cal she knew in her universe, except today this Cal was wearing blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt. "Can I help you?"

Gosalyn blinked a few times, having lost her train of thought for a moment. "Okay, this is going to seem like an odd question." she began. "But you live here, right?"

"Right." Cal replied.

"For how long?"

"About five years now."

"Five years..." Gosalyn paused to run some numbers through her head. It was longer than she expected, but five years was entirely possible. "Do you remember who lived here before you?"

Cal paused to think. "Not clearly." he admitted. "It has been awhile."

"Was his name Drake Mallard?"

"No...no, I don't think so...but...I don't know. Like I said, it's been a long time. Why do you ask?"

"I'm..." Gosalyn bit her lip, realizing just how suspicious this sounded, "...looking for him."

"Did you check a phone book?" Cal asked, genuinely trying to be helpful.

Gosalyn slapped her head. "No, I haven't." she admitted, wondering why she didn't think of that sooner. "Could I borrow yours?"

"Sure, c'mon in." Cal said, motioning for her to enter, before turning to head deeper into the house.

Gosalyn stepped into the entry room, but not wanting to intrude, she didn't go further, and instead stood around, looking, while she waited for Cal to return with the phone book. The house looked the same as she remembered it in structure and layout of the rooms, but it bore more differences than it's outside did. Most of the interior of the house was lined with blue wallpaper instead of the goldenrod paper she was used to. The carpet was also a blue color to match.

The living room also held a different arrangement of furniture, but that was to be expected. Two sofas sat in the room, positioned so that they formed an 'L' shape, a little table sitting in the joint. In one corner of the room, next to the front window was an upright piano that looked like it had seen lots of use. A glass coffee table served as the room's center piece. Shelves lined the walls wherever there was space, filled with various trinkets, books, and other items.

By this point, Cal returned from the kitchen, carrying a phone book in his hands. "Here you go." he said, handing it to Gosalyn.

Gosalyn accepted it, and while holding it with one hand, tried to flip through the pages with her other hand. Seeing that was uncomfortable, Cal led her to the little table that sat in-between the two couches, and motioned for her to set the book on it so she could flip through it easier. Gosalyn did, and quickly found the page she wanted, and began scanning the names.

She found a Greg Mallard, and a Katie Mallard, but no Drake Mallard. She looked again just to be sure before announcing this.

"I can't find it." she said, sadly. "I hope this doesn't mean he's living somewhere else."

"Drake Mallard..." Cal repeated to himself aloud. "I swear, I've heard that name somewhere before. But, seeing how many names I have to deal with on a regular basis for my job, I suppose it shouldn't be surprising."

"You're a reporter for the _Saint Canard Times_, right?" Gosalyn asked aloud.

"Investigative reporter, actually." Cal said, not finding it suspicious that Gosalyn nailed it on her first guess. "I take it you've heard of me before?"

"You could say that."

"Hmm." Cal paused to think for a moment. "Maybe I can find some mention of him in my news records." he said, heading for the door that would normally lead into Drake's study in the Posiverse. "Let's see, shall we?"

"Oh no, that's not necessary." Gosalyn quickly intervened. "I've already intruded enough as it is."

"Nonsense, I'm more than happy to help, and you look like you could use it, anyway." Cal said, opening the door to the study and stepping inside, Gosalyn following. "Besides, I don't get company often enough around here anyway."

He moved across the room, which revealed to be a kind of office. Unlike the rest of the house, it was very cluttered, with papers, books, and various other stuff you'd expect a reporter to have lying around, placed haphazardly into stacks and shoved into everywhere spot where there was room. Various clippings from newspapers were pinned and/or taped to the walls. A TV sat in the room, which was on and tuned in to a news station, but was currently muted. A computer with duel monitors sat on a desk on the other side of the room, and next to it sat a laptop that was also on.

Cal sat down at the computer, pulled up a window on one of it's two screens, and conducted a brief search through his files, using the keywords "Mallard, Drake." A moment later, a smattering of results turned up.

"Here we go." Cal said, opening one file and skimming through the text it displayed. "Yeah, that explains everything. I'm afraid you're looking for a person you're not going to find." he turned to face her. "Drake Mallard went missing nearly twenty years ago. No trace of him has ever been seen since."

Gosalyn paled. "That can't be." she said, leaning over to look at the screen. "You sure he hasn't been found again?"

"I can look, but that would mean actually going through the records by hand, looking through a whole bunch of old newspapers." Cal said. "And those are all kept at the _Saint Canard Times _publishing facility, in the basement." he paused, studying Gosalyn's expression. "You want to see them?"

"If I could." Gosalyn admitted.

"I could probably get you in, then." Cal said with a grin.

* * *

And so he did. Explaining that Gosalyn was working on a history project and that he had agreed to help her find the information she needed, Cal was able to get Gosalyn down into the massive basement where the paper kept copies of every paper they had ever printed. Giving some Gosalyn some instructions and tips, he then left her to work on it on her own for awhile, while he went to take care of another task that he decided he might as well do while he was here.

Once she was alone, Gosalyn got started, deciding to confirm first what Cal had told her about Drake having vanished twenty years ago. Backtracking to the year 1984 and sorting through the twelve boxes that contained that year's papers, she indeed found an article that stated a duck that was undeniably Drake Mallard had inexplicably gone missing. It provided a picture, but all it showed was how young Drake was at the time. Gosalyn realized that this couldn't have been too long after Drake had graduated, and there was a brief period of time in which Drake had vanished as he took up the role of Darkwing Duck.

Getting hope again, she backed up further to the year of Drake's graduation, and sorted through the May papers for that year. Eventually, she found what she was looking for. A front-page article quite specifically announcing the debut and later, arrest, of Megavolt and a reference to the mysterious appearance of a duck hailing as Darkwing. Heartened by this discovery, she bounced back to the year 1984 and looked for references for Darkwing. She found very few, and most of them were mere blurbs, but it was enough to confirm he was still around.

Moving forward from 1984, Gosalyn eventually realized that Drake 'vanished' simply because he had taken up a new identity, that of Darkwing Duck. For some reason, though, he never stopped and just 'returned' as Drake Mallard. Sorting through the papers for the year 1994 proved it. She found Darkwing had finally made headline news with the incident with Taurus Bulba and the fight for the Waddlemeyer Ramrod on the roof of Canard Tower. She remembered it well; it was when she and Darkwing first met.

But in this universe, things had gone differently. For a very long time, there was no reference, whatsoever, of Gosalyn herself, who, even though she played a minor role in the situation, was still mentioned frequently throughout the article as she remembered it saying back home. Finally, though, at the very end of the paper, she found reference to Gosalyn Waddlemeyer, but it wasn't what she was hoping for. It was a mere statement stating that Gosalyn had been taken into protective custody by unspecified officials just before the incident occurred, and had since been released back into the care of the orphanage.

In short, she and Darkwing never met in this universe. And as such, Darkwing never adopted her, thereby taking the name Drake Mallard up once again as his secret identity.

Actually, though, it made sense, and explained why SHUSH was so unfamiliar with her. Because the Gosalyn of this universe wasn't adopted by Darkwing a.k.a. Drake Mallard, she never got involved with crime fighting, never obtained any ties with SHUSH, and never took up her own crime fighting alias to become the Crimson Avenger. It made her wonder what would've happened to her then. If she was never adopted by Darkwing, _did _she ever get adopted by anyone else? If so, who?

Then she thought about Darkwing, and wondered for a few moments how very different his life would be without her, and Launchpad for that matter, reminding herself that the pilot had never became the hero's sidekick in this universe. Mentally, she reviewed events of her life with Darkwing in her head, trying to determine how they might have turned out differently without her presence.

Then she got a very scary thought.

Almost urgently, she jumped ahead a year to 1995, pulling out the paper for September first of that very year. Sure enough, the very first headline for that paper revealed all.

"**Darkwing Duck Missing!**"

"Officials state crime fighter fell into river!"

Gosalyn gulped. Then, while holding onto the September 1st, 1995 paper, she sought out the paper for September 4th, 2002 and scanned it's headlines. Were this her universe, the very first headline would've announced the official return of Darkwing. But in this universe, the paper mentioned nothing of the sort, and instead talks about a new road construction project that was being planned.

Darkwing Duck went missing in this universe, just like he had in the Posiverse. But in this universe, he never returned.

Gosalyn had been afraid of that. In the Posiverse, she had been the one that rescued Darkwing and brought him back home. If she hadn't been adopted by him, like she wasn't in this universe, then Darkwing had little hope of being rescued, and probably would be forever trapped in the Negaverse. He was probably there now as of this moment, wondering if he'd ever get back home.

That is, unless, something different happened to him to made him go missing. Maybe he didn't survive the fall into the river in this universe and was actually just dead. A morbid thought, yes, but it was entirely possible. Gosalyn scanned through the September 1st, 1995 paper again, reading the article about Darkwing's disappearance in full this time. Mostly it didn't tell her anything new, but it did state that the police had found solid evidence that Darkwing had survived the fall and managed to get out of the river.

That supported that events had turned out the same in both universes. The fact that this evidence was found not far from the location Gosalyn knew Darkwing had been kidnaped in her universe only further supported this theory, until there was no denying it. Darkwing was presently trapped somewhere in the Negaverse. No doubt Negaduck had swooped down and...

Now wait. Gosalyn recalled the conversation she had with Hooter shortly after she arrived in this universe. He had quite specifically said he had never heard of Negaduck before, indicating that he didn't exist here. Gosalyn remembered congratulating Hooter on his good luck as a result. But that didn't add up with what these newspapers were telling her. Either SHUSH hadn't been telling her everything, or the Darkwing of this universe was kidnaped by someone else. Either that, or it was Negaduck going by a different name, but that was highly doubtful.

But then, if Negaduck didn't kidnap Darkwing...who did?

* * *

Gosalyn sifted through the records of newspapers for any more clues, but found none. She wasn't surprised. Actually, if it wasn't for the fact that she was remarkably well versed in Darkwing's history, they would've told her quite little if she hadn't been able to take the information she knew of things from universe and deduce things out. These newspapers wouldn't be likely to tell her anything more.

She put away what she had gotten out, and proceeded to leave. On her way out, she met up with Cal again, who was on his way to check up on her. He asked if Gosalyn had found the information she was looking for. Gosalyn said that she did, thanked him for his help, and then left it at that, leaving the building. Cal was satisfied with that answer, and did not press the matter further.

Once outside, thought, Gosalyn realized she was only right back to square one, trapped in an unknown universe, being hunted, and having no place she could really go. Additionally, it was growing late. Night would soon be falling, and it would be best if she found someplace to stay the night at before that happened.

Finally, after a few moments of indecision, Gosalyn decided to head for the location of Darkwing Tower. It may have been abandoned for the past eight or so years and wouldn't have anything that would really help her, but it was someplace to go, and she was pretty sure SHUSH wouldn't think to look for her there.

Now she just needed to get to the Audubon Bay Bridge.

Ultimately, she decided to take the bus again. It'd be crowded there, and would allow her to blend in quite well, and thus work to her advantage. Besides, she didn't have the money to take a taxi, and it would take too long to walk there. So she went and sought out a bus station, found the bus she wanted to take, and then waited for it to arrive along with the rest of the evening commuters making their way across town.

The bus arrived right on schedule, slowed to a stop at the station, and opened it's doors to admit it's new passengers. Gosalyn climbed aboard, paid the bus fare, then walked to the back of the bus to silently ride it to her destination. The bus waited for it's passengers to get settled, then with a rumble, started forward again, heading in the direction of the Audubon Bay.

It hadn't gone much further than half a city block before a squadron of police cars suddenly appeared from around the corner, their lights flashing and sirens blaring, and quickly surrounded the bus. At first, there was some confusion on the bus as to what this was about, with the driver particularly, who didn't understand why the cop cars were present. He at first tried to move the bus out of the way, thinking that the police cars merely wanted to pass to get somewhere else. But the cars stayed with him.

Finally, an officer in one of the cars managed to sign to the driver that he was to pull over. Puzzled, but compliant, the driver did so, pulling the bus to a stop along the side of the street. A couple of the passengers stood at this, wondering what was going on, and a great deal of talking back, as people started to speculate what was going on. Right about then, Gosalyn began to feel a sense of unease grip her, and braced herself for a conflict, should one come.

The police were clearly expecting something, for the cars surrounded the bus as best as they could, and many of the officers got out of their cars to surround the bus. Some had their hands on their weapons, others had them drawn, but not actually raised. Gosalyn's sense of unease rose. Then one officer broke away from the rest and approached the door at the front of the bus and gently rapped on it. The bus driver obediently opened the door, and the officer entered to reveal yet another person Gosalyn knew well.

Officer Matthew surveyed the group of passengers for a moment before speaking. "All right, everybody listen up!" he announced. "If everyone cooperates, we should have you all on your way in no time. First, let me tell you that nearly all of you have nothing to do with the reason we're here, so you can all just relax about that. However, we are looking for someone we have reason to believe is on this bus. The name she answers to is Gosalyn Mallard."

Gosalyn winced, and moved further to the back of the bus, where another door leading off the bus was. No doubt SHUSH had employed the SCPD to help search for her. If she could force the second bus door open and slip past the cops outside, she could escape. But only if she wasn't noticed in the next twenty seconds, though.

"She's about six feet tall, with short red hair pulled back into pigtails." Matthew was going on, describing Gosalyn as he went on. "Age is roughly about seventeen or eighteen. Species is duck. Very slender in structure. If any of you have seen her..."

"There she is!" someone on the bus exclaimed, pointing at Gosalyn just as she reached the second door.

So much for not being noticed in the next twenty seconds.

Gosalyn quickly flung herself at the door and forced it open before the passengers on the bus all pressed forward to try and stop her. She dimly heard Matthew exit the bus, probably to try and cut her off. She felt hands try to grab her shirt, but she managed to get to get off the bus without delay, and raced forward to the sidewalk nearby. Two cops on either side of her raced forward to try and stop her, but Gosalyn moved between them and continued racing forward.

She quickly realized she had no chance of escape this time, though, and in the end wasn't surprised when both of the officers that had begun pursuing her grab her from behind, drag her to a stop, pin her arms behind her back and press her against the side of a nearby cop car to handcuff her. Gosalyn made several frustrated sounds and shot a few dark glares around, but otherwise didn't really resist.

Matthew strolled up and watched the proceedings with a sigh. "Well, I have to give you credit for trying." he admitted.

"Oh, this is just a bad day for me, Matt." Gosalyn replied as she was pushed into the back of a cop car. "You should see me on a good day."

* * *

Gosalyn was taken to the police station and unceremoniously locked in a jail cell without much conversation about the matter. Gosalyn verbally protested this, but it fell on deaf ears, and she doubted it would've made a difference anyway. She sought a way to escape the cell, but ultimately decided against it. She could get out of the cell with some effort, but it was manageable. Unfortunately, once she was out, she'd have to find a way out of the station and past all of the police officers in the building. And she had already tried their patience enough, so they were less likely to treat her so kindly this time.

So she just put up with it. Fortunately, she wasn't kept in the cell for long, only about a half-hour, before Matthew himself returned and unlocked the cell door, opening it.

Gosalyn rose from the bench she was sitting on, and half-grinned. "Letting me go?" she asked sarcastically.

"Actually, the people coming to pick you up are here, and they're taking custody of you." Matthew replied, holding the cell door open for Gosalyn to exit.

It was then that Launchpad and Feathers came into view, both of them looking annoyed, Feathers more than Launchpad.

"There you are." Feathers remarked, hands on her hips.

Gosalyn's half-grin turned into a weak and sheepish grin. "Heh, hi guys." she greeted nervously.

* * *

Gosalyn was then taken to an unspecified minor SHUSH base at an unknown location and placed in a spacious and grey interrogation room to sit on a cold metal chair at an equally cold and metallic table. She was under guard; two SHUSH commandos quietly stood at the door, staring straight ahead. They didn't seem armed, but Gosalyn decided to not take any chances.

She waited, bored, rapping her knuckles on the table as she waited for her interrogator to turn up, whomever that might be. She didn't have to wait much longer before the door to the room opened, and the selected interrogator entered the room. Gosalyn looked at him, and sighed, wondering why she was still surprised when she saw someone she recognized still.

"Great." she muttered aloud. "Norrin's my interrogator."

"I take it we've met in your universe, then." Norrin remarked, taking the seat opposite from Gosalyn and adjusting his glasses calmly.

"Yeah." Gosalyn remarked, eyeing the SHUSH uniform the feline wore. "But...you clearly have a different occupation here."

"I'm First Agent Jonas Norrin." Norrin explained plainly. "Second in command to Hooter."

"Well, no wonder things work weird in this universe." Gosalyn muttered.

"You are in no position to make poor comments." Norrin said, pointing a finger at her. "_You _are the one who attempted to escape."

"Well, you were the ones who had no intention of returning me to my universe."

"Admittedly, not right away, yes."

"Then should my actions really be considered a surprise?"

"We need information about the multiverse. You have such information. We weren't going to let it slip through our fingers."

"You could've just _asked _me."

"We had no way of knowing if you would've said yes."

"Well, now we'll never know, will we?"

"I suppose not." Norrin sorted through some papers he had brought with him. "But now that you are finally here, I will ask those questions."

"Actually, I have a question I want to ask _you_." Gosalyn said, leaning on the table as she suddenly got an idea. "Did SHUSH have any ties to Darkwing Duck?"

Norrin hesitated, caught off guard by the question. "Some." he admitted. "That doesn't have much to do with the matter at hand, however. So, getting back to my questions..."

"I know where Darkwing is."

Norrin froze for a moment, and glanced at Gosalyn with renewed interest. Seeing that his eyes were silently asking a question, Gosalyn nodded, grinning.

"Oh yeah, I know what's happened to him here." she said. "And as luck would have it, something similar happened in my universe. Only difference is, he came back. A little less than two years ago."

Norrin looked even more intrigued now. "How?" he asked, curious.

"I rescued him." Gosalyn said proudly. "See, he had been kidnaped and taken to another universe where he was trapped. I have every reason to believe that something similar happened here...you just didn't have someone like me to help bail him out."

"So you know where he is?"

"Well, I have a pretty good guess, at least. In my universe, Darkwing was taken to a universe called the Negaverse, which is basically the evil twin of my universe. For you guys, however, I think your Darkwing was taken to a kind of...sister universe to the Negaverse, one that's very similar, but not quite the same, like how this universe is similar to my own Posiverse. What I don't know is some of the finer details, like who kidnaped Darkwing and why. Maybe you can fill in the blanks."

Norrin sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "You are very clever, Miss Mallard." he noted. "Very well. Here's what little we know. Roughly about a year before Darkwing disappeared, he encountered a new villain, and fought with him, and eventually winning the battle. The villain got away. SHUSH, as it had no involvement in this matter, inquired for details, but Darkwing had little to give. All he knew was that the villain was identical to him...expect he was a villain. Darkwing never got a name.

"Some time passed, during which our mysterious evil twin of Darkwing kept reappearing, causing some trouble, promising to get Darkwing in the end, but always vanishing without a trace the moment his relatively simple plans went awry. He usually and perpetually kept a very low profile, and therefore we couldn't find out much about him. Then Darkwing just vanished.

"At first, we didn't think the two incidents were connected until recently, when we found evidence that there had been some transdimensional activity occurring on the night in question. We had already suspected this other, villainous, Darkwing of being from an alternate reality. Now we had evidence that he might have had a hand in Darkwing's disappearance. Hence the portal generator. Part of the reason it even exists is because we intended to use it to get into the villain's universe and see if any of our theories are right. And now, according to what you're telling us, we now have every reason to think that."

"All right then." Gosalyn said with a nod. "I think I know how we can make anybody happy. In exchange for my freedom to go back to my universe, I'm willing to give you some of what I know about the multiverse, _and _help you track down and rescue Darkwing, _if _possible."

Norrin considered it for a moment. "Presuming for a moment that we agree," he began, "how can we know to trust you? You've already tried to escape and evade us once before."

"Back then, you weren't willing to give me what I want." Gosalyn said. "If you agree to my terms, however, you will be. Besides, something tells me that the idea of having Darkwing back in your universe appeases you than the idea of me telling you all I know about the multiverse, which, to be honest, isn't that much. Something tells me you won't pass this chance up."

Norrin was silent for a moment longer. "Very well." he finally announced, rising. "I will speak with the director, and perhaps we can make the agreement."

"Great, when can I expect to find out the results?" Gosalyn asked, watching as Norrin moved to leave.

"Remarkably soon." Norrin replied at the door. "We overestimated our assessment of the damage done to our generator, and it has been fully repaired well ahead of schedule, and, so far as I am told, is ready for use. Therefore, you can expect this meeting to not last long."

* * *

And indeed it didn't last long. Only a matter of moments later, Gosalyn had her answer. And within the next hour, she found herself back at SHUSH Headquarters, standing in front of the portal generator as it was readied for use. Joining her was Launchpad and Feathers, who were to be her accompaniment for this mission.

"Well, right back where I started." Gosalyn remarked, toying with her gas gun as she waited. She had the option of changing into her costume for this mission, but ultimately opted not to, in case the universe they were heading for had something like NegaGosalyn, who'd more likely be in costume. Staying out of costume meant she was more likely to not get mistaken for someone else.

"I still do not think it is such a good idea that you come along." Feathers pressed, not for the first time, as she checked her own weapon. "We do not know what the territory will be like. You could just tell us where to look, and we'll do it ourselves."

"But, as I said, I only have a pretty good guess of where we'd find Darkwing." Gosalyn said. "There's a distinct possibility that I'm wrong. In which case, it'd be best if you'd have me with you, so I can figure out where the next possible place would be, something I can't do without seeing this other universe myself."

"Yeah, and besides, we could use all the help we can get." Launchpad added, giving Feathers a grin.

Feathers merely fell silent, clearly still not liking this idea entirely.

"The generators are full charged." someone at the generator's control panel announced. "Entering in the dimensional coordinates into the computer, now. We are ready to begin startup procedures."

"You may begin startup, Agent Todd." Hooter said, as he moved to stand before the three people going on this mission. "Launchpad, Feathers, Miss Mallard, just a quick review before you leave. You are to go in, complete your objective, and get out. Gather any and all intel that you can as you go, but your principle objective is to rescue Darkwing if possible. Avoid any and all armed conflicts if possible. You are due back here before two hours _exactly _has passed since your departure. That's when we will no longer be able to hold the portal open for your return."

The generator began to hum suddenly, and then with a flash of light, a transdimensional portal appeared.

"Good luck, you three." Hooter concluded, stepping back. "May your mission be successful."

"Ditto." Gosalyn said, heading for the portal. "Hold down the fort, Hooter, I don't think this will take long."

"We will follow your orders, Director Hooter, and be back as requested." Feathers stated, also turning to the portal.

"So goodbye, see ya, sayonara, ciao, au revoir, arrivederci, adios, and cheerio, Director Hooter, sir." Launchpad concluded, waving as he hurried to join the others.

They stepped through the portal jointly, and arrived in the middle of a field of rubble and a smoke-filled sky. They looked around at the rubble they were treading upon, then at each other, before they looked out at the skyline of the city they stood in.

"Okay." Gosalyn began, surprised. "This was unexpected."

The St. Canard that stood before them lay mostly in ruins.

* * *

"It looks like we just walked into a warzone." Launchpad noted as they quickly hurried into the shelter of a nearby building, which had it's top floors destroyed.

"A war that is still continuing." Feathers noted, as she heard gunfire coming for all directions in the distance. "It would seem that we were lucky to appear where we did, or we might have been cut down in the crossfire."

"I don't get it, though." Gosalyn said, looking around. "This universe can't even compare to the Negaverse I know. Things there are bad, but not _this _bad. What on earth happened here? Did we somehow end up in the wrong universe?"

"I don't know, but everything seemed to check out before we left." Feathers remarked, seeing the area was clear and moving on down the crater-riddled street, the others following. "Unless we got the wrong dimensional coordinates, this _should _be the right universe."

"Well, whatever happened, I think it's been going on for awhile." Launchpad said, pointing ahead of them. "Because I think I recognize that model of car parked just up ahead."

Gosalyn blinked in surprise at the antique car. "A Model-T Ford." she noted in surprise. "The model year being 1925, it looks like."

"There is another over there." Feathers said, pointing across the street, where another car sat, this one more beat up, and had fallen over on it's side.

"Again, vintage 1920s stuff." Gosalyn noted, looking again at her surroundings. "In fact, all of it is consistent with the 1920s. It looks like the St. Canard in this universe never got out of the Roaring Twenties."

"They must have really roared." Launchpad noted, eyeing the extreme damage the whole city bore.

"Perhaps some past war didn't end when it would've in our universe." Feathers reasoned.

"Whatever the case, this changes things." Gosalyn said. "1920s architecture, no matter how damaged, means no Canard Tower, which is where we would've wanted to look for Darkwing. He must be somewhere else."

"If he's even alive still." Launchpad remarked with a wince.

"Perhaps we should go back home and request for backup." Feathers advised.

"Good idea." Launchpad said. "While we're there, we can..."

He got no further when a gunshot rang out, and a bullet suddenly ricocheted off the brick wall of a nearby building near Launchpad's head. With a yelp, all three of them quickly ducked into a nearby alley as more gunfire began to ring out on the street they stood at. Some of the weapons fire was directed at them, while more often than not, at each other, suggesting that there was more than one side fighting this battle. Launchpad, Feathers, and Gosalyn returned fire to their best of the abilities, but not having much luck otherwise.

"I can't tell who's fighting who out there." Launchpad grumbled.

"It's not so much us, I think." Gosalyn said. "I also think that if we're going to get out of here, we'd better do it now."

"Right." Launchpad said, and the three turned and fled, heading down the alley.

At the end of it, however, they were unexpectedly cut off by an a person wearing simple clothing and two belts around his upper body so each one looped around each shoulder. Both belts housed several different kinds of daggers and knifes. Taking two, the newcomer pulled out two and brandished them at the fleeing three, while Gosalyn inwardly groaned at meeting yet another double she knew well, as footsteps from behind announced the arrival of more foes, surrounding them.

"I would advise against moving, mate." Rowe said darkly.

* * *

"I was afraid this would happen." Feathers said, bouncing on the floor of the pickup truck they had forcibly been shoved into and was now driving away from the gunfight that was still continuing.

Launchpad hung tightly to the edge of the truck's bed to keep himself from being throw out as the truck roared down the very cluttered and even road. "Afraid what would happen?" he asked.

"That we'd get caught!" Feathers exclaimed. "This is exactly why I didn't want you coming, Gosalyn!"

"Thanks for the concern, but I still say me coming along was a good idea." Gosalyn said, also trying to keep herself from being thrown out of the truck's back as it bucked and tossed down the war-worn streets of this ruined St. Canard. "At least we can have the benefit of knowing that these guys aren't very technologically advanced in comparison to us."

"Which puzzles me." Launchpad said. "If these guys are so backwards, how could they have possibly gained access to our universe, like our theories had indicated?"

"I don't know, maybe we really _do _have the wrong universe." Gosalyn said. "Whatever the case, I think we're going to be finding out in due time."

Eventually, the truck haphazardly pulled up to the center of the city and came to a stop just wherever. In another universe, this would be where Canard Tower would've stood, but here, the city's old city hall stood here instead, a building that would've been torn down if a Canard Tower had ever been built. Like many of the buildings in the city, it had suffered from the fighting, and wasn't in the best of conditions, but it was more intact than others, and seemed to be the only building with power, for electric lights could be seen glowing within.

The moment the truck stopped, it's occupants climbed out and forcibly dragged out their prisoners, tying their hands behind their backs as they went. Rowe was among them, standing to one side threateningly, observing. He seemed to be in command of the group. They waited for another truck that had been following them to arrive, then the group led their prisoners into the building.

The moment they entered, however, Rowe grabbed Gosalyn and began leading her away from the others, which where heading down a different hallway.

"Gosalyn!" Launchpad exclaimed, trying to get at her, but couldn't.

"Hey, where are _we _going?" Gosalyn snapped, struggling against Rowe's grip as the otter singlehandedly led her in a different direction.

"There's someone here who's very anxious to meet you, mate." Rowe replied sternly.

He didn't say anything more until he had led her into a semi-spacious room, dimly lit, and was cluttered with debris and layered thick with dust. Various people of various species stood along the edges silently and in the shadows, acting like guards. Gosalyn tried to get a good look at them, but Rowe led her to the middle of the room, and then roughly shoved her downward.

"Kneel!" he snapped as he did so.

Gosalyn did, but only because the force of the shove made her loose her balance and fall heavily to her knees, skidding half a foot forward on the rough, wooden, floor as she did so. She shot a glance at Rowe, then turned to look ahead of her. A figure stood before her, his back turned to her, hidden in the shadows like most of everyone else in the room. Standing elegantly behind him, looking out of place against the 1920s style architecture in the room, was a Darkwarrior-style portal generator.

Gosalyn stared at it for a moment, then narrowed her eyes. "Not so backwards after all." she muttered, breathless.

The figure chuckled with a voice she recognized. "Yes, we _would _seem like that, wouldn't we?" he turned to face her, revealing that he carried a walking stick that was right away apparent was carried for nothing more but appearances. "Ruthless, too, seeing that we are constantly fighting. Which is regrettable, but the bloodshed and destruction is needed for my purposes."

"I have the sneaking suspicion you're the leader of this group." Gosalyn remarked.

"The group yes, world, no." the figure said, stepping towards Gosalyn, towards the light. Within moments, his features would become clear. "A fact I intend to remedy in due time." his voice turned aggressive. "First I must deal with the likes of you, though."

"Ooh, I'm so scared." Gosalyn said sarcastically.

"You should be, because I know you aren't from this universe."

"I gathered that much."

"I also know you aren't from the same universe as the companions we found you with."

"Okay, now you've caught me off guard."

"That was the intent, Gosalyn Mallard." the figure said stopping just short of stepping into the light. "I'm _really _good at that, you see. It all comes with the job description, though."

Gosalyn narrowed her eyes at the figure, feeling her stomach sink. "Just who are you, anyway?" she asked.

"Me?" the figure said, motioning to himself dramatically. "Why, I am the terror that grips your heart. I am the murderer in the dark." Grinning contemptuously, he finally stepped into the light. "I am Negawing Duck."

* * *

Gosalyn was silent for a very long moment.

"And just when I thought none of my other nightmares could come true." she finally stated.

Negawing grinned, flapping his blood-red cape out of the way as he started to circle his prisoner. "It shouldn't come as any surprise to you, really." he said in response. "You should've known that you would've eventually meet up with me again."

"And how do you know that I've met up with the likes of you before?" Gosalyn asked, annoyed.

"How else would you have had nightmares of me?"

Gosalyn narrowed her eyes again. "You're smarter than the Negawing I knew, I'll give you that much."

"Thank you." Negawing said, beaming, finishing one circle around Gosalyn before stopping, planting his walking stick firmly against the floor. "But that's not why we're here, are we?" he snapped his fingers, and a chair was suddenly brought forward, which he lowered himself into luxuriously. "Now, you have questions, and I have answers. You have my permission at this time to begin asking, and I'll give answers as I see fit."

Gosalyn looked at him suspiciously for a moment, but relented. "How do you know so much about me?" she asked.

"A friend told me." Negawing said. "Don't be so surprised, I have a portal generator. I know a little bit about the immediate multiverse around me."

"How _did _you get that thing anyway?" Gosalyn asked, nodding at the portal generator in the back of the room. "Surely you didn't build it."

"No, it's beyond us, as you so aptly noted." Negawing agreed. "Actually, believe it or not, we just found it."

"You found it."

"Yes. Stroke of luck on my part, really."

"And you've been using that to get around the multiverse."

"For a time, yes." Negawing said, reaching into his pocket. "But now I've got something even better."

He then pulled out a portal remote and held it aloft. Gosalyn's eyes went wide.

"Where did you get _that_?" she asked.

"From the same friend that told me about you." Negawing said, lowering the remote. "He's not from around here, either."

Gosalyn suddenly realized who he was referring to. "You mean Negaduck." she stated. "The Negaduck I know and hate."

"Very good, Gosalyn." Negawing praised.

"So Negaduck really has been here after all."

"Well, to _this _universe, yes." Negawing motioned to their surroundings for emphasis on that detail. "It was me personally who was paying little visits to the universe your companions should've stayed in."

"Then I'm assuming it was you who was behind Darkwing's disappearance, then."

"My, my, Gosalyn, you really _are _quite perceptive, aren't you?" Negawing grinned, leaning forward to press his face closer to Gosalyn's. "Of course, there's more to it than that. Originally, the plan was for me to merely do him in and take his place. That's how we first encountered each other, as I'm sure you were told by your friends. Unfortunately, I underestimated Darkwing, and he caught on to my plans too quickly for me to fully carry them out, forcing me to back off, and allowing Darkwing to blow my cover. After that, I tried several various different schemes to get Darkwing out of the picture, but the little twerp didn't know when to give up. Finally, I had to resort to more extreme measures."

"Kidnaping." Gosalyn summarized, glaring at Negawing. "Is he even still alive?"

"What? Of _course_ he's still alive, he's been my...shall we say...guest. Am I correct, Rowe?"

Rowe merely smirked cruelly at the thought, but it gave Gosalyn some relief to know that much.

"What do you want Darkwing for, anyway?" Gosalyn asked Negawing. "Just...out of spite?"

"Oh, no, no, no, everything has a purpose, Gosalyn." Negawing replied, leaning back in his chair. "You see my universe? Pitiful, isn't it? It's like this all over the whole planet. Nothing but ruins, or worse. See, back in the 1920s in _my _universe's timeline, war broke out unexpectedly. At first, it stayed in just a few countries, but eventually it spread to all four corners of the globe, destroying it as it went. That war has continued on through to today. Only everyone's forgotten who's fighting who and why. They just fight. Sure, someone, like me, might rise to power, restore some semblance of order to small parts of the land, but there's always going to be some kind of resistence out there ready to take you down."

"And you couldn't live with that."

"No, of course not! I want to rule a world, Gosalyn. Rule it, and be the undisputed leader of all for all eternity, or at least for as long as I live. I tried doing that here, mostly to just find some kind of sense of peace for starters, but I have far too many enemies." Negawing fell silent for a moment, playing with the handle of his walking stick for a moment. "_Everyone _seems to be my enemy here. However, Darkwing's universe is quite different. It's already at peace, or close to it, and has been so for many years now. If there would to be a sudden change in leadership, there wouldn't be much the populace could do about it there, or so I think. I could rule it with ease, and only do a fraction of the work to succeed at it than I would here."

"Which is where your conflicts with Darkwing fall into play."

"Exactly! Darkwing was the only real thing standing in my way. He's me, I shouldn't be surprised of that. He had to go, and I tried everything I could think of to do it as discreetly or painlessly as possible, but he proved to be more stubborn than a cockroach. So I kidnaped him. Now I could carry out my plans."

"But you didn't." Gosalyn gave him a slightly victorious grin. "You've had Darkwing out of the way for more than eight years, but everything is still pretty much the same in his universe. Eight years is a long time to do nothing."

"Unfortunately, I ran into unavoidable trouble here in this universe, and since I _do _have plenty of resources and other things that I want to hang onto here in this universe, I had to react accordingly." Negawing sighed, and stood again, leaning heavily on his walking stick. "'Twas not an easy process, you know, and it's kept me very well preoccupied. Nearly lost it all once or twice, but of course, I'm too good to let that _really_ happen. I finally have things stabilized enough for me to continue with my plans, though I had to slit a few throats in order to do it."

"Oh joy."

"So I got a little sidetracked in guaranteeing success." he grinned and straightened, smoothing out the wrinkles in his blood-red double-breasted jacket. "But now the rules have completely changed."

"Cue Negaduck, I suppose."

"Quite right; once again you're one step ahead of me." Negawing started circling Gosalyn as he talked again. "He turned up literally out of the blue, and gave me an offer I could _not _refuse. Exactly what I wanted, control of a world. The only thing I had to do in return was provide the raw materials. He's working on a project, you know, something _big_, something that will rock your universe to it's very _core_."

"I've already surmised as such; we've known Negs has been planning something for awhile now." Gosalyn replied, turning her head to keep Negawing in her line of vision. She furrowed her brow. "And he needs your help?"

"Why else would he have given me this?" Negawing asked, holding up the portal remote again. "To stay in contact."

"That explains the portals we detected in the Negaverse that led somewhere _other _than the Negaverse." Gosalyn realized. "Negs really _has _been paying other universes a visit." she frowned. "But...why?"

"And that," Negawing said, coming to a stop, "is where our Q&A session comes to an end." he looked at Rowe and grinned. "Get her out of here. Lock her up with the other two."

Rowe nodded, and roughly grabbed Gosalyn and pulled her upright and led her away, while Negawing stood and watched with amusement.

* * *

A few minutes later, Gosalyn was roughly shoved into a barren cell, barred off with a set of plain iron bars. Feathers and Launchpad were there already, having managed to remove their bonds during the time Gosalyn was gone, and were sitting on the floor, looking almost bored. They looked up when Gosalyn was shoved in, and winced when Rowe slammed the door to the prison shut behind her.

"Stick around mates." he said once he had done so, leaning on the bars for a moment. "Methinks ol' Negawing's got plans to get rid of you guys with _style_." he grinned his cruel grin again. "You won't want to miss it."

Laughing, he then walked off, leaving only two guards in the corridor beyond. Feathers and Launchpad then stood and gathered around Gosalyn.

"Gos, are you okay?" Launchpad asked as he unbound her hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Gosalyn said, flexing her wrists. "They didn't treat me too badly back there, but I think that's not going to last for much longer. How about you guys?"

"They've just left us alone in here." Feathers replied. "They probably know we can't escape."

"Not without help, at least." Launchpad added. "Help from the outside."

"And we all know how likely it is we'll get that." Gosalyn said, leaning against one wall of the cell. "Ooh, if I could just have a few minutes alone with Negawing..."

"Who _is _Negawing?" Feathers asked, curious.

"Your Darkwing double that you've heard so little about." Gosalyn replied. "I don't envy you guys for having him, though, he's worse than Negaduck. What's worse, though, is that I found out that Negaduck _has _had a hand in all of this. Because of him, the situations occurring in at least _four _different parallel universes have now become interconnected!"

"But...why?" Launchpad asked aloud.

"Apparently, we aren't to know that, because that's when Negawing stopped explaining things to me." Gosalyn said with a sigh. "There is something we can take comfort in knowing, though. Darkwing really _is _here in this universe, trapped, and according to Negawing, he is still alive, although I have no idea what his health might be like."

"Well, where is he?" Launchpad asked, hopeful. "Maybe we can still bust him out of here."

"He's probably being kept somewhere else in this prison." Feathers pointed out, frowning. "And before we can rescue _anyone_, we have to figure out how we're going to get out of here, ourselves."

"...which we can't do without outside help." Gosalyn added flatly, not seeing how they were going to get out of this one.

Then, quite suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and one of the two guards fell over, dead. The second guard started to turn, raising his weapon, but another gunshot rang out and downed him as well.

"What the..." Launchpad began, moving towards the cell door. "Who did that?"

"That would be me." came the answer, as their mysterious shooter stepped into view.

Gosalyn frowned at the sight of her, both surprised and apprehensive of the appearance. "What are _you _doing here?" she asked.

"Providing outside help." Gosalyn Mallard of Negawing's universe replied.

* * *

There was a few moments of silence as everyone paused to absorb this new development. Gosalyn took the time to examine this new universal double of hers in detail. She wore her hair cut rather short; Gosalyn guessed it was some kind of bob cut, but done in a style she wasn't familiar with. Whatever the case, it gave Negawing Gosalyn a slightly flapperish look.

It ended with the hair, though. Her clothing consisted of a plain white, long-sleeved button-up shirt with a collar, and black dress pants. She wore a vest over the shirt that was colored a deep red in color and would've matched the red of Negawing's costume. She also wore black dress shoes that probably looked nice at one point, but had been scuffed and scratched from frequent, harsh, use.

What made Gosalyn apprehensive of her double, however, was the sheer fact that no one could tell where her allegiances lay. Her expression was dark, but neutral. At a first glance, one would think she was here with ill intent for them, until it became clear that she intended to help them for some reason. Whatever her intentions, she was well armed for them, carrying a Thompson submachine gun in one hand and a pistol, which she had used to shoot the guards, in the other.

"So," Launchpad finally began, "You're our outside help?"

"Would you perhaps care for someone else?" Negawing Gosalyn asked hotly, taking a ring of keys from one of the fallen guards and unlocking the cell and pulling open the door. "Well? You coming, or would you rather stay there?"

"No, this is too good to be true, you just appearing out of nowhere to help us." Gosalyn said flatly. "What's in this for you?"

"It'll really tick Negawing off." Negawing Gosalyn replied flatly.

"So you're against Negawing." Feathers deduced. "Therefore, you're on our side."

"I'm on _nobody's _side." Negawing Gosalyn stated sternly. "Just my own."

"Which leads me back to my original question." Gosalyn said. "What's in this for you? Why are you helping us?"

"Negawing's a threat. He intends to cause chaos only. I intend to stop him. In short, this is a rare occasion where we have common goals." she held the door open wider, using the motion to urge the prisoners out of the cell. "So c'mon, already! You think I've got all day?"

Feathers, Launchpad, and Gosalyn all hesitantly looked at one another. Then, jointly, they hesitantly stepped out of the cell. Negawing Gosalyn made a decisive nod.

"Good." she said, and then turned to start walking further down the hallway.

"Wait, where are _you _going?" Gosalyn demanded.

"To do one more thing, and I would recommend that you follow me." Negawing Gosalyn called over her shoulder. "I'm not waiting up, though!"

The others quickly hurried to keep up with her. Negawing Gosalyn more or less ignored their presence.

"Now wait, I have some questions about all of this, too." Launchpad spoke up. "How did you get in here? For that matter, how did you even know we were here? Do you know who we are?"

"The answers are simple." Negawing Gosalyn said. "I was already in here to begin with, I found out that you were here through the grapevine, and yes, I know _very well_ who you three are. Hence why I'm here. You guys don't belong here, this our war, not yours. I recommend that you not come back here, and leave us to deal with the likes of Negawing. As for the next question you are no doubt going to ask, I was already here because Negawing currently thinks I'm on his side as a hired gunman. As if. I'm _really _here to try and take him down."

"On your own?" Gosalyn asked skeptically.

"That's the plan. All you guys need to worry about is follow my lead and getting out of here."

"If we are to do that, then we will require a weapon of our own." Feathers remarked.

"Fine, take the pea shooter, then." Negawing Gosalyn said, tossing her the pistol she carried. "I keep the chopper though." she held up the tommy gun for a moment as emphasis, then continued wordlessly onward.

They suddenly rounded the corner and came face to face with two more guards standing around another cell. Before anyone had time to react, Negawing Gosalyn had raised the submachine gun and fired indiscriminately at the two guards, quickly downing them. Stepping over the bodies, she marched up to the cell door and proceeded to unlock it.

"You think it's really wise to be just shooting carelessly like that?" Gosalyn asked, leerily stepping over one of the fallen guards as they joined her. "What if someone hears?"

"Please, everybody in this world hears gunshots at least twice an hour from all directions, nobody's going to think twice about it." Negawing Gosalyn replied, rolling her eyes, throwing open the cell door and motioning into the cell. "Get him." she ordered.

They peered into the cell and saw, to their mild surprise, Darkwing. Looking to be very tattered, battered, and weak, he sat in one corner of the cell, barely conscious. Launchpad, Feathers, and Gosalyn rushed forward to help him.

"Darkwing!" Launchpad said, nudging Darkwing to try and get him to be more fully awake. "Darkwing, are you okay?"

Darkwing lazily lifted his head and blearily looked at Launchpad. "Huh." he muttered, clearly not entirely there. "Agent Launchpad. Been awhile." he looked around at the others. "And Agent Feathers too, huh?" he frowned when he saw Gosalyn. "Don't know you, though."

"We haven't met." Gosalyn said with a grin. "But I know you very well, regardless, and let's leave it at that for now."

"C'mon, you three, I don't have all the time in the world, here." Negawing Gosalyn urged from the doorway of the cell.

"Right." Feathers said, as she and Launchpad helped Darkwing up to his feet. "Can you walk, Darkwing?"

"S'pose so." he mumbled blankly, wobbling on his feet a little. "We going somewhere?"

"Home, I hope." Launchpad said.

Darkwing gave him a thumbs-up sign. "Good enough for me." he said.

"He's a little...loopy...isn't he?" Gosalyn commented, tilting her head as she studied Darkwing.

"We'll worry about that later." Feathers said, as she and Launchpad helped Darkwing out of the cell. She turned to Negawing Gosalyn. "I presume you have a discreet way of getting us out of here?"

"Not really." Negawing Gosalyn said, like she could care less. "The only way I know of out of here is the way we all came in, and that'll be guarded."

"So how are we going to get out?" Gosalyn asked, waiting for her double's brilliant plan to reveal itself.

Turned out that she didn't have one though. "We fight." she responded with a shrug.

There was a moment of silence.

"Works for me." Darkwing remarked with an almost drunken grin on his face.

Gosalyn then suddenly got an idea. "Yes..." she began, thinking. "It actually might...if we add a little spice to it." she turned to Negawing Gosalyn. "You said you've been pretending to work for Negawing, right?"

"That's right, so I could scope out the land and find a way to do him in."

"About how much authority does that give you?"

"Oh, some, but not a whole lot. Mainly just access to the whole building and the right to hold and shoot a gun, as well as carry out any orders Negawing might give me."

"Really?" Gosalyn asked with a grin, taking interest in the latter of those things. "Then I think I know how we're going to pull this off..."

* * *

At one point, the building that had once served as St. Canard's city hall had a lobby. Physically speaking, it still stood, but it had suffered greatly during the many long years of fighting and it's interior had more or less been torn to shreds. A smattering of armed guards stood around the entrance in no particular formation. Their orders were to shoot anything suspicious and let only known allies enter the building...unless those allies decided to pick a fight instead, which wasn't uncommon.

They knew who was friend or foe quite well, though, and therefore recognized Negawing Gosalyn instantly. They probably would've let her pass without comment, was it not for the fact she was escorting four people out with her at gunpoint. Three of which they recognized as prisoners who had just been brought into the building. The fourth seemed familiar, but that was about it.

"What's all this?" one of the guards asked.

"Taking this lot out of the building, what does it _look _like?" Negawing Gosalyn snapped. "Negawing wants to execute 'em. He has that right. I have orders to take these guys out to a spot of his choosing, and wait for him to show up to do it. So unless you want to take this matter up with him..."

"Fine." the guard said, annoyed at Negawing Gosalyn's attitude, and pushed open the doors to the building. "Get out of here, then. Wouldn't want to displease Negawing, now would we?"

Negawing Gosalyn rolled her eyes, but made no comment. "Move!" she ordered her escort, and she and her four prisoners marched out of the building at gunpoint.

She marched them over to a parked Model-T Ford car. "Get in." she ordered, glancing back at the building they had just exited, it's front doors still open. "This is going better than I expected."

"Told you it was good plan." Gosalyn said with a grin, patting her double on the shoulder.

She then climbed into the passenger seat while Launchpad, Darkwing, and Feathers climbed into the back in that order. Negawing Gosalyn was to take the driver's seat, but first went to crank-start the engine, she was in the process of doing so when suddenly everything went wrong.

Unbeknownst to the group, Rowe turned up in the lobby just shortly after they had departed, and inquired as to who was leaving, probably just out of curiosity, and was told exactly what Negawing Gosalyn had told them. The only problem with the story was that Negawing had given no such order, and Rowe knew it. Racing to the door, he saw who was getting away, and quickly yelled out orders to stop them hurrying forward to help himself.

Hearing those orders being yelled out, Negawing Gosalyn gave the crank one last twist, successfully starting the engine, twisted around while raising her tommy gun to fire blindly at the oncoming attackers. Her gunfire mostly missed and merely held off the attackers for a moment, but one bullet she fired apparently grazed Rowe, for he suddenly slowed and grabbed at his arm in pain. It bought Negawing Gosalyn enough time to dive into the driver's seat and stomp down on the gas pedal.

The car was off like a shot, bouncing haphazardly over the debris that littered the streets. Behind them, the pursuers quickly hopped into other vehicles that were parked around the building and chased after them in a disorganized manner. Negawing merely ignored this, and simply stepped down on the gas pedal harder, trying to urge the car to move even faster than it already was, a dangerous feat given the environment.

"I'll get you guys to the portal." Negawing Gosalyn said as the car bounced and jerked violently down the road, feeling like it was about ready to come apart with each jolt. "Once there, get through it! You won't have time to sit around a dilly-dally! I'll hold those idiots chasing us off long enough for you get through!"

"How?" Gosalyn demanded. "You're just one person, with one gun!"

"It could be two, if Miss Redhead back there hadn't taken my pea shooter!" Negawing Gosalyn snapped.

Feathers quickly returned the unused pistol at this remark to avoid an argument. Not long after this, gunfire could be heard and bullets ricocheting off the sides of the feeling car. Glancing in a rearview mirror, Gosalyn saw that the pursuing cars were keeping up with them, firing at the fleeing car.

"They're gaining!" Launchpad cried in alarm.

"I _know_!" Negawing Gosalyn snapped.

"They'll be on us at any second, and shoot us full of holes!"

"I _KNOW_!"

"I'm just saying..."

"Low bridge!" Gosalyn suddenly exclaimed, as she caught sight of a rusting iron girder laying on the road.

It was propped up enough that one end didn't touch the ground, but as the car raced as if to duck under it, it was doubtful if there would be enough room for the whole car to fit. Quickly, the occupants in the car, ducked down their heads. Just before the car went under the girder, it hit a bump that launched it up about a foot into the air, narrowing the space the vehicle had to fit through even further. It wasn't wide enough, and the girder slammed into the roof of the car, twisting it clear off the car with a bone-jarring jerk, shattering the car's window's in the process. The rest of the car survived and landed with a thud on the other side of the girder, and despite having lost some speed, continued recklessly onward. The pursuing cars opted to take a less dangerous route around the girder, but it was less direct, and slowed them down, allowing the fleeing car to make up for the lost ground fairly quickly.

They raced onward without much further event until finally they neared the location of the still-active portal. Negawing Gosalyn slowed the car, and then prepared to bring the vehicle to a complete and sudden stop the moment the portal came into view. When the portal did come into view, however, it was clear that Negawing had anticipated an escape attempt well in advance. The portal was currently well guarded by several of his men...

...as well as Negawing himself.

The moment the fleeing car came into view, they raised their weapons to begin shooting.

"Get down!" Negawing Gosalyn exclaimed to the others, slammed on the brakes of the car, bringing it to a stop.

The bullets quickly began to fly, bouncing everywhere. Before the car had even come to a full start, Negawing Gosalyn had her tommy gun out, flung herself out of the car, and was quickly returning the fire. Launchpad, Feathers, Gosalyn, and the still-loopy Darkwing ducked down, and climbed out of the car to hide behind the car on it's over side, using the car as a shield. The pursuing cars were quickly pulling up to the scene of the fight and would soon shortly be joining in.

"We're never going to be able to fight our way out of this and get at the portal!" Gosalyn exclaimed, listening to the gunshots banging, and bullets whizzing around everywhere.

"Yes we can!" Feathers said, pulling out a radio and quickly speaking into it. "Agent Feathers to SHUSH! If you can hear me, we are beside the portal, but are blocked by the enemy and engaged in combat and cannot reach the portal! We request assistance, repeat, we request assistance!"

There was too much noise to tell if SHUSH gave a reply. But after a few tense seconds as the pursuing cars pulled to a stop at the scene and it's occupants clambered out to join in the fight, a squadron of SHUSH commandos suddenly burst out of the portal behind Negawing and his men and began shooting into their ranks. The firefight continued for a few moments until Negawing gave the order for his men to scatter and seek cover. They did, but several had been downed in the process, and a clear path was made leading to the portal.

"Now's your chance!" Negawing Gosalyn exclaimed, still unharmed and still fighting. "Go!"

They needed no second bidding, and, keeping low, Launchpad, Feathers, Gosalyn, and Darkwing all raced for the portal while the firefight continued around them. The commandos that had come to their rescue all backtracked into the portal, keeping just ahead of them and returning fire. Feathers was last to enter the portal. Just before she did, she saw Negawing, seeing the coast would soon be clear, wave his men forward before charging for the portal himself.

Feathers quickly dove into the portal and arrived back at SHUSH HQ, landing hard on the ramp. She took the blow in turn, then rolled over, grabbed a hand grenade from a nearby commando, pulled the pin, and hurled it back through the portal. There was a brief pause, then a fiery explosion gushed back out of the portal as the grenade went off on the other side. Moments after that, the portal winked out of existence, and silence fell.

Gosalyn let out a cheer, and let herself drop to the floor in exhaustion. "We did it." she praised.

* * *

As the mission was more or less deemed a success, and its primary objective _was _achieved, SHUSH agreed to go through with their end of the deal, and made preparations to send Gosalyn home to her universe. As a result, Gosalyn quickly spent some of her time preparing to depart, dressing back up as Crimson once again. Her next stop was going to be sub-level five to head home, but before she did, she had one final place to stop at.

In the Infirmary, lying in bed and lightly resting, was Darkwing. After having been given a thorough examination, the doctors decreed that Darkwing had faired well, the worse of his problems being some severe bruising from abuse as well as malnutrition and dehydration. He would quickly pull out of it and be back on his feet. As proof, it wasn't long after his treatment began that Darkwing finally snapped out of his dazed attitude and after being brought up to date on everything, was back to using his usual egotistical personality they all knew so well before tiredness lulled him to sleep.

When Crimson arrived, she at first thought Darkwing was still sleeping, but upon her approach, his eyes fluttered open again, and he turned to look at her.

"Ah, the girl from another universe." he greeted jokingly.

Crimson grinned. "Yeah, that's me." she said. "I take it you're feeling better, then?"

"I'm back home for the first time in eight years, of course I'm feeling better." Darkwing said with a weak chuckle. "Which, I am to understand, is mostly thanks to you."

"Well, I helped." Crimson said with a shrug, then cleared her throat. "I take it that's what you wanted to see me about?"

"Yeah." Darkwing said, nodding. "I wanted to say thanks. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be stuck in Negawing's clutches, which is no pleasant experience, I assure you."

"I'll bet." Crimson agreed. "Think he'll try to give you guys more trouble?"

"I dunno." Darkwing admitted. "But whatever happens, I wish I had a Crimson Avenger to work with around here."

Crimson grinned. "That's flattering, really." she said. "Thanks."

"No," Darkwing corrected, "thank _you_."

* * *

"So, I trust we're on a bit better terms, now?" Crimson asked as the final preparations for the creating the portal to send her home were made. "I mean, we _did _start off on the wrong foot at first, but I hope that, in the end, we're all good now."

"Yes, I suppose we are." Hooter agreed, nodding, having come to see Crimson off.

"You know, you didn't _have _to help us." Launchpad commented, also present. "Seeing how we had been treating you, you didn't really have much incentive to do so."

"Yeah, well...it helped to get me what I wanted, and helped put us all on better terms anyway." Crimson said with a grin. "Makes you wish you had one of me around, though, doesn't it? C'mon, admit it."

"I'm still of the opinion that you are more trouble than you are worth, Miss Mallard, but yes, I can see your uses." Feathers remarked, half-grinning.

Crimson rolled her eyes. "You're welcome, then." she said.

"Activating the portal now." a technician announced.

The portal flared into existence behind Crimson. She turned to glance back at it, and grinned somewhat at the sight of it, and the thought of where it would lead.

"Well, there's my ride home, so I guess I better be off." she said, turning back to the others. "Goodbye, then."

She started on up the ramp to the portal, but was cut short when Launchpad suddenly spoke.

"Gosalyn," he began, grinning, "Thanks."

Crimson returned the grin. "Glad to be of service." she replied.

And with that, she stepped through the portal to, at long last, return home.

* * *

_Fun Facts: I always knew that I wanted this chapter to begin in the Negaverse, but exactly how I was going to go about doing that was another story. Originally, I was going to have Crimson on the run from Negaduck's forces for some mission gone wrong, but then later thought beginning more calmly with a scene at the UIO would be more fitting a beginning, and it gave me a chance to reveal a few things about the referred-to-but-usually-unseen UIO, including the introduction of NegaSteelbeak (which I've been looking for a means of doing for ages now :p)._

_The lightning storm that triggers Crimson's jump to the 'sister universe' is a mild reference to the Star Trek original series episode "Mirror, Mirror" where an ion storm interefered with the transporters functions mid-transport and beamed Kirk and the gang to the now ever famous mirror universe of the Star Trek world. B)_

_This chpt could also be considered a minor DuckTales crossover due to the appearance of Feathers Gallore, who made her one and only appearance in the episode "Double-O Duck" ('twas the same episode where FOWL was first introduced). After watching that episode, while I understood LP's reasons for leaving the spy buisness (and the show's reasons), I always thought Feathers and LP would've made for a great spy team, and I, of course, wondered at one point, "what if...?" :p So, I tried the idea out for this chapter._

_Cal wasn't always intended to appear in this chapter, being the person living in the Mallard home in the sister universe, but it was always intended for it to be a newspaper reporter of some sort. I later picked Cal so to not have to spend so much time introducing a character._

_While I'm thinking about it, Honker is the only member of the gang to NOT appear in this chapter in some shape or form, but I did have plans to try to do so before they were cut out for space (and logic reasons, I didn't have really good reasons to get Honk in the mix)._

_Cal's role was going to be much larger, so much so he would've eventually found out about Gosalyn's true origins, but it was again cut for space. It's because of this that Cal seems almost a little too overly trusting and helpful towards Gos._

_Again, it was fun to backtrack through the fanfic's timeline to work out all the little details. Surprisingly, I referred to "Darkwing Duck Returns" a lot more for this chapter than I did last chapter. Go figure, huh? :p_

_Except for being referred to when it's realized that Gos of the sister universe was never adopted by DW, she never actually appears, nor is she really referred to again. Originally, I had a scene that would've revealed that this Gos never did get adopted, and took it personally, turning to crime. At one point, she met up with sister universe Rowe, discovered their magical connections, and both were upped to the status of supervillains. It was to be this duet that stopped the bus Posiverse Gos tries to take and they end up kidnapping her, but despite actually beginning to write this scene, it was cut for space, and I realized it was actually forcing the story really off track. I opted instead to have the SCPD raid the bus for Gos and deliver her back into SHUSH custody._

_Norrin was originally going to be president in the sister universe, but when deciding that I wanted him to do the interrogation with Gos and not having a good reason why the president himself was doing it, he was later demoted back to vice president, then, on a whim, to 2IC of SHUSH. Actually, that choice proved to be nice, because I was able to tweak Norrin's personality to be a bit more friendlier and more listening. I believe he's also more supportive of DW in the sister universe, but that's never really made clear._

_I like Launchpad's long rant of various goodbyes in different languages (which WordPerfect was kind enough to provide for as synonyms to "goodbye") just before leaving. Seems like something he'd do, but the line was originally considered for Gos to say, who'd also say something like that herself. :p_

_And then we get into the Negawing universe. This actually came about not long after writing chapter 38, "Negawing Duck", after getting a train of thought that, put simply, went wild. I got to thinking as to what a universe for Negawing might be like, and got the idea of a universe where there WAS no good, just bad, and was mostly in ruins, making it even worse than the Negaverse. Originally, the classification for this universe would've the Negaverse II, then the sister Negaverse, but decided it was enough like it's own universe to class it by something else, and for the lack of a better name, have dubbed it the "Negawing Universe." Dunno if we'll see it again, though._

_Using all of that vintage 1920s stuff gave the universe added style IMO as well._

_I ended up not doing as much with Negawing Rowe as I expected, which is a pity. He actually isn't much like the Posiverse Rowe at all, save for the "mates"._

_And then we have Negawing Duck himself. Actually, I feel like I copted out on you guys, having him return in such a Darkwarrior Duck style, but I have my reasons for doing it. I also used the chance to build and improve the character, which I think was a plus. The original Negawing actually struck me as just being purely destructive, and seemed rather flat, honestly. This new Negawing has a more dynamic personality, having a bit of DW's of ego, Negaduck's cold and calculating mind, and of course, a fair dose of Negawing's original destructive insanity, though he keeps it better in check. Probably has a bit of a god complex, too. Outside appearances is the same as before though (red DW costume with yellow trim) save for the walking stick that I added for looks mostly, though that stick probably has a few special features up it's sleeve (it has sleeves? :p)._

_How Negawing came to possess a Darkwarrior-style portal generator is a story for another day. ;)  
_

_Huge clues given about Negaduck's master plan, BTW. Negaduck, it would seem, is gathering allies from other universes, and for reasons unknown...at this time. ;)_

_I dislike Negawing Gosalyn's abrupt appearance, as I don't reason it too well. I wish I could've taken more time to give her a proper introduction, but as usual, the chapter was at risk of running longer than planned again, and I had to cut back._

_Originally, (gee, how many times have I USED that word now? :p), Negawing Gos was going to be a true 1920s flapper (a term used at the time to describe a certain style the ladies were into at the time) but after doing more research into it, decided that the look and attitude wasn't what I wanted. Particularly when I gave Negawing Gos that tommy gun to wave around. :p The super-short bob cut haircut I describe her having is more or less fitting for a flapper, and is probably a remnant of that._

_Negawing Gos is sided with nobody, BTW, like most of everyone in the Negawing Universe. More of an anti-hero in this case. She's only against Negawing because Negawing intends to build a world she doesn't like. So she's against him. That simple. She's only helping the guys escape because, as she said, it was a way to get at Negawing, and they did for the moment share common goals. I wouldn't put it past Negawing Gos to turn against them at the drop of a hat._

_Her end fate is left purposely unknown, too, because I haven't decided if we'll get the chance to see her again._

_The chase through the ruins of St. Canard to the portal is actually really reminicent of a chapter from "Darkwing Duck Returns" which was unintentional. It is shorter, though, among other things._

_The scene where DW and Crimson chat before Crimson leaves was going to be longer, but, like always, was cut for space, and it wasn't really needed anyway. :)_

_There was also going to be an ending scene where Crimson arrived safely back home in the Posiverse and begins explaining what happened, but I liked leaving that blank to add to the mystery and intrigue of it all. :)_

_This chapter is tied in length with chapter 64, "FOUL Ball", which is the current longest chapter._

_Next chapter will be titled "Subsitute" (title possibly subject to change) and will be a change of pace chapter that will be somewhat comedic and will star a character who doesn't usually get that kind of spotlight attention... ;)  
_


	72. Substitute

Summary: When Darkwing and the gang are kidnapped by Negaduck, SHUSH is going to have to going to have to get creative and come up with a temporary replacement...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is late. I have no excuse. Simply just wasn't as on the ball for this chapter. Had a hard time getting into the spirit of things, and as such, allowed myself get distracted. Repeatedly. I don't intend to let that continue, though, so alls good. Besides, I probably needed the distractions, anyway, had a lot on my mind lately, and needed a little bit of unwinding time. Anyway, here's a more comical chapter for your reading pleasure, that actually reminds me a little of chapters of old in NADWD in style. Not my best, but hopefully still a good read. :)

72.

Substitute

"Oh dear, Charlie, let me fix your collar real quick."

"No, it's fine! You already fixed it."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!"

"All right, maybe I did, but I'm still going to fix it. So hold still, please!"

While Charlie squirmed and resisted, Christine managed to fix the six-year-old's collar to her satisfaction. When she was done, Charlie rubbed at it with mild and childish resentment.

"Why do I have to look nice, too?" he whined aloud to Christine.

"Because, Charlie, you are going to be staying with the Mallards while Drake and I go on our date." Christine explained while nervously adjusting her painstakingly styled hair. "Even though it's going to be Gosalyn and Launchpad babysitting you, I still want you to look presentable."

Charlie perked up a little bit at this. "Gosalyn and Launchpad are fun." he noted aloud, pleased. "They play fun games."

"Which reminds me," Christine remarked, now straightening her dress, "no matter how much Gosalyn and Launchpad say it's okay, you are not to play House Rules Parcheesi."

"Darn." Charlie muttered under his breath.

The taxi suddenly slowed and pulled to a stop outside the quiet residence of the Mallard home on Avian Way. Christine and Charlie climbed out of the taxi quietly, then Christine turned around to pay the driver. Once that was done, and the taxi had driven off, the two made their way up to the front door of the house, several lights inside of it glowing brightly in the dim light of the evening.

"Now remember," Christine said to her adopted son, ringing the doorbell, "Be nice to your babysitters, do what they say, unless it involves the phrases "indoor baseball", "House Rules Parcheesi", "extreme" anything, "flying", "joyriding", and "microwaving potatoes". Behave, stay out of trouble, you've had dinner already so you shouldn't need much to eat, but ask nicely for food, oh, and _don't _watch the episode, "The Scourge", from season nine of _Jumpgate_ again. You couldn't sleep at night for _days _because that episode."

"Okay." Charlie said, standing attentively beside Christine, clutching his stuffed otter toy, Jude, as usual.

They waited for a few moments for someone to answer the door. But no one did. Puzzled, Christine leaned over and rang the doorbell again and again waited for a response, this time more impatiently. Again, not getting a response, she knocked loudly on the door as if that would stimulate a response the doorbell would not.

"C'mon, guys, why aren't you answering?" she muttered aloud as she peered through the window in the door. The light on the other side of the door was on, but she couldn't see anybody coming. She knocked on the door again. "Drake!" she called loudly, "C'mon! We're going to be late!"

"You think they can hear you?" Charlie asked innocently.

Christine stopped to think about that for a moment, realizing that if the inhabitants inside of the house couldn't for some reason hear the doorbell, then they probably couldn't hear her shouting, either.

"No." she admitted. "But...still, this isn't like them. Not unless Gosalyn's trying to pull some cruel joke and nobody's stopped her yet."

She leaned over to try and peer through the living room window. She could tell the light in that room was on too, but as the curtains were closed, she couldn't tell anything more. Frowning, she put her hands on her hips and considered the situation.

"Maybe they aren't here." Charlie reasoned softly.

Christine turned to him. "But we have plans tonight, and we agreed to meet here." she stated. "Why would they leave?"

Charlie shrugged.

Christine turned back to the door. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this." she stated, and reached for the doorknob.

The door wasn't locked, and swung open slowly as Christine and Charlie entered. Closing the door behind her, they looked around the homey entry way for any sign of any inhabitant.

"Hello?" Christine called. "You guys here? Anybody?"

There was no response. Christine put her hands on her hips again while Charlie, attention drawn elsewhere, wandered into the living room. Letting him go, Christine walked through the double doors that led into the kitchen. It was empty. So was the adjoining dining room. Stepping into the dining room, she then looked into the living to find the same. The TV, however, was on, and was currently displaying the animated menu of a _Jumpgate _DVD. It currently had Charlie's attention, as he stood and watched the animation continue.

Christine moved to the kitchen window and looked out into the dark backyard for any sign of the house's usual inhabitants, but found that the backyard was empty. Frowning, Christine then moved upstairs, continuing her search. She found all of the rooms up there empty. Knowing there was only one room left she hadn't checked, she went back downstairs and approached the door of Drake's study.

The door had been left ajar, and like most of the rest of the house, the light had been left on as well. Drake, nor anyone else in his family, was present, however. Christine frowned, and pounded her fist against the doorframe.

"Where are they?" she asked aloud. "Did they go somewhere? Why? And why does everything look like they just dropped what they were doing and left?"

She turned away from the study and entered the living room to join Charlie. She then noticed that the vase of daffodils that perpetually sat on the coffee table, and that a red light was silently blinking within the vase. Christine stared at the vase for a moment, dimly aware of the blinking light meant, then allowed her gaze to wander towards the two armchairs that sat at the far side of the room.

"So that's where they went." she murmured, understanding now.

Charlie, hearing her, looked away from the TV to look at her, then followed her gaze.

"You know where they are?" he asked.

"I have a pretty good hunch, at least." Christine remarked, and wandered over to the chairs and sat in one of them.

Charlie followed her, and stood to one side, watching her. Christine then realized that it had never really been explained to Charlie about Drake's superhero alter ego as Darkwing Duck. She had just never thought to explain it. Charlie knew anyway, he had to have, he had been present on numerous occasions when Darkwing being Drake had been quite openly discussed. But then, with him being so young, it _was _possible that he didn't understand everything. After a moment of internal debate, Christine lifted Charlie up and placed him on her lap.

"Um, Charlie..." Christine began hesitantly, "Oh dear, how do I explain this? Um, where we're going to go is...um..."

"Secret?" Charlie guessed, innocently as usual.

"Um...yeah, secret. You know what to do with a secret, right?"

"To not tell anybody?"

"Right." Christine grinned, deciding that much should be made clear. She reached for the figurine that sat on a little table in-between the two chairs. "Now hold on tight, this will be a little wild."

She slapped her hand down on the head of the figurine, and the chairs started spinning wildly, sending them off for Darkwing Tower. With another wild spin, the they arrived at their destination and the chairs they arrived in stopped with a jolt. Brushing stray strand of hair out of her eyes, Christine looked around the tower, while still holding Charlie.

Right away, she knew something had gone terribly wrong here.

As evidenced by the missile-like object lying haphazardly on the floor, and the shards of glass from the window the missile-like object had broken on it's way in.

* * *

Christine and Charlie sat and looked at the rather sizable object lying on the floor of the eerily silent tower.

"What is that?" Charlie asked while pointing at the missile-like object, sounding more curious than afraid, unlike Christine.

"I don't know." Christine, very leery of the object. Seeing that it looked like a missile, did that mean it could blow up at any moment? Didn't missiles usually blow up on impact, though? Maybe it was a dud? Why is it here? And where _is _everyone, because they don't seem to be here either.

Charlie suddenly slid out of her lap and wandered towards the object. Christine moved to grab him.

"Charlie, wait." she said, reaching.

She missed, and Charlie continued onward out of her reach, apparently not listening. Christine remained frozen to the chair, still too leery of the object to get closer to it. Charlie seemed to be everything but leery, though. He strode right up to the object and looked it over.

"Charlie, be careful, neither of us know what that is!" Christine urged, trying to overcome her fear of the object enough to get up and drag Charlie away from it.

Charlie, however, rapped his knuckles curiously on it. It made an echoing banging sound, but otherwise nothing happened. He turned to Christine and shrugged.

"I think it's broken." he said simply.

"Wonderfully observant Charlie, now please come here!" Christine urged again, rising from the chair, but not moving any closer to the object.

Charlie, however, still didn't listen and moved around the object and walked towards the supercomputer platform at the other end of the hideout. Christine winced, hesitated a moment longer, then finally moved forward, towards the missile-like object. The closer she got to it, the more she realized that Charlie was probably right. The object really _was _broken, or at least inactive, because it certainly wasn't doing anything now. Christine's gaze traveled up to the window the object had smashed through, and wondered again what had happened here.

"Hey!" Charlie suddenly exclaimed from on top the supercomputer platform. He pointed at one of the computer screens. "What does this say?"

"Charlie, don't touch anything!" Christine ordered, and hurried up the staircase to the platform's top.

Once there, she saw that every screen on the platform, including the big screen, was flashing the same message:

"Security Breach Detected.

Standard Emergency System Lockdown Engaged.

Please Enter Password to Override"

Puzzled, Christine looked from screen to screen, wishing she knew what the password was. If she could gain access to the supercomputer, she might be able to find out what happened. But what could the password possibly be?

Hesitantly, Christine sat down at one of the eight smaller computers that encircled the platform. Charlie sat himself in a nearby chair to watch her. After a moment of debate, Christine wondered if the password might be a name, and typed in a few names that could be it, gauging them by using Drake's ego.

"Drake Mallard." she began, typing it in and seeing if it would be accepted.. "Nope. Darkwing Duck. Nuh-uh. Gosalyn Mallard. Nope. Launchpad McQuack. No dice. Maybe...Honker Muddlefoot? Techno? The Crimson Avenger? How about Morgana Macawber? Surely not Christine Merriweather? Didn't think so. Charlie Merriweather? Nope."

Clearly, the password wasn't based on a name of a person, unless it was one Christine either didn't know or hadn't thought of. She tried a few more potential passwords, this time using names of various objects and TV shows that she knew the Mallards liked. Still no result. She leaned back in the chair for a moment, thinking.

"Whoever put this together did a good job." Charlie remarked aloud.

"Yeah, leave it to Drake to..." Christine trailed off suddenly, then slapped her face. "I'm been looking at this wrong, trying to look at the situation through Drake's eyes, when I should really be looking at it through the supercomputer's programmer's eyes, the eyes of Techno."

Which meant there was one other name she could try. As the full name struck her as being too long, she stuck with just the last name.

"Bantamock." she murmured as she typed in the name and hit enter.

A new message appeared on the screen. It read:

Password Incomplete.

Include Authorization Number.

The password she had already entered in then reappeared, awaiting for her to add a number to the end. Christine thought for a moment, then typed in the first number that came to mind.

"Forty-Two." she muttered as she typed.

The screen changed yet again, this time for the better.

Password Accepted.

Lockdown Overridden.

Welcome. Click to Continue.

Christine exchanged a grin with Charlie. "There we go." she said, and began looking through the files that now appeared on the screen.

She had never had access to the supercomputer before, and therefore didn't really know what she needed to be looking for. However, when she found a series of records of footage from security cameras. Thinking this would provide some answers, she did some looking through the files. She saw that a new file was created on every hour as the cameras recorded new footage. The process ended abruptly, presumably due to the system lockdown, roughly about a half-hour previous, at least that was Christine's guess, as the last file was only about half the size of all the others.

Thinking that the answers might be here, Christine opened the file, bringing up a media player that automatically began playing once it had finished loading. It showed a view of an empty tower. Christine frowned as she and Charlie watched the first few minutes of it, then fast forward through the video. It wasn't until she was nearly at the end that something finally happened.

The chairs, just barely visible from this angle, suddenly spun, and Drake appeared in the screen, quickly hurrying over to the supercomputer platform, where only his upper body was still just visible. Christine heard him curse in the video, then race back across the hideout to the changing area. The chairs soon thereafter spun again, and this time Launchpad and Gosalyn appeared on the screen, turning to Drake as he reappeared in costume as Darkwing.

"Best change into costume, a hacker's gotten into the supercomputer." Darkwing said flatly, hurrying back to the supercomputer.

"What?" Gosalyn asked as she ducked into the changing area to change herself. "How?"

"I don't know, that's what I'm trying to find out!" Darkwing snapped as he worked at the controls of the computer. "But if this hacker is good enough to access the security cameras, then he can probably see whatever they're seeing, which means he could be seeing us as our secret identities right now."

Christine fast forward a little further. During so, a few moments further into the video, Crimson emerged from the changing area, and hurried over to help Darkwing. Honker at one point was indicated to have arrived through a different means and had entered the tower, but he didn't appear on screen until after he was changed into his own costume and joined the others at the supercomputer. At this point, Christine allowed the video to continue to play in real time again.

"Whoever this hacker was knew exactly what he was doing." Techno was saying. "He pierced right through the security systems installed on the supercomputer, alerting them of the hack, but skillfully doing so to prevent the system from locking down in self-defense. Whoever he has now access _and _possibly control of the whole system."

"Cut him off and drive him back, Tech." Darkwing urged.

"I'm trying, but he's standing his ground. The weird thing is that he or she is just sitting there, taking the blows. The hacker got in, found whatever they were looking for, then just stayed there, as if waiting for us to find him or her."

"Can we still call SHUSH?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it with the hacker still in the system monitoring things."

"Got it." Darkwing turned to Crimson. "Crimson, go use the landline, tell Hooter what's going on."

Crimson nodded, and hurried towards where the phone hung on the wall. Launchpad was seen moving into view after a long period of staying off screen to watch. Crimson had picked up the phone and looked to be in the process of dialing when Techno suddenly froze.

"Sensors detecting an object closing in on the tower, fast!" he exclaimed, rising to his feet. "It's..."

He got no further than that when one of the windows in the tower suddenly burst open, and the missile-like object that now sat in the room crashed to the floor. Everyone turned to look at it, as it suddenly spewed out a cloud of thick smoke.

"Sleeping gas!" Darkwing exclaimed, stepping down from the supercomputer platform as the gas quickly began to fill the room. "Crimson, help me stop it, Launchpad, seal the tower! Techno, initiate the emergency lockdown!"

"Got it!" Techno was heard exclaiming, and quickly began working with the controls.

After that, things degraded into cacophony as everyone was talking at once, and the gas continued to fill the room, obscuring the camera's view. The speaking and shouting eventually all degraded into coughing as the group began to succumb to the effects of the gas. Eventually, as the gas began to fade again (but not quickly enough), Techno was the only one still standing, having covered his mouth to try and shield himself while still trying to initiate the lockdown. He was fading fast, though, the effects of the gas beginning to affect him despite his precautions. Finally, he slipped, and fell to his knees, and for a long moment did not get back up again.

He finally did, and weakly tried again to lockdown the supercomputer, but by that point, Christine spied the entrance of a new person in the room, wearing a gas mask, as he jumped in through the broken window. Just as Christine started to get a good look at him, the video suddenly ended, presumably as Techno finally and successfully engaged the lockdown. Startled by the abrupt end, Christine rewound the video a few seconds, then froze it so to study the newcomer more closely.

Charlie could see the infiltrator too. "Who's that?" he asked.

"A very bad duck." Christine replied with a frown.

Even with half of his face being obscured by a gas mask, the duck was still quite clearly Negaduck.

* * *

"Negs must have kidnaped them." Christine remarked, moving over to the master control panel, sitting down in the command chair and scanning the controls before her. "Or worse, but I'd rather not think about that."

Charlie came to stand beside her, and watched curiously. "What are you looking for now?" he asked.

"Someway to get help, because I'm pretty certain Gosalyn's call never got through in time." Christine said, looking for a button in particular that had to be somewhere on this control panel. Finding it, she grinned. "Ah." she said, and pressed it.

The big screen changed to show the SHUSH logo. Underneath it, a progress bar slowly filled, as the transmission made it's connections. Finally, the screen changed again to show the face of J. Gander Hooter.

"Yes, Darkwing," Hooter began without preamble, "what is..." he trailed off as he realized who it was he was talking with. "Who's this?"

"Um, hello Director Hooter, sir." Christine began with a nervous wave. "I'm not sure if you remember me, it's been awhile since we've met in person. I'm Christine, Christine Merriweather."

"Ah yes, the doctor lady Darkwing is friendly with, and has moderate security clearance." Hooter deduced with a grin, remembering again. He then frowned again. "Why are you in Darkwing Tower?"

"It's a very long story, but it's not a good one, either." Christine explained. "See, I was going to have a date with Dra...I mean, Darkwing, tonight, but when I arrived, I found the house empty. Investigating further led me here, to Darkwing Tower. I don't know if you can see, but it's quite clear that the tower has been attacked, and I have evidence to suggest that it was Negaduck who was behind it. He's kidnaped Darkwing and the others and has taken them somewhere. I don't know where. But they no doubt need help, and I didn't know who to turn to, so..."

"You did the right thing, Dr. Merriweather." Hooter said reassuringly. "I'm sending some agents over there now to conduct an investigation. In the meantime, I recommend you stay where you are, and await their arrival."

"I'm not going anywhere, sir." Christine remarked.

"Good." Hooter said. "And don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this, you have my word. Hooter out."

The transmission then ended. Christine and Charlie then had nothing to do but sit and wait. While they did so, Christine couldn't help but worry for Darkwing and the rest of the group. Where they all right? What did Negaduck want with them? Could they really be rescued? Could SHUSH get to the bottom of this in time? Did she even need to worry?

Fortunately, help didn't take long to arrive. Without warning, Christine suddenly became aware that she could hear a helicopter flying outside the tower. Moments later, the helicopter itself dropped down and landed on the stone brace that connected Darkwing Tower with it's sister tower on the other side of the bridge, stretching across the width of the bridge itself. Climbing out of the helicopter were three SHUSH agents, which Christine recognized, having seen them before. All business, they promptly opened one of the windows and entered, spreading out to begin working. One, the apparent leader, turned to face Christine, still sitting in the command chair on the supercomputer platform.

"Dr. Merriweather?" the feline asked, stepping up onto the platform.

"That's right." Christine said, pulling Charlie down from her lap and standing.

"Agent Mia Gingevere, second rank agent for SHUSH." Agent Mia introduced curtly. "I believe we've met before, as well as my associates, Agent Sandingomm Verdauga, and Agent Todd Copperton. We'll be taking over from here, and don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this."

"I certainly hope you do." Christine remarked.

"Yep, just as I thought." Agent Sandy remarked, examining the missile-like object lying in the room. "Mia, I think I know what this is. A missile-like projectile that can be fired from an aircraft, like a jet. SHUSH has had them for years." she tapped it carelessly. "So long as you aren't in the way of them when they're fired, they're more or less harmless. That is, until, it releases it's payload. They're chemical weapons, you see. Fortunately for us, this one only contained a tank full of a very potent sleeping gas that it jettisoned entirely and promptly upon impact. It dissipated quickly, but no doubt knocked out everyone in the room for an hour or more. More than enough time for Negaduck to haul them out of here on his own."

"The chairs have been locked." Agent Todd commented, checking over the chairs that had brought Christine here. "They'll allow anything coming in, but won't let anything leave. Probably one of the last things Darkwing and company were able to do before they passed out." he turned to head for the supercomputer platform. "There's probably more information available in the supercomputer. Give me a little while, and I'll search for any more clues."

He took the command chair Christine had vacated, and got to work.

"Doctor, was the supercomputer locked down when you found it?" Agent Mia asked Christine.

"Um, yeah, but I was able to gain access to it again." Christine remarked. "If you look at the security camera records, you'll find a video that shows you what I learned."

"Got it, we're on it." Todd said, working at the supercomputer.

"We'll handle this, Dr. Merriweather." Mia assured her. "You're welcome to stay here and watch, if you want, though."

"Of course I want to, I want Drake found!" Christine said with a glare.

Mia politely ignored the comment, however, and went over to join Todd as the canine brought up the video in question on the big screen. Sandy strolled up to join them, but paused to talk with Christine.

"Don't worry, doctor, she meant no offense." she assured her. "She's right, though, we'll handle this."

"I know, but I still want to help somehow." Christine murmured. She sighed. "You're right, though, it's not like I can help much more than I already have, and I _do _have Charlie to focus on."

"Is that who this is?" Sandy asked curiously, looking down at Charlie, who ducked behind Christine's legs with shyness.

"Yes, he's my adopted son." Christine replied, looking down at Charlie with a grin. "All we both want is to see Drake and the rest all come back safely."

"Well, don't worry, either of you, because that's exactly what we're here to do." Sandy said with a grin. "We'll get to the bottom of this, and get them back unharmed in no time. You'll see."

Emphasizing her grin for Christine and ruffling Charlie's hair, she then went to join the others in watching the video, hoping that they wouldn't let the pair down.

* * *

They worked for a long while, digging up clues. Eventually, they gathered enough information to make a report to Hooter, who would in turn report any new developments on his end. Christine let them go on, but she didn't want to leave, so she hung around. She also knew that she should also probably get some sleep, as it was getting steadily later and later, but she couldn't get herself to do that either. Charlie had a similar attitude, not wanting to go at all, and not wanting to sleep either. But he was merely too full of childish curiosity, and Christine couldn't blame for that.

So they left the agents to do what they needed to do, relocating to sit at the briefing table beside the supercomputer platform, sitting on either side of the table and tossing a ball to each other. Occasionally, Christine would try to listen in on what the agents were saying above her, but they talked quietly, even when they stopped to talk to Hooter via a communications transmission, and Christine couldn't hear much. So eventually she gave up trying, deciding that they'd call her if they'd need her.

And she was right.

"Dr. Merriweather?" Agent Mia suddenly called, peering over the edge of the platform down at Christine and Charlie tossing the ball to each other. "An unexpected situation has come up. Could you come up here please, so we can talk about it?"

Christine nodded, and hurried on up to the platform. Charlie followed her, probably because he was more comfortable sticking close to her in the presence of strangers. When she arrived, she saw both Agents Sandy and Mia looking at her. Agent Todd was still working with the supercomputer, but his ears were perked up so he could overhear.

"What is it?" Christine asked, scooping Charlie up into her arms once on the platform. "Did you find something?"

"Yes and no." Agent Sandy replied. "We've confirmed your deductions, and decided that Negaduck is definitely behind this. We've also determined that the hacking attempt on the supercomputer was likely a ruse to draw everyone to the hideout so Negaduck could attack, and that Negaduck's craft of choice was the Negaquack, and that he did all of this on his own, probably to protect his own identity, but no doubt wherever they all are now, the Fearsome Four are with them."

Christine raised her eyebrows. "Well, that's certainly a start." she remarked. "Do you know where Negaduck took Darkwing and the others?"

"Unfortunately, no." Agent Mia replied. "And all means we have of tracking them should an event such as this occur has been disabled. Negaduck clearly thought of everything. Agent Todd is still searching for more clues." she motioned to Todd as he worked at the supercomputer.

"Then what do you need my help for?" Christine asked.

Mia and Sandy glanced at each other for a moment. "When we were reporting our findings to Director Hooter a few moments ago, the director had some new information to tell us." Sandy explained. "Most of it wasn't new, but he did tell us of an...another problem that has unexpectedly come up."

"You've heard of Frogduck, right?" Mia asked.

"Unfortunately." Christine admitted with a frown, remembering her last encounter with the mutant frog-duck. "Why?"

"He's on the loose at the moment in St. Canard, causing random trouble, as he always does." Mia went on. "Usually, it's no big deal, Frogduck doesn't usually cause that much trouble that can't be put right again in short order. Only that's usually Darkwing and the others that stop him. The SCPD are willing, but usually unable to stop Frogduck on their own. For some reason, Frogduck will only listen to and obey Darkwing and the others. We don't know why, maybe he's realized that Darkwing and the gang mean business whereas he sees the SCPD as merely something to taunt and play with. But the problem is that the SCPD need Darkwing's help, couldn't reach them, so they instead turned to SHUSH, who is now turning to us."

"Okay, I see where this is going." Christine said. "Unfortunately, Darkwing and the others can't help, because Negaduck kidnaped them."

"Exactly." Sandy said. "Unfortunately, we can't just wait until we find Darkwing and then send him after Frogduck. We need to enact upon this issue now, so we're going to have to...improvise."

Christine frowned. "Wait, you're going to try and impersonate Darkwing?" she asked.

"Actually, we were thinking more along the lines of getting someone to impersonate Crimson." Mia corrected.

Christine's eyes went wide, and she let Charlie slip out of her arms suddenly as she saw where this was going. "Oh no." she said. "Oh no, no, no, no...."

"Look, it won't be that difficult." Sandy explained. "Frogduck isn't very bright, he probably won't even notice the difference. A simple show of force will probably be more than enough to scare him off, and then it'll all be over."

"Besides, I'll be there to help in case things go wrong." Mia added. "They shouldn't, though. You'll see, everything will work out just fine."

Christine hesitated. "I don't know..." she said, "I really don't think this is such a good idea."

"We know how Crimson would act, we can pull it off." Mia promised. "Besides, we know who'd be a close enough match for this to work anyway."

"And, doctor, you said you wanted to help somehow." Sandy said.

Christine bit her lip. "I suppose I did." she admitted. "And I _do _want to help..."

"Good." Mia said. "Let's get started."

* * *

Which is how, a few minutes later, Christine found herself dressed in a spare costume, and was now looking in the mirror, and noting just how eerily alike to the Crimson Avenger she looked at the moment. She sighed at the sight, thinking this looked terribly out of place on her. Standing beside her was Agent Sandy, pulling Christine's hair into piggy tails like Gosalyn's.

"There." Sandy said as she finished. "I daresay you look close enough to the real thing that it'd fool even me at first glance."

"That's comforting." Christine remarked flatly. She winced as she looked herself over again. "You sure this is really going to work?"

"Trust me, it will." Sandy said, patting her on the shoulder. "You look like a true superhero now."

"I don't feel like one." Christine grumbled. "I don't even know the first thing about crime fighting."

"You won't need to." Sandy said. "Mia will talk you through the motions, and that'll be more than enough to fool Frogduck."

"Guess I'll just have to take your word for it." Christine bemoaned.

"That's the spirit." Sandy said. "C'mon, let's show Mia you're ready."

They walked up to the supercomputer platform where Agent Mia was keeping an eye on Charlie (who was sitting in a chair, spinning it around and around) while also supervising Agent Todd as he continued to work at the supercomputer. She looked over at Sandy and Christine as they arrived on top of the platform, and blinked.

"Well, that's a pretty good likeness of Crimson you've created there, Sandy." Mia remarked with a grin. "From afar, you'd never be able to tell the difference."

"Wow." Charlie remarked, who stopped spinning his chair to look. "You look like Gosalyn!"

Christine couldn't help but grin. "Thanks, sweety." she said, then turned to Mia. "I still don't feel like I'm the right person for this."

"Nonsense, it'll be a piece of cake." Mia said with a wave of hand, standing up. "Now, let me show you our game plan." She led Christine over to one of the two vertical standing touchscreens that sat on either side of the platform. Using only her fingers, she brought up an overhead image of St. Canard and zoomed it in on a specific street. "Frogduck is currently on Hoeye Street, terrorizing a small grocery store, here." She pointed. "The police have the area blocked off, but like I said, Frogduck can't be stopped by them."

"Well, why not?" Christine asked, hands on her hips. "They have him all bottled up there, and he can't go anywhere. Why don't they just storm the place and overwhelm him, and capture him?"

"They've tried that tactic before, but it's never worked." Mia explained. "Frogduck might be dumber than a doornail, but he's not incapable. He was agile and quick to begin with before he became who he is now, and is frog-like mutations only added to that. He could easily slip away from their grasp with little effort. He's done it before. One should never underestimate his capabilities."

"Then why don't they just _shoot _him or something like that?" Christine asked.

"The police's job is to keep the peace, not shoot every trouble maker they meet." Mia scolded flatly.

"I don't mean with a bullet, but with a tranquilizer dart or something like that."

"Oh, well, in that case, it's a simple matter of Frogduck not being where they could shoot him. He's also inside a building while the rest of the police are outside. The walls and windows of that building block him from them, and no tranquilizer dart could penetrate that."

"Why not use something like...sleeping gas...or something?"

"That's risky. One would have to get close to pump such a thing into the store, and that might make Frogduck panic. Furthermore, it would take time to pump enough of said gas into the store, long enough for Frogduck to notice that something might be wrong and work to escape, and beside, the police don't carry sleeping gas, not in such large amounts, at least. Look, quit trying to get out of this, Dr. Merriweather, you're our best bet at the moment."

"Now hold on just a moment." Christine said, and pulled out Crimson's gas gun that she had been armed with. "Don't these things carry canisters of sleeping gas in them? Why can't you just shot one of those at Frogduck where it'll be too close for him to escape?"

"Actually, that's exactly our plan." Mia said, grinning.

"Then I fail to see why you need me."

"You have to be the one to shoot the gun. Like I said, if anybody else tried to do it, Frogduck would panic and flee the moment they got too close. If he thinks you're Crimson, he'll take you seriously, and stick around to listen to whatever you have to say. It'll be simple. You just walk on up into the store, announce your presence like Crimson would, with the whole "I am the heir to the cape" routine, distract Frogduck for a moment, then the moment you think you could pull it off, fire a canister of sleeping gas at him and knock him out."

"But I've never fired a gun before. Suppose I miss?"

"Fire a whole series of canisters to fill the general area to play it safe, then. They don't have to hit him right on, though, only just close."

"I don't know Agent Mia, I really don't think I could handle this." Christine sighed with worry. "I'm bound to mess up."

"You'll be perfectly safe." Mia assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be right there watching. Should anything go wrong for whatever reason, I'll jump in and interfere. I'd rather chase off Frogduck and let him escape than see someone get hurt."

Christine reviewed the plan in her head. Finally, she sighed. "Oh, all right, let's get this over with." she said. She paused to rub Charlie's hair, sitting nearby. "What about Charlie?"

"I'll stay here and look after him." Agent Sandy volunteered. "Besides, Agent Todd's also going to stay here and keep searching for clues to find Darkwing and the gang, and he'll probably need help sooner or later."

"I will not." Agent Todd argued in his defense, overhearing as he continued to work at the supercomputer. "I...I...I can handle this. I know I can."

"Not that I doubt you, Todd, but the moment anything goes wrong, you panic." Sandy said teasingly.

"I...I do not!" Todd retorted. "I...I can handle this! That's why I've _got _this job!"

"As a paper-pusher technician and not a field agent?" Sandy inquired.

"That's...that's..." Todd finally trailed off, annoyed that he couldn't top that argument.

"Anyway, everything should go fine here." Sandy concluded, satisfied.

"Can we go get this over with now?" Christine asked, annoyed.

"Yes, let's." Mia said, and led Christine over to the parked Avenger. "Climb on."

Christine clambered into the sidecar. Mia shook her head.

"No, on the motorbike." she corrected. "You're driving."

"I am not!" Christine objected. "I don't know how to drive a motorbike, and now isn't the time for me to learn."

"Maybe not, but you should really drive, so we can pull this illusion off to the fullest effect."

"Like Frogduck would really pay attention to who's driving. He probably won't even notice us coming."

Mia bit her lip. "Probably not, but still...I don't want to take that risk. Look, it's not that hard, it's just like riding a bicycle."

"No, this is where I draw the line. You wouldn't want your plans for this to get mixed up simply because I couldn't drive the motorbike and crashed it long before we ever arrived at our destination, right?"

Mia rolled her eyes. "No, I wouldn't." she relented, climbing onto the bike itself. "Fine, I'll drive. But I won't be so relenting next time."

"Agent Mia, I'll see to it that there won't ever _be _a next time." Christine remarked flatly as Mia started the motorbike and drove it out of the tower.

* * *

As Agent Mia had explained at the tower, easily half of Hoeye Street was cut off with a barricade of police cars, their lights flashing in brilliant colors of red and blue. Police officers milled about, watching the grocery store in question as Frogduck trashed it, but looking bored, as they couldn't do anything about it at this time. Standing in supervision of it all was Officer Frank, filling in for Detective Matthew who was preoccupied with another matter of greater importance at the time. When he heard the Avenger pulling up, he gave a sigh of relief, and turned to face the oncoming motorbike.

"About time you showed up." he remarked as he faced the bike. "There's going to be little point in stopping..."

He trailed off when he realized that the two people on the motorbike were not whom he was expecting. Instead of Darkwing and Launchpad, or Crimson and Techno, he saw a SHUSH agent driving a motorbike while someone dressed in Crimson's costume, but clearly wasn't her when looked up close, sat in the sidecar.

"What's going on here?" the rat demanded, stepping forward. "Where's Darkwing? Who are you two?"

"Someone who is very annoyed about having to do this, and would rather not, so I would highly recommend that you do not get me any madder than I already am." the lady in the Crimson costume grumbled as she climbed out of the sidecar and stomped past Frank.

Frank watched her slip past with a frown, then turned to the agent as she joined him. "Do I _want _to know?" he asked.

"Probably not." the agent said with a slightly bemused grin. "Agent Mia Gingevere from SHUSH. As you've probably already guessed, Darkwing and company are...unavailable to help at the moment, so we had to...improvise."

"I can see that." Frank remarked, watching Christine head grumpily towards the store. "Hope it works. But why is Darkwing and the gang unavailable?"

"Truth be told, officer, they're missing at the moment, and all the evidence suggests that it's Negaduck's fault." Mia explained in short. "SHUSH is still investigating the matter, so we don't know much more than that."

"Well, maybe we can help." Frank offered.

"That would be helpful, the police can probably help turn up more evidence." Mia agreed. "We'll talk about it later, however, after we've resolved this issue with Frogduck. Now, if you could excuse me, please."

She hurried over to join Christine, who had paused a few feet from the store, keeping to one side so that she couldn't be seen by Frogduck. Not that she really needed to, Frogduck could be clearly seen within the store through the front window or it's door that was hanging open slightly, spinning round and round, laughing his head off, as he trashed the store, currently by throwing rolls of toilet paper around. Occasionally, he'll stop and talk to his pet frog, Keith, who was sitting on a stand to one side, watching Frogduck, and it looked like the animal was bored.

"You ready?" Mia asked as she stepped up next to Christine, drawing her sidearm.

"I suppose." Christine replied nervously, pulling out Crimson's gas gun. "But what should I do?"

"Exactly what Crimson would do." Mia replied simply. "Fire off a canister of smoke at the door, step into the cloud and announce your presence, just as we had planned."

"But...what do I say?" Christine asked.

"I dunno, whatever you think will work." Mia said.

Christine sighed, and raised the gas gun to take aim. "Here goes."

* * *

Inside, Frogduck was still having the time of his life.

"Wheee!" he cried, as he threw a bunch of candy bars from a nearby shelf into the air and letting them rain back down on him as he twirled around and around, a roll of toilet paper hanging from one of his arms. "Man, this is great fun! What a great way to unwind!"

Keith the Frog ribbited from his perch.

"Of course this all has a purpose, Keith." he remarked. "You heard our orders. Just make a mess of a few of things, buy some time, distract the authorities. Which, I think, we've done. I'm not sure about that, but that sight out the window is promising." he pointed out the window at the police cars gathered around the store. "So anyway, what could possibly go wrong now?"

At that moment, a cloud of crimson smoke burst through the door, drawing Frogduck's attention.

"I am...the heir to the cape!" a voice of Christine echoed out timidly from within the smoke. "I...am...something pertaining to...er..."

The next thing Christine knew, something wet had struck her with enough force to knock her backwards out of the cloud of smoke and flat onto her back. Agent Mia, who was standing nearby, looked down at her.

"What was _that_?" Christine asked.

"Frogduck." Mia replied. "He lashed out with his frog-like tongue, a common attack tactic of his."

"He did _what_?"

"He's toying with you, actually, trying to get you mad."

"Well, it's _working_!"

"Good, maybe we can end this nice and quick then. Up you come, there you go, now go get 'em girl."

Mia pushed Christine unceremoniously towards the door of the store, it's entrance still filled with smoke, though it was fading fast. Christine fumbled for a moment to get herself ready, then stepped through the fading cloud of smoke, trying to salvage what little pride she had left.

Frogduck was sitting on the floor, waiting for her, looking like a little kid watching a show. "Ah, Crimson!" he exclaimed. "I remember you, you know! I was wondering if you'd show up!"

"Well...I did." Christine replied weakly, gripping the barrel of the gas gun tightly. "Now...you should know what comes next."

"Dessert?" Frogduck asked hopefully.

Christine frowned. "No!"

"Darn." Frogduck stood up. "And I was just got a craving for some vanilla ice cream, with maybe a fly on top." Ignoring Christine's disgusted expression, he continued, scooping up Keith. "I suppose this is where I make a dramatic escape while you guys comically try to chase me, right?"

"No, no, no, you're supposed to listen to me, and...and...stuff." Christine argued lamely. She was already sensing this was about to end badly, and this time she wasn't the only one. Although she couldn't see it, she could sense Agent Mia carefully creeping up behind her to stand just outside the door, gearing up to react if need be.

"I don't listen to anybody but my frogs." Frogduck remarked, lifting up Keith proudly as an example. "They always seem to know so much. Everybody else is just dunderheads, myself included."

"Well, at least we can agree on that much." Christine grumbled. "Look, are we going to do this the hard way or the easy way?"

Frogduck thought about that for a very long moment. "Is there a third choice?" he asked innocently.

"No, there isn't!" Christine snapped.

"How about all of the above, then? Can that be my final answer?"

"No!"

"How much is this question for again? Two hundred dollars, or just one hundred?"

"It isn't for anything!"

"Wait....what _was _the question?"

"Oh, for crying out loud..." Christine slapped her face and hung her head in annoyance for a long moment. Slowly, she looked back up at Frogduck. "Look, a flying potato!" she exclaimed suddenly, pointing behind him.

"Really? Where?" Frogduck asked, turning around.

"Ah ha!" Christine cried victoriously, whipping up Crimson's gas gun and pointing it at Frogduck and went to pull the trigger.

Only she apparently hit the wrong control, because instead of firing, the gas gun started spinning through it's many attachments. Panicking, Christine lowered her aim to stop and try to cycle back through the attachments to the one she wanted and quickly. By this point, Keith had croaked a warning that Frogduck could interpret, and the demented mutant whirled around and saw Christine trying to shoot him, and reacted accordingly.

Well, he did the first thing that came to mind, at least.

He lashed out with his tongue, aiming for the gas gun. Sticking to the weapon, Frogduck wrenched the gun out of Christine's grip, and allowed his tongue to recoil back into his mouth, taking the gun with. Now he had it in his mouth, but he knew that he couldn't keep it there forever, so he again did the next thing that came to his mind.

With some effort, he swallowed the gun.

"Bleah, could've used salt." he remarked afterwards, pulling a face.

Christine merely gaped at him. That was when Agent Mia decided now was the time to intervene, and, pushing Christine to one side, revealed herself to Frogduck, raising her weapon to point at him.

"All right!" she exclaimed. "This has gone on for long enough! Frogduck, you are..."

She was cut short when Frogduck suddenly threw Keith at her, the only object he had on hand, and it hit her in the face with a splat. Keith let out a ribbit of indignation and scrambled violently to try and get a footing on Mia's face. Mia, her voice muffled, and unable to see, stumbled backwards in surprise and tripped crashing into Christine and knocking them both into the frame of the door.

Frogduck then bounded forward with a mighty leap and smashed into the pair, knocking Christine to the ground, dazed, and Mia's head against the doorframe knocking her unconscious. Frogduck grabbed her body before she fell, retrieving Keith in the process. He looked at Mia's still features for a few moments, then with a grin, bounded off again for the back of the store, dragging Mia with.

"Agent Mia!" Christine exclaimed, seeing this, and quickly worked to pick herself up off the floor to give chase.

Frogduck had the advantage of a head start and the longer strides, however, and quickly ducked into the back room of the store and slammed the door shut behind him, barring the door with something. Christine slammed her body into the closed door, but it wouldn't budge. Hearing Frogduck busily working with something metallic and noisy on the other side of the door, she knew she didn't have much time and tried again, trying to force the door open.

She could hear police officers hurrying up behind her, who had no doubt observed the plan fail poorly, but she couldn't wait for them to help. Feeling the door's latch finally begin to give way, Christine backed up a pace and kicked the door with her foot. It sprang open, and Christine hurried into the back room, only to find that Frogduck had gone out a second door and now stood outside. Clutched tightly in his arms was Mia's unconscious body and Keith the Frog. Strapped to his back, was a rocketpack, the rockets being located on the tips of the two stubby wings the pack carried.

Frogduck merely grinned at the sight of her.

"Frogrocket, GO!" he exclaimed, and pressed a control in his hand.

The rockets flared to life and spat out a column of flames that pushed Frogduck, with his cargo, upwards and into the sky. Bracing herself against the hot gust of wind the rocketpack's takeoff generated, Christine watched the rocket shoot up into the sky for a moment. Behind her, the police officers she heard coming arrived and stood behind her, stopping to watch as well.

Then, without warning, Christine moved into motion, pushing her way through the gathering of police officers and hurried back through the store and burst out in front of it, racing back to the parked Avenger. Planting herself on it, despite receiving some curious looks from the remaining officers that were still milling around, and a couple shouts of protest, Christine worked to figure out how one started the bike.

Once that was done, she tried to determine where exactly the throttle was.

"How does one make this thing go?" Christine muttered as she found the right control and the motorbike suddenly shot forward. "Just like that!"

After taking a moment to get the motorbike to go in the direction she wanted, Christine looked skyward in time to see Frogduck to level off his ascent and start flying southward over the city. Taking note of this, Christine attempted to match that same direction, winding through the city streets, as she worked to try and follow Frogduck. The police eventually saw her line of thinking too, for it wasn't long before a couple of police cruisers arrived and followed her, doing the same thing as her.

But apparently Frogduck either got lucky in the end, or caught onto the fact that he was being followed (the latter probably being more likely) for one second Frogduck was visible in the sky, then, after going past a skyscraper, he suddenly wasn't. He had simply vanished from sight, and couldn't be found anywhere.

Christine slammed the motorbike to a halt, the police cars doing likewise behind her. She looked up at the sky and frowned. Officer Frank got out of one of the cars and joined her, staring up at the sky.

"He got away." he noted flatly.

Christine glanced at him, annoyed. "Not yet, he hasn't." she vowed.

"Hey, you got caught off guard, and even though you're clearly a newbie to this, you did everything you _could've _done in this situation." Frank told her, glancing at her.

"Oh, no I haven't, and I'm surprised you haven't thought of it yet." Christine said, revving the Avenger's engine. "Just because we lost sight of Frogduck doesn't mean he's still not up there. He probably turned or something. What we need to do now is to spilt up, expand the search. Go in every direction Frogduck could've gone and see if we pick up any traces of him. Got that, buster?"

Frank, taken aback, nodded. "Got it." he said. "Clearly, you _do_ know what you're doing after all."

"It comes from hanging around the right crowd." Christine replied bitterly. "Besides, it's common sense."

And with that, she drove off again, leaving Frank to organize parties to break off and to search for Frogduck.

* * *

The reason Frogduck couldn't be seen in the air anymore, however, was because he wasn't in the air anymore. He had actually landed on the ledge of a passing skyscraper for two reasons. One, to take a breather. Flying his Frogrocket was demanding enough as it was, even if it was exhilarating, but flying it while holding onto something as large as Mia was even worse.

Besides, he should report in.

"Whew!" Frogduck remarked once safely on the narrow ledge and the rocketpack had been turned off, letting Mia's unconscious body fall from his arms to the ledge to lay there. "You're heavier than you look."

Keith the Frog, perched on Frogduck's shoulder, croaked loudly at this.

"No, I don't mean you, but her." Frogduck said, pointing at Mia's unconscious form. "Whoever she is. Ah well, the important thing is that I know who I should tell this little incident to."

He sat down on the ledge, letting his feet dangle over the edge, and pulled out a radio from his waist pocket, switching it on.

"Breaker, breaker, this is Frogduck, calling to..." he paused to think, "...to whomever it is that I'm calling at the moment."

"That would be _me_, Frogduck." came the annoyed response.

"Yeah, you!" Frogduck replied, brightening at this. "Hi, you! Remind me who you are again?"

"FROGDUCK!" the voice on the other end interrupted. "Do you have a reason you're calling me?"

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot." Frogduck said with a chuckle. "Anyway, just calling to say I did what you asked me to. Went out and caused some trouble, distracted the cops, that sort of thing. Then, the strangest thing happened."

"Define strange."

"Strange: something unusual or..."

"No, I mean, grr...._what happened_?"

"Oh, well, you told me you've got Crimson, right?"

"Right."

"Then how come I just saw her now at the store I was just at?"

"What? Where?"

"I forget. It was a street with a store on it, though."

"That can't be. Crimson's still here, I'm looking at her right now!"

"Well, then, I guess she can be in two places at once."

"Frogduck, you...where are you right now?"

"In St. Canard. That's the name of this city, right?"

"Be more specific."

"I can't, other than I'm on some skyscraper with Keith and...oh! Nearly forgot again! That strange incident I told you about? Actually turned out pretty good, because I caught another prisoner for you!"

"Really."

"Yeah, I think she's one of those people from...oh, pickles, what was the name?....Shoe? Show?"

"SHUSH?" when the voice got no immediate reply, he continued, "Frogduck, you still there?"

"Yeah, you just told me to be quiet."

"No, I mean...grr...SHUSH is the name of the agency you're thinking of."

"Umm...you sure?"

"_Yes_, I'm sure."

"All right, if you say so."

"I _do _say so, and I can actually give you some praise for a change, Frogduck. Bring her to base, so we can deal with her properly."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

Agent Mia didn't know how long she had been out, but when she came to, she quickly figured out it had been for a little while now. The first she became aware of was the fact that there was a warm wind brushing against her, quickly followed by a loud roar. Opening her eyes, she looked downward, and saw that she was hovering about a hundred feet off the ground.

Gasping, she quickly scrabbled to hold onto whatever it was that was keeping her up, quickly discovering that it was a living person that was holding onto her.

Looking up at this person's face, she made eye contact with Frogduck.

"Well, hi!" Frogduck said brightly.

Mia yelped, and struggled against Frogduck's grip, making Frogduck yelp as for a moment he started to loose control of the rocketpack that was keeping them up. Then, suddenly, Frogduck's grip on Mia slipped, and she dropped a few inches downward before Frogduck both regained his grip, and Mia, in alarm, quickly latched onto Frogduck to keep from falling further, her struggling ceasing in an act of self-preservation.

Upon stabilizing his flight pattern again, Frogduck began to descend downward towards ground, landing in front of an old, beat-up, warehouse. Mia recognized it instantly, and knew that the damage this warehouse had received was more of the unconventional sort. This was an old hideout of the Fearsome Four, specifically, the last hideout they had before moving to their newest, and currently unknown, hideout. Mia wondered why Frogduck was taking her here, but then decided she would find out soon, and she would worry about that once her feet were safely back on the ground.

Which didn't take too much longer before that happened. Mia hoped to be able to run away, but her feet touched the ground roughly the same time as Frogduck's, and in doing so, Frogduck managed to regain his lost grip on her, and wouldn't let her go. Shutting off the rocketpack, he silently escorted her into the warehouse.

"Hello everybody!" he exclaimed cheerfully as he entered. "Here's the prisoner!"

He released Mia and pushed her forward, who stumbled a pace or two in that direction before Rowe and Quackerjack suddenly jumped out and grabbed her, pulling her arms behind her back and working to bind her.

"Gotcha!" Quackerjack exclaimed, letting out a hoot of laughter.

"Hey!" Mia exclaimed as she struggled, "Let me go!"

"I'm afraid that's going to be impossible for the moment, Agent Mia." a voice said as a third person approached.

Mia turned to look at the source of the voice and frowned. "Negaduck." she growled.

Negaduck merely grinned slightly with self-satisfaction. "Well, Frogduck, I must commend you." he said, turning his attention to the mutant frog-duck. "You scored big, for once. Never thought you could do it."

"Aw, it was nothing." Frogduck said as he worked to pull his rocketpack from off his back. "Funny how things work out sometimes, though."

"Very true." Negaduck agreed. "However, what you told me before you came here is still bothering me, and I need to get to the bottom of it."

"Right!" Frogduck agreed, smiling, and without pausing, added. "What was that again?"

"Crimson!" Negaduck reminded in annoyance, approaching Frogduck. "You claim to have seen her at that store!"

"Right! Crimson!" Frogduck remarked. A pause. "Who?"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Negaduck snapped. "Look, what you claim to have seen is impossible, so I need to get to the bottom of this, and in order to that, I need to borrow your frog." he held out his hands to take Keith.

"Hey!" Frogduck said warningly, stopping trying to pull his rocketpack off and grabbing Keith the Frog from his shoulder, holding him away from Negaduck. "This is my frog!"

Negduck let out a growl and moved forward, trying to grab Keith and pull him out of Frogduck's grasp.

"Hey!" Frogduck said, now taking a pleading tone, trying harder to keep Keith away from Negaduck. "My frog! _My_ frog!"

In the end, Negaduck finally managed to wrench the poor frog away from Frogduck long enough to remove a thin collar from around Keith's neck and then toss the creature back to Frogduck, who let out a sigh of relief and gave Keith a hug.

Negaduck held up the collar. "_This _was all I wanted, and it'll tell me what I want to know." he said with a grin. "I'll just need to take it to a computer."

He turned to walk towards the staircase that'll led him to his former office hanging above them. Frogduck, who was one-handedly trying to shrug off his rocketpack and letting it to fall to the floor, followed.

"When did you put that on Keith?" he asked curiously, hurrying to catch up, one foot getting tangled on the strap from the rocketpack for a moment.

"When you weren't looking, _duh_." Negaduck said hotly.

"Boss, what about her?" Quackerjack asked suddenly, motioning to Mia that he and Rowe were holding onto, keeping her from escaping.

Negaduck paused on the stairs, looking down on her. "Go and put with the others, obviously." he snorted. "Do I have to tell you two to do _everything_?"

"Got it, mate." Rowe said, as he and Quackerjack dragged Mia to the back of the warehouse.

Originally, there was a wall in place here that divided the main portion of the warehouse from a smaller back room that had been used mostly for storage when the Fearsome Four were using it. On the day the warehouse was abandoned as a hideout, however, that wall had been smashed to bits during a battle with Taurus Bulba, leaving a gaping hole in place instead. It was through here that Rowe and Quackerjack led Mia.

As she entered the back room, she noticed several things. First, everything that had been left behind by both them and the investigation SHUSH itself later conducted on the building after it had been abandoned had been cleared away. In the middle of the room stood a kind of platform and various mechanical devices that encircled it. Sitting in a folding chair just in front of this was Bushroot, reading a book, and probably was serving as a guard although he didn't seem to be paying attention anymore. And dangling upside down far above the platform, all tied up together, was...

"Darkwing!" Mia exclaimed, surprised. "Guys! You're here!"

"Yep, we're here." Darkwing remarked flatly, looking down at Mia. "Completely unarmed, but here."

"Upside down, but otherwise fine." Crimson added with a subtle hint of sarcasm.

"Why are you here, Mia?" Launchpad asked curiously, twisting his head to try and get a good look at her.

"Frogduck kidnaped me." Mia explained as she was placed on the platform, with a ring of rope placed around it. "While working to trying to stop him. Don't worry, though, SHUSH knows that you're missing and is actively searching for you. They'll find us eventually."

She didn't get to say anything much more when Rowe and Quackerjack, having placed her as they wanted, released her and stepped off the platform. Bushroot, who was paying attention after all, grabbed a nearby lever and pulled it without looking up from his book. The encirclement of rope on the platform suddenly tightened and wrapped itself around Mia's feet, then, without warning, pulled upward, sweeping Mia clear off her feet and pulling her upward to join Darkwing and the others, hanging upside down.

"We're all very reassured, Agent Mia." Techno remarked to her flatly, not sounding reassured at all.

* * *

Negaduck carefully placed the collar on the salvaged desk in the office, and plugged a little cord into part of it's lock mechanism. On the computer screen that sat nearby, also salvaged, a series of files were displayed. Negaduck began scrolling through these, searching for one in particular.

Behind him, Frogduck stood watching him, puzzled. Keith was perched on his shoulder again.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Getting to the bottom of this matter." Negaduck replied flatly.

"What matter?"

"I'm not going to _bother _repeating all of that to you. _Again_."

"Aww."

"Ah." Negaduck said finally, finding the file he wanted and clicking on it. "This should tell me what I want to know."

A video playback started, showing a view from a hidden camera on the collar Keith had been wearing. At the moment, it showed Frogduck in the process of messing up the store, having the time of his life, and talking animatedly, although this could not be heard, as the video did not have any audio.

"Hey, that's me!" Frogduck squealed suddenly in excitement. "I'm in a movie!"

Negaduck merely grunted in reply, and kept watching.

Something finally distracted Frogduck, and he turned to confront it. Whatever it was, however, it was outside the camera's view, and Keith wasn't turning to look at it when his owner was.

"C'mon, you stupid frog, turn." Negaduck growled. "Don't tell me you missed the whole event."

Frogduck then scooped up Keith for some reason, and ended up obscuring the camera's view with his hand. Negaduck growled again, but did not comment. Frogduck then lifted Keith into the air as if holding up an example, finally turning the camera in the direction Negaduck wanted, giving him a brief glimpse of a figure on one side of the screen.

"That does look like Crimson, but it must be a impostor." Negaduck remarked.

"I still say she can be in two places at once." Frogduck grumbled, fiddling with his fingers.

Frogduck in the video then suddenly turned, and in the process, finally gave Negaduck the full view of the figure he wanted. Freezing the video, Negaduck zoomed in on the figure, giving him a good look at the person. He grinned, and started chuckling as he recognized the figure.

"So that's it." he muttered.

"See?" Frogduck said. "It's Crimson."

"Actually, no." Negaduck said, still amused by this development. "But seeing how scatterbrained you are, Frogduck, it's easy to see why you think that." he shook his head, still staring at the image. "Merriweather, you never cease to amaze."

"I'm not Merriweather, I'm Frogduck."

"I wasn't talking to you." Negaduck muttered, annoyed again. He removed the collar and tossed it carelessly back to Frogduck. "Now get out of here, I have work to do."

"But I..." Frogduck began to object.

"_Get out_!" Negaduck exclaimed, this time with more force.

Frogduck, startled by the outburst, quickly scrambled out of the office, stumbling as he went. Negaduck rolled his eyes, then typed in a few commands into the computer, bringing up a new list of data. He skimmed through it, and saw exactly what he was hoping to find.

He had a plan to take care of this unexpected development.

* * *

Agent Todd typed in a few commands into the supercomputer, then threw his hands into the air in frustration. "That's it, there's nothing more here I can find." he said hotly. "No clues, no traces of evidence, no _nothing_."

"Well, I suppose we should've expected that." Agent Sandy remarked, leaning on the back of the command chair Todd sat in. "I mean, I'm sure Negaduck purposely made sure to not leave any clues behind."

"But that's just it!" Todd said. "We both know how Negaduck works. He doesn't do anything without a purpose. And currently, we're not turning up the evidence to find that purpose."

"We already _know _his purpose, he kidnaped Darkwing and the others." Sandy pressed.

"But..._why _did he do it?" Todd asked, looking up at her. "Can't you see? If he wanted to...to _kill_ them, then why kidnap them? If he wants to hold them for ransom, then why hasn't _anybody _received a ransom note or some notification of such? Negaduck wouldn't kidnap them out of pure spite."

Sandy frowned. "I hadn't thought about it like that." she admitted. "So what _is _Negaduck up to?"

"Maybe he's just keeping them out of the way."

Sandy and Todd turned to look at Charlie, who had been sitting nearby, listening, when he made this innocent theory. They then looked at one another.

"Genius." Todd remarked, turning back to the supercomputer.

"Absolutely." Sandy agreed, also turning back to watch. "It's the only other explanation, anyway. Negaduck merely wants them out of the way, and our attention elsewhere."

"Meaning he's up to something much bigger than a mere kidnaping." Todd agreed. "I'm calling SHUSH, so we can tell them what we know. The director might be able to turn up more from his end of things than ours."

But as the big screen changed as a transmission was beginning to be patched through to SHUSH, a beeping noise started to ring out. Agent Todd glanced at it.

"The tower's security systems are detecting an oncoming object coming towards us, fast." he said. "It'll be here within moments!"

Alarmed, Sandy hurried over to one of the tower's many windows and looked out at it, for any sign of the object.

"It'll be at the tower in three...two...one!" Todd announced, looking up from the readings.

But there was nothing to be seen. Sandy ran from window to window looking out them for any sign of an intruding craft, but found none. Puzzled, she ran back to the supercomputer platform.

"Are you sure you're looking at those readings right?" she asked, joining Agent Todd at the master control panel.

"Positive." Todd replied, studying the readings. "According to this, it _should _be right on top of us as we speak!"

Sandy glanced at Todd suddenly. "On top of us?" she repeated, realizing that there was one spot that they hadn't looked yet.

But by then it was too late. Two whizzing sounds rang out, and suddenly the two agents were hit by a tranquilizer dart apiece. Agent Sandy took a dart to her back, and quickly collapsed as the tranquilizer quickly took effect. One hit Agent Todd in the arm, and he had time enough to pull it out and look at it before he collapsed too, falling out his chair. Charlie, spared from the attack, gasped, and curled into a ball in the chair he was sitting in, clutching his stuffed otter doll tightly.

Across the room, the shooter hopped through the open window of the tower and idly walked up onto the supercomputer platform. He stopped to kick at Sandy and Todd's unconscious bodies, then looked around some more. Seeing that the supercomputer was trying to connect to SHUSH, (but was suspended when the security alert went off), he aborted the transmission, then turned around and saw Charlie. He grinned, making Charlie all that more frightened.

"Just the kid I was looking for." Negaduck remarked happily.

* * *

Christine was at the search for a long while, but she found no new traces of Frogduck, or Agent Mia. The SCPD turned up the same, and eventually gave up that tactic to try another, going back to the police station to regroup and to think. Officer Frank suggested that Christine go home and at least do the same, though it was clear he still had his misgivings that Christine would actually be of any more help. And despite her earlier enthusiasm from earlier to prove him wrong, Christine was slowly starting to wonder the same.

She then realized that neither Agent Sandy and Agent Todd knew what happened, and that they should probably know. And she had been away from Charlie for a long while now, and she felt like that her best place now would to be with him. So, after half-heartedly trying to continue the search after the SCPD gave up, she turned around and headed back to Darkwing Tower.

As she didn't trust herself to be able to drive the Avenger back to the tower the "traditional" way along the suspension wire (she was having trouble enough keeping the motorbike in the same lane, she was so unfamiliar with driving one) she just drove the bike as far as the entrance to the Audubon Bay Bridge, and walked the rest of the way, knowing of a secret backdoor entrance into the tower.

Exhausted, she entered the tower's main chamber, pulling off Crimson's hat and mask, and looked around for Charlie.

"I'm back." she called half-heartedly, like she was returning home for the day from a long day of work. "Charlie? Where are you?"

She got no reply. Puzzled, Christine made her way for the supercomputer platform, where she knew the agents would at least be at.

"Agent Sandingomm?" Christine called. "Agent Todd? You two still here?"

Arriving at the platform, she saw that they were, bu they both lay on the floor unconscious. Alarmed, Christine's doctor training kicked in, and she quickly checked for vitals on both of the fallen agents. They were alive, and both had strong pulses, albeit sluggish ones. Christine then searched for clues as to why they were like this, then found the tranquilizer dart still stuck in Agent Sandy's back. She pulled it out and examined it.

"A tranquilizer?" she repeated to herself. "They were attacked?"

She then felt her stomach sink. "Charlie?" she called in alarm. "Where are you? Are you still here? Charlie?"

No response. She was about to go search for him, when a flashing light caught her eye on the master control panel. It was coming from a button, and was indicating that a new message was awaiting for the user. Torn over her choices, Christine's curiosity finally overruled instinct, and she pressed the control to bring the message on the screen.

A pre-recorded video then began playing on the big screen, featuring Negaduck. Christine looked up at it and gasped.

"Dr. Merriweather." Negaduck's message began with preamble. "If you're seeing this, then you've no doubt already seen my handiwork. Yes, I raided the tower. Again. See, I figured out what you're up to, and had to take action. I don't know if you're doing this out of your own freewill, or if SHUSH put you up to this, but you're getting in my way. And you, of all people, should know how much I hate that. So, the answer is simple. You come here, and we'll both talk and settle this agreement. And if you need motivation, here's something I've got that you might want."

He then pulled Charlie into view, who was unbound, nor was he harmed, but he was clearly scared, his eyes moist with fear, and was eerily silent, even for him. After a moment, Negaduck quickly pushed Charlie back out of view. A hand was briefly seen on the edge of the screen to pull Charlie fully out of view, revealing that Negaduck wasn't working alone.

"I think you get the message." Negaduck continued, grinning cruelly. "Now I expect you here before the night's over, or there will _really _be trouble. The supercomputer is rigged to automatically give you all the information you need to get here. I'll be waiting."

The video then ended, and closed. As Negaduck said, the supercomputer then automatically brought up a road map of St. Canard, highlighted Negaduck's location, and plotted a path leading from the tower to that location. Stunned, Christine stared at the map for a moment before sinking into the vacated command chair with a thump. She silently debated her choices for a moment, then checked the time. It was well after one in the morning. It would be awhile still before dawn, but time was still precious.

Christine saw that there was only one thing she could do. She didn't want to do it alone, however, but she didn't think she was going to have much choice. Agents Sandy and Todd were still both unconscious, and Christine doubted they would awaken any time soon. The SCPD didn't trust her fully, nor did she really trust them to handle a situation like this, and they would probably have their hands full with other things by this point. And it would take longer than Christine would like to call SHUSH and ask for reinforcements.

It would appear she was on her own this time.

* * *

"Is that an otter you got there, mate?" Rowe asked curiously, spying the stuffed doll Charlie clutched tightly as he sat frightfully in the chair.

Charlie didn't reply right away, but he made eye contact with Rowe. He seemed to be okay with Rowe and Bushroot's presence for the moment, but he was leery of Frogduck who stood nearby, keeping himself entertained, and was terrified of Negaduck, who had retreated into his office again. Quackerjack was in the back room guarding the prisoners, and actually didn't know Charlie was present yet, all of them agreeing that it would probably be better that it stayed that way for the time being, as Quackerjack would probably get a little too enthused about the presence of a child in the old hideout. Negaduck truly didn't seem to want to hurt the kid, so part of Rowe's job, in addition to guarding him, was to make sure he stayed safe until told otherwise.

Besides, the kid seemed cute and innocent. Rowe couldn't help but like him.

Finally, Charlie nodded in response to Rowe's question, looking down at the stuffed otter and sniffing. "Jude." he said simply.

"That his name?" Rowe asked, kneeling so that he would be on Charlie's eye level. "You know, I had a relative who was named Jude."

"Did you really." Bushroot remarked flatly, sitting nearby with orders to guard the kid too. He was still reading his book.

"Aye, I'm told he was a real brave otter." Rowe said with pride. "He was the father of one of the relatives I'm named after."

"Which one?" Bushroot asked, not really interested. "There's your first name, then your two middle names, Padra and Weylan."

"The latter name, Weylan." Rowe remarked with a grin. "He's me great-grandfather. Or was, when he was alive. Died sometime afore I was born."

"Mm." Bushroot grunted.

"You aren't listening, mate." Rowe whined.

"I am." Charlie remarked softly, wiping his eyes.

Rowe turned back to him. "Well, thanks, glad somebody is." he said with a grin. "Why do you have a stuffed otter, anyway?"

"A friend gave it to me." Charlie replied, sniffing again. "She was an otter, too."

"Really, now? D'you like otters then?"

Charlie nodded. "Otters are friendly people." he said.

"How about me, then?" Rowe asked. "D'you like me, matey?"

Charlie shrugged. "You seem friendly."

"Ha, I like this kid." Rowe remarked to Bushroot.

"Wonderful." Bushroot replied, not really listening anymore.

"Rowe, quit fraternizing with the prisoner!" Negaduck's voice suddenly rang out, the villain himself walking down the staircase that led up to his former office.

Rowe quickly snapped to attention and twisted away from Charlie. Charlie yelped and curled into a ball in fright. However, Negaduck approached Frogduck instead.

"Frogduck, are you busy?" he asked.

"Actually, yes." Frogduck replied. He looked a little pale. "I'm not feeling too good. I think it was something I ate. Problem is, I can't remember what that might be."

"Not that I care." Negaduck muttered. "Whatever the case, I got a job for you."

"A job?"

"A job."

"Goody! What will be my pay?"

"The right to continue living."

"Ooh, yay! I get to live!"

"Now listen. Our target, the Crimson look-alike, should already be on her way here. I don't want to miss her coming, so I need someone to stand guard outside and keep watch. I can't spare any of my people, though, because I already have them busy guarding the prisoners. So Frogduck, I want you to do it."

"Do what?"

"To keep watch."

"I didn't know you had a watch."

"No, I mean, to watch for Crimson."

"But you said she's in there, as your pri..."

"I _did _say she's in there, but she's also out _there, _in the city, coming this way! That's why I need _you _to stand out there and _watch _for her!"

"But she's also in there, so can't I just stand in there and watch her dangle from the ceiling?"

"_NO_! I need you out _there _to watch for her _coming _here!"

"But she's already here!"

"Oh, for–look, there's two of her!"

Frogduck looked blank for a moment, then fell to his knees, distraught. "This is too hard!" he cried in dismay.

"You...you..." Negaduck growled, on the verge of exploding in frustration at Frogduck.

"You can drop it now, Negaduck, I'm already here anyway."

Everyone turned to see Christine standing in the doorway of the warehouse, dressed as Crimson. Negaduck's temper suddenly vanished and was replaced with a cheerful, but cruel, grin. Charlie looked up, saw his adopted mother, and brightened.

"Ah ha! I found her!" Frogduck suddenly exclaimed happily, jumping up.

"What the..." Bushroot exclaimed, closing his book and standing up to look at Christine, clearly seeing that she didn't look that much like Crimson. "Who are you?"

"No one of consequence." Christine replied, stepping towards them, calmly.

"Hey!" Rowe whined. "That's my line!"

"Since _when_?" Bushroot asked ludicrously, turning to face the otter.

"Shut up, all of you!" Negaduck said, then turned to face Christine wickedly. "Well, doctor, I see you got my message."

"That I did." Christine said with a nod, holding out her hands to indicate that they were empty and weaponless. "And I've come peacefully. I don't know what you're planning Negaduck, but I do know what you want. You want me, simple because I stand in your way. So...here I am."

"Just like that?" Negaduck asked, giving her an amused look.

"Well, you have to let Charlie go first." Christine stated flatly.

"Done." Negaduck said decisively, and pointed a finger at Charlie. "Kid, get out of here." he snapped his fingers to indicate how quickly he wanted Charlie gone.

Charlie wasn't about to leave without Christine, though. "But..." he began to object.

"NOW!" Negaduck roared at the child.

Startled, Charlie got out of the chair and ran for the door. There, he paused, looked back at Christine. Christine silently motioned him further, adding in a discreet wink in the process. It was unclear if Charlie understood, but he then exited and was gone from sight. Negaduck then snapped his fingers again, this time as a signal, and Bushroot and Rowe both hurried forward and grabbed Christine, restraining her. She provided no resistence.

"Very good, doctor." Negaduck said with a grin. "You're smart, and know what's best for you. I like that. I wish I could get more of my villains to do that." He motioned to the back room. "C'mon guys, let's go tie her up with the others."

He led the way to the back room, Rowe and Bushroot bringing Christine along as they followed. Frogduck followed as well. As they entered, Quackerjack, who was sitting in the chair, juggling balls as he watched the prisoners dangling over him, jumped up, dropping the balls in the process.

"Got another prisoner, boss?" Quackerjack asked. "We'll have to put her with the spy cat lady, because we don't have the room to hang her all by herself."

"Fine, fine, just so long as she's properly tied up." Negaduck said dismissively.

By this point, the other prisoners had noticed who the new prisoner was.

"Christine!" Darkwing called down in alarm. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm making amends!" Christine called back, unconcerned about her predicament.

"Whoa!" Agent Mia exclaimed as the lever was pulled, and she quickly dropped down to the ground. She stopped just short of hitting the ground, still upside down.

"I fail to see how this will solve anything for us!" Crimson shouted at Christine as Rowe and Quackerjack untied Mia momentarily, getting her down in preparation to tie her and Christine together.

"Negs left me with little choice!" Christine called back, as Bushroot pushed her back to back to Mia. "He had Charlie!"

"And, she did the sensible thing in response, which is more than I can say for you guys." Negaduck added, grinning.

By this point, Christine and Mia had been tied together tightly, and a new circle of rope was put around their feet. Rowe, Bushroot, and Quackerjack all took a step back. Negaduck pulled the lever, and watched with amusement as the circle of rope tightened around the feet of the pair and started to lift them off the ground, flipping them upside down in the process.

Mia nudged Christine. "What good did you really think would come out of this?" she asked flatly.

"Hopefully, all of us get free." Christine replied as they continued to ascend.

And with that, she reached into one pocket where she kept a small remote, and pushed a scertain button on it.

Without warning, Frogduck suddenly doubled over, clutching at his stomach. The other villains looked over at him in annoyance.

"What's up with you?" Quackerjack asked, annoyed.

Frogduck moaned. "I don't feel too good." he replied. "I think I ate something that's not agreeing with me."

"If you're going to be sick, go do it somewhere else." Negaduck said, disgusted, waving Frogduck away.

"No...no, I think this is...this is..." Frogduck murmured, but then suddenly trailed off.

Without warning, he suddenly began shaking like he was having a seizure, and toppled over. Surprised, the other villains on the ground all turned to look at him, Bushroot going as far to hurry over to Frogduck to make sure he was all right. Their attention suddenly away from the prisoners, Christine grinned in victory, and twisted around in her bounds, fiddling with the cufflink of the costume she wore. Unlike Darkwing and the others, the Fearsome Four hadn't taken the time to disarm her, meaning she had a few more gizmos at her disposal.

Activating the buzzsaw cufflink on that sleeve, Christine carefully sawed through the rope binding her and Agent Mia together, freeing their arms. Mia, catching on, brightened.

"I'll help you reach the rope binding our feet!" she said, working to try and prop Christine up so she could reach the rope holding them upside down.

Christine, however, urgently and silently motioned for her to be silent for their voices carried, but by then it was too late. Hearing Mia's voice, Negaduck looked up at the pair dangling upside down from the ceiling, and jumped to his feet in alarm.

"They're trying to escape!" he exclaimed, pulling out his pistol and taking aim.

Christine panicked, and quickly pressed another button on the remote, this time at random. On the ground, Frogduck suddenly let out a belch, and released a cloud of purple smoke from his mouth that quickly engulfed the group of villains below, disorienting them. Quackerjack, who jumped back in alarm at the sight, bumped into Negaduck just as he was about to fire, and threw off his aim.

The bullet instead hit the rope binding Mia and Christine's feet and whizzed right through it, cutting at Christine and Mia's ankles. Without warning, the rope suddenly snapped, freeing them both. Mia quickly reached up and grabbed the broken rope to keep from falling, then with the other hand, reached down and grabbed Christine's hand as she started to fall. They dangled there helplessly.

"I...I can't hold on!" Mia said, her hold on both the rope and Christine slipping.

"Christine, jump over here, and grab onto us!" Darkwing urged while chaos reigned down below, as the villains began bumping into each other in the smoke, or were starting fights.

Christine looked like she'd much rather fall the two-or-so stories to the ground than attempt that, but upon Darkwing's continued urging, and Mia starting to panic as her grip continued to slip, Christine started to swing her body towards where Darkwing and the other hung, upside down. At the peak of her swing, she let go of Mia, and with a yell, fumbled out with her hands to grab onto the rope that bound the others together, just barely managing to secure a handhold.

Once she was safely there, Agent Mia used her now freed hand to also grab at the rope, and start climbing up it to where it connected with a pulley mechanism in the rafters of the room. Once safely up there, she then helped Christine climb up to the rafters as well.

"Now what?" Crimson asked, as the group, still bound together, swung slightly from all the turbulence.

"Now I shoot you guys!" Negaduck exclaimed from below.

The smoke had finally cleared, and the Fearsome Four had gotten their act together again, and group around the lever that stood nearby. Negaduck had his pistol raised, ready to take aim. Frogduck still lay on the ground, and seemed to be unconscious. Grinning victoriously, Negaduck began to apply pressure to the trigger of his pistol.

Then the sound of police sirens started to ring outside the warehouse, quickly coming this way. The foursome of villains looked towards the entrance in surprise.

"Crap." Negaduck said with a frown, and fired a shot from his pistol blinding up at the rafters as a warning shot, then turned to his crew. "Retreat! Let's get out of there before those cops get here!"

They didn't need to be told twice. Bushroot, Rowe, and Quackerjack all fought with each other to escape the warehouse through a back door, with Negaduck more calmly following behind them. He gave the group hanging from the ceiling a glare before he vanished through the door, closing it behind him. Frogduck was left behind.

"Why didn't he shoot us while he had the chance?" Launchpad asked aloud after he had gone.

"I don't know, he had more than enough time to fire every bullet he had in his pistol in us." Techno said, also puzzled. "It may not have killed us, but it would've wounded us, and prevented us from causing him any more trouble for awhile."

"Personally, I don't care at the moment, just so long as we get out of this alive, and in one piece." Crimson interrupted hotly. "I'm personally looking forward to touching the ground again."

By this point in time, the reinforcements arrived, and they started storming the building. As the sirens had suggested, the group that stormed the building were predominately police officers from the SCPD, being led by Officer Frank, who was holding the hand of Charlie, anxiously leading the cops into the back room of the warehouse. Accompanying them, surprisingly, was Agents Sandy and Todd, awake again, but looked like it was only just barely. They all gathered in the room, then looked up at the ceiling where everyone was at.

"What the heck are you all doing up there?" Frank asked, bewildered.

"We'll explain later!" Christine called back down. "Just get us down!"

* * *

Fortunately, it was a relatively easy process. The lever, when pushed far enough, would lower the rope Darkwing and the others hung from. All Christine and Agent Mia had to do was hang onto the rope as well, and with the throw of a lever, all of them were brought back safely down and liberated. As the officials then went about cleaning up, the group started to explain what had happened, starting with what Darkwing and the others knew of the situation.

"When the sleeping gas wore off, we were already here, and upside down." Darkwing explained while he sipped a drink the SCPD had provided for everyone. "When Negs saw that we were awake, he made the usual announcement that we were his prisoners, and the such, but he never did say a thing more about his plans."

"We didn't even know Frogduck was involved until he turned up with Agent Mia." Crimson continued. "At that point, we figured that Frogduck was there to distract the authorities while Negaduck carried out his plans. We just didn't know what they were."

"We pretty much figured out the same thing." Agent Todd said. "We figured that Negaduck had some hidden motive behind all of this, and that kidnaping you and hiring Frogduck were merely ploys to guarantee that he did it in peace. He probably never intended to hurt you guys either, which is why he just left you guys unharmed."

"But the question that remains, then, is did Negs succeed with his plans?" Agent Mia asked rhetorically.

"That's the part we don't know." Agent Sandy admitted. "Me and Todd might have been able to develop a theory eventually if Negaduck hadn't raided the tower when he did and shot us with tranquilizers."

"Which he did to get Charlie, so that he could get me out of the picture." Christine said, who was holding a very relieved Charlie in her lap at the moment.

"In that case, I have to wonder if Negaduck ever got the chance to carry through with his plans." Techno remarked, setting down his drink for a moment. "He was here at the warehouse almost perpetually after he kidnaped us, and to my knowledge, left only once, alone, and that was to get Charlie. He never did anything else, at least, not that we know of."

"Except gloat." Launchpad remarked, staring into his drink. "He did plenty of that."

"Of course he did, that's Negaduck." Darkwing remarked. "But I think Techno's right. Whatever Negaduck's plan was, he didn't get to do it."

"What about the rest of the Fearsome Four?" Officer Frank asked, who was taking notes of all of this.

"They seemed in the dark about the whole matter." Darkwing said. "They kept talking to themselves repeatedly about the matter, wondering themselves what it was that Negaduck was planning. I think he kept them out of the loop, and on purpose, too."

"That makes a bit of sense, seeing that in order to kidnap us, Negaduck had to infiltrate Darkwing Tower in order to do that, and as he's shown in the past, he's very leery about letting anyone but himself know about the location of it." Techno reasoned in one breath. "But that also leads to the question of how Negaduck knew where the hideout was now. When the old one was destroyed by Gigavolt, it seemed pretty clear that he didn't know anymore where we were hiding out."

"He found out with the hack that started this mess." Agent Todd commented. "I discovered that when rooting through your guys's supercomputer. The hack was used mostly to distract you guys and lure you all to the tower, but he also used it to confirm the exact location of the tower. I think he had a hunch of where it was beforehand, though. How he managed to hack into the system in the first place is beyond me, though."

"Changing gears a bit here, but I want to know a few on the side details about things." Darkwing remarked. "For instance, Christine, why are you mixed up in all of this?"

"_That _was SHUSH's bright idea for dealing with Frogduck back before we knew he was working with Negs." Christine explained flatly. "And I'll have you know that I wasn't for the idea."

"We had to do _something, _though." Mia pointed out with a shrug. "Maybe it did cause more trouble than good in the end, but good things still came about from it anyway. I mean, it _was _Christine who more or less helped save the day."

Christine snorted at this. "Hardly, I just caused a distraction, freed myself and Mia, and got Charlie out of harms way." she said.

"...thus setting things in motion for _all _of us to escape." Crimson added with a grin. "By the way, Christine, how _did _you pull off that distraction with Frogduck?"

"Oh, that." Christine said. "That was easy. I remember hearing from Darkwing at one point that your gas guns all had a remote control device that had recently been attached to it, in the event that it fell into the wrong hands. I simply used that."

"But then...how...?" Crimson began, puzzled.

"Oh, he...er...swallowed your gas gun." Christine explained simply.

Crimson's eyes went wide. "He did _what_?" she exclaimed. "How is that even possible?"

"I'm suspecting that his partial frog physiology had something to do with it." Techno remarked. "See, real frogs have to swallow things whole, so in theory, Frogduck could..."

"I didn't ask to hear how Frogduck's inner workings work, thank you." Crimson interrupted, annoyed.

"Speaking of Frogduck, he's been taken to the infirmary at SHUSH for treatment." Agent Mia explained. "They're first going to surgically remove the gas gun..."

"Which I don't want back, by the way." Crimson interrupted briefly.

"...and then they'll begin working to see if Frogduck's mutations are reversible. If not, then he'll be treated for his mental conditions."

"In short, another villain down." Darkwing noted happily.

"I'm starting to see a trend here." Launchpad agreed.

"Now here's something _I _want to know." Christine said, and turned to Agent Sandy, Agent Todd, and Officer Frank. "How did you guys know how to find us?"

"Well, when we woke up, we found the message Negaduck had left for you in the supercomputer, Dr. Merriweather." Sandy explained. "We then just hurried on over here as fast as we could, meeting up with the cops along the way."

"And the SCPD found out because of the kid there." Frank explained, pointing at Charlie. "The moment he got free, he sought out the nearest phone and called us. The moment we found out who was behind it all and where they were at, we hurried right on over, picking up Charlie there along the way. He did exactly what he should've in such a situation."

"Yes he did, good job, Charlie." Christine remarked, ruffling Charlie's hair with pride. Charlie simply grinned shyly in reply.

"So I guess that pretty much set things straight for us." Darkwing said, jumping up and stretching. "Seeing that it's so late, I think the best thing for all of _us _to do is go home and call it a day."

"Actually, it's still night, DW."

"Well, no, it's technically morning, actually, Launchpad."

"Don't remind me, Techno, and remember we have go to school in just a few hours. Ugh, I'm going to be sleeping through a few classes today."

"Sorry we didn't get have that date, Christine."

"Oh, no problem, Darkwing. Seeing that you were kidnaped and all of that, I'll let you slide this time. Besides, I'm tired too, and I'm sure Charlie is too."

"No, I'm just hungry. When's breakfast?"

"Well, consider yourselves lucky, but we from the SCPD aren't going to be going to bed anytime soon."

"If it's any consolation, officer, neither will us agents. There's going to be _tons _of paperwork waiting for us back at SHUSH HQ."

"Joy to the world. At least I know I'll have your company, Mia."

"And mine, Agent Sandingomm. Might as well all do it together, right?"

"Right, Agent Todd."

"Well, you guys do that, and we'll see you another time. Good night."

"Good night, Darkwing. Best avoid me for awhile until I can get some proper sleep, or I might strangle you out of spite for getting sleep before me."

"Mm, thank you for that _optimistic_ note, Officer Frank, and a good night to you too."

* * *

Across town, however, the Fearsome Five were just arriving back at their usual hideout.

"Well, that could've gone better." Rowe remarked, as he gathered his things to head home for the day.

Negaduck merely grunted in reply as he walked to his office. "Gentlemen, next time I get the wild idea to hire Frogduck to do _anything _for me, talk me out of it." he said flatly.

"That'll be the day." Quackerjack said with a giggle.

"Sorry we didn't get anything productive out of that escapade, boss." Bushroot said apologetically to Negaduck's back.

"Now, I didn't say that, Bushroot." Negaduck replied cryptically as he entered his office. "Now get out of here, so I can have some peace and quiet."

Once safely locked in his office, in private, Negaduck walked over to his computer and booted it up. As he had hoped, he found that he had a new message waiting for him, which he quickly opened to read. It said:

"Lord Negaduck,

We got the information from the sources you wanted just as planned. Things worked out perfectly. Everybody was looking the other way while we gather this new intel. Also got more transdimensional coordinates for you to look at. I think this might be the one you've been looking for.

-LP"

Grinning, Negaduck opened up the attached file and started looking through the information it contained. After a few moments, his grin grew bigger.

"Perfect." he remarked happily.

* * *

_Fun Facts: "House Rules Parcheesi" is a fictional game from the webcomic "Ozy and Millie", and is a very wild and potentially physical game that has little to do with Parcheesi. It has been likened unto the ever-famous Calvinball (which that alone should tell you loads about it) but it's been stated that it's actually more of the opposite of Calvinball, where there are too many rules (in contrast to Calvinball's lack of rules)._

_The other things Christine tells Charlie to NOT do while staying with the Mallards in addition to House Rules Parcheesi have their own backstories too. "Indoor baseball" is a sport Gosalyn has been seen doing from time to time in the original TV show. Anything with the word "extreme" in it is probably bd news, particularly when Gos says it. Launchpad's constant habit of crashing of course brought about the need for Christine to state there would be no flying. "Joyriding" is in reference to chapter 50, "Adoption", where Gos giving Charlie a joyride on her motorbike led to trouble. The reference to microwaving potatoes is a mild reference to "Darkwing Duck Returns" where it was stated in the first chapter that Gos had done as such in her youth and left the mess for Drake to clean up. Oh, and the episode of **Jumpgate**, "The Scourge", is named after an episode from **Stargate SG-1 **and is probably one of the creepiest episodes the series has to offer. *shudders*_

_Someone asked in a review after reading "Flight or Fight" if Charlie knew about DW's secret identity, and I couldn't give a straight answer. He probably does, it's just not explained in detail, so I alluded to that in this chapter. There is a past chapter, however, in which Charlie mentions that Gosalyn stays up all night, and is probably in reference to her crime-fighting, so he probably knew by then._

_The password "Bantamock42" seemed like a fitting password for Techno to use for the supercomputer. The use of the number 42 IS a reference to "The Hitchiker's Guide To the Galaxy"._

_This is the first time we see Agent Todd's last name. I threw it in, seeing that I've been making it a habit to establish everybody's last names lately._

_Frogduck was added late to this chapter, because it had been awhile since he'd turned up. I worked out many of the details of his role in this chapter later or on the fly._

_Driving a motorbike, for those who don't know, actually isn't much like driving a bicycle at all, and if Mia really knew how to drive one (which she apparently does), she should know better than to liken it to that._

_I had debated whether or not to get Detective Matthew in on this chapter at one point, in addition to Frank, but later decided to just stick with Frank._

_I had far too many chances to just mess with Frogduck, and do a whole bunch of funny conversations that are simply just there for laughs. I think this is also a record amount of things for Frogduck to say, actually._

_I'm not entirely sure where I got the idea for Frogduck to swallow a gas gun, as that would stretch reality terribly, but I needed that gas gun out of the picture for my purposes, and it ended up having a use later, so I went ahead with that particularly odd idea._

_As usual, no clue where and how Frogduck got his flippers on a rocketpack. At least he knows how to fly it.  
_

_The idea of getting Frogduck and Negs to work together was a great one, humor-wise, because their personalities clash so much, one can't help but make fun of it. :p Frogduck's actually pretty lucky he didn't get shot in the end._

_Rowe and Charlie's discussion about Rowe's heritage brought about several references from my Redwall fanfics, as the names "Jude" and "Weylan" both come from that. In those fanfics, Jude really is the father of Weylan. :)_

_When wrapping up the chapter, I saw that I had so many plotholes that needed filling still, I dedicated two whole pages to do that. As such, this chapter is the new longest. :)_

_Turns out that Negaduck DID have a motive for everything, and it looks like he pulled it off after all. The LP that sent the message to Negs at the end, is, of course, NegaLaunchpad. :)_

_Next chapter will be a fun one, so be sure to not miss "Interfaced"!. :)  
_


	73. Interfaced

Summary: When making an unexpected discovery at school, Gosalyn and Honker suddenly find themselves caught in the middle of a conspiracy that threatens the whole nation...

Rating: T

Author's Note: A chapter that starts out slow but keeps building all the way to the end. Few surprises mixed in, I think y'all will like this chapter. ;) Fun facts included at the end.

73.

Interfaced

Honker awoke with a start. Sitting up, he fumbled around for his glasses sitting on the bedside table next to him, and put them on, blinking sleep out of his eyes. He thought back about what he had been dreaming last, and shook his head with a shudder.

"Glad that dream's not real." he muttered, climbing out of bed to start the day, basking in the glow of morning sunlight streaming in through his window for a moment. "I think I've been letting all of that crime fighting go to my head."

He dressed and groomed himself in preparation for the day ahead of him, and wandered downstairs to get breakfast. His parents, unsurprisingly, were already there. His mother was putting the finishing touches on a plate of food, while his father sat at the table, reading the newspaper while he waited for his own breakfast to be delivered

"Good morning, Honker sweety, it's pick-your-own-breakfast day today, so I made your favorite." Binkie Muddlefoot greeted as Honker sat himself in his seat. She planted a kiss on his forehead as she sat a plate of eggs and bacon in front of him. "Now you eat up now, you here? I want you to have decent breakfast before you go to school. Probably going to be the last decent meal you have until dinner. I don't like what they serve in those school lunches these days."

"You're not alone." Honker said under his breath, grinning.

"Now Herb, what would _you _like for breakfast?" Binkie asked, turning to her husband.

Herb Muddlefoot set down his paper and thought about it for a moment. "I dunno, what are you going to be having, Binkie m'dear?" he asked.

"Oh, probably nothing spectacular." Binkie replied with the wave of her hand. "I'll probably just make myself a sandwich or something. I'm not really in a picky mood this morning."

"In that case, I think I'll have some toast, and a cup of orange juice." Herb replied, then added almost as an afterthought, "Oh, and pancakes."

"Oh Herb, my homemade pancakes take time to make, and I'm not really in the mood for it."

"But...pancakes."

"Why does it have to be pancakes, Herb? You can have just about anything else you want this morning, so..."

"_Pancakes_." Herb said again with more emphasis, making an over exaggeratedly pained expression in the process.

Binkie sighed, but couldn't help but grin. "Oh, all right, I'll make you some pancakes." she said, turning back to the stove. "Since you insist."

"Thank you Binkie, you're a real peach." Herb said gratefully, and returned to his paper.

Honker grinned at the antics of his parents while he ate his breakfast thoughtfully. But for reasons he couldn't explain, he felt like there was something...off, about all of this.

"Mom, dad, is anything important happening today?" Honker asked aloud.

"Hmm, not that I can think of." Binkie replied as she worked at mixing pancake batter. "At least, nothing that concerns you, dear. Today I have a meeting with the floral committee. We're going to be discussing what bouquets would look the best for April. Other than that, I can't think of anything."

"How about you, dad?" Honker asked.

Herb thought for a moment. "I can't of anything, unless it's some episode on TV that you're thinking of." he said. "Remember, a new episode of _Jumpgate: Universitas_ is supposed to air tonight."

"I remember." Honker said with a grin. "I don't think that's it, though."

"Maybe it's something that's happening at school?" Binkie suggested.

"No, I don't think that's it." Honker said, then shrugged. "Oh well, I guess it's not that important."

He continued eating until he had cleaned his plate, then, getting up, he checked his watch and made final preparations to go.

"I need to go, or Gos is going to leave without me again!" Honker called as he stepped into the kitchen and slipped on a light jacket. "See you all after school!"

"Bye Honker!" Binkie called back from within the kitchen. "Have a good day at school!"

With one final farewell, Honker pulled on his backpack and walked out the front door. Outside, it was a beautiful and fairly warm morning in late March, the snow from the previous winter having all long melted away, and spring beginning to roll in. Taking in a deep breath of that spring air, Honker made his way across his yard and to the driveway of the neighboring Mallard home.

There, stood Gosalyn, who already had her motorbike out and was strapping on her helmet in preparation to leave.

"_There _you are." she said as she watched Honker approached. "Took you long enough to get over here. I was about half-tempted to leave without you."

"Hence why I am now hurrying over." Honker reasoned with a grin, picking up a helmet for himself and strapping it on. "Besides, I'm not late at all. You're just early."

"Yes, we can thank dad for that." Gosalyn said, rolling her eyes. "You know how much he likes me to get out the door with 'time to spare', as he puts it."

"It's probably a wise practice, Gos." Honker said, as they both climbed onto the bike, with Gosalyn sitting in front. "Besides, we can use that free time to study for our classes."

"Yes, and we all know just how very _important _that is." Gosalyn grumbled, starting the motorbike and driving down the road. "Just two more months of this, Honk. That's it. In two more months, we graduate, and I'm finally free from school."

"Oh really?" Honker asked, raising his voice so that he could still be heard. "And what do you plan on doing then?"

"I dunno." Gosalyn replied with a shrug. "Keep on doing what I've always done, I guess. I can make a living out of that."

"Can you?" Honker asked, skeptical.

"Sure, I've already got a head start in a career in crime fighting." Gosalyn replied. "Dad's made a living out of that, so why can't I?"

"True, but your dad also went to college." Honker pointed out. "You should too."

"Yeah, but what the heck would I _study_?" Gosalyn asked. "I don't like Honker, I never have. You should know that."

"I _do _know that, but still, you should seriously consider it, Gos."

"No need to ask what you intend to do after we graduate, then."

"I should say so."

They both fell silent for a long moment as Gosalyn drove the motorbike in the direction of the high school. While Honker rode behind her, he looked around at the city as they drove through it, and still couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.

"Gos, is there anything happing tonight that I need to know about?" he asked suddenly.

"Not that I can think of." Gosalyn replied.

"Anything special while we're on patrol tonight? Anything Darkwing related?"

"Nope. Why?"

"No real special reason other than the fact that my conscience is nagging me for something, but I haven't the foggiest clue what."

"So you think you forgot something?"

"Or that I've overlooked something going on around me." Honker yawned suddenly. "Of course, it might also be the fact that I haven't fully woken up yet. I still feel a little tired."

"Knowing you and your studies, Honker, do I dare ask why, or is it that obvious?"

"No, it's not like that, Gos. I had this funny dream last night, that's all."

"Really? Do tell."

"Well, you remember that project I've been working on lately? About trying to find a way to interface with the control nanite in Nanite?"

"You mean the project that you've been working on every chance you get as of late?"

"Yeah. Well, in my dream, I dreamt that I finally found the missing link in that project, and quickly put together a little device on a cart that I could use to essentially 'hack' my way into Nanite's control nanite. The only problem was that this required me to directly access Nanite, by physically plugging into him."

"Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem." Gosalyn remarked. "We dealt Nanite such a serious blow during our last encounter that he's still shutdown for repairs, safely locked away in his cell."

"As it was in my dream. Still, everybody, including me, were still leery of the idea, so as an added precaution, we all went down to Nanite's cell in costume, you, me, your dad, and Launchpad, and went with a police escort led by Detective Matthew. Once there, I used a one of those new forcefield scramblers that allow the wearer to pass through those energy fields the supervillain prison uses to slip inside Nanite's cell with my equipment. Inside, Nanite didn't even react to my presence, so I continued with the project, plugged in my device, and was just about to start when Nanite suddenly woke up and without warning grabbed my wrist with one hand and...and..."

"And what?"

"And that's it. I woke up after that."

"And this dream kept you from getting a proper night's sleep?"

"Well, it doesn't sound as scary now, but it completely unnerved me when I dreamt it. I guess you had to be there. Oh well, I don't really know why I had that dream. Though, I have been working pretty hard on that project lately, and I..._did_...stay up late to work on it a _little_ before going to bed, so..."

Honker didn't need to see Gosalyn's face to know what look she was making at the moment. "Honker, I think I know why you're feeling tired."

"All right, so I should've gone to bed when I was supposed to." Honker admitted. "But Gos, I'm so _close_. So close I can almost taste victory. The moment I pull of this project of mine and successfully interface with that control nanite and shut it down, we'll be defeating Nanite once and for all! Yet _another _villain we won't have to worry about ever again."

"Just leaving the Fearsome Four." Gosalyn said, nodding. "But Honk, maybe you should take a break from that project. You've been working on it, almost non-stop, for over a month now. If you really are so close, is it really going to kill you to do something else for a little while?"

"It might, yes. I can't just stop now, not when I'm so close."

"Honker, you need a life." Gosalyn remarked as they pulled up to the school, and she parked the bike.

"I've _got_ a life." Honker said in his defense, climbing off the bike and removing his helmet.

"I mean a _social _life." Gosalyn said, doing likewise.

"I've got that!" Honker said. "I mean, I hang out with you, don't I? Isn't that social enough?"

"That depends on how you define the word 'social.'"

"Clearly, then, we aren't defining it the same way then."

Gosalyn gave Honker a look. "And just what does that suppose to mean?" she asked.

"Nothing like what you're thinking of." Honker said with a grin, as he made his way towards the school building.

"Now wait, how do you know what I'm thinking of?" Gosalyn asked, hurrying after him.

"Gos, if there's one thing I've learned about you over the years, it's that it's not hard to predict your line of thought." Honker replied.

* * *

The rest of the school day progressed onward nicely, with the two each attending their individual classes like always and doing as well as they had always done in each one. They met up with each other again for lunch, had a fun chat there, then went back to classes. They met back up with each other again in-between classes to the last class of the day, which they were both in together. Gosalyn was in the middle of telling a story.

"So then, my teacher gets up and declares that it be silent, and that we all go back to our desks." she said with a grin. "Admitted he couldn't handle the noise of us arguing, and that having us work in groups wasn't such a good idea after all, like the class claimed. So in the end, we got our way."

"Good for you." Honker said, rolling his eyes and half-grinning. "And I'm sure the argument you started about which was better, _Jumpgate_ or _Star Trek,_ had nothing to do with it."

"You bet it didn't." Gosalyn said with a laugh. They both continued walking down the hall, but then Gosalyn suddenly paused and narrowed her eyes. "Well, look who it is."

Honker followed her gaze and found his own eyes narrowing. "Jax."

Sure enough, the infamous vixen was seen pushing her way through the crowd of students, moving away from them, and unaware she was being watched. She seemed to be moving quite urgently, and was flustered.

"Wonder what has her all worked up." Gosalyn remarked as they continued walking again, watching the vixen.

"It had better not involve us, I've had my fill of her." Honker muttered.

"True, but I wouldn't mind punching her snout in one last time." Gosalyn replied with a wicked grin.

They turned to begin walking down a staircase, but before they did, Honker caught sight of Jax slipping through a door he had never seen be opened before, and into the dark room beyond, looking around carefully as she went.

"Hold up, Jax just went in there." Honker said, pointing.

"Honker, why do you care what room Jax goes into?" Gosalyn asked, turning to look, too late.

"I care when I don't think she's supposed to be in that room." Honker said, moving through the thinning crowds to the door in question.

As they approached the door, Gosalyn saw Honker's point. "You're right." she said. "This doesn't lead to any _ordinary _room in this school. I've always _seen _this door here, but never really thought about it. What _is _behind this door?"

Reaching the door, Honker looked at the simple sign that hung on the door. "'Heating and Cooling.'" he read. "Presumably, the heating and cooling system for the whole school."

"That's right." Gosalyn said, running a hand over the door. "Guess I _have _been through this door then, but going thought it the other way, out and not in. Remember when NegaGosalyn raided the school and held me prisoner?"

"No, because I wasn't there." Honker stated flatly. He frowned. "I don't get it, though. No student like Jax would be allowed in there. In fact, this door is supposed to be locked."

Gosalyn tried the doorknob. "It really _is _locked." she stated.

"Then how did Jax get in there?"

"I don't know, but I intend to find out." Gosalyn said, turning around to look at the crowds of students still moving to their classes. "She's up to something, and as we both very well know, it can't be anything good. Particularly seeing that she seems to be going to great lengths to keep it secret."

"So what are we going to do?" Honker asked.

"We wait for everyone to go back to class, and then pick the lock." Gosalyn replied calmly, watching the students go past.

So that's what they did, spending the next several minutes just standing there, watching the students go by. Some of them gave them funny looks as they went by, but nobody said anything about them standing there. Only one teacher, the only person who might have objected to them standing there, went by, and he was busy flipping through a lesson planner at the time and didn't notice them.

Finally, the number of students filing by rapidly dropped to a trickle, and then the hallways were suddenly empty and void of life. Not long after this, the bell signifying the start of the next class rang.

"Well, we're officially late for class now." Honker remarked, checking his watch.

Gosalyn didn't respond. She had already pulled out a hair pin and had it jammed up into the door's lock, trying to pick it open. Honker stood to one side and watched.

"So how do you think Jax got this door open, anyway?" he asked.

"Maybe she had a hair pin handy, too." Gosalyn said, grinning as the lock sprang open and she opened the door. "I imagine that with all that fur she has to keep styled, she'd have plenty. Or maybe, she has a key."

"Which leads one to wonder how she got the key." Honker pointed out as they both slipped through the door, closing it behind them.

They looked around at their surroundings, finding themselves in a dimly lit room filled with whirring machinery.

"Yep, this is bringing back memories." Gosalyn said, ill at ease. "Not good memories, but memories nonetheless."

Honker started forward. "Where's Jax?" he asked. "I don't see her, and she didn't come back out, so..."

"It's a big room, Honk, filled with lots of noisy equipment." Gosalyn said as they moved forward through the room. "She's probably just out of sight."

They started looking, peering around machines, and wherever Jax might be at. They were quickly turning up nothing. Then Honker found a small ladder that led downward to more equipment contained a floor below them.

"Hey!" he called to Gosalyn who had moved away from him a few feet. "Maybe she's down here."

They gathered around the ladder, looked down it at the floor below, then started climbing down one at a time. Once there, they found themselves in a small room filled with more equipment all lined in a room, and was just as dimly lit. They didn't see any new clues to go off of, but Honker felt they were onto something, and walked down to the end of the room.

There, at the corner, the machinery dropped away, revealing a nice even path that led down the side of the room to where it joined with the other wall. There stood a small and simple desk with a computer sitting on top of it, currently in screen saver. Gosalyn and Honker exchanged looks, then made their way towards it.

"This has to be Jax's, none of this should be here." Gosalyn commented as they reached the desk and it's computer.

Honker brought the device out of sleep mode. "It's password protected." he announced.

"What do you think the password might be?" Gosalyn asked.

Honker gave her a look. "You have to ask?" and without looking, typed in his own name.

The computer promptly accepted it as the password and allowed Honker access to the computer. He promptly began sorting through the files, frowning at the look of them.

"Just what is Jax up to?" Honker asked. "These files contain several megabytes of information apiece, and it's all mostly text information."

"Text information about what?" Gosalyn asked.

"I'm not sure." Honker said. He typed in a few commands. "I'm going to make copies of this information and send it to the supercomputer at Darkwing Tower for further analysis, along with a few notes about where it was found and various specs about this computer."

"You think you'll really need all of that information?" Gosalyn asked skeptically.

"I'm sensing we're onto something big here, Gos, even if this _does _involve Jax, unlikely as it seems." Honker remarked, finishing typing the commands and entering them in. "So, quite likely, every bit of information might help, and this is probably the only time we're going to get a chance to access it." he clicked on a file and opened it. "In the meantime, though, we can start looking at some of this information here, to get an idea of what we're looking at."

"It'll be just our luck if all of this information turns out to be completely irrelevant for us to know." Gosalyn said haughtily, folding her arms as Honker read through the information in the first file.

"Ohhh..." Honker suddenly said before trailing off slowly, as if unexpectedly stunned by something. "This...is completely relevant to us, Gos."

"Meaning?"

"Well, if I'm reading this right, then Jax has recently been employed as a spy."

Gosalyn stared at him for a long moment. "What?" she asked, wondering if she had misheard.

"Jax is a spy." Honker repeated, looking up at his friend.

Gosalyn was silent for a long moment. "This has to be a joke." she said finally, shaking her head. "I mean, c'mon! Jax? A spy?"

"This information is _screaming _as such, Gos, and if it didn't, I wouldn't be inclined to believe it either." he motioned to the text information displayed on the screen. "But _look_! It's all right there!"

Gosalyn still had a hard time believing this, though. "Are we sure this is the same Jax we're talking about?" she asked.

"Her name is right _there_, Gos." Honker said, pointing at the vixen's full name quite clearly displayed in a line of text. "There isn't room for doubt."

"Unless this is all a very elaborate prank or something like that." Gosalyn said, doubting still.

"This is all very official looking information, Gos." Honker said. "If this _is_ a prank, whoever arranged it knew what they were doing. But I highly doubt it. I think this is the real thing we're looking at here."

Gosalyn fell silent for a moment, and began pacing, trying to wrap her brain around the idea of someone as irresponsible, double-crossing, and problematic as Jax could be a spy. "Okay." she finally concluded, turning back to Honker and the computer. "Assume for a moment that Jax really is a spy. Who or what is she spying on?"

Honker skimmed through the information for a moment, then suddenly froze. "Us." he announced grimly.

"_What_?"

"She's spying on us. I...I don't know what for and to what extent, but these reports quite clearly state that she's been tracking our movements throughout the whole city for more than a month."

"Without anybody noticing?" Gosalyn repeated. "That's seems even more ludicrous."

"Well, I don't know, Jax has been, and probably still is, very good at stalking me without my knowing." Honker stated. "Theoretically, those same skills could be used like this."

"How much does she know? Does she know our alter egos?"

"It doesn't say, not in this file." Honker opened up the next file. "Nor does it say in this file, but..." he skimmed through the lines of text for a long moment, "there _is _minor evidence that _might _suggest that she does."

"Oh great, just what we need."

"Couldn't agree more. But at least she isn't doing this spying for her own personal benefit, at least not completely. She's sending this information all to an employer."

"Who's the employer?" Gosalyn asked. "Some spy organization that we know of?"

"I don't know, again, it just doesn't say, not here at least. Maybe if I analyzed this information further, I could find out. Whoever it is, they know exactly what information they want, and that's all about us, as I said. This employer has gotten Jax tacking our movements, our actions, any snippets of information she might here about us, and any clues about what we might be doing at any given moment. And Jax has been very thorough in supplying this information."

Gosalyn was again, silent for a long moment. "So...now that we know, now what?" she asked finally.

Honker turned to face her. "There are several things we could do." he said. "The most obvious is confront Jax and force the information out of her."

"I like that idea."

"Admittedly, so do I. But we'd also run a huge risk. By confronting her, we blow our cover, and give her employer heads up and we're onto him, her, or whoever the employer is."

"Giving him the chance to run and hide, taking with what he knows with him." Gosalyn realized. "So secrecy might be the best policy in this instance."

"I'm inclined to agree. I vote we go to SHUSH with what we know. They could probably get to the bottom of this quicker than we could."

Gosalyn thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "I concur." she said. "And the sooner the better, probably. How much longer until that data you're copying and sending to the tower is finished?"

"It's already halfway through, so roughly about another five, ten, minutes at best."

"Can we just leave it here and let it finish on it's own?"

"I wouldn't recommend it, besides, it'd leave a huge clue for Jax to find and to follow, allowing her to realize what we've done."

Gosalyn looked around leerily. "I don't know if we should stay here and wait, though, Honker." she pointed out. "We never did find Jax in this place. She could be lurking somewhere nearby without our knowing, and could walk in and find us at any second."

"There's only one way in and out of this place, Gos." Honker said. "Look, I'll stay here and monitor things here. How about you go and stand guard until I'm done. If you have any reason to believe then that we might be found at any second, I can quickly stop the data transfer and we can hightail it out of here."

Gosalyn thought about that for a spilt second, then nodded. "Sounds good." she said, turning to go.

She found herself face to face with Jax, standing behind them both, pointing a gun at them.

"I was wondering if you two would ever turn around." she remarked with a grin.

Gosalyn froze at the sight of the vixen. Honker, hearing Jax's voice, spun around to see Jax, and then quickly keyed in a keystroke into the computer before facing Jax fully. They were all silent for a long moment, all waiting for the other to make the first move.

Finally, Gosalyn broke the silence. "You know, I don't I quite fully believed the idea that you might be a spy until right about now." she admitted with an annoyed look.

"Which is clearly your undoing now." Jax admitted proudly. "Sorry, but I can't help but take pride in this moment. Like you, I had my own doubts when I first took this job, but I must say, I far exceeded even my own expectations in this matter."

"What's this about, Jax?" Honker demanded, stepping forward a pace. "Why have you been hired to spy on us?"

"It's all quite simple, really." Jax said. "You are at risk of getting in the way of my employer and his plans."

"So you do know who we are." Honker realized.

"Why else would we be interested in you?" Jax asked with a shrug. "Actually, you crime fighters are pretty problematic for my employer. He doesn't like you, you know."

"I gathered that much, but who _is _your employer?" Gosalyn asked.

"You think I'd really tell you?"

"Actually, you might have already." Honker said, running through an elimination process in his head. "If he doesn't like us, then he has to be a bad guy, and one we know of. That _significant _limits things."

"You know, he's right." Gosalyn added, taking some relief in noting that Jax clearly hadn't thought of this. "So who is it? Negaduck? Steelbeak?"

"No, neither of them." Jax said.

"Nanite?"

"Who?"

"Okay, how about Gigavolt?"

"No!"

"Surely not somebody like Negawing Duck, right?"

"I don't know who that is." Jax said, growing impatient. "Look, I'm not that stupid, guys. And besides, you're looking in completely the wrong direction. You're looking for an _obvious _villain."

"So our mystery person is someone not so obvious?" Gosalyn asked. "So someone who might be perceived as being good at the first glance?"

There was a moment of silence as she and Honker thought about that for a moment. Then, suddenly, Honker had the answer.

"Vice President Jonas Norrin." he said, inwardly surprised at this revelation. And seeing Jax just barely manage to hide her surprise from him, added, "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Norrin?" Gosalyn repeated, also surprised. "Well, he certainly fits the description, but I never thought that he would swoop so low."

"N-no, y-you've...er..." Jax stuttered, her former confidence starting to flutter as she sought a way to put them off the trail.

"Forget it Jax, you've already made it clear that we're right." Honker said. "You can't even get yourself to deny it now."

"See, you may be good at this spying stuff, but you're still naive and inexperienced about it." Gosalyn said, grinning victoriously as she slowly began stepping towards Jax. "You've already made several amateurish mistakes just now. Take it from us, Jax, such things can really cramp your style."

She had nearly reached Jax before the vixen suddenly regained her courage and pointed the gun in her hand at Gosalyn's chest.

"Let's not forget who's holding the gun, Gos." Jax said venomously.

Gosalyn paused, then started to back down again, but didn't get far before she paused yet again, and couldn't help but grin at the sight that now greeted her. Behind her, Honker couldn't help but stifle a chuckle. Growing nervous, Jax looked back and forth from them.

"What?" she demanded. "What is it?"

"Let's just say that you're not the only one holding a gun at the moment, Jax." Gosalyn said, and motioned with her head for the vixen look behind her.

Jax paused, then slowly turned around to see Darkwing standing behind her, gas gun armed and at the ready.

"Boo." Darkwing said with a self-satisfied grin.

He then fired a canister of sleeping gas into Jax's face, nearly point-blank. Caught off guard, Jax stumbled backwards from the burst of gas, bumped into the wall, then, as the sleeping gas worked it's magic, slid to the floor, out like a light. Darkwing grin grew bigger as he holstered the gas gun just in time for Gosalyn to rush forward and grab him in a relieved hug.

"Dad!" she exclaimed in relief. "You're timing was impeccable!"

"Well, it was helped by the fact that I got an alert from Honker here." Darkwing said, glancing at Honker.

"Yeah, I sent it right when we realized Jax had us." Honker admitted, pointing back at the computer he had used to send the alert. "But how did you get here so quickly?"

"Well, as luck would have it, both me and Launchpad happened to be in the tower when you first started transmitting data, Honker." Darkwing explained, as Gosalyn released him. "I'm presuming it came from that computer. Anyway, we quickly saw that the supercomputer was getting new information, but we didn't know where it was coming from and who sent it. So me and LP climbed into the Thunderquack, and used it's onboard computer systems to try and trace the data feed. We were still there when the alert came through, and we were already close to the high school, so it didn't take us that much longer to get over here."

"Ah, okay." Honker said, understanding.

"So where's Launchpad?" Gosalyn asked.

"Up on the roof, waiting in the Thunderquack." Darkwing said, pointing upward symbolically. "I had him wait there just in case. And I see now that I was right to take precautions."

"So you heard what we were talking about, didn't you?" Gosalyn said.

"I heard enough." Darkwing admitted, nodding. "So Norrin's trying to spy on us?"

"So it seems."

"But whatever for?"

"I don't know, but he's clearly up to something he shouldn't, and we had just agreed that it would be a good idea to go and tell SHUSH immediately before Jax interfered." Honker said.

"I agree." Darkwing said, leaning down to pick up Jax's unconscious body. "So let's go take our evidence and deliver it to them, right now."

* * *

"C'mon, George, doesn't take this long to answer a single phone call." Hooter muttered as he waited for the video transmission to connect on his screen, rapping his fingers on his desktop.

"You sure this is such a good idea, going to the president right now?" Crimson asked, pacing back and forth across the space of Hooter's office.

"Well, why not?" Darkwing asked, looking up from the screen as it still worked to connect. "We have more than enough evidence in the supercomputer, _and _we've got Jax locked away in a cell, awaiting further interrogation."

"Yeah, why wait?" Launchpad asked, puzzled.

"Because, the moment we do this, Norrin's going to find out that we're onto him." Crimson said, stopping her pacing to face the group. "We may not know what he's up to, but we're still onto him, and following his tracks now."

"She has a point." Techno agreed. "We reveal now that we're onto Norrin, and we might be giving him heads-up enough to give him a chance to escape."

"That's why I'm calling the president to tell him, and only him." Hooter said, still rapping his fingers on his desktop as he waited for his call to connect. "He can take quick and effective action to halt Norrin in his tracks before he can do so much as raise a finger. All we need him to do is to take Norrin into custody, and then we can go from there."

"I don't know, I still say we're taking a real chance with this." Crimson stated, walking over to look at the screen as well.

"Shh, we're being patched through now." Hooter said, silencing them as the transmission finally went through.

The presidential seal appeared on the screen for a moment, then was replaced with a picture of the president himself. He was a tall, ash grey-furred weasel and was in his declining years of age. He wore a warm and friendly expression, and seemed more than pleased to see and talk with Hooter.

"John!" the president exclaimed when the picture appeared, grinning broadly. "Good to see you!"

"Same here, George, though I wish I could say I called just to talk." Hooter replied, also grinning. "First, allow me to introduce those who are viewing this as well. You should already be familiar with them, this is Darkwing Duck and his fellow helpers."

"Hello, Mr. President." Darkwing said, being the closest to the screen, and waved at the president.

"Ah yes, Darkwing!" the president replied. "I believe this is the first time we have actually had the honor of meeting like this. Not quite as good as meeting face to face, but close enough."

"Yes it is." Hooter said, anxious to get on with things. "Now, Mr. President, I've called on unfortunate terms."

"Meaning?" the president asked.

"Darkwing and company have quite recently turned up some disturbing evidence and have brought it to my attention. It regards your vice president."

"Norrin? Surely not..."

"That's what we thought at first, Mr. President, but the facts don't lie." Darkwing said.

"I'm transmitting a copy of the information to your console now, George." Hooter said, pressing a key on his computer. "As you will no doubt see, it quite plainly reveals that Norrin has, without permission, has hired at least one spy to keep track of the movements of key personnel, and suggests that he is plotting something he shouldn't."

"We also have a prisoner, sir, who could probably tell us more once we interrogate her." Crimson piped up.

"With your permission, of course, Mr. President." Darkwing quickly added.

By this point, the president had received the sent information, and was now looking through it on another screen. His face fell.

"Yes, it certainly seems like this is genuine information." the president noted, and shook his head, focusing his attention back on the video feed. "John, I should be honest with you and tell you that recently the Secret Service approached me and stated that they wished to investigate Norrin for conspiracy against this nation."

"Conspiracy?" Darkwing repeated, surprised at the seriousness of the matter. "Really?"

"Of course, at the time, I didn't want to believe it." the president continued. "Norrin may be one who toes the line and doesn't hesitate to use dirt to get what he wants or worse, but I never believed him to try something such as this. But, I let the SS do their investigation. It's still ongoing, and thus far hasn't turn up much." he sighed. "Clearly, with this new evidence, though, that has since changed, and Norrin might really be guilty of these crimes."

"Mr. President, I highly recommend that you order Norrin to be taken into custody." Darkwing urged.

"At least long enough for us to get to the bottom of this and to see if we really do have things straight." Hooter added. "I would also recommend you keep it quiet, and not let word out to the public. We don't need to start a panic over this until we know more."

"Agreed." the president said. "I'll make the arrangements immediately. John, I would like you to–"

He got no further than that when the screen suddenly burst into static. Puzzled and surprised, Hooter worked for a few moments with the computer's controls to try and get back the video feed, but to no avail. Techno tried to lean forward to help, but Darkwing kept him back.

"What happened?" Darkwing asked urgently.

"I'm not sure." Hooter admitted, and leaned over to press a button on the intercom sitting on his desk. "Julie, connect me with the IT department, please."

"IT Department. Agent Todd speaking."

"Agent Todd, we were just in the middle of a video conference with the president when we lost the feed." Hooter explained. "Can you figure out what happened, and possibly try to reconnect us?"

"Give me one moment, director." there was a long pause as Agent Todd presumably worked on this for a few moments. He was then back with his report. "The feed was cut off at the source, sir." he reported.

"So somebody ended the transmission on the president's end?" Darkwing asked, worried.

Hooter motioned for him to be silent. "Todd, can you reconnect us?" he asked. "It's urgent."

"I already tried, sir, but the White House isn't responding on any of the channels. It's been completely cut off from all of the communication networks."

Hooter fell silent at this for a long moment. "Curious." he murmured, turning off the intercom without telling Todd goodbye or anything like that.

"What could've caused that?" Launchpad asked.

"Usually, a communications blackout with the White House occurs only during a lockdown." Hooter replied.

"But so far as we know, no such thing has happened." Darkwing said. "Seeing that the transmission was cut off from the source, I say Norrin caught on to what we're doing, and is taking steps to keep us from making things worse for him."

"You mean he's caused the blackout to stop himself from being found out." Crimson suggested.

"If Norrin really is guilty of conspiracy, the president might be in danger." Techno reasoned.

"J. Gander, permission to hurry on over there and check things out." Darkwing said, turning to Hooter.

"Granted, in fact, I insist upon it." Hooter said. "You can use the Thunderquack II to get there in under an hour, and it's stealth technology will allow you to sneak in undetected."

"Right, c'mon, LP." Darkwing said, motioning to the pilot as they both hurried for the door.

Techno started to rise and follow. "We'll come with." he said.

But to his surprise, Crimson stopped him. "No wait, we should stay here." she said. "Something doesn't at all add up about this. It might be a trap."

"If it is, we can handle it." Darkwing said confidently, pausing with Launchpad at the door. "'Let's get dangerous,' I say."

"Still," Crimson persisted, "maybe some of us should stay here, just in case. Besides, our help might still be needed here."

Darkwing hesitated for a moment, but then grinned. "That's my girl." he said. "But you'll see. We'll come back in one piece. Always have, always will."

And with that, the two left, leaving the rest of them here. Hooter had picked up his phone and was calling anybody else he thought might help get to the bottom of this matter. Techno looked oddly at Crimson as she dejectedly lowered herself into a chair.

"I've never heard of you passing up the chance to get into the action before." he remarked.

"I know, shocking." Crimson remarked flatly. "But I still stand by what I said."

"You really think that they could be heading into trouble?"

"I don't know, but something about all of this just doesn't add up." Crimson shook her head. "Besides, I wouldn't put it past Norrin to try something."

"Nor would I." Techno agreed. "But we both know Norrin. He's tried to cause trouble for us in the past, but has never succeeded. Who's to say he will this time?"

"I _can _say that this is the closest he's ever gotten to getting his way."

"Presuming that our theories about Norrin are even correct."

"Of course."

"Crimson, Techno, since you're here, you can do me a favor and track the progress of the Thunderquack while I try and sort things out from our end." Hooter said suddenly, bringing up a computer generated map on his computer screen with a blinking dot on it that represented the Thunderquack. It had just departed, but was already well outside St. Canard's boundaries, heading for the other side of the country.

Crimson and Techno both sat down to watch the dot's progress, the screen turned so that they could see. Hooter continued making calls or requesting for certain information in the meantime. It quickly became clear that nobody had any real clue what was going on at the White House anymore, though, and the only way anybody was going to find out was if someone physically went there to check things out. Meaning that they were going to have to wait until Launchpad and Darkwing arrived in the Thunderquack. So Hooter eventually gave up on that tactic, and called for a radio link to be established with the Thunderquack, so they could all get live updates from Darkwing as they waited.

Fifteen minutes later, the Thunderquack was already halfway across the country. As it was currently traveling at it's top speed, which was pretty fast, this was not surprising. What was surprising was the fact that two more dots appeared on the far edge of the screen and started moving towards the dot in the center that was the Thunderquack.

"Darkwing, we are seeing two craft converging on your position." Hooter said, speaking into the radio.

"Yeah, we see them." came Darkwing's reply. "We're just going to ignore them."

Hooter exchanged looks with Crimson and Techno before responding. "Are you sure that's wise?" he asked.

"They can't see us, we cloaked the Thunderquack just as we were leaving St. Canard." Darkwing replied.

They watched the dots grow closer to the Thunderquack on the screen for a few moments. Techno took the radio's receiver from Hooter for a moment.

"Are you sure, Darkwing?" he asked. "Because these dots are getting closer to your position."

"Techno, you helped design and install this cloaking device, so you tell me." Darkwing retorted hotly. "_Is _the cloaking device working right?"

"It should." Techno admitted. "But that doesn't mean that they haven't found a means to see through it."

"Is that even possible?" Crimson asked, but she didn't get a response.

"Well, I've done everything short of sticking my head out the window to make sure this plane is properly cloaked." Darkwing said. "So I still say we're good."

"Dad, I don't like the looks of these dots, they're nearly on top of you now." Crimson said into the radio's receiver.

"What kind of craft are they, anyway?" Techno asked. "Is the Thunderquack's sensor's reading them?"

"Uh, yes, yes they are." Darkwing reported.

"And? What does it say they are?"

"Well...actually...it doesn't. It acknowledges that they are there and that they are aircraft, but it can't discern a certain kind of model. It reasons that there might be too much interference."

"Either that or the onboard computer can't find a match to it in it's records." Techno sighed. "Darkwing, I would advise that you don't treat these craft with such an uncaring manner."

"So noted, Techno, but I really think we don't have anything to worry about."

"Then why are these crafts about ready to overtake you?" Hooter asked, grabbing the receiver from Techno.

"Well, we'll let them fly by, and get a good look at them, and then we'll see." Darkwing stated. "Really, if these craft were going to cause harm, you'd think they would've done it by now."

"Then they'll overtake you in just a matter of seconds." Techno said, watching the dots come so close to the dot that was the Thunderquack that they were overlapping.

There was a long moment of silence as they awaited the outcome of Darkwing's choice. In the meantime, the dots passed the dot representing the Thunderquack without event, pulling ahead of it, and beginning to branch out a little, putting distance between each other. Then, suddenly, Darkwing started speaking again in surprise.

"What?" he exclaimed. "Jumpers?"

"Jumpers?" Techno and Crimson repeated together, also surprised.

"From Avalon? _Here_?" Hooter exclaimed, surprised. "But why?"

Before he could get an answer, both Darkwing and Launchpad started talking together at once, both clearly panicked.

"DW, they're coming about..."

"They aren't–they aren't going to fire, are they...?"

"They are!"

"Evasive action! Drop the cloak and return–"

There was a sudden burst of static, and then the line just simply went dead; completely silent. Hooter, Crimson, and Techno fell silent for a short moment, too stunned to do anything.

"Darkwing?" Hooter finally said softly into the radio, his expression clearly thinking there was little point now. "Are you there?"

On the screen, the dot that represented the Thunderquack suddenly vanished. It was replaced briefly with a little message that stated the signal was lost, then that vanished too. The two dots that were now known to represent Avalon jumpers broke off and traveled off the side of the screen and out of sight. Another moment of silence fell as the three watched these all happen, growing even more shocked.

Techno gulped. "They shot down the Thunderquack." he realized.

"Keen gear." Crimson murmured softly.

"Norrin." Hooter realized. "He's used his ties with The Agency to use things like the jumpers against us, to overpower us. It's a coup d'état."

No sooner were these words out of his mouth did the door to the office open, and Agent Grant entered.

"Director Hooter, I have a very important matter I need to talk to you about." he said as he marched right up to the desk.

"I have an even more important matter to worry about at the moment, Agent Grant." Hooter said, rising from his chair. "I need you to rally together some agents. Darkwing's been shot down, and I have no clue if he'll even still be alive. Worse still, I have reason to believe that Vice President Norrin is staging a conspiracy to try and seize control of the government! I want a full regiment of SHUSH agents ready to leave immediately, to try and stop Norrin, now! So let's–"

He promptly fell silent when, without warning, Grant suddenly drew his sidearm and pointed it right at Hooter, who froze in shock. Crimson gasped, and both she and Techno started backing up, Techno discreetly preparing himself to flee if need be. Hooter stared at the barrel of the weapon for a long moment, before comprehension donned on him.

"You're working with Norrin." he stated bluntly.

"From the very beginning." Grant replied flatly.

"But I don't understand, I _handpicked _you as Grizzlikof's replacement to _avoid _this very situation!"

"On _Norrin's _authorization. Did you really think he would've approved of my posting here if he didn't have me under his control?"

Hooter looked crestfallen. "I've been tricked." he mumbled in realization.

"It doesn't have to end this way, Director." Grant assured him, lowering his aim slightly. "You have always struck me as a very sensible person, one to respect under the right circumstances. I don't want to have to take action against you. So please, do the sensible thing, and simply turn yourself over peaceably? Maybe, with time, we can work out an agreement where you can..."

"Do what?" Hooter asked. "Swear loyalty over to a dictator wannabe who's willing to _kill _to get what he wants?"

"Norrin shall and will bring about change, _good _change, for everyone." Grant stated confidently.

"Norrin is nothing but a power hungry, son of a..." Crimson suddenly snapped, moving forward as if to attack Grant, but Techno wisely held her back.

"That's enough." Grant said warningly, turning to point his weapon at Crimson now.

Alarmed, Crimson calmed herself, and Techno moved in front of her defensively, thumbing the control that readied his rocket boots.

"Wait." Hooter said, drawing Grant's attention and aim back to the director. "Leave them alone. They're just children. And anyway, does this really involve them?"

"Last I checked, director, they were both old enough now to be considered adults, and this whole situation _spirals _around them." Grant replied coldly. "As long as they are allowed to roam free, they are a threat."

"A threat to Norrin." Hooter clarified, folding his arms angrily. "Who is the true threat in this whole situation."

"Like I said, director, it doesn't have to be like that." Grant said. "For all three of you. You can all walk away from this like it never happened, provided you do one thing."

Hooter stood his ground, however. "No." he said bluntly.

Grant sighed. "Very well." he replied.

And without warning, he fired his gun. The bullet struck Hooter in the upper chest, and he toppled over to the floor. Crimson let out a yelp of surprise and panic as Techno twisted around and grabbed her around the middle. Grant whirled around and went to fire again at the pair, but Techno quickly activated his rocket boots. With a blast of fire, and having hardly a chance to react, the boots hurled both Techno and Crimson right into one of the office's windows, shattering the glass.

Shooting through, Techno's head spun from the impact, and flinched as the shards of glass cut into both him and Crimson as they shot outside. Fortunately, his suit protected from most of the damage, and Crimson was more sheltered, thanks to the fact that it was Techno who was holding onto her.

But they weren't out of harms way just yet. They hadn't gotten much further than a foot outside before Grant started shooting at them. The first bullet missed completely, bu the bang of the firearm alerted the two heroes that they were in danger. Techno was beginning to turn out of the line of fire when a bullet grazed along the side of his arm, making him gasp at the pain. A third shot rang out, and Techno heard Crimson yelp, suggesting that the bullet had hit her, although he certainly hoped not.

Grant fired a fourth shot, but by that point, Techno had turned broadside with the SHUSH building and was out of Grant's line of fire, quickly speeding away. All that more anxious to get away, and quickly, Techno hit the button that activated the turbo on his rocket boots and held it down until the fuel had run out. Once it had, and the rocker boots slowed down to their usual speed, Techno glided down to the roof of a nearby building and landed, letting go of Crimson. She let herself fall to the roof with a thud, wide-eyed and panting, and Techno decided he liked that course of action and did likewise.

"Keen gear." Crimson muttered, shaking her head, wiping blood from a light cut she had received to her temple by a shard of glass with the back of her hand. "Keen gear, what a nightmare."

"Are you all right?" Techno asked, breathing heavily, still feeling adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Crimson looked herself over quickly. "Yeah." she replied. "Yeah, I think I am. Just a few cuts. One of Grant's shots grazed my leg, but the cut doesn't look too deep. Nothing worse than that." she paused for a moment. "How about you?"

"Head hurts." Techno replied, rubbing at his forehead. "Got cut up a little bit myself, too, but that's about it."

"Keen gear." Crimson repeated for a third time, curling into a ball. "I can't believe this is happening."

"It's not our fault." Techno assured her, like that really made a difference. He paused. "At least we _escaped._"

"For now." Crimson said with a snort. "And for what price? For all we know, Hooter could be dead."

"There's a chance he might have survived." Techno reasoned. "I...I don't know that for sure, though, I understandably didn't take the time to check."

"Then there's dad." Crimson went on, shaking her head, tears moistening her eyes. "Keen gear, I shouldn't have let him go and get himself caught in that stupid trap."

"You don't know that he's dead either." Techno stated. "All we know is that the Thunderquack was attacked and it's position was no longer being transmitted. Most likely, the plane was shot down, and crashed. And we both know both Launchpad and Darkwing had survived their fair share of crashes."

"They're still out _there, _potentially injured and incapable of helping, if not worse, and aren't _here_, where they can help us." Crimson said bitterly. "And I let them go."

"We _all _let them go." Techno said, getting up weakly. "But we can't change that now. Look, Norrin's still out there, getting what he wants. It'll have to be up to us to stop him."

"Right." Crimson said, wiping her eyes and getting up. "They'll be after us, though."

"I know." Techno said. "But we can slow them down by changing out of our costumes, and back into our usual day outfits. We won't stand out so much that way."

"Until we make our move. What then? What about our secret identities?"

"Right now, stopping Norrin is going to be more important than that." Techno motioning to the doorway that led off the roof. "Now c'mon. We need to hurry figure out what's happening now, so we can stop Norrin."

* * *

They found someplace private to change into back into their civilian outfits (although Gosalyn kept her gas gun concealed and handy should it be needed), then, that done, walked back out into the streets of St. Canard trying to act like nothing that had happened. Which was hard, given everything that _had _happened. Furthermore, they still bore their injuries from their escape from SHUSH, and as a result, drew the occasional odd glance from passerbys, but nobody took much note of them beyond that. To everyone they passed, they were simply a pair of teenagers walking down the street, like everyone else there, it seemed.

The sun was beginning to set, and St. Canard, as a result, was beginning to wind down for the night. Less and less people were on the streets, but as Gosalyn and Honker knew, there would always be a few stragglers, and most of them would be youth like them, so they still wouldn't stand out. The SCPD's nightly patrols began, but they didn't seem to pay any attention to the two, telling them that at least the police hadn't been enrolled in the search for them yet. They hadn't seen any sign of SHUSH or it's affiliates either, but that didn't mean that they couldn't swoop down on them at any second.

"So, what's the plan?" Gosalyn asked finally, the moment they could talk safely without danger of being overheard.

"The plan is to head to the nearest TV store and hope one of their display TVs is displaying a news report." Honker replied as he led the way. "That should at least give us a few clues as to how far Norrin's gotten with his plans."

It wasn't too much longer after that they arrived at a small store called "Gilbert's Used TVs" and in it's front window displayed many small TVs all stacked on each other, and all displaying the same thing. Their luck held when they saw that the TVs were displaying the news, currently showing two reporters discussing some event. Then their luck ran out Gosalyn read the news ticker on the bottom of the screen, and the headline that currently sat directly above it.

"Honker." she said, pointing at it.

Honker turned to read it, and paled. It said:

"_Breaking News:"_

"**US President George Ravenspell Assassinated!**"

"Vice President Jonas Norrin Takes Over!"

"Oh, that's not good." Honker remarked.

"We're too late, aren't we?" Gosalyn asked.

"To save the president?" Honker asked. "Yes. To stop Norrin...well, I'm certainly not going to give up just yet."

They continued to read the news ticker as it scrolled past for more details. The reporters on the screen were no doubt discussing about the details of the assassination, but because the TVs were behind a glass window, they couldn't hear the report. At one point, a recording of Norrin giving a speech and addressing the nation about the matter appeared on the screen. Norrin played his part well, and didn't look the least bit guilty. In fact, the usually neutral-expressioned Norrin looked distraught. He even looked reluctant that he was going to have to become president now, but both Honker and Gosalyn knew better than to believe it.

It was clear they were the only ones, though.

"They're buying Norrin's story, hook, line, and sinker, when it's really _him _who's behind it all." Gosalyn muttered in clear frustration.

"Nobody has the evidence to believe otherwise, so it's going to be up to us to provide that evidence." Honker explained, scanning the news ticker for any useful information for their cause.

Gosalyn was silent for a moment. "Honker, what if we've got this all wrong, and Norrin's actually innocent?" she asked. "Theoretically speaking, of course, I don't believe that for a second. But assuming for a moment that it _is_...."

"Agent Grant confirmed Norrin's involvement in Hooter's office, remember?" Honker stated. "And we already had plenty of clues beforehand that Norrin was planning _something_. And he knows we're onto him, otherwise, why would he be sending his followers after us?"

"True." Gosalyn said, looking relieved. "Speaking of which, him doing that is certainly going to draw unwanted attention to himself."

"Unfortunately, he's thought of that." Honker said, and pointed at the new text that was scrolling along the bottom of the TV screens. "You have to give him credit for being creative."

Gosalyn glanced at the text, reading it. "'Officials have now confirmed assassins as vigilante Darkwing Duck and his affiliates.'" she read aloud. "'While withholding many details about the matter at this time, officials do say that two affiliates under the aliases of the Crimson Avenger and Techno are still at large.'" she turned to Honker in dismay. "Great!" she said angrily. "Now we're being pinned for a crime we didn't commit! There goes _all _of our support from the public!"

"We need to get to Norrin and stop him, the sooner, the better." Honker muttered, narrowing his eyes.

"And how are we going to do that?" Gosalyn asked. "Norrin's in _Washington_ _DC_. That's on the other of the country from where we are! How the heck are we supposed to get over there?"

Honker thought about the matter for a matter. "Well, with the Thunderquack shot down, we are pretty much stuck." he admitted. "We can't go back home or back to the tower, as the government officials all know where those are, or at least where to look to find out. It'd take too long to drive there, so flying is pretty much our only option. Hmm, there must be _something _we can do."

He started pacing, while Gosalyn leaned on the window and watched him. "Too bad we can't just start telling the officials that we're really innocent and Norrin's really the one they want." she remarked semi-sarcastically.

Honker stopped suddenly, and turned to look at her. "Maybe we can." he said mysteriously.

* * *

A brief while later, after the sun had set and darkness had befallen the city, the two found themselves standing in some bushes that ran along the edge of the parking lot of the St. Canard High School. Gosalyn peered at the now-dark school building leerily.

"Are you sure about this, Honker?" she asked. "Wouldn't this seem like an _obvious _place for us to go?"

"Maybe so, but it's the last chance we've got." Honker replied from beside her. "Look, the computer Jax was using in secret is probably still in there, exactly where we had left it. On it still is all the information one would need to incriminate Norrin. We can use that against Norrin."

"If anybody will even look at it." Gosalyn muttered skeptically.

"I think some of them will." Honker stated. "Remember that the president had commented that the Secret Service had been investigating Norrin for conspiracy against the nation? That alone tells me that there are probably several people over on Capital Hill who are thinking Norrin's up to something. They only need the evidence, like us. Using Jax's computer, we can send _all _of that information to the right people, like, say, the SS. Once they get it and read it, that might just be enough to get the ball rolling to get Norrin's intents severely questioned, and possibly begin to clear our names, at least enough for the officials to actually _listen _to us."

"There are a lot of "ifs" in that statement, Honk." Gosalyn said, still skeptical.

"Look, what else can we do, besides surrender ourselves and turn ourselves in?" Honker asked.

Gosalyn thought about it for a moment. "We could always run away to Canada." she said.

Honker gave her a look. "You don't really mean that."

"No, I don't, but your way might just be as good as turning ourselves in. I'm surprised that there isn't a blockade of police cars sitting there waiting for us. Honk, all I'm saying is that there has to be a better way."

"But there _isn't_." Honker said. "Trust me, I've thought about it. This is the best chance we've got. So c'mon."

He started towards the school. Gosalyn sighed, and reluctantly followed. They hurried across the dark parking lot to the side of the school building. Pressing themselves up against the wall, they leaned forward and peered around the edge of the wall to look at the doors. The room beyond was clearly dark.

"Here's hoping." Gosalyn muttered, nudging Honker forward.

Honker nodded, and went to the door, trying the latch. As it was well after hours for the school, he expected it to be locked, but to his surprise, it wasn't, and he was able to open it up a notch instantly. Right about then, he started to realize that something wasn't right about this, but by then, it was too late. Someone on the other side of the door pushed the door open fully.

And there stood Detective Matthew, weapon drawn.

"Well, good evening, you two." he remarked, as the two backed up away from the weapon. "Bit late for you two to be out, don't you think?"

He then stepped out the door, and allowed others to step out with him. Accompanying him was Officer Frank, Agent Grant, and Jax, all of them armed and ready to fire should the need arise. They quickly surrounded the two teens.

"Figured you were going to try and come here sooner or later." Agent Grant explained simply.

"Actually, it was me that put forward the idea, once Grant here let me out of my cell." Jax added happily.

"They both then came to the SCPD and requisitioned help." Detective Matthew stated, motioning to himself and Frank. He shook his head. "To be honest, I never thought it would come to this. I would've thought that you two would've had more sense than that."

Honker looked back and forth at the people surrounding him, then finally lowered his head in defeat, feeling his heart fall. "Neither did I." he admitted. He shook his head too. "Gos, I'm sorry, I've led you into a trap, haven't I? You were right."

"So I was." Gosalyn replied beside him. She didn't seem too worried, but it was probably an act. Honker didn't look up at her to make eye contact to confirm this, though, being too ashamed at the moment.

"Well, at least we tried." Honker went on mournfully. "I guess it all ends here, though."

"I suppose." Gosalyn replied. "For you, at least."

Honker blinked, then finally looked up at his friend only to see Gosalyn had drawn her gas gun, and now joined the group encircling him, pointing her weapon at him and grinning victoriously.

Honker blinked again. "Gos?" he asked in surprise.

"Sorry Honk, but they made a _very _compelling offer." Gosalyn explained simply. "Just simply couldn't pass it up."

"So you're with _them_?" Honker exclaimed, pointing at the others.

"Indeed she is." Grant remarked with a grin. "And she's been a huge help, too, working as a double agent."

"But..." Honker began, trying to make sense of this sudden turn of events.

"Hey, it shouldn't come as any surprise, Honker." Gosalyn said, still grinning. "If NegaGos could swap sides, why can't I?"

Honker merely stared at her for several seconds. "No, this can't be happening." he murmured, shaking his head slowly.

"Oh, but it is, Honker." Gosalyn said. "You just never expected this to happen."

"You're right, I didn't expect this to happen." Honker said, eyes narrowing slightly. "Because it _isn't _happening. _None _of this is really happening, is it?"

Gosalyn gave him a look. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Oh, don't you give me that, you've lost _all _of your credibility." Honker said. "You blew it. I'm on to you now. You aren't going to fool me anymore."

"Now you're just in a state of denial."

"No, I'm not, and you know darn well that I'm not. I should've seen this sooner." Now Honker was grinning victoriously. "That dream I had this morning? That wasn't really a dream, was it? That was real memory of a real event, wasn't it?"

"Honker, quit trying to reason what's simply not true." Gosalyn said, narrowing her eyes.

"Oh, cut the act already." Honker snapped. "Because I'm on to you...Nanite."

There was a long silence. Then, suddenly, Gosalyn's eyes started to glow blood red, and her image melted away to form the now all-too familiar robotic form of Nanite.

"Took you long enough." he muttered, glaring at Honker.

"Well, I have to give you some credit for that much, Nanite." Honker admitted contemptuously. "The illusion really _is _quite foolproof, and you kept me adequately busy enough to keep my attention focused on other things, and away from figuring out the fact that this whole day has been nothing more than a mere illusion. Although, I should've realized the truth the moment I found out that Jax was a spy. Little too farfetched in my opinion, but that's in the past now." he glared back at Nanite for a moment. "You know, you could've kept me fooled for far longer if you hadn't gotten cocky and started throwing in more and more farfetched things that eventually clued me in."

"Ah, but I _wanted _you to find out eventually." Nanite said. "I just didn't want to make it _too _easy."

"Well, you succeeded." Honker said flatly, folding his arms. "I just don't understand what you hoped to gain from all of this."

"From your standpoint, that's probably true." Nanite admitted with a shrug. "Well, this was mostly done in self-defense, you know. I had to do _something _to keep you from interfacing that device of yours with my control nanite and shutting it down."

"So you interfaced with _me _instead." Honker guessed.

"You know my abilities, Honker, you know that I can use my worker nanites to literally probe the minds of others."

"That's what you're doing with me, now."

"Again, I originally did it in self-defense, and used your own subconscious to create this little mental world to keep your mind busy while I worked out a plan. That's when I saw that you have a whole treasure trove of information in your mind that I would have a lot of use for. Information that I simply _had _to have."

Honker's grin faded. "So that's what this is about." he muttered. "You've been teaching yourself everything I know."

"Science, math, personal life, everything." Nanite confirmed. Grinning, he tapped the side of his metallic head. "And it's all been copied into here."

"Then, why maintain the ruse?"

"Again, to keep you busy. If you were aware of what I was doing, you would've resisted, and merely caused problems for us both. Unfortunately, you haven't been giving yourself enough credit when you said you didn't figure things out soon enough. You actually sensed right away that was something was wrong, and probably would've put two with two if I had allowed you to continue the illusion the way I had originally planned, with just another, ordinary, day. So I decided I needed to work to keep you distracted more."

"By creating this whole situation with Norrin being a traitor."

"Clever, isn't it? It's like something from out of a book. Maybe I should consider writing one in my spare time..."

"Now, wait." Honker interrupted. "You said that you _wanted _me to figure out the truth eventually. Why? What aren't you telling me?"

"Well, it's simple, really." Nanite replied. "When I was done with you, and simply severed the connection, no matter how I would've done it would've caused you to still have memory of this event, which would've caused problems for me in the end. So I planned to in some way remedy that."

"Do I dare ask what?"

"See, I had all that information, but I couldn't let everyone else know, and I certainly couldn't let you know. So, at the end, I was going to completely wipe your memory, and plant one of my own creation. And the upside to that is that I could possibly get you to be a bit more...lenient...for me to have my way."

Honker frowned, but did not comment on that. "That doesn't explain why you wanted me to figure this out." he pointed out.

"It would've been more fun that way." Nanite remarked cooly. "Letting you know who it was that had outsmarted you, you know?"

"You haven't beaten me yet."

"Haven't I? I've got you completely surrounded, Honker, and you _still _can't escape my illusion. And if you 'die' in this illusion, your mind pretty much goes with it."

"There must still be a way to escape."

"Oh, and there is, but you'll never get to it now. In fact, it's actually closer than you think, isn't that ironic?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you _were _wondering why Gosalyn, back when you thought she was the genuine article, wouldn't let you go with Dipwing and his sidekick to fly to Washington DC in the Thunderquack. That alone should tell you everything. You see, Honker, this illusion is only so big, only as big as your subconscious can handle it at any given moment. It _looks _like it stretches to all four corners of the globe, but it actually ends just beyond the city's borders. If you were to 'leave' St. Canard, you'd be leaving the illusion all together." Nanite grinned as he watched Honker process that for a moment. "But like I said, there's no way you could get that far now, you're completely at my mercy."

He snapped his fingers, and Detective Matthew and Jax, who, in addition to Officer Frank and Agent Grant, had become unnaturally still during this conversation, suddenly moved forward and grabbed Honker's arm, restraining him. Honker struggled for a moment, but to no avail. He shot Nanite a glare.

"Maybe I can't escape on my own, Nanite, but my friends have certainly realized that something's gone wrong by now and do something to stop you." he spat.

"You know, you're right." Nanite said, still grinning. "They _have _realized that something's not right, but they haven't gotten to do anything about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Time's a funny thing, Honker. While it seems like a whole day's worth of time has passed since you entered this illusion, only a little more than a minute has actually passed in the real world. Your friends haven't had much of a chance to do anything to save you."

Honker blinked in surprise. "Only a minute?" he repeated, struggling against his captors distractedly. "That's impossible!"

"Not when you're interfaced to an insanely fast robot supercomputer brain." Nanite remarked, tapping the side of his head. "But in a few moments, it won't matter anymore, because you won't even remember this little conversation. And even if your friends _did _have the chance to stop me, they still couldn't, at least not safely. Only you or I can end this little escapade safely. If someone on the outside were to forcibly interfere, it would cause harm for one of us, if not both of us. It would more likely harm you, though." he raised one hand, and a needle popped out of his index finger. He pointed it at Honker. "So anyway, on to business."

Honker struggled against the people restraining him anxiously as Nanite approached with the 'needle' that would presumably wipe his memory of this entire incident. But his captors had become unnaturally strong. Nanite had apparently altered the illusion so that they had more strength than would be normal. Meaning that Nanite could manipulate the illusion at will to whatever suited him.

But this was taking place in _Honker's _subconscious. So, if Nanite could have control over the illusion...

Honker suddenly grinned in victory and faced Nanite right on, who paused, perhaps sensing Honker was onto something.

"You made a huge miscalculation, Nanite." Honker told the robot.

Suddenly, his arms that were being restrained passed right through the hands of his captors, freeing them. Nanite quickly moved forward to plunge the needle into Honker, but Honker slapped Nanite's hand away easily. He was still grinning.

"By telling me everything, Nanite, you've unwittingly given me the ability to manipulate this illusion." Honker explained.

And with that, he turned and ran, pushing aside Agent Grant and Officer Frank in the process with his own superhuman strength, enough to launch both into the air. Honker didn't stick around to see them land again, and quickly ran back across the high school parking lot and onto the street that ran past it.

"After him!" Nanite roared urgently, pointing at Honker's fleeing form. "Don't let him escape.

Honker simply kept running, though, make his escape by heading for St. Canard's western border. It was the longest route to take to escape, but it was also the most direct as it went straight west, and didn't weave in and out like other routes, and that's all Honker cared about for the moment. He needed to escape this illusion, and quickly, and the most direct route, no matter how long, would be the speediest for him, as he would always know where he was going.

He knew that Nanite wasn't about to just let him get away, though, and after having gotten two whole blocks away from the high school, he was proven right when a whole squadron of SCPD cars rounded the corner at the eastern end of the street and started speeding towards him at high speeds, rapidly gaining on their foe, who was simply running on foot. Honker saw that there was no way he could out run these guys, so he thought for a moment, and quickly came up with a plan of action. Putting on a burst of speed, he suddenly jumped up...

...and was suddenly riding on the Ratcatcher, speeding on down the street, outracing the pursuing police cars. For added safety, Honker altered the illusion so that the Ratcatcher could travel at the fastest speed possible for a road vehicle, leaving the police cars well behind him. Honker let out a laugh as he drove the bike through the city streets of St. Canard, already about halfway to his destination and with nothing standing in his way.

Then the gunshots started ringing out, and bullets started zinging past him. Honker twisted around to look back at the police cars still chasing after him, and saw that the cops in the cars were trying to shoot him down, and illusion or not, the results could be grave if Honker was hit. Outrunning the cars wasn't going to be good enough.

Fortunately, Honker quickly had a solution. Once he had sped through the next intersection, Honker again manipulated the illusion and caused a wall to spring up in the intersection behind him, effectively trapping the police cars on the other side and cutting him off. Honker let out another laugh, this one of relief, and sped on.

But Nanite still wasn't going to give up so easily. Without warning, a fighter jet suddenly sped over the street Honker was on, going from east to west, roaring with a sonic boom. Honker peered up at it, watching the jet fly off, wondering what that was about. He quickly got his answer when a missile suddenly whistled down from the air and struck the ground near him in a fiery explosion.

Yelping, Honker jerked the Ratcatcher out of the way of the blast, only to have another missile hit the ground dead ahead of him, and a third narrowly missing him from behind him. Honker started dodging the missiles as they rained down on him as best as he could, and for added comfort, manipulated the illusion to create a protective energy shield around him and the Ratcatcher, impenetrable to all of the debris and shockwaves the missile impacts were producing.

After about the fifth missile, though, it stopped. Honker realized that the fighter jet had fired its entire payload of missiles in one go, hence why it had flown off and not stuck around to watch. Honker was gearing up for another jet to appear, though, as he knew Nanite would still try and stop him. But what _did _come was even more powerful than a fighter jet. Materializing out of thin air as their cloaks switched off, two jumpers swooped down on the street Honker was racing through, hovered over him as if examining their prey, then shot forward for a moment, before coming back around, firing the two energy cannons both craft carried repeatedly at Honker.

Honker yelped, and instinctively ducked as the shots impacted the ground all around him, riddling the street with small, pothole-like craters. And while the Ratcatcher was more or less protected by the energy shield Honker had created, being jostled around as it drove over those little craters proved the motorbike was still vulnerable, especially with it's tires.

Honker thought for a spilt second if there was anyway he could protect the tires too, but was distracted again as the jumpers, having flown back over him again, came back around for another pass the same time as Honker drove onto the Audubon Bay Bridge, their energy cannons dialed up. The maelstrom of weapons fire they unleashed this time was much more potent and destructive, and tore the bridge apart as Honker drove over it.

Suddenly, the bridge dropped out from under Honker and the Ratcatcher as it suddenly started to collapse, threatening to drag both down to the bay below with it. Honker thought fast, and manipulated the illusion again to give the Ratcatcher a temporary rocket booster that launched it across the remaining distance it had to cover and onto solid ground again, narrowing missing getting crushed by one of the bridge's falling towers.

Now Honker was speeding through the city's suburbs, the edge of the city now within sight at the other end of the many streets of houses. The two jumpers tailing him continued firing at him, blowing up the street around him, and occasionally taking out whole houses, but to no avail. Finally, as the suburbs started to thin out into barren plains, the two jumpers finally broke off and flew away. Hoping that meant Nanite was giving up, Honker pressed on.

Then, literally only a hundred or more feet away from the city's border, the Ratcatcher suddenly sped over a set of road spikes that had appeared out of nowhere, and popped all three of the motorbike's tires. It wobbled dangerously for a moment while Honker fought to gain control before the bike finally flipped over onto it's side, launching Honker off of it and roughly onto the road. At the same time, his protective shield suddenly winked out of existence. Dazed, Honker started to pick himself, and found that Nanite was standing before him now, grinning.

"Very good, Honker Muddlefoot!" the robot praised. "You're really giving me a run for my money here, but do you _really _think you can still win?"

"Yes I can, because I'm not done yet!" Honker said back, racing towards the border on foot again.

Nanite moved to block his path, but Honker merely jumped through him like the robot was nothing more than a ghost, and continued on. Nanite spun around to watch Honker continue for the border, and frowned, having one last trick up his sleeve.

"Drop the nuke!" he exclaimed.

"_Nuke?_" Honker exclaimed in alarm and redoubled his pace, hurrying towards the border, only about fifty feet away from crossing it now.

A distant whistling noise rang out from behind Honker. Risking a glance behind him, he saw a faint object falling down into the city, just in front of Canard Tower. Realizing that was the nuke, and that it would quite likely wipe out the whole city, Honker hurried onward, only about twenty-five feet from the border now. It was marked with a green highway sign that read "You are now leaving Saint Canard".

He knew the nuclear bomb had gone off when a suddenly flash of bright light filled Honker's vision, bright enough to nearly blind him even though he wasn't even looking towards the blast, quickly followed by a deafening bang that quickly numbed his ears. After having crossing the ten foot mark from the border, the ground suddenly fell out of Honker's feet as he felt a wave of heat surging towards him.

Making a mad lunge for his destination, Honker squeezed his eyes shut as he soared over the remaining distance towards the border, the shockwave from the nuke slamming into him from behind like a planet had crashed into him at high speeds...

* * *

"Techno, get out of there!"

Techno's eyes suddenly snapped open, and as dazed as his mind felt at the moment, he was instantly aware of several things. One, he was inside a cell at the St. Canard Supervillain prison. Two, Darkwing, Crimson, Launchpad, and Detective Matthew were all shouting at him urgently from the other side of the cell's protective forcefield. And three, he was staring right into the face of Nanite, the robot's red eyes aglow as he gripped Techno's wrist tightly.

Realizing with a start he had managed to escape the illusion, Techno released the cord to his interfacing device and used his free hand to grab at Nanite's hand and wrench it off his wrist, a task made easier as Nanite was still snapping out of the dazed state he had gotten into when he linked himself with Techno's mind.

It didn't last, though, for Nanite quickly lunged at Techno to try and tackle him. Techno quickly dodged the attack and slipped to the back end of the cell and whirled around. Nanite slammed into the cart the interfacing device Techno had worked so hard to build and knocked it over, smashing the device. Nanite was up in a heartbeat and was chasing after Techno again.

Techno was already making a made dash for the forcefield that separated him from safety, though, and held the lead.

"Forcefield scrambler!" he exclaimed, calling for the device he had used to slip through the field and get in the cell in the first place.

Crimson, who held the still-active device, tossed it to Techno like she was throwing a fastball. The device, immune to the forcefield, whizzed right through the field and landed safely in Techno's hand as he grabbed it. With a dive, Techno through himself at the field, consciously aware that Nanite was just inches behind him. Techno sailed right through the field like it wasn't even there, feeling nothing but a slight tickling sensation. Nanite, going to slow to grab and stop Techno, hurried onward and slammed right into the field. Not being immune to it, it was like he had ran right into wall, and bounced back, shocked violently and stunned for a second.

Techno hit the floor hard, and skidded to the hallway's opposite wall. He hadn't even stopped before everyone was helping him back up to his feet.

"Techno, are you all right?" Darkwing asked worriedly as he helped Techno back up. "What happened?"

Right about then, everything Techno remembered happening while caught in the mental illusion Nanite had created hit him like a ton of bricks, and Techno felt the color drain out of his face from both the shock of it and the weariness of the mental effort it took him to break free.

"He knows!" Techno exclaimed in reference to Nanite, watching as the robot picked himself up, suffering no ill effects from the escapade. "He knows everything!"

"Knows what?" Launchpad asked, puzzled.

"Everything I know!" Techno explained further, which shocked everyone else. "Knowledge, secret codes, secret identities, everything!" he stared at Nanite for a long moment, who stared back, looking inwardly pleased with himself. "If he every gets out of that cell...we're as good as dead."

The others stared at him for a moment, then twisted around to stare back at Nanite, who was now grinning. Knowing that he finally had a serious advantage over his foes, Nanite knew he had gotten out of this matter victorious, even though his foes knew what he had done, his prey having escaped, and him still being trapped in this cell, but he had _succeeded_.

Within moments, Nanite's wicked laughter filled the corridor, as he laughed in excitement at his victory and his foes watched on in fear of what would happen if and when Nanite ever escaped his prison...

* * *

_Fun Facts: The plot for this chapter was inspired from an episode of **"Stargate Atlantis" **entitled "Doppelganger". The episode was about an energy-based alien that was jumping from person to person, giving each person really bad nightmares everytime they went to sleep. If the nightmares were intense enough, the shock would kill the victim. The inspiration comes from the latter part of the episode where, while trying to defeat the alien, the alien kills off a major character. The episode advances off of that point for a few minutes, before it is suddenly revealed that the one character's death hadn't happened. It was merely a dream sparked by the alien who was now in a different person. I liked the idea of that little twist immensely that I wanted to do it myself, but expand the idea to the point that the whole chapter was the sole focus of that, where a series of worse-case scenarios were occuring, getting progressively worse and worse, until it was finally revealed that it was all a mere illusion, and it hadn't happened. Hence this chapter, "Interfaced." Hopefully, I pulled off the effect I was looking for._

_In fear that the summary might give away more about the chapter than I wanted, I had heavily considered not providing one for this chapter (instead, I would've put something silly, like "I'm not telling! Nyah-nyah!"). Eventually I decided that I **could**__ provide a summary that wouldn't ruin the plot, and decided to opt for that instead._

_Herb's request for pancakes at the beginning of the chapter is a more-than-subtle reference to a scene from the webcomic "Lackadaisy." One of those moments where I just couldn't resist. :p_

_Seeing that Gos and Honk are seniors at the moment, and that their graduation from high school would be rapidly approaching in the NADWD timeline, I decided it was time I started getting them to think about their immediate future afterwards in this chapter. Revealed that Gos isn't entirely sure where to go after high school. Honker I would think would be obvious what he would want to do with life._

_Right from the beginning of the chapter, I begin dropping hints about this chapter's **true **plot, the biggest probably being Honker's references to his "dream" about Nanite. I like to think I set these hints up in such a manner though, that they'll go mostly overlooked by the reader, not realizing that they're clues to the chapter's true nature._

_Honker's interfacing device that he creates to "link" with Nanite in an attempt to shut down Nanite's control nanite, and Nanite's ability to prob the minds of others he has contact with, are both references to chpt. 62, "Vengeance", when the ideas of both were first introduced. If it wasn't due to the nature of the chapter, I would've included a chpt recap explaining this, but it would've been risking revealing too much._

_The real challenge of writing this chapter was creating a storyplot that was wild and unexpected, but wouldn't be too unbelieveable and far-fetched. I had debated a few ideas that I could use, but eventually opted for this one involving Norrin trying to take control of the nation, as that seemed to be the most feasible (seeing that I've on occasion wondered if Norrin is trying to do just that from time to time)._

_Making Jax a spy is pushing things a bit (hence why Honker later remarks he should've seen through the illusion right then and not later), but I wanted to surprise readers nonetheless, and Jax seemed like an unlikely character for the part. Exactly what I was looking for. :)_

_Gos's comments on the door Jax slipped through, and the statement that Gos had been in the room beyond are references to chpt. 44, "Revelations"._

_The president in NADWD has long been referred to, but little beyond the fact that he's president and is friendly to Hooter had been known. This chapter changes that by revealing a bit more of his personality, his appearance and speices, and his name. Originally, I only intended to reveal his first name (George) but later added his last name for conveince's sake (Ravenspell). His last name is from the name of a book series I've been following, and also happens to be the last name of one of the book series star characters._

_I realized just now that I never explained how the attacking jumpers from Avalon were able to find the Thunderquack. But then again, seeing that they are alien craft containing advanced technology, I suppose there wouldn't be much need to explain. I did have a theory that the same signal that was allowing SHUSH to track the jet from back home gave the Thunderquack away, but like I said, I never impletmented it in the chapter._

_The name of the TV store Gos and Honk stop at to watch news reports was originally named "Wilbert's Used TVs" but spellcheck didn't like the name "Wilbert" and suggested "Gilbert" instead._

_There was probably a whole bunch of better things Honker could've done to escape the illusion Nanite had trapped him in, (like maybe just teleporting himself right to the border of the city) but I'll just reason that all off by saying that Honker just didn't think of that. I mean, he **was **under a lot of pressure, y'know._

_Yes, Nanite is a much bigger threat to the gang now that he was before, but don't worry. He's still safely locked in his cell not getting out anytime soon, and the SCPD are going to go to great lengths to make sure Nanite stays there, at least until some means of rendering Nanite a lesser threat than he is now is devised._

_Be sure to catch the next chapter, "The Life Not Lived", which will have it's own batch of surprises as we build towards our next fifteenth-chapter two-parter. ;)  
_


	74. The Life Not Lived

Summary: An unexpected visitor from another parallel universe has come and is seeking help in defeating a foe. Darkwing and the gang rise up to take on the task, but find out there's more to this situation than what meets the eye...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Another terribly late chapter. Sorry. But I have a few excuses. First off, I was gone from home for the better part of one week. Took my laptop with so to do writing while I was gone, but ended up not doing that much, and what little I did wasn't even fanfic related (decided that I could take a break from that, as that's usually all I write these days). Second, as you'll quickly see, this is a record-breaking, extra-_long,_ chapter that, of course, took awhile to write and complete. And then there's the fact that I get sidetracked every now and then, but that helps maintain my sanitity, and keeps me from burning myself out on this fanfic. And anyway, I think this chapter will make up for it all quite nicely...;) Fun facts at the end, as usual. :)

74.

The Life Not Lived

Gwendolyn awoke when her whole room suddenly shook as a bang rang out somewhere deep within the bowels of the fortress. Alarmed, she bolted upright in bed, and looked around in fright for a cause and explanation of the sound. Immediately after the boom, the castle was eerily silent for a few seconds, then more noise occurred as the royal guard reacted and were heard racing around in the corridors outside to investigate.

Gwendolyn, flustered and breathing heavily, was working on getting herself to calm down again and was just starting to succeed when the door to her room suddenly banged open and startled her again, and her personal guard, Raphael, stormed into the room, looked both worried, panicked, and concerned. He had a blade drawn, a small dagger, but he quickly sheathed it again as he hurried to Gwendolyn's side.

"You highness, there's danger, I need to get you to safety." Raphael explained calmly but urgently.

He urged her out of bed and to quickly dress. Once she had done so, he grabbed her hand and led her into the stone corridor outside her room.

Gwendolyn allowed herself to be led through the panicked corridors of the castle in silence for several moments, listening to the turmoil going on around her. Another bang rang out somewhere outside, and the entire castle shook, causing her to yelp. She finally couldn't keep her peace any longer.

"What's happening, what's going on?" Gwendolyn asked urgently, frightened. "Raphael, answer me!"

"It's a battle, your highness, Negarian is attacking." Raphael answered gravely, but simply, focusing more on leading his charge deeper into the castle.

Gwendolyn gasped at this revelation, and suddenly understood the cause for the chaos and the panic, and fought to keep her own panic under control.

"Where are my parents, are they safe?" Gwendolyn asked urgently, concerned for her parents.

"The king, as I understand it, went to help fight, despite us protesting." Raphael explained, ignoring another tremor that rocked the building, knocking dust from the ceiling. "I don't know where the queen is at the moment, and I fear for her safety too, but I found you first, and as your personal guard, I'm making sure you get to safety. Your parents would've wanted that much at least."

He wouldn't say much more after that, focusing on leading the princess ever deeper into the castle, seeming to know exactly where to go. They passed many people running in various directions to go help in the battle, to run for more help, or for various other tasks Gwendolyn wouldn't know much about. At one point, as they headed down a spiral staircase, a window of stained glass they had just passed suddenly exploded, spraying glass everywhere. Gwendolyn shrieked, and turned to look back at the window, but Raphael faced her forward and, pushed her onward to their mysterious location.

As they arrived at the lower floors of the castle, the tremors were be coming more frequent, knocking dust continually down on the pair as they hurried through the little-used and currently empty corridors. Stones were heard clattering behind them at one point, and Raphael drew his dagger and twisted around to face the noise, pushing the princess protectively behind him for a moment as he searched for a cause for the noise. He didn't find one, and thereby pressed on, but he was staying much more alert now than he had been before.

Eventually, they burst into the wine cellars, completely abandoned due to a combination of the unexpected battle and the late hour. Raphael released Gwendolyn's hand for the first time since he had led her out of her bed chamber, and quickly began weaving through the many shelves and barrels of aging alcohol. Gwendolyn stayed where she had been left for a few moments, looking curiously around. Then two bangs rung out in close succession from a floor above them, shaking the castle violently each time, shaking a couple bottles of fine red wine from their shelves where they shattered on the cold stone floor. Gwendolyn briefly lost her balance for a moment, but quickly regained it, and sought out Raphael as she heard the sounds of battle somewhere above her.

She eventually found her bodyguard as he was busy moving boxes from a stack one by one, unceremoniously tossing them aside, breaking whatever they contained within with glassy crashes. Another tremor struck jolting the room, causing Gwendolyn to yelp.

"Your highness!" Raphael exclaimed, turning around to face the princess, making sure that she was alright. Once he was satisfied that she was, he pulled her over to the stack of boxes. "Here, help me move these boxes."

"But..." Gwendolyn said, hesitating and not understanding what this had to do with anything, "Why?"

"Oh, never mind." Raphael said, getting a better idea instead.

He turned to face the stack of boxes from the side, and landed a kick to them, knocking the stack cleanly over with a crash. The space under them now clear, Raphael bent down and started sweeping away dust at the stone tile that sat embedded in the floor, then used his fingers to dig in at the tile's lip and pulled. The tile lifted upward like it was on a hinge, revealing a small entrance in the floor that led to a small and narrow flight of stairs. It was a secret trapdoor.

Raphael jumped through the trapdoor without hesitation, and started down the stairs. More apprehensive, but knowing she should follow, Gwendolyn lowered herself after her bodyguard more carefully, and leerily followed, wobbling as another tremor struck.

"Master Lewis, begin doing...whatever it is you need to do!" Raphael exclaimed into the dark and clutter underground room they now found themselves in.

"Got it!" another voice called out in an unfamiliar accent, as a scuffling noise rang out in the dim lighting. Gwendolyn could barely make out the form of a duck as he worked at an object the princess had never seen before. "But I should warn you, no promises if this will even work!"

"It doesn't matter, we have to try something!" Raphael exclaimed in response. "She will be safer on the other side!"

"Right!" Master Lewis exclaimed back. "Powering up systems and beginning startup procedures, entering in transdimensional coordinates."

"Trans...what?" Gwendolyn asked, puzzled.

Raphael however, ignored the question and turned her around harshly to face her. "You highness, I need you to promise that you'll do exactly what I ask of you."

"But..."

"Gwen, please."

Startled by the fact Raphael had addressed her by a popular nickname for her and not by her proper title, something he had never heard her do, Gwendolyn nodded slowly.

"In a moment, a burst of light is going to appear at that end of the room." Raphael said, pointing at the other end of the room, hidden in the blanket of darkness that clutched at most of the room. "When it does, I want you to walk quickly and confidently through it, without hesitated, do you understand?"

"Yes, but..." Gwendolyn began.

"Almost ready!" Master Lewis called out suddenly, a low whine starting to fill the dark chamber.

"When you're on the other side of the portal, there should be people there that can help you." Raphael explained further, hurrying to explain as much as he could. "Explain to them everything you know, they should know what to do from there. See if they can bring help back here. But above all else, _do what they say_. With a little luck, they'll know when to send you back through the portal."

Gwendolyn stared at him for a moment. "Portal?" she questioned.

"Now!" Master Lewis suddenly exclaimed as the whine reached it's highest point.

A flash of multicolored light suddenly winked into existence at the end of the chamber, forming a mass of swirling energy, big enough to engulf an entire person. Sparks flew around it, revealing some kind of mechanism that surrounded the swirling energy like a frame. Startled and amazed by it all, Gwendolyn started to back away from it, but Raphael took her and pushed her towards it.

"Remember what you promised me, your highness." he reminded softly. "Please, do what I ask, it's for the best."

He gently gave her another push towards the light. Gwendolyn wandered towards it slowly, pausing before it, then took a deep breath, and before she could talk herself out of it, stepped into the light.

She felt little, except for a sudden burst of acceleration like something was rapidly pulling her towards something, and a sense of disorientation. It was over just as quickly as it had began, and she stumbled out of the ball of light again, only to find she was now in a different chamber, this one much bigger and better lit. A loud blaring noise that didn't sound normal was ringing within the room, which was big enough to create a slight echo that emphasized the painful shrills. Clamping her hands over her ears, Gwendolyn looked back at the portal hoping that Raphael might appear out of it only to see the portal wink out of existence again, showing the unnaturally smooth stone wall behind it and the metal frame it had sat in.

Gwendolyn turned back around, cautiously making her way down the ramp made out of thick, metal, wire that she was standing on and looked around the room. It was filled with unfamiliar faces of unfamiliar people standing at or around massive metal objects that could be some kind of machine. A group of people in curious looking black outfits gathered quickly around the bottom of the ramp, and pointed large metal objects at her. She had never seen them before, but they way they were jabbing them at her made her think they were some kind of weapon, and she started to back away from them.

"Freeze!" one of them shouted harshly. "Put your hands in the air!"

Frightened, confused, and close to tears, Gwendolyn obeyed, and stayed like that for the next several minutes. Finally, the blaring noise and the accompanying flashing red lights stopped, and silence fell. There was another pause, then a very short and elderly owl was allowed past the people that encircled the bottom of the ramp. He approached Gwendolyn cautiously, concern showing slightly in his eyes.

"Hello, there. Don't worry, we don't want to hurt you." he greeted calmly, then turned to the people. "Stand down. You're scaring her, gentlemen."

The people holding the odd objects lowered them and backed away a pace or two. The short owl then turned back to Gwendolyn.

"Tell me," he began, "what is you name?"

The princess hesitated for a moment. "Gwendolyn." she replied softly, slowly lowering her arms finally as she started to relax some.

"I'm Director John Gander Hooter." the owl said with a comforting grin. "Welcome to SHUSH Headquarters."

* * *

"And you say this just happened without warning?" Darkwing asked, puzzled, as he followed Hooter through the hallways.

"None whatsoever." Hooter said. "We weren't expecting any kind of action today in sub-level five, for Dr. Bellum was conducting some tests on some new improvements made to the portal generator. But then, without warning, the portal flashed on, and our guest stepped through, frightened and confused. It took a great deal to get her to calm down again."

"And you say she doesn't know how she got here?" Techno asked.

"Not per say, she doesn't understand where here is and how the portal generator works, but she's made it clear she was sent here 'for her own safety'." Hooter explained. He shook his head. "The weird thing is that just before she stepped through, we received the UIO's IDC. We sent back a confirmation code back, but never got a response."

"That's weird." Launchpad remarked.

"Did our guest say why?" Crimson asked.

"I asked, but she didn't seem to understand." Hooter said. "I don't think she's even from the Negaverse, by the sounds of it."

"Then why the IDC?" Darkwing asked, puzzled.

Hooter shrugged. "I'm hoping you guys could come up with some more answers." he said. "Our guest hasn't been exactly forthcoming."

"What makes you think she'll talk to us?" Crimson asked as they arrived at the door that would lead them into the observation room of the holding room. "Is she anybody we know personally?"

"Well, she goes by a different name that what we're used to..." Hooter began to explain as he opened the door and led the way into the observation room, "...but yes, she is someone you four know rather well."

And as the group quickly saw, they did recognize her. Sitting calmly on a stool, looking around at her surroundings, not recognizing them at all, was a teenage duck, about eighteen years in age. Her long red hair was pulled into two thick braids that draped down her back, and she wore simple clothing composed of a top and a long skirt made from homespun cloth that looked medieval in style, with a thin, black, vest on top of that.

But beyond that, she looked identical to Gosalyn Mallard.

Crimson's eyebrows went up. "And you say her name was Gwendolyn?" she asked.

"That's what she said, yes." Hooter said, with a nod. "Clearly, the universe she comes from isn't very much like our own."

"That's a twist." Launchpad remarked.

"Well, Dr. Bellum and her team are still trying to determine the transdimensional coordinates to this universe, so all we know about it is what she's told us." Hooter said, motioning to Gwendolyn through the window. "Which is very little. She's too nervous."

"So, in other words, she hasn't told you much." Techno remarked, studying Gwendolyn closely.

Hooter nodded. "Just the basics of how she came here, and her name." he said. "At one point, she mentioned that she was a princess."

"Really?" Crimson asked, surprised. "Keen gear, that's interesting."

"Okay, but now what?" Darkwing asked. "Any body got any ideas of how to get her to tell us more?"

"Well, I suppose, since we know her so well, somebody should go in there and just ask her." Crimson said.

"Yeah, and I have a hunch of who it'll be." Techno remarked, looking at Crimson.

Crimson noticed and shrugged, rolling her eyes. "It figures." she said. "Suppose that would be best, though."

"I don't know." Hooter said. "Seeing herself might just be yet another hard shock, and she'll clam up even more."

"Hooter, you don't have much choice at the moment." Crimson pointed out. "Besides, I think I have an idea of how to pull this off."

* * *

Gwendolyn looked around the barren room she had been placed in. She figured it was like a jail cell or dungeon, but it wasn't like any dungeon she had ever seen. Still, she felt that she _was _safe here, and no one had harmed her yet. They were all just strange and unfamiliar to her.

She had been sitting there for a little while, alone, when the door suddenly opened, and someone entered. Gwendolyn turned to look at the newcomer and blinked. It was a female duck about her age, wearing a wide-brimmed black hat with a red hatband on it, as well as a black jacket with gold buttons with a red shirt under it with a curious collar. She also wore funny footwear and a red mask around her eyes. Like everyone else here, all of it seemed new to Gwendolyn.

Still, something seemed eerily familiar about this person.

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then the newcomer pulled up another stool and sat down in front of Gwendolyn. They studied each other for a moment, then the newcomer pulled off her mask, and then her hat, revealing short, red, hair pulled into pigtails. Gwendolyn's eyes squinted at the person for a moment, finding even more familiarities about this person. Then her eyes widened as she finally made the connection.

She opened her beak to begin speaking, but the newcomer held up a hand to silence her.

"My name is Gosalyn Mallard." she said. "Also known as the Crimson Avenger with the hat and mask on. I am, what you could say, your double."

"D-double?" Gwendolyn repeated.

"That's right." Gosalyn said with a nod. "You're in what is called a parallel universe. A world that is like your own, but different."

"This world, if that's what it really is, is nothing like mine." Gwendolyn said flatly.

"I know that." Gosalyn replied. "What you need to understand is that this world is a "twin" of yours, only that certain people had different lives, had different events occur, and grew to be more advanced than your world appears to be."

"You've never been to my world, how can you know?" Gwendolyn said hotly. "Canardia is one of the most advanced countries around."

"Canardia, huh?" Gosalyn remarked with a grin. "All right then, if you're so such of that, prove me wrong. Tell me a little bit about how things are there."

"Well..." Gwendolyn began, not knowing where to begin without a frame of reference.

So Gosalyn provided one. "Do you have TV there?"

"TV?"

"That would be a no. Okay, we'll work down from there. How about radio?"

Again, Gwendolyn looked confused. "Radio?"

"Little boxes that can allow one to talk to another over great distances. Um...how about electricity? Do you have things like, electric lights?"

Again, Gwendolyn was confused. "We get light from candles and torches. And the sun, during the day." she said.

"Do you at least have running water?" Gosalyn asked, growing more skeptical about how 'advanced' Canardia was.

"Running...water?"

"Yeah, like little rivers flowing through tubes called pipes."

Gwendolyn started to think about it for a moment, but Gosalyn already knew the answer was no. "How about hot and cold water?"

Gwendolyn brightened at this. "Yes, we can heat our water for such things like cleaning and bathing." she said with a proud grin.

"Uh-huh, that pretty much settles it, then." Gosalyn said, unimpressed. "Look, Gwen, as much as you think your world to be pretty high tech, it isn't, not in comparison to my world. Remember all those things I asked if Canardia had? We've got all of that here in my world, and a whole lot more. Here, I can show you." she reached into her jacket and pulled out her walkie-talkie. "This is a radio." she explained, switching it on and then speaking into it. "Dad, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Gosalyn, I can hear you." Darkwing's voice was transmitted back through the device, to Gwendolyn's amazement. "We're still watching from the observation room, too. You making much progress?"

"A little." Gosalyn said. "Get back to you on that. Out." she switched off the walkie-talkie, and turned back to a wide-eyed Gwendolyn.

After a moment of silence, she pointed apprehensively at the device. "Witchcraft!" she declared.

"No, technology." Gosalyn corrected with an amused grin. "No magic involved here. It just seems like magic, because you've never seen anything that can ever come close to comparing with this."

Gwendolyn didn't seem so convinced, but by this point, Gosalyn's train of thought of wandered elsewhere.

"But if you really _are _so technologically backwards in your universe, then how the heck did you even get _here_?" she wondered aloud.

At this, Gwendolyn shrugged. "I don't know, I...I didn't have time to ask, and I don't think I would've understood anyway." she admitted.

Gosalyn thought for a moment. "Gwen, did you use a...machine, kind of like the one in the big room you arrived at when you left Canardia?" she asked.

Gwendolyn thought for a moment. "Yes." she replied. "But it was smaller."

"Smaller." Gosalyn repeated, taking note of this fact. "How long have you had it?"

"I...I don't know, I didn't even know it was there until tonight."

"Gwen, you better start at the beginning, and explain the events leading up to you ending up here."

Gwendolyn, who had started to warm up to Gosalyn, nodded, and did so, and began telling her tale beginning with her being rudely awakened in bed earlier this same evening. She explained it simply, overlooking facts that were obvious to her, but not everyone else. But Gosalyn did not interrupt, and allowed her to continue to the end.

"So your bodyguard, Raphael, apparently sent you here to protect you from this Negarian guy." Gosalyn summarized, getting up to pace, rubbing the end of her beak in thought. "Clearly, he knew that here would be safe, so he knows more about your portal generator than you do."

"Yes, but he didn't seem to understand parts of it himself." Gwendolyn said.

"So why is he your bodyguard?"

"That is his job."

"Yes, but why do you need a bodyguard?"

"Because I am the daughter of the king and queen."

"So you _are _a princess." Gosalyn said, stopping to face Gwendolyn. "Just out of curiosity, but what's your last name?" upon seeing Gwendolyn's blank look, she added, "Y'know, surname?"

"Waddlemeyer. The name of the ruling family is Waddlemeyer."

Gosalyn was silent for a long moment. "Waddlemeyer." she repeated to herself. "The king's name wouldn't happen to be James Waddlemeyer, would it?"

Gwendolyn blinked. "Why, yes!" she exclaimed. "But how did you know?"

"Because, that was the name of _my _dad." Gosalyn said, sitting back down in the stool. "Only here...he's dead. So's my mom."

Gwendolyn paused solemnly for a moment. "Oh." she said simply. "Then...who is king here?"

Gosalyn was forced to grin. "We don't have kings here." she explained. "It's complicated. However, I _would _like to know more about this Negarian."

Gwendolyn frowned. "Negarian is a very bad warlock duck who has been attacking Canardia for some time now." she said darkly.

"Warlock? You mean he's a magician?"

"Yes."

"Ah, that explains why you're so leery of him." Gosalyn paused for a moment, then pulled out a pen and a little notebook of paper. "Can you describe what he looks like, or draw a picture of him?" she asked. "Because the name Negarian has been nagging me for sometime now. I think I may know who he is in this universe, but I need to know for sure."

Gwendolyn nodded, and silently accepted the notebook and paper. After working to try and figure out both for a moment, she started to draw, and was actually pretty good at it. After a few moments of working on a simple outline of Negarian's profile, Gosalyn suddenly realized who this person looked like.

"Why, that looks like..." she began, then frowned, "...Darkwing."

* * *

After Darkwing Tower was rebuilt following the events of the gang's first encounter with Gigavolt and resumed operations from there, the room SHUSH had allowed them to use at SHUSH Headquarters as a backup hideout was left empty. It stayed that way for about a month until Hooter, acting upon a sudden brainstorm, ordered the room be converted into a meeting room for SHUSH officials to meet with Darkwing and the others, and for the group to reside at in the event they were required to stay for a time at SHUSH Headquarters, for whatever the reason.

It was in this room that they met now. Darkwing, Techno, and Launchpad sat on one side of the polished table in that order, while Hooter sat on the other side. Standing at the front of the table, next to a large monitor that was placed in the room's back wall, was Crimson. After having spent the better part of a few hours talking with Gwendolyn, she had complied all that she had learned in a little presentation for the others to see and to learn from as well.

"Gwendolyn is here, because of a villainous Darkwing double known as Negarian the Second." Crimson began, pointing to a scanned copy of the picture Gwendolyn had drawn on the monitor. "He is apparently a very powerful magician and has been trying to take over Gwendolyn's country, Canardia, for about a year now, or for four full seasons, as Gwendolyn put it. He is the son of Negarian the First, who was also a very powerful and evil magician, but was thankfully more reclusive. Sometime after his father died and now, Negarian decided that he wanted control over the lands, and began attacking the lands with an army of magically conjured monsters and a few loyal followers.

"He quickly began conquering the lands that divided him from Canardia, and has lately been leading a fairly successful invasion into the peaceful country. Canardia has been able, for the most part, to keep him back, and away from the more populated areas of the country, but Negarian has been coming closer and closer to the castle the royal family lives and rules over. Then, finally, last night he made a surprise attack on the castle, and chaos followed. Either fearing that they were going to be overrun, or just seeking some way to get the princess, Gwendolyn, to safety, Gwendolyn's bodyguard named Raphael, took her to a secret room where a portal generator was hidden, activated a portal that led here, the Posiverse, and sent her through.

"Gwendolyn doesn't know much more about the matter than that. Especially about the portal generator. She doesn't know how it came to be where it is now, however, I think that the fact that we got a UIO IDC just before she was sent through the portal is a clue."

"You think the UIO has something to do with that portal generator being where it is." Hooter guessed.

"It would fit the facts as we understand them." Crimson said. "Unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure until we actually go to Gwendolyn's universe and find out for ourselves."

"Which I'm not about to authorize at this time until I know more about what I'd be sending people into." Hooter stated flatly.

"Seeing that Negarian is a magician, some means of defending ourselves against that would be required." Crimson agreed.

"Fortunately, I think I can provide some input on that matter." Darkwing said. "I called Morgana up and asked her about all of this. First off, she's in Venice with her husband, helping a fellow magician recover from a psychological illness of magical origins. As such, neither of them are going to be able to get away from that and help us here for a couple of days still. But Morgana was able to provide some useful insight about this Negarian.

"First off, she says that Negarian is actually a well known name in the magical community. According to legend in ancient times, there was a evil sorcerer who had powers that no other magician could compare to or overpower. He went about wreaking great havoc on the world until his own greed and lust for more power enable others to draw him into a lethal trap. Hence why Morgana's so familiar with the tale, it's frequently told to misbehaving kids. However, it was believed that someday in the future, Negarian would return again, and again begin a reign of chaos. However, the tale is mere myth, even in the magical world, and Morgana believes the Negarian we're dealing with is a more ordinary magician who was simply named after the Negarian from legend.

"Morgana is also familiar with the magically conjured monsters Crimson describes, having seen them in action before. They're actually just magical energy given the physical forms of monsters, and are actually only physically tangible with the world part of the time. A simple counter curse could be used to get rid of them, and Morgana even theorized that a shock dart might by enough to defeat these spells, though she can't know that for sure until someone actually tries it. Point is that we might actually be able to fight against this Negarian, even maybe beat him."

"Yes, you _could_ with an ample supply of shock darts, and a means of getting at Negarian himself, but suppose for a moment that the shock darts _don't _work." Hooter said. "What then? The only other means of defeating these magical monsters is with a counter curse, and we don't have anyone who could go to cast it."

"Well," Techno began, "we do have Crimson." he pointed out.

"Yes, but I can't use my rather dubious magical powers without a familiar, and there's only one person we know of who can do that." Crimson pointed out.

"Rowe." Launchpad offered simply.

"Suppose we find Rowe's double in Gwendolyn's universe?" Techno offered. "Then you should be able to cast some spells."

"Yes, and Gwendolyn did say that the royal guard at her castle was composed of mostly otters, but there's another problem." Crimson said. "I barely have any kind of control over my magical powers. Only just enough to save my butt in the event of extreme, life-threatening danger, and not a shred more. I just don't have the training for this."

"Still, I think that, given some extra help, we have a chance of at least getting Gwendolyn back where she belongs." Darkwing said. "I mean, I don't think she'd be happy here in our universe."

"I believe you're right, Darkwing, but unfortunately, it's not that simple." Hooter said, standing, and heading up to stand beside the monitor, Crimson going to sit down again. He changed the picture to display a diagram of a circle with dots on it. "This is a diagram of the multiverse, at least in easy-to-picture terms." he pointed at a dot in the middle of the circle. "This is our universe, the Posiverse." he pointed to a dot that sat next to it. "This is the recently discovered sister universe to the Posiverse. They're so close together, because they're so similar to each other. The further we go from these two, the less similar universes are to our universe. For instance, over here..." he motioned to a pair of dots that sat on the right side of the circle, "...are the more technologically advanced universes, such as the Warriorverse and the Neutraverse. And over here..." he pointed to a pair of dots on the left side of the circle, "...are the less technologically advanced universes, such as the Negaverse and Negawing Universe. Now here..." he pointed to a dot on the far left side of the circle, far away from the others, "...is where we're guessing Gwendolyn's universe is. Which is where we run into problems. Dr. Bellum and her team were able to determine the dimensional coordinates for this universe, but in doing so, they discovered that the portal generator used to connect to the Posiverse used an extra set of coordinates that allowed that generator to connect directly to ours, no matter where in the Posiverse it was."

"Hence more evidence that they knew that there was a generator already here." Darkwing observed.

"Yes, but, without those extra coordinates, we can't do the same, and unfortunately, we don't have an effective means of determining those coordinates from our end without knowing more about Gwendolyn's universe." Hooter explained. "Meaning that we wouldn't be able to connect directly to their generator."

"And without those extra coordinates, the location of every portal that opens is relative to the location of the portal's point of origin." Crimson said. "Meaning that we could step through that portal, and be nowhere near the location we want to be at."

"Or walk straight into enemy territory." Hooter added, clearing the screen.

"It can't be too bad, though." Techno reasoned. "Seeing that Gwendolyn's home country is called 'Canardia', the location of the castle can't be too far from wherever we emerge."

"But we have no idea how big Canardia is, Techno." Darkwing reminded.

"And besides, shouldn't this Negarian guy be camped all around the castle, _if _he hasn't taken it over already?" Launchpad remarked.

Crimson, however, had gotten a few ideas. "Hooter, would a portal be big enough to drive something like a jeep through it?"she asked.

"Yes, I suppose." Hooter replied, not entirely certain where Crimson was going with this. "We should check with Dr. Bellum first, but I can't see any reason why not. Why?"

"Easy." Crimson said with a shrug. "We can use that to just shoot right through the portal at high speeds. Assuming we do land in enemy territory, we can just floor it and speed away."

"But we still don't know anything about the terrain we would be ending up in, and how far away the castle would be." Darkwing pointed out.

"Ah, but I have a plan for that too." Crimson said. "Gwendolyn should know the lands of her kingdom well. All we have to do is show her a map of the area we'll end up in, and maybe she can give us an idea of what we'll expect to find there."

* * *

And a little while later, they tried just that.

Crimson held up a large picture of St. Canard, as seen from above, the best picture they could obtain. "Okay, Gwen." Crimson said, motioning to the picture. "Looking at this, can you tell us where your castle would be?"

Gwendolyn looked at the picture for a long hard moment. Because it portrayed a modernized city in the place of the less-developed land she was used to, it took her a few moments to determine where the familiar landmarks were at. Crimson did not rush her. Finally, almost excitedly, she pointed at the bay that sat on the city's western edge.

"That's Audubon Bay, is it not?" she asked quickly.

"That's right!" Crimson praised, relieved to see progress.

"And that's the river, so..." Gwendolyn trailed off for a moment, running her finger along the picture. Finally, she tapped something in the center of the picture. "Here is about where the castle would be."

Crimson looked. "That's about where Canard Tower is." she noted, grinning. "Good, that's not so bad, then. Now, Gwen, when we open a portal to go back to your universe, we'll arrive right about...here." she pointed at the location of SHUSH Headquarters, not far from the location the castle would be.

Gwendolyn thought about that location for a moment. "There's a small valley right about there." she said, starting to frown. "Last I saw, that was where Negarian had his forces camped out."

* * *

From in the observation room, Hooter and Darkwing watched as Crimson and Gwendolyn continued to talk. Hooter switched off the radio system that allowed the two to listen in on the conversation and turned to Darkwing.

"Well, now we have a better idea of where one would appear at and what they'll encounter." Hooter said.

"Yep." Darkwing replied, seeing where this was going. "Hooter, I think Crimson's idea of using a vehicle of some sort to rush through that camp is a good one. Not without risk, but it gives us a good chance of succeeding. And besides, I really do think we should take Gwendolyn back to the universe she belongs in, presuming that it's safe for her to go back."

"Which is exactly what I'm worried about, Darkwing." Hooter replied. "Suppose it isn't safe, and you can't get back? I don't want to send a team of any type on a suicide mission. Besides, something about all of this just doesn't sit right with me. It can't be a coincidence that Gwendolyn ended up in our universe out of all of them."

"I agree." Darkwing said. "But we'll never find out the whole story of what's going on here until we go over there and find out. And then there's the fact that these guys have a portal generator, something they very clearly shouldn't have, and the UIO IDC that was sent through. We need to figure out what that's all about. Just in case."

Hooter paused, then nodded. "All right, you, your group, and a few SHUSH agents will go through and gauge the situation." he said. "But I want to send a probe through ahead of you guys to look at the land. Just in case."

Darkwing nodded. "Fair enough."

* * *

"System charging!" A technician in the room exclaimed loudly. "We'll be ready in just a few minutes!"

"And so will we." Agent Mia remarked as she loaded her machine gun, dressed in commando attire instead of her trademark suit that most SHUSH agents wore.

Satisfied that she was ready, she climbed into the front of the military all-terrain jeep that sat at the end of the ramp leading towards the idling portal generator. Already in the back of the jeep was Agent Sandy, also in commando dress, and a small team of other SHUSH commandos, all heavily armed. The jeep itself had a machine gun built onto it's roof, that would be operated by one of the commandos. Darkwing stood nearby, also gearing himself up for this mission, staring curiously at the jeep.

"How did we get this thing in here, anyway?" Darkwing asked, puzzled.

Techno, who stood nearby, also gearing up, had an answer. "As I understand it, The Agency lent SHUSH the use of a teleporter long enough to beam the jeep in here." he said with a shrug. "I see your point, though. It'd be hard to get it in or out any other way, wouldn't it? The doors leading in here certainly aren't big enough."

"Mm." Darkwing said, nodding as he loaded his gas gun with fresh cartridges. He glanced at Techno for a moment. "Tech, are you sure you're up for this? I mean, that incident with Nanite a week ago..."

"I'm fine." Techno replied flatly.

"You sure? Because you were left pretty drained mentally after all of that. I want to be sure you've recovered fully before I let you get involved in something as serious as this."

"I am recovered." Techno said determinedly. "I can handle this."

Darkwing nodded. "That's what I needed to know." he said.

At that moment, Crimson and Launchpad arrived, escorting Gwendolyn into the room, who promptly started looking around in amazement.

"This is what we're going to use to get past Negarian's forces." Crimson was explaining, motioning to the jeep.

Gwendolyn regarded it curiously for a moment. "How does it work?" she asked.

"Well...you have carriages, pulled by horses, in your universe, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, this is basically a carriage, except it can propel itself."

"Oh." Gwendolyn was silent for a moment as she was helped into the back of the jeep. "And what about those odd things you carry?"

"You mean our weapons?" Crimson asked, motioning to the P90 she was carrying.

"Yes, how do _they _work? Do you just club people with them?"

"Not quite." Crimson said with a grin, taking aim. "Here, I'll show you."

"Crimson, don't!" Launchpad started to object.

Too late. Crimson fired off a single bullet with a bang that startled most of everyone in the room. It hit the wall Crimson had been aiming at, then ricocheted about wildly before it embedded itself in the metal frame of the portal generator, not causing it harm. Unconcerned about all of this, Crimson turned back to Gwendolyn, who was hunched down in her seat in the jeep, eyes wide with fear.

"Like that." Crimson said, climbing into the jeep to sit between Gwendolyn and Techno.

Launchpad also climbed into the back of the jeep, and realized that the bench-like seats didn't have any seatbelts. He mentioned this to Agent Sandy, who was sitting beside him.

"Should I be worried?" he asked.

"No, just hold tight." Sandy replied.

"Systems ready!" the technician reported. "Entering in transdimensional coordinates!"

Darkwing swung himself into the passenger's seat of the jeep while Agent Mia took the driver's seat, and started the engine. Gwendolyn's eyes wandered over to the front of the jeep due to the noise, and stared apprehensively at Darkwing. She had been told in advance that despite appearances, he wasn't Negarian, which she seemed to understand, but she was still leery of him.

A moment later, the portal flared into existence in it's usual place. Sitting on the ramp already was a small probe, which was essentially a camera on wheels. It rolled on towards the portal and vanished into it. There was a moment of silence as everyone awaited the probe's report.

"Yep, there's definitely trouble there." Dr. Bellum's voice echoed out from the control tower where she was no doubt receiving the telemetry. "Enemies sighted all around the site of the portal, and gathering towards it. Best hurry, and arrive firing."

"Understood." Agent Mia said, revving the engine of the jeep.

Without warning, the jeep suddenly screeched forward and through the portal. It's arrival in Gwendolyn's universe was less than graceful, as the ground there was a number of inches higher than the end of the ramp was at in the Posiverse, so it was like the jeep hit a hard bump at high speeds, and veered wildly out of control for a moment. Agent Mia quickly fought to regain control, as well as the lost speed, clipping the probe on her way as the device strove to get out of the way. Zig-zagging for a few moments, Mia finally regained control, and that was when everyone got a good look at their surroundings.

As Gwendolyn had indicated, they were in the bottom of a green valley, with sloping sides ahead of them and behind them. Surrounding the portal were various people from Gwendolyn's universe had were armed with many medieval weapons, and all wore oddly dazed looks. Simultaneously, like they had all gotten some unheard command, raised their weapons to attack. Several arrows rained down on the fleeing jeep, but caused little to no damage to it. At the top of the valley, something big and glowing could be seen, possibly one of the magically conjured creatures Negarian was known to have, but it was hard to tell from this angle.

Mia drove the jeep to zoom out of the valley, accelerating, causing the jeep to toss and jostle it's occupants as it zoomed over the rough and uneven ground. As the enemies surrounding them closed in, one commando hopped up and took control of the machine gun mounted on the roof of the jeep, firing it at passing targets, succeeding in holding back the forces.

Right about then, the jeep cleared the valley and onto relatively flat plain that sat adjacent to the valley. Here, they got their first good look at the large glowing thing that was seen from afar. It was one of Negarian's magically conjured monsters, all right, and it was massive. Reptilian in appearance, it was easily a story tall, and several meters longer in length, including it's tail. It was glowing, emitting a light blue colored aura of light, and had rigid, pink and purple designs crisscrossing it's body. It was somewhat transparent, enhancing the fact that it was only magical energy, but the beast still looked very powerful and destructive.

But worse still, was the fact that there was a previously unseen second one standing to the left of the jeep, a little further away than the first one.

Walking on all fours, the two creatures made their way towards the charging jeep, taking long, but unhurried, strides. In the distance between the two, Gwendolyn's castle could be seen, a structure composed mostly of towers surrounded by a wall, and looked to be intact. Agent Mia aimed the jeep for it, and stomped down on the gas pedal until hit the floor, driving the jeep right between the two monsters, hoping she could really outrun them.

The monsters were upon the jeep within moments, however, slapping almost playfully at it with their massive, magically created, claws. Mia worked to dodge the claws, and seeing that they were so large and that the monsters seemed to be in no hurry to deal with their prey, she was succeeding, the claws merely tearing up the ground around the jeep as they missed. The commando at the machine gun fired at the beast, but the bullets didn't affect them. Darkwing pulled out his gas gun, switched to the shock dart attachment, and started firing. The darts didn't destroy the spell that created the monsters, but it did seem to harm the creatures, as they always flinched and let out roars displeasure, occasionally backing up a bit before apprehensively approaching again.

The castle drew nearer, but it was hard to tell for sure what condition it and its inhabitants were in. Mia continued driving for it anyway. The monsters continued to "play" with the jeep, as it seemed to have become, their claws tearing up the ground around it. As a result, the trip for the jeep was becoming more and more increasingly rough. After going over a particularly rough series of bumps, the commando operating the rooftop machine gun stumbled and fell over to lay flat on the floor of the jeep's back. Several moved to help him from their seats, but Launchpad jumped right out of his seat to help the fallen commando.

"Launchpad, get back in your seat!" Sandy exclaimed, grabbing at the pilot's shirt, knowing it wasn't safe for anyone to be standing and to not be holding onto anything.

Launchpad didn't respond right away, and by then, it was too late. One of the monster's claws dragged against the ground ahead of the jeep, tearing it up completely. Having no time to steer around the now jagged ground, Mia allowed the jeep to surge right into it, the jeep nearly tipping over due to the severity of the bumps. During this, Launchpad lost his balance, stumbled out of Agent Sandy's reach, and flipped out of the back of the jeep, hitting the ground and rolling for several feet before coming to a stop, not moving.

"Launchpad!" Crimson exclaimed, and several other voices chimed in with her.

Darkwing looked into the jeep's rearview mirror to see his sidekick lying helplessly on the ground, the monsters drawing towards him, more interested in the pilot than the jeep now.

He turned to Agent Mia. "We need to turn back and get him!" he exclaimed.

"I wish we could, but we can't!" Mia said, maintaining the jeep's original course. "If we turn back, we'll only get caught too! I'm not at all willing to leave Launchpad to the hands of those guys, but we don't have a choice at the moment if we _all _want to escape alive!"

Darkwing hung his head, and knew the agent was right. The jeep continued onward towards the castle, no longer threatened at all by the enemy, and pretty much ignored. The two monsters grouped around Launchpad, but left the fallen pilot alone. Negarian's ground forces that were in the valley approached Launchpad instead, gathering around him. Around then, Launchpad regained consciousness, his body aching, particularly in his right wrist, but he thankfully and miraculously didn't seem too seriously injured. He did see that he was in quite a bind at the moment.

"Uh oh." was all he could say at the moment, as he was quickly surrounded.

* * *

The jeep continued onward for the castle. As it drove up beside it's western wall where it's main gates were located, it was clear that the castle hadn't been overrun yet, and was still under the control of it's rightful owners, for the royal guards were still stationed on the walltops. The guards weren't quite sure what to make of the almost alien-looking jeep, however, unsure if they should fire upon it, or leave it alone.

Seeing this, Gwendolyn stood up so she could be seen, despite protests from her guardians, and waved at the guards. After a moment of this, the guards saw that their princess was in the jeep, and quickly hurried to open gates to permit entrance. Once they were open, Mia drove the jeep right into the castle, and finally began to slow the vehicle to a stop, coming to a halt in the middle of the castle grounds.

The castle inhabitants promptly began to gather, staring and pointing at the jeep and it's unfamiliar occupants, murmuring aloud their thoughts about it to each other. Some panicked at the sight of Darkwing, perceiving him to be Negarian. Seeing this, Gwendolyn pushed her way through the reinforcements she had brought and to the front where she could be seen by all.

"It is all right!" she called. "They are friends! They have come to help us!"

Seeing Gwendolyn and hearing her say this seemed to be enough for the onlookers, for they started to relax while the reinforcements from the Posiverse unloaded themselves and the supplies they brought.

"Gwendolyn!" a deep voice suddenly exclaimed, and an exquisitely robed middle-aged duck with thinning black hair pressed his way through the group, and to Gwendolyn.

"Father!" Gwendolyn cried in obviously relief, and grabbed the king of the land in a hug that he happily returned.

Crimson tensed at the sight of King Waddlemeyer. She barely remembered her biological father, being only five at the time of his death, but the sight of King Waddlemeyer now, despite the time difference and the fact he was from an alternate reality brought memories back to Crimson. She silently watched the king and his daughter hug, her face blank. Techno, sensing her feelings, came to stand beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Finally, the two broke apart, and Waddlemeyer looked over to the group of helpers Gwendolyn had brought with, looking puzzled. He turned back to his daughter. "Where have you been?" he asked. "Where did you find these curious people?"

"From...another world." Gwendolyn replied hesitantly, clearly sensing how odd that sounded.

"Another world?" King Waddlemeyer repeated.

"Perhaps I should explain, your majesty." a voice said, and it's owner, a tall otter, stepped through the crowd of onlookers to sheepishly join them.

Darkwing and the others recognized him instantly, and Crimson was first to speak and bring up the matter. "Rowe?" she asked with stifled amusement at their luck.

The otter glanced her way and furrowed his brow. "No, I am Raphael, the princess's bodyguard." he explained.

"Ah." Crimson said, grinning broadly now. "Well, you are going to be helpful either way, I can tell you that much."

Raphael looked puzzled by this, but decided to not press the subject further for now. He turned his attention back to King Waddlemeyer, and began explaining in simple terms where Gwendolyn went and how. It quickly became clear that Raphael had for some reason neglected to explain all of this to the king before now. Meanwhile, the group from the Posiverse continued unloading the jeep, trying to ignore the goggling onlookers that surrounded them. Agent Mia stood at the back of the jeep, and was looking out at the direction of where Negarian's forces were camped, a calculating look upon her face. Darkwing strolled over to join her.

"I hope you're thinking about how we're going to rescue Launchpad." he said.

"Oh, you bet I am." Mia said, shooting a look at Darkwing. "Like I said, I'm not about to leave him behind. We'll get him back, or so help me..."

"I get the idea." Darkwing interrupted. He followed her gaze, and ran a few ideas through his head. "So...any ideas?"

Mia sighed. "None worth mentioning just yet." she admitted. "It'll probably better to set up our forces here for the time being and get a better layout of the land and Negarian's forces before continuing."

Darkwing was silent, then asked a question he knew they needed to consider. "Think he's even still alive?" he asked.

Again, Mia sighed. "I don't know." she said. "And the only way we'll ever find out is by trying to rescue him. Which would be pointless if there's no one to rescue."

"Agreed, but I'm certainly willing to try anyway." Darkwing said confidently.

Mia half-grinned at Darkwing's enthusiasm. "As am I."

At that moment, Raphael strolled over unexpectedly, and politely announced his presence. "Darkwing Duck, I presume?" he asked.

Darkwing glanced at him, surprised to see that he was alone in addition to the fact he knew his name, and nodded. "Yes, that's me."

"I was told to expect you to come here." Raphael said. "First things first, though. There's something you need to see, someone you need to meet, and a few things that need explaining. If you could follow me, please."

He turned to head towards the castle. Darkwing silently followed, as did Mia, motioning to Agent Sandy to join them. Techno tagged along, bringing a depressed looking Crimson with, who's mind seemed to be focused elsewhere. Darkwing, curious as to why, followed her gaze and saw she was looking at Gwendolyn and the king, who were still conversing, although now it looked more like the king was trying to console a crying daughter.

"What did I miss?" Darkwing asked aloud, puzzled.

Raphael heard the question and followed his gaze for a moment. He winced. "The subject moved to the battle last night." he said, paused, then added, "and that matter of who survived it, and who didn't."

Darkwing caught on quick. "Who died?" he asked carefully.

It was Crimson who gave the bitter reply. "The queen did, Darkwing." she said flatly, and said no more.

She didn't need to. Darkwing glanced again back at the saddened king and his distraught daughter, sharing in their moment of sadness, before focusing his attention back on following Raphael and awaiting whatever it was the otter wanted to show them.

* * *

Launchpad was quickly captured by Negarian's foot soldiers, bound, then escorted back into the valley he had just left, being taken to a small encampment of tents, that had sat behind and a little to the left of where the portal from the Posiverse had opened, which had since closed. Launchpad went willingly, knowing that resisting was of little point right now, as he was greatly outnumbered and could easily be overpowered in the event he tried to escape. And even if he did manage to elude the foot soldiers, he was at a loss at how he could possibly slip past two or more massive magically created monsters that seemed to stand guard over the whole valley, circling it, but not entering it.

He did try to engage in a conversation with the foot soldiers, trying to learn more about Negarian and his forces, or at least just where he was being taken and what would happen then, but his captors remained silent, acting like they couldn't even hear Launchpad. They just focused determinedly on completing their task at hand.

Eventually, they arrived at a large tent that Launchpad figured was Negarian's command tent. Inside, it was sparsely furnished, but carried a few things that wouldn't be too ideal to take on a military march, such as a dresser, and a bookcase with a handful of books, and a extravagant, high-backed wooden chair that looked like a throne. It didn't appear that anyone was present in the tent, but it was significantly darker inside the tent, and it had looked like from the outside that the tent had multiple compartments.

Besides, Launchpad couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.

Once inside the tent, Launchpad was escorted in by only two of the foot soldiers. The rest stayed outside. The two brought Launchpad in to stand in the center of the tent, then pulled a stubby wooden stool over and sat Launchpad down upon it. Then, without a word, they then turned and left. Launchpad watched them go, and was about to call after them and ask if he should wait for someone, when that "someone" announced his presence.

"Well, this was certainly an unexpected surprise." the voice said, drawing Launchpad's attention.

From the dark right corner of the tent, beside the throne-like chair, Negarian stepped into the light, and Launchpad got a good look at him. As they already knew, he was a Darkwing double, but Launchpad quickly decided that Negarian looked more like Negaduck than Darkwing. He wore simple medieval clothes with a bright yellow cloak over top. He wore a black mask over his eyes, that added significantly to his resemblance to Negaduck, and placed on top of his head was black, pointed, wizard's hat, with a floppy tip. Perched on his shoulder was a raven, probably his familiar, that looked suspiciously like Poe back home.

Grinning in a manner that Launchpad didn't like, Negarian strolled calmly over to Launchpad, looking him up and down, while Launchpad nervously watched the magician.

"You know, I don't believe we've ever met before." Negarian finally stated, circling Launchpad. He came to stand in front of Launchpad, and stopped. "However," he continued, "I have a pretty good idea who you _have _met." Negarian turned his head to glance into the dark left corner of the tent. "Perhaps he's a friend of yours, hmm?"

Then another person stepped out from the darkness, and this one Launchpad knew much better than Negarian, and felt his stomach sink at the sight of him as he walked over to join the pair.

"Well..." Negaduck began, grinning cruelly, "...I don't know about _friend_."

* * *

Raphael led the group down deep into the interior of the castle, leading through winding tunnels that simply continued to go lower and lower. The others wordlessly followed their guide, knowing that he knew where to go and they didn't. As they went, Darkwing kept shooting worried glances back at Crimson, who's mood didn't seem to be improving any. Finally, Darkwing sighed and fell back a few paces to walk beside her.

"Hey Gos, you want to talk?" he asked quietly.

Crimson sighed. "Not particularly, but somehow I sense you aren't going to just drop the subject." she replied.

"You're depressed." Darkwing said. "You know it, I know it, we all know it, and I want to help you get over it."

"Well, thanks for the concern, but now isn't really the time for this." Crimson stated.

"It's the perfect time, and you know it." Darkwing said. He was silent for a moment. "You were hoping to see your mother again here, even though she isn't the same mother you knew...weren't you?"

Crimson was silent for a moment, then, fighting back tears, nodded. "Losing her once was bad enough." she said. "But...in this case, it feels like I've lost her all over again. And I didn't even get to meet her."

"It probably didn't help that you've met up with a universal double of your dead father, either." Darkwing reasoned. "The blow probably just came at the wrong moment."

"There's the understatement of the year." Gosalyn grumbled, then shook her head. "There's more to it than that, though. Seeing Gwendolyn so crushed by the blow just...brought back bad memories. I can relate with her too. I know how it feels to loose a mother." she sniffed. "And a father." a pause. "And a grandfather." she glanced at Darkwing. "And an adopted father, for that matter."

"Hey, those last two don't count, we both came back." Darkwing said with mock offense. "Eventually, at least."

Crimson had to laugh at this. "Yeah, I suppose that's true." she admitted. "Still...I think I'm perfectly entitled to feel like I am at the moment."

"Of course." Darkwing said with a nod. "Just...keep in mind what we're here to do."

Crimson nodded. "I will."

By this point in time, Raphael had led them into the wine cellar and to a trapdoor that led down into a secret room underneath. Everyone watched as he went to open it.

"The generator is down here." Raphael explained as he went.

"How did you come to get a portal generator anyway?" Techno asked, curious.

"It was built here." Raphael explained, lowering himself through the trapdoor and moving aside so to permit the others to follow. "A friend of mine is apparently very learned about this sort of thing, more than I am."

"A friend?" Darkwing asked, intrigued as he and the others followed Raphael down the short flight of stairs.

"Yes." Raphael said. "He knows of you, and he is like you, and not from here."

Crimson furrowed her brow as they stepped into the small underground chamber. "Like who?" she asked.

"Like me." a voice said suddenly from the darkness.

They turned to look at it, and tensed as they recognized the all-too-familiar robotic form. Agent Mia's weapon was up with a snap, and was ready to fire, even though it would've done little good as it was not equipped with diamond tipped bullets. Darkwing, however, sensed something very out of place with this figure, and motioned to her to hold her fire. He then turned back to face the figure.

"Nanite?" he asked hesitantly.

And so it was, only this Nanite wore a more sympathetic and heartfelt expression, and his eyes were glowing a bright emerald color instead of the deep blood red color they were accustomed to.

Nanite grinned sheepishly. "Yes and no." he replied, and changed forms to take on his human form as Lewis Jakeway, the form he usually used. "I am, as you'd say, the Negaverse opposite of the Nanite you know. I'm on your side."

"That's right, now I remember!" Crimson suddenly exclaimed, and pointed a finger at Lewis. "NegaSteelbeak alluded to you being around last time I was visiting the UIO, saying that you were a big help to their cause."

"So I was." Lewis agreed, stepping aside so to allow enough room for everyone to enter.

"What are you doing here, though?" Agent Sandy asked, puzzled. "Why aren't you in the Negaverse?"

"Because, the Negaverse is the very last place any of us would want to be at the moment." Lewis replied gravely.

* * *

"Negaduck!" Launchpad exclaimed in surprise.

"The one and only." Negaduck replied in annoyance, folding his arms. "Now, what are you and the rest of the goody-goody gang doing here?"

"What are _we _doing here?" Launchpad repeated, nearly ludicrous. "What are _you _doing here?"

"Dealing with you, for one thing." Negaduck said with a sigh. He glanced at Negarian. "I'll handle this. He doesn't really concern you, anyway."

"The others do." Negarian pointed out, stroking the raven on his shoulder absentmindedly.

"We'll deal with them later." Negaduck said. "Right now, I'll deal with him, and unless you really want to sit and listen to all of this, I don't see any reason why you need to be here, do you?"

Negarian shrugged. "I suppose not." he said, and turned and walked back into the dark right corner of the tent, where there was indeed an entrance to another room.

Negaduck turned back to Launchpad, and placed a foot on his captive's knees. "I'll make this easy for you, LP." he said. "Why are you here?"

"We're here to help the guys in the castle." Launchpad replied, motioning with his head in the general direction of the castle. "We had no idea _you'd _be here." he paused. "Why _are _you here?" he asked again.

"For the moment, I'm helping Negarian." Negaduck replied.

"What's he got to do with you? I didn't think you were in the habit of getting involved in other people's plans of conquest."

"Usually, I don't. And Negarian is no exception. However, the sooner he finishes with _his _plans of conquest, the sooner we can get back to _my _plans of conquest."

"And what does any of this have to do with that?"

"A great deal." Negaduck removed his foot and started circling Launchpad. "Negarian isn't the only universal double I've been in contact with lately, you know."

"I _do _know." Launchpad said. "You've also been in contact with Negawing Duck. But what do they have to do with you?"

"By rallying them together, they're going to help me achieve _my _plans for conquest."

"But what good does rallying _them _together do for you, except give you an army of universal doubles?"

"My dear Launchpad, that's _exactly _the plan."

* * *

"What's happening in the Negaverse?" Agent Mia asked, who had been up to this point examining the portal generator that resided in the room.

Lewis sighed. "He's been cracking down on everyone against him in the Negaverse." he explained. "Every traitor, every enemy of his, everyone who in anyway doesn't want the same things as him in the Negaverse."

The group exchanged glances.

"Why are we only hearing about this now?" Darkwing asked.

"Because, Negaduck started this completely without warning." Lewis went on. "And he struck first at the very source of it all."

Crimson gasped, catching on. "You mean...?" she began.

Lewis nodded. "As of this moment, Negaduck is in complete control of the UIO." he explained. "And so far as I know, I was the only one who escaped."

* * *

"Wait, you're _building _an army?" Launchpad repeated.

"That's right." Negaduck replied proudly.

"Using universal doubles of yourself."

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Because, it finally occurred to me that I simply don't have the manpower to achieve my goals, which is to conquer _your _pathetic universe and rule it in conjunction with the Negaverse."

Launchpad suddenly understood. "And who better to provide that kind of manpower than your own universal doubles." he said aloud, in shock.

"The only ones _bad _enough." Negaduck said with a grin. "And after months of planning and working, I'm finally very nearly ready to begin. I just need to get Negarian in the group first."

"Why, what's so special about Negarian?"

"Negarian is the very _key _to my plans, LP, and the one double I knew I would need from the very beginning. He's a magician."

"So?"

"_So?_" Negaduck roughly grabbed Launchpad and turned him around. He pointed out the door of the tent. "You see those foot soldiers out there? Once, nearly _all _of those people were once _good _people like you. But Negarian has a very powerful spell he can cast that renders everyone caught in it his slave, allowing Negarian to control their very _minds _and get them to do _exactly _what he wants."

Launchpad eyes went wide. "You want to do the same thing in the Posiverse." he realized.

"_Exactly!_" Negaduck cried empathically, spinning Launchpad back around. "And Negarian is willing to help me. _But only _if I help _him _first."

"Which means..." Launchpad began.

"...those people in that castle have _got _to go." Negaduck concluded with an evil grin.

* * *

"Why haven't you warned us?" Techno asked.

"That's what I've been trying to do!" Lewis proclaimed. "In fact, I _wanted _to go to the Posiverse instead of here when the attack on the UIO base began, but in the chaos that happened, the generator got damaged, and I ended up here."

"That's when I found him, on a patrol, not far from the castle." Raphael offered. "He was pretty beat up, and didn't at all look normal, but he was conscious, and asked for my help. So...I helped him, discreetly brought him back here, hid him in this room, and left him to his own devices, mostly."

"And I appreciated it." Lewis said, clearly thankful. "I didn't escape the Negaverse without damage, and I needed the time to repair myself and recover, and to work out a plan, because I knew you guys in the Posiverse needed to be warned, and quickly. And the only way I could do that was with a portal generator. So, once my nanites had adequately repaired me, I set them to work manufacturing as many parts as I could to build one, having to jury-rig the rest with what I could find around here, which was a great deal."

"I'll bet." Crimson remarked, looking over the control panel for the portal generator, impressed Lewis could build such a functional device.

"Meanwhile, I was keeping tabs on what he was doing as best as I could, understanding the basics of the situation." Raphael added. "But then Negarian began to come dangerously closer to the castle with each and every passing day. As he got closer, Master Lewis came closer to completing the device. Soon, I saw that this device might offer an excellent way to evacuate key people should it come to that. And last night, it did, although Princess Gwendolyn was the only one I was able to get through the portal." he grinned. "Clearly, though, it might have actually helped things."

"Yes, we're here to try and help to the best of our abilities." Agent Mia said.

"And now we know what's happened in the Negaverse, too." Darkwing added. "Thus, Lewis, you've done your part, too."

"For which I am relieved." Lewis said. "Because it can't be a coincidence that Negaduck chose when he did to attack the UIO. I think it's part of some bigger plan."

"Probably Negaduck's ever-mysterious master plan." Crimson reasoned. "But we'll have to worry about that later. Right now, let's focus on the problem at hand, and that's Negarian. Raphael, could you join me in the castle grounds, please?"

"Certainly, but why?" Raphael asked, moving to join her as they both headed upstairs.

"You're going to be my familiar."

"Famili...what?"

"I'll explain the details as we go. For now, just know that together, we might be able to get rid of those magic monsters of Negarian's."

"And we need to finish setting up for battle upstairs, too." Darkwing added.

"And rescue one of our own." Mia added, heading for the stairs."

"I'll stay here and have the generator ready for use." Lewis said. "Just in case."

"I'll help him." Techno offered.

"Good, because we'll need all the help we can get, wherever we can get it." Darkwing said as he, Mia, and Agent Sandy exited the chamber.

* * *

Launchpad felt his stomach sink with this last comment. "Okay, assuming you do that, what then?" he asked.

"Then I lead this fine army to the Posiverse and conquer it." Negaduck said, playing with the cuff of his sleeve. "Starting with St. Canard."

"We wouldn't let you."

"I plan to remedy that. You, Darkwing, and the rest aren't going to get as far as stopping me."

"If not us, then SHUSH will."

"Not if I strike at SHUSH first."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"Well, I do believe that the UIO's portal generator is capable of connecting directly with SHUSH's, isn't it?"

Launchpad paled. "You have access to it?"

"I do now that I control the UIO."

"Oh no..."

"Oh _yes_."

Launchpad was silent for a long moment. "So let me get this straight." he said. "You intend to help a magician level a castle with it's populace within it, so you can include him in your army of doubles from a multitude of alternate realities so you can invade a reality that isn't even yours, and take it over with all of your combined powers working together."

"Pretty much, yeah." Negaduck said, grinning slightly with self-pride. "Not an easy task, I assure you, it has taken me since late last December to get this all planned together, and I'm only _halfway _there still."

"Halfway?" Launchpad repeated, surprised. "What do you mean, halfway?"

"I mean, there's another whole half to this plan that I haven't even told you yet, Launchpad." Negaduck replied.

Launchpad gulped. "Which is?" he prompted.

"Like I'd really tell you." Negaduck said with a snort. "I've told you too much as it is already, which means I can never let you leave this tent alive, by the way."

Launchpad visibly paled at this comment.

"But..." Negaduck continued, pulling out a walkie-talkie from his pocket, "...I'll get to _that _later. In the meantime, I need to get into contact with some associates of mine. You know them rather well, actually, LP. Since my brilliant plan is finally reaching one of it's most pivotal points, I just recently let them in on the basics of the secret of it all, and brought them here with me to help out. So check this out." he switched on the walkie-talkie, and called into it in a sing-song voice. "Oh Fearsome Four, come _in _Fearsome Four..."

* * *

On the southern side of the castle stood an embankment of trees, tall enough that they towered over the castle's surrounding and protective wall. Sitting in the branches of one of these trees, it's branches having been purposely twisted and intermeshed with each other so to hide what was in the tree from sight to onlookers, but to still allow those within the branches to see the castle, was Bushroot, Rowe, and Quackerjack.

Quackerjack rubbed at his sore backside. "I'm getting bored." he wined. "And sitting on these tree branches for so long is hurting my bottom."

"Oh hush, you don't hear me complaining, mate." Rowe grumbled, who had a pair of binoculars out, and was peering down into the castle grounds.

"I'm not complaining either." Bushroot added, who was happily stretched out on the tree limb, looking very relaxed.

"Well, yeah, you _wouldn't,_ leaf head!" Quackerjack snapped. He was silent for a moment. "Why are we up here anyway? We're not going to find out anything important up here!"

"Well, I dunno, we _did _see Darkwing and the gang show up, which was unexpected." Rowe remarked, zooming the binoculars in on something.

"Yeah, but the boss already knew about that!"

"Well, I'm still not complaining. At least Negs is finally keeping us adequately in the loop with his plans again. We would still be back in _our _reality, none the wiser, if that weren't the case."

"Yeah, but, don't you think it's a little odd?" Bushroot asked suddenly.

"Is what odd?" Quackerjack asked back.

"That Negaduck went to all that trouble to keep us out of the loop for four months, and then suddenly, a couple of days ago, reveals everything to us, and starts putting us to work." Bushroot said. "I don't know about you two, but that apparent change in policies doesn't sit right with me."

Quackerjack thought about it for a moment. "Well, when you put it that way..." he began.

He got no further, for Negaduck's call suddenly came through on the radio Bushroot carried. Surprised, Bushroot fumbled with it for a moment, and then pulled it out.

"Yes boss?" Bushroot asked.

"Report!" Negaduck barked.

"Nothing much to report." Bushroot replied with a shrug. "We're watching the castle like you requested. Darkwing and the others were escorted inside. They haven't come back out yet. I think they're..."

"Hold on!" Rowe suddenly exclaimed, spying something suddenly with the binoculars. "There's me!"

Bushroot and Quackerjack glanced at him, then moved closer to see. Rowe pointed with one claw, lowering the binoculars, as one didn't really need them to see what Rowe was seeing.

"Look, there's my universal double." Rowe said as he pointed at Raphael.

Negaduck heard this on the radio. "Really?" he asked, sounding only semi-interested. "And what's he doing?"

"Dunno, but look who he's with." Rowe said, pointing at Crimson who stood next to Raphael, giving him unheard instructions.

"He's with Crimson, boss." Bushroot said. "Here, I'll let you talk with Rowe, he can see better."

Rowe took the radio from Bushroot. "It's just as Bushy says, boss, there's Crimson and me universal double, talking." he reiterated. "I think Crimson's directing him to do something, or explaining something."

"Like what?" Negaduck asked.

"Dunno, we can't hear from here." Rowe said. He squinted at the pair. "Now Crimson is taking position beside him, and is doing something else. Can't tell what..."

Suddenly, a flash of light flared out briefly from within the castle grounds, startling the three.

"What the...?" Bushroot exclaimed.

"What was _that_?" Quackerjack asked.

"Boss, we just saw an odd flash of light appear near them, standby for more details." Rowe said into the radio.

"What happened, was it a weapon?"

"No, look, neither of them are holding anything."

"_Something _happened, and we need to find out what, mates."

"Look, it just happened again!"

"That came from Crimson! What _is _she doing?"

"Wait, wait, I know what's going on." Rowe lifted up the radio to speak into it. "Boss, they're using magic."

There was a momentary pause. "Who's using magic?" came the reply.

"Uh, Crimson." Rowe replied simply.

There was an even longer pause this time. "Say again?" Negaduck asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Crimson is using magic."

Another pause. "You mean to tell me that _Crimson _has magical _blood_?"

"Uh, yeah!" Rowe said, like it was obvious. "Not a whole lot, though. I think she's using my universal double as a familiar."

"And how, pray tell, would _you _know _that_?"

At this point, Bushroot and Quackerjack turned to look at Rowe with annoyed looks, seeing where this was going, but weren't too alarmed about it. Rowe had pretty much brought this down upon himself.

Rowe knew it, too. "Well, uh..." he stuttered with hesitation, "Because...um...in the Posiverse, _I'm_..." he squeezed his eyes shut nervously, bracing for the blow, "...her familiar."

There was yet another pause. "You're _WHAT_?"

"I swear I've told you this before, mate! I know it! Haven't I? C'mon, _please _tell me you have _some _inkling of memory that I've told you this before!"

"You mean to tell me that _you've _been going around with _Crimson_, being her _familiar _and allowing her to use _magic_ that could be..."

Then, completely without warning, Negaduck suddenly trailed off. Then chuckled.

"_There's_ an idea..." he muttered to himself, then refocused his attention back on the radio. "All right, boys, mission abort. Get out of there, and report back here."

"You mean _leave_?" Bushroot asked in surprise, taking the radio from Rowe. "But, what about all that spying stuff you were so bent on us..."

"I _said, _report back _here_!" Negaduck repeated. "Now! Do I really need to repeat myself?"

The three supervillains glanced at each other for a moment, unsure what to make of this sudden change in plans

"But, we can watch Crimson and..." Quackerjack began.

"NOW, dang it, _NOW!_" Negaduck interrupted, yelling now. "Negaduck out!"

* * *

And with that, Negaduck clicked off the radio, and pocketed it. Turning around in the tent, he glanced at Launchpad for a moment. The pilot looked to be both startled and nervous as well as apprehensive, but Negaduck didn't really care. Looking away, he walked right past the captive pilot and to the dark corner of the tent that Negarian had vanished into.

Hidden in the dim light was a flap that led into another room in the tent. Negaduck stepped through it without hesitation. Inside the significantly smaller room, a lonely candle sat on the floor, and burned, creating a single fragrant flame that didn't even flicker. Sitting cross-legged right before this candle on a cushion was Negarian, his eyes closed, and looking to be meditating. Sitting on a tall perch on one side was Negarian's familiar raven. Seeing Negaduck enter, the bird let out a caw.

"Negaduck's here!" it exclaimed.

"Yes, I know, Percival." Negarian replied calmly without turning or opening his eyes.

"I take it that you heard, then." Negaduck remarked.

"But of course. Interesting turn of events, this, and I think one that even you were not expecting."

"I wasn't." Negaduck said. "And I'm mildly annoyed that I didn't learn of it sooner. But it actually could prove to be useful."

"Really."

"You, of course, remember one of the requests I made when we first met?"

"I remember telling you that I didn't find it likely it could be done."

"But given this new development..." Negaduck sounded hopeful.

Negarian was silent as he considered the possibilities. "It probably can be achieved, now that we know this." he agreed.

"Yes!" Negaduck cheered quietly.

"But first things first." Negarian went on. He opened his eyes and glanced back at Negaduck. "Don't forget our agreement, Negaduck. Once we're through here, _then _we can move on to your project."

Negaduck grinned. "Then I'll see to it that our business here is finished as quickly as possible." he promised, and exited the room.

* * *

Darkwing and Agents Mia and Sandy quickly got to work refitting the castle with new defenses and weapons brought from the Posiverse. The squadron of SHUSH commandos was quickly stationed on the castle walltops and patrolling it. The royal guard were quickly instructed on how to use the guns brought from the Posiverse, and were equipped with as many that could be spared. Three mountable machine guns, similar to the one that was on the jeep, were placed on top of the castle's three tallest towers, and overlooked the whole area. Within an hour, the castle was much better protected than it was before.

Meanwhile, using instructions Morgana had given Darkwing, who had written them down on paper and later gave Crimson, Crimson had been practicing casting a spell that would hopefully get rid of Negarian's magical monsters, drawing magical power from Raphael, who was serving as a familiar fairly effectively, though Crimson worried that the fact he was from a different reality was creating side-effects, because while she quickly began to be able to cast the spell properly, she struggling to control it properly.

Once, she had the spell backfire unexpectedly upon her, knocking her backwards and onto the ground. Fortunately, she was unharmed, but Crimson still worried about it. She had never seen a spell react like that before. Down in the hidden room with the portal generator, Techno and Lewis maintained it, and made sure it could be used whenever it might be needed. They did quickly deduce, however, that the generator could only open a portal for a maximum of fifteen minutes, and then it would overload and burn out. It wouldn't be likely to be useable again after that. Lewis remarked that they would simply have to make sure that the next time they use it will be the last time.

Finally, as darkness started to fall, Agent Mia decided that the castle was as ready for attack as it would ever be. Meaning that there was something else that she needed to do, and she had the beginning of an idea for it. She wanted to run it by Darkwing first, however, and get his thoughts on the matter. Once the changes on the castle's defenses were well underway, however, Darkwing had left to work on something else, and never returned. Wondering where he was, Mia sought him out.

Eventually, getting help from others, Agent Mia finally found Darkwing in an empty chamber in the castle, working his gas gun. Mia watched for a few moments as Darkwing put the finishing touches on the shock dart he was working with before returning it to it's clip before announcing her presence by clearing her throat.

Darkwing looked up. "Agent Mia!" he said. "Good, I was just about to go looking for you."

"And I've been looking everywhere for you." Mia said, stepping into the room. "I need your input on a few things about rescuing Launchpad..."

"Yeah, about that, I think I'm onto something here." Darkwing said excitedly. "See, I stopped and watch Crimson practicing casting that spell for a little while, which, by the way, she thinks she's gotten the hang of. But after awhile of watching, I noticed that all the spell was an extreme burst of energy. I think how it works is that it merely 'overloads' the energy that makes those magical monsters what they are and they're destroyed."

"Right." Mia said.

"So, a shock dart would work to defeat them." Darkwing said, holding up the clip.

"Yes, but we tried that already, and they weren't as effective as we hoped." Mia said, not following.

"That's because they simply weren't powerful enough." Darkwing said. "I've been working on boosting the power output significantly on this clip of shock darts, tripling their power. _Now _they should be very effective against those monstrosities, or at the very least stun them long enough to slip past." he loaded the clip into the gas gun, and handed the weapon to Mia. "It should be very helpful when you go to rescue Launchpad."

Mia grinned as she accepted the weapon. "You're a step ahead of me." she remarked, then grew serious. "I'm taking Agent Sandy and a couple of commandos with. I don't intend to be gone too long."

"Okay, we'll hold the fort here." Darkwing said, with a nod. "Good luck, Mia."

Mia nodded. "You too, Darkwing. And don't worry, I'll bring him back."

"I don't doubt that you will." Darkwing replied with a grin.

* * *

"All right, we're back." Rowe remarked as he, Bushroot, and Quackerjack strolled into the camp and over to where Negaduck stood, calmly waiting for them. "So what do you want us to do?"

Negaduck merely grinned, and tossed Rowe his portal remote. "I need you to go and get some friends." he said as the otter reflexively caught the device. "Only problem is, they aren't in this universe."

* * *

The magic monsters Negarian had created were certainly powerful and dangerous, but they certainly weren't meant for stealth. Not only were they so massively big, but they glowed quite brightly in the darkness that had fallen over the valley. They were impossible to miss. And as such, it was quite easy to hide from.

Ducking behind some bushes not far from where one of the five magical monsters that encircled the valley where Negarian and his forces camped, Agent Mia and her party watched as the monster idly walked into the area, then stopped, looking around as if sensing intruders nearby.

"Wonder if it can smell us...like a dog or some other animal would." one of the two commandos Mia had brought along wondered aloud.

"I'm not going to give it the chance to." Mia remarked, pulling out Darkwing's gas gun.

"You really think this is going to work?" Agent Sandy asked, skeptical, and a little bit leery of the monster that stood before them. "Darkwing was confident it would work the first time, but it didn't, not really."

"I don't need it to work perfectly." Mia said, as she took aim. "Just need it to get that thing out of our way for a little bit."

She fired a single shock dart. Technically speaking, it didn't really "hit" the monster in terms one would expect, for the dart simply whizzed right through the monster like it wasn't even there. But the moment the dart came in contact with the magical creature, it began sparking violently, creating a bright flare of electrical energy that caressed across the monster's body. The monster reared up and let out a loud roar as the energy continued to discharge into it, then, moaning, dropped to the ground with a heavy thud and didn't move. Mia and her group, who had ducked down further behind the bushes when the roaring began, now cautiously poked their heads back up to look at the fruits the shock dart had brought about.

"Well..." Sandy began, surprised at the reaction the shock dart had brought about, "...that was...loud."

"At least it's stunned." Mia said, breaking cover and moving carefully into the valley, motioning for the others to follow her.

The monster's loud and unexpected reaction to the fired shock dart had drawn the attention of some of Negarian's foot soldiers, and a number of them wandered over to investigate why one of their magical guards had suddenly collapsed. Agent Mia and her group kept their distance from this unwanted sight of attention and moved carefully to avoid detection, but they didn't have much need to worry. All of the attention was on the fallen creature and not where they were.

Within moments, they had safely entered the camp undetected, and quickly proceeded towards what was most obviously was Negarian's tent.

* * *

"Now," Negaduck began as he once again circled Launchpad, the pilot watching the villain nervously and warily. "How shall I dispose of you? I mean, I can't very well let you live, not with what you know. Perhaps with a knife?" he withdrew a dagger from within his jacket and held it out to examine it, making sure Launchpad got a good look at it. "I could just stab you and be done with it." he paused, debating. "Nah, that might drag this out longer than it needs to be."

With a skilled twist of his hand, he hurled the dagger away. It embedded itself in the headrest of the wooden throne-like chair that had been vacant since Launchpad's arrival. Launchpad eyed the quivering blade for a moment, thankful that, at the very least, his life would be spared for another few seconds.

"I need something quick and effective." Negaduck went on, as he continued circling the captive pilot. "Maybe some kind of explosive..." he reached into his jacket and withdrew a hand grenade, and, to Launchpad's alarm, pulled the pin and fingered it for a moment. "Then again...no, that would draw way too much attention to this camp."

He stuffed the pin back into the grenade, rendering the device inactive again, and tossed the grenade carelessly into one corner of the tent. Launchpad half expected the grenade to explode anyway, but it didn't. Negaduck continued contemplating Launchpad's demise.

"Maybe if I had some kind of smaller explosive." Negaduck thought aloud. "Quackerjack would have just the kind of thing I'm looking for...oh, but I sent him and the others to...well...never you mind that, LP." he shot Launchpad a cruel grin that only made Launchpad that much more nervous.

Finally, the villain stopped and stood behind Launchpad, his back turned towards the tent's entrance. "I suppose I'll just have to shoot you, then." Negaduck said, and withdrew his trademark pistol, pointing it at the base of Launchpad's skull. "Bullet to the head at close range should do it."

The gun clicked as Negaduck loaded the pistol's chamber, and Launchpad reflexively gulped. Then, suddenly, the sound of another gun, this one of a different sort, was heard, quickly followed by another voice.

"Drop the gun, Negaduck." Agent Mia instructed darkly.

With a glare, Negaduck turned around slowly, still holding the gun, and looked at the open entrance to the tent. Standing there was Agent Mia, the weapon she carried raised and pointed straight at Negaduck as she glared at the villain. Also with her was Agent Sandy and two SHUSH commandos, who had their weapons at the ready, but not in position to fire. They were leaving that up to Mia, apparently.

"I said _drop it_." Mia repeated again when Negaduck made no move to drop his pistol.

Negaduck's glare narrowed further still. But slowly, he held out his gun hand, and dropped the weapon to land at his feet. Completely unalarmed, but very aggravated, Negaduck then slowly put his hands in the air. Now Mia motioned to Launchpad sitting behind Negaduck, trying to twist his head to get a good look at his rescue party.

"Untie him." Mia ordered. "Now!"

Still glaring at Mia, Negaduck obeyed, bending over to loosen Launchpad's bonds, while still keeping an eye on Mia. The moment the rope fell from Launchpad's limbs, the pilot was up on his feet, and twisted around and hurried over to join the others in the doorway of the tent, standing behind Mia, as if he planned to use Mia as a shield. Mia hardly seemed to notice. Negaduck stood watching the group for a moment, folding his arms.

"Now what?" he finally asked contemptuously. "You can't just leave, not while I know that you've been hear and will be able to raise the alarm."

"Well, we can easily correct that." Mia replied darkly, and fired her weapon at Negaduck.

The bullets never hit the villainous duck, and instead ricocheted off a barrier of energy that suddenly sprang up in front of Negaduck the same time Mia fired. Surprised, and seeing that she couldn't hit Negaduck now, she stopped firing. It was then that Negarian stepped into view with his familiar perched on his shoulder, calmly maintaining the energy shield that protected them both from the party of intruders.

"I normally dislike unwanted guests who arrive without advance notification." Negarian told the group calmly. "So I think it is time you all simply left."

And with that, he cast a spell that knocked Agent Mia and company off their feet and up into the air, being hurled right out of a valley like they were a thrown baseball. They kept going until they were lost from sight in the inky darkness of the night.

Negaduck's eyes went wide. "Why did you do _that_?" he snapped to the emotionless Negarian. "Launchpad knew of my plans, and they _all _know that I'm here!"

"It was not my fault you revealed your own plans to someone you did not want to know them." Negarian replied calmly. "Besides, they will land about halfway back to the castle, and aren't likely to land without injury. They will have to travel the rest of the way on foot. And, to further complicate things for them, I intend to mobilize my forces to go and attack the castle. They'll have to figure out some way to outrun them, and to keep from getting caught in the crossfire. And if they manage to do that much, they will also need to find someway to figure out how to survive long enough to even relay the information they know to the right authorities."

Negaduck grinned, impressed and all hard feelings forgiven. "I have to hand to you, Negarian." he said. "You think of _everything_."

* * *

As Negarian predicted, the landing was not pleasant for Mia and the others, though it thankfully did end up not as bad as it could've. Yelling loudly, Agent Sandy was the first to hit the earthen ground, landing on her side and skidding a few feet. One of the two SHUSH commandos landed next, feet first, an audible crack ringing out as he landed wrong and his leg broke, quickly followed by a shout of pain from him. He was then followed by Launchpad, who hit the ground rolling. Mia landed in conjunction with the last commando, Mia landing like a parachuter would, the commando hitting the ground hard on his side, but was quickly back up again and was scrambling to retrieve his fallen weapon.

Mia, also unhurt for the most part, quickly jumped up as well, but she had unfortunately lost her weapon in the incident and couldn't find it. "Is everyone all right?" she asked loudly.

"Just bruised even more now." Launchpad said, standing up, and wobbling around a little dizzily. "What's with me and falling down today?"

"I'm fine as well, for the most part." Sandy added, picking herself up more slowly, favoring one shoulder. "Probably wrenched my shoulder a bit, but nothing too bad."

"I think I'm the most injured person here." the commando with the broken leg wheezed between clenched teeth, grimacing with pain. "How the heck did all of _you _fair so much better?"

"Sheer dumb luck, I suppose." Agent Sandy replied, helping the injured commando to his feet, who yelped every time his injured leg was bumped.

"Well, actually, in my case, that's just how I live." Launchpad remarked.

"C'mon, we'd better head the rest of the way to the castle." Agent Mia said, joining them. "It's not safe here."

"And it's going to get a whole lot more unsafe here in a little bit." the second commando remarked suddenly, looking back towards the site of Negarian's camp.

Everyone followed his gaze, and noted with dismay that Negarian's army was on the move, surging out of the valley in a wave of bodies, the much bigger and faster glowing forms of all five magical monsters leading the group as a kind of first wave. It was heading right in their direction. And in the direction of the castle.

"Run!" Agent Mia exclaimed, the feline turning tail and racing as fast as she could for the castle visible some distance from them.

The others followed her example, the second commando quickly catching up to Mia. Launchpad and Sandy hung back to help the first commando as best as they could, supporting him up between them, moving as fast as they could to try and keep up.

And behind them, Negarian's army gained.

* * *

Back at the castle, Crimson was walking on the battlements placing on top of the protective wall that surrounded the castle, taking a turn at guard duty. With her was Raphael and Gwendolyn, and the three were currently engaged in a friendly conversation.

"So you really can't think of any other people here that are universal doubles to us in the Posiverse?" Crimson asked.

"No, not from what I've seen of your group, nor from the descriptions you've provided of other people." Gwendolyn remarked.

"Although, I think I once met up with a traveling gypsy that, if I remember correctly, looked remarkably like one from your group." Raphael commented suddenly. "What was her name? It started with an 'M'..."

"Agent Mia?" Crimson asked.

"Yes, that was it!"

Crimson laughed. "I can just picture Mia's expression when she finds out about _that_!" she said. "She'll completely..."

"Attack!" someone on the walltops suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the northwest.

Cutting the conversation short, the three turned to look, and indeed saw that Negarian's army was rapidly approaching. The army of foot soldiers was still a long way off, but the five magical monsters were just moments away from reaching the castle and attacking.

"Oh no!" Raphael exclaimed, hurrying forward. "We won't stand a chance against those!"

Crimson quickly stopped him. "We will if we use the spell!" she told him, then turned back to Gwendolyn. "Gwen, get back inside the castle! It's not going to be safe for you to be out here in a few moments!"

Gwendolyn, however, followed the group anyway, and would silently refuse to leave. She was just as much in this fight as they were, perhaps even more so, as she was of royal blood, and would not be dissuaded. Crimson eventually gave up trying to send her away, and just let her come. Raphael continued to protest, but they fell upon deaf ears.

Finally, the three arrived at the northwestern corner of the castle walls, where they would be closest to the oncoming monsters, which were close enough now that the ground under them was shaking with each pounding footstep. Crimson quickly took aim at the closest, leading monster.

"All right, here's hoping this spell works." she muttered.

She thrust her arms forward and mentally commanded that the spell be cast, drawing the needed power from nearby Raphael. From her hands a burst of bright green light, and raced towards the leading monster. It hit the ground right before the creature and discharged, not even affecting the monster as it raced onward towards the castle.

Crimson was beside herself. "I _missed_?" she exclaimed. "How could I miss?!"

"Try again!" Raphael urged, tugging on her sleeve as the monster arrived at the castle wall.

Crimson geared up to try it, but she wasn't fast enough. The almost dragon-like monster suddenly reared up onto it's hind legs and roared, and grabbed at the castle wall with it's forepaws, it's claws shattering the masonry ramparts under it's powerful grip. The wall shuddered under the impact, and all stared at the monster before them. It let out another roar, then drove it's head downward at the guard stationed on the wall, baring it's fangs.

Crimson reacted instinctively, and used her magic to throw up a protective shield around the northwest corner of the walltops. It worked, and the monster's head bounced off, dazing it, or so it seemed. Crimson didn't wait to find out, and while maintaining the shield, tired casting the spell again, sending it right through the shield. The spell hit the monster right on, which recoiled, then simply evaporated, and was gone.

A moment of stunned silence fell on the walls. Then, dropping the shield, Crimson turned and cast for more spells at the remaining monsters and destroying them just as they, too, arrived at the walls. Finally, an uneasy calm fell upon the walltops.

"It worked." Gwendolyn announced unnecessarily, breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush they all received.

"Well, that bought us some time." Crimson remarked, looking out at the foot soldiers that were still on their way here.

"At least we can handle the foot soldiers a lot better than we could those monsters." Raphael added. He grinned. "I think you turned the odds in our favor."

"That is until Negarian does something to compensate." Crimson said, thinking that the battle was just beginning.

Preparations for continuing the battle once the foot soldiers arrived continued. After a few moments, Darkwing and King Waddlemeyer, the latter decked out in battle armor, arrived on the walltops.

"What happened?" Darkwing asked breathlessly, wiping at his brow. "We heard there was an attack."

"There was, the monsters came." Crimson explained, turning to him. "I used the spell. It worked, the monsters are gone now."

"Well, thank heavens for that." the king said, and moved to head further down the wall. "I'll help rally the forces for the next wave."

"In the meantime, I guess we just wait." Darkwing remarked.

"Or we could help them." Raphael suddenly spoke up, pointing.

Racing towards the castle was Agent Mia and Sandy, Launchpad, and the two SHUSH commandos, one of which was being supported Sandy and Launchpad. Darkwing looked at them for a moment, then pushed past everyone to hurry towards the gates. Silently, Crimson, Raphael, and Gwendolyn followed to help. In a few moments, they were all opening the castle gates long enough for Agent Mia's group to enter, then were promptly shut again.

"Launchpad!" Crimson exclaimed in relief, grabbing the pilot in a hug. "You're all right!"

"Well, I'm bruised, battered, sore, and I think I twisted my wrist at some point, because it's aching like nothing else, but yeah...I'm overall okay." Launchpad said, awkwardly returning the hug.

"We barely got out of there alive." Mia said breathlessly, turning to Darkwing to report. "We nearly got trampled by those magical monsters on our way here, and Negarian's army is, of course, closing in on here, and I was so worried there for a moment that we'd get caught in the crossfire. Thankfully, the monsters didn't seem to notice us, and we of course outran the rest of the army, so...we're alive. Barely."

"In fact, I'm surprised we _did _get out of there alive." Sandy said, carefully laying the injured commando on the ground as two castle healers hurried over to help him. "I mean, those two had the _perfect _chance to do us in, but..."

"Those two?" Darkwing repeated. "Whose 'those two'?"

Mia sighed. "Negarian and..." she winced, "...Negaduck."

This surprised Darkwing and Crimson. "Negaduck?" they repeated together, shocked.

"Which reminds me!" Launchpad suddenly exclaimed. "I know what Negaduck's master plans are! He's..."

He was cut short when a hailstorm of arrows suddenly rained down on the castle grounds. Yelping in panic, everyone in the way quickly hurried and sought shelter. The two healers moved the injured commando to a stretcher and began moving him into the castle. Agent Mia ordered the other commando to go with, then dodged as an arrow pierced the ground at her feet.

"Negarian's army is attacking!" Raphael said urgently, and turned and took off for the walltops again, forcing Crimson to follow as she was still magically connected to him.

"Whatever it is you have to tell us, LP, it'll have to wait!" Darkwing said, turning briefly to his sidekick. "Now c'mon, they're probably going to need our help holding back that army!"

* * *

From afar, one could clearly see the battle going on at the castle in the distance. Negarian currently stood at the edge of the valley, watching it go on from afar. He wanted to go and join in the fight, but at the moment, he was waiting for Negaduck, who was in turn waiting outside the tent for his own party.

"C'mon, c'mon, you knobs." Negaduck grumbled, looking at his watch. "I would've expected you guys back by now. So where are you?"

Then, without warning, a multicolored transdimensional portal suddenly sprang into existence just before the tent's entrance. After a brief pause, Rowe, Bushroot, and Quackerjack calmly stepped out of the portal.

"We're back, boss!" Quackerjack exclaimed brightly.

"Did you find him?" Negaduck snapped urgently.

"Sheesh, don't even say hello..." Rowe muttered, and stepped aside, clearing the path before the portal.

Another figure stepped out, one Negaduck was hoping to see, and grinned. The figure, unsurprisingly, looked like Drake Mallard, only this universal double wore a high-ranking military outfit and had a grizzled face and wore a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"General Mallard." Negaduck greeted, relieved. "I take it these three knobs successfully delivered my message to you?"

"Hey!" Bushroot protested.

"Yes, they did, and I recommend you all take step back from the portal, because we're coming fully loaded for this." General Mallard said empathically.

He motioned everyone to the side, just in time for a whole army from the general's universe to begin filing through, armed to the teeth, many of them on their own jeeps and vehicles, speeding through the portals quickly before stopping to regroup.

"So, where this castle we're taking on?" General Mallard asked.

Negaduck pointed up at the ridge of the valley. "Up there." he replied. "Negarian's already started attacking with his own forces, but a certain thorn in my side is interfering. Negarian's forces combined with yours should be enough to turn the tide, though."

"Got it." the general said with a nod. "Now excuse me, I'll rally the troops together, and give them their orders."

He walked off to do just that. Rowe walked up to Negaduck carrying the portal remote.

"Here boss, I suspect you'll want this back." he said, tossing it to Negaduck.

Negaduck toss it back. "I want you to hang onto it." he said. "The moment the general's personal army is through that portal and it closes, I want you to leave this universe."

"What?" Quackerjack wined. "You mean we can't help you guys play with the guys in the castle?"

"That's 'fight', Quackerjack." Bushroot corrected.

"Same thing to me." Quackerjack retorted.

"Look, I don't need you guys hanging around here." Negaduck said. "So the first chance you've got, get!"

"Okay, so...go back to the Posiverse, then?" Rowe asked.

"No, go to the Negaverse." Negaduck said. "You'll be taken care of there, and then we'll regroup, and I'll have new orders for you then."

"And what about the portal remote?" Bushroot asked, taking it from Rowe. "Won't you need it to leave, too?"

"Negarian and General Mallard both have one of their own." Negaduck said hotly, getting annoyed. "Now, do I have to spell everything else for you guys, or do you got it?"

"No, we've got it, boss." Rowe said, snatching back the remote from Bushroot.

Negaduck nodded, and walked off.

"I don't know about you guys, but I have a bad feeling about all of this." Bushroot remarked.

"Well, I just know what we've been told to do." Rowe said, turning to watch General Mallard's army file out the portal. "We'll worry about anything else later."

* * *

"These guys just keep coming!" Darkwing grumbled as he ducked an arrow the opposing army had fired.

"They've all arrived at the castle walls now, so we shouldn't be expecting any more!" Raphael remarked, firing an arrow back in response.

"Think we really can drive these guys back?" Crimson asked, who had given up trying to use her magic due to her lack of training and it's unpredictable results and turned to a P90 instead. "They're really putting up a fight!"

"We don't have much choice!" Agent Mia exclaimed as she fired her own weapon into the ranks of Negarian's army. "If we don't, the castle will fall!"

"By the looks of it, though, I think we can stand our ground, just so long as we don't get another unexpected surprise!" Agent Sandy remarked, also firing her weapon.

That was when Launchpad saw them. "Hey, Raphael, didn't you say that all of Negarian's army had gotten here already?" he asked loudly, so to be heard over the cacophony of battle.

"Aye, why do you ask?" Raphael said, looking up from the battle to follow Launchpad's gaze.

That alone answered everything. To Raphael's shock, a swarm of dark dots, which had to be more of the army, was surging in their direction.

"How can that be?" the otter exclaimed. "All of the army should be here already!"

"Maybe they're stragglers...?" Crimson asked hesitantly.

"But then...what held them up?" Mia asked. "Maybe..."

She got no further when something suddenly roared over their heads and impacted the top of one of the castle's towers and exploded, spraying stone and masonry everywhere. They all ducked as the debris rained down, then cautiously stood back up again, watching as gunfire from the group of newcomers began to burst into the air.

"What was that?" Gwendolyn asked.

"A surface-to-air missile!" Mia exclaimed, shocked.

"That group of the army has modern weaponry at their disposal!" Sandy exclaimed.

"And I know why!" Darkwing said, having pulled out a pair of binoculars and started examining the newcomers. "Those guys look like an army from _our _universe!"

"_Except_, they're attacking _us_!" Crimson retorted, ducking again as bullets ricocheted off the parapet in front of them.

Another surface-to-air missile was launching, nicking the side of the castle itself. They all ducked again, which wasn't helping them fight back.

"Negaduck's behind this, he has to be!" Darkwing snarled.

"He probably is!" Launchpad declared. "He has a whole army of universal doubles at his disposal, maybe one came with it's own personal army!"

"He's got _what_?" Darkwing exclaimed.

"That's what I needed to tell you!" Launchpad said. "That's Negaduck's plan!"

"Okay, LP, start explaining!"

A grenade exploded just outside the wall, and two more exploded within the castle grounds, causing pandemonium.

"There's no time for that!" Mia interrupted. "We can't hold this position, not with those kind of guns being used against us! We need to evacuate!"

"_Evacuate_?" Darkwing repeated. "But what about...?"

He was cut off when another surface-to-air missile was launched and impacted the walltops not far from where they stood, shattering the wall. More bullets were fired in the area of the impact, taking out as many survivors of the impact as possible. They all ducked as bullets ricocheted around them.

Darkwing was semi-stunned for a moment, then nodded. "Retreat!" he exclaimed, turning and heading for the staircase that led down from the walltops. "Everyone, into the castle! We gotta evacuate while we have the chance!"

"We can use the portal generator to evacuate as many people as we can!" Agent Mia said, as they ran.

Others began to follow their example, but the opposing armies were rapidly overwhelming them, smothering the forces of the castle and quickly cutting them down. And some just weren't about to give up so easily, refusing to move and continue to fight back, only to be killed by some weapon a few moments later.

King Waddlemeyer was one of these people.

"Keep fighting!" He roared. "I will not give up!"

"Wait!" Gwendolyn exclaimed, twisting away from Crimson who was escorting her when she saw that her father wasn't following. "Father!"

She moved as if to go to him, but never got the chance, as yet another surface-to-air missile from the arriving armies seemingly endless supply struck the portion of the wall the king and his surrounding forces, and the group vanished in the resulting explosion, the shockwave blowing Gwendolyn back into Crimson, who was coming to get her.

"NOOOO!" Gwendolyn wailed in utter dismay, breaking down into tears right there.

Crimson stood there too shocked to move, looking to be about ready to scream herself. Agent Sandy, who had gotten held up momentarily to pull a SHUSH commando who had been stationed on the wall away from the battle, came along and quickly grabbed the two girls as well, and pulled them away, and down from the walltops. Which was good, because a few moments later, the walls buckled, and toppled over, crumbling under the unusual strain they were receiving, taking whomever was still on the walls with it. The army the walls had been keeping out now began streaming in, picking off the fleeing castle inhabitants and their helpers.

"Run!" Darkwing exclaimed, ducking as a grenade took out the jeep he and his group had arrived in with a burst of flames. "Into the castle!"

They surged inside the castle, with some of the defenders staying in the entrance to hold back the oncoming army. Now the castle began receiving the brunt of the attacks, and was quickly beginning to tremble, threatening to collapse at any moment.

"Crimson, call Techno, tell him to have the portal opened to the Posiverse, now!" Agent Mia exclaimed, as they ran through crumbling hallways, starting to crack and buckle under the stress, dodging debris as it rained down at them. "We'll try and evacuate as many people as we can through there!"

"Huh?" Crimson said, still dazed by how badly the whole battle was going, then with a shake of her head, snapped out of it. "Oh! Right away!" she pulled out her walkie-talkie. "Techno! Open a portal to the Posiverse, stat!"

"Already done!" Techno promptly replied. "What's going on? There's all kinds of turmoil going on up there that we can hear even way down here, but none of it clear enough to get any straight answers!"

"We're evacuating!" Crimson replied. "The battle's been lost!"

They hurried onward, their numbers slowly beginning to dwindle for one reason or another. Most of them were castle inhabitants hanging back to try and help others and were getting left behind in the hustle as a result. Many wanted to wait for them to catch up, but there simply wasn't enough time. There was no telling how much longer the castle would remain standing, and how long until Negarian's army and it's reinforcements overran everything else.

They were nearly to the cellars when a loud bang rang out somewhere above them, and the whole hallway shook. Many of it's walls cracked and crumbled, raining dust and dirt down on the fleeing people. Bricks started to be shook loose from the ceiling and started falling down. One struck a commando in the head near Mia, and he started to fall. Mia quickly grabbed him and supported him, trying not to fall over herself. Then, with a resounding crash, the middle part of the roof of the stone hallway suddenly caved in, created a cloud of dust and filled the rest of the corridor.

As the dust cleared, they saw that the group had been promptly cut in half, the rest trapped behind the wall of dirt and bricks that now blocked the hallway, or crushed under the fallen earth. All who remained that could continue forward unhindered was Darkwing, Crimson, Launchpad, Agents Sandy and Mia, a handful of SHUSH commandos that were hovering around Mia for orders at the time of the cave-in, and Raphael and Gwendolyn.

They stood there stunned for several moments. Raphael and a couple of commandos moved forward to start shifting the fallen debris blocking the others on the other side from continuing, but a quick bark from Mia stopped them

"It's too late." she said solemnly.

"We can't just leave them there to die!" Raphael snapped. "We have to try and help them!"

"If we do, then we _all _will die!" Darkwing snapped back, seeing what Mia was getting at. "There simply isn't the time!"

The two commandos nodded reluctantly and rejoined the group as ordered, but Raphael merely shrugged them off, and continued working.

"Continue on, and do what you will!" Raphael barked as he worked desperately. "I'm going to at least _try _to save them!"

And with that, he continued working, ignoring all the attempts from the others try and talk him out of it, and Gwendolyn's pleas to come with. Finally, seeing that Raphael had made up his mind and couldn't be talked out of it, the group slowly began hurrying again, Gwendolyn hesitant to leave Raphael working singlehandedly to try and unblock the hallway.

They finally arrived in the cellar, which was already an absolute mess, for all of it's shelves had fallen over and spilling it's contents on the floor. Avoiding the worse of the mess as best as possible, they moved towards the open trapdoor that led down to the portal generator. Techno was there waiting for them.

"Thank heavens!" He exclaimed in relief when he saw them, and quickly began filing them through the trapdoor. "I was starting to fear the worse! Who else is coming?"

Darkwing and Mia, last to enter the hidden chamber below, hesitated.

"We're not sure, Tech." Darkwing admitted.

"It's doubtful, at best." Mia added.

Techno froze for a moment, then silently nodded, slipping through the trapdoor with them.

Inside the chamber, the portal was open as promised, but it was already beginning to flicker.

"You guys had better hurry, I don't know how much longer I can keep that portal open!" Lewis exclaimed from behind the generator's control panel, working frantically.

At that moment, the chamber suddenly shook violently, causing for started yelps from among the survivors. The generator began sparking profusely due to the strain it was being subjected to.

"Well, what are you waiting for, an invitation?" Agent Mia exclaimed suddenly to the group. "Go!"

No one needed to be told twice, and quickly began racing through the portal. Crimson grabbed Gwendolyn's hand and started dragging the princess towards the portal.

"C'mon Gwen!" she exclaimed.

But Gwendolyn held back, and wrenched her hand out of Crimson's. "No!" she said. "I'm going to wait for Raphael!"

Crimson stopped, and turned to look at her. "But...Gwen..." she began.

"Besides..." Gwendolyn continued with a heavy heart, "My place is here, in my world. Not yours."

The two were silent for a moment. Darkwing and Agent Sandy, among the last to leave, noticed, and turned back to look at them.

"Gosalyn!" Darkwing exclaimed urgently, his fatherly worry for his daughter kicking in.

"Right." Crimson said, giving Gwendolyn one last glance, before racing to join Darkwing. They both quickly ducked through the portal.

"Lewis!" Sandy called to the portal generator's robotic operator. "Last chance to follow!"

"I'm the only thing that's keeping that portal open!" Lewis exclaimed as he continued to work. "I'm going to try and keep it open for as long as possible in case more evacuees show up! You go on ahead!"

Sandy hesitated, then nodded, and stepped through, leaving Gwendolyn to watch as Lewis worked with the generator, the generator sparking furiously and whining, with more tremors shaking the room repeatedly at every second.

* * *

In the Posiverse, everyone stood and waited with baited breath as they all watched the portal closely. It remained open for several more minutes, shimmering brightly as if trying to defy the dark mood that had settled in the room. Then, without warning, the portal suddenly snapped shut. Agent Sandy had been the last one to step through, and the only people who got through the portal was _some _of the original party from the Posiverse that had been sent through to begin with.

A heavy silence fell over the room. Many bowed their heads to morn for the loss of life. Hooter, who had been called down the moment the portal had opened, slowly stepped over to join the survivors standing at the bottom of the ramp, stopping beside Darkwing.

"I..." Hooter began, trying to choose his words carefully, "...take it the mission went badly, then."

"_Badly_?" Crimson repeated loudly and bitterly, glaring at Hooter suddenly. "That mission was an absolute _disaster_!" Then, suddenly fighting back tears, she angrily spun away and marched out of the room.

Darkwing sighed. "She's right, J. Gander." he agreed solemnly. "We really messed up this one."

He then turned and walked off as well. One by one, the other survivors from the incident silently did likewise. Hooter watched them all go, then sighed, turning to look back at the spot the portal had sat, open.

* * *

Some time later found Darkwing and the gang still at SHUSH Headquarters. Launchpad, Crimson, and Techno, still wearing the dust and dirt from the incident on their clothing, sat mournfully in the briefing room, sitting together in a group while they waited for Darkwing to return with the final report on the situation. They had been waiting for some time now.

Finally, Darkwing solemnly entered the room, looking more crestfallen than before. Everyone looked at him as he entered, and closed the door behind him. He turned to the group with a sigh.

"Dr. Bellum just managed to reestablish a portal connection with Gwendolyn's universe, and sent through a probe." he reported gravely, then shook his head. "It's not good news." he sighed. "There's nothing left of the castle but ruins. No apparent survivors. Negarian's army has already long since left."

Crimson slapped the table angrily with her fist, and cursed. No one objected. They all fell silent for a moment, then the intercom suddenly buzzed. Darkwing, being closer, answered it.

"Briefing room." he said, pressing the button.

"Darkwing?" Hooter's voice called out. "Can you come to my office for a moment, please?"

"Yeah, J. Gander, give me a moment." Darkwing replied, cutting the link, then glancing back at the others. They acted like they hadn't heard. Techno was currently trying to comfort Crimson, but looked like he needed comforting himself. Launchpad just looked eerily vacant...even for him. With another sigh, Darkwing turned and exited the briefing room again and headed slowly for Hooter's office, hoping some good news was in store for him.

Unfortunately, there was only bad news.

The first thing Darkwing saw when he entered the room, unannounced, was Vice President Jonas Norrin, the very last person Darkwing wanted to deal with at the moment.

"Oh great!" he snapped, then jabbed a finger at Norrin. "I am in _no _mood to deal with the likes of you at the moment, so you had better make this _quick_."

"Fine, I will." Norrin stated without preamble, annoyed at Darkwing's attitude. "Hooter and I were just discussing the matter of Negaduck's plans that recently came into the light."

Darkwing nearly blanked out for a second, having very nearly forgotten about the plans of Negaduck's Launchpad was able to reveal, but took the matter in stride. "Okay." he said slowly. "I suppose this has to do with my proposed mission to stop Negaduck in the Negaverse." he sighed. "Okay, so what problems does the government have with it?"

"Only one." Hooter said flatly. He, too, looked annoyed, but not because of Darkwing. "The fact that the mission isn't going to happen."

Of all the things Darkwing was expecting, this wasn't one of them. "Wh-what?" he asked, completely surprised. "Why not?"

"We aren't going to allow it, Darkwing." Norrin said. "Besides, you already sacrificed the lives of four to five SHUSH commandos and injured several more, not to mention the fact that quite possibly because of you, the whole populace of another universe was wiped out. Keeping in mind of the fact Negaduck has a fully armed army out there at his disposal, you really think we're going to let you go out there blindly and try and fight that?"

Darkwing knew that Norrin was exaggerating the situation, or at least hadn't listened to the whole story, but his words still hit close to home, and there was some truth to them. Darkwing found he couldn't argue Norrin's statement and bowed his head in silent submission.

"Which brings me to a matter of greater importance." Norrin continued. "As of now, we're ending the transdimensional portal project. The SHUSH portal generator is to be dismantled immediately, and all related materials to be placed into locked down storage until further notice."

"You're _what_?" Darkwing exclaimed, again surprised. "Are you _crazy?_ That generator is our only hope of stopping Negaduck!"

"It's also a means of him coming to us." Hooter said. "Norrin's words, not mine."

"It's true, though." Norrin said. "Negaduck plans to use the UIO portal generator to connect directly to SHUSH's, and strike at the heart of the SHUSH organization in his planned invasion first. But he can't, if there is no generator to connect to."

"And as the SHUSH building is shielded to prevent unauthorized portals from opening anywhere else in the building without the use of a portal generator, Negaduck will be unable to begin his invasion here." Hooter explained further.

"So?" Darkwing said. "Negaduck will simply open a portal somewhere else in the city, somewhere we can't expect, nor be able to rally the forces towards and stop the attack! Our only hope is to take the risk and use the portal generator to stop Negaduck before he stops us!"

"Out of the question." Norrin said. "We will deal with Negaduck some other way. For now, we need to use what little time we have to make sure Negaduck does not begin his invasion here." he adjusted his grey suit jacket. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other business to attend to."

He left, leaving Darkwing flabbergasted. He turned to Hooter. "J. Gander..." he began, "...are you just going to let them do this?"

"I'm sorry, Darkwing." Hooter apologized. "But even the president is ordering for this. Nothing I can do will overrule that. Not without legal consequences, at least."

Darkwing sighed. "No, I wouldn't want you to do that, Hooter." he admitted. "It's just...just..." he trailed off.

"Darkwing, I know you aren't in the best of spirits at the moment, but Norrin's plan does have some logic to it." Hooter said. "It might put us at more risk, but it also might buy us more time to prepare."

"It leaves us at the mercy of Negaduck, that's what." Darkwing said bitterly.

Hooter sighed. "Darkwing, we'll do everything we can to stop Negaduck." he vowed.

"I just hope it'll be enough." Darkwing muttered.

* * *

In the Negaverse, Rowe, Bushroot, and Quackerjack sat around in the warehouse Negaduck's men had placed them in, waiting for new information or orders as to what to do next.

"Y'know, this is actually kind of interesting." Rowe remarked aloud, but he didn't really sound all that interested. "We're hardly ever in the Negaverse. In fact, I think this is the longest we've ever been here."

"It's downright boring here." Quackerjack grumbled. "There's nothing to do."

"I'm still worrying about all of this." Bushroot said. "Something about this just doesn't add up for me. I think there's something Negaduck's not telling us."

"Entirely possible, mate." Rowe said. "But what?"

Bushroot was silent for a moment. "The fact that Negaduck left us out of the loop for so long irks me." he said. "I think if Negaduck really wanted our participation in this plan like he does now, he would've brought us in much sooner."

"So?" Quackerjack asked.

"I think Negaduck's only keeping us in the loop now to keep us busy." Bushroot said. "To keep us where he can keep an eye on us, and maybe out of the way of other things."

Rowe blinked. "But...why?" he asked.

"Maybe there's something about this plan we wouldn't like." Bushroot said. "Something that we'll react badly to."

"Like helping to bring about the demise of everyone in that castle?" Rowe asked. "I know that's not exactly giving me warm, happy, feelings at the moment, mate. More like heavy, depressing, feelings."

"Aw, you just need to lighten up!" Quackerjack said. "Maybe when this is all over, we'll have a party!"

"Not on my clock, you won't."

They turned in surprise, and saw Negaduck stroll in through the dark doorway that led in and out of the warehouse room they sat in.

"Negaduck!" Quackerjack exclaimed, surprised.

"I take it, then, that you finished whatever you were doing in that other reality?" Rowe asked.

"Yep." Negaduck said happily. "And as such, I've got Negarian fully onboard and a part of my plans."

And as if to stress this point, Negarian suddenly entered as well, silently coming to stand beside Negaduck. Negaduck glanced briefly, and happily, at him for a moment, then continued.

"Sorry for the delay, Negarian stopped to help me out with another matter that only he could help me with." Negaduck explained. "That's done and out of the way, however, and we can begin getting the final parts of my plan pulled together."

"So what are you going to have us do?" Bushroot asked flatly.

"You three are going to help fight when the time comes." Negaduck replied. "In the meantime, I just need you to stay out of the way while I rally the forces together. When the time _does _come, though, you'll be taking orders from one of my commanders."

"Oh joy." Rowe snorted. "So who are stuck taking orders from now?"

"Funny you should ask that, Rowe." Negaduck said. "It's actually someone you know rather well, and it's actually what Negarian was helping me with earlier." He and Negarian shared a grin, and then they both stepped to one side of the doorway. "You can come in now." Negaduck called.

The sound of tennis shoes tapping against the ground was heard as the newcomer entered the room, and stopped in the doorway. Rowe, not really interested as to how it was, lazily turned his head to look. Then his eyes snapped open wide as he bolted to his feet, shocked. Beside him, Quackerjack's jaw came unhinged. Bushroot turned very pale, and looked about ready to faint, but he, too, slowly rose to his feet.

The newcomer found this amusing.

"Oh, what's the matter, boys?" NegaGosalyn asked teasingly. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

* * *

_Fun Facts: Couple of deleted scences from this, although, none of it was spectactularly special. Just a Launchpad/Mia moment, a Gwendolyn/Raphael moment, a Crimson/King Waddlemeyer father and daughter bonding moment, a scene that discussed who on the team was wounded and how badly after it was all over, more introduction for the Fearsome Four's presence in this chapter, a scene where DW and the king chat about battle plans, a scene were DW acknowledges Mia's relationship to LP aloud, and a little bit more about Negarian that can wait for later. :)_

_At the beginning of the chapter, one or more character makes mention that the name Negarian rings a bell for them. It does; the name was first mentioned in chapter 10, "Origin", and was the name of Ekard's evil space pirate cousin in the story Zekekal told the gang. The name sounded medeival to me, so I recycled it for our newest Darkwing double, who's a magician. :)_

_Originally, I planned to have Crimson be the one who was caught by Negarian's forces, then opted to shake things up and use Launchpad instead, giving the pilot a slightly bigger role than usual. :)_

_Part of the reason the chapter is titled "The Life Not Lived" is because I intended to have Crimson and Gwen quickly befriend each other, and be constantly wondering about life in each other's universe. Unfortunately, due to everything else this chapter included, I didn't get to do much with that._

_The queen was killed off so to save the time and space that would be needed to introduce her for something else more important to the chapter. It actually helped here and there, so no regrets on that. :)_

_It is described that there is a big wooden chair in Negarian's tent that's like a throne, but oddly enough, no one ever sits in it, not even Negaduck. :p_

_Negarian's familiar, Percival, is described as being like Poe, but this isn't final just yet. For now, just think of him as a raven familiar who happens to talk. :)_

_I've been looking for a chance to introduce NegaNanite (referred to as Lewis in this chapter) for awhile now, and I'm glad I finally got the chance to do it. I debated whether or not I really wanted to kill him off in the end, but went through with it anyway so to not have any loose ends I'd have to resolve later for him._

_Finally, we learn all about roughly...half...of Negaduck's plans. More on that in another chapter. ;)_

_I had to go back and re-read aLOT of past material to be absolutely SURE that Negaduck had no previous knowledge of Crimson and Rowe's connection, and thankfully, there is none. That's good, because that was vital for me in this chapter._

_I allude to the fact that Crimson has some trouble with her magic in this chapter, but never really explained why. Most likely, it's because she's using a universal double for a familiar in this chapter, and not the actual familiar himself._

_We only got a taste of General Mallard in this chapter. More on him later. ;)_

_Originally, Raphael was going to follow everyone else all the way to the portal generator to evacuate before opting to stay behind (because Gwen was staying behind) but when I wrote in the scene with the caving in hallway, I didn't want everyone to just automatically admit there was nothing they could do and move on, and decided Raphael could be the one who stays behind to try and help._

_And the ending. Heh. Surprise. :)_

_And it all comes to a head next chapter, in the exciting, action-packed season finale, "Negaduck's Army". ;)  
_


	75. Negaduck's Army

Summary: Negaduck's army has begun invading St. Canard...and it seems nothing will stand in it's way...

Rating: T (but that shouldn't be surprising)

Author's Note: And here it is. Another record-breaking chapter...by nine more pages than last chapter. Thinking that was far too much regardless of the matter, I tried to thin it down, but couldn't find anything to thin. So here it is. I will never again write a single chapter this long for this fanfic, though, it's WAY too much effort to do so. :P Anyway, here it is, enjoy it. No fun facts.

75.

Negaduck's Army

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_I'm fed up with it all, Crimson. Negs, the Fearsome Five, my life, everything. It's time I took charge."_

_--  
_

"_Negaduck's planning something, and because he doesn't completely trust me, he's left me out of the loop this time. But whatever it is, I think it's big."_

_--  
_

"_I want to know what it is that you're planning. You can't hide it from me forever."_

"_Watch me."_

_--  
_

"_**What did you do?!**__"_

"_What makes you think I __**did**__ anything?"_

"_Oh, no you don't, don't you __**dare**__ play dumb with me!"_

_--  
_

"_You don't have any proof."_

"_I don't need any proof. I __**know**__ what you did."_

_--  
_

"_Plans for a sub-electron amplifier?"_

"_For building my own, of course."_

"_What the __**heck**__ do you want __**this**__ for?!"_

"_You'll see."_

_--  
_

_Crimson gasped, and moved to help NegaGosalyn, but she quickly saw it was too late._

_She was dead._

_--  
_

"_Negs, What are you going to do with her body?"_

"_I have plans to take care of the body properly, and some unfinished business to attend to."_

_--  
_

"_Many of the portals opened in the Negaverse, particularly in recent months, did not lead to the Posiverse."_

_--  
_

"_He's working on a project, you know, something __**big**__, something that will rock your universe to it's very __**core**__."_

_--  
_

"_That explains the portals we detected in the Negaverse that led somewhere other than the Negaverse. Negs really has been paying other universes a visit. But...why?"_

_--  
_

"_Wait, you're building an army?"_

"_That's right."_

"_Using universal doubles of yourself."_

"_Yep."_

_--  
_

"_You see those foot soldiers out there? Once, nearly __**all**__ of those people were once __**good**__ people like you. But Negarian has a very powerful spell he can cast that renders everyone caught in it his slave, allowing Negarian to control their very __**minds**__ and get them to do __**exactly**__ what he wants."_

"_You want to do the same thing in the Posiverse."_

_--  
_

"_You, Darkwing, and the rest aren't going to get as far as stopping me."_

"_If not us, then SHUSH will."_

"_Not if I strike at SHUSH first."_

"_And how do you plan to do that?"_

"_Well, I do believe that the UIO's portal generator is capable of connecting directly with SHUSH's, isn't it?"_

_--  
_

"_Crimson is using magic."_

"_You mean to tell me that __**Crimson**__ has magical __**blood**__?"_

_--  
_

"_You, of course, remember one of the requests I made when we first met?"_

"_I remember telling you that I didn't find it likely it could be done."_

"_But given this new development..."_

"_It probably can be achieved, now that we know this."_

_--  
_

"_As of now, we're ending the transdimensional portal project. The SHUSH portal generator is to be dismantled immediately, and all related materials to be placed into locked down storage until further notice."_

_--  
_

"_Negaduck plans to use the UIO portal generator to connect directly to SHUSH's, and strike at the heart of the SHUSH organization in his planned invasion first. But he can't, if there is no generator to connect to."_

_--  
_

"_When the time __**does**__ come, though, you'll be taking orders from one of my commanders."_

"_Oh joy. So who are stuck taking orders from now?"_

"_Funny you should ask that, Rowe. It's actually someone you know rather well, and it's actually what Negarian was helping me with earlier."_

_--  
_

"_Oh, what's the matter, boys? You look like you've seen a ghost."

* * *

_

It had been rather quiet that day at SHUSH Headquarters, with little to no activity occurring all day. Hooter was unsurprised. Ever since Negaduck's plans came into the light three days ago, all of the SHUSH agents had been recalled back to base to be ready when Negaduck attempted his invasion. Hooter had been assured that if and when it took place, Negaduck wouldn't get far before he was stopped.

Hooter certainly hoped that was the case.

SHUSH had been ordered by the president himself to immediately discontinue use and experimentation of the portal generator and immediately dismantle it. They claimed that, seeing that Negaduck hoped to begin his invasion by striking at SHUSH first and hitting it from within by using a hijacked UIO portal generator to connect directly to the SHUSH generator, by dismantling the device, Negaduck wouldn't be able to strike at SHUSH first, and be forced to strike somewhere else. The logic seemed sound. Darkwing, however, believed differently, pointing out that wouldn't stop the invasion either way, and claimed that by dismantling the generator, they were robbing themselves of the chance of stopping Negaduck before he strikes by attacking _him _at the source, instead of waiting for him to make the first move.

But Darkwing and company had already encountered part of the army of universal doubles and their combined forces once before in a disastrous mission that cost several lives of the inhabitants of the universe they were visiting, and a few of their own. The politicians weren't ready to trust any plan of Darkwing's at the moment because of it, much less listen to any of his input on key matters.

Hooter, however, was torn. He knew Darkwing, and had never had a reason to distrust his logic. Darkwing usually had a way of seeing things in a way that SHUSH couldn't see through it's more bureaucratic eyes. But the arguments he was hearing from capital hill seemed solid too. Hooter didn't know which side he should favor, if he should favor any side at all.

At the moment, however, he was going through with the president's plan of dismantling the portal generator, as he had been ordered directly to do it, and couldn't override it without dire consequences. That, and the fact that he couldn't find a good reason why not. At the moment, Negaduck was a potentially more dangerous threat than he had ever been before in the past. It seemed illogical to not take every precaution.

Or so it seemed to Hooter was he slowly paced his office, going back and forth across the room, heading towards his desk at one end of the room, then back over to the doorway leading out to his secretary's office on the other. With all of SHUSH more or less seeming sitting around and waiting, there wasn't much else to do but pace. Pace, and worry that Negaduck wouldn't still somehow catch them by surprise.

Dr. Bellum claimed that he wouldn't. While the portal generator had been one of her favorite projects, and one she hated to see be dismantled for the foreseeable future, she approved of the president's plan to dismantle the generator. As such, she had been spending most of her time the past three days working on just that. It was a slow process. Rendering the generator of sending outgoing portals had been easy, and was completed within an hour or so. Rendering it in capable of receiving incoming portals took longer, and would only be incapable of doing so sometime today. They had until then to decide to turn back, which at this point didn't seem likely.

Dr. Bellum had also spent some time working with the portal detection system, enhancing it's sensitivity to alert the right people the moment it detected the _slightest _glimmer of a portal opening in either the Posiverse or the Negaverse. At the moment, all was quiet in the Posiverse, but a lot of portals had been detected opening and closing in the Negaverse. Bellum reasoned that Negaduck was rallying together his army in preparation for the upcoming invasion, and that time was short.

So short that they just couldn't wait for somebody to decide what the right course of action would be. They had to do something now, regardless or not if it was a good idea.

Hooter continued pacing for a few moments, then a polite knock came at his office door.

"Come." Hooter said, turning to face the door.

The door opened a crack, and Agent Grant peeked in. "Director, Dr. Bellum asked me to report that she's about to sever the generator from any and all incoming portals, and will be rendered completely inoperable shortly."

"About time." Hooter muttered under his breath, then nodded, addressing Grant. "Good, tell her to continue, and to give me heads-up when she's done so."

Grant nodded, and departed. Hooter sighed, and sat down at his desk.

"Here's hoping that we aren't making a mistake." he mumbled.

* * *

In the SHUSH employee break room, Agent Sandy and Agent Mia sat on either side of one of the three tables that sat in the room. Sitting on the table between them was a single plate, and on it was a single saltine cracker, the last of a sizable pile that the two agents had been idling snacking on for the past half-hour. The two felines eyed the cracker for a long moment, then, without warning, they both grabbed it at the same time. Seeing they both had either end of the cracker, they both jerked their end to try and wrench the cracker free from each other's hand, but only ended up in snapping the cracker into two uneven halves, each holding one half. They both regarded their half of the cracker for a moment, then jointly sighed.

"This is what boredom looks like." Agent Mia grumbled.

"Well, at least we're ready the moment anything goes wrong." Sandy commented, biting into her half of the cracker.

"Mm." Mia muttered. "But doing nothing just in case something goes wrong, is still nothing. I think Darkwing's right. What we _should _be doing is fighting back against Negaduck's army before he starts invading, and not waiting for him to make the first move."

"And maybe so." Sandy agreed. "But we have our orders. And until that changes, we're not in a very good position to go against them."

"No, we're not." Mia admitted. "Still, I wish we could do..._something_."

"Well, I'm sure we'll be doing something here soon enough." Sandy replied.

* * *

"Hate to see this thing be taken apart, but you gotta do what you gotta do." Dr. Bellum said reluctantly as she pulled out computer parts from the bank of computers that operated the portal generator, handing to Agent Todd, who stood nearby with a box to put the parts into.

"Yes, I suppose we do, doctor." Todd commented. He looked around at the half-dismantled generator. "You really think taking this thing apart will help?"

"Absolutely." Dr. Bellum said, reaching in deep into the open panel to pull out a part. "An invasion always requires an ideal place to begin attacking from, a place where you can do the most damage the fastest, and sometimes with the least resistence. For Negaduck, striking here first would be the best move for him because, next to Darkwing and the others, SHUSH is his most formidable foe."

"But if he can't open a portal here, he'll just open a portal somewhere else and begin from there." Agent Todd pointed out.

"Very true, but he'll be out in the open by doing so, and then we can swoop down and take him out." Bellum said, and laughed in victory as she yanked out the part in question and held it up to the light. "Negaduck's going to be as good as defeated if you ask me."

"Maybe." Todd said, who wasn't so sure, accepting the part from Dr. Bellum. He was silent for a moment. "Dr. Bellum, would there be anyway for Negaduck to get around the problem of having no generator to connect to?"

"None whatsoever." Bellum replied, reaching back into the open panel to pull out another part. "See, the entire SHUSH building is shielded by a signal that scrambles energy used to create transdimensional portals. That includes this room. The reason we can still use the portal generator, however, is because the generator is connected to a special device that renders the generator and the portals it creates "immune" to the shielding by masking the energy used. Now, in instances such as this where we decide we don't want that, the only problem we have is actually getting to the device in question and disconnecting it. See, for safety and various security reasons, we keep it deep within the generator's computer systems to keep from anybody from tampering it. One would have to disable the generator from sending out portals and power down first, and then you have to remove several parts before you can even get at it." she grinned, however, as she felt around within the open panel. "We've done that all already, however. I'll have to do is find the cable that connects the generator with the masking device and disconnect it. And that cable is right...about...YOWCH!"

Bellum suddenly yanked her hand back out of the panel, it having been shocked unexpectedly by a power current. The same time this happened, the generator started to hum as if powering up. Bellum and Todd spun around in alarm, and looked up at the control tower that sat in the room, where a few scientists dismantling equipment were at. Bellum pointed her uninjured hand up at it.

"Did you...?" she began to shout up at them, but someone was quickly at the radio speaker system to give a reply.

"No, doctor, that wasn't us!" the scientist's surprised voice rang out through the speakers. "The generator just powered up on it's own accord!"

Bellum glanced back at the idling generator. "Then, that means..." she began, then her eyes widened. "...that there's an incoming portal! Guards! Agent Todd, help me find a way to disconnect the masking device!"

But it was already too late for that. A moment later, the usual portal flashed into existence in it's usual location. The guards that had been stationed within the room quickly gathered around the metal ramp that led up to the portal and dropped down low, raising their weapons to point at the multicolored ball of energy. Everyone watched the portal with baited breath.

Bellum glanced back up at the tower. "Are you receiving any kind of IDC?" she called.

"No!" the scientist in the tower radioed back, scanning the readouts he was getting. "Wait...doctor, I'm receiving the UIO's ID–"

"Guards!" Bellum exclaimed, interrupting as she didn't need to hear more, "Open..."

But then she was interrupted as a wave of translucent energy suddenly burst out of the portal and washed over the room, overloading electrical equipment, and stunning people, knocking them over. The guards were completely bowled over, as was Dr. Bellum. Agent Todd was hit as well, but recovered faster, and was quickly on his feet and racing for the door that led out of the room to raise the alarm.

Behind him, two armed gunman stepped out of the portal, and began firing indiscreetly at anything they deemed an threat. The stunned guards attempted to return fire, but those that did were cut down or wounded. One fired at Agent Todd as he reached the doorway, but missed as Todd quickly threw open the door and ducked outside, putting a cement wall between him and the firing intruders. A group of guards stationed outside the door quickly surged inside to help fight, but were simply attacked again by the two gunman, and two more that were now stepping through the portal and joining into the fray.

Todd didn't stop to watch, and instead slapped his hand on a red button that sounded a very rarely heard alarm in SHUSH HQ, and then hurried on up the stairs to rally more help, and to get himself out of the line of fire...

* * *

He ignored the blaring alarms that was alerting the whole building of the situation as SHUSH Headquarters went into lockdown mode as he stepped out of the portal. Walking down the ramp a few paces, he came to stand between the four gunmen and surveyed the situation. The gunmen had done exactly what they had been ordered to do, and had subdued everyone in the room for the moment. He grinned.

A few magical spells was then cast shortly thereafter that guaranteed the room to be secure. Still grinning, he pulled out a walkie-talkie.

"The room is now secure." Negarian reported happily. "You may begin sending the troops through, Negaduck."

* * *

The moment the alarms started ringing, Agent Mia was up on her feet in a flash, knocking over her chair in the process. Agent Sandy was quick to follow, her brow furrowing as she heard locks snapping shut all over the building, and SHUSH personnel beginning to run wildly through the corridors outside.

"What is that alarm?" Sandy asked, confused by the unfamiliar sound, but knowing it was important. "I've never heard that alarm before!"

"It means that an transdimensional invasion is occurring in sub-level five!" Mia exclaimed as she raced for the door, drawing her sidearm. "Negaduck and his army must be attacking, right now!"

"Great seasons!" Sandy exclaimed as she followed Mia out into the hallway and joining into the swarm of armed agents that were hurrying down to sub-level five. "We have to stop him!"

"Why do you think I'm heading this way?" Mia replied as they hurried down the hallway.

* * *

Negaduck's armed forces spread quickly, however. While it was rapidly discovered that the armed gunmen that were infiltrating the base weren't firing actual, harmful, projectile bullets, they _were_ using some kind of stun gun that apparently fired similar to a regular projectile weapon and would knock whomever that was hit out like lights with a single shot.

They were very good, too, and that in addition to their numbers and the fact that they had caught the whole building by surprise, they were quickly cutting through the opposing SHUSH forces like a hot knife would cut through butter. The whole building was quickly in turmoil, and with it locked down as it was, with several rooms and sections of the building being sealed off, there was only so many places one could go to seek shelter from the onslaught.

And more of Negaduck's army was coming through the portal down in sub-level five by the moment, spreading upwards through the building, splitting into separate parties with assigned floors to capture and tasks to carry through on, all led by a commander of the whole army, of which there were five, consequently, the same number of floors SHUSH Headquarters contained. Each commander and the group they commanded was assigned to take over a certain floor.

The first floor fell first, which was understandable as it was the closest floor to sub-level five, and being a floor commonly accessed by civilians and the public, it had the less security. But when it fell, the building's front and back ground level entrances were cut off from the rest of the fighting SHUSH agents.

A fact that Negawing Duck took quick note of, seeing that it would work greatly in their casually on his walking stick and grinning, he pulled out a walkie-talkie and switched it on.

"This is red group, reporting in." he said happily. "The first floor is now under our control, over."

* * *

Little did he know that Agent Todd was hiding nearby, within hearing range. Hiding just inside the doorway of a nearby storeroom, out of sight from the armed gunmen that were under Negawing's command, many of them looking like to be from the same universe as Negawing, he listened as Negawing ordered the group elsewhere, leaving the many SHUSH personnel they had attacked and stunned leaving strewn all over the premises. Soon, the room was vacant of any conscious life.

Todd cautiously peered out of the doorway and into the room. Seeing that it was indeed clear, he stepped out into the room. He had a sidearm, which had been dropped on the floor and he had recovered it, but his gun hand was shaking terribly, and his patch-colored fur was standing on end in fright. Todd expected that if he came face to face with the enemy at any moment, the most he was likely to do was panic.

But he knew that he had to do _something_. He couldn't just run and hide. He was a SHUSH agent for crying out loud! Maybe he had done stuff like that before in the past, but Agent Todd wasn't going to let himself do that this time. A lot more was at stake this time around. If SHUSH fell, Negaduck, his commanders, and the army they all jointly commanded would be free to spread on to the rest of St. Canard, and Todd couldn't just stand to one side and let that happen, not without _some _kind of fight.

But what could he do? He didn't have the training for this kind of situation, and even if he did, even if he was the best agent on the whole planet, he was far too out numbered to do anything to stop this on his own. He needed help. And fast.

He bent down and started examining some of the agents that were lying around on the floor all around him. Most of them didn't seem to be physically injured in any shape or form, they were all just stunned and unconscious. Todd tried several things to try and wake one of them, but to no avail. Whatever they had been hit with, it wasn't going to allow them to wake up anytime soon, which was probably the idea Negaduck's army had in mind.

But then, Todd could still help them. He just had to move them to where they would be safe. But the question was, with the whole building about to be overran, where was any place safe that he could easily access?

And then, the answers suddenly donned on Agent Todd, and he peered down the hallway to a certain door he knew led to another pathway he knew led to the only place he knew of that could even be remotely safe at the moment. Grabbing two of the closest unconscious agents, Todd started dragging them towards the door in question, with the idea of going back for more a little later. As he did so, he allowed himself to wonder if Negaduck even knew about the Elementary Underground...

* * *

General Mallard watched as the men from his personal army that he had brought with him from his own universe went about making sure all of the SHUSH personnel that lay about the hallways haphazardly were all properly stunned. As it quickly became clear that they all were in this, the last section of this floor, he pulled out his walkie-talkie.

"The second floor is now secure." he reported. "Orange group is now searching for any stragglers, over."

* * *

Agent Mia and Agent Sandy hurried deeper into the building, rushing through the pandemonium that was on the third floor. Weapons fire could be heard around all the entrances leading up to this floor, and personnel were rushing madly all over the place, as scientists were moved to safe locations, the injured were being moved out of the way and to the infirmary where they could hopefully be treated, and commandos hurrying to join into the fray.

Mia and Sandy were among those trying to join the battle, anxious to help fight to protect the building and all within. But before they got there, they were quickly being pushed back as the agents and commandos who were fighting started flooding back onto the floor, some of them panicked.

"Fall back!" one of the commando ring leaders was hollering. "Fall back! We can't hold them back!"

"Wait!" Mia exclaimed, pushing her way towards the commando, Sandy following. "Wait, we can't fall back! We either stand our ground and fight back, or we loose SHUSH HQ!"

"With all due respect, ma'am," the commando, Lieutenant Taylor according to his name tag, replied urgently, "if we don't fall back, we'll be overran and taken captive, if not worse. Falling back is the only other option we have left."

"Running and hiding, so we can fight another day." Sandy stated, the tactic making sense to her.

Mia didn't want to give up the fight just yet. "We still can't just give up!" she exclaimed. "There must be _something _we can use to fight back!"

"Ma'am, I assure you, we have tried everything we can possibly have tried given the circumstances!" Taylor said. "It's not working! We've already lost the first and second floors, and soon we'll loose the third floor, too! There's simply too many of them to fight, and they have too much of an advantage, given the element of surprise! Their weapons, whatever they are, are _very_ effective, too! We _need _to evacuate!"

Mia fumed for a few moments, looking torn. She knew that the lieutenant was right, but she still didn't want to give up so easily.

"Mia, please, he's right." Sandy said. "We need to gather as many people as we can, and get out of here!"

"There's a helicopter on the roof that can be ready for takeoff at a moment's notice." Taylor added. "We can use that as an escape vehicle, seeing that we can only go up from here."

There was a moment of silence between them that wasn't really silent with all the noise going on around them as they awaited Mia's answer. Finally, the feline lowered her head and nodded.

"All right." she said, taking charge. "Let's get as many people out of here as possible, with the scientists and the untrained in combat taking higher priority. But on the way, there's a place I need to stop at."

"Right, then let's go!" Taylor said, hurrying forward again.

Quickly, the three hurried down the hallway, gathering together as many people that were around them as they could, instructing them to follow them as they headed for the closest staircase that would led them on up to the fourth floor. Meanwhile, the opposing army broke through the third floor's defenses, and quickly began infiltrating the floor, overwhelming all they encountered.

* * *

Which did not take them long at all. Negaduck was greatly pleased at their immensely quick progress. He had thought that taking SHUSH would be harder than this, given all of their past encounters, but this was proving to be too easy. Half of the people in the building had to be stunned by now, and they would remain that way for the better part of the hour. Once they had everyone stunned, they could move on to step two, which involved Negarian.

But first things first.

Leading a party down a hallway, Negaduck rounded the corner, weapon armed, raised, and at the ready. As he rounded the corner, he saw three SHUSH agents hurrying towards him, also armed, and when they saw him, they geared up to fire at him. Negaduck was quicker, and with lightning quick reflexes, he fired three shots, one for each agent, and downed all three before any of them could fire off a shot.

The whole encounter lasted only a few seconds.

Grinning, Negaduck paused and allowed the gunmen behind him to continue onward as he pulled out his walkie-talkie. "This is yellow group, we very nearly have the third floor secure, please stand by for more details, but continue with the invasion in the meantime." he reported darkly.

* * *

The moment the alarms started ringing, the first thing Hooter wanted to do was jump up and join in the fight. Agent Grant was quick to interfere, though, and made it quite clear that Hooter's own safety was more important, and that he should be removed from the building in case SHUSH Headquarters fell. By the time Grant and Hooter had finished arguing over the matter and Grant managed to rather forcibly get Hooter out of his office and off in the right direction, the first floor had fallen to Negaduck's forces.

Grant's next idea was to take Hooter to the safe room and station as many agents as possible around it to try and protect the room and keep it secure. Hooter promptly declared that idea to be completely unproductive, and again declared that he should just go join the fight, thus sparking another argument, although, conscious aware that time was short as they were, the two didn't allow this one to go on for as long.

Hooter was starting to work out a possible compromise when word reached them that the second floor had fallen as well. The safe room was on the second floor. They also heard that the third floor was about to fall as well unless they did something, quickly, to stop it. At that point the argument quickly ended, and Grant gave in, giving Hooter a weapon, and the two quickly rallying together some forces to stage a frontal attack. They spent a few moments in Hooter's office getting ready, discussing a few plans, then headed out to meet up with the opposing army on the third floor.

But by that point in time, the third floor had fallen, and the opposing group was moving on to the more sparsely populated fourth floor, and after a few moments of fighting, they found that they were outnumbered, and started falling back to Hooter's office, which was nearby. Grant was amazed at the speed the intruders were progressing, but Hooter ridiculed Grant by saying it might haven't been that way if they hadn't spent so much time arguing over what to do, and Grant had simply allowed him to do things as he commanded. He _was _the director of SHUSH, after all.

It didn't matter, though. Now all they could do was stand and fight, and hope they can stand their ground. Having reached Hooter's office, and securely sealed themselves inside, the small conglomerate of SHUSH personnel stood with their weapons at the ready, waiting to shoot whomever stepped through the door.

"You really think we can hold our ground?" Grant asked Hooter, as the director pulled out a spare clip of ammo from a drawer in his desk.

"We have to." Hooter replied simply, loading the clip into his gun and taking aim.

A few moments of silence fell as they all looked at the closed door. Apparently, the attacking intruders were in no hurry to make their move, or were at least holding back to come up with a plan. Then, without warning, something thumped against the door. The agents in the office tensed up, gearing up to fight. There was another thump, then another, the door beginning to buckle. Then there was a final fourth thump, and the door was broken down, and the gunmen from Negaduck's army started streaming into the room, their weapons firing.

Two agents fell in the first few shots, but the small group quickly got their act back together, and began firing relentlessly at the gunmen as they streamed in, shooting them down before they had much chance to shoot back. After about of a minute of this, the numbers of the gunman pouring started to slow.

"It's working!" Grant exclaimed, enthused, and to show it, redoubled his fighting.

Finally, the gunmen stopped coming altogether. A moment of silence fell as the agents stopped to reload and await for the next development, their guns still trained on the door when they weren't reloading. They fully expected another attack to come at any moment.

And come it did, but not it the form they were expecting. Without warning, several streams of light suddenly surged into the room, and moving as if with a mind of their own, swooped on the party, striking at them and knocking them down to the floor, apparently unconscious. A couple of agents managed to get a few shots off at the bursts of energy, but it naturally had no effect. They were rapidly followed by more, swarming into the room like insects, and there was little left they could do to stop it.

Within moments, Hooter was the only one left standing. And at that point, the streams of light stopped coming. Hooter frowned, wondering why he specifically had been spared when the gunmen started coming into the room again, pouring into the room, and crowding in as many as they could at a time. They did not fire at Hooter, however, but Hooter didn't care, and he started shooting at them. They pressed closer to him regardless, the weapons fire Hooter was generating was only slowing them down.

Hooter was racking his mind for more ideas when his weapon clicked, indicating that it had used up all of it's rounds, and stopped firing. At that moment, the gunmen pounced on the director, wrenching away his useless weapon and slamming him into his desk, forcing his head down on top of it, and pulling his hand back as if they planned to arrest him, and then just held him there, struggling.

"Well, well, well." a new, but familiar, voice said as another person entered the office, the gunmen moving to allow him through. "Director John Gander Hooter, I presume?"

Hooter glanced upward at Negarian while still struggling, and glared at him. "I don't know what you want me for, but I won't cooperate!" he said. "You might as well kill me now."

"Ah, but who ever said anything about killing you, director?" Negarian asked with a smirk.

And with that, he cast a very special spell upon Hooter...

* * *

"The fourth floor is now secure, and we have the director." Negarian later reported into his walkie-talkie. "Green group is now standing by for more orders."

* * *

The fifth floor of SHUSH Headquarters was usually the most vacant floor in the whole building, as it housed significantly less important items such has some insignificant storerooms, materials needed for the landing pad that sat on the roof, various briefing rooms, and meetings rooms, and a few other things. This level was particularly barren now as when the invasion began, all of the agents on the fifth floor traveled downward to combat the invasion, leaving very few left on the top floor. In fact, all was quiet and empty up here, save for the still-blaring alarms.

But it ended when the door leading to the main staircase was forced open, and Agent Mia came stumbling through, waving her sidearm around wildly to make sure everything was all clear. Seeing that it was, she motioned to the others that it was safe, and hurried on down the hallway, the others following, half of them with their weapons pointed ahead of them, the other half pointed their weapons back at the staircase they were leaving in case they were followed. In the turmoil of going from the third floor on up to this one, they had significantly lost some of their numbers, but seeing that there was only one helicopter available that could only fit so many, they wouldn't have been able to take everyone anyway, as much as they hated to admit it.

Lieutenant Taylor was the last to exit, who stopped to double check that there was no one following them as of yet. Once he was satisfied, he slammed the door shut with his foot, then turned to Mia.

"Okay, we're here, now what's the thing we need to do first?" he asked, panting slightly.

Mia looked up a nearby hallway and saw that it was empty too before turning to Taylor. "It's something that doesn't require all of us to do." she said hotly. "And bringing everyone along anyway would just put more lives on jeopardy." she bit her lip for a moment. "This floor seems completely empty, which means Negaduck's army won't be in too much of a hurry to get up here. Therefore, I think I can handle it if I go and do it myself. The rest of you, continue on to the roof, and get that helicopter ready for take off. If I'm not up there in the next fifteen minutes, go without me."

"Mia..." Agent Sandy began, "We aren't going to leave you here."

"If I'm not there in fifteen minutes, then most likely, something happened to me, and it won't matter anyway." Mia snapped as she adjusted her weapon. "That's an order, Sandy, and at the moment, I think I'm the most senior agent left, so you can't overrule me. But don't worry. I fully intend to be there in the next fifteen minutes, you just watch."

Sandy hesitated, then nodded. Taylor agreed to the plan without hesitation. "Right." he said. "See you in fifteen minutes, ma'am."

"Fine, now go!" Mia said, and turned and hurried down the next hallway, while the others went in the other direction, heading for the roof...

* * *

Mia, however, wasn't right about the entire fifth floor being empty. For in addition to the escaping agents, there was also four others on that floor.

Negaduck had figured well in advance that the fifth floor would be empty by the time his forces got to it, or real close to it. Therefore, he opted to instead focus most of forces on taking the other floors in the building, and sent the smallest group to secure the fifth floor, one he knew he could trust to carry out the job, but also didn't need to worry too much if they for some reason messed up.

These four moved through the floor, examining it room by room to make sure it was secure. The latter three followed their leader calmly and quietly, a few paces slower than their leader. One reason was because their leader seemed to have the situation completely under her control on her own, and didn't really need their help.

Another was because they still weren't quite sure what to make of her presence.

Rowe, Quackerjack, and Bushroot watched as NegaGosalyn kicked open a door, waved the new P90 she had been given prior to the start of the invasion in the room to make sure it was clear, shining the weapon's light into every dark corner.

"Clear!" she declared in a no-nonsense manner, and moved on to the next room.

The others followed her almost leerily, eyeing her very carefully.

Rowe shook his head. "I still can't believe that I'm actually looking at her, mates." he whispered to the other two. "How did Negs do it? We all saw her! She was dead!"

"Clearly, not as dead as we first thought." Bushroot muttered.

"She doesn't seem the same though, like there's something different about her." Quackerjack remarked thoughtfully, an unusual occurrence for him. "Not at all like the NegaCrimson we knew before. She seems more like...like..."

"Negaduck." Bushroot finished flatly. None of them could argue that point.

"So how do you think he did it?" Rowe asked again. "How did Negs bring her back?"

"Well..." Bushroot began, rubbing his chin, "Negs _did _offhandedly suggest that Negarian had something to do with it."

"So you think Negarian used his magic to bring her back?" Rowe asked.

Bushroot shrugged. "It's possible." he admitted.

"He is a extremely powerful magician, after all." Quackerjack said, and opened his mouth to say more before he was interrupted.

"You know, I _can _hear you guys." NegaGosalyn remarked suddenly, turning to shine the light from her P90 at them. The other three promptly fell silent, but that didn't satisfy her. "What's the big deal, guys?" she asked. "I'm back. So what? Why can't things just go back to the way they were before?"

"You _died, _mate." Rowe stressed. "And now, you're suddenly back. That's not something you can just get over in one day."

NegaGosalyn frowned. "I know." she admitted, then, with a glare, resumed what she was doing. "I intend to correct that, however."

* * *

"SHUSH HQ, this is Darkwing, please respond. Repeat, this is Darkwing Duck, calling about a security alert that we have been notified of....c'mon guys, respond. If I don't get a response in the next five minutes, I'm coming over there, regardless of the security risk!"

Agent Mia ignored the radio that on and broadcasting Darkwing's voice as she hurried through the briefing room reserved specifically for Darkwing and company and made her way straight to the two armchairs that sat on the far side of the room. It had occurred to Mia that, due to some of the changes that had been made to Darkwing Tower when it was rebuilt, the tower was to be promptly notified the moment a security alert of this magnitude went off, which was a logical thing to do.

However, this was going to be the very last place Darkwing was going to want to come to, but unfortunately, Mia couldn't tell him that. Because the building was currently on it's most highest lockdown mode, it's systems would allow radio signals to be received, but it would not send signals. So in short, Mia could hear Darkwing calling for a response, but had no means of responding. It was a bug in the system that someone had overlooked, and no one had thought to correct as of yet.

So the best Mia could do for the moment was guarantee that Darkwing had no immediate, quick and easy, means of coming here. Arriving at the chairs that would transport one to and from Darkwing Tower if the activation device was set so, Mia reached under the table in-between the two pieces of furniture, and yanked a very specific wire. Now the chairs wouldn't allow Darkwing to come this way, because the right signals couldn't be sent. Better still, no one here could go anywhere with the chairs, either, meaning Negaduck and his forces couldn't use the chairs to launch a surprise attack on Darkwing Tower.

"SHUSH HQ, please come in." Darkwing's voice continued on the radio that sat to one side of the room. "I'm serious, I really _will _head over there if I don't get a response soon."

Done with the chairs, Agent Mia turned to the radio, raised her weapon, and fired repeatedly at the radio, destroying it. Darkwing's voice was promptly cut short, and silence fell in the room. Heaving a sigh that was a mix between relief and frustration, Mia lowered her weapon and exited the room and stepped back out into the hallway beyond...

...in time for NegaGosalyn to round the corner ahead of her.

Mia froze in her steps, staring at NegaGosalyn, too shocked to see her to do anything about it.

NegaGosalyn, however, was quite the opposite. "Well, Agent Mia!" she cried gleefully, as Quackerjack, Rowe, and Bushroot joined her from behind, looking a little surprised themselves. "Fancy seeing you here!"

Mia's jaw unhinged, and stuttered, searching for something to say in response. NegaGosalyn didn't give her much of a chance to, however, as she raised her weapon and fired at the agent. Suddenly realizing she was in danger, Mia quickly dove back into the meeting room, just barely getting out of the way as the shots as they breathed past her. Once in there, she quickly slammed the door shut to slow the undoubtable pursuers, then turned to one wall of the room. At it's top, near where it joined with the ceiling was a row of windows that led into the next room over. It would be just barely big enough for Mia to squeeze through.

A banging sound rang on the door as the intruders tried to force it open. Mia winced, and quickly grabbed a nearby chair, heaving it up over her head. Using the chair's foot to slam against the little window and break it. That done, she threw the chair carelessly aside and started to clamber through the window. Just as she slipped through, gunshots rang out as NegaGosalyn shot the lock on the door blocking her path, and the door was quickly slammed open.

Mia was already in the next room, however, and was quickly rushing out it's door and back into the hallway, speeding down it and around the corner at the far end while she still had the chance, with her enemies still in the briefing room. It didn't take long for NegaGosalyn and the others to catch on to what Mia did, however, and were quickly racing back out of the briefing room, in time to see Mia round the corner at the other end of the hallway. NegaGosalyn fired briefly at the fleeing target, missed as Agent Mia raced out of sight, then she and the rest of the Fearsome Five gave chase, their pounding footsteps ringing out quite audibly in the empty corridors.

Agent Mia quickly fumbled for her walkie-talkie, pulling it out and switching it on as she ran for the nearest staircase leading up to the roof. "Lieutenant, are you ready to take off?" she exclaimed as she ran.

"Yes ma'am, we have everybody loaded and just about ready to go, I was just about to begin a pre-flight check." Lieutenant Taylor replied.

"Skip it! I'm going to be up there in a few moments, with armed enemies hot on my trail! I'll need you to be ready to take off the moment I get there!"

And without waiting for a response, Mia pocketed the walkie-talkie and resumed focusing on running. She had managed to put about a hallway's length of distance between her and her pursuers, so she was always rounding the next corner just as NegaGosalyn and the others appeared, trying to line up a shot. Within moments, Mia arrived at the staircase that would lead her up to the roof and started pounding up them, taking the steps two at a time. Just moments later, Mia could hear her pursuers arriving at the staircase themselves and begin pounding up them as well. At one point, NegaGosalyn fired off a wild shot up at Mia, but missed. Mia pressed on, undeterred.

Finally, she burst onto the roof, and without slowing, started racing across it. Sitting on a landing pad in the far corner of the roof was the black helicopter, it's rotor blades already whirling and thumping loudly against the air, idling, but was ready to take off at a moment's notice. Sitting in the cockpit was Taylor, peering through the chopper's windshield to look in the direction of the roof's entrance for any sign of Mia. The moment the feline agent burst onto the roof, he started working with the helicopter's controls to take off.

"Take off!" Mia urged loudly anyway as she ran, motioning wildly with her arms to get the helicopter into the air. "Take off, now!"

Taylor obeyed, increasing the turn rate of the rotor blades so that it started to lift the aircraft off the ground. It was already beginning to rise off the landing pad it was sitting on when Mia arrived at it, and quickly dove through the back hatch and into the helicopter. NegaGosalyn and the others arrived just seconds after that, gathering at the door of the roof. NegaGosalyn had switched weapons to a conventual weapon and started shooting at the helicopter, trying to stop it, bullets ricocheting off the aircraft's armored hull. It did little good, however, the helicopter already had too much of a head start, and quickly flew away and out of range.

The others stood and watched it leave.

"Well, there _they _go." Bushroot remarked finally, motioning his leafy hands at the fleeing helicopter. "_Now _what?"

NegaGosalyn had pulled out her radio. "This is blue group calling Negaduck." she said into the device. "The top floor and roof is pretty much secure now, but we had a party of agents escape just now in a helicopter."

"Let them go." came Negaduck's unconcerned reply. "Once we've got things sorted here, they'll have no place to hide."

* * *

Roughly about a half-hour later, Darkwing and the gang were heading towards SHUSH Headquarters on the Ratcatcher and Avenger, all four of them looking concerned and worried.

"Are we really sure we want to do this?" Launchpad asked aloud as they sped down the road filled with light, late-afternoon traffic. "It could be a trap."

"Launchpad has a point." Techno agreed from the sidecar of the nearby Avenger. "If SHUSH has fallen..."

"I'm not ready to jump to that conclusion just yet, Techno." Darkwing said flatly, a determined look in his eye as he drove the Ratcatcher.

"But why _else _haven't they been responding to our calls?" Crimson asked pointedly. "And we all know that whatever has happened, Negaduck is responsible for it."

"We don't know that!" Darkwing said in denial.

"Yes we do!" Crimson snapped back. "Who _else _could it be?"

"J. Gander promised me that the portal generator would be _useless _by today!"

"Maybe Negaduck beat them to the punch, or he anticipated our move and found a work-around." Techno reasoned. "The problem is that we have no way of really knowing until we get there."

"Which is exactly why are going there, now, to check things out!" Darkwing declared, adding more throttle and pulling ahead of the Avenger. "And nothing is going to stop me from doing so, not even–Yipe!"

The manhole cover in the road directly ahead of Darkwing suddenly popped up and moved to one side as something started to climb out right in Darkwing's path. Alarmed, Darkwing quickly served the motorbike, just barely managing to veer away from the open manhole cover, and twisted around to a stop on the other side. The Avenger, which had been following behind the Ratcatcher at this point, quickly hit the brakes, and came to a skidding stop just before reaching the manhole.

Agent Mia then uncovered her eyes and peered up at Crimson, who was the closest, and breathed a sigh of relief as she continued climbing out of the manhole.

"Agent Mia!" Crimson exclaimed in surprise, ignoring the honks as traffic began backing up behind them. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for all four of you, and stopping you from going to SHUSH Headquarters." Mia replied flatly, as a group of SHUSH commandos climbed out of the manhole and started directing traffic around the blocked manhole.

"I knew it!" Launchpad exclaimed as he climbed out of the Ratcatcher's sidecar. "What happened?"

"SHUSH has fallen, and is now in enemy hands." Mia replied without preamble.

"Dang it!" Darkwing cursed, slapping the handlebars of the Ratcatcher before he, too, climbed off. "How did it happen?"

"I'll explain down here." Mia said. "Right now, those of us who managed to escape are in hiding, so it's not a good idea for us to stay on the surface for too long until we've got a plan of action."

She climbed back into the manhole, the others following. Once they were inside, the manhole cover was returned to it's position. Usually, a manhole would lead down into the sewers of St. Canard, but this one was among a select few that went even deeper, down to a secret, citywide, network of tunnels originally built to be used as a secret FOUL base, but was now in SHUSH's control, and was used specifically for emergencies, such as now.

"Roughly about an hour ago," Mia began once they were safely inside and she had begun leading them towards the central control room of the Elementary Underground, "the SHUSH portal generator activated unexpectedly to receive an incoming portal. Presumably, this occurred just before Dr. Bellum was able to render the device incapable of doing so. A burst of energy was sent through that knocked over the guards that were stationed there, and during the time they were down, Negaduck's army started invading, quickly overwhelming them. They quickly rose up from there, gaining more and more ground until about a half-hour later, Negaduck was just about in full control of the building."

"In just a half hour?" Darkwing exclaimed, and whistled in amazement. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." Mia said as she led them into the main room, which was busy and filled with escaped agents and other SHUSH personnel, checking their supplies, gathering as much weaponry as possible, treating all that were injured, and working at turning everything on still. "They were moving very fast. Their numbers were great, and they had some kind of stun gun that fires like a conventual gun, but knocks out whomever hit for an unknown period of time, probably more than an hour. We still have people down here who got stunned who haven't awakened yet. They also caught us completely by surprise."

"Why were they just stunning people?" Crimson asked aloud.

"No clue, but they must have had a reason." Mia remarked as they made their way through the crowds of panicked SHUSH personnel. "Fortunately, as you can tell, some of us managed to escape the building without being stunned. A number of agents were smart, and evacuated down here when the attack began. Agent Todd managed to move a bunch of stunned people down here on his own, too. Me, Sandy, and a number of others tried to fight back, but fell back to the roof and fled by helicopter to the edge of town, then ditched the helicopter and joined everyone down here. Currently, we've been trying to get word out to what's happened to the officials, but we're experiencing radio problems. I sent a small party of agents out to exit the town's boundaries and see if they can get word out from there. No word yet on any success."

"Wait, _you _sent them out?" Darkwing repeated. "Why you?"

"Because she's currently the highest ranking agent here." a male pine marten remarked, approaching the group.

Mia sighed, and motioned to him. "Guys, this is Lieutenant Taylor, a SHUSH commando." she introduced. "I assume he already knows all of you, though."

"Yeah, who _doesn't_?" Taylor asked. "Anyway, Agent Mia is currently in command of what little of us there is."

"Roughly about a third of all the SHUSH personnel." Mia clarified.

"And why is that?" Darkwing asked. He paused, eyes widening slightly. "Didn't J. Gander...?"

"No, he didn't, at least he's not here." Mia replied with a solemn shake of her head. "Nor did Agent Grant or any other agent with a rank higher than mine escape the invasion." she glared at Taylor. "Though, that _could've _been different, if the lieutenant here didn't convince me to not waste time stopping at the director's office."

"Hey, I seriously thought that Director Hooter would've gotten out of there by then, and so did you, because you agreed with me." Taylor said in his defense. "We couldn't have known that he hadn't, and we really _couldn't _have taken the time to double check. We were lucky enough to get out of there when we did, with as many as we did!"

"Has Negaduck tried coming down here yet?" Techno asked, interrupting.

"Not yet." Taylor promptly replied, thankful for the subject change. "So far, I don't think they've even found the entrance yet."

I don't know if Negaduck even knows about it." Mia admitted. "But, we've got the entrances all guarded, just in case. You can bet that the moment Negaduck _does _realize we're down here, he'll be sending his whole army after us."

"So time's short." Darkwing recapped, and started pacing, working on a plan.

"How many doubles are in the army?" Launchpad asked curiously.

"We don't know for certain, we've been getting varying accounts." Mia replied. "It seems, though, that there actually aren't that many, just a few acting as commanders. It seems that they've all contributed their own forces from each universe they hail from to this army, and they've all committed themselves to helping Negaduck."

"Which is one of the few we can confirm with absolute certainty is here." Taylor said, pulling out a notebook where he had been keeping track of all of this. "Also have rumors of seeing Negarian, and a couple have claimed to have seen Negawing Duck."

"Brilliant." Crimson grumbled.

"Anyone else?" Techno asked.

"Well, there is _one _that Agent Mia herself claims to have seen..." Taylor went on, glancing over at Mia, "But...well..." he trailed off.

"Who did you see, Mia?" Darkwing asked, stopping his pacing to look at the feline agent.

Mia hesitated a moment before answering. "NegaCrimson."

Darkwing and the others froze instantly, and gaped at her. Crimson actually looked hurt.

"Mia, that's not funny." she snapped.

"Oh, I wish I was just trying to be funny." Mia replied hotly. "But it's true."

"It _can't_ be!" Darkwing declared. "She was dead! We all saw her! She was shot in the heart..."

"...by SCPD detective Matthew Christofferson and died almost instantly, I _know,_ I've read the report." Mia finished, looking exasperated. "But I _saw _her! She spoke with me! Heck, she _shot _at me! She was very much _alive_!"

There was a moment of silence in the group as they thought about this.

"Negaduck _did _take custody of her body, and took it away." Taylor pointed out.

"You're suggesting that Negaduck somehow brought her back to life?" Techno asked.

"We've seen stranger things." Launchpad commented.

"It...it...it...can't be!" Darkwing repeated, looking lost.

"No, it can't." Crimson said, determinedly. "I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes."

"You're probably going to get your chance here soon." Agent Sandy remarked, hurrying up to them. She looked worried. "You all need to come and see this."

She led them across the room to where a row of computers sat. Agent Todd, and a couple of other technicians, stood around one computer, looking like they had been modifying it. Todd had been tapping at keys, but he turned when he heard people coming, then, upon spying Agent Mia, quickly snapped to attention.

"Todd, I'm only going to tell you once." Mia growled in annoyance. "At ease."

"Yes, ma'am." Todd said, to Mia's further annoyance, then turned his attention back to the computers.

"Whatcha working on, Agent Todd?" Darkwing asked, moving closer to get a better look.

"Well, we figured that with Negaduck in control of SHUSH Headquarters, one of the first things we would want to do is to find some way of figuring out what he's doing in there." Todd explained as he worked. "So me and some of the other technicians that escaped have been working on a to hack into the building's network of security cameras, and use their live video feeds to spy on the interior of the building. So far, however, we've only managed to hack into the two _least_ secure cameras, and those are the ones that hang inside and outside the lobby."

"So what is it that we need to see?" Techno asked, not understanding the importance of this.

"Because, what that camera sees is enough to know that we've got a big problem on our hands." Sandy said, then turned to Todd. "Show them what you showed me."

Agent Todd nodded, and tapped a few controls. The screen on the computer changed to show a view inside the lobby of the SHUSH building. Passing through the area, in picture perfect formations, rank after rank, was forces from Negaduck's army. They were heading outside the building, fully armed. Todd then changed the view to show a view just outside the building, as those forces spread out and engaged combat with civilians on the street outside, quickly causing panic. More continued to spill out.

The group watched this for several tense moments. Mia suddenly pointed at a cluster of forces leaving the building. "Wait, those are SHUSH agents!" she exclaimed. "What are _they _doing fighting along side these guys?"

"They look...dazed." Techno stated.

"Negarian." Launchpad immediately deduced. Upon getting a questioning look from Taylor, he went on. "When we were in Gwendolyn's universe a few days ago, Negaduck told me that Negarian has this kind of magical spell that he can use on people that allows him to control their minds, and make them his own personal slaves. I suspect _that's_ what has happened to those agents."

"That's why they've been stunning people." Darkwing realized. "So Negarian can come along and cast the spell upon them."

"And add them to the ranks of their own army." Taylor added, eyes widening.

"Keen gear." Crimson murmured.

"We've got to stop this, here and now." Mia announced determinedly. "They're moving on to invade the rest of the city now, and the more they do that, the bigger their army gets! We're already outnumbered bad enough as it is! If we intend to have any hope of stopping this, we need to attack now, while we still have a chance!"

"I'm with you, but even if you had everybody in this room go out and fight, there wouldn't be enough of you." Sandy said.

"We can recruit the SCPD, that'll add more manpower to our cause, and they'll be trying to fight this pretty soon themselves if they have started already." Darkwing voiced. "Me and my companions will help too, wherever possible."

"What about the civilians?" Launchpad asked. "They're in harm's way at the moment."

"And if we let Negaduck's army get at them, they'll be constantly adding more to their numbers as we take them down." Techno said. "We should evacuate as many people out of the city as we can. It'll be like taking the fuel away from a fire. It'll slow down Negaduck's progress significantly."

"Agreed." Mia said with a nod, and turned to Sandy. "Sandy, I want you to take care of that. Take as many as you can spare, and start getting people out of here, starting with those in the path of Negaduck's army. Enlist help if you need it wherever possible."

"Got it." Sandy said, turning to go work on that.

"If we're going to do something, we'd better do it quickly." Todd announced quickly. "That army almost has control of that first street, and are moving on to the next ones already."

"Right, let's do this." Mia said, and quickly turned to the others. "We need some battle plans, and quickly."

* * *

As the afternoon wore on, and word spread of Negaduck's army, St. Canard quickly started to erupt into a panic. People were already starting to evacuate on their own, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of this battle. Sandy and as many recruits as she could find quickly began working to maintain order and to have the evacuation proceed as smoothly as possible.

It wasn't long before the first few blocks in and around the location of SHUSH Headquarters were completely vacant, giving the makeshift resistence army plenty of room to setup for the first real counterattack. And everybody who was capable was pitching in to help fight, including the SCPD.

"This is Police Chief Luke." the stout mole currently serving as the SCPD's commanding officer, standing behind the barrier he and his fellow officers had set up on one street leading away from SHUSH HQ. "We're all set up here, and awaiting the arrival of enemy's first wave of attackers."

"Acknowledged." Agent Mia said, watching as her party of agents finished setting up their own barrier using materials lent from the SCPD. "I'm almost ready on my end. Lieutenant Taylor, what's your status?"

"We're going good." Taylor replied from his street, as his own party of commandos finished setting up their own barrier. "We'll be ready to face any attackers in a few minutes."

"That's good." Darkwing said from his party's barrier, who had been listening in. He looked down the street he was on. "Because here they come."

And sure enough, the first wave of attackers from Negaduck's army rounded the street corner and started heading towards each of the four barriers that had been set up, advancing slowly towards it, taking their time.

"We see them." Agent Mia said. "Everybody is using the stun guns that were distributed out, right?"

"Right." Detective Matthew replied, examining his briefly as he stood beside Chief Luke. "We giving them a taste of their own medicine?"

"Actually, we just don't want innocent people getting hurt." Taylor replied from his end.

"And that army's nothing but innocent people." Crimson remarked as she watched the army advance on their position.

"They're taking their dear sweet time getting over here." Techno remarked.

"They know that they have us outnumbered." Darkwing muttered.

"And they do." Launchpad said with a grimace. "Just look at them all!"

"Should we start attacking?" Crimson asked, raising her stun gun to take aim.

"No, wait until they get a little closer." Darkwing said. "I want every shot to count."

"They're all lined up in a row, it'll be hard to miss." Techno muttered.

"Await my command!" Agent Mia declared over the radio. "We'll attack together. Ready? One...two..." a brief pause, "...three!"

The forces at all four barriers started opening fire with their stun guns, watching as the first few ranks in the opposing army went down, the others merely stepping around them and continuing onward. The army at first merely took the blows carelessly, not returning fire right away until each regiment had gotten closer to those attacking them. Then they fired back, attacking relentlessly.

Techno ducked as shots ricocheted around him, then returned fire. It didn't seem to make much difference.

"Everyone I take down, another fills his spot!" Crimson exclaimed, noticing the same thing.

"Keep firing!" Darkwing ordered. "We have to try, and give them all we've got!"

"I just hope it'll be enough!" Launchpad said, as he hesitantly fired his own stun gun into the troops.

* * *

"Man alive, their numbers grew fast!" Officer Frank declared as he shot into the ranks of the army. "You know, I didn't get this job to be a foot soldier!"

"We're all the city has at the moment, Frank, just keep shooting!" Matthew hollered back to his friend.

The cops all continued to shoot at the oncoming army, only to watch it continue to come.

"They're coming closer!" Frank yelled warningly.

"Stand your ground, everybody!" Chief Luke exclaimed. "Do _not _back down until told otherwise!"

"Chief, I don't know if we can really old them back!" Matthew hollered.

"I know!" Luke agreed. "But it's not like we've got a choice! Keep fighting!"

* * *

Taylor watched as the front ranks of the oncoming army went down, only to be filled back in by the rank behind it. More were just coming.

"I'm starting to question the logic to this plan!" he declared into his radio.

"Hold your ground, lieutenant, that's an order!" Agent Mia responded back through the radio.

"And I'm _trying _to obey!" the marten snapped back into his radio, firing wildly into the ranks of the oncoming army, but that didn't slow them in the slightest. "They just keep coming, not losing any ground at all! Heck, they're _gaining _ground! They'll be overrunning us in moments at this rate! And I'm losing people here, too! We just can't stand and fight, not like this! We need a better plan!"

* * *

"We don't have _time _for a better plan, lieutenant!" Mia exclaimed into her radio as she joined the others in shooting at the oncoming army. "We have to stop this as quickly as possible!"

"Agreed, but just blindly fighting back isn't working!" Taylor radioed back. "We need some kind of strategy to this, or there's no point in fighting back! We'd just lose!"

"Not an option!" Mia roared, venting her anger by firing back at the opposing army.

"Exactly! Mia, give the order to fall back!"

"No, not until things really _are _grim!" Mia snapped, but even as she said that, she knew that Taylor was right, and that they were all likely to be overrun at any moment. The army was constantly advancing towards her group's position, and knew it was the same for everyone, too. They just didn't have the firepower and numbers to hold them back this way. Mia still didn't want to just give up, turn tail, and run, again, for the second time that day, but even she couldn't deny that there wasn't much choice if they were going to last long enough _to _fight back.

"All right!" she finally declared, as the first ranks of the army got to be only a matter of feet away from reaching the barrier. "Fall back! Everyone, fall back! Retreat!"

* * *

They needed no second bidding, and quickly the members of all four parties turned and started running, firing back as needed. Several piled into what vehicles were available and went to drive off. The order more or less came too late, however, as they turned to run, the ranks of Negaduck's army arrived at the barriers, almost all at one for all four barriers, and broke though. Turmoil started to erupt as the ranks of both sides started to mix together, and everyone started fighting to try and keep each other back, all the while the army continued pressing forward, and the fighters falling back.

The SCPD's barrier had the most vehicles around it, so much so that the barrier itself _was _partly made up of police cars. When the order was given to retreat, which the officers were about to do anyway, whether or not they had been ordered to or not, they wasted no time in doing so. The same moment they started to flee, however, the ranks of the army broke through the barrier and started to mix with the fleeing officers. This only hurried them onward.

Detective Matthew quickly turned and hurried over to a nearby police car, dragging Officer Frank with. Once there, he climbed into the driver's seat and started the car, and looked up to see that his rat friend hadn't climbed in as well.

"Frank!" he exclaimed. "Get in!"

Frank was intently scanning the falling barrier, scanning the mass of bodies that was encroaching upon them. "Where's the chief?" he asked, alarmed.

Matthew quickly looked. "Maybe he escaped with someone else." he reasoned quickly.

"No, he was right behind me!" Frank objected. "The only reason he wouldn't still be here was if..." he trailed off, suddenly realizing what had happened, and started to move forward to look for Chief Luke, but Matthew quickly reached out and grabbed him, holding him back. "Matt, what are you doing, we need to find him!"

"Frank, if you're right, it's already too late!" Matthew declared, though he hated himself for having to say it. "The chief would want us to get out of here while we still could, though, so get in the dang car, and let's _go_!"

Frank hesitantly clambered into the car, and Matthew stomped on the gas, propelling the car away before the ranks of Negaduck's army reached it.

Agent Mia's forces were doing likewise, clambering into the mix of SHUSH vans and borrowed police cars as they fled. They had a bit more luck than the police did, and were all able to escape, although Mia, very hesitate to turn and run from this fight, hung back as long as she could to fight, being the last one to leave, before she finally saw she couldn't stay longer and fled.

Lieutenant Taylor had already begun ordering small groups of his party to begin retreating before Mia had given the word. By the time she finally did, half of his force had already fled, leaving the other half to provide cover fire and hold back the opposing army long enough for the escapees to get away. The moment Mia gave the order to retreat, however, Taylor ordered everyone to leave, now. And they did, but being mostly well-trained SHUSH commandos who were hired for their combat skills, they fled much more orderly and calm manner than the more panic-induced manner of the others. Taylor, like Mia, also hung back as long as he dared to continue fighting the pointless battle to make sure everyone else escaped before he turned and fled too.

Darkwing and the gang, and the mix of agents and police officers they commanded, were the last to start fleeing. The gang absolutely didn't want to just give up the fight either, but as the ranks of Negaduck's army drew ever closer, the more they grew antsy and saw that they wouldn't be able to hold their ground for much longer. Finally, Darkwing gave the order for the agents and police officers to begin fleeing, while he, Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad laid out cover fire, slowly moving backwards as the army broke through their barrier.

"The moment they all get away safely, we turn, hop on our motorbikes, and flee too, no questions asked!" Darkwing ordered to the others.

"I just hope we can last that long!" Techno said, sounding worried as he fired ineffectively into the ranks of the army.

"Keep moving backwards, put some distance between them and us!" Crimson recommended.

"They're all away, DW!" Launchpad suddenly announced, watching the last vehicle of people drive off.

"Good, now go!" Darkwing said, and turned and ran for the Ratcatcher, Launchpad joining him.

Techno and Crimson ran for the Avenger, nervously aware that the army behind them was gaining on them. It was then that matters grew worse, when a vine suddenly snapped along the ground at their feet, tripping them. Both Techno and Crimson fell to the rough pavement. Quickly, they started to pick themselves up again as Darkwing and Launchpad reached the Ratcatcher and started climbing on.

Crimson and Techno silently started running again, Techno scanning for the presence of a certain mutant plant-duck, the only explanation he could come up with for the unexpected appearance of the vine. He detected trace signatures from afar that might be Bushroot, but they were inconclusive. Techno decided that just so long as nothing else bad happened to them, it wouldn't matter.

No sooner was this thought completed did a Quackerjack trademark exploding panda doll fall down to the sidewalk on the street, near Techno, and promptly exploding, launching a mailbox into the air, and towards Techno. Techno reacted quickly and fired his rocketboots that launched him into the air and out of the path of the mailbox. Flying along the street, he tried to grab Crimson and pull her along, but his grip slipped, and only made Crimson stumble and fall again. Techno started to turn back, but Crimson, seeing that the army was nearly upon her and that she wasn't far from the parked Avenger, motioned to Techno to fly on.

"Go on, Tech, don't risk yourself on my behalf, I'll be right behind you!" Crimson vowed, getting up and hurrying onward to the Avenger.

Techno didn't look so sure, but even when he doubted Crimson's word, he never really was one to go against it. He flew off, reluctantly, without her. Crimson continued onward, planning completely to fulfill her word, and was nearly to the Avenger when she was suddenly grabbed from behind, pulled back and around, and one arm wrapped around her neck. Crimson quickly grabbed at it and resisted, but she stopped the moment she heard her captor speak.

"Stop your struggling, I don't intend to hurt you."

Crimson froze, and then pulled away from the arm restraining her, took a step forward, then turned around to look at NegaGosalyn fully, who was grinning cheekily at her double's reaction to her presence. Crimson, however, was simply shocked, not knowing whether she should be apprehensive or celebrating.

She did know one thing, though. "Mia was right." she commented aloud.

"Ah good, so Agent Mia _did _give you heads up about my return." NegaGosalyn said, satisfied. She watched her double for a moment, then frowned. "Oh, don't act so surprised."

"But...you were dead." Crimson stated slowly.

"So I was."

Crimson was silent for a moment. "How did Negaduck do it?"

"What makes you so sure Negaduck had anything to do with it?"

"Because he _did!_"

NegaGosalyn sighed. "Well, you're right." she said, then went on. "After he took my body back to the Negaverse, he froze it, so to preserve it in hopes of bringing me back to life. Which he did."

"But...how?" Crimson asked, then made a snort. "This kind of thing can't just happen for no reason!"

"What is with all of you people?" NegaGosalyn exclaimed. "I thought that, maybe, some people would actually be happy to see me alive and well again, but nobody can seem to come to terms with the fact that I'm back!"

"Well, I'm happy!" Crimson said, allowing a grin to spread across her face. "I'm very pleased to see you again! I mean, you were being quite helpful before..."

"Helpful?" NegaGosalyn repeated, looking puzzled.

"Y-yeah." Crimson said, now looking puzzled herself. "You...said you weren't going to hurt me, so...I thought..."

"Crimson, currently I'm the only thing that's keeping that army behind you from mowing you over." NegaGosalyn said flatly, pointing to the ranks of the army that stood behind Crimson, who had at some point stopped charging forward, and Crimson had failed to notice. "Make any wrong moves, or do anything to displease me, and I'll change that." she narrowed her eyes into a dark glare.

Crimson was taken aback. "What did Negaduck do to you?" she asked aloud, mostly to herself.

"He brought me back to life, for one thing."

Crimson froze, suddenly realizing something. "How...much do you remember about...things...before you died?"

"When I first woke up from being dead, I couldn't remember anything." NegaGosalyn admitted with a careless shrug. "At least, initially. Parts of it started slowly coming back to me in the form of deja vu. Negs simply filled in the rest."

"Negs." Crimson repeated, then squeezed her eyes shut in anger. "NEGS!"

"Oh sure, get mad. I don't care."

"But you _do_!" Crimson moved towards her double, "NegaGos, listen, Negaduck isn't telling you the truth! He's manipul..."

NegaGosalyn suddenly slapped Crimson back with the butt of her weapon. "You keep back!" she barked. "Negs told me the truth! It's because of _you _and the rest of your friends that I died in the first place!"

"But that's _not _true, not entirely!" Crimson said, picking herself back up "Negs is _lying_! Your memories would prove that!"

"Too bad, then, that I can't actually remember my death, hmm?" NegaGosalyn said. "But look, the reason I'm even here is because I want to strike a deal. My side currently possesses the SHUSH portal generator, and we're already working at getting it fully operational again. Once it is, there's an infinite number of alternate realities one could journey to. Now, I'm willing to let you and your friends pick and choose one of those realities and journey to it, alive and unharmed, _if _you step aside and let us do our thing."

"Practically giving you St. Canard, and the rest of the world, to you on a silver platter."

"Pretty much, yeah."

Crimson gripped her own weapon tightly. "Over my dead body."

She fired suddenly at NegaGosalyn. But the shots from the stun gun never reached their intended target. A shield of energy suddenly appeared around NegaGosalyn and deflected the shots. NegaGosalyn grinned as she watched the shots bounce off, then at the glint of recognition in her double's eyes.

"I think I neglected to tell you that a body can only be revived under special circumstances." she said, stepping closer to Crimson. "Because there was only one means of even doing it available to Negs, it was, for awhile, thought that it couldn't be done. But then Negs found out that you have magical blood, which thereby means that _I _have the same." her grin grew bigger. "And that was the one thing I needed to have in order for someone else to step in and do the deed that would bring me back."

"Negarian." Crimson realized. "So that's how it was done." she narrowed her eyes and made eye contact with her double. "So where's your familiar?"

"Oh, right." NegaGosalyn said, looking like she had nearly forgotten. She turned to the waiting army. "Rowe!"

From within the ranks of the army, the tall otter stepped to the front, looking apologetically to Crimson. With Rowe was Bushroot and Quackerjack, the former looking apprehensive, but the latter actually looking intrigued by all of this. Crimson looked back at her double.

"I'm still not giving in to you." she said flatly.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." NegaGosalyn said with a sigh, and moved positions as if to cast another spell. "It'll be your undoing."

"Ah, but you forget." Crimson said, grinning herself. "Rowe's _my _familiar too."

And with that, she quickly went to cast her spell, hoping her instincts would automatically cast a useful spell for her use. And as usual, they did, casting a beam of white magical energy towards NegaGosalyn. NegaGosalyn saw the move coming, though, and quickly reacted by mimicking the spell, casting her own beam of energy at her double. The two beams met somewhere in the middle, closer to NegaGosalyn than Crimson, and reacted violently, creating a small blast. NegaGosalyn, being closer, was blown off her feet. Crimson was knocked back a few steps, but kept her footing, and was quickly running forward again and towards the awaiting Avenger, pushing down NegaGosalyn as she went past.

Rowe, Bushroot, and Quackerjack hurried forward to try and stop her, but they were unarmed, and too far away. The army behind them did nothing, and merely stood awaiting to be ordered to do something.

"Shoot her!" NegaGoslayn finally snapped at them, lifting up her own weapon to get her bearings as Crimson as she hopped onto the Avenger and started it.

The army obediently started shooting, but they reacted a moment too late, as Crimson sped forward on the motorbike, throwing off their aim, and sped towards the street corner ahead. NegaGosalyn fired off a few shots at her double, but missed as the motorbike rounded the corner. Enraged, she threw a quick fit, then, regaining some of her composure, pointed ahead of them.

"Onward!" she ordered the army. "We're taking this city, no matter what!"

* * *

By the time everyone got back to the Elementary Underground, things were in even more disarray than before, as word that Negaduck's army was rapidly spreading even further, taking control of easily half of the city already.

"And he's just moving further." Agent Mia reported in the makeshift meeting she was holding with those who had managed to escape the ill-fated battle. "Agent Sandy says that most of the remaining people have already evacuated from the urban portion of St. Canard, but that's only giving Negaduck's army less to worry about, and is actually allowing them to move faster." she shook her head. "It's important we get those people out of here, though, so she's still at it."

"Keen gear, this is just getting worse and worse." Crimson muttered, staring at her feet. "We aren't going to be able to stop them, are we?"

"Not without more help." Darkwing agreed.

"But where are we going to get it?" Taylor asked. "I mean, outside the city, obviously, but how are they going to get in here?"

"By air." Launchpad remarked simply.

"It's not that simple, Launchpad." Techno commented. "They would need help from officials, particularly the government."

"And no one outside this city really knows what's _truly _going on here." Detective Matthew pointed out. "All the radio communications within the city are blocked."

"I have a team outside the city trying to set up a work-around for that, but they've been at it for awhile now, and I worry that they won't get it ready in time." Mia remarked.

"Agent Mia!" Agent Todd suddenly exclaimed from across the room. "I've got the president on a live video transmission over here!"

Mia twisted around to look at the canine in surprise. "You what?" she asked.

"Or maybe they _will _get it ready in time." Crimson remarked with a grin, as they all rose and wandered over to the computer screen displaying the transmission.

On the screen was a live feed of the president's office. The greying weasel sat calmly behind his desk. Standing behind him was Vice President Jonas Norrin, looking neutral as always, but a glint of concern was visible in the eyes of both people.

"President Ravenspell!" Agent Mia exclaimed as they arrived at the screen, saluting. "It's a relief to hear from you, sir."

"It's a relief to see you, as well, Agent Gingevere." the president said. "It's good to see that there's _somebody _left over there. We've been varying rumors about what's happening over there, but nothing solid."

"What _is _going on over there?" Norrin asked calmly.

"Oh, well, let's just say that your idea didn't work!" Darkwing snapped, wearing a fake, happy, expression on his face for mocking. "You should've listened to me, and let me go and hunt Negaduck down, but you didn't, had to do it _your _way, and now, Negaduck's about to overrun the city!"

"Darkwing!" Mia reprimanded, then took control of the conversation. "Negaduck's army has begun invading the city, sirs." she explained to them. "They go about stunning whomever they come across with a kind of weapon, then Negarian goes around casting spells upon them that allows him to control them, and become their slaves. Currently, Negaduck is employing all of them in adding to his army. With each passing moment, the army is constantly growing bigger. We can't fight them on our own, sirs."

"We're already rallying help together, Agent Mia, but it'll be awhile before we can get them all to you." Norrin remarked. "In the meantime, you'll have to focus on keeping what ground you can, and just hold out for more help."

"Work at getting as much of the civilian population out of St. Canard as possible." the president added. "I don't want unnecessary lives on the line here. This isn't their battle, it's ours. They have no need to be apart of it."

"We're already working at evacuating as many people out as possible." Mia said.

"But it's slow going." Lieutenant Taylor added. "We could use another means of getting people out of here."

"Particularly people of importance." Darkwing added. "You know, like city officials, business owners..." he paused, thinking suddenly, for the first time, of Christine, and added, "...loved ones..."

"Well, you can evacuate people out on the next flight in." the president reasoned.

The group exchanged glances.

"Flight?" Matthew repeated. "What flight?"

"We have an aircraft flying into the city, who's going to deliver a small group of extra help for you." Norrin replied.

"Like who?" Darkwing asked, curious. "The military?"

"No, someone a little...closer to home...for you."

* * *

This was probably the first time in Christine's life in which she regretted not having her own car.

She knew that Negaduck was invading. She knew that the city was about to be overrun. She knew that she was endangering herself and Charlie by staying here. But without a car, and no means of obtaining one, trying to evacuate like everyone else was impractical.

So she barricaded herself into her apartment.

With the exception of the windows, there was only one way in and out of the apartment, and that was through it's front door. So Christine moved all over her living room furniture to build a barrier in front of it, using various kitchen supplies, tubes of wrapping paper, a broom, a mop, Charlie's blocks and tinker toys, and whatever else was on hand. Charlie at first thought it was great fun, thinking that Christine was playing an unusually elaborate pretend game, and got in the part by providing weaponry for them (plastic guns that fired foam darts with suction cups on the tips).

But as the sounds of the ongoing battle outside drew closer and closer to the apartment building, Charlie started to realize that it wasn't pretend after all, and grew afraid. Christine was putting on a brave front for him, however, that was working to keep him calm.

"If anybody comes through that door, we'll be ready." Christine stated, armed with a heavy frying pan in one hand, and a cullender for a helmet. She waved her pan threateningly at the closed and locked front door of the apartment.

Charlie, equipped with a saucepan helmet and two dart guns, caught on, and kept his "weapons" trained on the door. Meanwhile, Christine, knowing the true seriousness of their situation, was almost desperately seeking a way to get out. She had tried calling for help, but the phone lines had gone dead several hours before, and everyone she called who could help weren't answering before then anyway. She theorized that they were all out fighting against the encroaching enemy.

She was at a loss as to what else she could do.

As the sun started to set outside, and the sounds of battle drew even closer than before, Christine started to grow tense, wondering what was going to become of her and Charlie. Then, without warning, something thumped against their front door. Alarmed, Christine turned towards it, raising her frying pan threateningly. She pushed Charlie down behind the makeshift barrier, but the youth wouldn't have it, and poked his head back up, nervously pointing his two dart guns at the door.

Something thumped against the door again, louder this time. It became clear that someone was trying to break it open. Christine and Charlie tensed up, waiting. Finally, the latch on the door broke with a snap, and the door swung open, and a lone person hurried in. Christine let out a mad yell, and charged, and Charlie started shooting wildly with his dart guns. Their eyes were both closed as they did this.

"Yipe!" Darkwing exclaimed, dodging the darts, and moving to stop Christine. "Guys, stop, it's me!"

Christine froze, and looked at Darkwing for a moment. She promptly dropped the frying pan and grabbed the hero in a hug.

"Drake!" she exclaimed in relief. "Thank goodness you're here!"

"Yay!" Charlie said, climbing over the barrier and joining in the hug.

"Oh, if only you guys were that glad to see me all the time." Darkwing managed to joke, then, heart softening, added, "Thank goodness you're both safe."

"How bad is it out, there, Drake?" Christine asked.

Darkwing gently pulled Christine off of him. "Bad." he replied. "But don't worry. I'm going to get you two safely out of this city."

* * *

Twilight had fallen by the time the aircraft arrived over St. Canard. As was expected, it was a large commercial cargo helicopter, and it's current cargo was a small handful of reinforcements. Before landing, the helicopter circled around the city once, to observe the situation from afar, then went to land at the edge of Audubon Bay, Negaduck's army haven't having gotten that far yet.

Standing there, awaiting the aircraft, was Darkwing and company, and Agent Mia, who were to greet the reinforcements. Also with them was a handful of would-be-evacuees who didn't have an effective means of getting out of the city. Christine and Charlie were reluctantly among them. The refugees were guarded by two commandos and Agent Todd, who had volunteered to help.

Once the helicopter was safely on the ground, it's rotor blades and engine slowing down to idle, it's cargo doors unlocked, and with a metallic whine, lowered down, forming a kind of ramp, and the recruitments within started spilling out of it. Leading the group was a very familiar face that, for once, Darkwing was okay with seeing.

"Gizmoduck is here to save the day!" the metal-suited hero declared as he rolled down the ramp on his one wheel, coming to stop before the group.

"Giz!" Darkwing exclaimed in relief. "I never thought I'd say this, but boy am I glad to see you!"

"Wingy!" Gizmoduck exclaimed, taking Darkwing's hand to shake briefly. "I've heard all about the situation you've got going on here, and hurried on over." he tapped the side of the aircraft, where the McDuck Enterprises logo was proudly displayed. "After I got permission from Mr. McDuck, of course, he is my employer after all. Speaking of which, he's not only letting you guys borrow me, but also this aircraft and about three others that'll be arriving at the borders of the city here shortly. They're going to help speed up the evacuation process, and deliver the evacuees in Duckburg. McDuck Enterprises is one of many of the major companies over there that are going to help provide aide there."

"Oh, bless his heart, I never thought he had it in him." Christine remarked.

"That'll make Agent Sandy happy here, at least." Techno remarked.

"Gizmoduck, who are these people that you've brought with you?" Agent Mia asked, glancing back at the small group of uniformed people that were readying their weapons.

"DIA agents." Gizmoduck replied. "Sorry there aren't more, but with them being the smalltime agency that they are, and with the military going to be coming awhile longer still, this was all that could be spared at the moment."

"Don't worry Giz, we'll take all the help we can get." Launchpad remarked reassuringly.

"I tried to get the ol' Justice Ducks gang back together while I was at it, too, but didn't have much luck there, either." Gizmoduck went on. "Neptunia is willing an able, but she's currently in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at the moment, and Steggmutt...well, let's face it, this serious battle isn't really his thing. And I couldn't reach Morgana and her husband."

"I've already been in contact with Morgana." Darkwing stated. "She and her husband are still in Venice at the moment, but they've been notified of the situation, and will get here as soon as possible."

"In the meantime, we're just going to have to make due with what we've got." Agent Mia said, taking charge of the situation. "Gizmoduck, there's an entrance to the Elementary Underground over there, you and the recruits you've brought can head down there now, and we'll meet up with you in a few moments to discuss the plan...or...at least...come up with one."

"Got it!" Gizmoduck said, saluting, and rolled off for the entrance in question, motioning to the DIA agents to follow him. "C'mon men, we have business to attend to!"

"Now," Mia then said, turning to the refugees, and pointed at the awaiting helicopter. "There's your ticket out of here. So unless you want to stay and fight..."

The refugees didn't need to be told anything more, and quickly scrambled to get aboard the aircraft. Their three escorts, Agent Todd and the two commandos, went with them to maintain the order and ensure their safe arrival in Duckburg. The last one aboard was Christine and Charlie, the youth being carried in Christine's arms. She started up the ramp leading into the aircraft, then hesitated and turned back to look at Darkwing.

"Drake, um..." she began, but Darkwing cut her short, stepping towards her.

"Christine, please." he said. "You two will be safer in Duckburg than here. I want you two there."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Christine began, but Darkwing was already a step ahead of her.

"Don't worry about us, Chris, we'll keep safe, I promise." Darkwing stated. "Besides, our place is here."

Christine hesitated for a moment, then nodded, and proceeded the rest of the way up the ramp, as Darkwing stepped back off it and to a safe distance from the helicopter when it took off again.

"All right, last chance to get aboard for everyone who's going onboard." Agent Mia said, turning to the others. "As commanding officer, I have to stay here...but you guys don't."

"I think I already made it clear that I'm staying here." Darkwing said flatly.

"I'm staying too." Crimson added, then, turning to Darkwing added, "You can't talk me out of it, either."

"I wasn't going to, Gos." Darkwing replied softly.

"I'm staying too." Launchpad added.

Techno hesitated for a moment as he thought. "Is my family safely out of the city?" he asked.

"Agent Sandy specifically made sure that they got out safely, yes." Agent Mia replied.

Techno nodded. "Then I'm staying too."

Mia nodded, looking a little relieved. "Good, because I need you all here." she said, and turned back to the aircraft. "Tell the pilot he can take off!"

"Yes, ma'am!" one of the escorting commandos responded, and headed to the front of the craft.

"Agent Todd!" Mia went on.

"Yes?" Todd replied, drawing his attention to her.

"For better or for worse, you're going to be the commanding SHUSH officer over there in Duckburg until specifically told otherwise by someone in authority, understood?"

Todd blinked in surprise, then snapped to attention, ready to take on the task. "Yes ma'am." he replied, saluting. That was answer enough for Agent Mia.

The helicopter's rotor blades starting to spin faster again as it prepared for take off. Slowly, the cargo doors to the craft started to lift back up into position.

"Bye." Charlie suddenly called mournfully from Christine's arms.

A couple people on the aircraft glanced curiously at him, then echoed his farewell until they had all had said it. Those watching from outside the plane gave their farewells as well, then watched as the closing cargo doors hid the evacuees from view. The helicopter then jumped to full throttle and lifted off the ground, flying over the bay and off into the distance of the dark horizon...

* * *

"So, what's the plan?" Gizmoduck asked a few moments later as they all convened for a meeting in the Elementary Underground.

"To fight back." Darkwing replied simply.

"And stop Negaduck at all costs." Mia added.

Gizmoduck was silent for a moment. "Well...that's not much of a plan."

"It's the best we've got, Giz." Crimson stated. "Besides, no matter what we do, isn't that what it will pretty much boil down to in the end?"

"Point taken, gizmobuddy." Gizmoduck admitted, nodding. "But we're still going to need a more of a plan than that."

"He's right." Lieutenant Taylor agreed. "We need _some _kind of strategy to how we're going to fight back. Like, where are we going to fight at?"

"Somewhere in this city." Detective Matthew stated. "We can't let Negaduck escape the city boundaries."

"So somewhere Negaduck hasn't reached yet." President Ravenspell remarked via a video feed on a nearby screen. "So that you'll have time to prepare for the fight."

"Negaduck's army is going to be reach Audubon Bay here soon." Officer Frank remarked. "So I suppose somewhere along there."

Darkwing got to thinking. "Now, here's a thought." he said suddenly. "I know of a location that Negaduck is _for sure _going to be directing his attention to here very soon. Two, even."

"Where?" Launchpad asked.

"Darkwing Tower and my house!" Darkwing exclaimed brightly. "Negaduck knows where they're at, and he knows that he's likely to find his sworn enemy, me, at either of those two locations. He's going to be directing the focus of his troops on taking those two locations here very soon. In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't tried already."

"Who says that he hasn't?" Matthew asked. "As I understand it, you haven't been at either location all evening."

"Both locations have a specially designed security system that activates whenever we are absent from those locations." Techno stated. "The alarm would've gone off if any intruders had tried to get inside."

"But suppose Negaduck knows how to get around that." Officer Frank remarked. "How do you know it's still safe?"

Techno tapped the side of his visor, that had a link with an infrared sensor system of both locations at all times. "I know." he promised.

"Okay, so you know where Negaduck is likely to strike the hardest next." Norrin remarked through the video feed. "What does that tell us?"

"Exactly where we make our stand." Darkwing said. "Our last stand."

"Can we do it?" Taylor asked. "Our last few battles with Negaduck's army all ended in disaster. Who's to say that this proposed last stand won't end the same way?"

"If we don't make this last stand, and win it, then it won't really matter anymore." Mia said. "St. Canard will fall."

"Then it's settled." Ravenspell remarked on the screen. "Do whatever necessary to make this last stand a reality. Darkwing, Agent Mia...I hate to put you on the spot like this, but you're the two best people for it. I need you two to lead the battle."

"Will do, Mr. President." Darkwing said, nodding. "You can count on us."

"I suppose if we must." Norrin commented, his way of voicing his discontent about the president's choice of leadership. "Suppose something goes wrong, however, and we cannot contact you. What then?"

"Norrin, if you can't contact us, then there's no one left _to _contact." Crimson stated plainly.

Norrin paused to think about that, then nodded curtly. "Understood." he said.

"As do we." Darkwing said. "We'll try and be back in touch as needed. Out." he switched off the video transmission and turned to the others. "Well, you heard the commander and chief. Launchpad, Crimson, Techno, go to the tower, and scope things out there, and how well it'd be to stand out ground there. Detective Matthew, take the SCPD and set up defenses all throughout the suburb area of St. Canard, to act like speed bumps for Negaduck."

"Also put up defenses at the borders of town where Agent Sandy is evacuating people, so to give them as much time as is needed to get them all out." Mia added.

"Agreed." Darkwing said. "The rest of us will head over to my house to set up our front, seeing that the rest of us already know of it's location, or in the case of Gizmoduck, soon will."

"I'm honored that you're putting that kind of trust in me, Wingy." Gizmoduck remarked.

"Only because I have to, and when this is over, I expect something from you to balance it out." Darkwing said. "Now, if that's everything, let's get to work."

* * *

In another location in the city, however, another group was making their plans to fight as well, and they had different goals in mind.

"Report." Negaduck barked as he strolled into the meeting room at SHUSH Headquarters and sat down at the head of the table and turned to face the commanding officers of his army.

"The invasion is progressing nicely." General Mallard stated, sounding pleased. "We'll be reaching the banks of Audubon Bay within the half hour, and once we do, our progress should speed up considerably."

"It's already going pretty dang fast as it is, though." Negawing Duck added with a grin. "The city is virtually empty now, as most of the inhabitants have evacuated."

"Although, that _does _mean that we aren't likely to get many more inhabitants pressed into our army." General Mallard admitted. "Simply because there's no one left."

"For me, however, that is a good thing." Negarian remarked, leaning forward in his chair. "It gives me something else to do for a change."

"And on the upside, if the city's empty, we can take it that much easier." NegaGosalyn remarked.

"About how much of the population is pressed into the ranks of my army?" Negaduck asked.

"Roughly about a third, but we haven't done an exact count as of yet." General Mallard replied.

"But there are probably more we can add once we find them." Negarian commented. "We found doorways in and around this very building that lead underground. They're locked. But it's possible that people have escaped down there. We're working at getting to them, as well as restoring all the other means of secreting coming and going from this building, so that we can track down any escapees and press them into the army's ranks."

"Good, that'll be more than enough for my purposes in seizing control of this city." Negaduck said. "St. Canard will make for a good foothold while I work to continue my plans."

"Speaking of which, I believe I've found just the place for you to work on that, Negs." Negawing remarked, jabbing a finger at Negaduck.

"Which is?"

"The topmost floor of Canard Tower. You'll have to clear it out of the stuff that's in it already, but it's high up and out of the way. Should suit your needs nicely."

"I'll check it out later." Negaduck turned to address the rest of the table. "Now, about battle plans. General, you said that the army's going to reach Audubon Bay here soon?"

"That's right." the general replied. "Once we cross the Audubon Bay Bridge, it won't be too much longer before we have the whole city. I suspect it won't take long to secure the suburbs, at any rate."

"Good, but when you do, there are a couple of places I want attention focused upon, and I want everybody involved in the matter." Negaduck commented. "Once that's out of the way, we can work at...tying up the loose ends and continuing with the plan. Speaking of which, those "loose ends" are probably going to start having questions they want answered here soon, but for the time being, I don't want any word of that slipping to them, is that understood?"

They all nodded. Negaduck grinned.

"Good." he said. "Now, here's the plan..."

* * *

The "loose ends" Negaduck were referring to happened to be outside the closed room, waiting for those inside to finish their meeting.

"Wonder what's taking them so long." Bushroot remarked as he sat on the hallway floor.

"Dunno mate, but it's probably important evil plans stuff." Rowe remarked, sitting beside him. "I just wanna know why we weren't included. We're in this just as much as they."

"Maybe we're supposed to guess!" Quackerjack declared suddenly. "Ooh, that would be so much fun!"

"That would be so ineffective." Bushroot corrected. "What could they possibly gain from _that_?"

"Fun!" Quackerjack declared.

"I'm sure they have other reasons than that, mate." Rowe assured the clown. "Just wish we knew what they were."

At that moment, the door to the meeting room suddenly opened, and those in the meeting marched out. Rowe, Bushroot, and Quackerjack quickly jumped to their feet, but they were ignored by most of the group exiting the room. They didn't really mind, as it was the commander they were reporting to that they wanted to see. And she was last to leave the room, and she _did _take an interest in their presence.

"Guys!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed at the sight of them, moving towards them. "What are you doing here?"

"We're waiting for you." Quackerjack said.

"So you can give us any orders." Rowe added.

"And tell us anything we might need to know." Bushroot concluded.

"Well then, rest assured, because your orders are to stay here." NegaGosalyn replied. "When we need you, we'll call for you."

"Wait, you mean you're leaving us out of the rest of the fight?" Rowe asked surprised.

"Why?" Bushroot asked.

"It was decided that we can handle it ourselves." NegaGosalyn replied.

"But...but...that's no fun!" Quackerjack whined. "We want to be a part of the fight!"

"Aye, and I want to know what the plans are, just in case." Rowe said.

"The plans are of no concern to you, at least, they won't be in the end."

This caught Rowe by surprise. "They aren't?"

NegaGosalyn hesitated for a moment. "Look, you guys just stay here and stay out of trouble." she said, and turned and left.

The three watched her go, their looks of surprise slowly turning into looks of suspicion.

"What did she mean, 'none of our concern?'" Quackerjack asked.

"I dunno." Rowe admitted with narrowed eyes. "But I think there's something they ain't telling us. Quackerjack, I think we _will _play that guessing game of yours after all...if only to try and figure out what's _really _going on...and what it has to do with us."

* * *

"You know, Darkwing Tower would probably make for a good gun turret." Crimson remarked, looking through one of the hideout's tall windows and down at the abandoned bridge below. "You know, one of those tall towers were you station gunmen, and have them shoot at the enemy from above?"

"True." Techno admitted, as he worked at the supercomputer. "But, I'm more worried about the practicality of it." he turned to face Crimson. "Assuming that we're right, and that Negaduck does try and attack both here and the Mallard home at the same time, most likely he'll spilt his forces and have them attack both locations at once. And with his numbers, he can do that. But the problem is, if we intend to win this fight, holding both locations is a must. And we simply don't have the numbers to defend both locations. We'll need all of our forces to hold one or the other, but not both."

Crimson sighed. "I see your point." she admitted. "So, what can we do about it?"

"Well, maybe we can add the Thunderquack to the mix." Launchpad remarked suddenly, who had been standing across the hideout, studying the jet for several long moments. "I mean, I could fly it over, and fire it's machine guns into the army during each pass, the guns switched to crowd control mode, of course..."

"The Thunderquack!" Techno suddenly exclaimed, and hurried over. "That's it!"

"You mean my idea is a good one?" Launchpad asked, pleased.

"Well, yes it is, but that wasn't what I meant." Techno said, opening the hood to the jet, and rooting through it's interior. "What I _did _mean was that we can hold Darkwing Tower for a long period time, and have it manned with only _one _person."

"And how are we going to do that?" Crimson asked.

Techno pointed at a device particular in the jet's interior. "We use the Thunderquack's cloaking device." he said excitedly.

Launchpad and Crimson glanced at each, then back at Techno, not seeing the connection.

"Are you saying that you want to try and _cloak _the tower?" Crimson asked, folding her arms.

"Is that even possible?" Launchpad asked.

"Theoretically, yes, but I've got an even better idea." Techno said. "The cloaking device works by creating a...bubble...of energy around the object in question. It's not very strong, but it's strong enough to block light and things like radar, preventing that light from reaching any objects behind it, and rendering it more or less invisible from sight. The Thunderquack uses this to hide behind. But, with a few tweaks, I can adjust the cloaking device to create a bubble of energy that won't block light, but will prevent physical objects such as people and weapons fire from penetrating it."

"An energy shield?" Crimson asked, impressed. "You can do that?"

"Yes!" Techno said. "The reason I've never mentioned it before is because doing so would require much more power than required for just cloaking, more than the Thunderquack could provide. The tower, however, can, and can create a shield big enough to protect it. There just was never any point to trying it before now."

Crimson and Launchpad glanced at each other again, this time looking awed.

"Wow, Tech, that's really impressive." Crimson said. "By using this shield, we can hold our position at Darkwing Tower with a fraction of the people needed, _and _keep whatever forces Negaduck sends at us at bay, meaning that the rest of us would only have to deal with whatever's left when they attack at the Mallard house."

"Exactly." Techno said, beginning to disconnect the cloaking device from the Thunderquack. "It won't take long for me to set up, either. And Launchpad, we can do your idea too, in fact, I'd recommend it. The Thunderquack won't have cloaking abilities, but she will still be a formidable threat against Negaduck's ground troops."

"All right." Launchpad said, as Techno took the disconnected cloaking device and hauled it over towards the supercomputer. Launchpad closed the jet's hood, and then climbed into the jet itself. "I'll take off now and meet up with DW and the others, explain our plan."

"Okay, I'll stay here and make this plan a reality." Techno said.

"I'll help." Crimson offered, following Techno. "Then I'll go and meet up with the others, too."

The two carried the heavy cloaking device over to the supercomputer while Launchpad took off in the Thunderquack. Setting it down on the control panel, Techno removed a cover under the panel and pulled out a drawer-like device that contained some of the technological guts of the panel. Together, Crimson and Techno lifted the cloaking device into this drawer and started connecting it.

"How many people is it going to take to man the tower for this?" Crimson asked as they worked.

"Just one, to maintain the shield once it's up and running." Techno said. "I can do that, I know what I'm doing better than most, and it _is _my idea."

"Fine by me." Crimson said, not seeing a need to argue.

"But Crimson, you should know that I won't be able to keep the shield up forever." Techno added. "Eventually, the power will run out, and the device will fail, particularly once it's under stress to keep back whatever is trying to penetrate it."

"Understood." Crimson said. "It won't come to that, though, you'll see. When we win the fight, we'll come and provide backup here."

"Assuming we _do _win the fight." Techno remarked as he connected the last cord to the cloaking device and looked up to Crimson. "Speaking of which, Crimson..." he hesitated, "...in the event that things go wrong, and we _do _lose this fight...I want you to know...that...uh...I...uh..."

Crimson finished his sentence by kissing him on the lips. "I know." she said afterwards. "I wanted to say the same thing as well. And, well, actions speak louder than words, so..." she shrugged.

Techno, a little taken aback by the sudden kiss, merely grinned.

"Crimson, Techno, our sources are saying that Negaduck's forces are moving towards your position." Darkwing's voice was suddenly broadcasted over the radio, interrupting the moment. "We're going to be engaging the enemy soon. Are you ready?"

Crimson looked at Techno, who quickly checked over the cloaking device one more time, and nodded. "We're ready." Crimson reported into the radio. "Tech's going to stay here and secure the tower. I'm heading over to where you are now. Out." she turned to leave, glancing back at Techno as he worked with the supercomputer to begin engaging the shield. "Honker." she called quickly. "Good luck."

Techno looked back at her. "You too, Gos." he said with a nod, then returned to what he was doing.

Crimson watched him for a second, then headed over to the chairs to head home for the last stand.

* * *

"They're approaching the bridge now." Agent Mia said, lowering her binoculars and walking across the front yard of the Mallard home to where Darkwing stood watching the SHUSH agents they had brought for the fight set up, and where Launchpad had momentarily parked the Thunderquack, making some last minute preparations. "They'll probably split up there."

"Right." Darkwing said, nodding. "We'd better get ready for the fight, then." he looked around. "Where's Giz?"

"Right here, Wingy." Gizmoduck said, rolling out of the house itself. "Just surveying the battleground-to-be. Speaking of which, you and I are going to have a few things to talk about when this is all said and done."

"I figured as much." Darkwing replied, turning to face him. "Just don't make me regret it. Now, we're going to be fighting here soon. Matthew and everyone else are in position. Can you contact the Elementary Underground and let them know about our status?"

"Already done." Gizmoduck replied. "Just got done talking with them. They actually called me to tell me that they have something important that they needed to tell us. Lieutenant Taylor is going to be coming up here to speak with you, Agent Mia."

"I hardly think that's necessary, I'd prefer he'd stay in the Elementary Underground and tell me these things over the radio like I had ordered him to." Mia remarked, folding her arms. "What could be so important at this point that he had to come up here and tell me personally?"

"A few things, Agent Mia." Taylor himself as he strode over to join the group, two more in tow. "Personally, I think you won't object when you see who I've got here with me."

Darkwing and Mia turned. Darkwing brightened immediately. "Morgana!" he exclaimed, and hurried over to greet the witch. "You made it!"

"Yes, _we _made it." Morgana said with a grin, being sure to include her husband, Bob, who stood beside her. "I told you we were going to try and come help fight. This is our home, too."

"We arrived at the Elementary Underground by magical portal just a few minutes ago." Bob explained. "Lieutenant Taylor explained to us the plan as he led us up here, and here we are, ready to fight."

"There's more, however." Taylor said, turning to Agent Mia. "I just got a report that somebody has been trying to open entrances to the Elementary Underground. I think Negaduck's figured out where we're hiding, and is trying to get in. We're probably going to have fighting down there here soon."

Mia sighed. "Great, and just when things were starting to look like they might turn in _our _favor." she grumbled.

"Do you want me to go down there and handle it, or..." Taylor began, but Mia cut him short.

"No, I'll go down there." Mia said. "You stay up here and help fight."

"Then you better be quick, both of you." Darkwing said as he used Mia's binoculars to look at the Audubon Bay Bridge in the distance. "Because Negaduck's heading our way."

* * *

"There's Darkwing Tower." Negaduck said, pointing it out to General Mallard and Negarian, the only other commanders present for this attack. "The tower that has been the source of so much trouble for me."

"Hmm, just how I remember it in my universe." General Mallard commented, signaling to the troops under his command to begin grouping around it.

"There is no bridge in my universe." Negarian remarked out of pure spite.

"You jealous, magician?" the general quipped.

"Hardly." Negarian remarked with a frown. "However, it is _your _duty to deal with this, and not ours."

"Right, this is where our paths separate." Negaduck said, motioning to his and Negarian's troops to proceed on across the bridge. "Remember, general, be gentle to the tower. I'd like to still have it around afterwards."

"No problems, we'll just storm it and take prisoners." General Mallard replied, as his troops surrounded the tower, pointing their weapons up at it. "It'll be quick. We'll be joining you here shortly."

"Fine." Negaduck said, as he and Negarian departed. "Enjoy yourself, general."

But they didn't get far before, as the general had made the call for his troops to get ready to begin the raid, when the area around the tower suddenly shimmered, then a translucent bubble of energy suddenly formed around the tower, completely enclosing it in a protective shield.

Negaduck and Negarian turned back to look at it in surprise as murmuring began to break loose about this.

"Well, that was unexpected." Negarian remarked.

General Mallard picked up a weapon and fired at the shield. The shot didn't pierce it. He frowned. "It might take some doing to get past this." he remarked.

"They can't keep that shield up forever." Negaduck pointed out hotly. "It's got to be a real power hog, too. Fire everything you've got at that shield, general. In the meantime, we'll continue on to the house, and I'll call for something that should help get around that shield."

General Mallard nodded, and turned to his troops and gave them a silent order. They all began firing at the shield, the barrier of energy sparking every time it was hit. Negaduck and Negarian turned and continued walking away, their troops following. Negaduck pulled out a radio and switched it on.

"Negaduck to HQ." he said into the radio. "Prepare the secret weapon, and sent it through to Darkwing Tower when able."

* * *

"Report!" Agent Mia snapped as she strode into the main room of the Elementary Underground, causing several people in the room to quickly snap to attention.

"Ma'am, we have reports all over the compound that someone is trying to forcibly open the entrances to the Elementary Underground around the location of SHUSH Headquarters." a nearby agent quickly reported. "All has since gone silent, though, but we're not sure if that means we're in the clear."

"Probably not." Mia said, taking charge. "Probably just means that they've gone looking for something more heavy duty to force open those hatches." she turned to everyone else. "Everyone, arm yourselves! I think we'll have fighting in here very soon!"

There was a moment of silence as they all worked to carry out the order, distrubuting what little weapons they had left in the room. Suddenly, an echoing bang rang out down a tunnel, and the room trembled slightly.

"What the...what was that?" an agent in the group exclaimed as dust from the ceiling trickled their way down on their heads.

Suddenly, everyone's radio clicked on, relaying a cacophony of noise they all broadcasted at once, the most clear of which being weapons fire.

"We're under attack!" Mia was able to pick out from one of the transmissions. "They blasted open the doors! They're coming in!"

"Everybody, ready yourselves!" Mia exclaimed. "They're coming our way!"

* * *

"Here they come!" Detective Matthew yelled as the last of his defenses came rushing in from where they had been stationed, retreating to the Mallard home. "Get ready!"

"Everybody get ready!" Darkwing relayed back to the forces who were all stationed in the front yard of the house. "Shoot the moment you see them!"

Everyone geared up to fight. Not moments later, the enemy army rounded both corners of Avian Way and surged towards the house, their weapons already blazing. Soon the weapons of the resisting force were blazing as well. In the first few moments of the battle, several in the front ranks of both forces fell, but unlike the forces of Negaduck's army, there was no one to take the places of those who fell in Darkwing's army.

Darkwing quickly realized that this battle was probably already lost, just like the ones before. He turned back to look at the mishmash of forces who had joined in the fight. Detective Matthew, Officer Frank, Lieutenant Taylor, Crimson, Morgana, Bob, Gizmoduck, and the combined forces of what remained of both the SCPD and SHUSH. The hero realized with a pang of guilt that they weren't likely to escape this battle.

But at least they would go down fighting.

"They're splitting up again!" Crimson suddenly exclaimed, driving Darkwing back to reality.

She pointed. Darkwing turned to look and saw that a small section of the army was indeed breaking away and heading deeper into the suburbs of the city.

"They're heading towards the edge of town!" Gizmoduck exclaimed, as the various weapons his suit had to offer banged loudly.

Darkwing fumbled for his radio. "Agent Sandy!" he exclaimed into it. "Brace yourself! You're going to have company!"

* * *

Agent Sandy looked away from the line of cars filled with panicking civilians trying to escape and turned in time to see the officers Detective Matthew had stationed here to stand guard begin firing upon the encroaching enemy. Sandy quickly turned back to the line of cars, and motioned to them to move faster.

"Hurry!" she was yelling. "They're coming!"

* * *

"Looks like the battle's begun." Bushroot noted as he looked out a window.

"And we're not in it." Rowe muttered, pacing the room they were in. "Why?"

"I don't know, but I think we have every right to feel uneasy." Bushroot remarked, turning to look at his comrades. "From the very first moment we got involved in this, I've felt uneasy."

"Yeah, you made _that _clear when we were hiding in the Negaverse a few days back!" Quackerjack declared. "You remarked that you thought that the only reason that Negaduck was letting us in on all of this after keeping it secret from us for so long as to try and keep us busy."

"And I still stand by that." Bushroot agreed.

"But why?" Rowe repeated. "Why does Negaduck working so hard to keep us busy?"

"Maybe to keep out of something." Bushroot reasoned.

"But what is it that Negaduck wants us staying out of?" Rowe said.

"And why doesn't he just tell us?" Quackerjack asked. "If he really wanted us to stay out of something, all he has to do is just tell us, and we'll stay out of it."

"Not unless it's a secret." Bushroot pointed out.

"But what's the secret?" Rowe inquired.

Bushroot shrugged. "That's the mystery."

"You know, I think you two are just overreacting." Quackerjack said. "If Negaduck really wants to control us like that, then he'd just sic Negarian on us, and have that stupid magician use his mind control spell to keep us in line."

Rowe and Bushroot suddenly froze and turned to look at Quackerjack with wide eyes.

"That's it." Rowe said, shocked. "That's what Negaduck plans for us. He intends to make us slaves to his army the first chance he gets! He's going to betray us!"

"Betray us?" Quackerjack said. "But why? We're loyal to him!"

"Are we?" Bushroot asked, rising. "We've all gone against Negaduck at least once in the past! Therefore, he can't trust us! He _doesn't _trust us!"

"He never _did _trust us." Rowe realized. "He planned this from the start, that's why he kept us out of the loop for so long. He only lets us in later so to keep us from getting too suspicious. Now he's just waiting to get his chance to deal with us properly."

"That's what NegaCrimson meant when she said that it wouldn't matter for us in the end." Bushroot realized. "She's in on this too! They probably all are! They've probably been jointly planning to betray us from the very beginning!"

"Well, if they are, they aren't getting _this _clown!" Quackerjack exclaimed, jumping up suddenly. "I'm fighting back!"

"Oh, absolutely, mates!" Rowe agreed. "If we don't, we're gonna be stuck being Negs's mindless minions!" he paused, getting a thought, then grinned. "I think I know exactly how to really cause problems for Negs, too!"

He raced for the door. Surprised, Bushroot and Quackerjack started to follow.

"Wait, what about us?" Bushroot objected.

"Stay here and cause trouble." Rowe said as he rushed out the door without stopping. "What I'm going to do, I need to do alone!"

* * *

NegaGosalyn fumbled around with the circuitry of the wiring of the chairs at SHUSH for a few moments, reconnecting the wire Agent Mia herself had pulled sometime earlier, reactivating the chairs for use.

"Done." she said, pulling herself out from under the sidetable that sat between the two chairs. "They'll go to Darkwing Tower now."

"Wonderful!" Negawing cried, twirling his walking stick happily. "Anything else we need to worry about?"

"Nothing whatsoever, the chairs should completely bypass the shield they've got up." NegaGosalyn commented.

"Brilliant!" Negawing said. "Then we can send the secret weapon Negs requested for right away!" he turned to the door of the briefing room. "You can come in now!"

At the sound of Negawing's voice, a figure mechanically stepped into the doorway, silently ready for orders, and for action...

* * *

In the corridor beyond the main room in the Elementary Underground, a lot of noise could be heard as a struggle occurred as the invading enemies attacked the guards that had been stationed and the entrances into the underground facility. They were coming ever closer to the room.

"Stand your ground, and be ready to fire the moment they come into view!" Agent Mia ordered.

They all stood ready to fire, awaiting the first enemy to come into view. They didn't have long to wait. A few moments later, the attacking party came into view all at once, and without any warning. Awaiting their appearance as they were, Mia and the others were caught off guard, and weren't quick enough to shoot down the first few attackers before they attacked first. Fortunately, they recovered quickly, and soon the battle was on...

* * *

The shield sparked brightly under the onslaught of weapons fire it was holding back. If the circumstances were different, Techno might have found the sight pretty. But he knew that relatively thin barrier of energy was all that was keeping this place from being overrun, or worse. And that shield wouldn't last forever, particularly with the stress General Mallard and his party of men were giving it.

The shield was already at seventy-five percent capacity and still dropping, much faster than what Techno had been hoping for. Already he had been diverting power from elsewhere in the tower to the modified cloaking device to compensate, but it wasn't making as much of a difference.

Regardless, Techno worked anxiously at the control of the supercomputer to maintain the shield as long as possible, resisting the urge to look out a window to see how the battle was fairing. He was distracted momentarily when a light blinked green on the master control panel, alerting him that someone restored the connection between Darkwing Tower and SHUSH HQ via the chairs.

"Great." Techno muttered, as he stared at the light for a few moments. "Just when I was thinking things couldn't get much worse."

He continued focusing his attention on the cloaking device, hoping he would have a few minutes still before someone tried sending someone through the chairs to here. It was a gamble, yes, but he knew that his attention should remain on the cloaking device and the shield he had rigged it to produce for as long as possible. And for awhile, he was able to do that in relative peace, the chairs not activating.

But finally, they did. Techno heard the whirring noise they made as they spun. With a groan, he twisted around and shot a look back at the chairs to see who was coming. He was surprised at what he saw, and at first, he thought that another known supervillain had somehow gotten into the mix of things. But then Techno realized that the sole figure that stood before him was not who he first thought.

It was Nanite. Only the robotic figure was shaped as a different person, one that Techno knew well, and realized made this person a part of Negaduck's army.

This figure looked like Darkwing. Therefore, a more accurate name to call it would be a Nanite Darkwing...

* * *

With a burst of glass, the front window on the Mallard home shattered when it was struck with weapons fire, spraying shards of glass into the ranks of the resisting fighters. Morgana tracked down the offending gunman and directed a magical attack at him. She hit him, but another was ready to fill in the gap in the ranks that he left.

"There's so many of them!" she exclaimed unnecessarily.

"Darkwing, we're going to be overrun here so if we can't do something to stop these guys!" Taylor exclaimed.

"I know!" Darkwing exclaimed back. "We can retreat into the house itself if need be!"

"Where's Launchpad?" Crimson asked. "He's supposed to be attacking in the Thunderquack!"

"There he is!" Frank suddenly shouted, pointed overhead as the Thunderquack swooped by overhead, it's engine's whining.

The jet rushed over the war-filled street, then came about for another pass, and fired into the ranks of Negaduck's army using it's machine guns switched on crowd control. The electric bullets managed to take out whole groups of Negaduck's army, finally dealing a successful blow against the army.

The ragtag group of defenders cheered as Launchpad flew the jet over and attacked again with similar results. But then Darkwing, after having spent the entirety of the battle searching for Negaduck, finally spied him in the middle of the army's ranks. The hero noted with dismay that Negaduck was currently talking very animatedly into a radio, eyeing the Thunderquack.

Darkwing felt his stomach sink. Something told him that Negaduck had prepared for this, and that nothing good could come from that.

* * *

"You certainly can't seem to stop calling us." NegaGosalyn remarked teasingly as she answered Negaduck's radio call a second time, as she and Negawing wandered through the corridors of SHUSH Headquarters.

"I don't need your wise cracks, Gos." Negaduck snapped over the radio. "But Darkwing's gotten his act together this time around, and is proving harder to beat. However, the one thing he's got going for him at the moment is the fact that he's got the Thunderquack. I need that plane _gone_!"

"Fine." NegaGosalyn said, turning a corner and into a room, Negawing silently following. "I have just the thing, it arrived not long after you left for that battle. And I happen to be nearby, too."

"So we're thinking of using the same thing, then?" Negaduck inquired.

"Oh yeah." NegaGosalyn replied, looking at the parked Negaquack sitting in the room. "We are."

* * *

It was right about then that Techno realized there was a Darkwing double that they didn't know of being on Negaduck's side. This Nanite Darkwing, who was gearing up for battle, taking advantage of Techno's stunned state. Techno had time enough to remember when Darkwing was temporarily infected with the control nanite that would later give way to the Nanite they knew now and theorized that events must have played out differently in whatever universe Nanite Darkwing hailed from before Nanite Darkwing converted one arm into a weapon and fired.

Yelping, Techno quickly sidestepped the blast of energy, almost not going fast enough, watching as the bolt struck the underneath of the master control panel and exploded, spraying sparks and debris out onto the platform. It missed the cloaking device producing the shield, but affected it's power supply nonetheless, and it began to fail faster.

Techno knew he had to do something to preserve the device's life, and started to move towards it only to be forced to duck as Nanite Darkwing fired again, slowly making his way towards the supercomputer platform. Techno saw he was going to have to deal with this robotic double first, and hurriedly sought for a plan.

Quickly, he pulled out a chemical bomb and hurled it at Nanite Darkwing, not stopping to watch as the bomb exploded in front of the robot. Naturally, given the nature of the robot's structure, it didn't really hurt Nanite Darkwing in the slightest, but it distracted him. All that Techno had been hoping for. Besides, it hadn't taken him long to notice that unlike PosiNanite they all knew and hated, Nanite Darkwing seemed to have a significantly slower reaction time.

Techno could use that to his advantage.

Once the bomb was thrown, he quickly moved for the bank of consoles on the side of the platform and vaulted himself over it and off the platform. Nanite Darkwing reacted to the incident by firing in Techno's general direction, but was slow on the trigger and missed, and instead hit one of the vertical touchscreens instead, shattering it. Techno then dropped down and landed on the briefing table that sat beside the platform. When he landed, he let himself drop into a roll and tumbled off the table, an action that saved his life as Nanite Darkwing fired again, again missing and instead hitting the wall behind the table.

A moment of silence fell. Nanite Darkwing waited for a moment for Techno to reemerge again. When he failed to do so, however, the roboticized duck slowly proceeded towards the briefing table, keeping his weapons trained on that section of the tower, ready to fire. He got about five feet away from the table when techno suddenly shot up into the air using his rocketboots, and quickly shot for the weapons platform across the hideout. Nanite Darkwing was caught off guard by the sudden motion, and fired rather blindly as he tried to shoot down Techno, missing each time.

Techno arrived at the armory platform safely, and landed, quickly ducking down again as Nanite Darkwing fired, missing as usual. Techno then sought for a weapon he could use. The armory was missing most of it's weaponry due to the conflict going on and the need for weapons was great, but there was still some weapons to be found. Techno at first grabbed Darkwing's gas gun, which wouldn't have been very useful in the kind of battle they were in, but then got a better idea when he spied the glass case that contained the P90 Crimson had salvaged from when NegaGosalyn had allegedly died.

"That'll work!" Techno exclaimed, and using the butt of the gas gun, broke the case and pulled out the weapon, working to pull out the clip of ammo it had to exchange it for a clip of diamond-tipped bullets.

Meanwhile, Nanite Darkwing, having not seen Techno for a few moments, had stopped firing, and was now moving towards the armory platform to investigate. With every heavy, metallic, footstep he was coming closer, a fact that Techno was consciously aware of as he quickly shoved in the clip of diamond-tipped bullets and geared up to fire the P90.

Finally, as Nanite Darkwing was just reaching the staircase that would lead up to the platform, Techno was ready, and quickly hopped up, pointed the P90 at Nanite Darkwing and held down the trigger. The gun fired, launching roughly about nine hundred rounds per minute, piercing the robot's armor repeatedly, damaging him and forcing him to stumble backwards. Techno kept firing at him, slowly walking down the staircase as he did so, until finally Nanite Darkwing succumbed to the damage received and fell over and didn't move.

Techno quickly turned to look back at the supercomputer platform and saw with dismay that the shield protecting the tower had already dropped down to forty-five percent capacity, and was still falling...

* * *

With the Thunderquack swooping down repeatedly and taking down large groups of Neagduck's army, the two commanders, Negaduck and Negarian, began urging the army to press forward, to try and drive back the resisting fighters stationed in the front yard of the Mallard home. It somewhat worked. They did indeed fall back, but they did so by falling back into the house itself, shooting through it's doorways and windows. This actually gave them more protection from the assault, and angered Negaduck further.

"Where is NegaGos?" he muttered aloud to himself as he tried to shoot Darkwing, spying the hero pop up briefly in the broken front window to shoot at the encroaching army.

"She is late." Negarian agreed from beside Negaduck as he attempted to use his magic to dispose of Morgana and Bob, but the two magicians were very skilled at evading his attacks.

They both ducked quickly as the Thunderquack swooped over again, shooting into the ranks dangerously near their position, then looked up at the jet in annoyance as it pulled up to begin to turn for another pass. But then, quite suddenly, anti-aircraft shots suddenly struck the Thunderquack, making it veer off for a moment. The Negaquack then sped past it with NegaGosalyn at the controls, and the opposing jet quickly came about to engage the Thunderquack...

* * *

Launchpad saw the Negaquack come about and quickly veered the Thunderquack out of the way as the enemy jet fired at it. Most of the shots clattered harmlessly off the Thunderquack's superior hull, but it still made Launchpad edgy about any possible damage that could be received. Switching to the shock dart launchers, he spun the Thunderquack around and fired at the charging Negaquack.

The darts pierced the Negaquack's armor and delivered bursts of electric energy into it's systems, temporarily overloading it, and causing the jet to suddenly stop and just hover uselessly there. Immobilized, Launchpad used that chance to switch to machine guns and to pound away at the jet, damaging it further. Inside the jet, NegaGosalyn was struggling to find something that was still under her control, and finally slapped a control out of desperation.

On the roof of the Negaquack, a medium-sized cannon placed just before the tail fin twisted upward to point at the Thunderquack's exposed underbelly and fired a single shot. That one shot struck the Thunderquack and dealt it some damage, startling Launchpad. He quickly broke off the attack and using the orbital thrusters briefly as a booster, shot off away from the area and started on a high-speed path that circled St. Canard. The Negaquack, recovered by this point, gave chase.

And for several moments, that's all it was, a high-speed chase that encircled the city, the Negaquack firing at the fleeing Thunderquack whenever possible. The Thunderquack tried to compensate by dropping small, airborne, chemical bombs in the path of the Negaquack, but the Negaquack was able to evade most of them, and was able to avoid the worst of the blast of those it couldn't.

Finally, as the two planes started to circle around to the opposite side of the city, the Negaquack fired off a missile at the Thunderquack. Launchpad tried dropping chaffs to try and evade it, but the missile wasn't fooled, and stayed on target. Finally running out of chaffs, Launchpad resorted to fancy flying and maneuvered dangerously close to a passing skyscraper. Hoping that it had been abandoned, Launchpad flew the plane towards it, acting like he was planning on ramming it, but instead at the last possible second veered off and skimmed along the side of the building. The missile was unable to compensate quick enough and slammed into the side of the building and detonated.

The Negaquack broke off and looped around the building on the other side, and was waiting for the Thunderquack when it emerged on the opposite side of the building roughly at the same time. Fortunately, Launchpad was ready too. Both planes charged each other, firing at each other and dealing each other damage. They looked like they were about to collide when the Thunderquack finally dove downward, and the Negaquack quickly barrel-rolled upwards and out of the other jet's path. Their tail fins ground against each other, but that was all.

Now the Thunderquack was behind the Negaquack, and Launchpad started attacking the jet ahead of him in the same manner as NegaGosalyn had done before. The Negaquack, being lesser armed, began taking some serious damage, but was still flight worthy. Launchpad then fired a missile at the fleeing jet, but NegaGosalyn was ready for it, and dove down towards Audubon Bay that they were now flying over on their way back to the suburbs of the city, then pulled up at the last possible minute and allowed the missile to impact the water and detonate.

The Negaquack started to rise up to gain more altitude again. The Thunderquack rose up with it, so to be sure it stayed higher than the opposing jet again. Flying back over the battle in the suburbs again, Launchpad fired the Thunderquack's only other missile at the Negaquack.

He did it a moment too late, for the Negaquack, right as he fired, suddenly dove upward and out of sight, and missile, not getting a target, flew on aimlessly until it hit the backyard of somebody's home and detonated. The Negaquack then swooped around until it was behind the Thunderquack, and fired off it's last missile as well as it's target. Launchpad started to evade it, but the missile was faster, and struck the jet where it's right wing joined with the rest of the plane, severing it right off.

Rapidly losing control, the jet started to spiral downward, flying off towards the city again, where it eventually crashed somewhere out of sight.

* * *

Techno started to move towards the supercomputer platform when Nanite Darkwing suddenly started moving again, and with a swing of his arm, knocked Techno's feet out from under him. Yelping, he fell to the ground, landing on his side, his forward momentum making him slide across the floor a few feet.

Nanite Darkwing quickly rose to his feet and moved forward to finish the fight when Techno quickly rolled over and fired the P90 still in his hand right at Nanite Darkwing's face, holding down the trigger as he emptied the last of the gun's round into the robot. Nanite Darkwing started staggering backwards under the onslaught, rasing up his arms to shield himself, only causing more damage as they were struck with the diamond-tipped bullets.

The P90 ran out of ammo suddenly and stopped shooting. Nanite Darkwing started to recover quickly, and lunged for Techno. Techno side-stepped the leap, and hurled himself on top of the robot as it hit the ground, ramming the butt of the P90 into the robot's damaged face. He chanced a look upward and at the supercomputer platform, and saw that the shield was now down to twenty-five percent capacity, with a complete failure eminent within a matter of moments unless Techno did something soon...

* * *

"Launchpad's been shot down!" Crimson exclaimed in alarm as she watched through the broken front window as the Thunderquack vanished from sight as it went down.

"And they're coming closer!" Gizmoduck exclaimed from the front door of the Mallard home as Negaduck's army pressed ever closer.

"We're losing everyone!" Taylor exclaimed as another one of the rapidly dwindling numbers fell. "We can't hold on much longer!"

"Darkwing, I can create a portal to evacuate!" Bob offered as conjured a spell to try and drive the opposing army back.

"No!" Darkwing declared, firing at the army. "We stand our ground until we have no other choice!"

* * *

In the Elementary Underground, things weren't going much better. In fact, the battle had gone badly from the moment it began. The room was too cramped. There were simply too many people trying to press into the one room. One would think that would put both sides at a disadvantage as that made them all sitting targets, but for some reason, things were going better for Negaduck's army than Agent Mia's forces.

She didn't know why. Maybe it was a matter of numbers, or, in her case, the lack thereof. Maybe it was tactics. Maybe it was sheer dumb luck. She didn't know. What she did know was that they were losing, and retreating wasn't an option anymore. All the paths leading in and out of the room had been cut off. They were trapped in here. Surrendering wouldn't have gotten them anything flat out losing wouldn't.

The only thing they could do was keep fighting until the end.

* * *

"Hurry! Hurry!" Agent Sandy exclaimed as she tried and get the evacuees out as speedily as possible, which wasn't fast enough. "Get moving!"

She wanted to look to see how the battle was fairing, but didn't dare, and she suspected it was already going poorly. She knew that the small party of officers Detective Matthew had stationed here had already fallen, and that they regiment of Negaduck's army was now overrunning each and individual car that contained evacuees one by one, constantly getting closer and closer to where she stood.

She looked to the air, hoping to see the four McDuck Enterprises aircraft returning to carry away more of the evacuees, but they were nowhere to be seen. Sandy secretly knew that they had left not that long ago with the last load of evacuees and that they probably were nowhere near St. Canard at the moment.

"C'mon, keep going." she urged the drivers of the cars, then jumped in fright when something impacted the ground near her foot.

Alarmed, she looked up in time to see gunmen from the regiment of Negaduck's army, running towards her, fire their weapons in her direction. Something struck Sandy's chest with enough force that she had time to sense her feet leave the ground before the world suddenly went dark.

* * *

Techno continued ramming the butt of the P90 into the damaged face of Nanite Darkwing, dealing more damage to the weakened surface. Getting fed up with that, Nanite Darkwing finally pushed Techno off of him and into a corner of the tower. Rolling over, the robot jumped up to deal with Techno properly.

But Techno wasn't finished yet. Throwing aside the empty P90 aside, he drew the gas gun he still had on hand and cycled through it's attachments quickly to the shock dart launcher and started shooting shock darts at the approaching robot, holding down the trigger like he had done with the P90. Nanite Darkwing froze under the onslaught, trembling as the electric pulses from each and every dart rippled through him.

The gas gun eventually ran out of shock darts though, and Nanite Darkwing still wasn't beaten fully, although the robot was severely beaten and damaged, and looked very unsteady on his feet. Techno had one more idea and threw aside the gas gun as well, and pulled out another chemical bomb and hurled it at Nanite Darkwing. It hit the robot in the chest and exploded, blasting a crater into the robot's chest, and hurled the robot across the room where it finally crumpled and moved no more.

Techno certainly hoped it would stay that way, and hurried finally back up to the supercomputer platform, seeing that the shield would fail at any second, and was already beginning to fluctuate...

* * *

Agent Mia realized suddenly and with a start that she was the only one of her group that was still standing in the room, and was suddenly surrounded on all sides by gunmen from Negaduck's army as they continued to pour into the Elementary Underground. Mia didn't let this slow her down as she continued fighting against the enemy surrounding her, but it only prolonged the inevitable. They pressed in on her, grabbed her, wrenched away her weapon before she could cause more damage, and forcibly subdued her.

The battle had ended here.

* * *

And it was on the verge of ending at the Mallard home as well.

"We can't hold this position any longer!" Bob exclaimed as Negaduck's forces continued to press their way towards the house, Negaduck and Negarian close to the front ranks, leading them on. "We gotta get out of here!"

"If we bail, St. Canard is Negaduck's!" Crimson exclaimed, venting her anger by shooting into the ranks of the army, so close now that it was impossible to miss hitting them. "We can't let that happen!"

It was then that Lieutenant Taylor, kneeling beside Darkwing fighting for the past several minutes, was suddenly struck down, taking their numbers left standing down to just above a half dozen. Detective Matthew quickly moved forward to fill in the spot Taylor had left vacated.

"It's already happened!" he snapped as he did so. "Darkwing, Crimson, get out of here while you still can! We'll provide cover!"

"No, I'm not leaving this fight unfinished, nor will I leave you guys here!" Darkwing snapped.

"Besides, why us?" Crimson asked, also unwilling to cooperate.

"Because if anyone has any hope of reversing this now, it's you two!" Matthew exclaimed as a SHUSH commando went down on the other side of the front window. "Now go!"

"Darkwing, c'mon, he's right!" Gizmoduck exclaimed from the front door. "We're about to be overran anyway!"

"I'm not leaving!" Darkwing persisted, still fighting.

However, Morgana got fed up with the matter, and moving herself and Bob out of the living room and into the entry way, she used a spell to magically pull Crimson and Darkwing out of the room to join them, and just in time. Officer Frank was suddenly downed by enemy fire, quickly followed by Detective Matthew. Completely unguarded now, the army started to spill into the living room via the window, Negaduck and Negarian now leading them. Gizmoduck let out a cry of panic as he rolled backwards away from the front door as the army started to force it's way through the front door as well.

Quickly, Morgana stopped the army coming in from the living room by throwing up a magical shield in the doorway. Bob quickly did likewise and threw up a shield before the front door. Now the only thing keeping them from falling to Negaduck's army was a thin barrier of magical energy that couldn't possibly last for long...

* * *

The shield protecting Darkwing Tower was able to hold back about two more shots before it finally flickered and failed, vanishing from sight. A number of shots proceeded through it and hit the tower itself before the army on the bridge below realized fully that the shield had failed and they could now reach the tower.

Techno yelped as one such shot shattered a window, and scanned the master control panel before him, trying to come up with some inkling of an idea, some kind of plan he could use to save himself now. But he didn't have one.

He had ran out of ideas.

Turning back to the window, Techno could only stand there and watch as General Mallard's forces stormed the tower...

* * *

"Darkwing Tower has fallen!" Gizmoduck cried suddenly, seeing the shield around the tower fail in the distance.

"Honker!" Crimson wailed in dismay.

Darkwing was merely too stunned to say anything, and gazed through the translucent shield at Negaduck and Negarian who stood on the other side, Negarian working at casting a counterspell to the shield.

"I-I can't hold the shield much longer!" Bob exclaimed.

"We need to open a portal so we can escape!" Morgana shouted with determination.

"We can't!" Bob cried back. "If either one of us goes to do that, one shield or the other will fail, and we'll be overrun!"

A moment of silence fell as that thought settled upon the five remaining defenders. Morgana flinched as the shield she was holding up was struck by a spell Negarian cast against it, then she turned and looked around at Darkwing and Crimson.

Darkwing was one step ahead of her. "Morgana, no!" he exclaimed. "We're not leaving you guys behind!"

"Go Darkwing!" Gizmoduck said, also catching on to Morgana's unspoken plan, and positioning himself to attack in multiple directions once the shield failed. "Get out of here while you still can! We'll buy you time!"

"But..." Darkwing started to object.

"DARK!" Morgana suddenly roared, flinching again as her shield was subjected to more strain from Negarian's countercurses, her eyes alight with an anger Darkwing hadn't seen in years, "GO NOW!"

Darkwing hesitated. Then, slowly, silently, he nodded, and started up the nearby staircase to head up to the house's upper levels, Crimson wordlessly following. They hadn't gone very far up the staircase when Morgana's shield finally failed under the onslaught Negarian was giving it with a pop. Morgana let out a cry as the recoil from the conflicting magical energies released a wave a pain through her. At that moment, Bob turned his attention away from the shield he was holding up, letting it collapse, and turned and grabbed his wife in his arms, quickly exclaiming a spell of some sort as Negaduck's army started moving into the room. The two vanished with a burst of light.

This just left Gizmoduck who promptly started shooting once the shields failed, letting out a warcry-like yell as he fought. But no matter what technology was incorporated into his gizmosuit, it didn't stand a chance when Negarian cast a spell at him that struck the superhero with such force that Gizmoduck was blasted off the ground and into the door of Drake's study, which buckled under the impact. Negaduck carelessly moved past all of this and to the bottom of the staircase.

"Darkwing!" he exclaimed warningly, firing his pistol up the stairs as he watched his nemesis and Crimson reach the top and vanished around the corner.

He sighed, motioned to the army to wait here, and for Negarian to follow. Wordlessly, the two Darkwing doubles moved up the stairs.

"Darkwing!" Negaduck called again, this time sounding a bit more pleased with himself.

The two reached the hallway upstairs in time to hear a door shut somewhere in the corridor.

"There." Negarian said, pointing to the door of Launchpad's bedroom.

Negaduck moved to the door and tried to open it, only to find it locked. Angrily, he was about to try and break it down when Negarian stopped him and gently pushed him to one side. The magician then cast one spell that blasted the door right off it's hinges and to the floor. Inside the bedroom, Darkwing was in the process of forcing the window open so the climb out of it, Crimson waiting anxiously nearby. They both whirled around when the door was blown open, then quickly went to escape faster.

"Negarian!" Negaduck exclaimed urgently.

Negarian was one step ahead of Negaduck, and wordlessly cast a powerful spell that blew away the window and the surrounding wall, taking Darkwing and Crimson with it. The two nearly fell out of the window and to the ground below, but Crimson, dropping her stun gun, pulled out her gas gun and fired off a grappling hook up at remained of the roof, stopping her fall. Darkwing quickly grabbed onto her legs, losing his own stun gun, the only weapon he had. The two just hung there, not being able to do anything more.

Negaduck suddenly burst out laughing. "So this is how it all ends!" he declared happily. "My long time enemy now strung up outside a broken window, just hanging there as he awaits his end!" he laughed again.

"You won't get away with this, Negaduck!" Crimson exclaimed, but she didn't sound at all confident.

"Oh, but I already have!" Negaduck declared. "You two are the only two left who stand in my way in this city! And getting rid of you two will be _child's play _now! Negarian..." he turned to the magician, grinning wickedly, "...start with Darkwing."

Negarian nodded, and cast a single spell at Darkwing, which struck the hero right on. Darkwing yelped and let go of Crimson, starting to fall to the ground a floor down. Darkwing landed safely on his feet, however, and was quickly back up again.

But a vacant expression was now on his face, a clear sign that he was now under Negarian's control.

Shocked, Crimson looked back at the two villains as Negarian geared up to cast the same spell on her.

"I've won!" Negaduck crowed happily as this went on. "St. Canard, and soon, the world, are mine!"

And Negaduck's wicked laughter continued to echo out as Negarian cast the spell...

**To Be Continued...**


	76. A Time of Darkness

Summary: St. Canard has fallen to the forces of Negaduck's army, but he faces resistance...a fact he knows very well...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Okay, I have officially given up on trying to get these chapters up on a regular basis now. Life, the universe, and everything won't let me. So new chapters will be up just whenever. Anyway, this chapter, when compared to the chapter before it, is actually calmer, less action packed, and above all, _shorter_. :p But things continue nonetheless, and you'll catch on to where this is going soon enough, I'm sure. ;) Fun facts, of course, included at the end. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)

76.

A Time Of Darkness

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck..

"_Roughly about an hour ago, the SHUSH portal generator activated unexpectedly to receive an incoming portal. Presumably, this occurred just before Dr. Bellum was able to render the device incapable of doing so. A burst of energy was sent through that knocked over the guards that were stationed there, and during the time they were down, Negaduck's army started invading, quickly overwhelming them."_

_--  
_

"_It __**can't**__ be! She was dead! We all saw her! She was shot in the heart..."_

"_...by SCPD detective Matthew Christofferson and died almost instantly, I __**know**__, I've read the report. But I __**saw**__ her! She spoke with me! Heck, she __**shot **__at me! She was very much __**alive**__!"_

_--  
_

"_When we were in Gwendolyn's universe a few days ago, Negaduck told me that Negarian has this kind of magical spell that he can use on people that allows him to control their minds, and make them his own personal slaves. I suspect __**that's**__ what has happened to those agents."_

_--  
_

"_You keep back! Negs told me the truth! It's because of __**you**__ and the rest of your friends that I died in the first place!"_

_--  
_

"_But then Negs found out that you have magical blood, which thereby means that __**I **__have the same. And that was the one thing I needed to have in order for someone else to step in and do the deed that would bring me back."_

"_Negarian."_

_--  
_

"_Gizmoduck is here to save the day!"_

"_Giz! I never thought I'd say this, but boy am I glad to see you!"_

"_Wingy! I've heard all about the situation you've got going on here, and hurried on over. After I got permission from Mr. McDuck, of course, he is my employer after all. Speaking of which, he's not only letting you guys borrow me, but also this aircraft and about three others that'll be arriving at the borders of the city here shortly. They're going to help speed up the evacuation process, and deliver the evacuees in Duckburg."_

_--  
_

"_Drake, um..."_

"_Christine, please. You two will be safer in Duckburg than here. I want you two there."_

_--  
_

"_Agent Todd!"_

"_Yes?"_

"_For better or for worse, you're going to be the commanding SHUSH officer over there in Duckburg until specifically told otherwise by someone in authority, understood?"_

"_Yes ma'am."_

_--  
_

"_St. Canard will make for a good foothold while I work to continue my plans."_

"_Speaking of which, I believe I've found just the place for you to work on that, Negs."_

_--  
_

"_If Negaduck really wants to control us like that, then he'd just sic Negarian on us, and have that stupid magician use his mind control spell to keep us in line."_

_--  
_

_The Negaquack then swooped around until it was behind the Thunderquack, and fired off it's last missile as well as it's target. Launchpad started to evade it, but the missile was faster, and struck the jet where it's right wing joined with the rest of the plane, severing it right off._

_Rapidly losing control, the jet started to spiral downward, flying off towards the city again, where it eventually crashed somewhere out of sight._

_--  
_

_Alarmed, she looked up in time to see gunmen from the regiment of Negaduck's army, running towards her, fire their weapons in her direction. Something struck Sandy's chest with enough force that she had time to sense her feet leave the ground before the world suddenly went dark._

_--  
_

_Mia didn't let this slow her down as she continued fighting against the enemy surrounding her, but it only prolonged the inevitable. They pressed in on her, grabbed her, wrenched away her weapon before she could cause more damage, and forcibly subdued her._

_The battle had ended here._

_--  
_

_Turning back to the window, Techno could only stand there and watch as General Mallard's forces stormed the tower..._

_--  
_

_At that moment, Bob turned his attention away from the shield he was holding up, letting it collapse, and turned and grabbed his wife in his arms, quickly exclaiming a spell of some sort as Negaduck's army started moving into the room. The two vanished with a burst of light._

_--  
_

_But no matter what technology was incorporated into his gizmosuit, it didn't stand a chance when Negarian cast a spell at him that struck the superhero with such force that Gizmoduck was blasted off the ground and into the door of Drake's study, which buckled under the impact._

_--  
_

_Negarian nodded, and cast a single spell at Darkwing, which struck the hero right on. Darkwing yelped and let go of Crimson, starting to fall to the ground a floor down. Darkwing landed safely on his feet, however, and was quickly back up again._

_But a vacant expression was now on his face, a clear sign that he was now under Negarian's control._

_--  
_

"_I've won! St. Canard, and soon, the world, are mine!"_

_--  
_

_And Negaduck's wicked laughter continued to echo out as Negarian cast the spell...

* * *

_

It was broadcasted on all the TV channels and on all the radio frequencies for the next two hours that night, all across the nation. The message wasn't too terribly long, but it had the intended effect, as Negaduck made his statement.

"Attention citizens of this fine country." the message ran. "For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under _my _control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet! Go ahead and try and stop me, but you should know that I've already dealt with most of my _real _enemies. You couldn't stop me even if you could. So, to summarize, if you don't know me, _get _to know me. For I am the terror that hunts in the night. I am the conspirator that destroys your government. I'm Negaduck. And soon I'll be in control. Ha-ha-ha-ha!"

The message would then repeat, over and over again, until it was clear that everyone knew what had happened.

St. Canard had fallen to Negaduck...

* * *

Duckburg was a more calm and tranquil urban city than St. Canard. Granted, it had it's own problems, and it's own run-ins with the criminal element, but not at all like St. Canard. Also unlike St. Canard, Duckburg was smaller, and not _quite _as modernized, despite the fact that it was a seaport for the pacific ocean it neighbored, and harbored some of the countries most outgoing and prosperous companies. Also, again due to the city's close proximity to the sea, Duckburg tended to be warmer, and more fair weathered than St. Canard, which, despite it only being less than a mile away, tend to get colder, particularly in the winter.

All of this, and perhaps more, made it a quaint little city, still bearing the feel of the small country town it had begun as more than a century ago, even though it was much more than that now. The people here were also quite friendly, and usually more than willing to come and help, unlike St. Canard's more indifferent populace.

But it just wasn't home.

And this thought was on the very bottom of a very long list of thoughts that had been plaguing Christine's mind, as she and the other St. Canard evacuees, which totaled to be about more than half of the city's usual population. When they had been brought to Duckburg late that terrible night, officials were there to greet them and relayed them to one of three large buildings that had been emptied to house the evacuees until further notice.

Christine and Charlie had ended up in a indoor soccer stadium, along with easy two hundred others. There, they were given supplies such as food, water, a place to sleep, and any medical attention anyone might have needed, which was thankfully little. The officials verbally stated that they hoped to have everyone back out within a day.

That had been a week ago. They were still here.

They didn't really have anywhere else to go, though. The same night they left their homes was the same night Negaduck seized control of St. Canard. And in the week that followed, that hasn't changed. Negaduck's control of the city seemed to be absolute now, and despite the fact that several fractions of the government and military had completely encircled the city, that wasn't changing anytime soon. No one really knew what was going on in the now mostly abandoned city, but it couldn't be anything good.

Stranger still, however, was the fact that Negaduck, despite expectations, was not pushing his army further, going out to conquer more land beyond the city. He made sure that the armed forces surrounding the city did not cross it's borders, and that they stayed well outside of the city, but he was not pushing forward to gain more land. For the moment, he seemed content with St. Canard.

The officials were more or less okay with that, saying that it would give them time to come up with some plan of stopping Negaduck and recovering St. Canard. Something that even they themselves had admitted were not very close to achieving. At the moment, a full-out frontal charge and attack or bombing St. Canard seemed to be the only options that would be successful. The only problem with that was that St. Canard wasn't likely to survive such methods, much less the third of the city's population Negaduck had enslaved and possessed control over.

And at the moment, the very last thing people wanted was to see property damaged and technically innocent lives lost. So, for the moment, such tactic were not an option. But it was also clear that if the situation continued to turn for the worse, there wouldn't be much else one could do other than one of those two unwanted strategies.

Christine's thoughts went deeper than that, though, knowing more about Negaduck, his minions, whatever they could be planning, and just what things had been like in St. Canard before she had gotten out. And right now, she was filled with constant worry. She knew there had to be a reason Negaduck wasn't expanding his invasion, and it wouldn't bring about anything good. She also worried about her friends, Crimson, Launchpad, Techno, Agent Mia, and most especially Darkwing, whom she considered to be more than a friend.

None of them, so far as was known, had gotten out of St. Canard. Their fates were currently unknown.

Christine hoped and prayed that they managed to escape the wrath of Negaduck's army, but at the same time, realized that the odds were not in favor of that. When she left, it was quite apparent that if they didn't win their last stand against Negaduck and stop him from taking full control of the city, then they would've lost altogether. And Negaduck did take full control of the city, meaning that battle was lost.

So now, all she could do was sit here and wait for the final word.

"It's pretty." Charlie suddenly commented from within her arms, causing Christine to glance briefly down at him. She then followed his gaze, and had to agree.

Currently, the two were sitting on the top most row of the stadium's bleachers, the only two among few to do so. Rather than face the field which was currently filled with evacuees trying to pass the time, however, they were turned to face the other way and look out the row of windows that encircled the stadium's top floor. From here, they had an impressive view of Duckburg's western side, and watched as the sun began to set in the horizon of that view.

"Yes." Christine agreed with her adopted son. "It is pretty."

"Is it pretty like this back home?" Charlie then asked innocently.

Christine was silent for a moment. "I don't know." she admitted.

Charlie was silent for a moment too, clearly thinking heavily about recent events as well. "Will we be going home soon?" he asked, another innocent question.

"As soon as Negaduck is defeated." Christine replied.

"That shouldn't be long, seeing that Mr. Darkwing is working on it."

Christine grinned. "I hope you're right, Charlie."

They continued sitting there in silence for several long moments, enjoying the peace. They probably could've stayed that way for some time still. But it wasn't meant to be.

"Dr. Merriweather!"

Christine turned, and saw a uniformed duck approaching where she and Charlie said, no one they knew. He strode determinedly towards them, but seemed unsure if they were the people he was looking for.

"Are you Dr. Merriweather?" he repeated as he strode up.

"Yes." Christine replied, moving Charlie off her lap and standing up to face the officer. "Yes I am. Who are you, and why do you ask?"

"Ma'am, I don't know all of the answers myself." the officer said smartly. "I just know that I'm to find you and escort you to the front of the stadium. Your ride is waiting there to carry you to your destination."

"Destination?" Christine replied, and exchanged a glance with Charlie quickly. "What destination?"

"Please ma'am, time is of the essence. Everything will be explained when you arrive."

He escorted Christine and Charlie, who tagged along and would've come along regardless of what anyone said, to the front entrance of the stadium. Outside was indeed a car awaiting them, a simple and black four-seater vehicle with black tinted windows. Two people looked to be inside the car already, with one in the driver's seat, and one in the back. It screamed government-funded in Christine's mind, and wondered what the government wanted with her.

Their escort hurried ahead of his charge and opened the backdoor of the car for them, motioning for them to sit inside. Christine scooped up Charlie and did so, discovering the identity of the person that was already sitting in the back of the car in the process.

"Agent Todd!" she exclaimed in surprise. She had seen little of the SHUSH junior agent since they arrived in Duckburg, as Todd had been given command of what little of the SHUSH agency that had escaped St. Canard by Agent Mia before they left. Todd, while inexperienced and unsure of himself, rose to the task bestowed upon him to the best of his abilities, and had reportedly been trying to help deal with the situation, providing suggestions along the way. Christine didn't know if he was actually being of any help, but she was surprised to see him here regardless. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not sure, Dr. Merriweather." the canine replied. "They just pulled me away from what I was doing and put me in this car."

"Same for me." Christine replied. "You I understand, but why do they want _both _of us?"

Todd shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

The officer that escorted Christine tot he car did not get in himself. Instead, he closed the door after Christine and stood to one side at attention as the car pulled away and headed deeper into the city.

* * *

It didn't become clear right away what their destination was until they grew close to it, and even then, neither Christine and Todd could quite believe it until the car pulled to a stop in front of the building. Here, another officer was standing there awaiting them, and opened the door for the car's passengers to get out.

"Well, I'll be." Christine muttered as she climbed out, looking Scrooge McDuck's money bin and headquarters of McDuck Enterprises up and down in surprise.

"What are we doing here?" Agent Todd asked as he followed Christine and Charlie out of the car.

"Please follow me." the officer that was awaiting them said, shirking the question. "You're expected to arrive right away."

He led the three into the building itself. Christine had been in Duckburg before, and therefore had seen the money bin before, usually from afar, but she had never actually been inside the building before now. She had seen pictures before, though, and they generally matched up with what she saw now. A tiled black-and-white floor with a slightly modernized late nineteenth century decor. The officer led them promptly to a waiting elevator and ushered them in, pushing the button for the top floor. A brief trip later, they arrived at the floor in question where the officer ushered them back out of the elevator, but did not follow.

"At the end of the hall is the secretary's office." the officer explained. "Wait there until you're called into the main office."

The elevator doors then closed. Christine and Todd glanced at each other, both of which shrugged, and did as instructed, proceeding to the secretary's office. Once there, they were instructed to sit and wait for a few moments. As they had little else to do, they did so.

"What in the world is this about?" Christine muttered to herself not for the first time.

"I'm beginning to suspect it has something to do with St. Canard." Todd reasoned, having given the matter some thought.

"You can go in now." the secretary politely instructed them, motioning to the door that led into the main office.

Todd promptly rose and went for the door. Christine grabbed Charlie's hand, quietly instructed him to behave himself, and followed. Through the door they found themselves in spacious, business-like office built in the same style as most of the rest of the building, only no tiled floor, and the walls were white in color. On one side of the room was a fire place, currently empty and cold. On the opposite was a big and probably heavy metal vault door that was presently tightly shut and no doubt locked. Currently, the only light in the room was the light streaming in through the office's three windows cast from the setting sun. Two of those windows sat on either side of the fireplace. The third sat directly ahead on the far wall, directly behind a exquisite wooden desk. Where Scrooge McDuck himself currently sat.

He wasn't alone, however.

"Vice President Norrin." Agent Todd remarked as he made eye contact with the ever-neutral expressioned Norrin standing beside Scrooge's chair, the feline looking almost eerie in the low golden lighting the room sported. "I...didn't expect to see you here."

"Okay, just what is this all about?" Christine demanded, frustrated at the fact she wasn't getting any straight answers. "What are _you _doing _here_, Mr. Vice President?"

"With St. Canard falling to Negaduck, someone with authority needed to be nearby to help survey the situation." Norrin replied cooly. "I volunteered. However, in order to be here, I needed to stay at a very secure location."

Christine understood. "And what place is safer in Duckburg than the famous money bin?" she asked, folding her arms.

"I spent many years getting it that way." Scrooge opted to speak up at that moment. "Anyway, to answer your question Dr. Merriweather, you are both here at the vice president's request, and I would assume that whatever he wants from the pair of you will be brief."

"It will be." Norrin promised. "I merely wish you listen to this recording of a heavily garbled radio message that came from within St. Canard itself."

He then leaned over and did a keystroke on Scrooge's computer, annoying the zillionaire duck as he had been about to do the same keystroke himself had Norrin not beaten him to it. Immediately, the computer began producing a burst of cacophonic audio static, that made everyone in the room (save Norrin) flinch. After that initial burst, however, the volume of the static dropped, but not enough for it to go away. In the background, a voice, feminine in sound, could be heard speaking, nearly drowned out in the sound of the static. Todd and Christine strained their ears to hear it.

"What's she saying?" Christine muttered aloud. "Something about St. Canard...Negaduck...and a request for help. There, you hear it? She's calling for help, it sounds like, along with something else, but I can't make it out."

"Who _is _that?" Todd asked, looking frustrated at himself. "The voice sounds annoying familiar, but I can't place it."

"It's Morgana!" Charlie suddenly exclaimed, who was listening too, drawing everyone's attention to him briefly.

"We received this transmission earlier this week, broadcasted from within St. Canard on a very weak signal." Norrin explained, ignoring Charlie. "When we first heard it, the transmission was so degraded that all we heard in it's originally received format was static. It took several experts using some of the best equipment available to just get the message as clear as you hear it now. What is being said is clear for the most part, what we make out at least, but no one could determine who was doing the speaking."

"And you thought we might be able to pinpoint the voice to the person." Todd guessed.

"Mommy, it's Morgana." Charlie repeated, tugging on the hem of Christine's shirt.

"He's right." Christine said, agreeing. "It is Morgana Macabre."

"Bah!" Scrooge exclaimed with a snort, shooting Norrin a glare. "I could've told you that!"

Norrin gave Scrooge a haughty look for a moment. "I was unaware you had ever made Mrs. Macabre's acquaintance, Mr. McDuck." he said, removing his glasses to clean time for a moment.

"Aye, I have." Scrooge stated. "Back when Gizmoduck was still a part of the Justice Ducks and him being my employee, I met everyone in that group on occasion." he paused, then added, more puzzled, "Except for Darkwing, who never seemed to be at those meetings."

"As I understand it, he didn't enjoy the idea of being a part of a team of superheroes too much." Agent Todd remarked.

"Whatever the case, we know who it is, and why the message was sent." Christine said, cutting to the chase. "To get help. Mr Vice President, I assume you're working on doing that?"

"Actually..." Norrin began, returning his glasses to their perch, "...no." seeing their puzzled glances, he went on to explain. "Currently, St. Canard is in the control of Negaduck and his forces, who possess the ability to control the minds of whomever they capture. Therefore, I think this message is bait, for a trap that Negaduck wants to lure us in."

Christine frowned, but couldn't deny that logic. "Maybe." she admitted. "But it might not be too. I think it's worth taking the risk."

"Besides, do you really think Morgana Macabre would really let Negarian cast a spell like that on her?" Agent Todd asked.

"We cannot rule anything out." Norrin persisted. "Besides, even if it were not a trap, there would be no way to get help to the location in question, deep within St. Canard itself."

"You could by air." Christine said, thinking that was logical.

"Not enough." Norrin replied. "Regardless, as a civilian, it is not your concern."

"Not my _concern_?" Christine repeated. "Of course it's my concern! St. Canard is my home! And Negaduck threatens us all! Besides, as you no doubt very well know, I had friends that were still in that city when it fell, fighting against Negaduck, Morgana being one of them!"

"Mr. Vice President, excuse me for asking, but can't you just send in a small party to scope out the situation?" Agent Todd suggested suddenly. "Just in and out, long enough to see how things stand for Macabre?"

"It's a thought, but unlikely." Norrin commented. "We have other plans at the moment, and they do not involve ideas such as the one you propose, Agent Todd. Speaking of which, I've been meaning to send word to you that you've been relieved of the command Agent Mia bestowed upon you before you left St. Canard. Thank you for your service, but we require someone with more experience to take on that responsibility."

"Oh." Todd remarked, looking a little put out. "Okay."

"And thank you both for your assistance." Norrin went on addressing them both now. "I got the answer I was looking for. Dr. Merriweather, you and your child will be returned to the stadium where you've been staying. You may return to the car that brought you here at this time."

"Actually, I'd like to have a word further with them, alone." Scrooge suddenly spoke up. "Uh, I wish to discuss the possibility of finding someplace else for those evacuees to stay, something more suited, and these two could give me some insight on the matter."

Norrin gave the group a glance. "Very well." he finally said dismissively, and turned to exit. "I have other business to attend to. Good evening."

He departed, closing the office door behind him. Christine turned to look at Scrooge.

"Somewhere more suited?" she inquired.

"A bluff, and not one of my best." Scrooge admitted. "But I do want to talk to the pair of you, only without _him_ listening in." he motioned to the door Norrin had gone through. "He likes doing things his own way and no one else's, that lad. In fact, the only reason I was even present for this meeting was because I insisted, and because Norrin wanted the use of my office. I would rather he stayed away from me and my affairs, but I don't have that control over him."

"So what's this about, Mr. McDuck?" Agent Todd asked. "I'm assuming it has something to do with the subject we were just discussing."

"Indeed it does, lad." Scrooge agreed with a nod. "I was actually thinking the same thing as you were a moment ago. Why not send a small party of people into the city and explore the area in question, to see if there really is anyone to help, and to scope out the situation."

"Yes, but Vice President Norrin won't go for it." Agent Todd pointed out simply.

"Maybe he won't, but I would." Scrooge stated, beginning to grin.

Todd blinked. "You can do that?" he asked.

"Agent Todd Copperton, Norrin is only in this building because he insists upon it, and I have no authority to overrule him." Scrooge stated in a flat tone. "But he has no control over me and my business. Within legal boundaries, I can do just about anything I wish while he can't do anything about it."

"So you can get us in St. Canard?" Christine asked a little too hopefully.

Scrooge gave Christine a knowing look. "Curious choice of words, Dr. Merriweather."

"Oh, I, uh, meant...I mean, you can get _someone _into the city?" Christine amended.

"Well, that's where the problems would lie." Scrooge said. "I have an aircraft capable of doing it, and a pilot skilled enough. But that would be about it. All the people I have that I could send are my own employees, and they obviously aren't suited for this kind of thing. In fact, the only employee I really have anymore that I could trust for this kind of thing is Gizmoduck. And as we know, he isn't here."

"Right, and you can't just send anybody." Agent Todd agreed.

"Couldn't you rally together some of the remaining SHUSH agents, Agent Todd?" Christine asked, pulling Charlie away from one of Scrooge's desk ornaments that the youth had begun fiddling with while no one was watching.

"I could, but what good would it do?" Todd asked. "There's only about a dozen agents left and available, and most of them are scientists. The rest wouldn't total up to much."

"Besides, Norrin relieved him of his command." Scrooge added.

"There's that too!" Todd agreed, having forgotten that. "They wouldn't have to obey my commands anymore, and they probably wouldn't to begin with, as it was kind of a joke to begin with. I mean, me? Nervous Nelly technician Todd? In command? And anyway, Norrin could always overrule me, even if I _did _have some kind of respected authority. And I don't. I never did." he hung his head. "Nobody respected me, at least, or took me very seriously."

"But, if given the choice, would you, _could _you, volunteer yourself?" Scrooge asked.

"Well, certainly, although I would probably be defying orders by doing so." Agent Todd replied. He blinked. "Are you suggesting...?"

"That's exactly what I am suggesting." Scrooge replied. "I could smuggle _both _of you out of here in a single aircraft. I have a pilot who excels at this kind of thing. He could quite plausibly get you both in and out of St. Canard without anybody but yourselves knowing if need be."

"_Both _of us?" Christine said, glancing sharply at Scrooge in surprise. "I didn't think you were going to let me go, seeing that I'm even less qualified that Todd."

"On the contrary, Dr. Merriweather, I know exactly why you so anxiously want to go." Scrooge said, lowering his voice, giving Christine a leveled gaze. "Darkwing."

Christine was silent and didn't reply, hanging her head.

"Besides that, you both have friends over there that didn't escape that I'm sure you want to know what happened to them." Scrooge continued. "And what better way to help friends than with more friends?"

Christine had to grin. "You are certainly understanding, Mr. McDuck." she admitted.

"I've been in situations such as this myself more times than I'd care to admit." Scrooge stated. "And you forget. I _can _relate. Some of your friends are my friends as well. I would like nothing more than to see that they are all right. I would go myself, but unfortunately, even I'm getting too old for that sort of thing."

"Probably." Agent Todd agreed aloud, without thinking. "Just how old are you?"

Scrooge gave him a glare. "Older than you need to know, lad." he said rather coldly.

"So you're willing to get the both of us into St. Canard long enough to answer Morgana's call for help?" Christine asked hopefully.

"While not letting Norrin find out?" Todd asked.

"I'm willing if you're willing." Scrooge said. "The sooner the better, I say. The least I can do to help. I only wish I could do more."

"Well, I'm willing." Agent Todd said.

"So am I." Christine agreed. She ruffled Charlie's hair. "But I'll need someone to watch Charlie while I'm gone. If that's all right with Charlie, of course."

Charlie was quiet for a long moment. It was immediately clear to Christine that he wasn't okay with that at all, but she also saw that he would be expected to stay here, and he probably understood the seriousness of the situation. Finally, he nodded.

"I can watch over him." Scrooge offered. "I successfully watched over my three nephews for years, and they were ten times more active that this youth here."

Christine nodded. "Thank you, Mr. McDuck."

"Like I said before, lass," Scrooge said, "it's my pleasure."

* * *

"So? What do you think? Don't leave me in suspense here, Negs, tell me what you genuinely think of it?"

"Don't rush me, Negawing. Give me a moment to look things over."

Negaduck wandered around the top floor of Canard Tower. This floor, in the Posiverse anyway, was mostly empty space, which was to be used as space to set up office cubicles for some small business that would rent the space out for their purposes. The floor was divided evenly in half to form two portions. One half was still filled with cubicles, which were in complete disarray due to the recent takeover. The other half was completely empty, meaning it had probably been vacant at the time and had been awaiting for someone to rent the space out again.

Negaduck currently stood in the vacant half, and strolled aimlessly around the empty room, looking at it from every angle, mentally visualizing how the room would look if he were to go ahead and use it for his purposes. After several moments of that, he pointed at the wall that divided the floor in half.

"Think we can get rid of that?" he asked Negawing.

"Absolutely." Negawing replied. "You just give the word, and that wall's _gone_!"

"Then, Negawing, the word is given." Negaduck said with a half-grin, adjusting his red fedora as he turned to leave. "Start work straightaway, and give me a heads up when it's ready for me to take over."

"All right!" Negawing cheered aloud, then spun around and pointed at a group of St. Canard citizens with his walking stick. "You heard the duck! Get to work! Clear out this entire floor and demolish that wall! Quickly now!"

The crowd, all completely under the spell of Negarian's curse, moved silently forward to begin work while Negawing stood nearby and supervised. Negaduck was tempted to stay and watch as well, but had other business to attend to. Calmly, he departed Canard Tower to where his means of transportation sat awaiting for him, a formerly SHUSH-issued car. He promptly climbed into it without hesitation.

"Take me to SHUSH Headquarters." Negaduck ordered the driver.

"Yes, milord." the driver replied, also under the influence of Negarian's spell, and promptly began driving the vehicle to the right destination.

Negaduck couldn't help but grin. "Mighty convenient, that magic spell of Negarian's." he said. "I'll have to try doing the same thing in the Negaverse, make it even better and more loyal to me than before."

They arrived at the SHUSH Headquarters building in short order, traveling quickly through the relatively barren streets of St. Canard. Upon Negaduck's entrance into the building, he was greeted by Negarian.

"Negarian." Negaduck greeted the magician. "What's up?"

"You wished to tell me when the robot universal double regained consciousness." Negarian said calmly as they both jointly proceeded down the hallway of the SHUSH building. "Well, he has."

"Oh good." Negaduck said with a pleased grin. "I've been wanting to talk with him."

They proceeded up to a small SHUSH lab that had been put to use for housing a special someone from Negaduck's group. Nanite Darkwing. Upon entering, Negaduck could see that little of the damage that Techno had managed to induce upon the robotizied duck hadn't repaired. There was still a gaping crater, not quite deep enough to go all the way through, in Nanite Darkwing's chest, other parts of him were riddled with bullet holes, and his face was a mangled mess, with only one eye still operational, casting a weak red glow. He could barely support himself, additionally. He had to be supported by a series of bindings latching his limbs directly to the wall behind him in a spreadeagle position.

Regardless of all of this, he looked satisfied enough with himself.

"So...you're awake." Negaduck remarked when he entered, folding his arms. "Took you long enough."

Nanite Darkwing looked at Negaduck with his one good eye. "The-the one guarding the tower you sent me t-t-to attack dealt me a great deal of damage, as you can no doubt still see." he remarked in a slightly more distorted voice than would be normal for him, emphasizing the damage he had received. "It took a great deal-deal of time for my internal systems to repair enough of it for me to regain consciousness."

"Yeah, but see, I know of someone like you that exists in this universe that can bounce back from this kind of thing much faster than you." Negaduck remarked, thinking of Nanite of the Posiverse.

"I have an explanation." Nanite Darkwing stated calmly. "My control nanite was damaged in the battle. It can continue to control and instruct the service nanites already existing within my body to ca-ca-carry out tasks, but it cannot create new ones, nor can it coordinate the nanites enough to obtain enough raw materials to repair the damage. Wh-what limited operations you see now was done through rerouting systems and jury-rigging temporary fixes. If I were to be fully repaired, someone would have to repair my control nanite."

Negaduck sighed. "Unfortunately, we have a problem there, as the person I'd _like _to do that, Bushroot, has gone missing, and I have a pretty good hunch why. I'm not about to go to _your _universe and hunt down your own Bushroot, either. We're going to have to make do with what we've already have access to right here for now."

"Perhaps the magician can be of assistance." Nanite Darkwing suggested, nodding his head in Negarian's direction.

Negaduck glanced at Negarian. "Can you use your magic to fix him?" he asked.

"Not without a better understanding of how he works, including the control nanite." Negarian replied calmly.

"I-I-I cannot provide that in-information, as I do not entirely know myself." Nanite Darkwing said with a slight stutter.

"So, no, I cannot." Negarian concluded.

"Well, never fear, I think I have a solution." Negaduck remarked with a grin. "It might take some work to talk him into doing it, and do it right, but I think I know of someone who knows enough about what makes you tick to make the necessary repairs."

* * *

The sun had already dipped below the horizon by the time Scrooge was able to get Christine and Agent Todd onto an aircraft that would take him to St. Canard, the same kind of cargo helicopter that had aided in the evacuation a week earlier. But despite the sun itself being out of sight, there was still enough light being cast from it to light most of the sky with a deep red hue. Fading fast, however, the area was quickly switching over to artificial lighting.

The helicopter had not done so, however, keeping it's lights off so to approach St. Canard more stealthily.

"We're coming up on St. Canard now." the pilot announced from the controls, pulling up on the flight stick. "I'm pulling up above the bank of clouds to hide behind until we're over the coordinates. You both all right back there? Been awfully quiet."

"Yeah, we're all right." Agent Todd called back from the back of the craft. "Just...don't have much to say, and anxious to get on with this."

Christine nodded in agreement, then after a moment, asked Todd, "What do you think we'll find there?"

Todd shrugged. "I don't know." he admitted. "At this point, it could be just about anything. Whatever we find, though, it's going to reflect the fact that Negaduck currently rules the city."

"I know that, that's what I'm afraid of." Christine said solemnly.

"You know, you didn't have to come." Todd pointed out. "I could've done this on my own, and this _will_ be dangerous. You have family to look after, after all."

"Agent Todd, I have family in that city already." Christine stated, thinking of Darkwing and the others. "I need to know what's happened to them before I can do anything else."

"Uh, guys?" the pilot suddenly exclaimed. "Got Mr. McDuck coming through on the radio. He, uh, wants a word with you two, specifically Dr. Merriweather."

Christine and Agent Todd glanced at each other, then unstrapped themselves from their seats and stepped into the cockpit of the plane. The pilot waited until they were safely in the cockpit, then flipped a switch on the dashboard of the aircraft.

"They're here, Mr. McDuck." the pilot reported.

"Ah, good!" Scrooge's voice was broadcasted through a speaker in the cockpit. He seemed overly cheerful. "And how's the trip so far?"

"Um, good." Agent Todd remarked. "We're going to be arriving there soon. But this is just the easy part. The hard part is going to be coming up next." he paused. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason, just wanted to check up on you, mostly." Scrooge stated. "See how you were doing, and all that."

"Well, we're...fine." Agent Todd said, starting to look puzzled. He paused. "How are you?"

"Excellent!" Scrooge exclaimed. "Everything is going just fine here! Wonderfully fine! No need for concern about things over here! Because nothing wrong...per say...has happened–"

"Spill it, McDuck!" Christine finally snapped, seeing where this was going. "What aren't you telling us?"

"Well, it's just a little snag, really." Scrooge quickly assured her. "But...well, you see, it's your little lad, Charlie, Dr. Merriweather. See, it seems I underestimated him, due to how quiet he was, but uh....he's disappeared...slipped away while I wasn't looking, I suppose...and after a quick search, I started to wonder if he might have..."

"Way ahead of you." Christine said, cutting him short, and then raised her voice. "CHARLIE!"

There was a moment of silence in the helicopter save for the whine of it's engines, then from the back compartment some shuffling was heard, followed by a clang and the pitter-patter of footsteps. A moment later, Charlie sheepishly stepped into cockpit.

"Charlie!" Christine repeated with a sigh of frustration this time. "You stowed away?"

"I wanted to come too." Charlie admitted quietly, his only explanation for his actions. He bowed his head, looking ashamed with himself.

Christine couldn't help but let her anger melt, and scooped up her adopted son into her arms. "Oh, Charlie, I understand." she said. "But we're going someplace that is currently no place at all for a child like you. It could be very dangerous."

Charlie sniffed. "I know." he admitted. "So why do you get to go?"

Christine hesitated for a moment, searching for an answer, then ultimately gave up, unable to come up with an adequate explanation as to why _she _could go risk her life but not Charlie.

"Look, I want you in Duckburg where I know that you're safe." Christine stated finally. "Can you at least do me that much?"

Charlie sniffed again and was silent for a moment. Finally, he nodded. Grinning mostly with relief, Christine turned back around to address the radio.

"Mr. McDuck, we're going to be sidetracking back to Duckburg to drop off Charlie before continuing." she said loudly. "Charlie promises to behave this time."

She expected Scrooge to promptly acknowledge, but all the radio produced was soft static. She frowned.

"Mr. McDuck?" she repeated. "Did you hear me? We're heading back to Duckburg."

Then at that moment, the helicopter suddenly gave a very nasty lurch, and started shaking. Alarms started to buzz all over the craft's dashboard. Yelping in surprise, the pilot scrambled at the controls as he reacted to this sudden turn of events.

"Um, no we're not!" he exclaimed in a panic.

The helicopter suddenly lurched again, knocking Christine, Charlie, and Agent Todd to one side of the cockpit. The craft suddenly dipped downward, shooting through the embankment of clouds it had risen over just moments earlier.

"What do you mean, we aren't?" Agent Todd snapped as the craft continued to shake.

"The engines just gave out!" The pilot exclaimed anxiously as he struggled with the unresponsive controls. "_Everything's _giving out! I don't know how to explain it, but all the systems just suddenly failed! We're going down!"

"Down?!" Christine exclaimed in growing panic. "What do you _mean_, 'down?!'"

"I _mean_, we're going to crash!" The pilot snapped, under enough stress already.

"Crash where?" Todd exclaimed.

"There!" The pilot said, pointing as the helicopter broke through the cover of clouds, revealing the landscape below.

St. Canard was in the dead center of it.

"Better buckle up and brace yourselves, this is going to be quite a ride!" the pilot urged.

"You heard the man, let's _go_!" Agent Todd said, not needing to be told twice. His pale face made it clear he was just barely keeping himself from bursting into a mad panic himself.

He ushered Christine and Charlie into the back of the craft, it's nose starting to dip even lower as it continued to uncontrollably dive. Once in the back of the craft, they quickly planted themselves in seats and strapped themselves in awaiting anxiously for the crash landing to be over. They had done so just in time as the helicopter finally tilted to an angle too sharp for anyone to continue moving around in.

In the cockpit, the pilot continued to struggle with the more or less useless controls, watching at St. Canard grew ever closer in his view. If he didn't pull up the craft soon, they were all going to hit the ground too fast at too sharp an angle and be undoubtably killed. Knowing who was onboard, the pilot didn't want that to happen, and sought for some means to make a crash landing they were more likely to survive.

The engine still wasn't responding, even though the pilot was trying desperately to restart it. But all it did was sputter, no where near enough of what he needed to do if he was to stabilize the craft. Eyeing the altimeter as it continued to spin downward, the pilot finally resorted to the last ditch method, and pulled with all his might on the flight stick, hoping against hope that this might produce results.

Miraculously, it did. The helicopter started to level out some, it's descent becoming slightly less sharp. It wasn't enough to save them, but it was a start. The craft wasn't pulling up much more than that, however, as, being a helicopter, it wasn't really designed to fly like that under these conditions. Finally, it got a shove in the right direction when the runners of the craft brushed against the ledge of the roof of a passing skyscraper and rather forcefully shoved the craft into a more level descent with a jolt, the price being the runners being severely twisted and bent out of shape.

The helicopter continued to drop, this time a bit more controlled, and started to veer over an empty city street that ended abruptly some feet ahead as it intersected with another street and stopped there. The helicopter didn't hit the ground until about halfway down this street, then slammed it's nose into the rough pavement, severely damaging the front of the craft. Due to it's angle and momentum, however, the craft was simply slowed and knocked back to finally level out, and skidded uncontrollably down the street, rotor blades snapping and whacking against streetlights as it went. It finally came to a sudden stop when the craft skidded off the road and slammed nose first into the building at the end of the street with a jolt.

Extremely shaken, a little battered, and bruised, but thankfully not seriously hurt, Christine, Charlie, and Agent Todd wobbly recovered from the rough ride in the back of the helicopter. Charlie began crying; whether in relief or fright, it wasn't clear.

"Are you two all right?" Agent Todd asked after a few moments, breathless.

"Yeah." Christine replied, trying to comfort Charlie. "You?"

"I think I'll live."

"What about the pilot?"

Agent Todd paused for a moment, then leaned forward, trying to see into the cockpit. All he saw was a tangled mess of electronics, bent metal, shattered glass from when the windshield had at one point broke, and dust and debris from the building having bounced inside when they impacted it. He couldn't see the pilot, though, nor what status he was in. He called to the pilot eventually, but got no answer.

"I-I can't tell." Todd finally admitted, leaning back as he felt his head continue to spin.

Christine promptly unbuckled herself from her seat and slid cautiously out of it at this announcement. "Being the only doctor present, I'll go see if he's all right." she said, unsteadily forcing herself to her feet. "Watch Charlie for a moment."

Todd nodded, unbuckled himself from his seat and scooted down to where Charlie sat, wrapping a comforting arm around the youth, whose cries had already diminished down to mere sniffles. Christine left them and wandered into the ruined cockpit, noting there would be little to salvage from it. She turned her gaze to the pilot's seat and saw that he was still strapped to it, but unlike the craft's passengers, the pilot hadn't faired the crash landing well. He was heavily battered and bruised, with several open wounds bleeding freely either caused by the shattering of the windshield or other things. His eyes were closed, and Christine promptly saw that he was unresponsive.

She hurried forward and started to check vitals, but found no pulse. Wincing, she pulled away and slapped the side of the pilot's seat in frustration. Letting out a heavy sigh, she turned away and headed back into the back compartment of the craft. Todd glanced up at her as she entered and silently inquired to the pilot's condition. Christine merely shook her head, then let it fall. Todd adverted his eyes in response.

After another moment of silence, Christine moved forward and unbuckled Charlie from his seat, scooping up the frightened boy into her arms. "C'mon, we need to get out of here." she said softly.

Todd looked up. "Get...get out of here?" he repeated.

"Yeah, there's no way Negaduck and his minions could've missed that crash landing of ours!" Christine barked, thinking that would've been obvious. "They're probably already on their way here to investigate, and I personally don't want to still be here when they arrive!"

"But-but-but..." Todd stuttered, starting to get flustered. "Wh-wh-where will we go?"

"I don't know, you're the SHUSH agent! You tell me!"

"I-I may be a SHUSH agent, b-b-b-but I've n-never been in this kind of situation before! How am-am I supposed to know?"

"Well, did we land near the coordinates we were heading for? Are we even near them?"

"I-I haven't got a clue! An-and I can't f-f-find out unless I-I can...er...augh, I can't handle this! I'm-I'm-I'm..."

"Todd!" Christine interrupted sternly, "Todd! Now isn't the time for a panic attack! I need you to stay focused and _think_!"

Todd looked at her for a moment, then nodded, and tried to force himself to calm down. "Okay...okay, okay, um..." he paused to think, inhaling sharply as he did so. "I think I might remember the location of Macawber Mansion. Maybe. If I do, we can maybe head there and hope we'll find shelter there. But...that's all a huge maybe. For all we know, we won't be any better off there than anywhere else in the city!"

"It gives us someplace to go, and that's a start!" Christine pointed out, turning and heading for the back cargo doors of the helicopter. "Now c'mon!"

Together, she and Todd forced open the cargo doors, which had become dislodged in the crash, enough for the three of them to slip out of the ruined craft and out onto the street outside. As they hurried across the vacant street, the sound of vehicles approaching their location became audible, announcing the approaching of Negaduck's forces. The three hurried faster, reaching the other side of the street and ducking into a nearby alley.

Just in time, too, for a moment later, a small patrol composed of mixed bunches of cars salvaged from within the city pulled up to the wreak and their occupants started climbing out. leading the group who quickly began giving out orders to raid the wreckage, was General Mallard. He scanned the area as those under his command investigated the wreaked helicopter. Fortunately, he did not see, nor did he seem to suspect the presence of, Christine, Agent Todd, and Charlie, who had become unnaturally silent, even for him. Those under the general's command were citizens of St. Canard entranced by Negarian's spell. Christine looked them over, but she didn't recognize anyone within the group save General Mallard.

"So where do we go from here?" she asked Todd after they watched the group for a few moments.

Todd glanced at her, then paused for a moment to think, getting his bearings. Finally, he pointed down the alley, away from the regiment of Negaduck's army. "This way." he announced. "I think."

And with that, he started leading the way towards what he hoped would be the location of the home of Bob and Morgana Macawbre...

...presuming that they were even there...

* * *

"All right guys, status report." Negaduck announced as he sat down at the head of the meeting table. "I want to know all about everything that has been happening in this city and the status thereof."

He looked the commanders of his army over, who sat gathered around the table. All of the head people in his army were here, in addition to some "aides" Negaduck had allowed the universal doubles to bring with them from their own home universes, if they wanted one. Negaduck himself had selected one; NegaLaunchpad from the Negaverse, and currently, the henchman was standing behind Negaduck's chair, keeping quiet as he had been ordered.

There was a moment of silence as no one spoke up, not knowing who should start first, so Negaduck picked a topic at random to begin with. "Negarian, do you have anything to report?"

The wizard blinked, looking slightly surprised at being addressed first, but quickly recovered. His raven familiar, Percival, sat perched on his shoulder, looking at everyone but staying quiet. "Everyone in this city who needed to have a certain spell cast upon them has been taken care of." Negarian stated simply. "Those whom we can get at, at least."

"Right, any luck on correcting that general?" Negaduck asked, turning to look at General Mallard.

"None as of yet." General Mallard admitted with a sigh. "We're still working at it, but those few remaining people really have themselves entrenched in. The only possible time we're ever going to get at them is when they leave their shelter, and there's no telling when and where they might do that. I have my men working on finding a solution, however. We'll keep you posted of any new developments in that area, Negs."

Negaduck sighed, regardless, as this one issue was one of the biggest thorns in his side at the moment.

"We did find helicopter, though." General Mallard's assistant suddenly spoke up from beside the general's chair; a large and burly bear that Negaduck recognized from his many wanderings through the multiverse, but whose name currently alluded him at the moment.

"Yes, that's right, Colonel Grizzlikof." the general agreed, glancing up at the bear for a moment before continuing. "A helicopter flying into the city got caught in the defenses we've set up and went down, crashing within the city. My men and I have already checked it out. It was a privately owned cargo chopper belonging to a McDuck Enterprises."

Negaduck rolled his eyes. "McDuck, I've heard of him, unfortunately." he muttered. "No doubt getting his hands involved in all of this, too." he sighed. "Who was onboard the craft?"

"We're not entirely sure how many, but the crew was undoubtably small. The pilot was killed in the crash, and his body was still there when we arrived. We found no one else there or in the vicinity, but I'm convinced someone else was aboard that helicopter."

"Figure out who." Negaduck ordered, then changed the subject. "Negawing, how's things going at Canard Tower?"

"Remarkably well, your lordship." Negawing remarked brightly, his walking stick propped up between his knees. Negawing Rowe stood silently behind him. "Already got things cleared out of that top floor, and working at...um...widening it, like you requested. Should have the larger part of the chore done by the end of the day! A little tidying up after that, and you're ready to rock and roll, Negs!"

"Excellent!" Negaduck cried, but his expression promptly turned serious. "Speaking of which, however, that little project is top, top, secret. And as this city isn't one hundred percent secure, not one word about that project is to leave this room, got it?"

Everyone murmured their agreement. They all knew just how important this project was to Negaduck.

"Now, moving on." Negaduck turned to the last person present at the meeting. "Gos, do you have anything to report?"

NegaGosalyn glanced up from the scrap of paper she had been doodling on. "Um, no, not really." she admitted. "Not that hasn't already been stated. Just been helping here and there, wherever possible. Helping hunt down certain individuals whenever we've got a lead on where they are. Also been familiarizing myself better with my more magical side, isn't that right, Rowe?"

She reached up and patted Rowe, who was currently standing behind her chair stiffly, on the arm. The otter did not respond to the motion, and instead stared straight ahead with vacant eyes, as he was under the influence of Negarian's spell at the moment. Negaduck wished he hadn't had been forced to order that to happen, but considering what Rowe had done just prior to the spell being cast upon him, it was clear that it was needed.

"How is that going, anyway?" Negaduck inquired.

"Great." NegaGosalyn replied with a grin. "I seem to have a control issue, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Bet I'm better at it than my double is. Negarian's been giving me a few pointers whenever he has the time, too."

"So I have." Negarian confirmed with a nod. He had nothing more to say on the subject.

"So supposing that we eve get into a combat situation again, you'd be ready with those newfound powers, right?" Negaduck asked, sounding a touch hopeful.

"Well, I should be able to cause some chaos at least." NegaGosalyn offered.

"Chaos works. I like chaos." Negaduck grinned. "And the more of it the better. Let's see how much of that we can bring to this universe, shall we gentlemen?"

* * *

As Agent Todd and Christine quickly discovered, the relatively empty streets of St. Canard were patrolled regularly by Negaduck's forces. Usually this was done by small regiments of Negaduck's army, usually composed of either citizens of St. Canard under the influence of Negarian's spell, or by personal forces brought from other universe and if so, they usually belonged to General Mallard's personal army.

The regiments marched around in strictly formed ranks, armed with the same peculiar stun guns the army had been equipped with when it invaded, heading up and down the streets, idly looking around and searching for any troublemakers. They weren't really putting that much effort into it, really just scanning the streets briefly as they went down them, and not thoroughly searching every street. Thus every time a patrol went by, it was pretty easy for the three fugitives to hide from them.

"I guess Negaduck isn't too worried about a small number of people like us of getting in his way now." Agent Todd remarked aloud.

But then it quickly became apparent why, for a short time later, they had a near close encounter with something both Todd and Christine had only heard of, but hadn't actually seen before.

About a block away, a towering magical monster stalked down the street, prowling more thoroughly for any unwanted intruders. Even though it was a whole block away, Agent Todd nearly froze at the sight of it, and quickly urged Christine and Charlie to press themselves against a nearby wall, doing the same himself.

"Keep down, we do _not _want th-that thing seeing us." Todd remarked with a suppressed shudder.

"What _is _that thing?" Christine remarked.

"A magical monster." Todd said. "Agent Sandy told me about them. Apparently, they're a trademark of Negarian's. Not too surprised to see one here, but I am surprised no one apparently knew they were here, at least, not that I've heard."

The monster was quickly gone again, leaving without detecting them, and the three pressed onward again. Eventually they arrived on the street of Morgana's mansion. Christine had seen it before in passing; Darkwing had pointed out on the way to a date once. It was a rather unsuspecting little and old multi-story house that looked worn down and even abandoned, which was added to due to the fact that the house was surrounded on all sides by skyscrapers. But appearances were deceiving; the Macawber mansion was actually kept in fairly nice shape, and looked much better on the inside than the outside. And at the moment, it looked much more welcoming than the rest of the city.

"There it is." Todd remarked in obvious relief. "I was wondering if we would ever find it."

"I, personally, never doubted you, Agent Todd." Christine remarked, patting him on the shoulder, and leading the way towards the mansion, cutting across the empty street.

They approached the mansion quickly and calmly. Christine stepped up on the curb of the street's opposite side in front of the house and started to step into the front yard when she suddenly slammed into something invisible. Surprised, Christine took a step back in shock.

"Whoa." she muttered, and while motioning to Charlie and Agent Todd to wait for a moment with one hand.

Using her other hand, she felt blindly around to find the invisible object again. Finally, her hand came in contact with a surface that felt as solid as an ordinary wall. It was invisible, but fine cyan tendrils of energy circled around where Christine's hand touched it. Realizing what it was, Christine started probing the wall's dimensions with both hands.

"What is it?" Agent Todd asked, reaching out to touch the barrier himself.

"It's a shield." Christine remarked, wandering around as she probed the dimensions of the barrier. "I think it might encompass the entire house. I-I don't know why, maybe it's for protection against Negaduck's army."

"But...what's creating it?" Todd asked as he continued touching the seemingly impenetrable shield.

"Magic?" Charlie asked aloud, also touching the shield.

Christine and Todd looked at each other. Christine shrugged.

"Considering what it's surrounding, then it's a likely possibility." she remarked with a grin.

"Then there must be somebody actually in there." Todd remarked, pointing at the mansion within the shield.

"Oh, I knew it, I knew there was someone would be here." Christine remarked, grin getting bigger as she backed up from the shield, looking it over.

"Yeah, but they're in there, and we're out here." Todd pointed out. "Unless we're missing something important, we have no way of getting in there, and that's bad, because we're kind of out in the open out here..." he looked around nervously as if he sensed that they were being watched.

Christine thought for a moment, then lifted up her head to yell. "Morgana!" she called. "Morgana, can you hear me? It's me, Christine! You know, Dr. Merriweather? Drake's girlfriend?"

"You sure you should go about mentioning that to her?" Agent Todd asked with a wince. "Because it was no secret that Darkwing and Morgana had a thing for each other eight years ago. Morgana might take offense to the fact that you're the new girl in his life."

"Oh nonsense, we're on good terms." Christine said, confident. "Morgana even stopped by to visit me at my apartment a few months ago for no real reason other than to talk. That's how Charlie knows her."

"She's nice." Charlie remarked with a grin, also looking confident that all was well on the matter.

"Point is that she doesn't have any kind of grudge against me, and would never leave us out here on our own." Christine said, turning her attention back to the magical shield.

"Assuming she even knows we're out here, and that it's really _her _that's in there." Todd reasoned, growing nervous again.

"She has to!" Christine said, and raised her voice to shout again, "MORGANA!"

Then there was a sudden pop sound accompanied by a brief flash of light from behind them. They turned to look to see a handsome male duck standing behind them. He grinned and bow slightly to greet them.

"Hello." he said. "Bob Macawber, magician and psychiatrist, at your service."

"Bob!" Christine exclaimed. She knew the magician by name, but had never met him in person before. "Christine Merriweather, Agent Todd Copperton, and Charlie Merriweather at..."

"Yes, yes, I know." Bob replied, and quickly approached Christine, peering intently at her. He waved his hand rapidly in front of Christine's eyes.

Christine's eyes followed it warily. "What are you doing?" she asked, sounding annoyed.

Bob didn't reply, and instead turned away from Christine and suddenly slapped Todd hard on the shoulder, making the increasingly nervous canine yelp, then grabbed and yanked a feather from Charlie's head.

"Ow!" the youth cried, rubbing at his head and giving Bob a look.

Bob, however, looked satisfied. "Good, none of you are under the influence of Negarian's spell." he remarked.

"Well, of course we aren't!" Christine snapped. "I would've thought that would've been obvious!"

"In these circumstances, I think you'll agree that we have to take all of the necessary precautions, regardless."

"He's right." Todd agreed. "SHUSH would've done likewise." he rubbed his shoulder. "Although maybe a bit more _gently_."

"Oh, you'll live." Bob said. "Now, with that out of the way, I need to get you on the other side of this shield." he rapped against it with his knuckles. It didn't give way for him anymore than it had for the others. "And there's only one way to do that." he extended one of his hands. "Everybody grab my hand, and keep a _firm _grip upon it."

Christine and Charlie grabbed his hand quickly and without hesitation. Todd, however, was more leery about Bob planned to do that he didn't know, and only joined in after a moment of hesitation.

"Ortus!" Bob exclaimed loudly.

There was a flash of light as they group was engulfed in it with a pop and promptly vanished. They reappeared on the front porch of the mansion within the shield with a similar pop sound and accompanying flash of light. Todd, Christine, and Charlie looked around in amazement, the latter letting out a delighted squeal of delight at the event.

"What just happened?" Todd asked.

"I used a very complex and powerful spell to more or less teleport us within the shield." Bob explained, withdrawing the hand they had held onto. "So far as I know, it's the only spell that can get around that shield."

"Then couldn't Negarian just use the same spell?" Agent Todd asked.

"The spell is enormously complex and difficult." Bob stated. "Not many magicians can do it, regardless of their power. Morgana can't even do it, she has to use different spells to get around. The reason being is that the spell can't be traced by any means, especially magic."

"Negarian is an extremely skilled wizard, though." Christine pointed out.

"So he is, more than I am, certainly, which is worrying." Bob admitted. "Fortunately, I've got the shield rigged so that it'll block everything that had any connections whatsoever to Negarian to the best of my abilities. That includes that certain spell. My only worry is that Negarian knows of a way around the shield that I don't, or overlooked. He just hasn't realized it yet."

"So has he tried getting around the shield already?" Agent Todd asked as he watched Bob unlock the mansion door.

"Of course he has, he knows we're in here." Bob said.

"'We're?'" Christine repeated, hopes soaring at this mention.

Bob ignored it as he opened the door. "They'd have a heck of a time getting in here, though, we've got so many defenses set up." he remarked, leading the way inside, the other three following. "In addition to the shield, the yard is a literal landmine of magical traps, and there are several spells on the mansion itself to include further defenses against enemies. So far, it's all worked, although no one has gotten as far as getting past the shield just yet. Not for the lack of trying though. You three are actually quite lucky that Negaduck's army wasn't here already when you turned up outside. Thankfully, they seem to have given up trying for the moment."

He led the way further into the mansion. Their entrance was apparently overheard, for a door leading in and out of a kitchen of sorts opened as they approached it, and Morgana stepped out of it, the friendly witch looking, like Bob, no worse for wear from Negaduck's takeover of the city, although she did look depressed, and her hair, currently pulled into a ponytail, was ruffled, giving her a slightly disheveled look. She promptly brightened when she saw Christine, Charlie, and Agent Todd, as did they.

"Morgana!" Christine exclaimed, looking relieved to see her. "You're all right too! I knew you would be!"

"Yes, thankfully, and thank goodness you're all right, too." Morgana said, also looking relieved to see them. She then changed the subject. "I take it you got our message, then?"

"Barely." Agent Todd remarked. "It was nearly and completely inaudible by the time it was received."

"We were afraid of that." Bob said. "Like we've done with the mansion, Negarian has put up a series of defenses around the city itself, probably at Negaduck's own request. One of them is a spell that attempts to block all radio transmissions trying to leave the city. That's why out message was so garbled. Try as hard as we could, but even with putting as much power into it, we still had a hard time getting that message out."

"Another defense Negarian has put in place is his own version of a shield." Morgana stated. "Unlike ours, it will allow objects to pass through it, but it magical energy directly attacks the systems and mechanisms of vehicles such as cars and aircraft. Hence why your helicopter suddenly and inexplicably went down when it did."

"Oh, you found out about that, did you?" Christine remarked.

"But how?" Agent Todd asked. "I mean, you've both been hiding in here during all of that, so how could've you found out about something like that?"

"Because I went out and did some snooping." a new voice announced flatly.

At this, Morgana stiffened ever so slightly, then stepped out of the way of the doorway she was still standing in. As she did so, another person was revealed to be standing behind her, one they all knew well.

"Crimson." Christine remarked.

* * *

Crimson, like Morgana and Bob, had fared Negaduck's assault on the city well enough, but also looked like she had been through a lot. Her costume was wrinkled and smudged with dust and dirt, but was otherwise intact. Crimson herself seemed unusually quiet and withdrawn, looking to be all serious, which was very much unlike her. With dull eyes, she looked the group over, and smiled.

"Christine, Agent Todd, Chuck." she greeted each in turn, ignoring Charlie's usual correction that his name was Charlie. "Thank goodness you're all right." the grin then faded there, and she shook her head. "What are you guys _doing _here, though?" she asked, a little harshly. "This is the very last place for you to be!"

"We came to help, in response to your message!" Christine said in their defense.

"Yes, but no offense, we were hoping for something along fully armed regiments from the army, not three refugees from St. Canard itself, one being far too young for the likes of this." Morgana pointed out gently.

"Well, you can blame Vice President Norrin for that." Agent Todd said.

"Oh brilliant, what's Norrin up to _now_?" Crimson bemoaned.

"Whoa, hold on a moment here." Christine stated. "Clearly, we need to swap stories from both sides so we can get things straight. Because I am personally quite interested in hearing what the heck has been going on in this city ever since I left."

"And I'm curious to know what the world _beyond _this city plans to do about it." Crimson said hotly.

So they all sat down in the Macawber's living room to tell each other's stories. Bob found some old Normal toy cars, although there was nothing normal about them now, as he had bewitched them some time ago to drive around on their own at breakneck speeds. He gave them to Charlie to play with, which the six-year-old youth was overjoyed to get to do, watching the cars zip around on their own. While the youth was entertained, Christine and Todd explained how they came to be here.

"...anyway, Vice President Norrin was quite adamant that whatever it was that he was planning, it was better than our ideas." Todd was explained. "And as usual, he wasn't telling what they were."

"As usual." Crimson agreed.

"The only reason we were able to get here was because of Mr. McDuck." Christine said, picking up on the story. "He had his own ideas about what should be done, and knew we wanted to go, despite the danger, so he set us up with the helicopter that brought us here. Charlie wasn't supposed to come, but he snuck aboard somehow anyway."

"Huh, I would've never thought he had it in him." Morgana remarked.

"Anyway, the chopper brought us here, but it crashed, stranding us here, and so we came here in hopes of finding you guys." Todd concluded.

"You know our side of things, now tell us yours." Christine said flatly. "I want to know _everything_ that has happened in this city since I left."

Morgana and Bob looked at each other, then glanced at Crimson, who sighed.

"Unfortunately, Christine, it's not a good story." Crimson muttered softly. "To begin with, obviously, Negaduck won. We gathered all the people and resources we had for one final battle in the suburbs, at home, actually, and..." she trailed off for a moment. "...we lost. We promptly started losing people right away, and we kept losing more and more until it was only me...Dad...Morgana and Bob...and Gizmoduck. We saw then that we couldn't win, so me and Dad made a break for it, at the insistence of the others, who bought us time _to _escape."

"And it wasn't much." Bob admitted. "We were quickly overrun just seconds after they left. In an act of self-defense, I grabbed Morgana and used the same spell I used to get around that shield to escape. Don't really know what happened after that."

"I just know that it wasn't enough." Crimson said. "Darkwing and I only got as far as upstairs of our own home before Negaduck himself was hot on our heels, bringing Negarian with him. We ducked into Launchpad's room to try and escape out the window, but we weren't fast enough. They caught up with us. Negarian cast a spell that blew open the bedroom wall and left both me and Dad hanging from that hole by the grappling hook of my gas gun. We were completely defenseless there, and Negaduck knew it. He...he rubbed it in our faces, then, slowly and deliberately, told Negarian to cast his mind control spell on us, one by one." Crimson hung her head. "He started with Darkwing."

"No..." Christine murmured.

"It's true, Christine. Darkwing's among Negaduck's ranks now."

A moment of silence fell, save for the noise Charlie was making with the toy cars.

"At least we know that he's still alive." Agent Todd managed to point out.

Christine nodded, biting her lip. She paused. "Now wait." she suddenly said. "If you were so defenseless, Crimson, then how did _you _manage to escape the same fate?"

Crimson was silent for a moment. "Looking back, it still blows my mind, actually." she admitted. "I mean, there I was, hanging from a rope, having seen the spell cast upon Darkwing and watched him fall from the rope, then look back up to see Negs laughing almost hysterically, crowing on about how he had finally won, then at Negarian, gearing up to cast the spell again, this time at me. By all accounts, I should've been under that spell too."

She paused again, and let out a soft snort of laughter, managing a grin. "But then Rowe showed up."

"I haven't the foggiest clue why that otter turned up there at that moment, and what he had to have done to get there, but he suddenly came almost staggering through the bedroom door, all out of breath, just at the same moment as Negarian went to cast the spell at me. That was all he needed to do, I acted out of pure instinct at that moment, establishing a connection with him as a familiar and throwing up a protective shield to deflect that curse all in what had to have been in the same motion. And it worked, the shield deflected the spell, but I was caught so off guard by the suddenness of it all, that I lost my grip on the rope, and fell down to the ground.

"I don't really know what happened after that up in that bedroom, but I knew that Negs was probably beside himself with rage that I had managed to slip away. I know he tried to shoot me down from that window, and that he was yelling and shouting in rage, but he wasn't able to do more than that. I was already on my feet and running in the first direction that would take me far, far, away. Away from it all."

Crimson paused for a long moment again. "Miraculously, I managed to escape." she finally continued. "Evaded the army for what seemed like ages while I watched what remained of the city fall into Negaduck's hands and..." she inhaled sharply suddenly, fighting back tears. She fell quiet long enough to get her emotions back under her control, then continued. "I laid low for awhile, then sought shelter. The borders of the city was guarded by that point, so I couldn't go that way. Eventually, I came to Morgana's mansion, and found her and Bob here. We jointly worked to make this place safe, and then sat down and...and sought ways to fight back. Haven't been able to do much...other than snoop around, and cause the occasional grief for Negaduck, most of which I've been doing on my own. But...it's something. And...and that's it. That's all there is to it."

They were all silent for a moment.

"What happened to Rowe?" Christine asked, somewhat curious.

"Dunno." Crimson admitted with a shrug. "But seeing that he was openly defying Negaduck by merely _being _there, and that he couldn't have escaped like I did, he probably had to face the full wrath of Negaduck."

More silence.

"What about Agent Sandy?" Agent Todd asked.

"Overran along with the very last of the would-be evacuees towards the tale end of the fight. We tried to delay Negaduck's army from getting at them too quickly, but...as you know...it, uh, didn't work out."

"What about Agent Mia? And Elementary Underground? Surely that's still safe."

"Todd, Elementary Underground was overran sometime during the battle, with everyone inside captured." Morgana stated.

"I suppose Gizmoduck met the same fate, too." Christine muttered.

"Unfortunately, yes. He was left all alone to fend off the army after me and Morgana left so abruptly." Bob said. "And as Crimson has revealed, he couldn't have lasted long, and even that suit of his couldn't deflect magical energy, so..." he trailed off, not needing to finish the thought.

"But what about Detective Matthew?" Todd asked, hoping that there was someone else left beside them. "Officer Frank? Lieutenant Taylor? Launchpad? Techno?"

"All captured, or so we think." Morgana said. "I know that the detective, the lieutenant, and Officer Frank were all stunned and taken down, so they were probably enchanted by Negarian."

"Launchpad we don't know." Bob admitted. "He was flying the Thunderquack at the time, and we saw it go down towards the end of the fight, and crash somewhere within the city's limits. What became of him and the plane after that, we don't know."

"I don't know for certain what happened to Techno, either." Crimson added, looking more saddened at this thought than all the rest. "But he was the last one in Darkwing Tower when it fell to Negaduck's forces, so..." she looked to be on the verge of tears again.

She wasn't the only one. Christine also looked to be on the verge of tears, and Agent Todd looked torn somewhere between crying himself and having a panic attack. Charlie hadn't been paying attention to the conversation, and was presently, blissfully, unaware. Morgana bowed her head and said nothing. Bob watched them all for a moment, then shook his head.

"C'mon guys, don't be like that." he said, taking up the role of comforting like the psychiatrist he was. "At least we've got ourselves, right? And it's not like they're all dead, right? In some shape or form, they're all probably still alive still. So what we need to do is buck up, and...work to fix things."

"That's easy for you to say!" Crimson snapped suddenly. "You aren't in the same situation as us! In the same situation as me! A mere _week _ago, I watched everyone I could ever call a _family _fall in battle!"

"They aren't _dead_!" Bob repeated, but Crimson wasn't listening.

"You have it easy, Bob!" Crimson ranted on, jumping up. "You've still got your wife! And your home! But us...we've _lost_ that! Everything! Our homes, our lives, our friends, our loved ones, everything! So excuse me if I'm just a little bitter about it!"

And with that, she plopped herself back down in her seat and grumpily folded her arms, avoiding eye contact with Bob.

Bob sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck as he sought for some kind of response. He couldn't find one. "You're right." he finally admitted with a shrug. "But what do you suggest we do? Just sit here and mope about it? Just...whine and bemoan about such a terrible situation that we're in? What do you _want _us to do, Crimson?"

"We should get out of here." Todd suddenly announced.

"What?" Christine asked. "How?"

"I don't know!" Todd said. "But we need to sit down and think of a way, and fast! I don't care how we do it, just so long as we get the heck out of here while we've got the chance!"

"So you'd rather leave everyone here to their _fates_?" Morgana asked.

"No, of course not!" Todd said. "But we aren't ever going to be able to do anything from within the city! We can help more on the outside of the city with everyone else than from in here!"

"We're not leaving." Crimson stated plainly, turning to give Todd a dark glare.

"Oh, we're not, are we?" Todd asked sharply. "And what makes _you _so sure?"

"We couldn't leave even if we wanted to." Crimson explained, still maintaining her dark glare. "As I said, the city's borders are guarded, thoroughly, by Negaduck's army. He knows we're in this city, and doesn't plan to let us out that way. And we can't _fly _out, not with Negarian's shield in place. So we're not leaving. We just can't. Besides, I don't _want _toleave. Not while Negaduck still has power over everything in this city."

"But what can we possibly do from here?" Todd demanded.

"Simple." Crimson stated calmly. "We fight back. We defeat Negaduck. We restore things back to the way they were. Any way possible."

And with that, she rose from her chair and turned and left the room.

* * *

The night wore on. Morgana prepared dinner for herself, her husband, and their three guests. Christine was a little apprehensive about the meal, as Darkwing had let it slip once (mistakeningly, he later denied saying it) that mealtime with Morgana wasn't a pleasant experience. Likewise, Agent Todd had heard a few horror stories about meals for magicians from SHUSH's extremely rare encounters with them, and wasn't looking forward to the meal either. But when the meal was finished and set on the table, they were pleasantly surprised to discover that the meal was a completely normal one of roast beef with a side dish of mashed potatoes that looked delicious. It proved to taste pretty good, too.

"Wow, Morgana, this is really good." Christine commented as she ate the meal.

"I'm glad to hear that, Christine." Morgana said, glowing slightly from the compliment.

"Yes, it's very...normal." Todd noted, looking puzzled. "I had always heard that you magicians had more...obscure dishes."

"Some do." Morgana admitted. "Most Normals such as yourself don't normally like such meals, however. Dark made it clear that he didn't. But Bob has a fondness for both forms of dishes, so I can prepare Normal dishes easily enough these days. I figured this would come across better."

"It's good." Charlie agreed, who was enjoying the meal.

"So, uh, where's Crimson?" Agent Todd asked aloud, looking around the table, and seeing that she was the only one absent, and was nowhere to be seen. "Isn't she going to eat too?"

"Oh, she'll eat when she's hungry." Morgana muttered, sounding annoyed. "I've given up trying to get her to eat at meals."

"Why is that?" Christine asked. "And where _did _she go?"

"Out." Bob replied simply. "She heads out into the city every night."

Christine and Todd exchanged glances.

"Any reason _why_?" Christine asked.

"To go on patrol." Morgana explained. "Just like before, only this time, she goes out into the city to give Negaduck grief, to investigate anything of interest, to search for any possible means of fighting back, and of course, just keeping watch." she sighed. "To be perfectly honest, Christine, I worry about her. She hasn't at all been the same since Negaduck took over. She's become almost...obsessed about fighting against Negaduck. It's all she can think about now."

"I worry that it's all gone to her head." Bob remarked, also looking concerned. "That this has all effected her emotionally more than she's willing to admit. As she said, she's lost nearly everyone that she called a family in this conflict. That is a big blow to anyone, no matter who they are. I worry that she's not thinking straight, and that the only thing she's letting herself think about is beating Negaduck in any shape or form, and she doesn't care how it's done."

"She made that clear during our discussion earlier." Todd stated flatly. "As a result, I have to agree with you. She's letting her thinking become clouded with revenge. And I want revenge against Negs too, but this isn't the way to do it. I still say we need to get out of here before it's too late."

"But it _is _too late." Christine pointed out. "Besides, I want to stay and fight back anyway."

"Are you sure Christine?" Morgana asked. "This conflict won't be like anything else you, or any of us for that matter, have had to deal with. This has become a win or lose situation, and right now, the odds are very much not in our favor. This is going to be a very dangerous endeavor. For all of us."

"Seems to me that I don't really have a choice." Christine remarked pointedly as she continued eating. "I'm stuck here just as much as you guys. So I might as well help fight, right?"

Morgana grinned. "I can see why Dark has gotten so fond of you, Christine." she commented. "You sounded just like him just then."

Christine blushed.

"Can I stay and fight, too?" Charlie asked, who was listening.

Bob ruffled the youth's hair with a grin. "Well, I don't know, seeing that you're so young, but I'm sure we can find something you can do." he said.

"What about you, Todd?" Morgana asked, looking at the SHUSH agent.

The canine was silent for a moment, looking down at his plate. "I still want to leave." he commented. "But it's pretty clear I've been outvoted. And I have to admit that it's unlikely that there _is _a way to escape here." he paused. "Besides, I want to help fight too. I just had different ideas about going about it." he nodded. "So I guess I'm in too."

"Then it's settled." Christine said. "Together, we're going to find a way to stop Negaduck, defeat his army, and take back everything he has taken from us."

* * *

Even as the city was submerged deep in the darkness of night, the patrols continued wandering around the city of St. Canard, making sure that all was well...according to Negaduck. It more or less was, but they had been told that there was still a handful of people out there not under the villain's control, and they had standing orders to look for them, find them, and take them down if need be.

Thus far they had little luck.

Crimson had seen to that much.

Perched on the roof of a nearby skyscraper, overlooking the passing patrol below, Crimson stood, crouching low, and half-hidden in the plentiful shadows that were around her, allowing her black and red cape billow about behind her in the evening breeze. As she watched, she was already planning what she was going to do tonight. It wasn't much, and it certainly wasn't going to make much of a difference towards beating Negaduck tonight, but she didn't mind. She was merely waiting for the right time and the right means to come up.

"And in the meantime, I'm going to slow Negaduck's progress as much as possible." Crimson muttered to herself. "Because I will not stand by idle and let that dastardly duck take over the world."

Firing a grappling hook from her gas gun suddenly, she jumped from the roof, and swung down to confront the patrol down below, a determined look on her face...

* * *

Negaduck opened the door to the room slowly, surveying the going-ons in the room with a slight grin.

"Well, it appears that everything here is going more or less well." he remarked.

Nanite Darkwing glanced up from where he was still bound to the wall, with several wires and cords attached to him to monitor his internal systems. These cords were hooked up to a bank of computers that had been brought in at Negaduck's command. The person Negaduck had gotten to conduct the needed repairs to Nanite Darkwing sat at these computers, working. As he was doing it unwilling, as evidenced by the two guards that stood in the room as well, he did not look up, nor address Negaduck's presence.

"It is ironic, is wh-what it is." Nanite Darkwing remarked, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah, I know you guys aren't on the best of terms, but it's the best I could come up with." Negaduck said, strolling into the room. "And at least he's working, right?"

"I-I do not tr-tr-trust him."

"I'm sure the feeling's mutual." Negaduck said, as he patted the worker on the shoulder, to the worker's annoyance. "Isn't that right, my little repairman?"

The 'repairman' looked back at Negaduck, giving him a glare. A glare that was mostly hidden behind the visor he wore.

"There are a lot of people here I don't trust." Techno remarked hotly as he continued, reluctantly, to work.

"That's entirely understandable." Negaduck said, giving Techno's shoulder yet another pat before finally withdrawing his hand. "Unfortunately for you, I don't really care. Nanite Darkwing's no good to me in this state, and you're all I've got left who has any real hope of making the adequate repairs."

"You know, while we're on the subject of trust, you're putting a _lot _of trust in me by making me do this, Negaduck." Techno remarked darkly, not looking up from his work as he said this. "That doesn't seem like you to make unnecessary gambles."

"You're still doing it, though." Negaduck noted.

"So far as you know. I could just be making matters worse for all you know."

"I would be aware-aware of such things." Nanite Darkwing remarked with confidence.

"Besides, if you are, that'll be your problem, not mine." Negaduck stated with a grin. "I'll just have Negarian deal with you."

"Which is another thing I don't understand." Techno remarked bitterly. "Why make me the one only one _not _under the influence of Negarian's oh-so-famous spell? It would save you a lot of risk."

"True, but one under such a spell can't do complex actions such as fixing robotizied ducks without being given very _precise _directions." Negaduck remarked. "Directions none of _us _could give you. Taking the risk was the only option. Besides, I have other reasons for leaving you with your free will."

"So I can watch helplessly as you take on the world?"

"That's one of them, yes."

Techno was silent for a moment, still working. "You _do _realize that this is going to take awhile to do, no matter what I do, right?" he asked. "I may know a lot about the nanotechnology used in Nanite Darkwing, but not enough to make the needed repairs to his control nanite. First, I have to study it and learn more, and then carefully experiment and work to repair the damage to the device, virtually guessing as I go along. I'll probably goof and have to start over more than once. This will take time."

Negaduck grinned. "Take your time, Tech." he said. "I have all the time in the world to wait."

It was then that General Mallard walked into the room. "Negaduck, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we just got an urgent report from one of the patrols." he reported straightaway. "Crimson is causing trouble again."

Negaduck growled in annoyance. "The nerve of that girl..." he muttered, then sighed. "Fine. Get NegaGos and send her after her, _with _an armed escort this time, just in case Crimson gives her the slip, _again_. I want her captured this time, general, and brought back here, conscious and unhurt, for me to deal with properly."

"Understood." General Mallard said with a nod, and left to carry out the orders.

"You do realize that she's not going to let you capture her, right?" Techno asked flatly, listening to the conversation. "Crimson is bound and determined to stop you. At any cost."

"So am I." Negaduck remarked back. "And sooner or later, she's going to mess up. And when she does, I'll be ready. I will have her, Techno."

"And Crimson, of course, is thinking the same thing." Techno said, allowing himself a slight grin. "Only time will tell who will be the victor."

"Yes, indeed." Negaduck growled, giving Techno's back a long glare. "Now keep working."

And with a flourish of his cape, he turned and left the room, the guards closing the door behind him...

* * *

_Fun Facts: The original title for this chapter was originally a little different. It lacked the "A", so it was only "Time of Darkness" originally instead of "A Time of Darkness." With the "A" it seemed more complete, though, so I included it. Yeah, big whoop. :p_

_This is the first time any type of character has actually and physically been in Duckburg for any length of time since chpt 13, "Mr. McDuck", and then, it wasn't for much longer than a paragraph._

_I though that the idea of having both Scrooge McDuck and Norrin in the same room was a cool idea. ;)_

_It donned on me that I hadn't ever introduced a situation in which Charlie and Morgana had actually met, so I had to reason how Chuck recognized Morgana's voice in the message, and did so, as later Christine reveals that Morgana has visited both her and Chuck at their apartment before, for no real reason other than to visit. Actually, I like this idea, as it further empahzies the fact that Chris and Morg are on friendly terms. :)_

_If Negaduck was ever to have a geunine friend, it'd probably be Negawing, because, as I've been writing their interplay, I've noticed that they're always on the same page, that they can always understand each other in such a way that nothing really has to be explained beyond the basics. Negaduck can't get that from everyone else._

_Nanite Darkwing, I had planned, to just appear once in "Negaduck's Army", serving as a plot complication, but later thought that seemed too empty an existence for him, and eventually concieved a whole backstory for him. And seeing that he is so damaged and it'll take awhile for him to repair, I could afford keeping him around. So I devised a means of doing it, in addition to providing yet another plot complication of sorts. As further chapters will reveal, there are other advantages along the way that'll be revealed. ;)_

_Originally, Nanite Darkwing wasn't going to have that stutter he had inheirited due to his damage, but I threw it in after the fact, as it put emphasis on said damage._

_Negaduck states in conversation with Nanite Darkwing that he wasn't about to go to Nanite DW's universe and hunt down his Bushroot. This is an illusion to Nanite DW's backstory that'll be revealed fully at an unknown future date._

_The aides that all of the commanding people in Negaduck's army have came about due to the fact that there were certain characters that I wanted to bring back for an appearance or two. Namely Negawing Rowe, as I didn't get to do as much with him as I had hoped in chpt. 71. But, I needed a means of reasoning it, so I thought up "aides" for everybody. This might actually be an idea that'll come back to haunt me (by having too many charatcers around to work with) but we'll see how it goes._

_I also liked the magical monsters Negarian had in chpt. 74, and thought it made perfect sense for them to be present now. So...there they are. :)_

_The magical incantation Bob uses when teleporting everyone within the shield at Macawber Mansion is Latin. I got the word by taking an English word and having it translated into Latin via an online translator, and "ortus" was one of the words provided. Unfortunately, I can't remember what the English word was. "Ortus", it appears, refers to "origin", "birth", and "source", but I know none of these words was the English word that brought me to this word._

_I purposely left some fo the fates of some of our characters such as DW, LP, and Giz more or less unknown for now, with the intent of revealing that all along the way as this new storyarc continues._

_This storyarc is also going to bring out sides of certain characters that we don't usually see, or have never even seen before. A couple are apparent in this chapter, more will be made clear in future chapters._

_The scene were the group is discussing about their situation, and, more predominately, Crimson over dinner was concieved late into the chapter, on the fly. It's somewhat repetitious in the fact that restates a few things that are already quite apparent or predictable, but I felt it added to the chapter nonetheless._

_And the ending. Heh, did you really think I was going to resolve this big long storyarc with just **one **chapter? No, this is going to take quite a **few** chapters to sort this all out... ;)_

_Oh, and before I forget, don't miss the next chapter, "The Warrior's Wish".  
_


	77. The Warrior's Wish

Summary: While dealing with the prisoners locked up in the St. Canard Supervillain Prison, one gets away, and begins plotting his schemes again...

Rating: T

Author's Note: And here's another chapter for you to read. And about everything else I have to say about it can be said in the fun facts that'll follow, so I guess that's all I have to say for the moment. Enjoy! :)

77.

The Warrior's Wish

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_I am the terror that hunts in the night! I am the jackal that picks at your bones! I am Darkwarrior Duck!"_

_--  
_

_Knocking Darkwarrior's gas gun out of his hands and chucking it aside, Rowe dealt Darkwarrior a punch, then flipped the villain over, pulled his hand behind his back, and then, using Darkwarrior's own handcuffs, handcuffed the villain._

_--  
_

"_I can sleep well tonight! Darkwarrior's going to jail, oh this is great!"_

_--  
_

"_Roughly about an hour ago, the SHUSH portal generator activated unexpectedly to receive an incoming portal. Presumably, this occurred just before Dr. Bellum was able to render the device incapable of doing so. A burst of energy was sent through that knocked over the guards that were stationed there, and during the time they were down, Negaduck's army started invading, quickly overwhelming them."_

_--  
_

"_When we were in Gwendolyn's universe a few days ago, Negaduck told me that Negarian has this kind of magical spell that he can use on people that allows him to control their minds, and make them his own personal slaves. I suspect __**that's**__ what has happened to those agents."_

_--  
_

"_Attention citizens of this fine country. For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under __**my**__ control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet! Go ahead and try and stop me, but you should know that I've already dealt with most of my __**real **__enemies. You couldn't stop me even if you could. So, to summarize, if you don't know me, __**get**__ to know me. For I am the terror that hunts in the night. I am the conspirator that destroys your government. I'm Negaduck. And soon I'll be in control. Ha-ha-ha-ha!"_

_--  
_

"_I merely wish you listen to this recording of a heavily garbled radio message that came from within St. Canard itself."_

_--  
_

"_What's she saying? Something about St. Canard...Negaduck...and a request for help. There, you hear it? She's calling for help, it sounds like, along with something else, but I can't make it out."_

"_Who __**is**__ that? The voice sounds annoying familiar, but I can't place it."_

"_It's Morgana!"_

_--  
_

"_I could smuggle __**both**__ of you out of here in a single aircraft. I have a pilot who excels at this kind of thing. He could quite plausibly get you both in and out of St. Canard without anybody but yourselves knowing if need be."_

_--  
_

"_The-the one guarding the tower you sent me t-t-to attack dealt me a great deal of damage, as you can no doubt still see. It took a great deal-deal of time for my internal systems to repair enough of it for me to regain consciousness."_

_--  
_

"_If I were to be fully repaired, someone would have to repair my control nanite."_

_--  
_

"_The engines just gave out! __**Everything's**__ giving out! I don't know how to explain it, but all the systems just suddenly failed! We're going down!"_

_--  
_

"_Negawing, how's things going at Canard Tower?"_

"_Remarkably well, your lordship. Already got things cleared out of that top floor, and working at...um...widening it, like you requested. Should have the larger part of the chore done by the end of the day! A little tidying up after that, and you're ready to rock and roll, Negs!"_

_--  
_

"_Just been helping here and there, wherever possible. Helping hunt down certain individuals whenever we've got a lead on where they are. Also been familiarizing myself better with my more magical side, isn't that right, Rowe?"_

_--  
_

"_Hello. Bob Macawber, magician and psychiatrist, at your service."_

_--  
_

"_Morgana! You're all right too! I knew you would be!"_

_--  
_

"_Miraculously, I managed to escape. Evaded the army for what seemed like ages while I watched what remained of the city fall into Negaduck's hands and...I laid low for awhile, then sought shelter. The borders of the city was guarded by that point, so I couldn't go that way. Eventually, I came to Morgana's mansion, and found her and Bob here. We jointly worked to make this place safe, and then sat down and...and sought ways to fight back. Haven't been able to do much...other than snoop around, and cause the occasional grief for Negaduck, most of which I've been doing on my own. But...it's something. And...and that's it. That's all there is to it."_

_--  
_

"_You do realize that she's not going to let you capture her, right? Crimson is bound and determined to stop you. At any cost."_

"_So am I. And sooner or later, she's going to mess up. And when she does, I'll be ready. I will have her, Techno."_

"_And Crimson, of course, is thinking the same thing. Only time will tell who will be the victor."_

_--  
_

"_But what can we possibly do from here?"_

"_Simple. We fight back. We defeat Negaduck. We restore things back to the way they were. Any way possible."

* * *

_

The St. Canard Supervillain Prison had been left virtually unattended after the city was captured. Negaduck saw to it that it's staff and guards were pressed into his army and that the prison and it's containing inmates were completely under his control, then left to deal with other issues and make sure everything there was under control. Now, a week later, the army was to deal with the prison properly, and Negaduck sent General Mallard and his personal army to deal with the matter.

"All right troops." the general said once he and the party of militiamen that he had brought with him were all safely in the prison's entrance. "Here's the deal. You've all been brought here because now that St. Canard is more or less securely under our control, we need to figure out what to do with this prison, and decided which ones of it's prisoners are friends or foes to our cause." he held up a sheet of paper, copies of which had already been distributed out to the men standing in the room. "Negs has put together a list of known prisoners for us that he wants freed so they can join our forces. Also on the list are the prisoners Negs wants to stay put. Our job is pretty simple. We're just going to go through the whole prison and, using stickynotes..." he held up a small packet as an example, "...we're going to label every cell if it's containing a friend and potential ally and any cells containing prisoners that aren't on our list. The empty cells and confirmed enemies are to be left unmarked. When we've completed, another group will be sent through and actually free the potential allies, and get them up to speed." he paused for a moment, looking to group over. "Is that clear?" he asked. "Any questions?"

One solider raised his hand. "Why are we doing this menial task?" he asked with a light whining tone. "Why not have the magicked slaves do this stuff? They can certainly handle it."

"True, but as you all should very well know, they respond by being given direct commands." General Mallard replied. "Negarian, I'm told, has worked to put failsafes into the so to limit who can give orders they'll respond to, but due to the nature of the spell, theoretically anyone can give them commands. Possibly including the prisoners. And if so, we don't want those prisoners getting any ideas and giving the slaves commands such as setting them free, particularly the ones we don't want to go anywhere. So that's why we can't just use the slaves. That understood?"

The group nodded. General Mallard nodded back.

"Good." he said. "Now, you've all been assigned certain sections to attend to. Go do that now, and when you're done, report back here."

The group dispersed, each person having a special section they needed to attend to. Once at their designated sections, each person went from cell to cell marking it as need and as they had been told, ignoring any jibes or comments from the prisoners inside the cells. Most didn't really make much notice of the members of General Mallard's personal army, however, and let them be. It seemed some didn't care, or others had already put two with two together, and figured they wouldn't be in here for much longer, or had come to terms with the fact that they'd probably be stuck here for awhile longer. Therefore, the task seemed easy enough, despite the fact that it was undeniably and mind-boggling boring.

One militiaman was assigned to the moderate security quadrant of the prison, in section omicron. Thinking that it could've been worse, and he could've ended up somewhere in the maximum security quadrant where the prisoners were rougher, tougher, and more anxious to escape, he accepted the task and went to it without hesitation. Going from cell to cell, he checked them on his list, seeing if it contained a friend or foe, and using a stickynote, marked it as such.

Most of the prisoners just ignored him as he went by. Some seemed to sullen to care, others watched him quietly, looking interested, or perhaps intrigued and maybe hopeful, but said nothing. Some of the cells had the lights switched off inside of them, hiding their prisoners in a shield of darkness, making it unclear just what it was that they were doing inside.

The militiaman didn't think much of it until he reached just such a cell about halfway through his assignment. According to his list, it contained an enemy that wasn't supposed to be getting out, so he merely skipped it and walked right on past. As he did, he heard something clatter from within the cell. Pausing, and curious, the militiaman doubled back and backtracked to the cell and peered inside.

It was dark inside the barred-off cell, and all within was hidden under a veil of darkness. The militiaman could make out the faint outlines of shapes in the cell, including something that might possibly be a person, but he couldn't be sure. He moved closer to the bars that stood in front of the cell, and peered harder into the cell.

"Hello?" he began to call. "Is someone...?"

He got no further than that when an arm suddenly shot through the bars and grabbed the militiaman, spinning him around and against the bars before wrapping around the poor solider's neck. The militiaman grabbed at the offending arm, trying to pry it off, but the arm held tight. Fumbling for his sidearm, the militiaman then tried firing the weapon blindly in the direction of the owner of the arm, in hopes of stunning him. The arm still did not loosen it's grip. If anything, it got tighter. The militiaman continued struggling regardless...until he felt the cold steel of his own knife he kept sheathed at his belt press against his neck, making him freeze.

"Drop the gun." a voice ordered from behind him.

The militiaman promptly let the weapon fall from his fingers with a clatter. The prisoner kicked it away by sticking his foot through the bars of the cell momentarily as well.

"Now listen very closely." the voice continued. "I know exactly what's going on here, in this city. I can't let it continue. I need to get out and stop it."

"But..." the militiaman began to object, but fell silent again as the prisoner pressed the knife harder to his neck.

"Don't interrupt." the voice scolded. "I don't really care what you think, and I don't suppose I should really be wasting time telling you my opinions about it. Just open the cell door. Or you're going to find a knife growing out of your neck."

The militiaman gulped involuntarily, then fumbled around for the master key card he also carried at his belt. General Mallard had handed them all out to everyone so that they could access all the parts of the prison with ease. The militiaman had no idea if that included all of the prison's individual cells, but he swiped the card through the cardswipe device that sat beside the cell door anyway. Once the card was through, a buzzer rang, then the lock on the cell door clicked, and came loose.

The prisoner quickly stepped out of the cell, all while keeping ahold of his hostage. Once safely out of the cell, he started down the hall, heading for the prison's entrance, taking the militiaman with, to the militiaman's surprise, but he knew better than to argue, and just obediently followed.

Eventually the prisoner and his hostage arrived at the entrance, having passed no one along the way. In the entrance, however, was a number of members from the private army that had already finished their task, and General Mallard, who was staying at the entrance to supervise. They all stopped what they were doing when the prisoner moved into the room with his hostage, still pressing the knife against the militiaman's neck. A couple gasped, but they all knew how to treat the situation and drew their weapons.

The prisoner simply ignored them, and approached the general, making a show that he had the militiaman at his mercy. The general stood up at this.

"What's this about?" he exclaimed. "I demand an explanation."

"Then I'll make it simple." the prisoner said. "Let me go free, or you'll be short a man."

General Mallard's eyes narrowed, but he did not treat the threat lightly. "You're outnumbered." he pointed out. "We could shoot you down in a heartbeat."

"Then he dies." the prisoner said, pressing the knife harder against the neck of the militiaman.

The general hesitated, gauging the situation. He eyed the prisoner for a moment, and knew that he was very serious, and he couldn't guarantee that the prisoner could be shot down in time. And General Mallard was many things, but he wasn't going to stand by and let one of his men be killed because of a prisoner desperate to escape. He looked at the militiaman in question. His military training was keeping him rather calm, but he was wide-eyed and breathing quickly, showing that he was scared somewhat.

"All right." the general decided, and stepped to one side, motioning to the others to do the same. "You can go, _if _you let the solider go afterwards."

"Thank you." the prisoner said, and hurried out the entrance.

Once out there, being followed by General Mallard and the others, he turned back around to face them, still keeping ahold of his prisoner and pressing the knife on his neck.

"Well?" General Mallard prompted after a moment, discreetly motioning to the men behind him to be ready to shoot him. "Are you going to let him go?"

The prisoner grinned. "Certainly." he said.

Then he suddenly vanished in a burst of blue smoke, catching everyone by surprise. A clattering sound rang out from within the cloud. General Mallard rushed forward, drawing his own sidearm, and waved it around in the cloud of smoke. He didn't find anything still there. As the smoke started to clear, all that remained was the militiaman, coughing on the clearing smoke, and rubbing at his sore throat. The knife the prisoner had used lay on the ground beside him.

"Break up, look for that prisoner!" the general ordered to the others, as he bent down to help the militiaman. He sighed as they carried out his orders. "Who _was _that guy?"

"It says here!" the militiaman suddenly exclaimed, remembering his list, and pulled it out. He ran his finger down the paper, and then pointed at the name. "There."

The general paled as he read the name. "Negaduck told me about this duck." he said in dismay. "And he said that if there was anybody in that prison that he didn't want escaping, it was Darkwarrior Duck."

* * *

Elsewhere in St. Canard, the Crimson Avenger was at work.

Since Christine, Agent Todd, and Charlie had arrived in the city a day or so ago, they had actually been quite helpful in sorting through the information Crimson obtained in passing at night and brought back to Macawber Mansion. At least, Christine and Agent Todd were helpful; Charlie was just to be kept entertained, which was proving to be difficult seeing that he had already seen the mansion in it's entirety and had gotten bored of having to stay cooped inside all the time.

He knew very much why he couldn't leave, especially whenever Negaduck ordered the odd attack against the protective magical shield that surrounded the mansion, which had yet to be in anyway successful, but being the child he was, he found having to stay inside in any building, even a rather large one owned by a magician couple, to be rather dull after awhile. Crimson could relate, one of many of the reasons that she had started these endeavors out into the city.

Anyway, several of the tidbits of information Crimson had been bringing back didn't really mean much. Most of it was just the movements of the individual patrols at Negaduck's disposal, and various things Crimson had seen them doing. Nothing of which was that spectacular. However, after looking at all of that information together, Morgana happened noticed a pattern; all of the patrols went past a certain building on Shultz Avenue sooner or later. Observing from afar later, Crimson decided that the building must be serving as a hub for the patrols to stop and report in, rest (if they weren't magically enslaved), and do who knew what else.

So Crimson intended to check it out.

Presently, she stood on the roof of the said building that overlooked nearby Canard Woods, having waited until the patrols passing by had left so she could approach undetected. Once there, she scanned the roof of the building carefully. The only proper way on and off the roof was through a single door that sat near the middle. Crimson had already tried to open it, only to find that it was locked. She was unsurprised.

Also on the roof, however, were two sets of sunlights that looked into certain rooms on the top floor of the building. Crimson peered through one to see who or what was inside the room beyond. All she could see was a dark junction in hallways, which seemed to be completely absent of life. Of course, there could be guards hidden just out of sight in those hallways, but Crimson was willing to take the chance.

Taking a special blade, she used it to cut out one of the skylight's panes of glass, and carefully removed it and set it aside, trying to make as little noise as possible. Then hooking the grappling hook from her gas gun on the edge of the window, Crimson then jumped through the hole she had made, letting the rope attached to the grappling hook unravel and slow her fall. She stopped just an inch above the floor.

Looking around, Crimson saw that the hallways were as empty as they were dark. Nobody seemed to be around. Grinning at her luck, she cautiously stepped onto the floor, and moved towards the closest door, reading the sign to see what it said. It read, "Backup Computer Databanks", but with Negaduck in charge of the building, that could mean anything. Opening the door a crack and peering inside, Crimson saw that the room really did house backup systems for computer databanks, however.

Curious now as to whether or not these backup systems were actually being used for anything Negaduck related, Crimson approached a computer terminal and tried to gain access to the systems. Only to discover that the computer was password protected. A little annoyed, Crimson stopped to think for a moment, then tried various possible passwords. With no success.

She slapped the table in frustration. "Dang it, where's Honk when you need him?" she muttered to herself, and kept trying.

Fortunately, while her hacking skills nowhere near matched Honker's, she did know a trick or two that she had learned either from Honker himself, or by herself through her many attempts to hack into her dad's own personal computer over the years. Therefore, she put those skills to use here, hoping that one or more would get her what she needed. The first few did not, but finally, her methods paid off, and she gained access to the systems's internal files. With a grin, she started scrolling through them.

At first, it seemed like there wasn't going to be anything there that wasn't pertaining to the company that had resided in this building before Negaduck took over, which some kind of financial company. It wouldn't have surprised Crimson. Negaduck wasn't exactly one to leave copies of vital information lying around. And just because he possessed control of a city didn't mean he was going to slack off on his security.

However, at the very end of it all, just when Crimson was about to give up, she discovered something that gave her renewed hope. Technically, it wasn't a file that contained hard data in it, but it was the next best thing. A link that connected this computer to a central computer at Negaduck's new headquarters, where Negaduck would _definitely _be housing the files he wanted.

And upon clicking on it, Crimson was not disappointed. She was brought to a networked file that contained _everything_. The details of Negaduck's plans, the positions of his patrols, the resources at his disposal, records of _everyone_ under the influence of Negarian's mind control spell _and _their assigned locations for service, literally everything.

"Oh keen gear, I've struck gold!" Crimson whooped. "Negs, you are _toast_!"

But she had spoken too soon. No sooner where the words out of his mouth than did a security alarm started to ring within the building, and the screen on the computer changed, clearing the open files and replacing it with a message stating that the system had locked down.

"What?" Crimson cried, working frantically at the keyboard to get back the lost file. "No, no, no, I had it! I had that information! Don't tell me it was just taken away that easily!"

But it was. No matter what Crimson did, she couldn't get around the security lockdown that had gone in place. And a moment later still, the situation grew even more worse as the intercom turned on.

"Attention everyone in the building." the monotonous voice said. "An intruder has been detected in the building. All personnel are to report to their assigned locations while patrols sweep the building."

"Oh, crud." Crimson muttered, reluctantly turning away from the computer terminal and hurrying out of the room and back to the skylight she had entered in through.

She had just fired a grappling hook up to the open window with her gas gun and was about to climb out of the building when another door directly down the hallway before her suddenly opened and a member of General Mallard's personal army stepped through. Seeing Crimson, he promptly froze. He was just as surprised to see her standing there as Crimson was. For a moment, neither moved. Then Crimson hurried and turned and started to clamber up the rope. Reacting in response, the guard fumbled for his weapon, and before he had even taken aim properly, fired at Crimson.

His shot went much too high, and shot through the rope Crimson was about to scamper up, severing it. Crimson crashed to the floor with a thud. Quickly, Crimson switched attachments on the gas gun and fired a canister of sleeping gas in the direction of the intruding guard before he got another chance to fire, and quickly the guard was out like a light. But Crimson was still in a jam as she looked up at the grappling hook and piece of rope that still hung from the skylight, just out of her reach.

"Well, so much for that grappling hook." she muttered, and looked around for another means of escape.

She heard more guards coming from the same direction as the first guard, so there was a sense of urgency. Finally, seeing no better alternative, Crimson sighed, switched attachments on her gas gun yet again, and fired a series of shock darts at a nearby bank of windows that ran along one wall. The window cracked but did not shatter. Weakened, however, Crimson threw herself against the window, and it shattered then, letting her fall out it and out of the building.

From the top floor, no less.

This didn't bug her too much, and merely grabbed the edges of her cape and pulled it taunt, catching the air surging around her as she fell. She parachuted down the rest of the way. Landing safely on the ground, she looked around to look for any enemies in the area outside. Not seeing any, but knowing that they would probably be coming after her here shortly, she quickly ran off, disappointed that the escapade proved to be fruitless, but at least she now knew there _was _information she could get...

* * *

What Crimson didn't know, however, was that the intruder alert in the building did not happen because of her. It was a mere coincidence. Most of the people in the building didn't even know she was there.

Instead, the alert was caused by Darkwarrior.

Also unaware that Crimson was even in the building, the newly escaped supervillain had arrived at the building for the same reasons; to seek out vital information, and he was pretty sure it was here. So he walked right on in with the intent of helping himself to that information.

"Halt!" two guards exclaimed when they saw Darkwarrior round the corner some floors below where Crimson had been. "Stop!"

Darkwarrior did not stop, however, and instead drew a stun gun he had stolen from one of Negaduck's forces and used it to take care of both of the guards, watching as they crumpled instantly. Grinning in victory, he continued onward until he finally arrived at the location he wanted. A hub of computers.

Sitting down at one, he quickly hacked his way in, as this technology was quite primitive in comparison to some of the technology from the Warriorverse. Once inside, he did what Crimson had done and networked to the secure files of Negaduck's, working around all the security systems that tried to block him. It was no easy process, but finally, Darkwarrior arrived at the file he wanted, and quickly started scrolling through the data.

He did this in silence for a few seconds. Then, finally, a smile started to spread across his features.

"Perfect." he said, shutting off the computer and moving to leave the building all together.

He of course encountered resistence along the way, but by this point in time, they still hadn't gotten their act together, and Darkwarrior was simply too skilled, and quickly defeated whomever stood in his way, and proceeded to leave.

He had places to be...

...and a mission to accomplish.

* * *

The following morning, Negaduck watched with a perpetual annoyed look as the workers continued to work and build a very large device in the center of the top floor of Canard Tower. As Negawing had promised, he had made sure that the floor had been cleared out to Negaduck's specifications, and now Negaduck had taken over the project, putting the workers to use by having build a device that had to fit Negaduck's _exact _specifications. He would accept nothing less.

He had gotten his plans for world domination this far. Now, continuing with those plans hinged entirely on this device.

"Watch it with that, you knobs!" he scolded two workers as they moved a large piece of equipment. "You drop that and break it, it'll be your hides!"

"You planning to redecorate, Negs?" NegaGosalyn asked as she strolled up.

Negaduck gave her a look. "What?" he asked, not understanding.

"You threatened their hides is they goof up. I was just wondering what you planned to do with said hides should it ever come to that."

"Gos, I'm not really in the mood."

"No, no, it's a good idea. Some of these guys might actually make good rugs."

Negaduck paused to give the matter some thought. "Well, I do like that guy's coat of fur." he admitted, allowing a slight grin. He paused, then changed the subject. "You have something to report?"

"Yes." NegaGosalyn said. "We're still looking for Darkwarrior. He attacked one of the buildings we've been using for housing off-duty patrols, presumably gained access to some of our files from there, and then promptly left again. We think we might have a lead as to where in the city he's heading next."

"Any idea what information he got from the computers?"

"None whatsoever. He didn't leave any traces, nor did he download or upload anything. Apparently, whatever he was looking for is easy to remember."

Negaduck grunted in response.

"We also found evidence that may suggest that Crimson was in the building." NegaGosalyn continued. "Don't know for sure yet, we're still waiting on the report of a guard who was knocked unconscious. Whatever the case, she was in the building when Darkwarrior came in, tripped the alarm, scaring her, or whomever it was, off."

"Well, I suppose I can thank Darkwarrior for that much." Negaduck said with a sigh. "Unlike a certain general I know."

"Yeah, I know." NegaGosalyn said with a grin. "General Mallard, in fact, sent me up here to tell you all of this, as he's leery the idea of seeing you in person."

"As he should be, because I might just strangle him the next time I see him." Negaduck grumbled. "I mean, I send him to the supervillain prison to do a small task, asking him that makes sure that none of the unwanted prisoners escape, and what does he do? He lets _Darkwarrior _of all people free and out to cause trouble. For me. Y'know, it wasn't _easy _to get that guy into the prison in the first place!"

"I know, I read the report." NegaGosalyn remarked. "Rowe helped put him there, alongside with Crimson, or so the SCPD's official report stated. It didn't sound that hard to me."

"Well, we'll eventually catch up with him." Negaduck vowed. "The guy's got nowhere to go. If he stays in the city, then eventually we'll catch up with him. He tries to leave the city, and he'll be caught by the forces that are surrounding the city. The portal generator at SHUSH is completely under guard and inaccessible, so he can't reach it. He's got nowhere to go."

"So, sooner or later, you think we'll get him again." NegaGosalyn summarized.

"I _know _we will." Negaduck pressed. "The thing that worries me is how much damage Darkwarrior might do while he's free."

* * *

"So you're saying that the computer was set up so it could connect to a central computer that contains all of Negaduck's files?" Christine asked curiously.

"Exactly." Crimson replied as they stepped into the kitchen of Macawber Manor. "If we can just hack into that connection, we'll have access to all of Negaduck's files."

"Good thing I have _this _then." Bob remarked as he and Morgana hauled in an old dusty box containing some computer equipment. They dropped it on the kitchen table with a thump. "We can use this to hack into that connection."

"I don't know, Bob." Morgana said, pulling out a very dusty keyboard from within the box. "You've haven't used this thing in years. I don't know much about computers, but even I know that it's pretty old."

Agent Todd grabbed the keyboard and examined it in dismay. "More than old." he whined. "This thing is _ancient_. I can't use this!"

"But Todd, you said that you could do it, just so long as we provided a computer." Christine remarked, remembering the SHUSH agent's exact words when the subject was brought up upon Crimson's return to the mansion.

"I meant a newer and more high-tech computer, like you'd find at SHUSH." Todd said.

"_Which_ we don't have." Crimson reminded flatly.

"This is the best we've got." Bob said, patting the computer in the box with one hand, sending up a small cloud of dust in the process.

Todd made a face. "I guess I'll have to make the best of it." he admitted, and started helping unpack the box. "But it'd take a miracle for this to work and work right."

"Does this thing even still work?" Crimson asked skeptically as they worked to set it up.

"It should." Bob said, as he worked to plug in the necessary cords. "I mean, I don't know much about these computers you Normals use either, but I can't think of any reason why it can't." he examined two of the cords he held in his hand. "Now, does this one go here, or this one?"

Christine took them both from them and plugged them into the necessary spots without comment.

Finally, they had the computer set up on the kitchen table, all plugged in. Todd sat down to it, and switched it on. The computer started to hum nosily.

"Man, this thing doesn't know quiet." Crimson remarked.

"That's what you get with computers from the dawn of the technology age." Todd remarked with a frown as he waited for the computer to finish booting up, which it was taking it's dear sweet time doing. "I mean, this thing is _old_. It probably couldn't even run Viewport 3.1."

"Well, no, of course it couldn't." Crimson remarked and pointed at the logo the computer sported just below it's monitor. "It's an old Maximilian computer. They don't run the Viewport operating system."

Todd glanced at her. "I knew that." he remarked.

Finally, the computer was all booted up. Todd promptly got to work. "You know, hacking into Negaduck's files with a new computer is one thing." he remarked as he went. "But doing it with this will be quite another. I mean, this thing _has _to predate the Internet."

Christine blinked. "Now wait, does anybody else see a problem with that?" she asked.

"With what?" Todd asked distractedly as he worked. "That this thing predates the Internet?"

"Yeah. Does it?"

"Of course it does."

"Then...how are we going to get it to _wirelessly connect _with Negaduck's computer network?"

Todd froze for a moment, then slapped his face and silently fumed for a few moments.

"Well, don't panic just yet, maybe we can jury-rig it." Morgana suggested quickly.

"How?" Todd asked. "Christine's right, this computer predates the Internet itself. It wasn't _built _to surf the web, and had no intention of ever being able to."

"We can that fix that." Morgana said, motioning to herself and Bob. "We can just magically modify it."

"You just have to explain to us exactly what we need to do." Bob said.

Todd gave the matter some thought, albeit reluctantly. "I still say it's one heck of a long shot, but I suppose it could be done if you...'magically modify' it correctly. It'll have to be dial-up, and we'll probably have the slowest Internet connection on the face of the planet, but..." he shrugged. "It might be able to be done."

"All right." Bob said, flexing his fingers. "One dial-up connection coming up."

He cast a spell and with a flash of light, what _he_ perceived to be a device needed for a dial-up connection appeared on the table. Which clearly wasn't what Todd wanted. The resulting device instead was something between a telephone and a computer similar to the one they already had.

Todd cradled his head in one hand. "This could take awhile." he muttered.

"Well, great." Christine said, not willing to stay and watch and turned to go. "Let me know when you've made progress."

"There has to be a faster way." Crimson grumbled. "Access to Negaduck's files would also mean figuring just where the heck Dad and everyone else is, so that we can rescue them. Those files would mean we could beat Negaduck! Today!"

"Well, I don't know about that." Morgana said. "Even with access to that information, we're still terribly outnumbered."

"Yeah, I know, I'm working on that." Crimson said. She sighed, gave the pitiful computer that was the only thing they had to work with one last look, then turned to leave as well. "Let me know if and when you make progress, Agent Todd."

"Emphasis on that if." Todd agreed, as he pulled Bob aside and started to try and explain exactly what it was that he needed.

Morgana, however, watched Crimson leave, and sighed herself.

* * *

Christine took the ball, fingered it for a moment, then hurled it across the backyard of the mansion. It hit the protective shield that enclosed the building with a sparkle, ricocheted off of it, and bounced back over to where Christine sat on the back step. Charlie, who sat beside her, laughed in amusement and clapped his hands together.

"Again!" he cried.

Christine grinned, rolled her eyes, and obeyed, watching as the ball again bounced off the shield.

"Simple minds, simple pleasures, hmm?"

Christine turned to see Morgana standing in the doorway, and blushed slightly. "More likely we're just so bored that we've got nothing else better to do." she stated as she scooped up the ball and handed it to Charlie to continue throwing.

Morgana grinned and sat down beside Christine. "It's not easy being cooped up in here with little to do, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes, but of course, I know it's safer in here, than out there." Christine remarked, jerking her head at the shield.

Morgana peered out at it for a moment. "You know, there really isn't that much we can do from here, is there?" she asked. "Sure, we can plot and scheme and try and fight back, but when it really comes down to it, the odds aren't in our favor, are they?"

"Try telling that to Gosalyn." Christine remarked as she watched Charlie throwing the ball and the shield again and again. "In her mind, defeat isn't an option."

"But can you blame her?" Morgana asked. "Out of all of us, she's probably lost the most due to Negaduck's invasion." she paused for a moment. "Where is Gos anyway? She didn't..."

"No, no, she's still here at the mansion." Christine assured her. "She's upstairs somewhere."

"Probably sulking." Morgana said, glancing upwards at the upper levels of the mansion. "You know, I worry about her."

"You and me both."

"She wants revenge against Negaduck. And to save her friends. And her family."

"Don't we all?"

"You know, she's completely lost all of the parental figures in her life." Morgana said, glancing at Christine. "And just as Gos means the world to Dark, Dark means the world to Gos."

"I know, and I wish we could do more to fix that." Christine muttered with a frown. "It was bad enough when those two were driven apart for seven years. They don't need to go through that all over again."

"At least we know that Darkwing isn't suffering, even if he is under Negarian's spell." Morgana said, looking wistfully out at the shield. She sighed. "Poor Dark. I hope he's all right."

They were both silent for a moment, watching Charlie continue to play with the ball and the shield.

"You know, maybe we should talk to Gos, and try and comfort her somehow." Christine remarked. "It probably wouldn't change much, but it might help her get through this. She hides it well, but she's taking this all quite hard."

"True." Morgana said. "I don't know how much we could help, though. We aren't parents to Gosalyn."

"No, only Drake's love interests." Christine stated. She paused. "You should give it a try, though, Morg. You know her much better than I do."

"Yes, but I have no experience in this field." Morgana reminded her friend. "I haven't been a parent." she looked at Charlie. "You, however, have."

Christine grinned. "Yeah, but not even for a full year yet." she stated. "Besides, Charlie's different. He's much younger, and quiet and peaceful most of the time. He really isn't much of handful, at least now that he has someone he can call a parent. Gosalyn, however, is an adult now, and is everything but quiet and peaceful." she sighed. "Let's face it, the only one who can handle _this _issue the best is Drake. And he's not here."

"I wish he were here." Morgana said. "Dark would know what to do."

They fell silent, and looked out sullenly out at the shield and the city visible beyond it, wondering how they were going to deal with this situation. Meanwhile, Charlie continued throwing the ball at the shield, apparently taking great joy in the fact that it would ricochet off it again and roll back to him. But then, he suddenly, and inexplicably stopped. A moment later, Christine and Morgana saw why, as they noticed what it was that Charlie was now watching, a figure that had somehow turned up just outside the shield without their noticing and stood there watching them.

It was Darkwarrior.

* * *

"Darkwarrior!" Morgana exclaimed unnecessarily, standing up. "How did...what are you...why...?"

"None of this concerns the three of you." Darkwarrior called through the shield, his voice slightly distorted due to the shield that divided him from his audience. "However, I wish to speak with Crimson. Immediately."

"And how do you know she's even here?" Christine demanded, rising to her feet and pulling Charlie closer to her.

"You'd be surprised what I'd know." Darkwarrior said with a grin. "But please, it's important. It regards her, you, and, of course, Negaduck."

"Everything boils back down to Negaduck these days." Christine muttered.

"Bob!" Morgana called into the house. "You'd better get out here!"

Bob, for his credit, was at the mansion's backdoor in a heartbeat, a puzzled and curious Agent Todd quickly following him. They both blinked in surprise at the figure standing on the other side of the shield.

"Darkwarrior!" Todd exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, yes, I'm here." Darkwarrior stated in annoyance. "Now...I wish to see Crimson. Don't worry, I can't hurt her. Not while I'm on _this _side of your clever little shield here." he rapped his knuckles against it to emphasis the point.

The group hesitated for a moment, looking at one another.

"He is right, he can't do much of anything from that side, not that I know of, at least." Bob confirmed.

"Hate to be devil's advocate here, but if Darkwarrior has managed to get out of jail and evade Negaduck's forces to get here, he might have some means of helping us." Todd remarked. "I think we should hear him out." he paused, then added, "Besides, it's not like we've got much else to work with at the moment, now do we?"

Christine nodded. "Good enough." she said, and turned to Charlie. "Charlie, can you go find Crimson and bring her here, please?"

"Don't bother, Christine, I'm already here."

And sure enough, Crimson was already standing in the doorway of the backdoor, drawn here by a sixth sense, and hearing rushed noises from within the mansion that suggested a situation. She came to investigate, and was now glad that she did. Wordlessly, she stepped off the porch, past her friends, and across the yard, until all that separated her from Darkwarrior was a few feet of lawn and the shield. Crimson looked the villain over for a moment, and folded her arms.

"Speak your part, Darkwarrior." she finally said.

"Well, first off, I wanted to let you know that nothing has changed between us." Darkwarrior began simply enough. "You're still my foe, and I can assure you, I will bring you to justice sooner or later."

"So noted." Crimson clearly wasn't too concerned about that. "What else have you to tell us?"

"That I'm against Negaduck as well. That should be obvious, too. However, the threat he presents is bigger than yours, so I'm going to be dealing with him first. If you promise to stay out of my way while I do that, I'll leave you and your gang alone for the time being."

"Okay, but what about afterwards, after Negaduck is, presumably, beaten?"

"Then I go after you again."

"Figured it would come to that." Crimson muttered, rolling her eyes. "So we don't really get much of anything out of this, do we?"

"Not really, no." Darkwarrior admitted, uncaring.

Crimson shook her head. "Why are you _really _here, Darkwarrior?"

Darkwarrior was silent for a moment, giving her a look that clearly stated that he knew something that she did not. "I know how to get into Elementary Underground."

Crimson was less than impressed. "Of course you do, it's not that hard, all you have to do is..."

"Undetected." Darkwarrior added, interrupting.

Now he had the attention of _all _of them.

"Now how can you do that?" Todd asked, joining Crimson at the shield. "Negaduck has complete control of the Elementary Underground. All of the entrances and exits are either sealed and locked, or heavily guarded, making it impossible to get inside without one of his men knowing about it."

"Nobody can get in there without Negaduck's okay." Crimson added. "Trust me, I tried."

"Not without any magic, at least, and that's iffy at best." Bob remarked, also joining them.

"No magic involved, just pure stealth and the usual talents of mine." Darkwarrior said, looking rather proud of himself. "There is actually a way into that underground facility that overlooks _all _of those security measures Negaduck has. _But, _I'll only tell you if you agree to my terms, and stay out of my way."

"Well, that depends on what it is that you're planning." Crimson remarked. She sighed. "Still, it's tempting."

"I'll say it is, if we can get at least part of the Elementary Underground accessible, we can go all across the city with ease and without Negaduck knowing about it." Christine remarked.

"Also, the facility can't be fully staffed, not if Negaduck has so many ground forces up here." Morgana reasoned. "The facility is probably mostly empty wherever there isn't an entrance or exit. Meaning that once we're inside, we can go anywhere with little to no risk, much less than trying to travel through the city on the surface."

"There's also the fact that Negaduck is using the computer network the facility has to store files." Darkwarrior remarked. "Copies of all of his master files can be found there. Which, I understand, is currently one of your foremost goals; to get access to them."

Crimson narrowed her eyes at him. "And how do you know that we're trying to hack into Negaduck's files?" she asked.

"Call it intuition." Darkwarrior said, then grinned. "So, do we have an agreement?"

There was a moment of silence as the group looked at one another, then at Crimson, who still seemed unsure about the whole deal.

"I still don't trust him." she remarked.

"Neither do I." Todd agreed. "But Crimson, all we need to do is to get in there once, at the very least, and at those computers Darkwarrior is talking about. If he's right, then I can get access to all of those files through there, with a whole lot more ease, and then we wouldn't need to jury-rig a means of doing that after all."

"Which, I should probably mention, hasn't been going too well." Bob added with an embarrassed cough.

Crimson still didn't seem sure.

"The choice is up to you Gos, you know what we're dealing with better than any of us." Christine remarked.

"Well?" Darkwarrior prompted, anxious for an answer.

Crimson bit her lip for a moment, then, with a frown, nodded. "Fine." she said. "We'll do it, Darkwarrior, but just this once, understand? And once this is all over, things will be back to normal, got it?"

Darkwarrior grinned. "Deal."

* * *

"You sure this is such a good idea, Crimson?" Todd asked, as he nervously, as usual, looked around.

"I'm not going to wait to see if Darkwarrior is pulling my leg, Todd." Crimson said as she led the way. "Besides, he's up to something too, otherwise he would've never have come forward with this information. I want to know what. I'm also not going to wait longer than I have to to get at Negaduck's files."

"I agree with all of that, and I can see _you _doing all of that." Todd said, still looking about nervously. "But...why must I come with?"

"Because," Crimson said, as she led the way across the street to a hidden entrance to the Elementary Underground. It was the one closest to Macawber Mansion. "You're a SHUSH agent, and your training will be helpful. You're also the one who knows what will need to be done to hack into the files and download them. Why do you think you _shouldn't _be here?"

"The fact that I don't like it out here, and that I'm terrible in combat situations." Todd replied as they reached the entrance, a typical manhole cover. "You and I have been in these kind of situations before, you know how I can get."

"I do, but I still need you here." Crimson said, turning to face him. "You were able to lead Christine and Charlie to the mansion safely after you crashed without event, though."

"That was different."

"How?"

"It just is."

"Not reason enough, Todd. Besides, this'll be good practice for you."

"That's what everybody says."

"Well, it's true."

They stopped at the manhole cover and looked around for a moment to make sure the coast truly was clear. Crimson wished she had Techno and his visor here so he could scan for the presence of anybody nearby, or at least an energy scanner, but Negaduck's invasion had left her deprived of both of those things. Something that bothered her more than she cared to admit, but she pushed those thoughts out of her mind to focus on the situation at hand.

"Okay, according to Darkwarrior, what we're looking for should be this way." Crimson said, turning around on the manhole cover and pointing to a nearby alley.

They quickly ducked into it, and wandered down it until it abruptly stopped in a dead end. Crimson looked down and stomped on the cement they were standing upon.

"This must be it." she remarked.

"I don't see anything even closely resembling an entrance." Todd remarked.

"That means either two things." Crimson remarked. "That Darkwarrior was lying, or it's well-hidden, like he said." she bent down and examined the cement they were standing upon. She soon found a small lip to it, forming a square. Straightening, she pulled out a crowbar. "This looks promising, though."

With Todd's help, they bent down and slipping the crowbar into the lip and pulling. Eventually, they were able to lift the slab of concrete up, and to move the heavy slab to one side. Underneath it was a small hatch with a simple electronic lock. The SHUSH logo was labeled neatly on it. Both Crimson and Todd looked at it for a few moments, then at each other.

"Well, thus far Darkwarrior's word has been proven true." Todd commented.

"Yes, but this is trivial to what's coming up next." Crimson remarked, and pointed at the lock. "Another thing I need you here, for, Agent Todd. You're security code. Mine won't work, according to Darkwarrior."

Todd bent over to type in the code into the electronic lock. "How do we know that Negaduck hasn't changed the access codes?" he asked as he did this.

"We don't." Crimson agreed. "We only have Darkwarrior's word on this matter. According to him, though, Negaduck can't know about these maintenance codes because they were not a part of the original design. SHUSH secretly installed them after they obtained possession of the Elementary Underground. The whole project was kept top secret, and the entrances to these shafts kept secret. The documents are kept under lock and key, and under the strictest of security passwords that only high ranking officials know."

"I know all of this." Todd remarked, pausing to look up at her. "But Negaduck controls SHUSH at the moment."

"Darkwarrior admits that, but states that he can't know the shafts are there. They were purposely built so that they would appear hidden to an outsider, in the event that the Elementary Underground _was _taken over by an enemy force. The shafts could then be used to infiltrate the captured facility discreetly, should that ever be needed. Guess we get to find out if the design works. If so, then Negaduck can't ask about what he doesn't know is even there, now can he?"

"Still a real gamble."

"Exactly why I want to try this now when the conditions are in our favor and not later."

By this point, Todd had entered in his security code. The lock accepted it, and popped open with a snap. Todd unlatched the hatch and swung it open to reveal a narrow tunnel that dropped straight down, and ladder running down one side of it. It was like many other entrances into the facility, except this one was dimly lit and slightly more narrow. More exposed circuitry and equipment could also be seen.

"And Darkwarrior's word continues to hold out." Todd remarked.

"Yes, but this is the part that I'm most worried about." Crimson remarked, peering down the tunnel. "According to Darkwarrior, this tunnel should exit in a hallway just around the corner from the hallway that leads to the guarded entrance back there." she pointed back out at the manhole cover in the street. "We _should _be able to slip out without risk of being seen, but I don't trust Darkwarrior, so it would be best to play it safe."

Nodding, Todd started down the tunnel, Crimson following him. When Todd reached the bottom, he turned to the door and quickly punched in his security code. Like before, the lock snapped open without hesitation. Todd then carefully pushed the door open and peered around. Outside was a hallway, dimly lit, and empty. True to Darkwarrior's word, just a foot to the left the hallway joined with another, one end of which went back towards the guarded entrance. Nodding to Crimson, he slipped out first, and held the hatch open long enough for Crimson to climb out as well, then closed it.

When closed, the hatch blended in with the wall quite well, it's seams the only thing still visible, and were so faint that one would only notice them if one was looking for them. Crimson remembered seeing such seams all over the facility before, but hadn't taken any note of them, thinking that they were mere panels that covered circuitry just underneath. Impressed, Crimson carefully peered around the corner of the hallway to double check that the guarded entrance was as Darkwarrior claimed it would be. It was. A trio of magicked guards stood motionlessly beside the ladder that led up to the concealed entrance above.

Crimson couldn't help but grin and shake her head. "Well, I'll be, Darkwarrior has been telling the truth." she said.

"Thus far, but we don't know if everything else past this point has been true." Todd remarked. He paused to get his bearings, then pointed down the hallway they stood in, away from the corner they stood at. "The central control room is this way."

They started heading deeper into the facility. The further they went, the more it became clear that Darkwarrior had indeed been telling the truth. Elementary Underground was virtually abandoned and void of any life. Most of the facility was powered down and dark. Clearly, Negaduck didn't feel he had much need for it. Because of all of this, however, the two infiltrators were able to easily reach their destination.

Arriving in the dark central control room, Crimson flipped on a row of the room's lights, lighting a small portion of the abandoned room. Agent Todd quickly sat down at a computer and started booting it up.

"Shouldn't take too long, even if Negaduck has changed the passwords and locked me out of the database." he remarked as he worked.

"Which he probably has." Crimson remarked, standing nearby to stand guard. The room seemed too eerily quiet, but she was trying to shrug it off. "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

Todd was already hard at work by this point however. Quickly discovering that unlike the maintenance shaft doors, the network of computers had their codes changed and locked out any surviving SHUSH agents. Todd was quickly at work to hack around this, confident he could. _This _was what he was good at. The canine was in his element now.

"I'm almost in." he reported, as he got closer to accessing the needed files that again, true to Darkwarrior's word, were really there. "Just a few more minutes."

It was then that something clattered somewhere in the spacious room, making both of them freeze.

"D-d-did you hear that?" Todd asked after a moment, feeling a chill run down his spine.

Crimson suddenly sensed she was being watched, and spun around, gas gun drawn. As most of the room was still plunged in darkness, she had no way seeing what was there, but again, she sensed that something was out of place again, and not for the first time, wondered if she was being set up.

"Cr-Crimson, did you...?" Todd began to ask again, but Crimson stopped him.

"Hush." she said. "We're not alone."

She was right. Something was definitely moving towards them now. Something big. Crimson pointed her gas gun at the object, while Todd warily twisted around to look at it too, his eyes wide. A low rumble was suddenly became audible, which reminded Crimson of a car engine. With a start, she suddenly realized who it was even before the figure rolled into the light.

"Gizmoduck!" Todd exclaimed in surprise.

Sure enough, there stood the armor-suited duck, rolling towards them slowly on his one tire for a moment before suddenly stopping. He did not speak, or do much to move. He looked fine, just as he did when they both had last seen him. But Crimson saw that if Gizmoduck was his proper self, he would've said something by now.

"Giz," she began, stepping towards Gizmoduck, who turned his head to glance at her. "It's us. Crimson and Agent Todd, from SHUSH. You recognize us, right?"

Gizmoduck still did not respond. He then suddenly rolled towards them at a faster rate than before.

"Giz!" Crimson said again, trying to get the superhero's attention, but to little avail.

She backed away from him as he rolled closer. Todd jumped up from his chair, and looked ready to bolt in terror. Gizmoduck didn't even seem to notice, and merely continued forward. He raised his arms up as if to grab them. Crimson and Todd quickly twisted away from him, backing away from him and the computer, which was busy working on some task Todd had been in the middle of. Gizmoduck merely adjusted his position and turned to follow them.

"Gizmoduck, snap out of it!" Todd pressed.

"Todd, he's under the influence of Negarian's spell, it's the only explanation." Crimson told him. "You aren't going to get a response from him."

Gizmoduck then suddenly stopped, and pressed a button on his suit, deploying a series of weapons that he pointed at them, making the pair grow more nervous.

"That's a r-response." Todd pointed out in a squeaky, high-pitched, and frightened voice.

Crimson was looking for a way to defend herself and Todd, but not finding a means of doing it fast enough before Gizmoduck shot them both down, when the computer suddenly beeped nosily behind Gizmoduck. The superhero paused for a moment, then slowly turned his head to look back at the device. Jumping at the fact that his attention was broken, Crimson quickly fired a canister of smoke at his head, then grabbed Todd and ran for the control room's closest exit.

They had just barely managed to duck into it when Gizmoduck recovered from the attack and fired at them, the shots from his weapon ricocheting off the walls noisily, then his suit's engine was heard revving as he accelerated forward to chase after them.

"It _was _a trap!" Crimson yelled to herself as she ran haphazardly through the facility. "Otherwise Darkwarrior would've told us that Giz was guarding the central control room! Argh, the next time I see that duck, I swear that I will _strangle_ him!"

"That's all well and good, but how the heck are we going to get _out of here_?" Todd yelled in a panic as he ran alongside her, listening as Gizmoduck, being faster, rapidly gained on them.

Crimson thought about it for a few moments. "There's only _one _way out of here!" she said as she forced herself to run faster.

She led the way towards the closest exit to the surface, not caring if it was guarded or not. Reaching one, she saw that it was guarded, but she was ready for it. As soon as she and Todd rounded the corner, she fired off a canister of sleeping smoke into the group of guards stationed at the entrance just as they started to react. The gas reacted quickly, knocking them out like lights, then quickly dissipated again.

Without losing a single stride, Crimson surged into the area under the tunnel that led upward, and, switched attachments again, fired a grappling hook and rope up at the top of the tunnel. Grabbing Todd quickly around the middle, who quickly grabbed her in response, she thumbed the control to recoil the rope, and the pair started to rise off the floor and into the tunnel.

It was then that Gizmoduck rounded the corner himself, and quickly reacted by firing off his weapons. One fired off a stream of bullets that at his speeds and in his magicked state, wasn't aimed properly and were fired too high, going over the heads of his target. At least one bullet sliced through the rope that was pulling the two up, however, and with a crash, the two fell to the floor again. The other weapon Gizmoduck fired immediately after he fired the first, however, fired off a single, small, missile, that locked onto the target, Crimson and Todd, and shot for them, gradually going upward. When the bullets snapped the rope and caused the two targets to fall, the missile missed them, and hit the ceiling just before it gave way to the tunnel leading to the surface and exploded.

The explosion caused part of the corridor to collapse, and quickly the hallway was filled with dust, dirt, and smoke.

Crimson was the first to recover, and, coughing, picked herself up and looked around. Her and Agent Todd's fall from the grappling rope snapping had managed to carry them away from the blast, and out of the way of the cave-in, which had completely blocked off the hallway behind them, appearing to have sealed Gizmoduck on the other side. Crimson was thankful for that much, and the fact that she was unhurt, but then noticed that alarms had begun ringing nosily all throughout the facility, alerting everyone who didn't know already that trouble was afoot. Worse still the exit she had been shooting for was now partially blocked by the cave-in and had broken the ladder, and judging from the pounding footsteps that were coming towards them from the other end of the hallway, there wouldn't be time to clear it before they had more unwanted company.

"What are we going to do now?" Todd asked, coughing as he struggled to get up, also generally unhurt.

Crimson hauled him the rest of the way up to his feet. "For now, we run!" she told him, and quickly pushed him towards the nearby entrance into another tunnel to start running again, hoping another chance to escape would present itself soon.

* * *

"Report!" Negaduck barked as soon as the vehicle had ground to a stop at the gathering of militiamen, hopping out promptly, joined by NegaGosalyn, Negawing, and Negawing Rowe.

General Mallard turned away from the entrance to Elementary Underground he and his men had been gathered at, and turned slightly reluctantly to face his superior. "It's an intruder alert, Negs." he said. "It's all a jumbled mess as to who's responsible right now, but I figure there can't be many choices as to who."

"Yes, unfortunately." Negaduck said, pulling out his pistol and loading it. His accompaniment did likewise. "And somehow I think it's going to boil down to just about everybody on that list today."

"By of the sounds of it, that wouldn't surprise me." the general admitted. "We've already gotten reports of one of the tunnels caving in, a major one leading to the central control room."

"Fortunately, there's more than one way in there." NegaGosalyn remarked, switching on the laser sights on her P90.

"Yes, but that's not the problem." General Mallard pressed. "We've got threats running around down there still, still available to cause harm, and we don't have enough staff down there to chase them down. And seeing what's down there, that's not a good thing."

"Hence why we're here." Negaduck said, heading for the entrance. "Now, I want every entrance and exit out of that place locked and sealed, with the exception of this one, which I want to be heavily guarded. I'm going down there to scope things out personally, and they're coming with to help." he motioned to NegaGosalyn, Negawing, and Negawing Rowe, which were all armed and ready for action. "General, you are to contact Negarian and have him get Techno into the computer network and have him lock out the computers in the Elementary Underground and block off all the sensitive data from being accessed by a hacker. If he refuses, use force, but _don't _use Negarian's mind control spell on him unless I _verbally _say otherwise. Got it, general?"

"Perfectly." General Mallard replied without hesitation, who knew he wasn't high on Negaduck's list of favorites at the moment. He then went to carry out the orders.

Negaduck and his party gathered around the entrance, preparing to rappel down into the subterranean facility.

"Negawing." Negaduck said as he helped drop ropes down the tunnel.

"Yo." Negawing replied cooly, hefting a large tommy gun around.

"You and Rowe are with me. We're going to the central control room to secure it."

"Got it."

"Gos, you help the others look for the intruders. You know what to do if you find them."

"That I do." NegaGosalyn replied.

"Right then, mates, let's go cause a rumpus!" Negawing Rowe remarked, ready to go.

And in twos, the group slid down the ropes into the facility, ready for action.

* * *

Deep inside the Elementary Underground facility, militiamen were running wildly back and forth through the tunnels, looking urgently for the intruders they knew had to be somewhere within the facility. Two ran down a bend in the corridor, rounded a corner, and on down the hallway. After they had left, a moment of silence fell in the corridor, then a maintenance shaft entrance carefully slid open, and Agent Todd and Crimson peered out.

"Well, these maintenance shafts are proving useful." Todd commented, relieved that the coast was clear.

"Yeah, I just wish we can get out of them." Crimson remarked, peering up the shaft in annoyance at it's closed entrance before climbing out.

"I don't know what's wrong." Todd said, following, and closing the hatch behind them. "I can get the hatch leading into the shaft to open just fine, enable us to get into them, but I can't get the hatches leading to the surface to unlock at all. It won't accept my code anymore. It might be because of the alert status the facility is on, or Negaduck has remotely commanded the hatches to all seal, and the maintenance hatches were included in the program by default. I don't really know, I don't know much about these maintenance shafts, as I had no participation in their construction or maintenance."

"Well, there's still more than one way out of here." Crimson remarked as she looked around cautiously, then carefully started forward again. "And we're going to find it, and exploit it."

"In that case, I suggest we use one of the main entrances, as that can be forced open whether it's sealed shut or not, whereas that would be more difficult to do that with one of the maintenance shaft entrances." Todd suggested, following.

"Agreed." Crimson said.

"There's also something else." Todd said, who had been thinking about something. "There's still a chance we can get that information we need."

Crimson paused and turned to look at him. "How?" she demanded.

"I just need to get back in that central control room for a few minutes on my own." Todd said. "I'm confident that I can still hack in and download the files. I know of another way to get into that room that I can use to get there from here."

Crimson hesitated. "Todd, that's risky, I can't make you do that." she said.

"You're not, I want to do this, because we need that information." Todd said. "You know it too, and don't try to deny it, Crimson. You know what getting that information could mean, and how it can help us. I _know _you're tempted to go back and get it."

Crimson didn't deny it, because she knew he was right. "All right." she agreed. "We'll both go back and..."

"No, no, that'll take too long, you keep looking for a way to get out of here, preferably a means as close to the mansion as possible." Todd said. "I'll go on my own and get the information."

"Todd, it's too dangerous, I can't let you go alone, not with this place swarming with guards now!"

"It's okay, look!" he held up a stun gun, like the ones Negaduck's army was typically equipped with. "I can use this. I got it off of one of the guards we knocked out earlier. And I know how to use it."

"Todd, I still can't let you do it, you...you...you aren't experienced enough, you said so yourself!"

"But I can do this! All you have to do is let me!"

"We're not taking any unnecessary risks here!"

"It was a risk to come out here in the first place, and you seemed okay with it then!"

"Our lives weren't at stake then!"

"They were _always _at stake!"

"I can't afford to loose anymore of you!" Crimson finally snapped. "Especially you, Agent Todd. Not with your skills."

They were silent for a moment.

"Is this really about you needing my skills, though?" Todd asked finally, beginning to see where this was going. "Or that you just can't handle losing more of your friends to Negaduck's army?"

Crimson fell silent, and didn't respond.

"Crimson, I know the risks." Todd said. "I can handle them. I mean, if you can, I can. But it's not really fair if you're the only one who's going to take them. Or very productive. Crimson, we want to help fight too, but you have to let us. We're no good to you if you don't let us take the chance. Now I know you don't want to see more people hurt and pressed into Negaduck's army, but that's a risk you simply can't avoid anymore. And trying to protect us from that won't help us win."

Crimson was silent for a long moment. "How much time will you need?" she finally asked.

Todd managed a grin. "Twenty minutes tops, but I think I can do it in far less if I can get back at the computer I was hacking into earlier."

"Good." Crimson said. "I'll go look for a way out in the meantime, and come back to get you."

"Okay, I'll be waiting, hopefully with that information in hand." Todd said, and hurried in the opposite direction for the control room.

Crimson started off in the other direction, but then hesitated. "Todd?" she called after the agent.

The canine paused and looked back at her.

"Stay safe." she prompted.

Todd nodded. "You too."

* * *

It wasn't hard for Agent Todd to backtrack back to the central control room. The forces down in the facility were stretched so thin that it wasn't hard for him to circumvent them entirely, so that they never noticed him. His only concern was that he might run into Gizmoduck again, but thankfully, the metal-suited duck was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone somewhere else to help search, and didn't fall back to the control room like Todd had expected.

Either way, it was a plus for Todd, one he wasn't going to complain to, and so when he arrived at the control room and found it still completely empty, looking almost exactly as he and Crimson had left it when they fled from Gizmoduck earlier, he hurried right on over to the computer he had been using, still online and operational, left at exactly the last spot he had it at. Grinning happily, he picked up from that spot, and continued hacking his way into the system, seeing little that could stand in his way now. And sure enough, he soon enough had gained full access to the computer system and the files it contained.

He was just about to let out a cheer, when he heard footsteps coming towards the room. Startled, he looked back at the doorway in question, felt his courage fail him, and realizing that a direct, frontal, approach would probably be unwise anyway, sought a place to hide. Seeing a table, he quickly ducked under it, virtually invisible in the dimly lit room, and pulled out the stun gun he had captured. He then waited for the person to appear, thinking it was going to be a guard. But he was surprised at who it really was.

It was Darkwarrior.

Todd was so surprised to see the supervillain here that all he could do was sit there and watch as the duck quickly and stealthily made his way across the room, unaware of Todd's presence, and stopped at the computer console Todd had been using, apparently ignoring the fact that the system was already accessed, or just not finding it odd. He quickly got to work accessing the files _he_ wanted to access, while Todd watched from his hiding spot, wondering where this was going to go next.

* * *

As for Crimson, she had fairly good progress herself, carefully and stealthily moving her way through the subterranean facility, searching for the closest exit to the surface she could manage that was near the mansion. She encountered few people, most of which she was able to quickly hide from, but two or three she had to engage in quick combat. Thankfully, most of them were militiamen that weren't ready for Crimson's sudden appearance, and were easy to subdue.

As for her goal, that was going along fairly well. Her first choice was the entrance closest to the mansion, the very same one she and Agent Todd had used to pinpoint the location of the maintenance shaft that they had entered through, however, she had discovered that entrance to be heavily guarded. Crimson guessed that Negaduck had predicted who had infiltrated the facility and had ordered that steps be taken to slow them down.

He was right to do so, and his plan was good, but he couldn't guard every entrance, and there were weren't enough of his men down here anyway. Eventually, Crimson found an entrance she could take easily enough, as it was poorly guarded, and still close to the mansion. Gaging up the guards, she readied a canister of sleeping gas from around the hallway corner and fired it off in their direction. The guards barely had enough time to react before they were all unconscious.

Grinning with satisfaction, Crimson hurried up to the entrance's tunnel, and looked up it. As predicted, the hatch leading out of the Elementary Underground was sealed and locked tight. But as Agent Todd had said, it would be easier to force it open than the maintenance tunnel hatches. And Crimson had her gas gun that she could use, which she already had a few ideas about how she could use it to force the hatch open.

Switching attachments, she fired a grappling hook and rope up to the top of the tunnel, and started to use it to carry her up the top. She had barely started before a bang suddenly rang out from behind her and the rope holding her up snapped, letting her to the floor with a crash and a curse.

"Dang it!" Crimson exclaimed in frustration, quickly picking herself up and switching attachments again to deal with the attacker. "What is the deal with people breaking my grappling ropes today?"

Ready now, she spun around to face her attacker, who was ready as well.

"Gee, I dunno." NegaGosalyn replied, melodramatically acting like she was giving the matter some thought while keeping her P90 trained on her double. "Bad luck I guess?"

* * *

Darkwarrior was still working at the computer, a grin slowly starting to spread across his face the longer he worked. From his hiding spot, Agent Todd watched, debating whether or not he wanted to stop Darkwarrior now, or wait, and see how this played out. It couldn't have been a coincidence that Darkwarrior was here too, at this time. He was up to something, and seeing it's Darkwarrior, it probably wasn't anything that was very good.

Finally, Todd's moment of indecision went on for too long, and Darkwarrior finally succeeded at what he was doing. He announced it by suddenly cheering aloud, a message of some sort appearing on the screen.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "After many months of long hoping and planning, I have finally succeeded in getting rid of the one stumbling block that stood in my way!"

"Congratulations Darkwarrior, I'm sure you worked very hard to achieve that."

Darkwarrior spun around to face the speaker of the voice, looking surprised. From his hiding spot, still unseen, Todd turned to look as well. There, standing in the doorway, having arrived discreetly with no one noticing, was Negaduck, accompanied by Negawing and his otter aide. Negaduck wore a mischievous grin.

"Negaduck." Darkwarrior mumbled, his face falling momentarily. It quickly turned into a glare. "Negaduck!"

He grabbed for his weapon. Negaduck grabbed for his, and Negawing and Negawing Rowe already had their's out and quickly raised them.

"Ah-ah-ah!" Negawing said warningly, pointing his tommy gun at Darkwarrior's head. "Don't try it!"

Darkwarrior hesitated, glaring at the fact that he was outnumbered, and lowered his weapon.

"Did you really think you were going to get away with it, Darkwarrior?" Negaduck asked, stepping closer to his foe. "I mean, I don't know the details of what you've been planning, but I have a pretty good idea." he leaned over to glance at the computer screen. Darkwarrior's eyes followed him. Negaduck grinned as he read the message. "Yep. You disabled the computer virus SHUSH has been using to keep you from using your robots in this universe. I suppose your plan once doing that was to use the forces of you and your technology to overthrow me, and then create your imperialistic, crime-free, empire."

"It's the only way to have peace in the world." Darkwarrior said with confidence.

Negaduck shrugged. "Being the bad guy, I'm indifferent about the matter." he waved his hand in the air dismissively. "But we're getting off topic, aren't we?"

"Oh really? And what was the topic?"

"What I'm going to do about you _now_. Obviously, I can't just throw you back in jail, you've proven yourself too dangerous for that. Besides..." Negaduck raised his pistol to point at his foe, "...I was never one for leaving loose ends."

Darkwarrior didn't waver in the slightest. "You really think your pistol can pierce my armor?" he challenged.

"One way to find out." Negaduck replied.

He fired twice, and both bullets pierced the breastplate of spiked armor Darkwarrior over his body. Blood began to pour freely from both wounds. Stunned, Darkwarrior glanced down at the wounds, then back up at Negaduck to gape at him before his knees buckled suddenly and the villain stumbled to the floor.

Negaduck was still smirking. "Obviously, you haven't done your homework, Darkwarrior, otherwise you would've known that SHUSH keeps a large supply of diamond-tipped bullets lying around for use." he said, as he bent down to say this at Darkwarrior's ear. "Usually, they use it on someone like Nanite. The bullets are the only thing that can pierce his armor. So I figured, if they can pierce _that _guy's armor, yours wouldn't stand a chance against these specialized bullets."

Darkwarrior couldn't do anything but struggle to look up at Negaduck and gape at him. He had been hurt badly. As usual, this didn't faze Negaduck in the slightest. Standing back up, he holstered his pistol, and turned to leave, motioning to Negawing to follow him.

"Well, I think I'm done here." he remarked as he did this. He motioned to Negawing Rowe. "Rowe, you stay here and stand guard. Make sure Darkwarrior's death continues slowly and painfully as it already is."

Negawing Rowe grinned wickedly as he took up his post. "Aye." he agreed.

"Negawing, come with me, and let's see if we can set things straight in this place." Negaduck continued as he exited. "Maybe Gos has found the other intruders that I'm sure are here, too. And where the devil is Gizmoduck? He's supposed to be guarding this room!"

Darkwarrior could do nothing but lie there, calmly closing his eyes as he regrettably accepted his fate.

* * *

Agent Todd, however, wasn't going to accept staying under a table for the rest of his life as _his _fate.

Besides, he could see that Darkwarrior was seriously hurt, and bad guy or not, he couldn't just let him die. Furthermore, he needed to finish getting that data, and probably warn Crimson that she was being hunted. Not that she didn't have a good idea that she was being hunted already, but he was confident she wouldn't mind a heads up. He hoped. Besides, he couldn't stay under this table forever even if he wanted to. Eventually, someone would find him here.

Long story short, Todd sought a way to escape. Wrenching his eyes away from Darkwarrior's fallen form, he turned his focus to Negawing Rowe. The otter hadn't seen him, and likely wouldn't from this angle, which gave Todd that advantage. When he went to attack the otter, as he knew he would have to, Rowe wouldn't be able to react right away. Todd eyed the many knives and daggers that wore, tucked into two belts that were looped around his upper body. He was fairly confident that Negawing Rowe would know how to use them, and thereby, close combat probably wouldn't be desired. If only he had a means of attacking the otter from afar...

He then slapped himself as he suddenly remembered that he had a stun gun in his hand. Lifting it up, he started to take aim. As part of his training to be a SHUSH agent, he had taken classes on how to hold a fire a gun, and while he got good enough to do it properly, his aim wasn't very precise. He hoped that given the nature of the gun, he wouldn't need to be that precise, though.

Feeling he had aimed enough, he squeezed the trigger on the gun. It fired much like a conventual weapon, drawing Negawing Rowe's attention instantly at it's loud bang, but the fired shot struck the otter before he could do anything, bowling him over, and knocking him out like a light. Grinning, Todd quickly scrambled out of his hiding spot and over to the fallen otter. Darkwarrior, who heard the shot as well, struggled to watch him, but eventually gave up, being too weak.

Todd bent over and looked Negawing Rowe over, searching quickly for anything that might be of use to him. It didn't take long to see that mostly all the otter had was blades...and lots of them. Finally, he found a radio clipped to the back of the otter's belt. He was just about to reach for it when the radio suddenly clicked on and began relaying a transmission...

* * *

"Guys, I have found yours truly's doppelganger wandering the hallways, and trying to escape." NegaGosalyn reported into her radio while she eyed said double closely, to make sure she didn't try anything. "We're in a corridor located not far from central control room. Any specific instructions to give? Over."

She lowered her radio and looked at Crimson, who was behaving herself and staying motionless. NegaGosalyn couldn't help but notice the glare her double was giving her, however.

"What?" she barked in annoyance.

"You know what." Crimson replied.

"Refresh my memory."

"I shouldn't have to. It's all in there already, I think. You just have to remember it."

"If you're talking about my premature death, no thanks to the likes of you, then I think I'll pass. I'm sure I have that memory repressed for a good reason."

"No doubt, but that wasn't what I meant. Your death if you remembered it would, yes, get you to change a few things about yourself. But there are other things that you haven't remembered that would do the _exact _same thing."

"Your point, _please_."

"That this isn't the kind of person you're supposed to be. And you know it, too."

NegaGosalyn glared at Crimson for a moment. "Ever so cryptic, Gosalyn." she stated finally. "Clearly, you have something you want to say, so just spill it, and get it off your chest!"

"I tried that already. You wouldn't listen."

"Well, that's _your _problem."

"Gos, this is your friendly neighborhood villain, Negawing." NegaGosalyn's radio suddenly crackled. "Negaduck says to congratulate you on catching your double. He'd like to run right over to see it for himself, but we just finished up a few matters in the central control room, and have gotten preoccupied with other matters not very near to your present location. He says to stun her now, and he'll be over here soon enough to deal with her properly. Understood?"

"Understood, over." NegaGosalyn said, and switched to a stun gun that was hanging from the holster one of her Uzis would normally sit. She pointed it at her double. "Any last words?"

"Only that I know I have little to worry about from you." Crimson remarked, completely unfazed. "You won't fire."

"And what makes you so sure of that?" NegaGosalyn asked hotly, but looking to be a little curious at the same time.

"Because you've had plenty of chances to shoot me like this before in the past, all defenseless and incapable of running or doing anything." Crimson said. "Chances to even shoot me at point-blank and kill me, settle the matter once and for all. But, for reasons only _you _know, you didn't. You couldn't." she grinned, and added slightly contemptuously, "Don't you remember?"

NegaGosalyn hesitated, her expression changing to one that seemed both puzzled and confused. Her eyes were unfocused for a moment, as if she was seeing something in her mind at the moment. Crimson wondered if she was indeed remembering. If she was, though, NegaGosalyn apparently opted to try and ignore it, because she finally shook her head and raised her weapon, eyes narrowing.

And yet, she still did not fire.

Crimson was just beginning to wonder how long things would go on like this before something changed when a bang suddenly rang out from behind NegaGosalyn, and she suddenly went slack, eyes rolling up in their sockets. She then tipped over and fell to the ground, stunned, revealing Agent Todd standing at the end of the hallway behind her, lowering his stun gun.

"About _time _you got here!" Crimson snapped in her relief, heading towards the canine.

"Sorry, I came as quickly as I could when I overheard NegaCrimson's transmission." Todd stated.

"Could've gotten here faster. Besides, I don't know how much longer I could've held her off."

"I'm surprised you were at all." Todd admitted, looking at NegaGosalyn's limp form.

"Admittedly, so am I, but it's clear that I can get through to her, the _true _her, still." Crimson remarked, following Todd's gaze briefly before changing the subject. "Anyway, that's something to work on at a later date. We need to get out of here. You have the data?"

"Not as of yet." Todd admitted as he turned to head back for the control room.

"And why not?" Crimson barked as she followed him.

"There was a little incident in the control room that delayed me, but we can run back and get the information lickety-split. That's not all that we'll need to do there, however. And it involves Darkwarrior, just so you know."

"Oh great, more trouble." Crimson groaned aloud.

"It's not what you think. He's hurt. Bad. And villain or not, he needs help."

* * *

"Is there any particular reason this is taking so long?" Negarian asked aloud as he circled the computer station.

"None but the obvious." Techno grumbled as he reluctantly worked at the computer, working to lockdown Negaduck's files.

"Such as the fact that you are an unwilling captive and being forced to do this?" Negarian inquired innocently.

"There's that," Techno admitted, "and the fact that this isn't as easy as you seem to think it is."

"If your computers that you Normals use were really so impressive, this _would _be as easy as I think it should be." Negarian commented coldly, less than impressed with the technology. "Now, how much longer are you going to need?"

"Well, presuming you shut up and stay that way until I'm done, not long at all." Techno said bitterly.

Insulted, but keeping it to himself, Negarian fell silent, and continued circling the station like a vulture would circle it's prey. Techno ignored him, and focused at the task at hand. Finally, he had everything ready, except for one final code he had to type in and enter. Going to do so, he hesitated briefly.

"Sorry Gos, or whomever it is that's at the other end of this." he muttered to himself, before he continued.

* * *

"Okay, I'm in." Todd announced as he worked at the computer console back in the control room. He quickly pulled out a thumb drive and stuck into the proper slot. "Copying the data now."

"And hurry." Crimson said as she worked fruitlessly to try and stabilize Darkwarrior, for his wounds were indeed serious. The villain had nearly faded away once already, and now was struggling to stay conscious. "I don't think Darkwarrior can hang on much longer, if we really want to help him."

"It'll help us in the long run, you know it." Todd said, as he watched the files begin copying to the thumb drive.

"I know, but that doesn't mean that I still don't have a grudge against him." Crimson pressed, folding her arms.

Darkwarrior glanced up at her weakly. "The feeling's...mutual." he assured her slowly. "Even now."

"Still copying the data, about a third of the way through now." Todd reported. "Just hold on another few minutes."

It was then that everything started to go wrong. The relatively fast data transfer suddenly dropped down to a snail's pace, and suddenly files began vanishing from the screen, Todd's hacking in no longer being adequate enough to still access them.

"Oh no, no, no!" Todd said as he quickly worked to compensate.

"What now?" Crimson asked.

"Somebody's caught wise of what I'm doing!" Todd said. "They're blocking the files, locking them up in an even stricter security program than before, one that won't be easy to hack! I'm trying to stop it, but..." he suddenly cursed and slapped the keyboard before him with one fist. "It's interrupting the file transfer!"

And shortly thereafter, the files being copied to the thumb drive simply stopped, cutting the transfer of data short. A new program then started to kick in that would try and force the copied files back off the device, but Todd prevented that by wrenching the thumb drive out of the slot quickly, despite such an action probably further damaging the files it contained. He watched as the computers systems quickly locked him out completely, breathing heavily, then turned to Crimson and shook his head.

"This is all we're going to get." He said, holding up the thumb drive.

"It'll have to be good enough, now let's get the heck out of here!" Crimson said working to lift Darkwarrior up onto his feet, despite painful grimaces from the villain himself.

Todd hurried over to help her, and then, carrying Darkwarrior between them, quickly exited the central control room and headed towards the tunnel Crimson had selected to be their escape route. As they went, they heard the pounding feet of militiamen storming the facility from all around.

"Sounds like Negaduck got some backup." Todd remarked as they hurried.

"Right, so hurry faster!" Crimson urged, not wanting to stick around here any longer.

"I _am _hurrying!"

Soon, they arrived at the tunnel in question, marked by the presence of NegaGosalyn, who was still lying on the floor, stunned. Stepping around her body, they stood under the access tunnel in question. Crimson peered up the shaft and noted with dismay that the hatch at the top was still closed and sealed shut. She had forgotten to clear the way earlier.

"Crap." she muttered, pulling out her gas gun and switching to the Teryx teleporter attachment.

A moment later, the hatch to the entrance in question vanished without a trace in a flash of light, clearing the way to the surface. This was quickly followed by another grappling hook and rope, the last Crimson's gas gun had to offer, which hooked itself neatly on the edge of the now open hatch and quickly began recoiling. With nothing to stop it this time, Crimson, Todd, and Darkwarrior were quickly carried up to the top, and with some leftover momentum, sprang right out of the entrance and onto the street, where they promptly started running.

What they had failed to anticipate was that there would be a party of General Mallard's men arriving to provide backup at the general's order at that same exact location, and were accompanied by Gizmoduck, who had, upon failing to find his prey inside Elementary Underground, had gone outside to search for it.

All of them couldn't help but see the trio making their getaway.

"Look! Over there!" one cried, quickly followed by more.

"The intruders!"

"Quick! Somebody grab them!"

"Don't let them get away!"

The group quickly rushed forward to try and catch up with their prey which was moving considerably slower than they should've. Many of them were trying to line up a shot with their stun guns. Pulling ahead of the group, however, was Gizmoduck, who was silently carrying out the task he had been assigned, which was to stop the intruders. He, too, worked to line up a shot, preparing to fire more of the same missiles he had fired earlier in the facility.

And all Crimson, Todd, and Darkwarrior could do was run, which due to Darkwarrior being injured and unable to support his own weight, was not fast enough.

Just when Crimson was starting to think that they couldn't possibly escape, a bright flash of light suddenly appeared behind her with a pop, and something landed behind them, running to keep up, and then grabbed all three of them around the middle as best as that one person could. Crimson and Todd recognized immediately who it was.

"Bob!" Crimson managed to have just enough time to exclaim before Bob took control of the situation as Gizmoduck lined up his shot and fired off two missiles.

"Ortus!" Bob exclaimed without hesitation once he had everyone within his touch.

There was another flash of light, and the group vanished with a pop, just in time for Gizmoduck's missiles to hit the ground where they had been standing.

* * *

Back at the mansion, safely inside the shield, the group reappeared at the porch as usual, although due to the effort and the distance Bob had to use his magic to cover, they appeared a little too high, and off the ground, and crashed to the porch in a tangle upon appearing. Despite this, and feeling tired and sore from his effort to get them there, Bob heaved himself right up and raced for the mansion's front door.

"Morgana!" he called as he did this. "You better get out here!"

"Get Dr. Merriweather out here, too, she can help!" Todd called after him, also heaving himself up.

But as Crimson rolled Darkwarrior over to check his condition, she saw that he couldn't have long left, and doubted there was little Christine or Morgana could do at this point. She bit her lip as she found herself feeling sorry for Darkwarrior regardless of who he was.

Darkwarrior was barely conscious. "Cri...Crimson..." he muttered weakly. "I...I...don't know how to say this, but..."

"If it's an apology, save it." Crimson snapped. Todd, who was standing at the door, waiting for the others to arrive, turned to look at her at this comment.

Darkwarrior managed a grin. "I was going to do nothing of the sort." he rasped. "But seeing that...this is the end...for me...I wish for a favor from you."

Crimson hesitated, glancing at Darkwarrior. "I'm listening." she finally said.

"Take me home. Please. Home to the Warriorverse. I've been away from it for so long now. No thanks to you, but that's beside the point. If I'm dead and gone, there's no reason for me to start here in this tumultuous universe of yours."

"And how do you expect us to do that?" Todd asked rather scornfully from the doorway. "We don't have access to a portal generator."

"Ah, so little you know." Darkwarrior said with another grin. He coughed suddenly, bringing up a little blood with it. He continued. "I have...a hideout in the woods still. Negaduck doesn't know of it...I checked when I escaped. It's safe, and the security was shut down when I last left it. A...portal generator resides there that you can use. It's already set to connect to the Warriorverse...automatically. All you have to do...is take me there. Dead or alive. I don't care. Just...I want to go home...even if it's only my body."

There was a moment of silence after that. Then Crimson nodded slowly.

"We can do that." she promised.

Darkwarrior grinned, laid back, and said no more.

He died a few moments later.

* * *

The aftermath of the incident at the Elementary Underground went on for some time as Negaduck ranted and raved and vented his anger at things not going his way yet again. Not only that, but he was left with a real mess to clean up in the underground facility that didn't help him anymore, and his prey had managed to slip through his fingers yet _again_. But he did take joy in the fact that Darkwarrior was no more, which Crimson and the others didn't bother to try and hide from the villain. So Negaduck could celebrate about that much, at least.

But it was awhile before it was really safe to leave the shield again, so everyone stayed put for the time being. Agent Todd got right to work to set up the Macawber's jury-rigged computer to read the information he managed to obtain on the thumb drive and began sorting through it as best as he could. He had been at it for quite awhile when Morgana stepped into the room to visit him.

"I suppose you're making progress with that, then?" she asked unenthusiastically as she entered to get a drink of water. Like most of them, they had been feeling rather depressed about Darkwarrior's death earlier.

Todd shared her attitude. "You could say that." he admitted, sighing and leaning back in his chair in resignation.

"That bad?" Morgana asked, sitting down at the table as well.

"Well, a third of Negaduck's files is still a third of Negaduck's files." Todd pointed out. "We still got a few things out of it that'll be helpful. Like lists of patrols that Crimson will probably find to be useful. Unfortunately, due to my severing the thumb drive's connection like I did to avoid the system from messing with it when I was locked out, the action corrupted a fair share of the files at random. I can't even access some of them." he sighed again. "And unfortunately, I can tell that some of them contained vital information." he looked depressingly at the screen for a long moment.

Morgana forced a grin and patted him on the arm. "You tried your best, and that's what counts." she assured him.

"Mm." Todd said, scrolling through the information again. "I did find out one thing that might be really helpful for you magic folk." he said, brightening a little. He stopped at one part in the information. "Here, Negaduck makes notes about the various spells he knows Negarian to be using. Some kind of research I think, to double check that everything was as he wanted. Some interesting info to be found here, but _this _part is probably the most interesting."

He pointed at a line of text. Morgana leaned forward to read it. Her eyebrows went up in interest.

"A description of the mind control spell Negarian has been using." she commented, intrigued. "Oh, that will be very helpful."

"Figured you'd say something like that." Todd commented.

"In fact, I recognize this spell." Morgana went on, reading the description further. "It's dark magic, as I suspected, but actually is more...generic, than you'd think. The upside to this is that I know of a potion we can use as countercurse against it that Bob and I can make. We won't be able to make large amounts of it, so it can use it on everybody in the city, but we can use it on a select few people and free them from Negarian's magical influences."

Todd thought about that for a moment. "Like, for example, Gizmoduck?" he asked, thinking of their encounter with him earlier.

"Or Darkwing." Morgana offered, then sighed. "Wherever he is."

"Unfortunately, that information isn't here." Todd said sadly, tapping at the thumb drive. "And seeing that it's not going to be so easy to get access to that information again, we're going to have to figure out his location some other way."

"Nothing is ever easy." Morgana agreed. But she grinned. "At least we can look at this and say that we got something good out of this, something that'll definitely help us in the long run."

"That we did." Todd agreed, allowing himself his own grin.

* * *

In the Canard Woods however, at Darkwarrior's secret hideout, a small building that didn't contain much, things were less than optimistic.

Activating the Darkwarrior-style portal generator that was located in the building with a flash of light, Crimson, Christine, and Bob stared at the active portal for a moment. Then, Crimson, who stood at the generator's controls, turned to Christine, and nodded. Christine nodded back, and carefully began wheeling a cart Bob had magically conjured towards the portal. Resting on top of it, covered with a cloth, was Darkwarrior's body. Taking it to the portal, Christine began pushing the cart through the portal for it to head to the Warriorverse.

Crimson and Bob watched this go on for a moment, then Bob stepped towards Crimson, who didn't fully understand the situation.

"Crimson, you didn't like Darkwarrior, did you?" he asked.

Crimson thought about it, then shrugged. "Not really." she admitted. "He was really a constant reminder of a really bad nightmare to be honest."

"Then...why are you going out of your way to carry out any sorts of favors for him?"

Crimson looked at the portal as the last of the cart and the body upon it vanished into the portal. "Because, Bob, it was the warrior's dying wish, and he was a man that in the end, you couldn't deny that he meant well. He wanted peace and a crime-free world, he just went about it the wrong way. And anyway, regardless of who he was in this life, he deserves at least this much."

* * *

In the Warriorverse, the cart with Darkwarrior's body slid out of the portal on the other side, rolling freely a few feet away from the portal generator that sat deep within Darkwarrior's hideout in his St. Canard. There was a moment of silence, then the portal shut off suddenly with a whoosh of air, rushing in to fill the space it had filled. Another long moment of silence fell.

Then, a sensor in the room that had been tripped, started to flash a little red light...

* * *

_Fun Facts: This is the first chapter Darkwarrior has appeared in since chpt. 58, "A Change of Heart", but he was referred to by name in chpt. 62, "Vengeance."_

_Despite what spell check might tell you, "magicked" IS a word. I looked it up. :P_

_The running gag where Crimson's grappling hook and ropes keep snapping and breaking just kind of happened...no plan to that at all, except for the third incident where it happens and Crimson grumbles about her luck about the matter. :)_

_Negaduck's building something up that top floor of Canard Tower...wonder what it is. ;)_

_I had planned to do more with that old computer Bob digs up for Todd's use originally, but I got better ideas while writing and went with that instead._

_Viewport 3.1, by the way, is the DW equivalent of ol' Windows 3.1. A Maximilian computer, I believe I have said before, is the DW equivalent of a Mac._

_The scene where Christine and Morgana talk on the back porch while someone (in this case, Charlie) throws things at the shield surrounding the house, is based off a scene I wrote for a work of fiction that was all my creation. It's...in the middle of being rewritten, and I dunno if it'll keep that scene because of that, though, so I figured it'd be okay to mimick it here. Besides, it's MY work, right? I can copy it as much as I want. :P_

_Speaking of which, Christine and Morgana were supposed to talk about their relationships with DW in that conversation, but I later decided against it for space reasons, and the fear of a poor transition between subjects._

_And now we know where Giz is at. Actually, he WAS originally just going to be part of the patrols that wandered around above ground (and thus the encounter with him would've occurred there) but I later decided that as Giz still has a fully operational Gizmosuit in his possession, seemed fitting to give him a more specialized chore than that._

_Having Giz going about and carrying out his orders without saying anything I thought was kind of spooky. I mean, it's Giz. He doesn't do ANYTHING without given a big long rant about it in the process. :P_

_Negawing and Negawing Rowe appeared in this chapter so I could have some lines from them, and maybe some brief characterizing lines from NW Rowe, but it ended up not happening, as I had bigger fish to fry, writing wise._

_I DID get some characterization in for Crimson and Todd, particularly Todd, and I'm happy for that. :)_

_Despite dying good and then coming back from the dead evil, it seems NegaGos still can't bring herself to shoot her double, a problem that helped led to her switching sides...perhaps there's hope for her still? ;)_

_Just so we're clear, Crimson and Todd had been overdue to return to the mansion, so that's why Bob appeared without warning. He had gone out looking for them, saw the situation they were in, and quickly acted. Didn't verbally include this in the chapter itself because the matter still stands well on it's own. And I've learned that you guys don't always care about little things like that anyway. :)_

_My goal about Darkwarrior's death was to be semisweet, as in I wanted his death to feel relevant and slightly saddening, but not totally depressing and morbid (he IS a villain, after all). Me thinks I succeeded, but of course, you readers will get the final say in that._

_And hey, they did get something good out of all of this...some rather useful information that'll help in the future. :)_

_And the ending...gee, I just love cliffhangers, don't you? ;)_

_On a side note, I'd like to announce the NADWD Status Box that is now featured on my profile. Seeing that updates for NADWD have gotten quite sporadic, I have come up with this little section on my profile for YOU guys to monitor, and get a good idea as to when to start expecting a new chapter. Basically, all it does is state what the latest posted chapter is, then announces the next and provides an approximation as to how close it is to completion. I tested it out with this chapter (how many of you even noticed it was even there? ;)) and it worked out pretty good, and I was able to keep it up to date well. :) So yeah, there's that._

_Also, while nothing's official yet, I feel I should give you guys heads up that I might (strong emphasis on that might) strive to write a brief DW-related oneshot fanfic for Christmas here in the near future. It all boils down to whether or not I can find the time. But yeah, keep an eye out for that. ;)_

_And finally, announcing the next upcoming chapter, chpt. 78, "Neutral Opinions." I've alluded to this one to a few select people already. ;)  
_


	78. Neutral Opinions

Summary: With Negaduck in control of St. Canard, and Crimson and the others standing in his way, it seems clear where the lines dividing sides lie. But when a threat arises that they remember only too well, the lines will blur slightly in the ensuing fight...and one might not come back.

Rating: T

Author's Note: Egad! I actually posted something! All hail me for finally getting something for this fanfic posted again! :P Sorry for the two month long delay, but I have a very good reason why, which I'll explain later. Dramatic chapter today, with lots of important things happening. Fun facts included as usual at the end, and I'm going to use that to tell some very important things, so be sure to read them.

78.

Neutral Opinions

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

"_Attention citizens of this fine country. For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under __**my**__ control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet! Go ahead and try and stop me, but you should know that I've already dealt with most of my __**real **__enemies. You couldn't stop me even if you could. So, to summarize, if you don't know me, __**get**__ to know me. For I am the terror that hunts in the night. I am the conspirator that destroys your government. I'm Negaduck. And soon I'll be in control. Ha-ha-ha-ha!"_

_--  
_

"_Negawing, how's things going at Canard Tower?"_

"_Remarkably well, your lordship. Already got things cleared out of that top floor, and working at...um...widening it, like you requested. Should have the larger part of the chore done by the end of the day! A little tidying up after that, and you're ready to rock and roll, Negs!"_

_--  
_

"_Miraculously, I managed to escape. Evaded the army for what seemed like ages while I watched what remained of the city fall into Negaduck's hands and...I laid low for awhile, then sought shelter. The borders of the city was guarded by that point, so I couldn't go that way. Eventually, I came to Morgana's mansion, and found her and Bob here. We jointly worked to make this place safe, and then sat down and...and sought ways to fight back. Haven't been able to do much...other than snoop around, and cause the occasional grief for Negaduck, most of which I've been doing on my own. But...it's something. And...and that's it. That's all there is to it."_

_--  
_

"_You do realize that she's not going to let you capture her, right? Crimson is bound and determined to stop you. At any cost."_

"_So am I. And sooner or later, she's going to mess up. And when she does, I'll be ready. I will have her, Techno."_

"_And Crimson, of course, is thinking the same thing. Only time will tell who will be the victor."_

_--  
_

"_But what can we possibly do from here?"_

"_Simple. We fight back. We defeat Negaduck. We restore things back to the way they were. Any way possible."_

_--  
_

"_I did find out one thing that might be really helpful for you magic folk. Here, Negaduck makes notes about the various spells he knows Negarian to be using. Some kind of research I think, to double check that everything was as he wanted. Some interesting info to be found here, but this part is probably the most interesting."_

"_A description of the mind control spell Negarian has been using. Oh, that will be very helpful."_

_--  
_

"_It's dark magic, as I suspected, but actually is more...generic, than you'd think. The upside to this is that I know of a potion we can use as countercurse against it that Bob and I can make. We won't be able to make large amounts of it, so it can't be used on everybody in the city, but we can use it on a select few people and free them from Negarian's magical influences."_

_--  
_

"_But then who is it? Surely not someone like Negaduck. White's not his color. Too good looking."_

"_And it can't be Darkwarrior, because he's in jail. Which only means one thing."_

"_We have yet another Darkwing double on the loose."_

_--  
_

"_Who are you?"_

"_I'm Neutraduck."_

_---  
_

"_Well, the Neutraverse stands out from the others, because it is the only universe that has been encountered that has a perfect balance of negatrons and positrons. Exactly fifty-fifty percent of each. And because there's such a equal amount, they ultimately cancel each other out."_

"_So you're saying you're neither good nor evil."_

"_Essentially, yes. And it's become my job to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong in the multiverse."_

_--  
_

"_But after observing both of your universes for about a month now, I've come to see that if your two universes are allowed to continue to interfere with each other, you'll eventually destroy not only each other, but draw other universes into your little war. You're a risk to the multiverse, and your universes cannot be allowed to continue to exist."_

_--  
_

"_What I've done here is lace both Negaduck and Darkwing with a special kind of energy that will draw them together. The forcefield is blocking the effects at the moment, but you get the idea. As they come together, so will their separate universes, since one hails from the Negaverse, and the other the Posiverse."_

"_Why are you telling us this?"_

"_Because you can fight it all you want. There's nothing you can do to stop this now."_

_--  
_

"_Besides, you're wrong about our universes. We'll fight and bicker, but all-out war isn't going to erupt between us. We wouldn't let it."_

"_Would you?"_

_--  
_

"_This isn't the end of it, you know. You got lucky and scored a victory today. But next time...next time you won't be so lucky."_

_--  
_

"_At least we stopped Neutraduck. In the long run, that's probably even better. I mean, he was out to cancel out our two universes."_

"_Maybe so. But you heard him. He intends on coming back. The question is...when?"

* * *

_

"What do you mean, they're behind schedule?"

Negawing frowned at Negaduck's outburst, but continued unfazed. "I mean just that, Negs." he stated. "Your friends in the Negaverse aren't going to meet the established deadline and deliver the package on time. They say that they could be as much as a day late."

Negaduck let out a growl and turned angrily away from Negawing to face the device that was under construction in the top-most floor of Canard Tower. "Brilliant." he remarked. "It's bad enough that I've got enemies hiding out there in that city plotting to take me down and having already been delayed by Darkwarrior's little escapade a few days ago. I don't really need _this _on top of things! Next chance I get, I'm going to _strangle _those dunderheads."

"Mm, maybe so." Negawing said thoughtfully, leaning on his walking stick casually. "But I would recommend restraint, regardless. I know from experience that good help is hard to find."

"Now isn't _that _the truth." Negaduck agreed, rolling his eyes.

"I don't think one day is going to hurt anyone's plans that much, though." NegaGosalyn remarked casually, sitting near a window. "Besides, I'm not surprised for the delay. The report said that they merely encountered technical difficulties that, thankfully, they managed to resolve already, and are just now working at trying to catch up. We figured this might happen, and seeing that our friends in the Negaverse are the ones trying to put this object together, something that even the Posiverse can't do that easily even with their more superior technology, we should really be thankful that it wasn't worse."

Negaduck sighed, forcing his temper to calm down. "You're right." he admitted. "Of course. It's just...frustrating that I have to wait on a couple of knobs to sort this out."

"Well, you could pass the time doing something else." Negawing suggested, trying to be helpful. "I, personally, happen to be quite fond of playing checkers at times like this."

Negaduck gave him a look. "Checkers?"

"Yeah. You wanna play?"

"No."

"Didn't think so. I'd probably whip your butt good at it anyway. My point is that you should find something _else _to do besides just gripe."

Negaduck thought about it for a moment. "How about I try and find a way to whip those knobs that are plotting to overthrow me?" he suggested to himself aloud a little harshly, before marching out of the room.

Negawing shrugged, not turning to watch Negaduck leave. "There's that, too." he admitted. "Save some whipping for me, please."

NegaGosalyn followed Negaduck out and hurried to catch up with him. "Dad, may I have a word with you?" she asked once she had.

"What?" Negaduck asked bluntly as they marched downstairs to the next floor down.

"Well...I've been thinking lately." NegaGosalyn admitted hesitantly, knowing this request could backfire on her. "About life...before I died. I...know that you've helped fill in a lot of the blanks for me already by verbally explaining what happened...for which I'm thankful for...but...I realized that there's still a lot about my...death...that you've left blank."

Negaduck gave her a look for a moment, and snorted, shaking his head. "It's always something, isn't it?" he asked aloud as they arrived at the bottom of the staircase and exited out onto the next floor down. "Why the fascination with your own death, Gos? Seems to me that would be something you wouldn't _want _to remember."

"And at first, I didn't." NegaGosalyn agreed, motioning to Negaduck to stop for a moment. "But...I don't know. Maybe I've been thinking too much into it, but...I have to wonder if there's something about it that you're hiding from me."

Negaduck gazed at her for a long moment, folding his arms. "Crimson was talking to you about this during your last encounter with her, wasn't she?" he asked.

NegaGosalyn hesitated, then nodded, as if ashamed.

"Gos, I told you, it's because of them that you died in the first place, that's all you need to know about _that_. Crimson only says otherwise, because she's trying to take advantage of your foggy memory, can't you see that?"

"But Crimson is suppositively the hero." NegaGosalyn pointed out. "Wouldn't it be against her nature to do something like that?"

"Sometimes even the hero will swoop down low to accomplish something." Negaduck remarked. "Lying is just one of many."

"Then you begin to wonder what's exactly the truth and what's exactly a lie." NegaGosalyn reasoned.

"Exactly." Negaduck said with a grin. "The solution is easy. Just don't trust them at all."

"I never said that I _did _trust them." NegaGosalyn said as they continued forward again. "But I will say this much about Crimson. She's more willing to talk about my past than you are."

"Those hero types are like that, always stuck in the past." Negaduck said dismissively, shrugging off the matter without a second thought. "Me, I like to keep moving forward, and think only about the present matters at hand, and what the future might bring. Darkness, hopefully." he grinned. "I like that." he chose then to change the subject. "Now, there's something I want to ask _you_. Have you, or have you not, done the..."

He trailed off suddenly, some sixth sense suddenly kicking in as he suddenly felt like he was being watched. NegaGosalyn sensed it as well, and went silent, wondering where it was coming from. The two looked at each other for a moment, then turned to look out the bank of windows that ran along the hallway they were in. Outside, they spied a small, ball-like object zooming towards the floor they were on, flying under it's own power. They quickly realized it was a probe, for the white with black trimmings object had a camera extended from a slot on it. They had just barely enough time to register this before the probe, getting so close that it was just outside the windows, extended what was clearly a weapon and pointed it at Negaduck.

"Look out!" NegaGosalyn yelled, pushing herself into Negaduck and knocking him down to the floor.

And not a moment too soon, for as she did this, a stream of laser fire burst forth from the robot, bursting through the windows and impacting the hallway's walls and floor, the hot bolts just barely missing Negaduck and NegaGosalyn. Once they had hit the floor and successfully avoided the initial attack, the two quickly pulled out their respective weapons and began firing upon the little robot. Their shots didn't seem to damage it much, but the robot was still overwhelmed by the counterattack, and having lost the element of surprise anyway, it turned and fled after a moment of hesitation.

Both breathing heavily, Negaduck and NegaGosalyn lowered their weapons, and watched the device flee for a moment in silence.

"You all right?" Negaduck asked, without glancing at her.

"Yeah." NegaGosalyn replied in the same manner. "You?"

"Yeah."

NegaGosalyn shook her head, then glanced at Negaduck. "What _was _that thing? Have you ever seen something like that?"

Negaduck didn't reply right away. His face was currently expressionless, but there was a glint in his eye that was seldom seen with him. Fear.

"I might." he finally said, hurrying forward with a sense of urgency. "Let's hope I'm wrong, though."

* * *

"Well, that's something." Techno remarked aloud to himself as he quietly worked.

"I-I suppose that means it is something important." Nanite Darkwing remarked from where he was bound to the wall to stand him up as he couldn't do it on his own in his current, damaged state.

Techno glanced up from the computer he was working on. "Well, actually, not really." he admitted. "As you know, in order for me to repair your control nanite, I have to figure out what makes the thing tick, and damaged as it is, that hasn't been easy at times." he rose from the chair, taking a handheld computer and a cord in his hand and walked towards the incapacitated robot before continuing. "What I figured out, actually, was the answer to a little conundrum I had about you and your nanotechnology."

"That would not-would not be the first time." Nanite Darkwing noted with a sigh as Techno hooked up the cord to the robotizied duck himself, then to the handheld computer. He was silent for a moment as Techno worked with the PDA for a few moments. "What was it that you discovered?"

Techno glanced up at him and half-grinned. As a result of him being more or less forced to repair Nanite Darkwing, and the fact that the two are always together in the same room when doing so and couldn't really ignore each other, they had actually begun conversing with each other, much like they were doing now. It wasn't really in a friendly manner, but it wasn't forced, either. Techno theorized that it may just be due to their natural wants to interact with another.

"How the control nanite gets the raw materials to build the individual worker nanites it produces." Techno replied bluntly, returning to what he was doing.

"Ah yes." Nanite Darkwing commented. "I suppose that w-w-would fascinate some-some one like you, wouldn't it?"

"Well, I already had a hunch." Techno admitted as he ran a few tests. "I figured that the already existing worker nanites could manually gather the raw materials when available around the subject's body. In this case, your body."

"Very true-true."

"But that didn't explain how the already existing nanites were made, for there would be no nanites before them to gather the supplies needed, at least not initially."

"But now you know."

"Yeah." Techno glanced upwards at Nanite Darkwing. "I didn't think you actually _ingested _those rare materials, though, like, eating them."

"It is not ingestion per-per say." Nanite Darkwing corrected as Techno, finishing what he was doing with the PDA began to disconnect it. "Granted, they enter my body like food would in a traditional body, but it-it-it is not at all treated in the same manner after that. And this only occurs in extreme circumstances, and under my own control and not the nanites'. It is al-also not dependant on my survival to continue to consume those materials. I could go a millennia without do-doing so if-if-if I so chose."

"It still explains why you even still have a GI tract, though, albeit a robotizied one." Techno remarked, as he scrolled through a few notes on the PDA before returning to the worktable.

It was then that Negaduck suddenly burst into the room in a hurry, startling him.

"Techno!" Negaduck barked, as he entered.

"What?" Techno exclaimed back, throwing his arms out. "I'm working!"

"Well, pause for a few moments, I have a new project for you." Negaduck stated, and slapped something on the worktable loudly. "Top priority."

"Top priority, of course." Techno repeated, annoyed, stepping over to the worktable. "Everything is top priority."

He picked up the object Negaduck had slapped on the table and examined it. It was a thumbdrive. Giving Negaduck an inquiring look, but not commenting on the matter, he plugged the device promptly into the computer that was on the worktable and accessed the data that was upon it. It was video footage of the attack earlier, although this was the first Techno was hearing about it.

"Security footage?" Techno remarked aloud to himself. "Of an attack? An attempt on _your _life?"

"The footage is trivial at best." Negaduck grumbled, pacing behind Techno as he quickly watched the footage. "I want you to study the sensor readings that go with it, and see if there are any matches to it in the SHUSH database."

Techno gave him another inquiring look. "Why?" he asked. "What do you know that I don't?"

"I don't _know _anything!" Negaduck snapped. "I only have a hunch. And I'm praying that it's wrong. Now _do it_!"

Techno hesitantly nodded, and did the search as requested. "You realize that this is only a partial scan that you've provided, right?" he asked as the computer worked. "There's a chance it's not enough information."

Negaduck merely grunted in response.

To Techno's mild surprise, however, the search did bring up a result. Just the one, but it was something. Techno turned to focus his attention on it, bringing up the file. "It found a partial match." he reported, realizing that the file was a profile, and went to open the attached picture, bringing it up on the screen. His eyes went wide as he recognized the figure on the screen. "To him." he whirled around to look at Negaduck in shock.

Negaduck's eyes had narrowed even more as he stared darkly at the picture on the screen, and cursed.

"That's what I thought." he muttered under his breath and without another word, turned and left.

* * *

"Remind me why we're doing this, again?" General Mallard asked as he waved his flashlight around the hallway.

"Must I do it for a fifth time?" Negarian asked hotly, with narrowed eyes.

"I just fail to see the purpose of all of this." the general said with a shrug as they slipped past a cluster of the general's soldiers gathered to one side of the dark and dank corridor. "I mean, what could possible interest _you _down here? So far, all we found down here are a lot of empty rooms and hallways that nobody has probably set foot in for years. There's not even electricity."

"All of this is, of course, true." Negarian agreed. "And you are right, thus far, we haven't found anything of interest down here that is of true interest to me."

"Then why are we down here?"

"It's quite simple, general. According to the original blueprints of Canard Tower that we found in both the city hall _and _SHUSH Headquarters, the building is only supposed to contain two sublevels." Negarian motioned to their surroundings. "This is the _third _sublevel."

"So?" General Mallard prompted.

"Is it not obvious? Why is there a whole _sublevel _here that is not included in _any _of the building's blueprints, even the ones owned by SHUSH itself? Not even the elevator goes down this deep...only the staircase, and there was a locked door separating this level from us, remember?"

"Yeah, I know all of this, that's why Negaduck sent you, me, and my men down here, so we could check it out. But what's the big deal? Clearly, nobody has been using this floor."

"Not recently, no, but there still must be a reason for it's existence, and why it has been kept secret. Besides, in case you did not notice, this level is low enough that it _should_ connect with the Elementary Underground...but it does not."

"That doesn't mean much. That facility was built in secret by this universe's FOUL. If they ever knew about this floor, they clearly didn't feel the need to connect it with this floor."

"No, they would not, but SHUSH has had control of the Elementary Underground for more than a year, and have made several altercations to it. And seeing that the facility is very secret itself, you would think that SHUSH would go ahead and build a means of accessing this secret floor through there in the event of an emergency and merely keep that entrance locked and secure. But...they did not. All evidence thereby suggests not even SHUSH knows this floor exists."

Not even the general could deny the peculiarities of that. "Okay, that _is _a little odd." he admitted. "Why would SHUSH not know about the existence of this floor?"

"Because somebody did not want them to know." Negarian replied simply. "They are hiding something down here."

General Mallard blinked at this, and gave Negarian a look for a moment before shining his light around the hallway. "Well, if that's true, then they've hidden it pretty good, 'cause we sure as heck haven't found anything _that _special down here."

"True." Negarian agreed, as they reached the end of the hallway and stopped. "There is, however, this."

He motioned ahead to it. General Mallard looked at it for a few moments, shining his light on it. He was less than impressed.

"It's a door." he remarked smartalecky, turning to the magician.

"Yes, I know it's a door." Negarian responded wryly, glancing at the general briefly. "The question is, what's behind it?"

"I suppose it is a bit hard to tell when it's _closed _like that, but then maybe we should try _opening _it."

"I already have. It's locked."

"Oh, it's _locked _you say? Well, that explains _everything_!"

"General..."

"I'm sorry. I guess I just can't see how that stops _you_, oh great and powerful magician. Why don't you just magically unlock the door with some spell, just like you did to unlock the door that led us down here?"

"I cannot."

"And why not?"

"Because there seems to be some kind of device in that room beyond that is actively shielding this door from the influences of magic. There is no magic spell I can use that will open this door."

General Mallard stared at him for a long moment, slightly stunned. "Is that even possible?" he asked.

"I did not think so until I encountered this door today." Negarian replied cooly, eyeing the door bemusedly. "Which makes me wonder just what it is that is behind this door that it needed to be shielded from magic."

The general gaped at him for a long moment, then at the door itself, not quite sure what to make of this new revelation. This went on for a few moments until General Mallard's radio suddenly clicked on.

"General, Negarian, where are you two?" Negaduck's voice was broadcasted urgently over the radio.

"In sublevel three." General Mallard replied into the radio, not taking his eyes off the door just yet. "We're still down here looking around for anything interesting."

"And?" Negaduck prompted.

"Most of the floor has long been abandoned and is empty, but we did find one thing of interest." Negarian responded.

General Mallard hesitated for a moment, before clarifying further. "We found a door."

"A door." Negaduck sounded less than impressed.

"Yeah, a door we can't open."

"Not even Negarian?"

"Apparently not."

"Huh." Negaduck still didn't sound that impressed, though. "Well, forget it for now, I've got an even bigger fish frying up here, and I need you guys to come and join the rest of us for a meeting."

"But Negaduck," Negarian began to object, "there could be..."

"A really _big _fish, Negarian." Negaduck emphasized. "A _massive _one, one that could crush your little fish regarding the door like it was...was...something really, _really, _tiny. This fish, makes the end of the world seem _mild _in comparison."

Negarian and General Mallard exchanged glances.

"That's a pretty big fish to fry, sir." the general commented.

"Right. So get up here. _Now._ We'll meet at SHUSH HQ."

"Acknowledged." General Mallard said, and turned to leave, signaling to his troops that were more or less just milling about anyway to head back upstairs.

Negarian started to follow, but not before he gave the sealed door one last, curious, look.

* * *

"We have a new villain to concentrate on." Negaduck announced at the meeting, once he and his commanders had gathered in the meeting room at SHUSH Headquarters. Tapping a control on the table, a picture was then projected onto the screen behind him. He turned and pointed at it. "Him."

"Him?" Negawing remarked with a snort. "Ha, that guy looks like he could be another Darkwing, except _worse._"

"Who is that guy, anyway?" General Mallard asked.

Negaduck stared hard at the picture of the white-suited duck for a long moment. "Neutraduck." he replied, then turned to face his allies. "And looks are deceiving about him. He is a very, very, big threat. To _all _of us."

"That one guy?" Negawing asked, still skeptical. "I'd like to see him try. I don't know what you're so worried about, Negs."

"I'm worried, Negawing, because Neutraduck is a bigger villain than I am." Negaduck growled through clenched teeth, annoyed at Negawing's lack of understanding. "Last time he was here, he very nearly destroyed the Posiverse, _and _the Negaverse, with ease."

A moment of morbid silence hung in the room for a moment. Negawing glanced at the picture of Neutraduck with renewed respect now.

"How did he do it?" Negarian finally asked, breaking the silence. "Not even magic has the kind of power you're suggesting, Negaduck."

"I don't know the science behind it, admittedly." Negaduck admitted, leaning on the table heavily. "But the universe Neutraduck hails from, the Neutraverse, is the most technologically advanced universe that is known in the multiverse. They are very familiar with the means of jumping from universe to universe, and apparently have not only dubbed themselves the experts, but also the mediators in the multiverse."

"Mediators?" General Mallard inquired. "So wait, is this guy good, or bad?"

"He's neither, actually, or so he claims." Negaduck said, beginning to pace. "The tron count in his universe is so perfectly balanced that they cancel each other out. Which is a problem, because Neutraduck has no conscience." he turned to stare at the picture of one of the few people Negaduck actually had cause to fear. "You see, Neutraduck knew that the Posiverse and the Negaverse were at each others throats and on the verge of causing huge problems for both. _His _idea of fixing that and preventing a potential 'disaster' is to just..._destroy _both universes, and all of it's inhabitants, by having the two collide with each other, thereby canceling each other out." Negaduck's eyes narrowed at the picture. "And, as I said, he nearly succeeded."

"So how did he _nearly _bring this about?" Negawing asked.

"He had a weapon." Negaduck explained, twisting around to face his listeners again. "A very advanced weapon that when fired upon two universal doubles, in this case, myself and Darkwing, it would lace them with a certain kind of energy that would pull the two together. As it pulled them together, it would pull the two universes the doubles represent, the Posiverse and the Negaverse, together as well. When they collide, they would quite violently cancel each other out. Real bad business. Thankfully, through a stroke of luck, we managed to stop the process, and send Neutraduck back to where he belonged." he paused. "But...he vowed to come back. To finish what he had started. And now, it seems that he has." he pressed a button on the table again and the picture changed to show a view of the probe that had attacked earlier. "This morning, this probe attacked me and NegaGosalyn, specifically me, and attempted to kill us. Both of us managed to drive it off, but that's not what's important. What's important is that sensor scans of the probe has revealed that it's tron count matches that of Neutraduck's. The probe also, you will note, shares Neutraduck's colors, and it is clearly very superior in technology."

"So you think, from all of this, that Neutraduck is back." Negarian summarized.

"I don't think, I _know_." Negaduck pressed. "And we are going to go out there, and find Neutraduck, and _stop him _before he stops us."

"But how are we going to find him?" NegaGosalyn asked, speaking up for the first time after having silently listened to the whole meeting up until now. "We don't know where he is, if he's even in the Posiverse, nor do we know where the probe he sent went."

At this Negaduck grinned, and hit the button again, changing the picture to a map of St. Canard with a flashing dot blinking at one edge of it. "A transdimensional portal was detected opening here by SHUSH's portal tracking system just a day ago." he said. "And seeing that since we took over the city, we've only been using SHUSH's portal generator to open portals, and this one portal opened nowhere near that, we've got a lead to follow. No idea where this one portal led, but I'm willing to bet it led to the Neutraverse."

Negaduck then fell silence, looking pleased with himself for having deduced all of this. The others exchanged glances with each other.

"I suppose it's something to look into." General Mallard agreed.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Negaduck asked. "An invitation? Go forth and beat this guy! And quickly, before he beats us! And arm yourselves with the SHUSH issued stun guns, as they'll counter the effects of Neutraduck's weapon, and try to avoid getting hit with _any _weapons of his altogether! Report in when you've got something!"

Nodding, Negawing, Negarian, and General Mallard rose from the table and turned to exit to carry out the orders. NegaGosalyn held back for a few moments. She couldn't remember anything at all about Neutraduck until Negaduck started to explain what he knew of him, and then the memories came flooding back to her. She had been in the Negaverse for the whole instance, having only a brief encounter with Neutraduck and witnessing some of the effects of the Negaverse nearly colliding with the Posiverse to draw off of, but it was enough for her to realize as much as Negaduck just how much of a threat Neutraduck was. Rising, she looked silently at Negaduck, and knew just how much he feared Neutraduck as well, before she left as well.

Left alone in the meeting room, Negaduck switched back to the first picture of Neutraduck on the screen, and glared at it.

"Just like before, we're going to beat you, Neutraduck." he growled.

* * *

"Confound it." Agent Todd cursed as he worked with the stubborn computer. "This thing just wasn't _designed_ for this!"

Crimson, who stood over his shoulder, watching him trying to use the ancient and jury-rigged computer of Bob's to hack into Negaduck's files, was urging him on. "C'mon, you nearly had it that time!" she said. "Just...give it one more go!"

"Crimson, I have been trying this, again and again, for _days_." Todd snapped. "If I was really going to succeed at hacking into Negaduck's files after that escapade with Darkwarrior, I would've _done _it by now!" he shook his head and let it fall. "Just face it. We're going to have to find another way to beat Negaduck."

"But it's all there!" Crimson protested. "All the information we need! The location of Darkwing! Everything!"

"_If _we can get at it, and I think we've successfully proven that we _can't_." Todd said, shutting down the computer decisively. "Besides, this thing is starting to overheat again."

"Argh!" Crimson exclaimed in frustration, turning away angrily. "I can't believe we're so close to getting what we need, only to be stopped by a little thing like incompatible technology!"

"Incompatible technology is _not _a little thing." Todd remarked, staring at the now blank computer screen. "Remember, I had my doubts this would work from the beginning, don't pretend that I didn't say so."

"There _must _be something more you can do, though." Crimson whined in dismay, rounding on the agent. "Can't you get Bob or Morgana to magically modify it again?"

"Are you kidding me?" Todd asked, twisting his seat to look at her. "Neither of them know anything about computers, much less how they work! It took several tries and several long hours explaining to _both _of them what I needed _in detail_ before they were able to magically conjure what I needed _correctly_ for just this much! Do you _realize _how long it'd take to explain to them what I need?"

"Then just get them to magically produce the super-fast computer you claim you need!" Crimson said, wondering why no one had thought of that sooner.

But Todd clearly had. "No, you don't understand." he said. "In order to produce _anything _properly with magic, they have to know _everything _about it, right down to the very internal components! If even a _microchip_ is out of place...no dice!"

Crimson sighed, covering her eyes with one hand. "And Morgana and Bob don't know enough about computers to explain that to them easily." she realized.

"No, they don't."

They were both silent for a moment.

"The only other way we have any hope of beating Negaduck is with a full frontal attack, Todd." Crimson remarked slowly. "And we don't have the numbers for that."

"Yeah, I know." Todd agreed, looking understandably crestfallen.

"Maybe there's some way to get help in here." Crimson remarked, thinking. "Maybe with that transportation spell of Bob's...?"

"You mean that 'ortus' thing?" Todd asked, and shook his head. "Already asked. The range for that spell is not only quite limited, requires physical contact, and can only transport so much at a time, Bob thinks Negarian has a magical defense set up over the city that won't necessarily block the spell...but could cause some very nasty effects if one tried to use it to teleport outside the city. So he doesn't want to try it."

"Crumb." Crimson murmured, pacing now as she thought. "Now wait, back when Negaduck was still just invading the city, someone along the way said, I can't remember who, that Neptunia was on her way here, she was just a long ways off. Shouldn't have she gotten here by now?"

"Yes, but I certainly hope she didn't stick around." Todd remarked. He jabbed a finger back at the shut down computer. "Some of the information we _did _managed to get revealed that Negarian stationed two of those magical monsters, the swimming version, in Audubon Bay. And seeing how _big _those monstrosities can get, there's not going to be much room for just _them _in there, much less Neptunia and whatever aquatic help she managed to bring along." he shrugged. "Besides, Neptunia's help all would've been water-based anyway, and that would only help so much."

"True." Crimson admitted, and shook her head. Dismayed still, she let herself drop into a nearby chair. "We're stuck, then."

"Not entirely. There _is _that potion Morgana and Bob have been working on that will undo the effects of Negarian's mind control spell when used on effected people."

"Yeah, but it's not going to be ready for awhile still, and there's only going to be so much of it. And once it's used up, Morgana and Bob aren't confident they could create another with the supplies they have left. We would only be able to use it on a few people, and that still wouldn't leave us with enough numbers."

"No, but we could use it to free some of our friends, and people that might be able to help. Like Agent Sandy, Agent Mia, Director Hooter, and more."

"Or Darkwing." Crimson murmured softly. "He'd know what to do."

"Yes, well, we don't know where he is, so until we do, we can't do much to help him." Todd remarked, then, trying to be optimistic, added, "Maybe one of the people we _do _free will know something about where he is."

"Maybe." Crimson agreed. "But...what can we do in the meantime?"

"Survive, I guess." Todd admitted. "I mean, what else _can _we do?"

"We aren't going to be able to stay here for much longer, though, I know it." Crimson pointed out. "Somebody is going to figure out sooner or later how to get past that shield that's protecting us, and right now, that's the _only _thing keeping Negaduck and his forces _out _and away from _us_."

"We'll just have to hope that we can figure out something before then." Todd said, being optimistic. "And anyway, if Negarian can't even figure out a way in here, then who could?"

Then, as if hearing him, the computer screen behind him suddenly switched on, displayed a blank screen of grey nothing. Both Crimson and Todd turned to look at it. The screen flickered a few times, but did nothing more for the moment.

"Did you do that?" Crimson asked.

"No, did you?" Todd asked back in response.

"I'm over here! Of course I didn't!"

Todd quickly looked the computer over, frowning, and noticed something else. "The computer's not on, just the monitor." he said, looking back up at the screen. "How is it doing that?"

"And why?" Crimson asked.

Then, again almost as if it was listening, the screen flickered again, and a face appeared.

A face they both knew, and had hoped to never see again.

"Neutraduck." Crimson murmured, eyes widening. She nudged Todd quickly. "Todd, go get the others, they are going to want to see this."

"Right." Todd remarked, looking worried as he hurried out of his chair and out of the room.

"Hello there." Neutraduck meanwhile remarked on the screen, then continued with what seemed to be a prerecorded message. "I don't know how many there are in this city that are in their right mind to see and understand what I have to say, but it needs to be said anyway. For those who don't know me, which I believe to be quite a few, I am Neutraduck. I am the universal double of the one you know as Darkwing, who in turn has several other universal doubles that unfortunately are present here in the Posiverse. I hail from a parallel universe where things are run a little bit differently. Technological more superior to most of the other universe in the multiverse, such as yours, it is my universe's job to make sure that no calamities befall the multiverse. And clearly, such a calamity has occurred here."

* * *

"You probably know Negaduck by now, and hopefully you're also aware that he, too, hails from an alternate reality, this one a twisted universe called the Negaverse. It is because of Negaduck's plans to seek conquering another universe that has brought me here today."

"How is he doing that?" Negawing remarked as the three jeeps filled with parties of Negaduck's army drove down the street, seeing Neutraduck's face on all the screens in the city as they drove past them, and hearing his voice being loudly broadcasted from NegaGosalyn's cell phone, which was also playing the message.

"It would appear that he has tapped into the city's communication grid to relay this message." Negarian commented cooly.

"Well, use your magic to cut him off." General Mallard urged.

"I have already tried, something is preventing my magic from doing so." Negarian replied.

"He is meddling in the affairs of other universes, disrupting their natural paths." Neutraduck continued with his message. "And that is only the tip of the iceberg. He's drawn in numerous other universes into the matter as well. Your own Posiverse has not helped matters by probing into places it doesn't belong. It's a multi-universal war."

* * *

"I've been here once before, tried to set matters straight then, before it grew too late, but you all stopped me, prevented me from doing what needed to be done."

"Oh, that's not how I remember it." Negaduck growled, glaring up at the screen in the briefing room, where Neutraduck's face now was, relaying his message.

A magicked slave entered the room, oblivious to both Negaduck's rising temper and Neutraduck's broadcasting message, and delivered a drink on a platter, which he extended out towards Negaduck.

"Your drink, sire?" he asked politely.

Negaduck grabbed it distractedly, not taking his eyes off the screen. When he realized that the slave wasn't leaving until he had been told to, he added, "Thank you J. Gander, now go away."

The slave nodded, and departed, leaving Negaduck alone in the room again, whose growling increased as he heard more of Neutraduck's message.

"Now, I've come back, and even though things have gotten worse still here, I intend to finish what I started this time around. And get my revenge. Especially on you, Negaduck, and don't pretend you aren't hearing this message. You know what I'm talking about too. You were the one who gave me this."

Neutraduck traced a finger along one cheek, where a fine scar was, having long since healed from the bullet that had created it, that bullet having been fired by Negaduck during their last encounter. Negaduck merely narrowed his eyes at the sight, not sorry at all for having inflicted the wound.

"It's time to finish this, once and for all." Neutraduck continued on the screen. "On the same ground under the same terms, just like last time, only _this _time, I intend to win."

* * *

"Now, before I conclude, there is one last thing I wish to present to bring to your attention, and that's the fact that last time we all encountered, you all refused to believe it could come to this. Now, I want you to ask yourselves...where you right?"

And with one final grin from Neutraduck, the message ended, and the computer screen went blank. Crimson and Agent Todd, now joined by Morgana, Bob, Christine, as well as Charlie who went wherever everyone else went, stared at the blank screen.

Christine rubbed at her chin, looking thoughtful but annoyed. "So that's Neutraduck." she murmured. "I remember when Drake spoke of him shortly after the first encounter. It was not a praiseworthy tale."

"He's right, too." Crimson remarked with a sigh, also looking cross. "Neutraduck said that we'd get into an armed conflict with other universes like this if we kept up what we were doing, and we did." she shook her head. "Canceling out all the universes involved is still not the answer, though."

"We'll need to stop him, then." Morgana said. "Track him down and beat him before he can try again and succeed at doing just that."

"But how are we going to find him?" Agent Todd asked, skeptical.

"We don't need to." Crimson remarked, allowing herself a slight grin. "Negaduck's probably already done it for us. We just have to follow his forces."

"Is that a good idea, though?" Christine asked. "Neutraduck collides universes together by using the universal doubles that hail from those universes. And the key people in Negaduck's army is made up of nothing but that."

"She's right, they're going to be walking right into Neutraduck's hands that way." Todd agreed.

"In that case, those of us who have doubles in this universe had better not go." Crimson said reluctantly, and with a sigh, pointed to herself. "Obviously, that disqualifies me."

"You can't stay here alone, though, because Neutraduck will eventually come here to attack." Christine pointed out. "So I'll stay here with you, and so will Charlie."

"No offense, Dr. Merriweather, but you aren't exactly the ideal person for guarding anybody or going into combat." Todd remarked, turning to look at the doctor. "So I'll stay here, too."

"Then Morgana and I shall go." Bob remarked.

"Good, you two are probably the best to fight against Neutraduck anyway, as I'm sure Neutraduck will be better prepared this time." Crimson said. "And, neither of you have universal doubles in the Posiverse already. In fact, the only ones I know of are in the Negaverse, and NegaMorgana was in hiding last I checked, and NegaBob's dead."

"Wait, I'm dead in the Negaverse?" Bob remarked. He paused to think about that for a moment. "That's actually kind of weird to think about."

"I'm sure NegaLiki could relate." Crimson said with a grin. "But we really don't have time to talk about this. We need to stop Neutraduck. Now."

"Right." Bob said, turning to head for the mansion's front door. "C'mon, Morgana my dear, we'll use the Ortus spell to leave, which means you'll have to hang onto me, seeing you can't do the spell yourself."

"It's not for the lack of trying." Morgana complained as she followed her husband out the door. "I can _almost _do it."

"The last time you _almost _did it, Morg, you nearly left half of yourself behind in the process. Look, don't worry, so long as you've got me, we won't have any problems with this."

* * *

"We're nearly there." General Mallard reported as they neared the location where they had detected the mysterious and unaccounted portal. "Think Neutraduck will actually be there?"

"True, he _has _had time to go who knows where else since he got here, presuming that the portal we detected opening here was even _used _by him." Negawing remarked as the trio of jeeps rounded a corner and onto the next street.

"All of which there is actually a good chance of, but it's still something to check out." NegaGosalyn said, but with a tone of confidence. "And even if he's not here, there will likely be clues for us to follow. Besides, I think there's a good chance he'll be there"

"He is here." Negarian promised suddenly and flatly.

"And what makes you say that, Negarian?" the general asked. "Some magician's instinct?"

"No, mere observation." Negarian replied, and calmly pointed ahead of them, and slightly upward with one finger.

They all looked in the direction he pointed, and saw Neutraduck himself perched on the decorative ledge of a skyscraper that sat ahead of them in a fork in the road. He was grinning as he watched the three jeeps pull to a stop at the base of the building and the occupants in the vehicle stare up at him.

"About time you all showed up." he called down to them. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to show up at all, and where's the fun in that?"

The party's reply was to raise their weapons at General Mallard's order and start shooting at Neutraduck. Most of them were very good shooters, and couldn't have missed. But the bullets never touched Neutraduck, and instead struck a mostly invisible shield that surrounded Neutraduck in a bubble. The bullets merely bounced harmlessly off of it. The attack still continued onward, the attackers optimistic that they could eventually punch through the shield, up until Negarian joined into the attack after a few moments of planning his strategy, and cast a series of magical spells up at Neutraduck.

The spells didn't penetrate the shield either.

Upon seeing this, the attack quickly ground to a halt, as the attackers realized that if Negarian couldn't even strike successfully at the enemy duck, then how could they?

Neutraduck laughed for a moment at their plight. "My turn!" he then called, and pulled out his own trademark weapon, pointing it down at the group, and firing the laser-like shots without hesitation into the group.

The group panicked, and quickly hopped out of the jeeps to seek better cover, often just using the side of the jeeps of themselves, while the laser shots rained down all around them. General Mallard quickly gave the order for the magicked troops to be deployed, and the group silently took up strategic positions and fired constantly up at Neutraduck's form. It didn't make any difference, the shield protected Neutraduck from any harm it seemed.

"Dang it!" Negwing muttered as he peered up at Neutraduck. "We can't hurt that guy, and he knows it too, having the gall to just stand up there and take those blows!"

General Mallard ducked as a series of laser shots whizzed dangerously past his head. "What I don't get is the fact that if Neutraduck really had all of that fancy technology to make universes collide like Negaduck claimed, then why isn't he using it?" he asked aloud as he poked his head back over the side of the jeep and continued shooting.

"I don't know, but I'm considering it luck!" NegaGosalyn remarked as she fired up at Neutraduck. "Let's just not give him any ideas at the moment!"

"How _are _we going to beat him?" Negawing asked. "That shield protects him from all bodily harm from our weapons, and we'd never be able to sneak up on him and get close enough to do some real, up close, damage."

"I believe I have an idea to correct that." Negarian remarked calmly, sitting on the street with his eyes closed, looking like he was meditating. "I must ask that we try and keep things as quiet as possible, however."

"No promises for that with all this gunfire." the general remarked as he kept shooting.

"What are you doing, Negarian?" Negawing asked curiously.

"Summoning help." Negarian replied simply.

It took a few moments to find out what he meant. But finally, as the battle continued, two magical monsters came surging down both roads in the fork in the road, coming up from either side of the building under Negarian's command. At first, as the two magical creatures were coming up from behind, out of Neutraduck's line of vision, it seemed that he couldn't see them, or hear them coming over the commotion of the battle.

But then, he spied one to his left out of the corner of his eye, and twisted his head to look at it. It was coming up fast to the building, and was tall enough that, when reared up, it could easily swipe Neutraduck off his precarious perch. Turning to look to his right, he saw another monster in a similar position to the first, and both would probably arrive at the building together and act without hesitation.

Neutraduck wouldn't let them get that far, however.

Grinning, he stopped shooting at his enemies below, and took his weapon and switched modes on it. He then waited a moment, listening as the monster to his left grew closer, then suddenly spun around and fired the weapon at the monster, striking it in the upper body as it started to rear up with a beam of blue energy. The monster recoiled from the blast, and stuttered about backwards, suddenly no longer responding to Negarian's silent magical commands, drawing a puzzled frown from the magician that the others didn't like. Neutraduck then spun around and fired in a similar matter at the other magical creature, striking it in it's hackles. The monster reacted similarly to the first, and suddenly Negarian couldn't control either one, which clearly alarmed the magician.

General Mallard noticed. "What, what is it?" he asked.

"I cannot control the monsters anymore." Negarian announced, twisting around to watch the monsters reel about as if dazed. "Neutraduck has seemed to have robbed control over them from me."

The others gave him surprised looks at this.

"How is that possible?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"It is not." Negarian replied coldly.

But somehow it was. As the monsters recovered from the blows of the attacks, it became quite clear that Neutraduck now had control over them, and he was now directing the monsters to attack the militia on the ground that was attacking him. And, moving slowly at first, the monsters moved to do just that.

"Oh, that's not good." NegaGosalyn commented as the monsters moved towards them.

"Great, now look what you've done!" Negawing snapped, and slapped Negarian upside the head. Annoyed, Negarian hit him back.

"Hey, now isn't the time to do impressions of the Three Stooges!" General Mallard remarked, intervening.

"No, now is the time to be _running_!" NegaGosalyn said, backing up warily as the monsters suddenly surged into the ranks of the magicked troops.

They all looked in time to see one of the monsters take a swipe at the ranks of the magicked army with it's claws, barreling the troops aside like bowling pins. The others then followed NegaGosalyn's example and started backing up, waiting for General Mallard to give the order to flee.

They didn't have to wait long. "Retreat!" the general exclaimed, hopping back into the jeep and starting it. "Everyone, retreat! Get your mangy hides out of here!"

Everyone needed no second bidding, all quickly turning and running for it either on foot, or jumping back into one of the three jeeps they had arrived in and driving away. The general's jeep, loaded with NegaGosalyn, Negawing, and Negarian as well, took off in such a hurry that it left driving backwards, not bothering to take the time to turn around just yet.

The monsters surged forward after the fleeing troops, and Neutraduck began firing again with his weapon, this time firing his beam weapon into the ranks of the magicked slaves. Like it had done with the magical monsters, control over these slaves was stolen from Negarian and the others and surrendered directly to Neutraduck, allowing him to command the affected troops as he pleased. Soon, the ranks of the army broke into total disarray as they started fighting amongst themselves. Those on foot had no chance to escape, and were quickly pulled into the chaos, however those who were in the jeeps were able to flee, although one of the jeeps never got underway due to it getting surrounded by fighting people.

Neutraduck laughed at the sight of it all, and switched modes on his weapon again before jumping off the ledge he was on to float gently down to the ground through the means of some unseen technology, perhaps the shield itself that still surrounded him. He then ordered his captured troops forward, to give chase after his fleeing prey.

"Time to set things right in the multiverse." he remarked to himself as he followed his troops on foot.

* * *

"Awfully quiet." Morgana noted as she and Bob moved carefully through the abandoned and quiet streets of St. Canard.

"Yes, I know." Bob agreed from beside her. He looked around warily. "I don't like it. Not one bit."

"We haven't seen any of Negaduck's forces, either." Morgana noted, twisting around to look back behind her. "Which is odd, because even on a dull day, we'll have run into a patrol by now and have to hide. And we can't follow them, if we can't find them!"

"I...think they had a run in with Neutraduck already." Bob commented, suddenly looking ahead of them.

"Probably, but that still doesn't tell us where they are!" Morgana said, frustrated, not following her husband's gaze. "Where _are _they?"

"There." Bob said, pointing ahead of them.

Morgana twisted around to see two of the jeeps that contained what remained of Negaduck's forces roaring towards them at breakneck speeds, clearly trying to speed away from something, the one being driven by General Mallard still going backwards. Morgana and Bob could only stand there and watch in mild amazement and surprise as the two jeeps rushed past them, the general's jeep nearly hitting them in it's hurry. The occupants hardly even seemed to notice who they were passing as they hurried by even, save for NegaGosalyn, who let out a shout of surprise when she saw them, but the jeep sped on without stopping, and hurried on down the street.

Morgana and Bob continued to watch the two jeeps flee, stunned.

"Well, this doesn't bode well." Bob remarked.

"What do you suppose they're running from?" Morgana asked aloud.

The words were hardly out of her mouth when they heard a loud galloping, thumping, sound moving towards them, and turned in time to see the massive form of a magical monster suddenly come running around the street corner, skidding on the pavement and slamming into the side of the a building before it galloped onward, towards Morgana and Bob. The two yelped and quickly ducked, fearing the monster's wrath. But the creature didn't even pay attention to them, and merely leap over them and hurried on it's way, racing on down the street. It had barely left before another came by and did the same as the first; ignored the two magicians and raced on down the street.

"I guess that explains that." Morgana said, slowly straightening herself again. "But...why are the monsters chasing them?"

"They weren't, the jeeps turned right at the next corner, the monsters are turning left." Bob remarked. "But you've got a point, they don't seem to be responding to their commands anymore...and that's _unheard _of."

"We've got more company!" Morgana suddenly exclaimed when she saw the magicked troops Neutraduck had seized control of come marching around the corner.

And speaking of Neutraduck, he was leading them, grinning broadly at his success thus far. Morgana and Bob reacted instantly, and unleashed a salvo of offensive spells in Neutraduck's direction, only to encounter the same problem that Negarian had; his shield was blocking them. Surprised, but not giving up, they continued attacking, trying every spell they knew of, Morgana even resorting to a few dark magic spells she had learned in her rebellious youth to never use again, all while Neutraduck continued to take the blows, and merely continued marching himself and the forces he commanded closer to them. It didn't make a difference, however, the spells still couldn't get past the shield, and wasn't even slowly Neutraduck down.

Growing even more alarmed, Morgana and Bob started to see that they couldn't do anything to stop him like this, and turned to run, but before they got far, Neutraduck fired his weapon, creating a forcefield that blocked the street ahead of the two magicians, and trapped them. Beyond alarmed now, they whirled back around to face their opponent, wondering what they could do.

Neutraduck merely strolled up, shaking with silent laughter. He signaled for his captured troops to stop before he spoke. "Well, I have to give you two credit for trying." he said, shaking his head while grinning. "But clearly, I came better prepared this time around to deal with the expected resistence." he paused, looking the two magicians over. "Of course, you two wouldn't know that, as we didn't have the pleasure of meeting last time. But I know you both well. Your Neutraverse doubles have proven to be _quite _helpful in the field of magic, quite helpful indeed."

"If you want something from us, you aren't going to get it." Bob challenged bravely, even though he wasn't confident he could uphold that challenge.

"Actually, I don't want much of anything from you two, but having you two here, now, is actually quite helpful." Neutraduck replied calmly. "It'll speed things along nicely."

Morgana was looking past the white-and-black suited duck at the forces he had managed to capture control of. "I see you managed to get control over some of Negaduck's forces." she commented flatly.

"So I did." Neutraduck replied.

"How?" Bob asked. "With magic?"

"Technology, actually." Neutraduck lifted up his gun as an example.

"That's impossible."

"Not for me. Keep in mind that things in the Neutraverse are _just _a little more advanced than here, and we know magic inside out. I can not only shield myself from your spells, but can also steal control over certain spells and have them obey _me_."

"So the two magical monsters..." Morgana began, pointing behind her.

"Are under my control, yes." Neutraduck said with a pleased grin. "And I'm putting them to use accordingly to take care of some...troublesome people."

"The bad people I can understand, but there are going to be good people in your way as well that are going to get hurt unnecessarily because of you." Morgana said with a glare.

"I actually have neutral opinions about that, as you should very well know by now." Neutraduck said with a grin. "So it doesn't matter in the end."

"Yes it does, it matters to _us_." Bob pressed, glaring at the foe. "And why are we just standing here talking about it?"

"I'm buying for time, to be honest." Neutraduck replied honestly, glancing at his watch briefly. "Because those two magical monsters I sent out should be arriving at your mansion at any moment now."

Morgana and Bob quickly exchanged surprised looks at this.

"Our mansion?" Bob repeated.

* * *

And so they were, the first one arriving with a fury as it charged the mansion the moment it came into view and head-butted the shield that protected it with a distorted-sounding and loud _twang_ noise. It was loud enough that it grabbed the attention of everyone inside the mansion, and Crimson, Agent Todd, Christine, and Charlie all came hurrying out onto the mansion's front porch to see what was going on, with alarmed expressions.

"What are _they_ doing here?" Agent Todd exclaimed as he watched the first monster claw at the shield with its forepaws, now joined by the other monster as it tried to gnaw upon the shield with its fangs.

"Attacking obviously, but with Neutraduck on the loose..." Christine began, holding Charlie back and keeping him from getting any closer. "It seems like they're focusing on the wrong thing at the wrong time."

"Maybe they don't even know Neutraduck's here after all, like we first thought." Todd commented.

"Charlie, go back inside." Christine urged her adopted son before turning to face back the two monsters attacking the shield. "Whatever the case, what do we do?"

"Well, so long as that shield's up, those two monsters can't get in here." Crimson pointed out. "So for the moment, I think all we _can _do it wait and watch, and hope they go away after awhile."

* * *

"Neutraduck, you aren't going to get away with this." Morgana growled.

"Oh, we'll see about that." Neutraduck commented idly, changing the modes on his weapon again.

"No, she means that there's a shield encompassing our mansion, and no technology can get past it, much less those two monsters." Bob clarified.

"Oh, I know." Neutraduck replied with a grin. He pointed his weapon suddenly at the two. "Fortunately, I know how to fix that."

He went to fire, but Morgana and Bob, seeing what was happening, quickly lunged out of the way, throwing themselves to either side of Neutraduck as he fired his weapon. The burst of energy that was fired hit neither magician, and instead struck the forcefield Neutraduck himself had created to keep them from escaping, and ricocheted off of it. Startled, Neutraduck spun around to keep his intended targets in sight, but they had split up, Morgana going in one direction, and Bob going in another. Torn over which magician he should pick to shoot at, Neutraduck hesitated for a brief moment, and as such, allowed himself to come under attack by a series of magical spells both magicians fired off in volleys at all angles.

The shield, of course, protected Neutraduck from the magical attack, but all the light-filled attacks flaring up against his personal shield disoriented him and blinded him. He spun around and around, trying to pinpoint his prey, and shot blindly when he thought he had the target in his sights, when he really didn't. The battle continued onward like this for awhile. The magicked forces Neutraduck had managed to obtain control over merely stood to one side and watched. They were waiting for Neutraduck to give the order to attack, but Neutraduck wasn't giving it, either because he hadn't thought to, or he thought he didn't need to. It was hard to tell.

Finally, Neutraduck managed to more or less pinpoint where Bob's onslaught of magical energy was coming from, and tried to narrow his blind fire at the magician, deciding to deal with him first, then deal with Morgana later. Unbeknownst to him, however, Morgana was sneaking up on him from behind, gradually getting closer and closer to Neutraduck, and where the end of the duck's personal shield most likely ended. She hoped that getting up close like that and _then _dealing the shield several magical attacks at close range would overwhelm it and allow her to pierce it, and end the battle here and now.

Unfortunately, Bob did not know all of this, and while trying to evade Neutraduck's fire, moved in a circle to head in Morgana's direction. Neutraduck naturally spun around to face him, and instead found himself facing Morgana, who was close enough to touch him now. And she _did _touch him, allowing her hand to pass through the shield and slap into Neutraduck's gun hand, caught by surprise Neutraduck's sudden movement, throwing off Neutraduck's aim briefly. It was just long enough for Morgana to realize that Neutraduck's shield blocked bursts of energy, and probably objects moving above a certain speed or had a certain kind of mass, but couldn't block slow-moving, large, objects such as Morgana's hand, or better still, Morgana herself.

Once Morgana realized this, she did not hesitate to lunge forward and tackle Neutraduck, knocking him down to the ground. Neutraduck, about to fire at Morgana with his gun, lost his aim again in the sudden tackle, and his shot went wild. The two then began wrestling around, trying to overwhelm the other. Neutraduck apparently had the advantage, however, as he slowly started to work to pry Morgana off of him.

Bob then swooped in to try and intervene. "Morgana, be careful!" he exclaimed as he sought a way to help.

He fired a spell at Neutraduck as the enemy rolled over and had his back facing him, but the shield deflected the energy as it was supposed to. Bob was then just about to jump into the fray when Neutraduck regained control over his weapon, and tried to fire it at Morgana, firing off several shots. Morgana quickly managed to keep the barrel pointed away from her to avoid getting hit, then bailed from the fight, rolling off of Neutraduck. Neutraduck rolled over to point his weapon at her, but Bob intervened, grabbing at Neutraduck's gun hand, and throwing off his aim. Neutraduck reacted by letting out a growl, grabbing at Bob's hand, jerking it off his gun hand, and rolled back over to face Bob, pointing his weapon straight at the magician, and fired.

The shot of energy caught Bob right in the chest, and hit with enough force that Bob was blown backwards, sailing off his feet for about a yard then hit the pavement hard, lying quite still on the ground in a spreadeagle position.

Neutraduck cheered inwardly to himself, pumping his free hand once in a sign of victory, and sat up to continue the fight.

Morgana rolled over and saw her husband lying on the ground, and her eyes went wide with fright. "BOB!" she exclaimed, quickly rising to her feet.

But as she stared at Bob's unnaturally still body, she saw it was already too late...

* * *

Crimson and Christine watched as the two magical monsters continued to pound roughly against the shield surrounding the mansion as they stood about halfway out into the front yard, while Charlie watched from the front doorway despite Christine prompting for him to stay well inside the house. Agent Todd was not present at the moment, because he had gone inside to retrieve something for Crimson at her request. It wasn't long before he returned with the item in question.

"Here you go." he said, handing Crimson her gas gun. "But I don't know what good it'll do you against those things."

"Preferably, it won't come to that, I'm just playing it safe." Crimson assured him, switching to a certain attachment before holstering the weapon. "But to answer the question, it's the shock darts I want. They will harm the magical monsters, remember?"

"Ordinary shock darts were completely ineffective against them, though." Todd pointed out.

"I've cranked up the power of the ones I've got to as high as I can get them."

"But that still won't be enough to defeat the monsters, it'll only stun them."

"True, but it'll buy us time to come up with a better means of defense, and anyway, I sure as heck hope it won't come to that." Crimson shook her head. "If only I had a familiar on hand."

"Yet another thing to add to our list of wishful thinking." Christine commented. "If we had Morgana or Bob still here, then it wouldn't be so bad, but..."

She cut herself short when, suddenly, without any forewarning or expectation, the shield suddenly flared up completely...then vanished without a trace. The two magical creatures who had been reared up to claw at the shield, both dropped down to all fours when the shield dropped with thuds, seeming to be slightly surprised at this sudden change of events. Which was nothing in comparison to the looks of horror the others wore on their faces as the enormity of what had just happened started to sink in fully.

Todd chose the worse of times to sum it up. "That's bad." he remarked.

"RUN!" Crimson exclaimed, spinning around and pushing Christine and Agent Todd back towards the mansion, where the building would provide _some _shelter for the moment.

All three of them then broke for the front door of the mansion, which suddenly seemed very far away. Their sudden movement grabbing the attention of the two monsters, the creatures of glowing energy both growled, and started forward and into the yard of the house. With their first steps, they triggered the first series of magical boobytraps that had been laid in the yard, and they went off in bright series of flashes, bangs, and small explosions. As the traps were designed with invading foot soldiers and not magical monsters, however, the traps didn't harm the magical creations, but it did preoccupy them enough to delay them from pouncing on their prey for the moment.

Christine, Todd, and Crimson took advantage of the slight delay and continued running for the shelter of the mansion, quickly gaining ground. Christine was first to plunge through the open front door, grabbing Charlie who still stood in the doorway, yelling his head off at the sight of the invading monsters, and dove for the floor, dragging her adopted son with. Agent Todd was right on her heels, and followed her example. Crimson had fallen back a few paces as she pulled out her gas gun, and double checked to make sure it was ready to fire a series of shock darts.

Hearing one of the monsters suddenly start forward again, the ground crackling and sparking under it's feet as it triggered more boobytraps, Crimson quickly spun around to shoot at it in self-defense, but the monster was upon her too quickly. With a swipe of one paw, it knocked Crimson over before she could shoot and to the ground, as it dove for the mansion, ramming it's head at the front door, causing Todd, Christine, and Charlie to jump back in fright. The monster was, of course, too small an opening for its magical head to fit through, but the open door's frame cracked and buckled severely under the harsh impact. It wouldn't withstand another impact like that.

Perhaps knowing that, the monster pulled back to try again. But by this point, Crimson had gotten unsteadily back up on her feet again, and fired a shock dart a little wildly at the monster. Her aim was off, and the dart merely skimmed past the monster's upper neck, but the limited amount of energy discharge it had received was apparently enough, for the monster let out a roar of displeasure, and turned it's attention to Crimson. With one swipe of it's paw, it used it to pin Crimson to the ground just before she could fire off another shock dart, and all but immobilized her. She struggled to free herself, but to no avail, and she couldn't get her gas gun in a position to fire another shock dart.

"Crimson!" Christine exclaimed, seeing her predicament from the doorway, and jumping up to try and help, holing her arms out high. "Toss the gas gun here!"

Crimson without hesitation mustered what strength she had, and with as much aim as she could give with her current situation, she hurled the gas gun still in her hand at Christine. The throw was good, and went straight to Christine. She fumbled to grab it properly at first, but quickly the doctor latched a firm grim upon the gun and upon double checking it was all ready to fire, she spun around to fire a shock dart at the imposing monster that had Crimson pinned...

...only to find the monster's glowing, blue, fangs rushing towards her.

* * *

"NO!" Morgana exclaimed, and rushed to the side of her fallen husband, checking him over, hoping to find some sign that the worse had not happened.

But it had.

"No, Bob..." Morgana whispered to herself, fighting back tears, falling to her knees in grief. "It...it...can't be, there must...must be someway...somehow...to...to..."

"Don't bother, he's deader than a doornail now." Neutraduck remarked from behind her, uncaring. He fiddled with his weapon for a moment as he got up. "You can't help him now."

"No..." Morgana repeated, her eyes narrowing, her breathing quickening.

"He's _dead_." Neutraduck repeated, raising his weapon to point at the back of Morgana's head. "As you will soon be."

It was then that Morgana temper snapped, and with a roar, she jumped up to her feet and slapped Neutraduck's weapon aside just as it fired, the shot hitting the ground to the left of them instead of Morgana herself. Surprised by the unexpected outburst, Neutraduck quickly started backpedaling away from the enraged witch, but hadn't gotten much more than a few paces in before Morgana unleashed a massive burst of magical energy at the foe.

As before, Neutraduck's personal shield protected him from harm, but the sheer power of the spell hitting the shield was still enough for physics to interfere, and the force of the spell's impact on the shield was still enough to blow Neutraduck backwards and onto the ground. He had hardly hit the ground before Morgana had thrown herself upon him, pounding on the duck with both fists in her fit of anger, as hot tears of pain and fury dribbled down her cheeks. Panicking, Neutraduck tried to shoot her again with his gun, but Morgana merely grabbed the gun and the hand that held it and started pounding it into the street they were wrestling upon, over and over again.

Finally, something on the gun sparked, and Neutraduck's personal shield suddenly flickered, then vanished with a pop. Neutraduck's eyes went wide, while Morgana's narrowed further still, and a cruel grin slowly started to spread across her face. Moving slowly and deliberately, she raised her hand above her head in preparation to cast the spell that she planned to end the whole matter here and there.

But Neutraduck had one last advantage up his sleeve.

"Attack!" he called desperately to the magicked foot soldiers that he commanded. "Attack, attack, attack! NOW!"

The troops started marching forward and raised their weapons and fired a quick salvo of shots indiscriminately at Morgana. Distracted from the spell she was about to cast, Morgana quickly ducked the shots, then angrily heaved Neutraduck to his feet, spun him around, and then gave him a hard shove in the direction of his forces, making him stumble back several paces. Morgana then added to shove by casting a simple spell that released a weak stunning spell that gave added force to the shove, and hurled Neutraduck straight into his own forces, knocking several down in a tangle of bodies.

This caused a slight rumpus in the ranks of the forces, taking their attention off of Morgana. Morgana used this moment to hurry back to Bob's fallen form, scoop him up in her arms sadly, then, as the troops started to recover from the incident and again directed their weapons at Morgana, she shouted out the incantation for a spell she had never successfully used before in the past.

"ORTUS!" she bellowed loudly.

And with that, she and Bob's body vanished in the resulting flash of light, just before Neutraduck's forces opened fire at the spot...

* * *

It was at that moment that Christine thought of several things.

First, was herself asking herself what the heck she had been thinking when she thought she could help, and scolded herself for jumping up and volunteering to help like she had.

Second, was the fact that no one had warned her of this, that she needed to turn and look out for her own well being, and she made a mental note to chew out her compatriots for that at the next opportune time, if she managed to live that long.

Third, was that the magical monster's open maw surging towards her was remarkably anatomically correct.

And fourth, was that there couldn't be any way she could fire off a shock dart fast enough to save herself from bodily harm now.

But she did anyway, and as if someone had suddenly hit slow motion, she watched as the end of the gas gun suddenly flared brightly and briefly, and the sliver, three-pronged shock dart was forced out of the barrel. It zoomed into the open mouth of the magically-created creature, spinning slightly, and impacted the back of it's throat with a spark just as it's fangs were within skewering range of Christine. It hit just in time. The dart didn't actually hit the creature, so to speak, for it whizzed right through it, like the magical apparition it was supposed to be, but it still discharged it's energy supply violently into the being.

The results were instantaneous. Before the dart had even whizzed through the creature's magical form, it had left out a loud roar of agony, releasing a burst of hot breath (which got Christine briefly wondering why it even _had _breath) that knocked Christine backwards and into the doorway of the mansion before stumbling and falling down. By this point, the monster had instinctively recoiled back from the mansion, and stumbled around drunkenly for a few moments, freeing Crimson, before it finally tipped over onto it's side with a crash, triggering more magical boobytraps in the process, and didn't move anymore.

Crimson quickly jumped back up to her feet, eyeing the fallen monster for a moment, and was all ready to begin celebrating it's defeat right there and then when she was suddenly reminded that there were two monsters present when she caught sight of the other monster suddenly charging towards her out of the corner of her eye. With a yelp, she at first started running towards the mansion, then, thinking against it, changed course and started to run around it's right side towards the backyard.

The monster followed, triggering more boobytraps as it went with loud bangs and flashes that were actually quite distracting. But the traps were slowing down the monster, and were keeping the monster from catching up too quickly with Crimson, for which she was thankful, for the moment. The monster, of course, still tried to pin her down with its claws, however, and swiped wildly with its forepaws, clawing up the ground behind Crimson as it missed, once, then twice when it swiped again.

It then swiped wildly at Crimson, raising one forepaw up, and swung it, but it swiped along the side of the mansion, tearing shingles and paneling right off it's roof and walls in the process, the debris raining down on Crimson as she ducked around the back of the house. Skidding on the ground, and picking up speed, the monster continued perusing her, gaining speed as there proved to be much fewer magical boobytraps set up in the backyard.

Knowing she needed to think of something fast, Crimson continued running, speeding back around the other side of the mansion and hurrying back towards the front yard, where she knew there might still be some boobytraps waiting to be triggered. Speeding into the front yard and dodging around the bulk of the unconscious monster with only mere paces dividing her from the other monster, Crimson sought a patch of untriggered boobytraps to lure the monster in, then possibly attack it while it was distracted.

It was then, with a flash of bright light, that Morgana reappeared suddenly on the front porch, Bob's body still in her arms. She surveyed the situation briefly, instantly understood what was going on, and, without setting down Bob's body, quickly cast a spell at the monster chasing Crimson. The spell hit the creature broadside, and it flinched, then evaporated. Morgana then repeated the spell in the direction of the still-stunned magical monster, and it was destroyed as well. Then, raising her arms as she as she could without setting down Bob, she yelled out another incantation very loudly.

"Impenetrabiilis tego texi tectum!" she exclaimed with a clear bitter tone.

An encirclement of light flashed around the mansions, then rose upward to from a semi-transparent bubble, a replacement shield for the one that had collapsed. It shimmered there for a few moments, then quickly turned invisible. An eerie silence fell. Crimson stared at the shield for a moment, then turned to look at Morgana. Christine, Agent Todd, and Charlie, cautiously stepped out of the front door and gathered behind Morgana, who had lowered her head to look sadly at Bob's limp form.

Then, without warning, the witch fell to her knees and began to weep bitterly. No one, not even Charlie, needed to ask why. It was pretty clear what had happened. They all gathered sadly around Morgana and looked at Bob's body, which Morgana had finally set down gently upon the porch.

Finally, Crimson had to ask. "Who did it?" she asked.

Morgana inhaled sharply, and her eyes narrowed despite still streaming tears. "Who do you think?" she said shakily and angrily.

Crimson's eyes narrowed on her own. "Neutraduck." she muttered, then raised her head to yell at the sky, "NEUTRADUCK!" She then kicked angrily at the porch step and started stomping around, fuming, barely keeping her anger in check.

Christine shook her head. "But...why?" she asked aloud after a momentary pause. "Why kill Bob like this, when, given what we know about Neutraduck, he wouldn't have to if he's going to cancel out our universe?"

"To lower the shield." Morgana replied simply, who had already thought this through.

"The...shield?" Christine repeated, puzzled. "How does that connect...?"

"Bob was the one who cast the spell that created the first shield, Dr. Merriweather." Todd explained.

Seeing Christine was still confused, Crimson elaborated. "Any spells a magician has cast during his or her lifetime that is still magically active at the time of their death is instantly destroyed." she said darkly. "Neutraduck clearly knew where we were, and wanted to get at us, so killing the magician who had created the spell protecting us would be necessitated."

"All right, I get all of that, but that still doesn't explain why he felt there was a need to." Christine pressed.

"To keep us out of the _way_, Christine." Crimson snapped, still fuming with anger. "_We _were the ones who had stopped him last time, remember?"

"Yes." Christine remarked, stopping Crimson and handing her back the gas gun she still held with a slight scowl. "I do. Don't get angry about it."

"_That's _not what I'm angry about!" Crimson snapped, not heeding the advice, and jerked her head at Bob's limp body before she resumed her fuming.

By this point, Morgana had calmed down slightly, and had at least stopped crying. But her eyes were red and her face tear-streaked, and she looked sadder than any of them had ever seen them before. She stared depressingly at Bob's body. Agent Todd slowly knelt down beside her, and sought something comforting to tell her. Words failed him, however, as his own grief for the death was gnawing at him too, as it was gnawing at all of them.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Macawber." was the best he could manage.

Morgana sniffed and nearly teared up again, and resisted to urge to bitterly point out that she was a widow, and that the term 'Mrs' really didn't apply to her anymore. In the silence that followed, Crimson was heard grumbling darkly, plotting revenge against Neutraduck. Christine gingerly sat down beside Morgana on the side opposite from Todd, and like the canine, wished there was something she could say to comfort the distraught witch. She had less success than Todd had, however. Charlie came over to be close to Christine, the innocent youth looking too stunned by Bob's death to be able to do much else. Silently, Christine wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close.

"Now what are we going to do?" Charlie asked aloud after a moment.

Morgana raised her head slightly, eyes narrowed. "We stop Neutraduck." she said.

"Whole-heartedly agreed." Crimson said.

"But how?" Todd asked. "We don't stand much of a better chance against him than we do against Negaduck."

"Negaduck doesn't stand a chance against him either, Neutraduck has technology that enables him to block attacks against him, and to rob control over Negarian's magical spells, such as the magic monsters." Morgana pointed out.

"So _he _sent those things?" Crimson exclaimed, in reference to the now-gone monsters that had attacked them. When Morgana promptly nodded in confirmation, Crimson let out an incoherent yell and resumed her fuming, stomping around in a small circle in the yard.

"We have to stop him." Morgana repeated, ignoring Crimson's outburst. "We have to go out and attack him, and-and stop him!"

"What?" Todd said, rising. "We barely stood a chance against those two magical monstrosities he sent, and by the sounds of it, Neutraduck's got a lot more than that in his control! I say we stay here, where we know we're safe!"

"That's just it, Agent Todd!" Morgana barked, rising as well to confront the canine. "Neutraduck probably already knows he can't get at us, but that's _not _what he wants! He _wants _to destroy our universe, along with everyone else's universe Negaduck has had contact with! He won't _go _to fight us anymore, he'll go and fight _Negaduck_, and he'll _loose_! _Then _where will we be, Agent Todd?"

"We're in no position at the moment to start a fight, we're even more poorly equipped than Negaduck!" Todd reasoned back. "We'll _still _loose, _and _put us in a highly vulnerable position! Look, Negaduck and his gang aren't going to give up without a fight, that might buy us some time to come up with a plan!"

"It doesn't buy us _any _time!" Morgana exclaimed. "_We have to stop __**Neutraduck**_!And if _you _don't have the nerve to go out and do it, then by golly, I'll go out and stop him myself!"

At this, Christine rose and grabbed Morgana's arm, restraining her. "Morgana, you can't!" she protested. "You wouldn't stand a chance, and you're in no condition at the moment to try anything!"

"Let me go, Christine!" Morgana barked, resisting.

"Morgana, you can't, you..."

"_I said let me go_!"

Morgana suddenly twisted around to face Christine, and in her anger, raised her hand to strike at Christine. She never got that far, however, before Crimson suddenly intervened, and clubbed Morgana in the back of her head with the butt of her gas gun. The witch instantly went limp, and collapsed into Christine's startled arms, blissfully unconscious. Everyone looked at her for a moment, then at Crimson. Crimson fumed for a moment, then with another angry yell, threw her gas gun to the ground and stomped past them and through the mansion's front door, heading inside. They watched her go, then turned back to Morgana's, unconscious form.

Carefully, Christine lowered Morgana down to lay on the porch, next to Bob's body. In doing so, she glanced at Bob's body and sighed, wanting to do something with the magician's body, but was unsure what exactly. Todd seemed to be thinking the same thing, for he suddenly pulled off the jacket to the SHUSH-issued business suit he had been wearing ever since Negaduck's invasion, and draped it over the fallen warlock psychiatrist. It didn't cover him fully, but it seemed sufficient enough for now.

They stood there in silence as if in mourning, until they heard something like glass crash within the mansion. Christine, Todd, and Charlie twisted there heads to look through the mansion's open front door. Charlie started to head inside, but Christine stopped him. She looked up at Todd.

"Go on and go." she said, knowing the agent wanted to go and investigate. "I'll stay here and watch Morgana."

Todd nodded, and without hesitation, he stepped into the mansion, pinpointing the sound of the crash. Once inside, he heard a heavy thud follow the first crash, and realized the racket was coming from the kitchen. Moving carefully, he went over to it's doorway and peered inside.

What he found was Crimson, enraged, and venting her anger at the moment by grabbing whatever was on hand and hurling it at the kitchen's opposite wall, where it hit with resounding force. Todd watched with mild understanding as Crimson grabbed a teacup and hurled it at the far wall, where it shattered in a brilliant spray of porcelain.

"Think Morgana is going to mind you breaking her stuff?" Todd asked sarcastically from the doorway.

"What difference does it make?" Crimson snapped without turning to face the agent as she grabbed a napkin holder and hurled it over at the far wall to join everything else she had thrown. "With our current position, it almost doesn't matter anymore!"

"Not all hope is lost." Todd remarked.

"Might as well be!" Crimson said as she ran out of things sitting on the kitchen counter to throw, and opened a silverware drawer to start throwing that.

Todd watched her for a moment, knowing he should probably stop her, but couldn't bring himself to do it, knowing that her anger was completely understandable. Still, he had to ask. "Why are you doing this, Crimson?"

"Because I'm mad!" Crimson yelled as she continued throwing things. "Mad at Neutraduck, mad at Negaduck, mad at just about everything!" she hurled a fork at the wall, watched it bounce off it, then let out her breath in a long, frustrated sigh. "Seems like no matter what we do, things are just getting worse. We haven't stopped Negaduck's plans, he still has control over the city, and now Neutraduck's turned up and is threatening to destroy the universe!"

"None of that is your fault." Todd pointed out.

"Yes it is!" Crimson snapped, pounding her fist hard on the kitchen table where their jury-rigged computer stood. It jiggled precariously, and Todd quickly moved forward to stabilize it. "At least, it might as well be! Try as I might, I couldn't stop all of this from happening!"

"Neither could the rest of us, Negaduck had the advantage from day one." Todd said.

"Did he?" Crimson asked. "_Did he, _Agent Todd? Or was there something we could've done to prevent all of this?"

"That's in the past, there's nothing we can do about that!" Todd stressed. "Don't go blaming yourself for it!"

"But Todd, there _must _have been something we could've done, that we didn't!" Crimson declared, beginning to tear up herself. "And because of it, Negaduck conquered the city, captured two-thirds of the population, and is plotting to go further than that, and get the whole planet! And because of his actions, we were in no position to fight against Neutraduck! And people have _died _because of all of this, Todd! Bob, that helicopter pilot that got you and Christine here, Darkwarrior..."

"You could've cared less about what happened to Darkwarrior." Todd interrupted.

"Maybe so, but he still didn't need to die!" Crimson barked. "Who else is going to have to die, Todd, before it all ends?"

"Hopefully, no one." Todd said, grabbing her by the shoulders to stop her. "Crimson...I know you've been through a lot, and that I can't begin to understand what kind of stress your in. You've lost Darkwing and the rest of your team, your home, the city you lived in, the right to do what you want without fear, and more. But I've lost a great deal of things myself. St. Canard is _my _home too. I've lost friends too, like Agent Sandy, Agent Mia, Director Hooter, and Darkwing too. I want them all back, just as much as you do. And it'll be a dark, dark, day when I stop trying."

"You don't have the nerve to do that, Todd, you hate getting in dangerous situations."

"And I do! For obvious reasons! There's nothing more than I'd like to do right now than to go and curl up in a ball somewhere and forget any of this is happening! But I saw the moment Negaduck's invasion began that I wasn't going to have that luxury, that I couldn't hide from the danger anymore. When Mia placed me in charge of SHUSH's forces in Duckburg when we evacuated, I rose up to the challenge, not just because it was what was expected of me, but because I knew it was time to step up and face the problem. And I did. I _willingly _came back here, risking my life, because I wanted to help, I wanted to make a _difference_. Like you and Darkwing have done for the past year and a half since Darkwing's return from the Negaverse! You beat the unbeatable plenty of times before in the past, so why not now?"

"But what can we do _now_?" Crimson asked. "_All _of the odds are against us! You said it to Morgana yourself!"

"What I meant is that we need a plan!" Todd pressed. "And fast."

He released Crimson for a moment, waiting to see how she'd react. For a moment, she did nothing, then, fighting back tears, leaned her head on Todd, who shifted uncomfortably, but did not protest.

"None of this should've happened, Todd." Crimson repeated sadly. "None of it. We could've prevented this if we had only used more force. More force to stop Negaduck and his forces, used force to prevent his invasion. Heck, we should've used more force in just crime fighting in general, and not let so many people off so easily. Should've cracked down on them when we had a chance."

Todd glanced at her in surprise. "Now you're starting to sound like Darkwarrior." he noted cautiously.

Crimson was silent for a moment. "Maybe Darkwarrior had the right idea after all."

"Crimson..."

"I don't mean that whole extremist, totalitarian, stuff, but just being stricter about crime in general, not letting so many people off so easily. I mean, we let Negaduck off easy so many times simply because he had _helped _us for the greater good. We could've grabbed him then, but we didn't. We should've, though, and prevented all of this."

"And maybe you would have." Todd said, gently taking Crimson and pushing her a step away from him. She glanced up at him slowly. "But using sheer blunt force to get what you want wouldn't have made _you _any better of a person. I personally think you did what you could given the situation." he grinned. "And that's all that matters."

Crimson looked at him for a moment, then hung her head again. Todd sighed, and released her again. Thinking he had done all he could at the moment, he started to turn and leave, but then Crimson suddenly blinked.

"Sheer blunt force." she repeated aloud.

"What?" Todd asked, stopped, puzzled.

"Sheer blunt force!" Crimson repeated again, looking up, brightening. "Todd, that's it! Sheer blunt force! We strike hard and fast at Neutraduck and only Neutraduck, and we can stop him! It's how we did it last time! If we do it right, we can do it again! And Negaduck and his gang can help by keeping him distracted so we can strike when he's not expecting it!"

"But _how _are we going to strike, Crimson?" Todd asked.

"I know how."

Todd and Crimson turned to confront the speaker of the voice, to see Morgana standing in the doorway, one hand on the back of her head where Crimson and struck her earlier. Her expression was flat, but determined. Behind her, Christine stood, ready to react in case Morgana suddenly collapsed, or started to cause trouble again.

"I know how to strike at Neutraduck." Morgana repeated, clarifying her point. "As I said before, Neutraduck has a personal shield, that completely encompasses at all times, it seems. It's generated by a device in his gun, and it can block all weapons fire and magical spells it seems. _But_, during the attack Bob and I were staging unsuccessfully against him, I discovered that the shield didn't stop a person from stepping up to Neutraduck and engaging him in hand to hand combat."

Crimson brightened more still as she caught on. "So all one has to do is get close to him, and then we've got him!"

"But how is anyone going to get that close to him?" Todd asked. "He'll see us coming from a mile away!"

Now Crimson gave Todd a grin. "Not unless he's already engaged in combat." she remarked. "I have an idea."

* * *

"He _defeated _you guys?" Negaduck asked contemptuously as he paced around the briefing table, angry.

Negawing, Negarian, General Mallard, and NegaGosalyn glanced at each other sheepishly.

"I would think that 'defeat' would be the incorrect term to use in this instance, Negaduck." Negarian finally and calmly remarked. "To have been defeated would suggest that we are no longer in a position to fight back, when we are still quite able to. We have not been 'defeated' as of yet."

"Don't you go correcting my grammar Negarian, and my general point still stands!" Negaduck snapped. "You _turned and __**ran **_instead of sticking around and fighting and _beating _Neutraduck!"

"He was zapping our troops right out from under us with that gun thing of his, Negs, we had no choice but to fall back!" Negawing barked back in response, annoyed that Negaduck was refusing to acknowledge this.

"To have done anything else would've been suicide on our part, and quite possibly would've ended it all for us then and there had we stayed." General Mallard added. "So we retreated and came back here."

"What they're saying is that we need a new plan." NegaGosalyn commented silently without looking up from the table.

"And fast." Negaduck agreed with a growl. "Neutraduck is probably already on his way here _to _end it all. In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't _already _arrived here!"

"So am I." NegaGosalyn admitted, now turning around to glance at Negaduck. "What could possibly he have to slow him down?"

They were all silent for a moment while they contemplated this.

"Perhaps Neutraduck doesn't have as full control over our magicked troops and the magical monsters, and they're causing him problems as a result?" Negawing suggested after a moment.

"Possibly, but given the observations I made of them once he had control of them, I would highly doubt it." Negarian remarked. "His control over the forces seemed absolute."

"Maybe Crimson and her compatriots met up with him, and he's been dealing with them?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"They probably stand even less of a chance than we did." Negawing remarked. "Particularly since Neutraduck has control over _our _forces."

"Only some of them, Negawing." Negaduck grumbled, rubbing his bill as he thought. "What _are _we going to do about that little problem, anyway, Negarian?"

"As I see it, there are only two possible solutions." Negarian remarked calmly. "One, is to somehow relieve Neutraduck of his possession of his weapon, as it must be through that, that he can even maintain the control over the forces and magical monsters. If we can take it from him, and destroy it, we could, theoretically, have control over those lost troops returned to us."

"Neutraduck's never going to let us get our hands on that gun, though." Negawing pointed out.

"True." Negarian agreed. "Which leaves us with only one other option. For the magicked troops, I can recast the mind-control spell on them, which would force the old spell to be overridden in favor of the new one, meaning that I would have control over them once again. The only problem we have then, is..."

"...Neutraduck could just rob control over them yet again." Negaduck finished.

Negarian nodded. "And I have no way of preventing that without knowing more about how Neutraduck can steal control over them in the first place."

"What about the magical monsters?" the general asked.

"We face the same situation there, but it is not so bad for them." Negarian remarked. "They're expendable, and designed to be as such. I will simply destroy the spells creating the affected monsters, and conjure new ones in their place."

"That easy?" NegaGosalyn asked.

Negarian nodded. "Despite their apparent power, they are merely magical energy given creature form." he said. "As such, I can manipulate them however I want."

"So...you theoretically could make them look however you want?" Negawing asked, mildly interested.

"But of course." Negarian said. "The form I have been using, however, I find to be the most practical for our purposes."

Negaduck stopped his pacing suddenly. "Negarian," he began, "Could you possibly use that magical energy to make it look like another person?"

Negarian frowned, but gave the matter some thought. "To do it convincingly, I would have to use a slightly different spell, but I suppose I could."

"How well can you control them?"

"Depends on what you require from them. Fairly complete control, though." Negarian's frown grew. "Why?"

Negaduck grinned. "I think I have an idea."

* * *

But unbeknownst to him, Neutraduck was advancing upon SHUSH Headquarters, leading his army of captured magicked slaves, smirking as he stepped up to the building. Stationed at the building's entrance was a squadron of militiamen from General Mallard's personal army. Upon seeing Neutraduck advancing towards the building, they quickly opened fire upon him and his army. Like before, the shots couldn't reach Neutraduck, they were merely reflected off his shield. He grinned as he watched the soldiers fruitlessly try and shoot him down, then turned to face the army.

"Stay here and attack the entrance, then storm the building." he ordered the army. "Take no prisoners."

The magicked fighters didn't even nod as they quickly and promptly moved into position and started fighting back. As outnumbered as they were, the squadron guarding the door quickly started to fall. Neutraduck didn't stick around to watch, however. Pulling out a small device from his pocket, he used it to scan the building, determining the exact location of Negaduck. It quickly revealed that Negaduck, as well as the other Darkwing doubles he had employed in his command, were in a briefing room on the fifth floor. Neutraduck could see its windows from here.

Grinning, he thumbed a control on the device, and his protective shield hummed slightly as it lifted him up in the air, moving him straight towards the location of the briefing room. Arriving just outside its windows, he peered inside long enough to see Negaduck and the others begin to react to his presence outside and turn to face the windows, then took his weapon and fired. His first shot plowed through the window in question with a shatter, and impacted the floor directly behind Negaduck, standing at the head of the briefing table in question. Negaduck was blown forward by the blast, and crumpled to the floor, momentarily stunned.

Neutraduck floated into the briefing room and landed before turning to face the other doubles in the room. By that point, they were already trying to attack him with their various weapons and abilities. Neutraduck remained safe behind his shield however.

"You'd think you'd learn by now." he muttered, and started firing back.

He fired first at Negarian, striking the table where the magician sat and blowing him backwards and to the floor. NegaGosalyn, standing beside him, stumbled to the side to avoid the blast, and lost her aim. General Mallard, being the closest to Neutraduck, started to move towards him, but Neutraduck spun around and attacked first, firing his first shot at the general a little too wide, and missing him, again striking the table, which buckled under the stress. The general, realizing the danger he was in, started to backpedal and move away, bumping into Negawing, who was starting to take aim with his tommy gun when Neutraduck fired twice at the pair. Both shots again missed, the first striking the row of windows beside them, spraying shards of glass into the faces of the two doubles, the second impacted the chair Negawing had vacated and exploded, knocking both of them to the ground, and seeming to injure General Mallard, who was closer to the last blast.

NegaGosalyn by this point had recovered enough to realize the fight was going badly, and ran for the door of the briefing room, perhaps hoping to find more help somewhere outside. Neutraduck didn't let get that far, however, and fired twice at her. The first shot hit just beside the door, cutting off NegaGosalyn's path and forcing her to come to a stop. The second shot was meant to hit her, but again Neutraduck unexpected missed his target, and the shot hit the wall just behind her. The blast that created, however, was enough to slam into the teen's back and hurl her to the floor, out like a light.

Negaduck was, by this point, starting to recover, favoring his ribcage, and Neutraduck started to turn his attention to him, when he heard a yell from behind him, and turned to see Negawing unexpectedly get back up, twist the handle on his walking stick, and whip out a glimmering sword from within the stick itself, and raising it over his head, charged towards Neutraduck recklessly. The sword would've actually penetrated Neutraduck's shield, but Neutraduck wasn't worried about that, and merely spun around and sidestepped the reckless charge and allowed Negawing to speed past him and stumble into the corner of the room. Neutraduck then fired repeatedly into that corner of the room, and quickly Negawing was lost in the could of dust and smoke that was kicked up from the resulting explosions, taking him out of the picture.

By this time, Negaduck had finally managed to haul himself unsteadily to his feet, and pulled out his pistol to fire at Neutraduck. It didn't penetrate the shield. Neutraduck started advancing upon his principle foe, and fired at his target. Negaduck quickly dodged the shot, allowing it to whiz on and hit the other side of the room, but in doing so, momentarily lost his aim on Neutraduck. He started to turn back, rasing his gun, but Neutraduck was already upon him, and quickly slapped Negaduck's pistol aside, barely feeling the impact of his hand against the weapon as he pressed closer to Negaduck's face. Negaduck, clearly knowing by now that he couldn't win and perhaps might even feared what Neutraduck planned to do, quickly backed away from Neutraduck until he bumped into a wall and could move no further. He glared contemptuously at Neutraduck, regardless, however.

Neutraduck surveyed the destruction he had wrought, before pressing closer to Negaduck. "Is that the best you've got?" he asked with a grin.

Negaduck had a retort ready. "Really think you've got me at a disadvantage, hmm?" he asked breathlessly, though he didn't sound at all sure of himself.

"Of course I do." Neutraduck as he quite slowly switched modes on his weapon. "And I'm going to end it all right here." his expression softened slightly. "That is, unless, one of your compatriots here protests."

Negaduck glanced around at the others. NegaGosalyn still lay on the floor, having lost her hat, and was out cold. Negarian lay flat on his back not far from her, looking to be heavily scorched, and it was debatable if he was even still alive. The general lay gashed and bleeding on the other side of the ruined briefing table, barely conscious. And Negawing's form was still hidden in the cloud of smoke that hovered in one corner of the room, but it was doubtful he was anywhere close to being able to help. Negaduck glanced back at Neutraduck without answering.

"I don't hear any protests." Neutraduck commented, and raised his weapon to point at Negaduck's face. "So I think I'll go ahead and carry out what I came here to do."

Negaduck's expression revealed that he knew what would happen when Neutraduck fired. He narrowed his eyes. "You aren't going to get away with this." he promised.

"How?" Neutraduck asked. "Your compatriots are scattered all over the floor here, and what's left of your army is preoccupied downstairs, fighting to survive. So unless you've got somebody like, say....Darkwing...hidden somewhere waiting to strike..." he grinned, "...I think I'll get away with this."

"Darkwing's not here." Negaduck said, going off topic slightly with the rather pointless comment.

"I noticed. For curiosity's sake, where _is _he?"

"Someplace safe, that you aren't going to be finding anytime soon."

"We'll see about that." Neutraduck said confidently, then finally fired the weapon at Negaduck's head, at almost point-blank range.

The burst of energy that was fired, the same kind of energy that would lace itself with Negaduck's molecular structure and pull him relentlessly towards any other doubles also tainted with the energy and bring about the destruction of the corresponding universes at the same time, should have hit Negaduck and reacted instantly. However, the energy never hit Negaduck at all, and inside whizzed right through the duck, causing the duck's form to flicker slightly, then impact the wall behind him and harmlessly dissipate. Neutraduck blinked in surprise, his smile vanishing. Now Negaduck grinned.

"The trick's on you, Neutraduck." Negaduck remarked, well-pleased with the results.

His form then suddenly turned blue and slightly transparent, with colored designs running up and down his suddenly featureless body. He resembled a small, humanoid form, magical monster for a moment. He then suddenly faded out of existence. All around the room, the forms of the other doubles did likewise, and suddenly Neutraduck realized he was completely alone in the room.

He had barely time enough to comprehend this when suddenly the door to the briefing room burst open and the real Negaduck and his compatriots entered the room, bearing weapons of all sorts that they quickly and without preamble turned onto Neutraduck and started shooting at the shield that protected him. The shield flared and flashed as the shots bounced off of it. Neutraduck instinctively recoiled back a step at the sudden onslaught, then, raised his weapon to begin shooting. But before he could, Negarian, who was the only one who did _not _have a physical weapon, and had his familiar (the raven, Percival) whom he had gone without for safety reasons for days, suddenly cast a very powerful magical spell at Neutraduck, appearing in the form of a constant beam of white, brilliant, energy. Neutraduck's shield continued to protect from the massively powerful spell, but the sheer force of the spell pushing against the shield started to make Neutraduck slide backwards across the room, back towards the windows. And the spell, in addition to the constant onslaught of weapons fire from the firing guns threatened to actually overwhelm the powerful shield, and it started to weaken, as an alarm on Neutraduck's weapon started to announce with a beep and a blinking red light.

"It's working!" Negaduck yelled over the gunfire upon seeing this. "Keep shooting!"

The onslaught continued, Neutraduck's shield growing weaker, and the energy that created it was fully visible now. Neutraduck struggled to find ways to maintain his shield, not worrying about fighting back at the moment, as he knew he'd be dead if he didn't do something quick. Finally deciding that his personal shield was unsalvageable, Neutraduck quickly found a new way to shield himself, and used his weapon to create a forcefield to divide the room into two parts, with him on one end and the doubles on the other side. Their shots struck the forcefield now, and could not penetrate it anymore than they could the shield.

Once again, they were stuck.

Realizing this, the others slowly broke off their attack and lowered their weapons, staring apprehensively at Neutraduck. Neutraduck, although inwardly relieved, grinned, and raised his weapon to fire.

It was then that Crimson suddenly swung in through the broken window on Neutraduck's side of the forcefield and plowed into him.

Both knocked to the ground, Crimson promptly began beating at Neutraduck with every limb she had available, a furious glare in her eyes, while Negaduck and the others looked on in surprise. Neutraduck was taken completely off guard by the sudden attack, and at first merely tried to shield himself from the blows, trying to block them with his own arms, but finally went to take aim with his weapon and shoot Crimson. Crimson was one step ahead of him, and grabbed at his gun hand and forcibly skewed his aim, slamming his hand into a nearby chair to try and relinquish Neutraduck's hold on it. The chair, being free to move, however, merely tipped over.

Crimson was undeterred, and while first jabbing her elbow first into Neutraduck's face as he started to try and pry her off of him, she grabbed him by his gun arm, and swung him around to slam face first into a nearby wall. Crimson then yanked his gun arm behind his back, and gave his hand a twist. Neutraduck let out a shout when there was an audible snap as a bone in the duck's wrist snapped, followed by a clatter as he finally dropped the powerful weapon. Crimson kicked it into a corner to keep it away from Neutraduck.

She then pulled Neutraduck off the wall, spun him around to face her, then decked him in the face. Dazed, Neutraduck staggered backwards from the blow. He started to recover, but before he could, Crimson had landed a triple-flip web-kick to his chest with enough force that Neutraduck was thrown back into the sidewall of the room, hitting it hard. He wobbling precariously on his feet, looking ready to pass out, but Crimson still wasn't done, and grabbed him by the shoulders and planted her knee in his groin. When Neutraduck doubled over from the blow, and started to sink to the floor, Crimson allowed him to do so, long enough for him to expose his back to her, then whacked her fists, joined together, hard into his back, speeding up Neutraduck's journey to the floor, where he hit with a thud.

Crimson merely grabbed him and rolled him over, jumping ontop of him and continued to pound on him angrily with her fists.

"This is for Bob!" she exclaimed as she beat him, almost as an after thought.

Neutraduck didn't hear. He had long since passed out.

Finally, Crimson started to slow, and perhaps realizing what she was doing, restrained herself, midswing, from landing one more hit on Neutraduck's beaten and bruised features. Panting, and breathing heavily, she lowered her hands, stared at Neutraduck's unconscious form for a moment, then slowly rose to her feet, and turned to face Negaduck and the others on the other side of the still-active forcefield. Negaduck stepped closer to the field, and closer to Crimson. A moment of silence fell as they stared at each other, divided by the impenetrable barrier of energy.

"Normally, in situations like this, I'd say that you'd owe me one, but I know you'll never return the favor." Crimson remarked, speaking loud enough so that she could be heard over the shield.

"It doesn't change anything, anyway." Negaduck pressed. "You're still my enemy, just as much as Neutraduck is." he motioned to the duck's limp form. "You already know that. Which makes me think you have a lot of nerve coming here."

"Someone had to stop Neutraduck, and I couldn't be sure you had come to the same conclusions I had." Crimson reasoned. "Besides, a forcefield divides me from you. You can't get me while it's still up." she bent over and picked up Neutraduck's fallen weapon and held it up. "And it'll stay that way...until we do something about this."

The two looked at the weapon for a long moment. Negaduck narrowed his eyes.

"I hate it when you have the edge." he muttered.

"Likewise." Crimson replied with her own look of contempt. "But look. I'll deal with the weapon."

"Insuring your safe escape." Negawing couldn't help but observe.

"But insuring that _you _get to deal with Neutraduck." Crimson pointed out.

Negaduck raised his eyebrows. "Really?" he asked. "You clearly have a grudge out of him, I'm surprised you're giving up the chance to cause him more bodily harm."

Crimson glanced at Neutraduck's fallen form. She did look tempted to hurt him more, but she shook her head. "I've had more than my fill." she assured him. Then she grinned. "Besides, I know that whatever you do to him...will be more than sufficient."

Negaduck shrugged, and was forced to agree. "True, that." he admitted.

Crimson held up the weapon. "I'll leave and dispose of this." she said. "The moment the shield lowers, do whatever you feel necessary to Neutraduck." she moved to the broken window and pulled out her gas gun. She gave Negaduck one last look. "And Negaduck? Make sure Neutraduck doesn't come back to haunt us."

Negaduck nodded. "On that much, we can agree upon." he promised.

Crimson returned to nod solemnly, fired off a grappling hook and swung out the broken window and to temporary safety from Negaduck's forces...

* * *

She swung only as far as the next building over before she looked back at the captured SHUSH building. At it's entrance, the magicked forces Neutraduck had captured were still attacking Negaduck's forces, neither side really making much progress at beating each other. Crimson watched it go on for a moment, then looked at the weapon in her hand. Turning, she threw it up into the air as high as she could. It was just reaching the peak of it's throw when Crimson a shock dart into the device's side, and then even it's advanced technology couldn't save itself from the flow of raw energy that destroyed it's circuits...

* * *

The forcefield flickered, then vanished with a pop. Negaduck and his followers quickly advanced into the space beyond. Negaduck went to stand over Neutraduck's unconscious form, picking up the duck's fallen white fedora in the process, while Negawing and General Mallard went to broken window to look for Crimson. She was already gone, however.

"Well, there went _her_." the general remarked.

"Shouldn't have let her go like that Negs." Negawing remarked aloud. "Could've solved everything if you hadn't."

"Knowing her, she wouldn't have allowed it, though." NegaGosalyn remarked thoughtfully, coming to join Negaduck.

Negarian went to the window, pushed Negawing and the general aside, and looked down at the magicked troops that had been attacking the entrance.

"The troops Neutraduck had captured have stood down." the magician reported. "They're responding to our commands again."

"Well, we have that." Negaduck remarked calmly, rubbing his beak as he debated. "And we have Neutraduck." he stared at the enemy duck's form for a moment longer, turned and walked away. "Pick him up and carry him downstairs."

Negawing, General Mallard, and Negarian looked up in surprise.

"Negs?" Negawing inquired.

"Techno been working on the portal generator like I asked?" Negaduck asked NegaGosalyn as they both headed for the door.

"Ever since you figured out that Neutraduck was here." NegaGosalyn replied, figuring out in advance what Negaduck planned.

"Negs?" Negawing prompted again.

"I said handcuff him and bring him downstairs." Negaduck repeated, pausing at the door to look back at him. "We're going to let him live. But for a price."

* * *

Crimson returned to the mansion calmly, and without event. Stepping up to the shield that protected the house, she gently rapped upon it. The sound of her touching the shield carried, and Morgana, who was positioned to listen, and was watching for Crimson's return anyway, emerged from the mansion. She uttered a spell and vanished in a flash of light to reappear beside Crimson.

"Well?" she asked hopefully.

"It's done." Crimson assured her. "I stopped Neutraduck, and gave him something to think about. Negaduck has him now. Neutraduck's weapon has been destroyed."

Morgana nodded, and hung her head. "Serves him right." she muttered. "I...I just feel like there was more we could've done."

They were silent for a moment, then Crimson hugged Morgana comfortingly. Morgana calmly returned the hug.

"Bob would've been satisfied with this." Crimson assured her. "He wouldn't have wanted you to hold a grudge, anyway, not when little good could've come from it."

Morgana slowly nodded. "You're right, of course." she murmured. She inhaled sharply, then pulled back from Crimson. "You ready?"

"You sure you've got this spell down?" Crimson asked. "Because just earlier this morning, you couldn't seem to do it."

"A lot has happened since this morning, Crimson." Morgana said as she took the teenager's hand, and turned to face the shield. "Ortus!"

And with that, they were both teleported, safely and effectively, into the shield.

* * *

Neutraduck had regained consciousness by the time he had been brought down to sub-level five, and was on his feet again. He wasn't in the best of conditions; his nose was bloodstained, his face bruised, and one eye nearly swollen shut, and his outfit was dirtied, and the hem in one sleeve had torn. And he was, of course, missing his fedora, which Negaduck still had. And he was handcuffed, and flanked by Negawing and General Mallard. But despite all of this, Neutraduck still found a way to glare at whomever was looking his way in hatred.

When they arrived at sub-level five, the portal generator was already in the process of warming up, with Negaduck and NegaGosalyn standing to one side. Standing at the controls for the portal was Techno, under guard but unrestrained, working surprising intensely on the task at hand, with magicked Dr. Sarah Bellum working beside him in a trance.

When Neutraduck entered, Negaduck grinned. "Ah, Neutraduck, glad you could join us."

Neutraduck scowled at him, then looked past him at the generator. He nodded his head at it. "So what are you going to do to me?" he asked. "Banish me to some uninhabitable alternate reality to die a slow and painful death in a foreign universe?"

Negaduck didn't reply right away. "Techno, you about ready?" he asked.

Techno pushed in a few more commands into the control panel before him. "Done." he reported. "Opening portal now."

The portal flashed into existence behind Negaduck. He didn't turn to look at it.

"What I'm going to do, Neutraduck," Negaduck began slowly, "is send you home."

Neutraduck blinked, but otherwise hid his surprise. "What, you aren't going to kill me?" he asked.

"Nope. I want you to live and go home...so your people can see how much of a _failure _you are. You failed to beat us. Again. And you failed terribly. I'm sending you home in shame, Neutraduck. For your incompetence. That alone is a more terrible punishment than death."

Neutraduck's eyes narrowed further. "But that won't stop me." he vowed. "I'll be back."

At this, Negaduck grinned. NegaGosalyn went a step further, and chuckled at the empty threat.

"No you won't." she stated with certainty.

"I've made sure of that." Techno piped up. "You see, SHUSH has been working on a device designed to...block...all incoming portals of a certain frequency. It was originally designed to block the Negaverse, but it didn't work."

"I was one step ahead of them." Negaduck remarked with a grin.

"However, with a few tweaks that I personally have conducted, the device will now block the Neutraverse." Techno concluded with a self-satisfied smirk. He was just as happy to declare this as Negaduck, as he didn't want to see Neutraduck again either. "So long as it is active, you can never return to the Posiverse."

"And the Negaverse will be setting up a similar device lickety-spilt, so it'll be cut off as well." NegaGosalyn said.

"And we'll be relaying the instructions needed to build such devices to all the rest of the multiverse, so that they can do the same thing and protect themselves from the likes of you." Negaduck said with a satisfied growl. "Someday, the Neutraverse will be totally cut off from the rest of the multiverse."

Now Neutraduck growled, and tried to lunge at Negaduck's smirking face, only to be held back by Negawing and the general, who had also begun smirking. Negaduck then lifted up Neutraduck's fedora that was in his hand.

"And even if you _do _ever figure out how to come back..." Negaduck pulled out a lighter, flicked it, and held the flame to the hat before Neutraduck's face. The fedora was quickly on fire, and quickly burning up. Negaduck watched it burn for a few moments. "...I'll do something like that...expect worse." Grinning, he chucked the still-burning hat carelessly over his head, narrowly hitting Techno with it. It hit the floor and continued to burn into ashes.

Neutraduck was really mad now, but he was totally helpless to do something about it. He could only resist pitifully as Negaduck gave the duck's escorts a nod, and watched as the two forcibly marched Neutraduck up to the awaiting portal.

"Sayonara, Neutraduck." Negawing remarked with a grin as they arrived just before the portal's threshold.

Then he and General Mallard shoved the duck in. Negaduck promptly spun around and motioned to Techno to kill the portal, but Techno was already one step ahead of him, and was already cutting the power. Technically, to be safe, one needed to allow for a few seconds to transpire before closing the portal, to ensure a safe transit, but Techno didn't really care about this, given who it was they had sent through. The portal winked out with a flash.

Negawing and General Mallard then exited, nodding to Negaduck as they passed. NegaGosalyn also left, still smirking to herself.

"Techno go back to that robot you've been repairing." Negaduck ordered, checking his watch. "You're done here."

Techno looked at him for a moment, then nodded, and reluctantly but willingly surrendered himself to his guards, and he was escorted out of the room.

"Dr. Bellum, you stay here, to operate the generator." Negaduck ordered the magicked scientist. "Hopefully, we're going to get one more portal coming through before the day is done."

* * *

Later that day, a funeral of sorts was held for Bob.

Technically speaking, with Bob being of magical blood, and Morgana as well, Bob could be magically revived. However, Morgana was immediately against the idea. She said that of all the spells that she knew of that could work, only one would work the best, and it required magic so dark, that even the dark magicians avoided such a spell. The price required to use it was too high to pay. All the other spells Morgana knew of that she could use would be inadequate, and wouldn't _truly_ bring Bob back properly.

Crimson did point out that it was probably Negarian who brought NegaGosalyn back from the dead, and that he didn't seem to have any problems in doing so. Morgana agreed, which led her to believe that Negarian had probably used a spell that she did not know of. Negarian being the more experience magician, this wasn't surprising. Morgana couldn't use a spell she didn't know, and she knew nothing of it's particulars, anyway. NegaGosalyn's death was under different conditions than Bob's was, and the same spell might not work in both cases.

In the end, Morgana didn't really care. She was confident that it wasn't what Bob would've wanted anyway. If he was dead...then he was dead. It was best that he stayed that way.

So Morgana, Crimson, Christine, Agent Todd, and Charlie, worked to conduct a funeral typical of the magical world. Like in the world populated by the non-magical, typically a dead magician was buried, but this wasn't always the case. In Bob's case, Morgana had declared he would be magically cremated. No one knew if this was her choice, or if it had been Bob's will to be cremated, but no one questioned this choice.

In the backyard of the mansion, a little podium was magically created to lay Bob's body upon. This was done gently and carefully, and done as if he was going to be laid to rest in a coffin. No wood or anything else flammable was placed on or around him, so everyone but Morgana was wondering how this was going to work, but Morgana clearly knew what she was doing. Once Bob was positioned on the podium, everyone took their turns to give their goodbyes. Todd and Christine's were both short, as they regrettably didn't know Bob as well, and couldn't find much to say, other than what one usually said about the dead in a funeral, and simply paid their respects. Charlie didn't say anything, but with him being so young, he wasn't expected to. Crimson had many things she wanted to say, but fighting back a plethora of emotions both good and bad, she couldn't find much to say either, except some bitter remarks about Neutraduck, an apology that it came to this, and an assurance that Bob would be missed.

Morgana's farewell was probably the shortest of everyone's. Like Crimson, there was so much she wanted to say, but was too overcome with emotions she was clearly just barely able to keep in check to find her voice. Finally, after going to speak several times and failing, Morgana finally merely bent down and placed a gentle and final kiss upon Bob's lips, looked one last time at his face, then stepped back. Once she and the others were at an adequate distance, Morgana without hesitation (perhaps done so she wouldn't give herself a chance to hesitate) cast a magical spell at the podium.

It was instantly engulfed in a swarm of green flames, magical ones that quickly started to lap at the podium and consume Bob's body. However, it didn't consume it in the traditional sense. Save for the typical smell of smoke and ash that came with any fire, there was no smell of burning flesh or anything like that. And Bob's didn't burn per say, but it simply and slowly started to fade away, like someone was slowly erasing it from existence. While this happened, everyone stood nearby, sadly watching.

As previously stated, Morgana was close to breaking down again, but she bravely and was successfully keeping herself together for the time being. Agent Todd looked mournful and respectful, and looked like he wished he could do more. Christine looked to be somewhere along the same lines, but something else was nagging at her as well that she wasn't trying to focus on. Charlie, who stood beside his adopted mother, was the only one who was actually crying, and was weeping tearfully into Christine's leg. Crimson merely watched it all happen with a flat expression that seemed more angry than anything.

Finally, she shook her head. "It shouldn't have come to this." Crimson muttered. "There must have been something we could've done."

"It doesn't matter." Christine remarked back, softly. "What's done...is done, Gosalyn."

Crimson inhaled sharply, and didn't look very reassured. "It's a terrible thing, death." she said sadly. "Even worse that it's murder, as that's not a natural death. There's no justification for it."

"No, there isn't." Christine agreed with the shake of her head.

"How much longer is it going to go on like this, Christine?" Crimson asked. "How many more are we going to lose before this is all over? If it ends at all?"

Christine hesitated for a long moment, choosing her response carefully. "I think you're the best person to find out the answer to that, Crimson." she finally replied.

They were both silent for a long moment, watching the dancing green flames continue to burn. Finally, Christine could ignore the thought that was nagging the back of her brain no longer.

"I wonder what Drake would think of this." she remarked aloud.

Crimson gave her a glance. "Dad?" she asked, surprised. "He'd be just as upset about all of this, too. He wouldn't want Bob to die either..."

"No, that's not what I meant." Christine interrupted. "I mean, I would certainly would hope that Drake felt all of that. At first. But what about later? When some of the shock has worn off?"

"What are you getting at, Christine?" Crimson asked, growing frustrated, and not making the connection.

"Gos, Bob was Morgana's husband."

"I know, that makes his death twice as hard for poor Morgana."

"No, you're missing my point." Christine sighed, and tried again. "It seems like a bad time to think of this, but Morgana's a widow now."

"Yeah, I know." Crimson said. "That's bad."

"It could be even worse." Christine went on. "Because when Drake realizes this..."

Crimson's eyes blinked, then grew slightly as she made the connection. "Keen gear." she mumbled. "That means Morgana would be open again for Dad to try and...and..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "But...he's already got you, Chris!"

Christine hung her head. "At times I've wondered if that's not enough." she admitted.

They were silent for a moment.

"Gosalyn, what _do _you think Drake would think about all of this?" Christine finally asked. "Will he try to get Morgana again? I mean, she's going to be pretty distraught about this for quite awhile, she'll be more than open to a former love stepping in to comfort her at this time of grief, and Drake more than willing."

Crimson thought about it for a long moment, then decided not to answer. "Right now, it doesn't matter." she said. "We still don't even know where Dad is. We'll have to find him first, and there's still Negaduck to deal with as well. We have to finish taking care of business first, Christine."

At this, Christine nodded. "And the sooner the better."

And another silence fell at this as they resumed watching the magical fire burn, and it was not broken again.

* * *

Night had fallen by the time anything else of interest occurred at SHUSH Headquarters that day.

Without warning, the portal generator suddenly started up, and geared up to open a portal. The noise it generated woke Negaduck from the nap he had been taking in a corner, and he jumped up and stretched, managing a grin.

"About time." he remarked. "This had better be them."

The portal flared open and stabilized. Negaduck glanced at Dr. Bellum, the sole technician of any sort working with the portal's controls.

"Well?" he prompted the magicked scientist.

"We are receiving the UIO's IDC, Lord Negaduck." Bellum replied in a monotonous voice.

"Ah." Negaduck said, pleased, approaching the portal. "About time."

He was halfway to it when NegaLaunchpad stepped out of the portal, a small box being carried in his hands. Without hesitation, he promptly started down the ramp to meet Negaduck at the bottom.

"You're late." Negaduck stated, displeased at this detail.

"Sorry Negs, but we ran into several snags in the Negaverse." NegaLaunchpad proceeded to apologize. "We had a really bad day today. You see, first we had one of the machines break down, then we had the computer system that was running the final analysis crash, and then..." he trailed off, seeing Negaduck's increasingly annoyed face, and put two with two. "But all of this doesn't begin to compare with your day today, does it?"

"Just tell me you have it." Negaduck grumbled warningly.

"Oh, I've got it." NegaLaunchpad assured him, and held out the box, lifting it's lid so that Negaduck could see inside.

Negaduck did peer inside, and grinned at the sight that awaited him. Pulling out a rubber glove for added protection and slipping it over one hand, he reached into the box, and pulled out the only object within. It was an hourglass-shaped crystal, with pointed ends, and was glowing with a deep red color with an energy it was producing itself. When Negaduck tapped it on the side of the box that had contained it, it sparked brightly, more visible energy coursing over it.

Negaduck grinned as he lifted the sub-electron amplifier, his grin growing bigger still. "Perfect." he remarked, pleased.

* * *

_Fun Facts: Kudos to Vaporshi, as she accurately managed to call that Neutraduck would return in this chapter, and was the only one to verbally do so. :)_

_I love the conversation Negawing and Negaduck have at the beginning here, as it turned out pretty good, and really shows how the two interact._

_And NegaGos is inquiring about her death, feeling that there is something Negaduck hasn't told her...hmm, possible beginnings of discontent? Only time will tell. ;)_

_The probe that attacks Negaduck and NegaGos in the hallway is similar in design to the same probe Neutraduck used at the beginning of chpt. 43, "Neither Good Nor Evil", except this one can obviously shoot. I don't think Neutraduck really expected it to succeed, he just wanted Negaduck to know that he was back, and ready to rumble._

_Techno and Nanite DW have a curious relationship going on here. They both acknowledge each other as enemies, but are regardless being fairly friendly with each other. It's almost ironic. Techno learns more about how Nanite DW works._

_Neutraduck is probably one of the few people Negaduck has any reason to fear, as he is so confoundedly powerful. One wrong move and you, as well as the rest of your universe, is dead. Curiously, of all the people's reactions to Neutraduck's return, Negaduck is probably the most tense about it._

_This mysterious door General Mallard and Negarian find may seem like nothing important, but it's something to remember, because it'll turn up again in the future. ;)_

_Somebody had inquired as to why Neptunia hadn't turned up to help yet, as I had stated in chpt. 75 that she was on her way to St. Canard, so I came up with an explanation why she's apparently chosen to stay away._

_An interesting thing to note is that in this chapter, whenever Todd begins listing off the people he'd like to find and save, Agent Sandy is always first on his list. :P_

_I dropped a pretty obvious but brief clue as to where and what happened to Hooter. Did ya all catch it? ;)_

_It is important to note that when this chapter began, Morgana couldn't quite pull of the Ortus spell. Later, however, she discovered she can, but for all the wrong reasons. :|_

_Clearly, Neutraduck learned something from his last encounter with the Posiverse and adjacent Negaverse, for he's better prepared this time around. But still not quite prepared enough. :P_

_And then there's Bob...it'll be interesting to see what you guys's reaction will be this development, as I always got mixed vibes about him from you guys, at least up until recently. To be honest, the idea of killing off Bob came about almost the same time I first introduced the character way back in chpt. 4. The reaction that Morgana had married someone other than Darkwing was so...understanding but reluctant, it made me feel bad. I still stand by by reasons as to why I did it, but I slowly started to wonder if getting Bob back out of the picture might have any merit. As NADWD progressed, and Bob didn't seem to be gaining much of a bigger role, I finally decided that I would kill him off, and see where that got me. I had at first planned to kill off Bob a little less spectacularly, as at the time I had considered him such a minor character, but in recent chapters, his role really grew, so I realized I had to make his death count or this chapter would fail. I believe I succeeded._

_While I'm thinking of it, this chapter originally was going to work a little differently. For one thing, Neutraduck wasn't going to appear at all (this was before I had written and uploaded Neutraduck's debut chapter and realized that I could easily bring the villain back for another adventure) and instead, the plot focused on a plan Morgana and Bob had come up with that they were confident could overthrow Negaduck, but Crimson had her doubts, and was urging them to not to. They did anyway, however, and in the battle that ensued, they not only failed, but Bob had been killed (by Negarian in this version). I later merged this chapter with the comeback of Neutraduck to add more plot to it, and it ultimately became the chapter you see today._

_Leave it to a doctor like Christine to note how anatomically correct a magical monster is while facing the possibility of dying right in the mouth (literally!). :P_

_The spell Morgana encants to restore the lost shield, _ **_"Impenetrabiilis tego texi tectum"_**_ is latin. I don't know the exact meanings of each word, but "impenetrabiilis" (I'm unsure if it's really supposed to have those two i's) means something along the lines of "impenetrable", and "tego", "texi", and "tectum" are all latin synonyms for "shield"._

_The scene where Todd and Crimson chat in the mansion's kitchen was a good moment of characterization on my part, and really brought out the effects of all of this on both characters. They've both changed; Todd's braver and more ready to face danger, while Crimson is more or less the same, except immensely bitter, blaming herself for things, and with a much darker mindset. The stress of it all is clearly getting to her, too._

_The idea of using magically created duplicates of themselves to lure Neutraduck into a trap was an idea I came up with while thinking about the particulars about the magical monsters Negarian used, and decided that the same spell, or a slightly similar one, could be used to create such duplicates. I liked the idea enough that I just had to use it. :)_

_Neutraduck's getting cocky just before he's beaten. Yet another reason for his downfall. :)_

_A hint towards the location of where DW is, since you've all been begging for one. It's not much, but hopefully it'll keep you satisfied for now._

_Percival, Negarian's raven familiar, reappears for the first time since chpt. 74, "The Life Not Lived", even though it's a real brief reference, and is all but forgotten again after that. Really, the bird hasn't had much reason to be needed in my writings, I don't know if he'll be pop up much more in the future._

_There is a possibility still of Neutraduck or someone like him to reappear sometime in the future, but I doubt I'll do it, as any conflict with him will probably run much in the same manner as his two chapter's worth of appearances have run, and it'd start getting repetitious a third time through._

_Now we know where Dr. Bellum's at. Clearly, Negs saw uses to just keeping her right where she's always at. :P_

_Christine brings up a very good point. Just how will DW react to this new development if and when he finds out about it? An answer for that in the future_

_...the, uh, distant future at that, which I'll explain shortly._

_And the ending (I'm seeing a pattern here), Negs now has a sub-electron amplifier in his possession, but what for? To quote Negs himself, "You'll see." ;)_

_Just because I think not everyone got to hear about it, but around Christmas time, shortly after I posted the last chapter, I posted a separate, Christimas-themed, one-shot fanfic that took place in the NADWD universe titled "Last Minute Crime Fighting", so if you want to read it, you know it's there. If not, I won't hold that against you. To be honest, it's a one-shot done mostly for laughs, and didn't have much in the way of plot. :P  
_

_Next chapter will be titled "To Be A Warrior"._

_Which brings me to one last thing that you need to know about it, and that's why for the two month long delay for this chapter, and what the future will bring. Dang it, I hate having to do this, but... In case you are not aware, I am attending college again, and that right there explains the two-month delay. Classes and the work required thereof took up so much of my time, I was lucky to write a few sentences a day of every week. Frustrating as all heck. Worse still, is something I have known was coming for sometime now. Sometime after April most likely (I don't know exact dates as of yet, but around that area) I will have to suspend any and all unfinished writing, fanfic or otherwise, for as long as two years, as my current lifestyle will change so drastically, there simply won't be time for it. I had hoped to get NADWD finished by then, but it's clearly not happening. So then I had hoped to get as far as chpt. 82, where things would be excellent to pause at, long term, but even though I have time still, it's taking too long, with too much time, to continue writing these chapters at this time, and to be honest, there is a whole mess of things I really should be doing instead of this that need to be done before April._

_So, as of now, NADWD is on a prolonged hiatus._

_If and when I can find time to continue writing again, I most certainly will. It just might be more than two years before that happens. If I manage to get things all wrapped up before April, then I'll try to post one, maybe two, more chapters before that two year time period, but I'm personally not holding my breath._

_It's frustrating as all heck, as I said, to have to do this, but I really don't have much of a choice. But I have every intention of one day seeing this fanfic through to the end, so you can rest easy knowing that it is not dead. I WILL finish it...just not now._

_More details will be posted on my profile as they become available.  
_

_Thank you all ever so immensely for reading this far, and I hope that when the time comes again for me to continue this series of adventures, many of you will still be here to read them. :)  
_


	79. To Be A Warrior

Summary: Times have been rough for Crimson and the others as they fight against Negaduck. Lives have been lost. No clear victories have been won. But now, they might have a chance to finally start turning the tables. But when the odds start turning in their favor again, of course another wrench is thrown into the gears...

Rating: T

Author's Note: No, you're not imagining this, nor are you hallucinating, dreaming, etc, and no, this is not a trick. This is an honest-to-goodness update for NADWD, as I present to you chpt 79. More details about this probably unanticipated return to be included in the fun facts that are included, as usual. Now read the chapter. :)

79.

To Be A Warrior

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_Crimson now realized something else. This Gosalyn didn't know Darkwarrior was really her adopted father. But this caused another alarm. This Darkwarrior didn't become this way because Gosalyn had vanished without a trace, like that last time Crimson encountered Darkwarrior. He became this way, even though he still had Gosalyn as his adopted daughter._

_...  
_

_"Darkwarrior's methods may seem violent, but he has made St. Canard virtually crime free."_

_"Yes, but at what cost? You're safe from criminals, but not Darkwarrior! You're all living in fear of him!"_

_"There are some things we all have to sacrifice for the greater good."_

_...  
_

_"We've all gone against Negaduck at least once in the past! Therefore, he can't trust us! He doesn't trust us!"_

_"He never __**did**__ trust us. He planned this from the start, that's why he kept us out of the loop for so long. He only lets us in later so to keep us from getting too suspicious. Now he's just waiting to get his chance to deal with us properly."_

_...  
_

_The Negaquack then swooped around until it was behind the Thunderquack, and fired off it's last missile as well as it's target. Launchpad started to evade it, but the missile was faster, and struck the jet where it's right wing joined with the rest of the plane, severing it right off._

_...  
_

"_Attention citizens of this fine country. For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under __**my**__ control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet! Go ahead and try and stop me, but you should know that I've already dealt with most of my __**real **__enemies. You couldn't stop me even if you could. So, to summarize, if you don't know me, __**get**__ to know me. For I am the terror that hunts in the night. I am the conspirator that destroys your government. I'm Negaduck. And soon I'll be in control. Ha-ha-ha-ha!"_

_...  
_

"_Unfortunately, we have a problem there, as the person I'd like to do that, Bushroot, has gone missing, and I have a pretty good hunch why."_

_...  
_

"_You do realize that she's not going to let you capture her, right? Crimson is bound and determined to stop you. At any cost."_

"_So am I. And sooner or later, she's going to mess up. And when she does, I'll be ready. I will have her, Techno."_

"_And Crimson, of course, is thinking the same thing. Only time will tell who will be the victor."_

_...  
_

"_But what can we possibly do from here?"_

"_Simple. We fight back. We defeat Negaduck. We restore things back to the way they were. Any way possible."_

_...  
_

_"Negaduck told me about this duck. And he said that if there was anybody in that prison that he didn't want escaping, it was Darkwarrior Duck."_

_...  
_

_"Did you really think you were going to get away with it, Darkwarrior? I mean, I don't know the details of what you've been planning, but I have a pretty good idea. Yep. You disabled the computer virus SHUSH has been using to keep you from using your robots in this universe. I suppose your plan once doing that was to use the forces of you and your technology to overthrow me, and then create your imperialistic, crime-free, empire."_

_...  
_

_He fired twice, and both bullets pierced the breastplate of spiked armor Darkwarrior over his body. Blood began to pour freely from both wounds. Stunned, Darkwarrior glanced down at the wounds, then back up at Negaduck to gape at him before his knees buckled suddenly and the villain stumbled to the floor._

_...  
_

_"Take me home. Please. Home to the Warriorverse. I've been away from it for so long now. No thanks to you, but that's beside the point. If I'm dead and gone, there's no reason for me to start here in this tumultuous universe of yours."_

_...  
_

_"Why are you going out of your way to carry out any sorts of favors for him?"_

_"Because, Bob, it was the warrior's dying wish, and he was a man that in the end, you couldn't deny that he meant well. He wanted peace and a crime-free world, he just went about it the wrong way. And anyway, regardless of who he was in this life, he deserves at least this much."_

_...  
_

_In the Warriorverse, the cart with Darkwarrior's body slid out of the portal on the other side, rolling freely a few feet away from the portal generator that sat deep within Darkwarrior's hideout in his St. Canard. There was a moment of silence, then the portal shut off suddenly with a whoosh of air, rushing in to fill the space it had filled. Another long moment of silence fell._

_Then, a sensor in the room that had been tripped, started to flash a little red light..._

_...  
_

"_No, Bob...It...it...can't be, there must...must be someway...somehow...to...to..."_

"_Don't bother, he's deader than a doornail now."_

_...  
_

"_None of this should've happened, Todd. None of it. We could've prevented this if we had only used more force. More force to stop Negaduck and his forces, used force to prevent his invasion. Heck, we should've used more force in just crime fighting in general, and not let so many people off so easily. Should've cracked down on them when we had a chance."_

"_Now you're starting to sound like Darkwarrior."_

"_Maybe Darkwarrior had the right idea after all."_

_...  
_

_Negaduck grinned as he lifted the sub-electron amplifier, his grin growing bigger still...

* * *

_

The view of St. Canard, currently being silent and at peace, was a reassuring one. Instead of living in a constant fear, the city felt much more relaxed. Now people traveled around the city at night going from one place to another as they wished, without having to worry about anyone wrongly trying to stop them.

But that right came with a price. And Mia Gingivere still had mixed feelings about the whole situation, and whether or not it was truly "wrong" to do what this city had suffered for so long. Worse still was the fact that she couldn't afford to have these kinds of thoughts right now, as she needed to find some way to justify what had happened. Or find a cause to seek justice. Neither of which she, admittedly, wanted to do.

But this was SHUSH's case. And as director, it was her responsibility to deal with it.

Besides, she had the right to know.

Sighing, Mia stared out her office windows at the calm tranquility of St. Canard, pondering the situation she found herself, debating how to best handle it. There really was only one way to do it, but she desperately hoped there would be another way. At that moment, the buzzer on the intercom sitting on her desk beside her buzzed. Sighing again, the feline stooped over to press the answer button.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Director Gingivere, they've arrived, both her and her guardian." Mia's secretary announced. "You asked to be notified when they arrive."

"Yes, I did." Mia replied mostly to herself with a nod. She was quiet for a moment. "How are they reacting to all of this? Do they have any ideas why they're here?"

"No, they don't seem to. They're just puzzled, and asking questions."

"All right." Mia said to herself, bracing herself for this. "All right, Sandy, let's just start with one of them. Send her in, but ask her guardian to wait outside."

"Yes, director."

The intercom fell silent, and Mia had just enough time to finish composing herself and turn to face the door to her office when it opened, and her guest entered the room. Mia took the moment to look her over. Sandy was right, she did seem to be mostly puzzled, and having few clues as to why she was here. However, deep down, Mia could see that she had a few theories.

It was unsurprising. It seemed SHUSH had intruded into her life quite often lately, against her wishes, and without any real merit to show for it afterwards, either. Therefore, it wasn't the first time Mia had met her in person. Looking her over now, it was clear that she had changed little since Mia had last seen her about late November of last year. Her hair was still kept in the long ponytail, and the clothes she wore were identical to the clothes Mia last saw her in; a simple purple blouse with black dress pants.

She still seemed to be her shy and hesitant self, as well. But now she also seemed sullen, and probably a little depressed. Mia knew she had every reason to feel like that, too, given circumstances as of late. She wished there was something she could do to correct this, but knew that after what she had to reveal to this poor girl tonight, that she will likely have made her feel worse still.

Still, despite knowing this, Mia put on as friendly a face as she could, sitting behind her desk. "Hello, Miss Mallard." she greeted.

Eighteen-year-old Gosalyn Mallard nodded in acknowledgment as she wandered up to the director's desk. "Good evening, Director Gingivere." she greeted politely, sitting herself in a chair in front of the desk.

"Please, Miss Mallard, just call me Mia." Mia urged reassuringly. "Now, I must apologize for having you come up here so unexpectedly and so late in the evening, and I appreciate you doing so anyway." she paused, giving Gosalyn a knowing look. "I know things haven't been easy for you lately."

Gosalyn solemnly shook her head. "But we've managed."

"Are you sure?" Mia persisted. "It's been nearly six months to the day since your adopted father vanished without a trace, with little clues as to where he went. That must be incredibly hard on you. So tell me truthfully, because I need to know...how are you doing?"

Gosalyn was silent for a moment. "I miss him." she admitted. "Immensely. But...otherwise I'm doing fine. Really."

Mia nodded, believing her. "Okay," she said, and nervously fiddled with some papers on her desk, debating how to proceed.

"How are things going at SHUSH?" Gosalyn asked suddenly, in an attempt to be polite. "They must be going good, seeing that you've beaten one of your greatest foes."

Mia made a soft snort at this. "More or less. I suppose that's one way to put it." she muttered, then added, a bit uncomfortably, "There have really been both good and bad outcomes to that." she sighed, then continued, "and besides, there's a very good reason things played out as they did."

Gosalyn furrowed her brow at this comment. Seeing it, Mia decided to drop tact and get to the point, the _real _reason they were here.

"Gosalyn, we've found your father." she announced.

Gosalyn's eyes went wide. "Really?" she breathed, as if she scarcely believed it. "Then where is he?"

"I'm afraid that's the bad news." Mia said, and rose from her chair. "You had best come and see for yourself."

She led Gosalyn out of the office, and through the corridors of SHUSH Headquarters, heading deeper and deeper into the structure. Eventually, they arrived in a small and sterile hospital-like room, although Gosalyn immediately saw what the room truly was, and was visibly filled with dread. Mia noticed, and did not bother to dissuade her assumptions. Solemnly, she led the teenager to the back of the room, where several lines of the refrigerators found in autopsy rooms were placed, and opened one, sliding out the tray, with the body upon it, covered with a white cloth.

Gosalyn inhaled sharply at this point. Mia glanced at her, reaching to move the cloth and uncover the body.

"This is going to come as a shock, Miss Mallard." she warned her.

Gosalyn nodded in understanding, trying to keep herself calm. "I'm prepared." she promised.

Mia, however, shook her head. "No, you aren't." she said. "There's no way you can be prepared for this."

And with that, she folded the cloth back to reveal the face and upper body of the dead person lying on the tray. Gosalyn gasped, and went wide-eyed, seeing that Mia was right. There was no way she could have been prepared for this.

Because laying there on the tray, hat and mask removed so one could clearly see the person's true identity, lay Darkwarrior Duck.

* * *

**The Posiverse**

It was a dark and rainy night at St. Canard, with inky black storm clouds hanging ominously over the city, lit only when large forks of lightning flashed across the horizon. The wind blew hard and strong, casting the heavy downpour into Crimson's face as she stealthily moved across the roof of the building. Hearing a patrol from Negaduck's army marching through the street below, she stayed away from the edge of the roof until the sound of their marching, barely to be heard in the noise of the storm, had passed, then carefully approached the edge.

She looked down at the street below her to double check that it was really empty, then looked across it to the next building on the other side of the street. Pulling out her gas gun, she fired off a grappling hook and rope to the roof of the next building, and swung over. Once there, she looked around, surveying the city.

It looked as dark and gloomy as ever.

"Negaduck, one day, I'm going to make you pay for all of this." Crimson vowed, then sighed, and sat down on the wet roof. She didn't care if that made her wet; the rain had already left her drenched as it was.

They still didn't seem to be getting very far with shaking Negaduck's control on St. Canard. They were still too highly outnumbered and out powered, and the potion that would hopefully reverse the mind-control spell Negarian had used on the captured citizens of St. Canard was still not ready. And until then, they still didn't have much of an edge. And there seemed to be little hope of getting one until then.

And as a result, Crimson was losing heart. Most of her friends were still under the influence of Negarian's mind control, or unaccounted for. And it didn't help that they had some serious blows as of late. Most of their battles had ended with them losing, and Negaduck.

But the hardest blow of all had to be Bob.

Technically, it wasn't Negaduck's fault that Bob was killed. But in Crimson's mind, it was still interconnected. Either way, she wanted to blame herself for doing it. There had to have been a way to have prevented his death. Crimson was convinced of it. She spent much of her time thinking about she could have done it. One theory that kept coming back to her attention involved the late Darkwarrior.

Lately she had been wondering if Darkwarrior had the right idea from the beginning. He wouldn't have let any of this happen. Even if it meant going to the extreme to prevent it.

Crimson shook her head. She kept trying to tell herself that it didn't matter now. It was too late to try and prevent what had already happened. Unless she attempted to time travel, but she had encountered more than enough problems messing with time travel before in the past to know better.

But still, it was so frustrating to know that you were in a position where you could possibly fight back against your foe, but still be unable to make that difference.

It was then that Crimson noticed a light through the thick, falling, rain, and upon realizing it, slowly looked up to study it. The light came from the window of a building not far from where she was. This wasn't unusual. Even with Negaduck in control leaving most of the city dark and lightless, partly due to the fact that there was no use for those buildings at present and simply because Negaduck preferred it that way, there were still a fair number of lights to be found scattered throughout the city. As such, Crimson almost shrugged it off...until she realized that she recognized this building.

Sometime before Negaduck's takeover, Crimson remembered hearing about this building in the newspaper. The business that had previously owned it had gone bankrupt and moved out, leaving the building abandoned. There had been some discussion about what to do with the building after that, but nothing concrete, so far as Crimson knew, had been decided. But the building was abandoned at the time of Negaduck's invasion, and Negaduck shouldn't have any kind of interest in this building that Crimson knew of. In fact, it was entirely possible that it shouldn't have power.

Yet, one window was alight with the soft yellow glow of an electric light.

Which meant somebody had to be in there to turn it on.

Crimson started towards the edge of the roof she was on with the intent of heading over to the building to investigate, but then stopped short. She didn't know who was in there, or why. It could have been some kind of elaborate trap set up by Negaduck or one of his allies. Or maybe the reverse was true. She didn't know what kind of interior was like in the building either. Someone could get the jump on her.

So, as much as she hated to admit it, she really shouldn't attempt to explore this mysterious light on her own. She should wait and get someone to help her. It might be a waste of time, as the thought occurred to her that the light might be nothing. Maybe someone just left a light on, and she was only just now noticing it.

But Crimson's gut was telling her otherwise. And since Negaduck had taken control of St. Canard, her gut had been right about a lot of things...

Taking note of the building and it's location, she continued on with her journey, only now planning to cut it short and head back to Macawber Mansion.

* * *

**The Warriorverse**

If there were ever a time at which Mia would have felt guilty about doing her job, this was one of those times. When she had signed up to SHUSH, she had really anticipated working to try and ensure peace and security not only for her homeland but for the rest of the world as well. Maybe work at making that world a little better, too, even if it was by force. That was what she had been trained to do.

Then Darkwarrior came to be.

And the rules of the game changed.

And, upon declaring the agency his enemy, SHUSH suffered a fair brunt of Darkwarrior's attacks.

SHUSH's original leadership was taken "out of the picture," as Darkwarrior himself had put it once, and in need of new agents in commanding positions, Mia quickly ascended through the ranks, and finally, and suddenly, found herself in command of the whole agency as director.

And by then, SHUSH's primary goals had changed. Their new mission: stop Darkwarrior at all costs, before his rapidly growing domain spread further than just St. Canard.

So she _should _be feeling glad that their goal had been carried out.

Yet, as Mia stood in the doorway of the autopsy room and looked at the teenage girl that was sitting behind the body of the former threat now revealed to also be her adopted father, crying, Mia was feeling anything but relief.

It was this that she felt guilty about.

With a sigh, Mia looked away, and turned around to rest against the wall beside the open doorway, mentally troubled with the ethics of all of this. She hadn't anticipated having to do something like this. But after it was discovered who Darkwarrior truly was after they found him, she knew it was only right to tell his adopted daughter the truth. She just wished there had been an easier way to break the news to the poor girl.

Mia stood there for awhile, but before long, she was joined by someone else, who she anticipated would come along before too much longer. As she heard him approaching, she turned to look at Gosalyn's appointed guardian. He paused when he noticed Mia looking at him, and seemed uncomfortable. He had every right to be.

"Hi Mia." he greeted sheepishly, avoiding eye contact.

Mia managed a friendly grin. "Hi Launchpad." she greeted back.

The pilot shifted uneasily. "I, uh, just came to, uh, check up on things." he said. "Your agents said it was okay."

Mia nodded. "Yeah, it is now." she agreed, showing the pilot to a pair of seats that stood against the wall. "Sorry to leave you out, Launchpad, but I felt better if I showed Gosalyn personally, alone, rather than with others with her." She shook her head. "What was I thinking, though? It would've much less of a trauma if I just _told _her. But...how do you explain something like _this_?"

Launchpad shrugged as he sat down in the offered seat. "I don't know, I'm still trying to fit it together myself." he admitted.

Mia joined him. "Things were explained to you before you came down here, right?" she asked.

Launchpad nodded. "Yeah. Almost couldn't believe it." now he shook his head. "I should've guessed it, though. I mean, it seems almost obvious now."

"Well, you would know, you've were around Mallard the most." Mia agreed.

"Yeah, since ages ago." Launchpad said, nodding. "Been living in his home for years, ever since we first met, and he realized I was jobless. Think he felt sorry for me, actually." he sighed. "At least, back then. That was years ago, when he was still Darkwing. I worked with DW for awhile, too, you know. Of course, I had no clue then he was Drake...still didn't until today, but I should've known. It was because of Drake that I even met DW. Another way for him to help me, I think." he was silent for a moment. "Times were so much better back then. So much more...happier. DW had a heart of gold back then, and it seemed like nothing could change that."

"Then he became Darkwarrior." Mia concluded, understanding.

Launchpad nodded. "He never was the same after that tragic night way back in 1995. The events of that night tore him apart, and DW slowly started turning into the monster we now know as Darkwarrior. Drake, on the other hand, just became more sullen, withdrawn, and very...negative. He got a little better after he adopted Gos, but...it wasn't enough."

They both fell silent for a very long moment. Gosalyn's weeping could still be heard in the other room, although it had calmed somewhat by now.

"It's been nice seeing you again, Mia." Launchpad remarked suddenly.

Mia glanced at him. "Yeah, same here." she agreed.

"Wish I could see you a bit more, though."

"Launchpad, we've been over this. It wouldn't have worked out, not after..."

"...Darkwarrior." Launchpad concluded, nodding. "His sudden appearance and leaving SHUSH in disarray after his first attacks, and in a panicked state ever since up until now...if it weren't for that, things might have been different."

Mia was silent for a moment. "Yeah." she sighed. "But what's done is done, now."

They fell silent once again. Gosalyn's tears subsided even further, barely audible now, and just about to fade out all together. The sadness of the moment could still be strongly felt, however.

Launchpad sighed. "She's not taking this well, is she?" he asked.

Mia shook her head. "No."

There was another moment of silence, during which Gosalyn's tears fell silent entirely.

"Do you think we should go check up on her?" Launchpad asked. "I mean, in her emotional state..."

He trailed off suddenly, his eyes locking on something behind him. Mia turned to follow his gaze, and sees Gosalyn standing there, sad and sullen, but under control of her emotions again, in the doorway.

"Miss Mallard." Mia said, slightly surprised, and standing. "Are you...?"

"I'm ready to hear more." Gosalyn announced, interrupting.

Mia blanked out for a moment. "Hear what?"

"More about how he died."

Mia nodded, understanding now. "Of course." she said. "Let's head back up to my office, and we can talk more about it there, maybe over some..."

"Actually I was hoping you could also show me where you found him." Gosalyn interrupted again. "I mean, his body."

Mia felt silent again, and was clearly hesitant about this. "Gos, I'm not so sure that's a good idea." she admitted. "Not now, at least, not in the state you're in."

"It's either now, or never, Director Gingivere." Gosalyn stated firmly, determined. "I'm...not going to have the nerve if I wait."

"Besides, doesn't she have the right to see it for herself?" Launchpad asked innocently, coming to stand beside Mia.

Mia bit her lip for a moment, and saw the point they were making, and nodded. "Very well." she said.

* * *

**The Posiverse**

When the rain storm started unleashing it's fury upon St. Canard, Christine expressed concern and hoped that Crimson would call off her usual patrol of the city to track Negaduck's movements, otherwise she was going to catch hyperthermia. Agent Todd, however, who was working still at trying to jury-rig their computer to hack in Negaduck's computer systems, reminded her that it wasn't likely. Rain or shine, Crimson was determined to do whatever it took to resist Negaduck.

And Christine, knowing how true that statement was, was begrudgingly forced to agree.

So imagine the surprise of both of them when Crimson suddenly returned to the mansion well ahead of schedule.

"Gosalyn!" Christine exclaimed in surprise, rushing over to Crimson as she walked in through the front door, sopping wet. "You're back early!" She started fretting over Crimson straightaway, worried about how wet and cold she felt to Christine's touch, and started working to try and dry her. "What are you doing back so early?"

"Certainly not because of the rain, is it?" Todd remarked, stepping into the room to join them, watching as Christine tried to dry the unwilling Crimson.

"And a hello to you too, Agent Todd." Crimson grumbled, as she resisted Christine's attempts to dry her, shaking water off herself instead.

"It's true, though, isn't it?" Todd pressed. "This storm wouldn't stop you."

"_That _storm?" Crimson remarked, jabbing her finger back towards the door, closed now. She waved the notion off with one hand. "Nah, I've seen much worse storms. This is a mere drizzle in comparison."

"Doesn't change the fact that you're so sopping wet, however." Christine mumbled as she grabbed a nearby cloth and started using it to try and dry Crimson off again. "Not good for your health at all, and that's the very last thing you need..."

"Never mind me, where's Morgana?" Crimson asked, again dodging Christine, taking off her hat in the process, shaking it. "I have something to tell everyone, and I'd like to tell her too."

"First we're going to get you properly dried off, Crimson." Christine said sternly, again going after Crimson.

Crimson only dodged the attempt once again, to Christine's annoyance. It was then that a pattering of little feet was heard, and Charlie, dressed in pajamas, dashed into the room, and grabbed Crimson around in the middle in a hug.

"Gosalyn, you're back!" he declared happily.

"Yeah, hi Chuck." Crimson replied with a grin, giving Charlie a pat on the head and gently pulling him off her.

"It's Charlie," the youth corrected as always, allowing himself to be pulled away, then rubbing water off his face. "You're all wet, Gos."

"Yeah." Crimson agreed distractedly, wiping water off her front. "I suppose I am."

"I suppose nothing!" Christine said, reprimanding, before turning to Charlie. "And you, young man. What are you doing up so late? You should be in bed asleep, still!"

"Where's Morgana?" Crimson said again, interrupting the imminent argument. "It's important."

"She's in the same place she was at when you left, Crimson." Todd replied with a shrug. "Did you really expect her to move from that spot?"

"No, I suppose not." Crimson agreed with a sigh. "C'mon everyone, you're all going to want to hear this, and I'll want your input anyway."

She started down a hallway in the mansion. The others exchanged glances, then followed. The hallway led to a secluded room that was filled with magical equipment, such as various wands, pre-prepared spells, but mostly potions, and whatever materials a magician would need for making them. It was here that Morgana was to be found, sullenly and quietly working on a potion contained in a massive caldron, stirring it constantly, but gracefully.

The liquid within was currently at very critical moment, requiring constant care, or the magic binding it would fail to form properly, and as intended. Therefore, Morgana spent most of her time mostly stirring the complex potion. It seemed to be exhausting, as it usually wore her out pretty good at the end of every day, but Morgana didn't seem to mind, enjoying the seclusion and the peace, as well as the time to think. She had been like that a lot since Bob had been killed some days earlier, and she had every right to.

Normally, they wouldn't have let Morgana do this for so long, however, seeing it required so much effort, but Morgana was the one who had the most magical skill and training, which was needed to pull this potion off. They couldn't afford to loose it, it was too important.

As that potion was the thing that would reverse the effects of Negarian's mind-control spell.

The potion itself was a goldenrod color, and was currently somewhat thick and sticky, although Morgana promised it would turn more watery before it was done, thus it could be transferred easily to containers, and even sprayed on targets when it was finished. There was also more of it than was initially expected, which was good, although it still wasn't enough to undo all of the damage caused by Negarian's mind-control spell.

Whatever the case, Morgana was hard at work with the potion as the others quietly entered.

"I'm assuming it's okay for us to come in and talk, right?" Crimson asked as she entered, knowing how delicate a potion can be under these kind of circumstances.

Morgana nodded. "C'mon in, everyone." she said, quietly, as they all filed in and stood around the potion as Morgana continued stirring. "What is that we need to discuss?"

"A little discovery I made while on patrol just now." Crimson explained, wringing rainwater out of her hat.

"That, and the fact that Crimson is going to catch her death of cold if she doesn't get out of those wet clothes soon." Christine grumbled, still worrying over the matter.

Crimson sighed in frustration. "C'mon, isn't there worse things we need to be worrying about? Besides, I really think I'm fine, and that you're just overreacting–"

However, when Christine brought the subject up, Morgana reached over and wordlessly grabbed a small vile of potion and tossed it to Christine, who caught it, uncorked it, and pressed the vile to Crimson's mouth, cutting Crimson's complaints short. At first Crimson only gave Christine a long hard glare, but then reluctantly snatched the vile from her and drained it of it's contents. The potion within tasted and looked like water on it's way down, but once fully swallowed, it started releasing a warm sensation that spread across Crimson's body, warming her, and obviously curing her of any problems brought about by the rain, if there were any at all.

"Anyway," Crimson said, shaking her hat again, "While I was on patrol just now, I saw something interesting. A light was on in a building that was abandoned even before Negaduck's invasion had begun. I think we should check it out."

The others looked at her for a moment.

"That's it?" Christine asked, less than impressed. "No offense, Crimson, but really, what's so special about a light being on in an abandoned building?"

Agent Todd, however, was a little more intrigued. "That's interesting, actually." he confessed, deep in thought. "If the building was abandoned before Negaduck took control of St. Canard..." he glanced at Crimson, "where is this building?"

"Well, if Morgana can bring up her map, I can show you." Crimson replied, heading to one side of the room.

"Certainly." Morgana said, and turned to Christine. "Could you stir this for me?"

Christine nodded, and took over stirring the potion for Morgana, freeing the witch to join Todd and Crimson at a side table that sat under a window, where a tray filled with liquid sat. Charlie also joined him, as he loved watching what was going to happen next. Morgana moved to stand beside the tray of liquid, which like many potions, resembled plain water, then grabbed a pinch of a special kind of magical dust that sat beside the tray with two fingers and tossed it into the liquid. The effect was instantaneous. The water rippled for a moment, then began to emit a faint glow. The water began to rise up out of the tray, and reshape itself into objects. Within moments, the water had reshaped itself into a perfect to-scale replica of St. Canard itself.

Charlie clapped his hands with glee once it was done. "That is so _cool_!" he squealed.

Crimson grinned, and ruffled Charlie's hair with one hand, before studying the three-dimensional water map. "There it is." she announced suddenly, pointing at a building in particular, sitting near the shore of Audubon Bay.

Morgana tapped the building with one finger, and the map reshaped itself to zoom in on it. Agent Todd leaned over to look at it, studying it.

"Huh." he finally commented.

"Recognize it?" Crimson asked.

"More or less."

"Anything special about it?"

"Not that I know of." Todd straightened. "In fact, I know hardly anything about it, except what the public already knew about it. It was an old hotel that encountered rough times, and was eventually shut down, and abandoned, and has been like that for awhile now." the canine shrugged. "That simple."

"So there's nothing that special about it, or having a light on in it, then." Christine deduced, from where she was still stirring the potion.

"Actually, it's far from that." Todd corrected, turning to face the doctor. "It shouldn't have power. Which means someone has gone to great lengths to insure that it has some. Which is peculiar, because I can't think of what would be so interesting about the building that someone would do that, particularly with Negaduck in control of the city. Definitely something to investigate."

"I have to agree." Morgana added with a nod. "I can't see any reason why anyone would even be in it except for some ulterior motive."

"Something they're trying to hide." Crimson added, also nodding.

"Maybe it's Negaduck." Christine said. "Maybe he's using the building to house some kind of special project he doesn't want us knowing about."

"Or maybe it's some kind of trap he's devised to lure us into." Todd added, feeling he needed to get this much in.

"Maybe, but it still doesn't add up." Crimson said, in deep thought, beginning to pace. "We already know Negaduck has a whole boatload of other, better locations at his disposal to work on secret projects at, like Canard Tower and SHUSH Headquarters. Those locations, despite being well known, would be much better locations to hide anything or do anything secret in." she was silent for a moment. "Here's a notion, though. What if it's not Negaduck at all, but someone else entirely? Maybe an ally?"

"An ally?" Christine repeated, intrigued. "Like who?"

"Well, I dunno, there's a whole list of people who were in this city at the time of the takeover that are unaccounted for still." Crimson said.

"But it could still also be a trap." Todd pointed out. "Maybe that's what Negaduck, or whom ever is behind our mysterious light source, wants us to think, to bait us into coming there and checking it out."

"Exactly why I didn't just go and check it out on my own." Crimson stated. "I came back here so to get someone to come with me, and check it out together."

"Probably a good idea." Todd agreed. He then frowned as he realized what that implied. "I suppose that would mean it'd have to me, though, wouldn't it?"

"Yep." Crimson said with a nod. "The only other person who'd have the needed skills and experience would be Morgana, and she needs to stay and tend the potion."

Morgana nodded at this sentiment.

Todd sighed. "All right." he said in reluctant acceptance. "Here's hoping that we don't encounter much trouble."

"Seeing how things have been going lately for us, though, we can almost count on trouble of some sort arising." Crimson remarked negatively. "We best go armed. As soon as you're ready to go, Todd, so will I. I don't want to put this off any longer than I have to."

* * *

**The Warriorverse**

Canard Tower. It once held the reputation of being the tallest, and newest, skyscraper in St. Canard. Today, it still bore that honor, but now everyone remembered it for being something else. For the original structure had been added onto with several additional floors, making for a tall slender tower on top. This was the former hideout of Darkwarrior Duck, and it had long been acknowledged as such. Everyone in St. Canard knew that life went the best when you stay as far away from that structure as was possible.

Which was fairly easy, because for years since Darkwarrior first manifested himself in the city, no one could even come close to the tower without Darkwarrior's permission, unless you committed what Darkwarrior would call a crime, and everyone was careful to make sure that didn't happen. Save for SHUSH, which tried repeatedly, time and time again, to get into the tower.

Mia found it oddly ironic, then, that even though she could now freely come and go from this tower without ever having to worry about Darkwarrior's wrath again, the victory felt empty.

She, Launchpad, and Gosalyn all quietly filed into the dark room and looked around the spacious chamber. Mia and Launchpad were instinctively uneasy by the idea of being in here, but Gosalyn seemed oddly sincere and respectful of the location, more than even Mia expected. Somewhere in the back of her mind, this started to rase a small red flag, but Mia opted instead to ignore it. Launchpad was right; Gosalyn had the right to come here and see things for herself.

Gosalyn took a few steps into the room, looking around in the dark room curiously. "Where did you find him?" she asked.

Mia pointed over at one side of the room, where a metallic device loosely resembling some kind of metallic frame, it's sides angled often enough that it was roughly looked round. Gosalyn walked over to it, running one hand over it.

"What is it?" she asked.

Mia hesitated. "That's classified information." she responded, but then relented, "but if you keep it secret, I see no harm in telling you. That, Miss Mallard, is as near as the science team has figured out thus far, is a transdimensional portal generator."

Both Launchpad and Gosalyn gave her surprised look.

"A transdimensiwhaty what what?" Launchpad repeated, bewildered.

"A device that can connect our reality with an alternate one." Mia explained. "In short, it can connect to a parallel universe."

Gosalyn looked thoughtful for a few moments. "So that's where he's been all of this time." she muttered to herself.

"Yes, for reasons we do not fully understand, Darkwarrior has been using that device to travel to other universes." Mia explained. "Evidence suggests he's been doing it for the better part of a year, but it seems that six months ago he encountered trouble, and presumably, that kept him from coming back. And when he vanished..."

"...So did my adopted father." Gosalyn finished, heading up a small staircase that led to a control station.

"It enabled us to finally put an end to his dictatorship, however. You must see that, Miss Mallard."

"Yes, being dead for six months would allow another to step in a take control of his resources." Gosalyn sounded bitter.

"No, no, if he had been dead for six months, his body would've shown the evidence of it." Mia corrected as she and Launchpad gathered at the bottom of the staircase Gosalyn was heading up, watching her. "But initial examination of his body suggests he only died about a week ago. So he was doing something to stay alive during most of the six months he was gone. He must have done something that really peeved someone in the end, however."

"Why, how did he die?" Gosalyn asked as she stepped onto the platform the computer equipment was placed upon and beginning to examine it.

"He was shot. Twice." Mia sighed before continuing, "We're not sure who it might have been who did it, but seeing that SHUSH found his body after detecting a peculiar energy signature, some kind of alert system, and that he was found near that portal generator, it was probably a universal double that...did the deed."

"At least they had the decency to leave his body here for us to find, and leave us alone after that." Launchpad remarked.

"But the question is," Gosalyn said, her hand hovering over the dark controls of the computer systems, "who was the person that did the deed." she sighed, pausing. "I want to get to the bottom of this."

"I dunno, maybe it would be better if we left these guys from a parallel universe alone, as it seems clear they didn't like people from our universe too much." Launchpad remarked.

"Or they just didn't like Darkwarrior." Mia muttered under her breath, before adding for Gosalyn to hear, "SHUSH is already investigating, but it seems unlikely we're going to get very many answers anytime soon."

"But what if it's in here?" Gosalyn asked, referring to the computer systems, hand still hovering over the controls.

"Gos, I'm sure SHUSH thought to check there first." Launchpad stated.

"He's right." Mia confirmed. "Unfortunately, they're locked out, and completely unresponsive to us. We think they're probably keyed to respond to only certain people, like Darkwarrior or..."

Gosalyn gently placed her hand on the control panel, and the moment it touched, the control lit up and sprang to life.

"Identification recognized as Gosalyn Lynn Mallard." the computer spoke in a monotonous voice as it booted up, "Automated activation systems have been engaged."

And all across the hideout, things started to come to life. More control panels flickered on, and more lighting slowly powered on. Surprised, Mia and Launchpad looked around as the whole hideout powered up.

"Did you know that she could do that?" Launchpad asked.

Mia shook her head. "No, not a clue." she admitted.

"Accessing database." the computer was suddenly heard announcing, drawing their attention back to Gosalyn at the computer, who was busily at work to gain the information she wanted.

"Miss Mallard!" Mia exclaimed in caution, hurrying up the staircase. "Be careful!"

Launchpad gave the powering-up hideout one last look, then followed. Gosalyn ignored Mia's warning however, and continued working at the controls of the computer, sifting wordlessly through the information. Mia and Launchpad gathered behind her to watch.

"Wow." Launchpad remarked.

"I'm in, I can access anything in here." Gosalyn said.

"I can see that, but why you?" Mia asked.

"Because she's Drake's adopted daughter." Launchpad reasoned, making the connections. "Who was also Darkwarrior. He probably hoped that one day Gos would follow in his footsteps."

"What, you mean become a Darkwarrioress?" Mia asked.

Gosalyn got a very odd look at this point, which Mia didn't like the looks of, and again, she felt her stomach clench in unease about the girl's reaction to all of this. She knew what kind of impact her adopted father's death had on her, she didn't need the girl acting irrationally as a result. She quickly sought someway to nip it in the bud before it got too far.

"Okay, so now we can access the database, thank you." Mia said, gently placing a hand on Gosalyn's shoulder, only to have the teenager shrug it off. "Maybe it's time we go someplace, though. I mean, who knows what kind of safeties and traps Darkwarrior might have left as security that we might accidently trigger."

"They won't activate as long as I'm here." Gosalyn promised, continuing to work with the computer, almost tuning out everything else entirely, but not enough to ignore Mia's comments.

"Forgive me for sounding doubtful, but maybe they won't react to you, but what about us?" Launchpad asked.

"Well, it doesn't matter either way, because I've shut off the security systems." Gosalyn snapped. "Now be quiet, I'm onto something here."

Launchpad and Mia both obediently fell silent, but Mia couldn't leave the subject alone. "Miss Mallard, this is already going beyond what we originally agreed upon. I can understand why you're doing this, but..."

"Oh really, now?" Gosalyn remarked a little bitterly. "You really understand what's going through my head at this moment?"

Mia hesitated. "I can see that you're really troubled, and I doubt all of this is really helping." she stated.

Gosalyn merely shook her head, and kept working with the computer. Suddenly, she straightened. "Check this out, information on that universe my father was exploring." she announced, pulling up the information. "Including a list of people he considered threats to his cause."

Despite herself, Mia was forced to admit that she wanted to see this information too, and leaned closer to get a look. Launchpad also stepped forward to have a glance.

"Whoa, that's weird." the pilot commented after a moment of studying the list of pictures of people from the Posiverse. "A lot of those people seem very familiar..."

"Eerily so." Mia agreed. "Some of them are criminals here in our universe, but have been locked away, or worse, for years now. Clearly, this other universe isn't quite as well off as we are in that area."

"Hey, that's DW!" Launchpad suddenly exclaimed, pointing at a picture as Gosalyn scrolled up to the top of the list. "Before he became Darkwarrior!"

"Correction, that's his universal double." Gosalyn corrected. "The version of himself that exists in that other universe." she pointed at another pic. "...like that's the universal double of myself."

They all looked at the picture and the bio of information that sat beside it.

"'The Crimson Avenger.'" Mia read aloud.

"She's listed as a higher threat than Darkwarrior's own double." Launchpad noted, surprised.

"A higher threat." Gosalyn repeated. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm starting to suspect that she was involved in my dad's death."

"Gos, you have no way to prove that." Launchpad pointed out. "Let's not get hasty, here."

"I _want _to get to the bottom of this, LP." Gosalyn murmured darkly, glancing at the pilot. "I want justice to be served."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

Gosalyn now glanced at Mia. "How else?"

"Oh no," Mia said, seeing where this was going, "No one is going to be using that portal generator and leaving this universe! It's too dangerous, and we don't know much about how the device works, nor much about the universe it connects too! Furthermore, if this universe is threat enough to kill one inhabitant, then they clearly don't want us nosing around, and I think we'll be better off if we just leave them alone."

"Are you saying then that we should just let the killer go, director?" Gosalyn asked icily, staring long and hard at the picture of her double. "To leave Darkwarrior's death unjustified?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Miss Mallard, it's simply not worth it." Mia persisted reluctantly.

Gosalyn shook her head. "Darkwarrior was right about you, then." she murmured. "You really don't have what it takes to bring about justice."

Mia's ears flattened, and her eyes narrowed. "Don't even go there." she growled warningly. "He may have been your father, but let's not forget that Darkwarrior had his own crimes that he needed to answer for."

"Yeah, and besides," Launchpad added, trying to be helpful, "it's not like anybody really _misses _Darkwarrior anyway."

The sudden and cold silence that followed made it very clear how very unhelpful Launchpad's comment was, however.

"_What _did you say?" Gosalyn muttered, turning slowly to face the pair.

Mia felt her stomach sink, seeing just how very much that was the wrong thing for Launchpad to say. "He didn't mean it, Miss Mallard!" she quickly stated, taking charge of the conversation. "You have to keep in mind just what this has been like for everyone else, though! There were some people that didn't like Darkwarrior! They had little reason too! I mean, uh, yes he had the right intentions, in a way, but he...he..."

It was clear that Gosalyn wasn't buying it, however. "Nothing has changed, then, has it?" she asked, stepping towards them, glaring at them in such a way that the two took a step back. "Father always supported what Darkwarrior was doing. I, admittedly, had mixed feelings about it at times, but in the end I never doubted his word if he said that there was no other way. When Darkwarrior first vanished, before I knew that he and my father were one and the same, for awhile I thought that maybe now he wouldn't be needed, that organizations such as SHUSH could now step in and continue what Darkwarrior had started, and continue to insure the peace St. Canard has had for the past eight and a half years. That they could handle what Darkwarrior had started. That they had learned something for all of this." She shook her head, "but that hasn't happened, has it? You haven't learned. Nothing has changed. Now that Darkwarrior is out of the picture, things are only going to go back to the way they had been before."

She fell silent for a long moment, staring at the two. Then, slowly, her eyes wandered to over where a rack of weaponry sat. Mia nervously followed the teenager's gaze, then, seeing the danger, quickly started planning a necessary reaction to this new development. Gosalyn broke her gaze with the rack, and back on the pair almost cowering under her gaze, and her eyes lightened a little.

"Fine." she stated. "Have it your way. I don't care anymore, I really don't. You go ahead and take my father's work and completely unravel it. I really don't care anymore. Because I'm not going to stand here and be a part of it. I have other things I need to do."

Gosalyn turned and headed for the staircase. But Mia quickly moved to block her path, already knowing Gosalyn's intents and purposes.

"No one is stepping through that portal generator, Miss Mallard." the feline pressed. "It's too dangerous. Do you want to end up dead, like your father?"

"Either I avenge him, or I die trying, director." Gosalyn growled venomously.

She moved to step around Mia, but Mia again moved to block her.

"I can't let you do that." she pressed.

Gosalyn glared at her. "Then I'll use force."

And without warning, she whipped around and dashed for the rack of weaponry. Mia, anticipating the move, quickly dashed after her. As Gosalyn grabbed a presumably loaded pistol off the rack, Mia grabbed at it and tried to wrench it away from her, leading into a struggle over control of the weapon. Launchpad started forward, looking like he wanted to help, but wasn't sure how. Mia knew better than to let him, however, and knew what he could be doing that would be much more helpful.

"Get out of here, Launchpad!" she ordered. "Get out of here and get help!"

Launchpad nodded, and quickly dashed for the staircase. Gosalyn, seeing this, tried to whip the pistol around to line up a shot, but with Mia still struggling to grab the weapon from her, she failed, and the shot she ended up firing missed. It ricocheted off the staircase railing, however, dangerously near to where Launchpad's hand was grabbing it. Surprised, he jerked the hand away, and twisted around mid-step to look back, overbalanced, and ended up falling roughly down the stairs.

He must have gotten knocked out briefly in the fall, because the next thing he remembered was lying flat on the ground at the bottom of the stairs, his head and body sore, aching, and bruised all over, with one leg simply shearing with pain, leading him to deduce that he had probably broken it in his fall. Seeing up on the platform, however, Mia and and Gosalyn still struggling for possession of the pistol and remembering Mia's request, Launchpad tried to struggle back onto his feet, failed, and tried to drag himself away, clutching at his injured leg with one hand as he went.

Then, suddenly, there was the sound of another gunshot from up on the platform, drawing Launchpad's attention, followed by the sound of a heavy body falling to the ground. He couldn't see who; the two warring females had wandered out of his line of sight. But when Gosalyn appeared after a moment at the top of the stairs, holding the pistol, it wasn't hard to figure out what had happened.

Launchpad gaped at her. "You..." he stuttered, "...you shot Mia!"

Gosalyn started slowly and methodically down the stairs towards him. "So I did."

"Gos..." Launchpad kept gaping at her as he struggled to move further away from her, and failing to do so at any quick rate. "Gos, don't do this! Look at yourself! You're not thinking straight! You need help!"

"No!" Gosalyn snapped, as she continued on down the stairs and arrived at the bottom, staring at Launchpad. "I don't need any of your help! You've just been standing in my way! You've all been! Trying to squash out the influence Darkwarrior had left on me, well let me tell you, _it won't work_! I _fully _intend to finish what he had started, wherever he had started it, and I will stop whomever stands in my way!"

And with that, she snapped the pistol up and pointed it at Launchpad. Launchpad stared at the barrel of the weapon for a long moment and gulped.

"Gos," he started slowly, "Don't do this. You don't really want to hurt me, do you?"

"No, I don't." Gosalyn admitted, her aim unwavering. "But you've left me with little choice. Justice must be provided. For him. At the very least."

She looked Launchpad in the eye for a moment.

Then pulled the trigger on the pistol.

* * *

**The Posiverse**

It was still raining as Crimson and Agent Todd headed out, but they were prepared for it, wearing plastic ponchos over their regular clothes, which only partially protected them from the cold downpour, but it was better than going out into it unprotected like Crimson had done before, and it pleased Christine that they were wearing that much. Once they were sufficiently ready, they wasted no time in leaving, and were promptly passing through the magical shield that encompassed the mansion, the only thing that was keeping Negaduck's forces out at the moment.

In the past, the shield had been completely impenetrable by all physical objects, as Bob had set it up that way, and believed that would be best for their protection. Crimson didn't disagree, and that pretty much settled any argument over the matter, not saying that there had been any. At that time, the only way to get past the shield was via a special spell that teleported a person around it.

But then Bob died, and as he had created the shield originally, it went with him, forcing Morgana to recreate it herself. At first, it functioned exactly the same as Bob's had, but when the mind-control reversal potion began to reach it's critical stages and requiring more of Morgana's attention, and them being down a magician, having to take the time to preform the spell to get people in and out of the shield became a major inconvenience.

So Morgana came up with a solution to tweak the shield so that it would permit certain people and objects to pass through it (like herself, Crimson, Agent Todd, and so on) but not permit others to pass through (such as Negaduck, NegaGosalyn, Negawing, and so on). Crimson was hesitant on permitting this, fearing that it would present a weakness in the shield that could be exploited, but as Morgana insured her that she could prevent it, and that it would, hopefully, only be temporary, she allowed it, at least until circumstances changed to allow the original impenetrable shield to be used instead.

So, in short, when Crimson and Todd left, they simply stepped through the shield, and they were on their way.

They traveled mostly in silence, as there wasn't much to talk about, and because secrecy was vital when wandering the exposed parts of St. Canard. Negaduck's forces were, quite frequently, everywhere and one had to be careful to avoid them. And wherever they were not, one of Negarian's magical monsters was, which was an even more dangerous enemy to contend with, and was to be avoided if it could be helped. And they had good hearing, so the silence was doubly required.

But as they finally arrived at the location of the building they had been journeying to, Todd finally broke the silence with a question he had been nagging him since they left.

"You really think we might find an ally in there?" he asked, motioning to the building as they carefully approached it.

"Admittedly, not really." Crimson confessed, pulling out her gas gun and checking to make sure it was ready. "It would be too good to be true."

"I didn't think so." Todd said with a slight sigh. "That would be too optimistic of you. Ever since Bob died, you have been nothing but the voice of doom."

"Forgive me for being bitter about a friend's death, then." Crimson growled, shooting Todd a glare for the insensitive comment.

"Sorry, but you know it's true." Todd pointed out, pulling out a pistol. "I know Bob's death hit you hard. I know that all of this has hit you hard. It's hit all of us hard. But it's not the Crimson I know. The Crimson _I _know wouldn't be so quick to doom herself." he glanced at Crimson. "Nor, ironically enough, be so bent on undoing what has been done."

Crimson rounded on him angrily. "None of this should have _ever _happened!" she barked. "Far too many people have died over this stupid matter, this stupid attempt of Negaduck's to conquer a world he isn't even native to! People from more than one universe has died over this matter, both good and bad! It _shouldn't have HAPPENED!_"

"But it _did_." Todd said. "And you can't change that. I don't think you could have even prevented it!"

"I think I could've!" Crimson snapped. "We all could have! We just didn't do what it took to do it! We should've done more to crack down on people like Negaduck sooner!"

"And there you go sounding like Darkwarrior again!" Todd barked back. "You have no way of proving if that would've changed anything, anyway, and it's _already _happened anyway, so why are you dwelling on the past so much? You can't change it! I've read reports on you, you've messed with time before, you _know _changing history is a very bad idea that can lead to who knows how many unexpected consequences! I _know _some bad things have happened, and that things look grim, but we can't do anything about it if you keep beating yourself up about it! There is only one person you can blame for all of this, and it's _not you_!"

"Negaduck." Crimson murmured, the fight suddenly going out of her. She sat down suddenly on the wet ground and was silent for a long moment, listening to the rain pattering around her while Todd remained standing and watched her. She shook her head. "You're right. Of course you're right, but..." she shook her head, starting to tear up, "Dang it Todd...it shouldn't have come to this. It's not like we were caught completely off guard by this. We knew Negaduck would've tried something like this for years. We were forewarned by Neutraduck that it would lead to an interdimensional conflict sooner or later if we didn't do something to change things. Darkwarrior warned us that we weren't doing enough to stop our enemies." she sighed, and sniffled. "You're right Todd, I know that, and you can rest assured about that. It's just...the scariest thing about all of this is realizing that Darkwarrior and all of them were right. We just might have brought this down upon ourselves."

Todd looked at her for a long moment, then sat down beside her. "Maybe they were right about some things." he admitted. "But that doesn't mean that their ways of fixing the problem is any better than ours. In fact, I daresay it'd be worse. I mean, Neutraduck wanted to go as far as eradicating our two universes, and nearly succeeded in doing so once, and came close to trying it again a second time. I can't imagine you wanting to do anything like that. I can't even imagine you becoming something like Darkwarrior."

Crimson was silent for a moment. "I can."

There was a long pause.

"But I won't go there." Crimson gave Todd a comforting grin. "Not this time, at least."

Todd returned the grin. "Good."

Crimson snuffled one last time, wiped her beak, then hopped up, looking a bit brighter. "Well, this building isn't going to just tell us it's secrets, so let's get going and find them out ourselves."

Todd nodded, and jumped up as well. "Yes, let's."

Like their discussion had never happened, they cautiously approached the seemingly abandoned building and up to it's front door. Keeping their weapons at the ready, Crimson carefully pushed open the door, and pulling out flashlights, started looking around.

"Well, it certainly looks abandoned all right." Crimson remarked, noting the dust and decay that had gathered in the room.

"Yeah, and it looks like someone had been planning to tear it down before Negaduck's invasion took place." Todd noted, shining his light on evidence of such activities.

Crimson wandered over to the staircase and shined her light up it. She found nothing, and sighed. "There certainly doesn't seem to be anybody here all right." she confessed, and shook her head. "I don't get it, though. There _had _to have been _someone _here."

Todd then shined his light on the floor. "There had." he announced. "Look at this."

Crimson turned and looked at the spot of floor Todd was shining his light on. There, imprinted on the floor, just barely visible and having nearly worn away over time, was a light, muddy, footprint. Crimson waved her light over the space of floor between her and the SHUSH agent, and saw more prints, leading towards the stairs, and on up them. Intrigued, Crimson shined her light upstairs again, wondering what was up there that had interested their mystery person.

Todd joined her. "The prints are fairly old." he admitted. "But it's proof that someone had been here, and the prints aren't so old that they predate Negaduck's invasion. Someone had been in here since Negs took over."

"The question that remains, then, is were they friend or foe?" Crimson asked aloud, starting up the stairs, Todd following. "And what was it that was here that interested them so much?"

They followed the prints up the stairs up a floor or two, until they exited abruptly at one floor's landing and into the corridors it led to. And on this floor, things were startlingly different. The floor still bore the signs of being old and abandoned, but things were much cleaner, more organized, and like it had been populated more recently. The floor had also been swept clean, unfortunately wiping away any remaining footprints, but the mystery grew nonetheless.

Todd shined his light around for a moment. "I'm guessing that whatever it is that we're looking for, it's here." he deduced.

"But what is it?" Crimson asked, also looking around. She turned to Todd. "We'll spilt up. You go one way, I'll go the other, and we'll search for clues. We'll keep in touch via our radios."

"Got it." Todd said, with a nod.

"And Todd, be careful."

"You too, Crimson."

The two then walked off in their assigned directions, shining their lights around as they went. Crimson wandered down a hallway, which eventually led into a small room with a window that overlooked nearby Audubon Bay. At first glance, there was nothing interesting, until she spied a desk sitting to one side with a computer resting on top of it, connected to not one, but two monitors. Surprised, Crimson hurried over it and started looking around. She found some papers, which had been sitting her long enough that they were gathering dust, but they contained information that didn't seem to connect with each other. The only pattern she could deduce from it was hints to the Fearsome Five, but that didn't tell her much. She tried the computer next, but it was powerless, and wouldn't boot up.

Regardless, it was still an important find, so Crimson pulled out her radio and switched it on. "Todd, I've found something that might be of use." she announced.

There was a pause, then Todd reply came back through the little radio. "Really?" he asked. "Well, I've...uh...found something too that could be of use." a pause. "What did you find?"

"Papers and a dead computer that probably has information on it." Crimson said. "Maybe you can work with the computer, and get it working, and then we can find out."

"Maybe." Todd said. "But uh, I think I've found something even better than that."

Taken aback, Crimson was silent for a moment. "Really?" she asked. "What did you find?"

Todd was again silent for a moment. Crimson realized suddenly that the reason was that Todd was quite amazed at what it was that he had found, and wasn't quite sure how to react. And in a moment, when he revealed what it was, Crimson was quickly sharing that attitude. For what Todd said next was not at all what she was expecting.

"I found the Thunderquack."

* * *

**The Warriorverse**

"Gosalyn, if you are watching this video, it means either one of three things. One, something has happened to me, for which I apologize. Two, circumstances have led you to discovering this before the time I had planned, or three, you aren't Gosalyn at all, but an intruder. If the latter, then rest assured that you won't be here for much longer. With the other two choices previous, however, then I beg of you to listen to what I have to say for a few moments, Gos.

"I suppose I should start with the obvious. Yes, I am indeed Darkwarrior Duck. And I have been since before I adopted you. I apologize for keeping this secret from you for so long, but I had little other choice. You weren't ready to hear it before now. In fact, if you're seeing this, then you probably still aren't as ready as I'd like. I hope you can understand this. But...my line of work is dangerous. I have many foes. I kept this secret to protect you. Know, at the very least, that much.

"I did to plan to tell you, though, eventually. When I felt you were old enough, and ready to understand. I have great plans for you Gos. Plans I hope you'll still be willing to carry out, even if I am gone and no longer in the picture. Plans for you to carry on my legacy. To continue the work I've started. Because someone must.

"Yes, it might seem extreme to some. At times, I will admit that I don't always like doing what I have to do to ensure justice. But surely you see that it needed to be done. If I hadn't done what I had done, if I hadn't become Darkwarrior, the world would've been very different. And quite likely in for a world of hurt, because things got out of hand that shouldn't have. I do what I do, Gos, not because I want to. I do it for justice.

"But even I have to admit that there's more to it than just that. I do it so to prevent some other poor soul from suffering the same fate I had. To loose what I have lost, at the hands of a criminal. I do it to stop those criminals from making life miserable, like they had done to my life. Like they had done to _her_. Worse, for taking _her _away from me.

"I do what I do mostly in her memory, you know. She would have wanted this. I know it. But we'll never hear it now. So, in her name, I do this to prevent that from happening to anyone else. And now I hope you'll continue that. For her. For me. And now I wish you adieu, Gosalyn, as well as good luck.

"May you succeed where I clearly have not."

And with that, the prerecorded video ended, and the face of Drake Mallard in Darkwarrior attire vanished from the screen, and silence fell. Mournfully silent, and taking his words to heart, Gosalyn finished preparing herself, and keyed the final controls on the device. And with a burst of multicolored light, the portal generator activated. Gosalyn stood there before it, admiring the sight grimly, knowing what would lie beyond it, then stepped into the portal.

To the alternate reality where her adopted father had been robbed of his life.

* * *

**The Posiverse**

Crimson couldn't believe that Agent Todd had found the Thunderquack so much so that she had to hurry right on over and see it for herself. Even then, she still couldn't quite believe it. But there it was, neatly placed in a large room _within _the building, looking for all the world like it had been placed their deliberately for them to find.

But it seemed too good to be true. None of them had seen the Thunderquack since the day of Negaduck's invasion and take over of the city when it was shot down by the opposing Negaquack. Crimson had personally searched just about everywhere she had dared within the city looking for it since, but had found no trace of it until now. The fact that it had been in a building all this time explained a few things, but it still didn't add up. There was also the fact that Launchpad was not here with the plane, the last person piloting it. That either meant something bad had happened to him to separate him from his favorite plane, or that this was some kind of elaborate trap, which Crimson was not willing to rule out just yet. She wasn't even convinced that this plane was the _real _Thunderquack.

But it certainly looked like it. It bore the right colors, the right shape, the right parts...it even bore the right damage it had received in it's most recent battle. Bulletholes in it's hull, scorched paint along it's bottom, and of course, it was missing it's right wing due to the blast from the missile that had downed the craft...assuming this was even the same craft. By all accounts, it was the Thunderquack.

Crimson tentatively reached out and touched the plane's cold hull to just reassure herself it wasn't an illusion. "What's this doing here?" she finally asked.

Todd shrugged. "I dunno, but someone has been trying to repair her."

And so they were. They weren't doing a great job, but someone had been trying to conduct repairs. The holes had been patched somewhat, the tail fin had been bent back into shape, and above all, a new wing of sorts had been pieced together with what looked to be scrap metal from various forms of, and placed, jury-rigged, in place of the missing right wing. And furthermore, tools for the repairs lay scattered about, as well as parts from the plane, looking to be a mixture of both the old, damaged, ones, and various spares, intended to be replacements. A TV sat to one side, turned off, indicating that whoever had been doing all of this had hoped to watch TV while they worked. But ever since Negaduck's invasion, all the TVs in the city had displayed nothing but static unless Negaduck wanted to broadcast some kind of message.

Of course, the TV looked like it had been jury-rigged repaired too, so it was doubtful it could even pick up much.

Crimson looked around the room in awe. "Who do you think could have been doing this?"

"Somebody who cares enough about this plane to give it a try, despite having inadequate repairs," Todd replied, giving her a look, "I think it's obvious who it is."

"Launchpad?"

"It stands to reason, doesn't it? He was the last one flying the plane. He's the one that knows the most about it, besides Techno. He understands how important it would be to have her functional again. And there's obvious evidence that at least one person has been here, and recently. Those tracks we found are about Launchpad's side. What more proof do you need?"

"Then...where is he now?"

Todd went to answer, only to discover he had no answer, and fell silent again. Crimson glances around again.

"There must be some kind of clue that can explain all of this," she muttered, "or at least explain another mystery that's bugging me," she glanced at Todd again, "how the heck anybody managed to get something like the Thunderquack inside a building like this so neatly, with no obvious entrances."

Todd frowned, and glanced at the plane, scratching at one of his floppy ears. "That is a mystery," he confessed, having not thought of that.

Wordlessly, they started looking around for clues. Crimson started sorting through some tools to search for clues, or maybe even fingerprints. Todd dwelled more on the mystery of how to get the plane inside the room, however, staring the plane down like he expected it to give him all the answers. He quickly had a theory, and that theory stated that there had to be some kind of hidden door in the room. He first glanced at the floor, but it was pretty clear it was an ordinary floor covered with wooden paneling. The room's inner wall couldn't be it, either, because that only led deeper into the building, and the other side walls didn't look like they could move either. The room's far wall, which separated the room from the rest of the outside the door, lined with a couple windows, looked too delicate to try and move, even.

So finally, Todd looked up. He tilted his head to one side, scratching at his ear again. He then spied something that joined up with the ceiling; a set of wires. It ran down the length of the adjoining wall, and connected to a device on a worktable. Todd hadn't though much about it earlier, but now it had his undivided attention. Curious, he walked over to it, and noticed that it sported two pairs of buttons; a green set, and a red set. Thinking that the red set obviously meant "bad," Todd opted to press the first green button instead.

The moment he did, the ceiling suddenly shook, and started to separate, pulling apart along the middle, revealing itself to be the missing door Todd was looking for. The moment the door started to open, Crimson looked up from the tools she was sorting through and at the opening door, then at Todd, looking a bit pleased.

Todd made a sheepish grin. "Well, that solves one mystery."

But then, before the door had finished opening all the way, a buzzing sound rang out, and it suddenly halted. Todd and Crimson exchanged looks, then they heard something shuffling up there. Someone was up there. They both peered to look over the edge to see what it was, but it was dark beyond the partially opened door. The reason being was that the opening went up about a floor where another door barred the way outside, this one having not opened as of yet.

Seeing the problem, Crimson started fumbling around for her flashlight again, but Todd went and pushed the other green button, and as anticipated, started opening the second door. In doing so, it let in just enough light from outside, despite it still being very early in the morning now and still raining (though it was starting to let up), to see who was in there. Someone they knew well.

"Launchpad!" Crimson exclaimed in a mixture of relief and excitement to see the pilot's face again, looking unharmed, "You really are here!"

"Crimson, Agent Todd, it's good to see you both again, and see that you're still safe!" Launchpad called back down. "Sorry for, uh, hiding up here, but we of course had our reasons, with Negaduck's forces being everywhere. We weren't sure at first who you were, and if you were still on our side, or Negaduck's."

"Oh, of course, I don't blame you for _any_ of that." Crimson agreed immediately. "If there's anything to be learned from the past couple of weeks it's that we don't want to take chances, not when we're in the situation that we're in."

"Now, hold on a moment." Todd said, stepping forward, looking up at Launchpad too. "Mr. McQuack, it's good to see you again, but I have to ask; who's 'we?'"

"Oh, oh yeah, heh." Launchpad said, and stepped to one side to reveal two more people that were hiding up there with him.

They were Bushroot and Quackerjack, who both waved sheepishly when they came into Todd and Crimson's line of sight. Todd and Crimson blinked, exchanged glances, then turned to Launchpad for an explanation.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking." Launchpad said, starting to climb down. "But trust me, we have a good explanation for all of this."

* * *

The following morning at St. Canard turned out to be looking better than the night previous, brightening up greatly, and clearing up the rain. Negaduck barely noticed it as he wandered through the hallways of Canard Tower, however, and probably would've been annoyed if he had, anyway. Fortunately, though, he was currently engrossed in a series of reports that he was flipping through in his hands, noting the progress that was being made on all of the various projects he was keeping track of, mumbling to himself as he walked towards his self-proclaimed office.

"Let's see, initial preliminary tests with the machine upstairs seem to be going good," he muttered as he read, "the installment of the sub-electron amplifier went completely according to plan, and is now powering the device, good, good. Uh, Negarian is nearly complete on that key part for the device, good, and apparently my friend Techno is getting close to repairing Nanite Darkwing's control nanite. Good, that lazy 'bot has been sitting around doing nothing for too long now." he flipped to the next report as he reached his office and pushed the door open without looking up from the report. "Huh, the SHUSH portal tracking system detected another portal opening up somewhere in the woods...evidence suggests that someone tried to mask it, but wasn't quite successful...That could be potentially problematic...mental note to self to arrange a party to go and investigate and figure out who's responsible for it..."

"Oh, that won't be necessary, I assure you."

"I'll bet it isn't, but I'm going to..." Negaduck trailed off when he realized he was talking to someone who shouldn't be in his office, and glanced up to look at the speaker, and to his surprise, saw a young female dressed in Darkwarrior attire standing there, back technically turned to him, but her head was turned to look at him, her glowing red eyes giving him a mischievous look.

Negaduck simply stood there, lowering the reports in his hand, and stared at her. Like always, he masked his surprise well, but still couldn't hide the fact that he _was _surprised nonetheless.

The female intruder looked amused by this. "You should see you're expression," she remarked, "it's like you've seen a ghost."

"I think I just might be, at the moment." Negaduck replied, at a loss for other words at the moment, still debating how he was going to react to this unexpected development.

"I take it, then, you knew of my father."

"The late Darkwarrior? Certainly." Negaduck paused. "Am I correct to assume you're here because of him, then?"

"More or less. It's kind of a long story, actually." she grinned, stepping towards Negaduck, gloved hands tucked behind casually behind her back. "But first, you should know who I am."

"Probably should, yes."

She tilted her head. "Call me the Dark Avenger."

Negaduck nodded curtly, again hiding his surprise. "I'm Negaduck."

"Oh I know, Darkwarrior kept quite a file on you."

"I'll bet he did–should there be cause for concern about what it is that you're planning to do here?"

"Concerned, Negaduck?"

"Well, you are standing here in my office, having slipped in here somehow without alerting anyone. That is a bit nerve-racking when you think about it."

The Dark Avenger chuckled humorlessly. "You needn't worry about me just yet, Negaduck." she said. "Just listen to what I have to offer to you in peace, and you or your allies are going to come to any harm."

"Someone will be before today's out, though, isn't it?" Negaduck asked, giving the Dark Avenger a knowing look for a moment. When he got no answer, he straightened his posture and looked away, deciding to play along for the moment, albeit reluctantly. "All right, what's this offer you speak of?"

"Well, despite appearances, I'm not actually here to finish what my father had started." Dark Avenger stated, walking slowly around Negaduck. "As much as I hate to admit it, there's little point. It's a lost cause already."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I find that rather flattering."

"You would. The point of the matter, however, is that I plan on forgetting our two little universes ever met, and I'll just worry about the affairs of my own, like none of this had ever happened."

"Then why are you here? There must be a reason."

"I think you already know what it is."

Negaduck glanced at her. "Revenge?"

The Dark Avenger nodded coldly. "For Darkwarrior's death, yes." she stepped away from Negaduck a few paces and stopped. "And you can help."

Negaduck resisted the urge to shift uneasily, thinking he saw where this was going already. He opted to humor her for awhile longer, as he only had the vaguest of clues as to how she might react to sudden defensive movements. "I suppose I could, but I'd rather know what it'd entail first before I did anything."

"It's quite simply, really." the Dark Avenger said, staring out the office window at the city skyline. "I'm going to kill the killer. Avenge the spilling of Darkwarrior's blood with their own."

Negaduck sighed. "I thought as much."

"You can direct me to her."

"Figured that as well, so I'll...wait...what?"

The Dark Avenger glanced back at Negaduck with a dark glare that showed just how temperamental this newcomer could be. "Don't insult my intelligence, Negaduck, you know exactly who I'm talking about. I plan to seek out the so-called Crimson Avenger, and, ironically enough, seek my vengeance upon her."

Negaduck was surprised yet again. "Crimson?" he repeated, blinked, then quickly recovered. "Yes of course, Crimson. What was I thinking, you wouldn't be going for anyone else at all, now would you? Not when there's just the matter of revenge?"

"Of course not, I see no reason to waste my time further here with anything more than that."

Now Negaduck couldn't help but grin, seeing how this unexpected occurrence had suddenly become a great opportunity to deal with some unwanted pests. He strolled up to stand beside the Dark Avenger and leaned upon his desk.

"Well, here's how I'm seeing things," he began, "Now obviously, if you know anything about me, which you apparently do, then you know that Crimson is no friend of mine, either."

"Exactly, which is why I came to you with this little proposal. You let me deal with the Crimson Avenger, then I'll be willing to look the other way while you continue this little crusade of yours in this universe, assuming you agree to leave my universe alone from here on out."

"Consider it a deal," Negaduck promptly agreed, "but on one condition; don't stop with just Crimson. You'd need to take out her own followers as well, or at the very least shake them enough to convince them to not go on any vendettas themselves."

"Crimson's acquaintances are of little concern to me, Negaduck." The Dark Avenger pressed. She glanced at Negaduck for a moment, "But I'll tell you what. As I'm dealing with Crimson, I'll also try to...clear the path...for you to step in and...tidy up. Then you can deal with them however _you _want."

Negaduck grinned, "You really _do _know me, don't you?" he asked, then nodded. "All right then, it's a deal."

They shook on it. Now the Dark Avenger grinned.

"Very good, Negaduck." she said, as she headed for the window and opened it, climbing onto the sill. "You aren't going to regret this."

And with that, she pulled out a gas gun variant and fired off a grappling hook and rope and swung off and out of sight. Negaduck folded his arms, and dropped his cheery display.

"I certainly hope not, because I'm going to be keeping an eye on you. One wrong move, one foolish attempt to double-cross me like Darkwarrior would've," he shook his head coldly, "and it's the gallows for you, Dark Avenger."

* * *

Launchpad did indeed have a good explanation for all of this, or at least a satisfactory enough of one for Crimson and Agent Todd's purposes. A long story short, after Launchpad had been shot down in the Thunderquack, he managed to crash land it not far from the building it sits in now. Knowing that with the Thunderquack incapacitated, and with the threat of Negaduck's forces finding him here being very high, the pilot abandoned the craft and sought shelter, finding it in the building they were all in now.

At the time, it was empty, and Launchpad had simply presumed that the building had been abandoned like so many others. While he was hiding, Negaduck succeeded in taking over the rest of the city, but he didn't realize St. Canard had fallen fully until later. It was here that he assured Crimson and Todd that he wished there was more that he could do, but he knew that he'd probably never get back to the site of the battle in time to assist, or find a way safely past Negaduck's forces anyway, and by that point in time, all of the entrances in and out of the Elementary Underground had been sealed off by that point, and Launchpad couldn't get inside the hidden facility. So he stayed put, hoping things would turn around before the day was done, but as they already knew, it didn't.

Sometime the next day, however, was when Quackerjack and Bushroot arrived at the building. They came inside expecting to find Rowe, but instead were surprised to find Launchpad instead. At first, the opposing sides were against each other, but then they quickly realized they were really on the same side now. Launchpad, was of course against Negaduck's rule, and Bushroot and Quackerjack, having realized along with Rowe that the villain planned to double cross them, were now in open rebellion against Negaduck as well. The initial plan for the two convicts was two cause trouble for Negaduck and slow his forces down, but Quackerjack and Bushroot were quickly overwhelmed, and had retreated. Rowe, who Bushroot and Quackerjack explained had left to accomplish the same goal (Crimson knowing now that Rowe planned to turn up at the site of the battle to help her specifically, and most likely fell victim to the mind-control spell as well in the attempt) and had figured that when things turned for the worse he would've done the same as they had, but this obviously wasn't the case.

Soon, the three quickly started to wonder if they were the only three survivors from the whole invasion that was still against Negaduck, so they started to settle in for the long-haul, something they could achieve easily, as the building they were staying in turned out to be the latest Fearsome Five hideout, and was well-stocked despite circumstances. Negaduck's forces dropped by at one point to investigate the building, probably in search of Bushroot and Quackerjack, but as they and Launchpad had anticipated that move, they had made sure that they weren't in the building when the patrol came by to investigate. Eventually Negaduck's forces left, and while a patrol would still routinely head down the street, they never set foot in the building again, thinking that if any one was hiding in the building, they would've been found by now.

Once the issue of possibly being discovered by Negaduck's forces had passed for the time being, the three quickly set to work on the matter of the Thunderquack, also surprisingly overlooked in the patrols (but all that passed through the area where under the effects of the mind-control spell, so a likely explanation for the oversight was the fact that the magicked slaves simply hadn't been told to look for the jet and thereby overlooked it), and moved it into the hideout, and spent their time trying to fix up the severely damaged jet.

Time passed. Hidden where they were and rarely venturing outside of the hideout, the threesome of unlikely allies were relatively out of the loop when it came to the going ons within the city after Negaduck took control. Occasionally they would get word of the odd disturbance within the city that suggested there might be other survivors within the city, but they had no way of knowing if this was true, much less who it might be. They also, of course, knew of Neutraduck's brief arrival in the Posiverse and his second attempt to destroy the universe, but as they were all still here, it was clear he had been beaten. Having little reason to suspect other wise, the three had merely thought that Negaduck had defeated him, and some semblance of peace had fallen again.

Beyond that, they didn't know much about what was going on in the city, less than Crimson, Todd, and the others certainly knew. It was enough in their mind though, and the set down the goal to try and get the Thunderquack fixed up enough to strike again at Negaduck, hoping to deal him some damage, but were quite aware that give the damage the Thunderquack had been dealt, it would have been a lost cause the moment they tried it. It didn't really matter to them. They were more than willing to go down fighting if the need so arose.

That pretty much explained everything from Launchpad, Bushroot, and Quackerjack's point of view, so Crimson and Todd explained their side of events, with Crimson beginning by explaining the outcomes of the lost battle against Negaduck, what became of Rowe, and the aftermath of that battle in the week that followed, detailing what Crimson and the others had been doing to fight back. Then Todd picked up the story to explain how he, Christine, and Charlie came to be in St. Canard, and the events that followed with their involvement. Then they both took turns explaining major events after that, such as Darkwarrior's escape from the Supervillain Prison and subsequent death, the details about Neutraduck's second escapade into the Posiverse and how he was defeated, Bob's untimely death, Morgana's work on the potion that could reverse the effects of the mind-control spell, before finally concluding with finding the evidence that someone had been here that led them coming to check things out.

Quackerjack shook his head as the story came to a close. "Wow, with our two tales combined, it's clear that it's certainly been one heck of an April," he remarked, "and we're only halfway through it!"

"This is all good information to know, however. "Bushroot commented, brewing about the new information he had been told, "It seems clear that you guys have had better luck at fighting back than we certainly have."

"True, but we have more people on our side, and a little more fire power." Crimson remarked.

"That, and Crimson herself, who has more willpower than any of us." Todd remarked in such a way that it was hard to tell if he said that to be praiseworthy or critical.

"The one thing you guys have that we don't is a means to combat the magical spells Negarian has been using." Launchpad pointed out. "That right there is a pretty good advantage, as Negs has been quite heavily reliant on that magician's skills. When you take that advantage and mix it in with the Thunderquack, I must say that for the first time in weeks, I think we have a fighting chance again."

"That's good to know." Crimson said, immensely cheered by this fact, looking more cheerful than she had since the invasion had began. "What is the status of the Thunderquack?"

"Well, she's probably about as repaired as she's going to get here." Launchpad remarked, resting a caring hand on the craft's hull, "We really don't have the materials to try and repair her further, not here at least. She'll probably fly still, once we tighten up a few loose ends, but she's still severely limited. We're not even sure if that replacement wing will stay together in flight. Futhermore, the computer's on the fritz, the orbital engines are fried, the weapons are stuck in stun-mode, and of course, she doesn't have the cloaking device. That's still going to be at Darkwing Tower where Techno left it."

"Unless Negs found it and moved it." Quackerjack pointed out.

"Or worse still, he's installed it on the Negaquack to use." Todd remarked, shuddering at the thought.

"Actually I don't think so, the Negaquack isn't likely to be compatible." Launchpad remarked confidently. "In fact, I really doubt that the device is going to be of much use to Negaduck in it's present state. I'm pretty sure there's no way he could use it on anything but the Thunderquack, and I doubt he could jury-rig it to mirror the shield Techno managed to make with it."

"Regardless, these are possibilities we need to keep in mind." Crimson pointed out, knowing better to get cocky and overlook minor possibilities, "However, assuming the cloaking device really is still there at the tower, do you think you could get it functional on the Thunderquack again, LP?"

"Easily." Launchpad replied confidently. "It'll be like eating cake."

"Good, because that is certainly another advantage we could use, particularly with the Thunderquack in it's vulnerable state." Crimson said. "Speaking of which, we should relocate her back to Macawber Mansion as soon as possible, and get it behind the shield. Maybe you three have managed to keep it safe and undetected here for half a month, but it's not as safe as I'd like it to be here."

"We're okay with that." Bushroot said. "We already kind of figure we couldn't risk staying here for much longer anyway."

"We'll start packing up and preparing to leave the moment we're finished tweaking our makeshift repairs on the Thunderquack." Launchpad promised.

"In the meantime, we'll head back to the mansion, and plan how we're going to relocate a whole jet back there." Crimson stated.

Todd glanced out a window, and saw that the rain had stopped, and that the sun was rising. "Speaking of which, Crimson, we're overdue to return to the mansion," he said, "Morgana and the others are probably wondering what happened to us."

"Right, we better be heading back then." Crimson said, and faced Launchpad, Bushroot, and Quackerjack, they're latest allies in their fight against Negaduck, and grinned. "We'll be back soon. You guys stay here and keep getting ready, like nothing's changed. No need to be taking any unnecessary risks here that risks your safety."

"We wouldn't think of it." Bushroot assured her.

"Besides, it's only fun and games until somebody gets hurt, and too many people have gotten hurt in this silly game already." Quackerjack remarked in a manner that was actually quite unlike him.

"Right. Good." Crimson said, then nodded to Todd, and they turned to leave. Bushroot, Quackerjack, and Launchpad started to resume work on the damaged jet, but then Crimson halted with one last thing to say. "Oh, and LP?" she called.

"Yes?" Launchpad said.

Crimson stepped over and hugged him unexpectedly. "It's good to know that you're still safe." she said.

Launchpad grinned, and returned the hug. "Same to you." he said.

* * *

As the day dragged on, Agent Todd and Crimson left the hideout and headed slowly back across the fairly barren streets of the city to head back to the mansion, both looking to be a bit more enlightened in spirit than when they had left. In fact, Crimson was on the verge of being giddy, she was so excited.

"Oh, Todd, this is _good!_" she stated, grinning broadly, "For the first time since this all began, we might actually have a chance to win again!"

"I'll admit the prospect is certainly pleasing." Todd remarked, grinning as well.

"More than pleasing this is...this is..." Crimson trailed off, unable to find words to describe how happy this made her. "Todd, this is the first good development we've had in weeks! Before now, it had all been just getting worse and worse, but now things might actually be turning around!"

"And to think that just eariler this evening you were looking at the situation with nothing but doom and gloom." Todd remarked snidely.

Crimson gave him a mock look for that, but took little offense for the comment. "Yes, well, I still meant what I said about some of that." she was silent for a moment, her cheerfulness suddenly fading. "We still could have avoided this situation."

"But my point still stands." Todd pointed out, "for what cost could we have avoided the situation?"

Crimson's grin returned. "True," she said, "maybe it's time I just pushed those thoughts out of my mind."

"That's the Crimson we all know and love." Todd praised, happy to hear her say this, "The whole Darkwarrior persona just didn't suit you. To be perfectly honest, it was kind of..." he trailed off for a moment, "...scary." he shrugged. "But at least I'll never see it get as bad as it was in Darkwarrior's case, now will I?" he paused again, his thoughts getting sidetracked, "Of course, I probably should be careful saying that, as I've thought those kind of thoughts before, and they end up happening anyway. I wouldn't want to jinx the matter, particularly with things as they are, _and _the fact that I've got you feeling good with yourself for the first time in days, so I don't want to mess that up for..."

"Do you hear that?" Crimson asked aloud suddenly, stopping, and cupping her hand over one ear.

Todd paused, glanced at her, then perked up his ears to listen. Sure enough, a faint humming noise could be heard from somewhere far off.

"Yeah," Todd said, looking puzzled, "where's that coming from?"

The humming gradually grew louder, to the point that they suddenly realized it was coming towards them, from behind. Glancing at each other quickly, they looked behind them, then upwards into the sky. It was then that they saw the source of the sound. A small craft, zooming towards them, clearly intending to pass over them. The craft looked somewhat vicious from this distance, it's angle of approach not helping matters, but the threat of danger didn't really become completely apparent until they both caught sight of the deadly looking weaponry the little craft, definitely smaller than a plane, sported. It was then that the two started backing up a few paces before flat out spinning around and breaking out into a run.

"I _did _jinx things!" Todd exclaimed as he ran, "Curses, I should've known better, I should've..."

Whatever he was going to say next was cut short as the craft came within weapons range and started shooting it's powerful machine guns at them, the shots hitting the ground behind them, and rapidly coming closer. Crimson eyed the shots out of the corner of her eye, then when it became clear they weren't going to outrun the shots, nor the attacker going to break off in his or her attack, she quickly jumped to one side and pushed herself and Todd out of the way of the shots, hitting the pavement of the road they had been walking upon hard.

The little craft swooped over them, missing them, then banked around for another pass. During this, while quickly scrambling back up onto her feet, Crimson got a good look of the little, but deadly, flying vehicle. It instantly struck her as familiar, reminding her of a little craft Darkwing had made for his own purposes once to use while his legs (both of which he had broken in a skiing accident) were on the mend about eight years ago that he unfortunately never got to use. Only this one obviously had gotten a few notable upgrade from the design Crimson remembered, and had more teeth.

The coloring also seemed unnervingly familiar, but it wasn't Darkwing's colors. Instead, it was a pairing of a black and a very dark grey. Probably the biggest clue the craft had to offer Crimson, however, was it's pilot, which she quickly focused on while she had the chance. She only got a glimpse, but it was glimpse enough to start putting things together. Because at first she thought she was looking at Darkwarrior somehow reincarnated...until she spied the long ponytail of red hair trailing behind the pilot, flapping in the wind as it gushed into the open cockpit.

"Oh crumb!" Crimson exclaimed as she realized what was going on, and started pushing Todd into a nearby alley, "We need to get back to mansion straight away, fastest route after going through here!"

"Okay, okay," Todd said, on the verge of his usual panic attack when his life a threatened, as they both surged into the alley, the pursuing craft veering past the alley and then doubling back to chase. "Um, um, this way!"

They burst out of the other end of the alley, and raced on down the street. Sure enough, not far ahead, Macawber Mansion could be seen further up the street. They just needed to get within it's shield and they should be safe. But the protective encompass of the shield was still roughly a block and a half away, and when you're trying to get away from a heavily armed flying hovercraft that can easily outrace you, the distance seemed almost too far to manage.

Speaking of the flying hovercraft, it burst out of the alley not long after Crimson and Todd had, having gotten hung up a little in the narrow confines of the passageway, but it's pilot was still recklessly chasing after her targets. Quickly reorienting itself, the craft gave chase, firing again at the two with it's machine guns, the rounds blasting small holes into the pavement. To avoid getting hit, Crimson and Todd both dodged as the little craft it sped past them, both going in different directions. As they did so, Todd pulled out his pistol and fired at the craft, watching as the shots ricocheted of it's metal hull, but clearly left dents suggesting that it could be penetrated with their weapons.

Seeing this, Crimson pulled out her gas gun, and went to fire, but was forced to wait as the craft fired freely at her again by firing off a small ballistic missile that thankfully could not home in on it's target, forcing her to duck away and wait for the craft to pass her again. As it was coming about yet again, Crimson opted by that point to again turn and run for the mansion, Todd quickly hurrying to join her, both of them monitoring the craft's progress. Thankfully, despite all the little craft could do, it seemed to have poor braking, veering off on it's last course for several feet before it could slow enough to turn around and head in a new direction, giving them a several second reprieve to cover more ground to try and reach their destination.

However, once that short reprieve was over, the craft was quickly upon them again, firing away, and like before, it was zooming towards for another chance to shoot at it's targets. Todd again fired at the craft, but the pilot simply ignored the shots...and focused on Crimson.

It was Crimson that she was after.

And to prove this, the craft dropped down to the point it was level with Crimson and extended a metal claw with the intent of grabbing her with it. Todd, seeing this, moved to try and pull Crimson out of the way, but wasn't quite fast enough, as the craft surged forward, and the claw smacked Todd's arm out of the way, hard, causing the SHUSH agent to fall to the ground. Crimson had time enough to twist around to face the craft before the claw roughly slammed into her and grabbed her around the middle. Once she was safely secured in the claw's grip, the craft pulled up and started to rise into the air.

It was then that Crimson got a good look at the pilot, who was, as she had already feared, herself in Darkwarrior attire. And the pilot had no qualms about Crimson knowing this.

"Hello, Crimson Avenger," she growled darkly, but grinning with satisfaction as she leaned forward to put her face closer to Crimson's, who was struggling to free herself, "You can't escape, although I'd love to see you try."

"Wish granted!" Crimson exclaimed, managing to free her arm holding her gas gun, and fired a shock dart, point-blank into the mechanism of the claw holding her.

The effect was instantaneous. As the electrical current the dart fed into the claw's circuit burned them out, the claw went slack, and Crimson was able to pry it apart and free herself, dropping back down to the ground. The craft surged on without her for a moment before it started to brake and come about yet again. Crimson started again for the mansion, but paused for a moment as she remembered Todd, and quickly turned around to track him down. Fortunately, he wasn't too far behind, having attempted to keep up with the fleeing craft, and had covered enough ground that he hadn't fallen behind. Additionally, the short trip Crimson had gotten had actually moved her closer to the mansion, so now they had even less ground to cover.

However, Crimson watched as Todd hurried up to catch up with her, one hand clutched tightly over his gun arm, which he was holding flat against his body, trying to keep it still. As he ran, he was also grimacing, his teeth clenched.

"Todd, you're hurt!" Crimson realized suddenly, hurrying towards him.

"I'll live, assuming we can get to the mansion before we're gunned down!" Todd snapped urgently at her, pressing forward relentlessly, shrugging off Crimson's attempts to help him, and nodded at the craft as it started towards them yet again, "Which is going to have to be quick!"

"Not unless I have anything to say about it," Crimson said, and while running, took aim and fired two more shock darts into the hull of the little craft, both striking home and releasing their damaging charges of electrical energy into the craft's systems.

Taking the hint, the craft veered off to dissuade anymore attacks, but it quickly came back about to come up behind the fleeing pair, where it would be harder for the two to attack, as they would have to stop to do so, losing precious time to reach their shelter. However, the mansion was only a matter of feet away now. Within moments, they both would be within the safe encompassment of the presently invisible shield. Crimson hoped her Darkwarrior doppelganger didn't know about this shield and was not prepared to combat it.

However, this thought was quickly driven out of her mind as she heard the craft prepare to fire, and shot a quick glance behind her in time to see the craft fire off another ballistic missile, this one aimed at such an angle that unless Crimson and Todd veered hard to one side, away from the mansion that would be their safe haven, or passed through the shield before it reached them, it couldn't miss. Alarmed now, Crimson redoubled her pace, and mentally urged Todd to do the same, which he thankfully did, no doubt just aware of the danger as she was. The whistling sound of the missile as it rapidly approached them, out-accelerating the craft that fired it. It would be upon them in seconds.

Crimson and Todd had just enough time to take one to two more running paces, possibly more, although Crimson wasn't really keeping track, before Crimson decided that running wasn't going to be enough. Placing one hand on Todd's back and pushing hard, he pushed him into a dive for the shield, which had to be within touching range, before Crimson jumped and dove for the safety of the shield as well. For a spilt second, she had thought that she had misplaced the positioning of the shield, and that they wouldn't reach it in time, when both her hands came in contact with the shield, creating thin wisps of blue energy as they obediently passed through the barrier like it was currently designed to do. They both slipped safely through the shield and tumbled to the ground. They had barely hit it before the fired missile slammed into the shield with a bang, and being unable to pass through like it's targets, it exploded on impact with an ear-ringing bang.

Crimson looked back at the shield as she picked herself off the ground, and watched as her newest doppelganger nearly slammed her craft into the shield as well, but was able to slow a to a stop. Both surprised and enraged, however, she instead resorted to bombarding the shield with the craft's machine guns, only to see the bullets bounce off it. Despite that it was now obvious that the barrier wasn't going to be penetrated so easily, however, she kept firing. It seemed that she wasn't going to give up so easily.

Crimson stared at her double for a moment, then turned to the mansion. "Morgana, Christine!" she called, "You better get out here!"

She almost didn't need to call them; they had clearly heard the commotion from within the mansion, and as Crimson called, were already at the front door and hurrying out. Christine, seeing Todd getting up, still favoring that arm and clearly injured, she hurried over to help him, guiding him back into the house while checking over his arm, calling for Charlie to help. Morgana, meanwhile, joined Crimson, and stared curiously at the double that was venting her anger on the shield. A long moment of silence passed between the two as they watched.

"She can't penetrate the shield, yet she keeps using an attack she can clearly see won't work," Morgana muttered aloud finally, more to herself than anything.

"She's just made that she was robbed of her prey so easily," Crimson remarked, pointing to herself, "And anyway, maybe she can't penetrate the shield now anyway, but I'd rather we make that shield completely impenetrable just in case."

"Agreed," Morgana said, and cast a quick spell that did nothing more but make the shield flicker, but carried out Crimson's wishes, "So where did she come from, and why?"

"I don't know, but I already have a few good hunches. Whatever the case, it seems clear that just when we thought we wouldn't have to deal with the likes of Darkwarrior again, we get _her_," Crimson said, and stepped forward, waving her arms to get her double's attention, "Hey, you can stop shooting at any moment now, you know! Unless you have some trick up your sleeve that Negaduck hasn't already tried, you aren't going to get through it!"

"That won't stop me, I _will _get to you somehow, Crimson!" her double exclaimed from the cockpit of the little craft, finally stopping her shooting so that the noise wouldn't drown out their speech, but now resorted to ramming her little craft against the shield, only to have it bounce off as well, "Not even a magical shield such as this will stand in the way of justice! I won't allow it!"

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that, you always were partial to Darkwarrior's side of the matter," Crimson remarked, frowning, "But you probably already know that I knew that. We have met before, after all. In your universe. Roughly about a year and half ago. Remember?"

Her double's eyes narrowed dangerously, indicating that she did indeed remember, quite well.

"So, I take it that you decided to take up your adopted father's mantle and continue his cause for him, hmm?" Crimson continued, hoping to pry out more information about the sudden appearance of this double. "Did you take up his crimefighting name of Darkwarrior, too?"

"The name is the Dark Avenger," her double stated, "and I'm here to avenge his murder!"

"Then why are you here?" Morgana asked, not seeing how it would connect to them.

"Because to avenge his death, I will have to kill the one who murdered him!" Dark Avenger exclaimed loudly, ramming her craft against the shield again, only to harmlessly bounce off it once more, before jabbing a finger at Crimson, "Her!"

Crimson blinked in surprise. "Me?" she repeated, "in that case, you've got the wrong person, I didn't kill Darkwarrior!"

"Then who else could've done it?" Dark Avenger challenged, disbelieving, "Darkwarrior had you listed as his highest enemy in this universe!"

"He did? Really?" Crimson repeated, again surprised, then shook her head in an attempt to stay on topic, "You do realize that he had other enemies here, though, right?"

"You cannot fool me, you had to have killed him!" Dark Avenger yelled, still not buying it, "You're the only one who could decently threaten him like that!"

"Don't flatter yourself, Dark, Darkwarrior wasn't that invincible and neither of us are that intelligent. Now, I'm sorry Darkwarrior died, he didn't need to, but not only was he causing problems with his totalitarian crime-fighting ways, I..."

"Are you _really _so shortsighted to think that?" Dark Avenger exclaimed, bewildered, "That there wasn't more to Darkwarrior's motives than simply besting the ways of crime?"

"If there was, he never told us," Morgana remarked flatly.

"Well, listen up, because there was more to Darkwarrior than simply fighting crime!" Dark Avenger exclaimed determinedly, "More than trying to right a world of a wrong, and protecting it and it's peoples from the brutality of crime! He did all of that and more to above all avenge the death of his wife, Christine Merriweather!"

* * *

Crimson had been hoping that the Dark Avenger would get careless and let it slip some information about herself and her intentions, maybe a bit of background about how she fit into all this. However, this was one bit of information that Crimson did not anticipate on getting at all. Nor was Morgana, who seemed even more shocked than Crimson to hear what the Dark Avenger had just revealed. That Darkwarrior had a wife once. And not just anyone for his wife, but Christine Merriweather of the Warriorverse.

It was shocking enough that it was hard to believe it to be true.

"Darkwarrior was married?" Morgana remarked, the idea seeming unlikely to her.

"_Yes,_ he was married once," Dark Avenger growled darkly, "but that was before I came along, before he even became Darkwarrior."

"So he _wasn't _always Darkwarrior!" Crimson exclaimed. She had long wondered if this might be the case.

Dark Avenger made no comment about this, and instead again tried to penetrate the shield by ramming her craft into it, to no avail, as usual.

"I don't understand then, what happened?" Morgana asked, curious, "How did Darkwarrior become who he was in the end?"

"Morgana, think," Crimson said, who had already just about put two with two, "Dark said as clear as day that WarriorChristine had...well..._died._"

"No thanks to criminals like yourselves!" Dark Avenger exclaimed, "It's thanks to people like you that these sort of things happen! Good people can loose your lives because of you!"

"Now look, we aren't criminals, and we certainly aren't cold-blooded murderers!" Crimson snapped at her double, "At least not in this universe, we aren't, I certainly can't vouch for yours. How many so-called "criminals" have _you _killed?"

"Two from my universe, I'll have you know. Launchpad and Director Mia."

"Launchpad and Mi–you _killed _them?" Morgana repeated, shocked.

"They stood in my way," Dark Avenger said flatly, like this explained everything. "They wouldn't let me come to this universe and seek justice."

"Oh, this isn't about justice, this about you wanting revenge!" Crimson snapped again, jabbing an accusing finger at her double, "_That's _what this is about! And that's what Darkwarrior's cause was about too! Vengeance for his dead wife!"

"Yes, it was, I won't deny it!" Dark Avenger admitted proudly, "But can you blame him? It was at the hands of a criminal known as Megavolt that his wife died, in a case that went terribly wrong in the year 1995, just a _year _after the two had been happily wed! And her death tore father _apart_. He vowed that he wouldn't let such a terrible event happen to someone else! But his methods at the time as plain old Darkwing weren't enough to do the job. He needed to be someone stronger, sterner, who wasn't afraid to take a life for a life to fight crime."

"...and that's when he became Darkwarrior," Crimson mused somewhat to herself, "Given what I know about Darkwarrior, this actually makes a lot of sense."

"Then, like always, Darkwarrior, in a way, always meant well, he just went about it the wrong way." Morgana deduced.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Dark Avenger snapped, "But it's really a case of all of _you _being too weak to do what's _right_!"

"Hey, I know where Darkwarrior's coming from!" Crimson snapped back. "The past two weeks have been a living heck for me! Negaduck seizes control of the city almost right out from under our feet, enslaves a third of the population, _including _my own father, and in addition to Darkwarrior's death, I've seen several other people die during these past few weeks as well, who were good people that did _not _deserve to die! And there's nothing more I want to do right now than to find someway to have prevent all of that, to keep those good people from being hurt and to protect many more from _getting _hurt! There is nothing more than I'd like to do right now than take the right action that could fix this, and prohibit it from happening again!" she paused, and took a breath, "But you've made me see that Darkwarrior's way of doing things is _not _the way to do it! It will only shift the problem around, until you _are _the problem! And you most certainly do not make things right by killing the troublesome to try and protect others, because you may be in a way protecting them from the criminals, but who will protect them from _you_?" she paused, then added, almost as an afterthought, "and whether you believe it or not, I did _not _kill Darkwarrior."

"Yes you did, you had to have done it, and either way, you are in no position to prove otherwise!" Dark Avenger yelled, "If you really think yourself so smart to explain away your faults like that, then you certainly must see this much!"

"What I see, Miss Dark Avenger, is that we may look alike, but we certainly don't look alike."

And with that, Crimson spun around and marched away from the shield. Morgana glanced at the Dark Avenger for a moment, then followed at Crimson's prompting. Seeing the action as an insult, Dark Avenger let out a roar of fury, and then began again at venting her fury upon the shield that separated her from Crimson...

* * *

Inside the mansion, Morgana and Crimson found the others sitting fairly quietly in the potion room. Christine was currently stirring the anti-mind-control potion in Morgana's stead, but as she did so, she was giving Charlie directions to tend to Todd, who was sitting on the floor beside the massive cauldron, still favoring his injured arm, which Charlie was trying to bandage. Crimson watched him for a moment, then glanced at Christine.

"How bad is he injured?" she asked.

"It's not that bad at all, I'll have you know, it's not like I'm totally immobilized or on the verge of death, here." Todd snapped, annoyed at both his predicament, and the fact that Crimson didn't ask him first.

"I think he has a broken wrist," Christine replied to the question, ignoring Todd's comments, "Nothing serious, but given the current situation, it's hard to get it set properly to heal, and anyway, it'll take a few weeks for it to heal properly, and..."

She trailed off when she saw Morgana silently walk over to one wall, grab a vile of potion off the wall, pour some water into a goblet, quickly followed by a couple of drops from the vile, before handing the goblet to Todd to drink, who did, but hesitantly. After he did so, he sat there for a moment, waiting for something to happen, then, surprised, started flexing his injured arm like nothing was wrong with it.

"I'm assuming that potion just healed his injury," Crimson guessed.

"Yes, among other things," Morgana said, as she took over the stirring from Christine again, "It probably healed several other more minor injuries or bodily defects that he probably wasn't even aware of having. The potion heals _all _wounds, quickly, and effectively, by restoring the body to a state it was in sometime previous. It is quite powerful. That is why I only used a little bit, and had to dilute it still. Too much not only would have cured Todd of any ailments, but also probably reversed his age somewhat by a couple of years."

"Say what now?" Todd in surprise, and started to check himself over for any signs of reverse aging, not that he was showing any.

"So, how did it go out there?" Christine asked, turning to Crimson.

Crimson glanced at her, and hesitated, deciding that there was going to be some things about her and Morgana's discussion with the Dark Avenger that she probably shouldn't know right now, as it probably wouldn't help matters. But she did sum up the conversation up in brief, including the major details she felt they all needed to know.

"I still say she has some timing to show up exactly when she did," Agent Todd remarked once Crimson had finished, "I'm wondering still if I somehow jinxed things. I mean, things were going along so nicely there at first..."

"Which reminds me!" Crimson suddenly exclaimed, brightening, "Todd and I _do _have good news to share, as you aren't going to believe what we found at that abandoned building!"

She quickly summarized her and Todd's discovery of the missing Thunderquack, and their meeting with Launchpad, Bushroot, and Quackerjack and what they had been doing since Negaduck's invasion of the city. The story did indeed brighten up everyone present to hear the good news.

"This is good news indeed!" Christine agreed once Crimson had finished, "We definitely can use their help."

"And I agree, we need to relocate them and the Thunderquack here, as quickly as possible," Morgana added.

"The only question is, then, how are we going to do it, and how are we going to slip them past miss-vengeance-seeker outside?" Todd asked, pointing out a window where the Dark Avenger's continuous and futile attempts to attack the shield continued.

"Well, surely she can see that she's not going to get past the shield with those tactics," Christine remarked logically, "She's going to give up sooner or later. I vote we wait until then to act."

"We could, but that would mean that we would be completely inactive until that time arose, if it even does, which I'm not sure it will, considering that DA out there is bound and determined to find some way to get to me," Crimson pointed out, "She doesn't intend to give up on her little crusade until I'm dead."

"Not only that, but there's only the fact that Launchpad, Bushroot, and Quackerjack know nothing about the Dark Avenger's untimely appearance, and will not know until we can get to them and tell them," Todd added, "if they go too long without hearing back from us, they'll get worry, and might come and investigate, and that would only land us in more trouble. Furthermore, we also need to consider that we promised to look into tracking down the Thunderquack's cloaking device from where it _might _still be at Darkwing Tower."

"Todd's right, these are all issues we need to keep in mind as well," Morgana agreed, shaking her head, "I'm debating various magical spells or the such that I might use that could help, but beyond the usual ortus spell, I'm drawing a blank, at least nothing that won't the high risk of only creating more trouble."

"Please, let's keep the trouble down to a minimum," Crimson pleaded, "We've been through enough trouble as it is, I'd really like some of our troubles to start getting worked out, not added to."

"My best suggestion, then, is to simply use the ortus spell to teleport someone outside the shield, somewhere beyond the Dark Avenger's detection," Morgana suggested, "That way, assuming it works, someone could slip away and carry out whatever it is we decide to do from there. The only problem is that the farther the distance the ortus spell has to cover, the harder it is for it to work properly. And maybe I can do it now, but I'm still no master at it. I worry that I might overshoot our intended destination, or worse still, not go far enough. I could even land myself and whomever else halfway through a wall," she stopped to debate to herself for a moment, "But," she continued, "I'm confident that if we keep it down to just myself and one other, I can pull it off."

"So who's willing to take the risk?" Todd asked aloud.

"I'm willing, and able," Crimson said, volunteering herself unsurprisingly. "In fact, I already have a few ideas about how to pull this off."

"Good, then it's pretty much settled," Morgana said, "Christine will stay here and maintain the potion, and Todd can keep an eye on the Dark Avenger. Meanwhile, I'll be getting you outside the shield to escape."

* * *

And once they had gotten a few final issues sorted out, that was exactly what they did. Crimson took control over caring for the potion, with Charlie helping her. Agent Todd, meanwhile, watched the Dark Avenger discreetly through a mansion window, which was easy enough, as she had given up on fruitlessly attacking the shield, but was still standing guard right outside of it, where she could see everything happening at the mansion, although she couldn't see what was going on inside.

Which was where Morgana cast the ortus spell, and transported herself and Crimson out of the mansion and beyond the shield in a single burst of light. They reappeared exactly where Morgana hoped they would, up the street slightly and around a corner in front of a building, outside of the Dark Avenger's direct line of sight.

"Well, that worked out well," Crimson said, satisfied.

"I'll stay here and await your return," Morgana said.

Crimson nodded. "You stay safe, Morg, don't go trying anything foolish unless all of our plans go south from here."

Morgana nodded, "I understand," she said, "you stay safe, too, Crimson. No need to go losing you too."

Crimson nodded, "no promises, but I'll try," she promised, then hurried off, heading on down the street for her first goal.

Morgana watched her leave, then settled down to wait.

* * *

Crimson's first stop was Darkwing Tower, which was an easy enough ordeal. For some reason, Negaduck's forces weren't out en masse like they usually were. Instead, only a small smattering of them were out about, as well as the usual magical monsters stalking about, but thankfully, none of them save the ones which could occasionally be seen swimming in Audubon Bay which didn't seem to bother themselves with affairs on the surface, none of them were near the bridge.

There were several ways Crimson could have entered the structure, but Crimson opted to enter it by scaling up to it along the suspension wires of the bridge and enter through a window, as that was the less obvious, and hopefully the most discreet, way to enter. When she arrived at the hideout, she quickly saw that the structure had been left virtually untouched since the evening of Negaduck's invasion. Even the broken glass from the shot-out windows lay scattered about the floor in the same position that they had fallen.

Inside, it was also unguarded, but this actually didn't surprise Crimson too much. There wasn't much here that would interest Negaduck enough to station a guard here, at least directly within the tower itself, not with the Thunderquack away, all of the people who dealt with it either captured or in hiding elsewhere, and the data stashed in it's databanks being just as easily accessed in SHUSH's database. She also saw the damage the tower had taken, however, seeing with a small note of pride that Techno had clearly not gone down without a fight.

But best of all, the cloaking device was still there, sitting on the supercomputer platform, left exactly where Techno had left it, still hooked up and everything.

It was almost too good to be true.

Despite appearances, Crimson knew that she was running a risk by doing this. All this could just as easily be a trap Negaduck had set up to try and capture her. But she knew that she was better off with that cloaking device in her possession, and she only knew of one way to get it. So, taking a deep breath, she quickly hopped into the tower through one of the broken window, raced across to the supercomputer platform, and to the cloaking the device.

She did so with nothing spectacular happening, so, heartened by this, Crimson quickly disconnected the cloaking device from the hibernating supercomputer, and packed it up and all related materials that she could carry into a bag she had brought along for just this purpose. That done, she shouldered the bag's strap, and moved to leave, but paused at the tower's armory platform. She inwardly debated with herself for a moment, then relented to instincts and hurried up onto it and looked around for equipment to salvage.

There wasn't much in the way of weaponry, which was unsurprising, as most of it had been moved out to be used on the night of Negaduck's invasion, but Crimson, still possessing her more than adequate gas gun, wasn't interested in weaponry anyway. Instead, she reached up to where a trinket that had come into her position had hung as of late.

It was the late Kit Cloudkicker's telescoping air board.

Crimson had hung it there after it had fallen into her possession at Molly Cunningham's insistence, who had said that it was meant to be used, and didn't belong in a museum. Regardless of this, Crimson had vowed not to use it out of respect for it's last owner, and so it had remained hanging there on the wall ever since until now.

Now, Crimson reluctantly felt that she needed to break her promise on this occasion, as she somehow felt that the air board was going to be of real use before the day was over. Packing it away as well, Crimson then turned and leaves, going back out the way she had come in, congratulating herself on an apparent job well done on getting all of this without detection by anybody.

However, there was one thing Crimson had failed to take into consideration...

* * *

Negaduck reviewed the security footage the cameras in Darkwing Tower had recorded of Crimson's raid, and grumbled to himself in annoyance as he leaned on Hooter's desk at SHUSH Headquarters, "Darn it, I was starting to think all of that stuff in there was going to be safe from this sort of thing. I should've stationed some guards there."

"But at least the camera's caught it on tape," Negawing pointed out, trying to be optimistic, "Crimson clearly failed to take that into consideration. It'll be her undoing."

"Actually, it might be better than that," Negaduck remarked, realizing something, "If Crimson came to get the cloaking device, then that means she has a use for it. And we already know that the only thing left in this city that's compatible with that thing is the Thunderquack itself."

Negawung caught on, "You think she's found it, then, and plans to use the jet to strike back."

"And that she just might lead us straight to wherever it's been hiding for the past two weeks," Negaduck concluded, grinning, before turning to address Negawing, "Gather together the patrols and send them out again, begin sweeping throughout the city searching for any sign of Crimson, her friends, or the Thunderquack. Leave no stone unturned."

"Understood, but Negs, even with the numbers we have at our disposal, that's still going to take awhile," Negawing pointed out.

"Leave that to me," Negaduck said, and motioned him to leave. Once he had, Negaduck, while frowning to himself, pulls out a radio, and radios a special someone.

"This is the Dark Avenger, what is it that you want, Negs?" came the annoyed voice of Darkwarrior's heir, "You have some way past this shield of theirs like I asked?"

"No, I'm calling to let you know that you're slacking off on the job," Negaduck said contemptuously.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that I have recorded footage here of the Crimson Avenger herself raiding Darkwing Tower, several blocks _away _from your current position, not much more than ten minutes ago."

"What? That's impossible! She's here in this mansion, inside this shield, and I haven't seen her leave!"

"Do you need to come and see this footage for yourself? I assure you it's real."

"But then, that would have to mean..." Dark Avenger suddenly growled, "...that conniving, sneaky, doppelganger of mine! She gave me the slip somehow!"

"Now you know how I feel."

"Well, I assure you, I _will _correct this little oversight."

"See that you do. Negaduck out."

* * *

By this point in time, Crimson had safely arrived at the Fearsome Five hideout and delivered the cloaking device into the waiting arms of Launchpad and his two unlikely companions. They promptly got to work installing it into the jet. While they did, Crimson got them all caught up to speed about the situation with the Dark Avenger.

"So she's Darkwarrior's heir?" Bushroot asked, awed, "Like NegaCrimson?"

"Only DA's very much out in the deep end of the pool of sanity by this point," Crimson replied with a grim nod.

"Like me!" Quackerjack exclaimed, apparently happy to have something in common with her.

"This is worrying, however," Launchpad said, as he worked to reinstall the cloaking device in it's proper place, checking it's circuits to insure as best as he could that it would still work properly, "This Dark Avenger is clearly out for your blood, Crimson, do you really think you should be running around with her out on the hunt?"

"She _is _dangerous, yes, but she also let's her anger blind her," Crimson said, as Launchpad finished up, "As a result, I was able to give her the slip for the moment fairly well."

"So she doesn't suspect you're not at the mansion."

"As far as I know, no. She should still be there, trying to figure out a way through the shield."

Launchpad shrugged, "in that case, maybe we can handle her," he remarked, and then closed the Thunderquack's hood, "There, that should do it for now. The Thunderquack's as ready as she's going to be. When are we going to move her?"

"Please let it be soon," Bushroot remarked, "I'm tired of being cooped up here."

"Well, I don't know," Crimson admitted, "We might want to wait while the Dark Avenger's still at the mansion. It would be better that we found some way to lure her away, and _then _moved the Thunderquack."

"A good idea," Launchpad agreed, "then we can..."

He got no further than that when something suddenly slammed into the building outside, making it shake, and knocking them all to the ground. Machine gun fire quickly followed after that, spraying into floors at random, clearly in search of a single target, but not knowing exactly where to find it.

As Bushroot and Quackerjack started to panic, Crimson realized who it was that was attacking without even having to look, "It's the Dark Avenger!" she exclaimed, staying low on the floor and motioning to the others to do the same, "How the heck did she track me down to here?"

"Who cares?" Launchpad asked, lying down on the ground in front of her, the gunfire continuing outside and coming closer, "at the rate things are going, we're not going to live long enough to find out!"

"It's _me _she's after!" Crimson pointed out.

"Yeah, but she obviously doesn't care who else she takes out in the process!" Quackerjack exclaimed.

"Oh no, what are we going to do?" Bushroot squealed, on the verge of a panic attack, "how are we going to escape this alive?"

"How _are _we going to escape this?" Launchpad wondered aloud, and looked for answers.

"Too bad we can't all just pile into the Thunderquack and _fly _away," Quackerjack remarked jokingly, covering his head as plaster from the ceiling was shaken loose and fell down on them.

Crimson's eyes went alight. "Genius!" she exclaimed, breaking her own advice and jumping up to her feet, clearing the area around the parked jet, "We'll use the Thunderquack! Launchpad, fire her up!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Launchpad objected, also jumping up, "We can't do that! She'll fly, yes, but she's not ready for combat! She'll barely hold together enough as it is! And the weapons are still stuck in stun mode, which isn't going to help us any in this position!"

He jumped when heard another bang go off somewhere in the building, making it shake again, followed by more gunfire seeking it's target.

"Who cares?" Bushroot asked, hopping into the jet and strapping himself in, all for any idea that involved escaping this alive, "It's not like you have any better ideas!"

"But we can't fight back!" Launchpad objected still, as Quackerjack climbed in as well.

"Don't worry, LP," Crimson said, holding up the air board, now glad she had brought it, "I've got that covered."

* * *

Outside, the Dark Avenger hovered around the building in her hovercraft, shooting at anything that looked like it was moving within, hoping that she'd get lucky and hit her target, and end the matter here and now. She wished she had thought to bring some kind of bomb, and that way take out the whole building in one go, so she wouldn't have to do this trial and error style of attacking, but that was life.

It was around then that she spied something happening up on the roof of the building. Flying up higher to get a better look, she paused to watch in time to see a secret door open, and for the Thunderquack to shakily fly out. It fired a few shots from it's stun weapons at Dark Avenger's craft, which did little to the craft, and completely missed hitting the open cockpit where it could have affected it's pilot. Seeing the danger, however, Dark Avenger quickly pressed a button that closed off the cockpit in a bubble of glass that would protect her from any more of those kind of attacks.

By this point in time, the Thunderquack had cleared the skyline and headed off for Macawber Mansion, fleeing. The Dark Avenger quickly gave chase in her little craft, more than easily able to keep up. Lining up her sights, she fired liberally upon the fleeing jet for a moment, but then stopped when she saw a sight she wasn't sure whether to label it as brave and daring, or outright insane.

Because it was then that she saw Crimson drop out of the bottom of the jet on what appeared to be some kind of board, and was being towed along by a rope she held onto in one hand. Once the rope had gone or more less taunt and Crimson's flight steady, she then used her other hand to raise her gas gun, and started firing shock darts at the pursuing craft behind the Thunderquack.

Many of the darts struck, and wreaked havoc with the craft's systems, dealing them all damage, and one by one, they started to fail, in order of least important to most important. The Dark Avenger stuck to her path, until two darts struck the glass bubble that shielded her, their diamond plated tips embedding themselves into it. At that point, seeing that she was only getting more and more damage, the Dark Avenger veered off and fell back to a safer distance to pursue, and engaged her radio to contact Negaduck.

"Negs, I've found Crimson, and am in pursuit, but she's also got the Thunderquack...and a stroke of daring...that is giving me trouble." she radioed the moment she was connected.

Negaduck heard as far as Thunderquack, then was too busy being overjoyed to hear the rest. "Ha!" he exclaimed, "I knew it! I knew she knew where that confounded jet was at! Now, if only I can get my hands on it...it'll run circles around everything else I've got in my arsenal, save for Negarian himself, of course..."

"Right, right, but I'm starting to take some serious damage here, and I can't keep this up for much longer," Dark Avenger interrupted urgently, "I hate to admit this, but I need help."

"Ha, you mean to tell me that the great and oh-so-confident Dark Avenger is asking for help?" Negaduck teased.

"_Yes_, I am, and you had better tell me you've got something that can help, or so help me, I'm going after _you _next."

"Oh don't worry, I've got just the thing that'll end this here and now, I'll send it right on over. Negaduck out,"

Negaduck then lowered his radio long enough to change channels, before speaking into it again.

"Gos, fire up the Negaquack," he ordered, "I've got an assignment for you."

* * *

Meanwhile, the Thunderquack was still making good progress in it's fleeing for Macawber Mansion, and was nearly there. However, it's luck had just about ended, as things were beginning to work against it. First and foremost, the Dark Avenger had wizened up about the matter, and was working to stay out of range of Crimson's gas gun most of the time, only coming within that range to quickly snipe at the Thunderquack. The tactic was proving to be very affective, dealing damage to the Thunderquack and getting out of range again before Crimson had much chance to shoot back.

Furthermore, Crimson was almost out of shock darts.

"Hurry it up, LP, we need to get to that mansion!" she called up to the jet, unsure if she could even be heard from here, outside the jet.

She instinctively flinched as the Dark Avenger fired upon the Thunderquack, dealing it some notable damage as her craft was once again maneuvered within firing range. The Thunderquack wouldn't be able to take the beating for much longer in it's already weakened state. But then, Crimson knew Dark Avenger's little craft couldn't withstand much more either. She was proven right when she fired off three more shock darts wildly at the craft as it quickly started to duck back out of Crimson's range. The first one missed, going wide of the target, but the other three stuck cleanly into the craft underbelly and released their electric charge.

At first, nothing really seemed to change about the craft, but then it's flight started to become more and more erratic as it's systems clearly started to fail, and fell further and further behind. Finally, it nearly dropped right of the air like a fly, recovering just in time to drag against the roof of the building. It started to level out again, before it dropped completely onto that roof, and did not rise again.

"Woo hoo!" Crimson said, starting to reel herself in, "DA's down for the count! And there's the mansion!" she pointed at Macawber Mansion as the jet neared it, "Yes! In moments, we'll be through the shield, and then..." she trailed off for a moment, "Dang it! The shield! Somebody's going to have to lower it!"

Quickly, she started looking for Morgana, who had to be standing somewhere down on the ground still, and try and give her some kind of signal to lower the magical shield, but wasn't finding her. Glancing towards the mansion, and seeing that the Thunderquack was just moments away from reaching the shield's barrier, Launchpad either forgetting the existence of the shield, or thinking that it was already down to allow for their passing, and that there was little time to try and find Morgana, the most Crimson could do was hang on and hope that Morgana had seen the jet coming and took the necessary actions already.

It quickly proved that she had not done so, however, but for the Thunderquack, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because it didn't find this fact out by flying into the impenetrable shield. Instead, a missile unexpectedly flew down from the sky and slammed into the shield before the jet did, and because the shield had _not _been lowered, it exploded upon contact, flaring up the energy making up the shield in a brilliant display of cyan. Obviously more than enough warning to Launchpad, the Thunderquack quickly veered off to avoid the same fate as the missile, swinging Crimson still hanging onto her tow rope dangerously close to slamming into the shield herself.

Once the jet had righted itself enough, Crimson turned to the sky to search for the source of the missile, and quickly discovered, with a jolt of fear, what the culprit was. The Negaquack, quickly swooping in on down on it's prey, weapons primed and ready to fire, no doubt. Crimson had little doubt who would be flying the craft as well. NegaGosalyn. The aerial assault between the Thunderquack and the Dark Avenger must have been seen, either that or Negaduck knew of the Dark Avenger's presence already (it wouldn't surprise Crimson) and seeing that they were both, for the moment, working to achieve the same goals, decided to help. Either way, it was problematic.

Normally, while the Negaquack was nothing to mock, Crimson wouldn't have worried too terribly much about combating it in a situation such as this. The Thunderquack was technologically superior, and more often than not, could easily hold it's weight in a one-on-one scrap with it's twin plane. But the Thunderquack wasn't flying at her best today, and even with it still being technologically superior even in this state, Crimson knew it wasn't going to be enough.

Quickly, while working at wheeling herself into the Thunderquack again, wincing as she heard the first of a hailstorm of machine gun rounds strike the jet's upper hull, Crimson scanned the ground as it traveled under her, searching for any sign of Morgana. The witch _had _be aware of the conflict by now, unless she had for some reason moved locations to someplace where she couldn't know of it, or at the very least wouldn't be in a position to help. But Crimson couldn't think of any reason why that would be so.

Then, finally, as the Thunderquack came about for another pass at the mansion, the Negaquack tailing her every step of the way, Crimson finally spied Morgana, who was hurrying towards the mansion, clearly overlooked by their attackers. She tried to get the witch's attention, but she wasn't sure if she did. Still, Crimson hoped Morgana's running for the mansion meant that the magician was already thinking something along the lines of what Crimson was thinking, and was getting ready to enact upon it.

So, moving rapidly, Crimson quickly clambered back into the Thunderquack, and told Launchpad what she hoped to do...

* * *

NegaGosalyn accelerated the Negaquack to keep up with the fleeing Thunderquack, and kept firing upon it. She was actually a bit surprised, as this was being remarkably easy. True, the jet was visibly damaged already, but she would've thought that it's crew would be trying harder to keep from being shot down. But then again, knowing them, they probably had some kind of plan up their sleeve that they were just waiting for the right moment to pull off and surprise her.

And, right on cue, that plan was enacted as the Thunderquack suddenly veered off to head deeper into the city, away from it's past target of Macawber Mansion. NegaGosalyn quickly turned the Negaquack to follow, but just as she was getting the enemy jet lined up in her sights again, the Thunderquack suddenly wavered, and then vanished without a trace.

It took NegaGosalyn a moment to realize what had just happened.

"The cloaking device!" she exclaimed, realizing that they had successfully managed to reinstall it on the jet and get it operational, and first quickly moved to follow the Thunderquack's last course, before realizing that path was probably a ploy to lure her away, and instead swung around to head back for the mansion.

When she did, she was surprised to see that the invisible shield that covered the mansion suddenly flared up entirely...then faded away into nothing. It took another second for NegaGosalyn to realize what was happening, and when it _did _don on her a spilt second later that they had dropped the shield, she pushed everything else out of her mind, and pushed the Negaquack to full throttle, trying to reach the mansion before the shield went back up. Negaduck and the others had spent the past two weeks trying to get past that shield, and up until now, not even Negarian had been successful. Now, NegaGosalyn had probably the only chance they were ever going to get anytime soon to get inside that shield.

Or, when it quickly became clear that not even the Negaquack was going to be quick enough before the shield would go back up, at the very least she could blast that mansion off the face of the earth. One missile, which would travel much faster, would be all it took if she fired it soon. Quickly, while still flying towards the structure, NegaGosalyn prepped a missile for firing, locked onto the mansion, and put a finger on the button that would fire it.

But that was when she hesitated, as the thought suddenly came to her that when she did, anyone who might be in that mansion, or around it, would be gone. Killed in the blast. Since Negaduck had revived her, he had been pounding it into her head that this was what they wanted. Her at best sketchy memories of her past life had thus far confirmed this save for a discontinuity here and there that NegaGosalyn did not as of yet know what to make of. Yet, her occasional encounters with Crimson had usually concluded with Crimson presenting some detail that completely contradicted with Negaduck's story. Furthermore, NegaGosalyn knew that this wasn't the first time she had hesitated to do the deed that would fulfill Negaduck's end goal of ridding himself of these foes. And every time, she couldn't come up with a decent explanation as to why.

NegaGosalyn knew that if she broke from that pattern this time around, she could redeem herself of all of this, and end this whole matter here and there. But, as she stared at the rapidly approaching mansion, the internal debate continued still. For several moments longer, her finger continued to hover over the fire button.

Then, finally, she removed her hand from the button without pressing it, and cut back the Negaquack's throttle suddenly and quickly. As she did so, the Thunderquack suddenly reappeared over the mansion, and quickly fired its stun weapons at its sister plane, forcing NegaGosalyn to veer off in self-protection. A moment later, with a flutter of cyan energy, the shield was restored, and once again turned invisible, sealing the mansion, the Thunderquack, and all within both.

NegaGosalyn circled the structure for a few moments, having mixed feelings about this choice, but somehow not regretting it all at the same time, as she willingly started to fly off again.

* * *

She didn't get far before the Dark Avenger had caught up with her in her battered, but now flying again hovercraft, and quite angrily motioned for NegaGosalyn to land. NegaGosalyn, at first, merely wished to ignore her. Negaduck had explained, in brief, what the deal was with the Dark Avenger and what he hoped to accomplish with her, but that didn't mean she approved of the plan. She knew just as well as Negaduck that the Dark Avenger was seeking her revenge from the wrong person, and debated when she was told whether or not to tell her the truth. Not because she was being rebellious; simply because she didn't want to deal with the easily psychotic universal double of herself. Which was an important matter as well, the fact that she was yet another universal double of herself.

But, as Dark Avenger persisted, even threatened to attack by moving her little hovercraft to block the Negaquack's path, NegaGosalyn relented, and landed as requested. The Dark Avenger quickly followed, and angrily hopped out of her craft and stomped towards the Negaquack as it landed. She slowed somewhat, probably in surprise, when she realized who was piloting, but it didn't stop her, as she quickly overcame that initial surprise.

"What the heck was _that_?" she demanded of NegaGosalyn, pressing her beak into that of her double's, "And don't act coy, either, I _saw _the whole thing! _You _had a chance to get inside that shield and _end _this all then and there, but you _didn't_! At the last second, _you _backed down, and _purposely_ avoided the chance!"

"Yes! I did!" NegaGosalyn snapped, glaring back at her double, "I had the right, and I have my reasons for doing it! I don't need you questioning it! _But, _I _will _tell you this much, and that is that neither of us are going to tell Negaduck a _word _about what really happened. As far as either of us are concerned, the shield simply wasn't down long enough to get inside it! I find out you say _anything _contrary to that, and I will _personally _see to it that you suffer a much more slow and painful death than Darkwarrior ever did!"

Dark Avenger's angry glare never lessened, but she did back off a little at these threats, intimidated enough to heed NegaGosalyn's warnings for the moment. Seeing that she had achieved the wanted effect, NegaGosalyn spun around just as angrily as her double and started to climb back into the Negaquack.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you care for your murderous double's life," Dark Avenger remarked suddenly, as if stating mere fact, but they both knew there was more to it than that, "You don't want her to die, do you?"

NegaGosalyn paused, and was silent for a moment, "At the moment, I don't care what happens to Crimson," she said, "just so long as I am not the one who carries out the deed."

"You know, you're being traitorous to your own side by saying that," Dark Avenger pointed out.

NegaGosalyn knew it, which was exactly why she didn't want Negaduck finding out just yet, not until she knew more about just what it was that was going on here. But she still had a retort ready.

"Like you really care about my side," she growled at Dark Avenger, "And anyway, sides are most effective when you know for certainty which one you are on."

"I know which side I'm on, and so should you."

"So you say. But for all we know, we _both _might be on the _wrong _side." NegaGosalyn gave her double one final glare as she strapped herself back into the pilot's seat of the Negaquack, "just some food for thought."

And with that, she took off again, knowing that she hadn't heard the last of this matter, and longing now more than ever to know what was truth and what was not.

* * *

When the Thunderquack landed again on the yard of the mansion, it was welcomed warmly by all present, Christine, Charlie, Agent Todd, and Morgana, who cheered the group for successfully getting the Thunderquack there, and keeping it secured in their rightful hands. Their spirits were all high, even Bushroot and Quackerjack, who felt out of place for being there, but they were help nonetheless and thereby welcomed.

Their hopes for an eventual success against the problem of Negaduck had never been higher, and held a celebration to memorialize this event. But they knew, that though they had a victory today, they were in no way done yet. They still had a long way to go before Negaduck was defeated, and St. Canard was liberated.

But for better or for worse, they were determined to make it happen somehow...

* * *

_Fun Facts: You may notice that the way I've formatted the chpt. recap is a little different from what I've used in the past. This is because FanFiction apparently made some changes to the site since I last posted that disallowed the standard dashes I had been using in the past_,_ and they will no longer appear in posted material. If you go back and look at past chapters, you will see that the dashes are all missing from the chpt. recaps. So I had to come up with a replacement, and this was it. Would've liked to just stick with what I have before, but beggars can't be choosers._

_Originally I had planned on starting this chapter with an explanation with what had been going on in the Posiverse and not the Warriorverse, but I liked the idea of starting in the Warriorverse with no given evidence that it **was **the Warriorverse at first, the idea was making you think for a fleeting moment that it was actually the Posiverse, but not where we had last let things, before it started becoming clear that was not the case. Made things a bit more interesting, and made for a good hook.  
_

_Also, announcing which universe each section took place for the first half of the chapter was not a planned idea, but it came about because that''s what I had done in my notes so to avoid confusion, and ended up liking how that looked, so I included it in the final product._

_Because I know it had been a little while since I had posted and that you readers were probably a little rusty on some of the finer details, I tried my best to summarize the basics whenever I saw fit more than I usually would._

_You wouldn't think there would be much left to explain about Darkwarrior, but as I got to thinking about his character sometime before writing this chapter, I decided that there were some details that definitely deserved at least touching. The most prominate fact being how Darkwarrior came to be in the Warriorverse, because conditions there are different from what they were in the alternate timeline Gos accidentally visited when Darkwarrior was first introduced in the original series. Obviously, it wasn't because Gos vanished from his life, as he still had her. So I had to come up with another means, and that resulted in the form of Darkwarrior having once had a wife, and not just anybody for his wife. :)_

_The Dark Avenger probably first came to mind sometime around **Spiderman 3** came out, as she bears a mild resemblance in character to Harry Osborne in that movie, and his intent to take up a secret identity similar to his late father to avenge his death on the wrong person, although not realizing or understanding this._

_This chapter really kind of has two sides to it, where one side is all depressed and stuff, evidenced as DA's wrath begins, and Crimson continues to guilt trip for what had happened since Negaduck's invasion, then it suddenly switches gears as LP, Bushy, Quacky, and the Thunderquack are discovered giving the gang renewed hope, and DA's threats for the moment fairly easily dealt with that is more happy and cheerful. Kind of unintended, really, but it does establish some very important things either way, like resolving most of Crimson's pesky guilt-tripping once and for all, at least for the time being._

_I had planned a scene in which Morgana discreetly discusses with Crimson about the subject of Darkwarrior of having married WarriorChristine, and voices concern that this might be evidence that DW of the Posiverse might favor Christine over her, to which Crimson cannot reply as she doesn't know for certain whether or not there's any truth to this. They do, however, both agree that they probably shouldn't tell Christine this for the time being. I ultimately cut it out as the chapter was running long and felt it could be afforded to be cut. Later, I decided that with Bob's death still being fairly recent, I figured it probably wasn't a good idea to have Morgana being concerned with such issues just yet._

_I made the shield capable of just walking through for part of this chapter, as it was an easy fix to an issue or two, part of which is explained in chapter already, so I won't repeat myself._

_I had debated about whether or not I had wanted to kill of both LP and Mia of the Warriorverse like I did, but then I figured that if I tried doing it any other way in which they were spared, it wouldn't have the impact I wanted. So, hopefully, this won't come back to haunt me._

_I had meant to use the word "skiwampus" (as I had finally and recently learned how to spell the word) in this chapter, but am just now realizing that I didn't. So, to compensate, I'm putting it here. If you don't know what it means, Google it. :P_

_Bushroot and Quackerjack had relatively small roles in this chapter, which wasn't what I had hoped, but it was really kind of necessary. So they're just...there, for this chapter. I hope to expand their roles more in future chapters and explore this unlikely alliance with them and the gang, but no guarantees._

_This really is the first time any member of the cast has been shown being in Darkwing Tower since chpt. 75 "Negaduck's Army."_

_In the word processor I was using to write this chapter, it totaled to 46 pages in length. This is dangerously close to the standing record of the longest chapter (also chpt. 75, "Negaduck's Army") of 49 pages, a record I had vowed to myself that I would never intentionally break. So, understandably, I was trying my hardest to keep this chapter from doing just that, and to my relief, I've succeeded._

_In the fun facts for chpt. 67, "Flight or Fight Part III," I had stated that I planned on Crimson keeping Kit's air board. So I figured I had better do something to establish this in-chapter, so the air board makes a brief cameo appearance in this chapter._

_Took the opprotunity to further the story arc regarding NegaGos, once again putting her loyalties in doubt (boy, isn't this familiar). I also establish that she and Dark Avengie don't particularly like each other._

_Anyway, down to the matter that is probably bugging you the most. Why the sudden return with a new chapter? I mean, last chapter I had stated that I anticipated myself for being inactive for as long as two years starting in April. Yet, here I am. So, what's the deal? Well, April came and went, and I was still here, wouldn't you know it. And as the days went by, it seemed like I was going to be not-so-out-of-the-loop for a little longer still. I waited a couple months just to play it safe, but when I was confident that I was actually going to have time to continue writing NADWD, particularly after I finished my other fanfic "Warrior of Redwall," I jumped on the chance._

_But please note that this is just a temporary comeback. I still am expecting on falling out of the loop for those two years or so sometime soon, but not until sometime that I will, for obvious reasons I would think, hold off announcing until I've got something 100 percent solid to tell you. Probably not for some months still.  
_

_In the meantime, expect sporadic updates to NADWD like before. I'm shooting on going as far as chpt. 82 before I consider stopping again, and that's just to see where I stand on things before I decide on whether or not I continue. Like I said before, though, chpt. 82 would be a great place to leave things on a hiatus long-term, so that might just be where I decide to pause things again._

_But don't think that I'm not still going to be actively working on this fanfic every chance I get when such a time comes again, as it no doubt will. During this last gap of time in-between posting, I was working on notes and the such for NADWD, and planning out it's lineup. I'm more or less happy to report that my plans for this fanfic have literally doubled since I last posted, if not more (kinda gave up keeping exact track of that after awhile). So it will likely be quite awhile before I declared NADWD finished. :)_

_A reminder that you can track my progress on new chapters for NADWD on my profile, which I keep updated on such matters fairly regularly. :)_

_Next chapter will be titled: "Inside Job." So, until then. :)  
_


	80. Inside Job

Summary: Crimson and the gang have been slowly beginning to lay the foundations for undermining Negaduck and his newfound rule over St. Canard, but in order to continue they need to get someone on the inside, to find out some very vital information. Like the location of Darkwing...

Rating: K+

Author's Note: Another pivotal story for things as they presently stand in the NADWD universe. I'm sure you'll be pretty happy with how this chapter goes. :) As always, fun facts at the end.

80.

Inside Job

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_"Who am I? I'm everything you __**aren't**__ Megavolt! I'm GIGAVOLT!"_

_...  
_

_"You! I don't know who you are, but I hate you!"_

_"Sounds like his memory is still scrambled."_

_"Explains why we haven't seen him in awhile, though. FOUL must have nabbed him for this very project. It's __**Gigavolt**__ that provides the power for the FOUL Ball. In fact, he's the only thing that even makes it possible!"_

_...  
_

_"When we were in Gwendolyn's universe a few days ago, Negaduck told me that Negarian has this kind of magical spell that he can use on people that allows him to control their minds, and make them his own personal slaves. I suspect __**that's**__ what has happened to those agents."_

_...  
_

_Mia didn't let this slow her down as she continued fighting against the enemy surrounding her, but it only prolonged the inevitable. They pressed in on her, grabbed her, wrenched away her weapon before she could cause more damage, and forcibly subdued her._

_The battle had ended here._

_...  
_

"_Attention citizens of this fine country. For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under __**my**__ control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet! Go ahead and try and stop me, but you should know that I've already dealt with most of my __**real **__enemies. You couldn't stop me even if you could. So, to summarize, if you don't know me, __**get**__ to know me. For I am the terror that hunts in the night. I am the conspirator that destroys your government. I'm Negaduck. And soon I'll be in control. Ha-ha-ha-ha!"_

_...  
_

"_You do realize that she's not going to let you capture her, right? Crimson is bound and determined to stop you. At any cost."_

"_So am I. And sooner or later, she's going to mess up. And when she does, I'll be ready. I will have her, Techno."_

"_And Crimson, of course, is thinking the same thing. Only time will tell who will be the victor."_

_...  
_

"_But what can we possibly do from here?"_

"_Simple. We fight back. We defeat Negaduck. We restore things back to the way they were. Any way possible."_

_...  
_

_"If I were to be fully repaired, someone would have to repair my control nanite."_

_..  
_

_"I did find out one thing that might be really helpful for you magic folk. Here, Negaduck makes notes about the various spells he knows Negarian to be using. Some kind of research I think, to double check that everything was as he wanted. Some interesting info to be found here, but this part is probably the most interesting."_

_"A description of the mind control spell Negarian has been using. Oh, that will be very helpful."_

_...  
_

_"Which is another thing I don't understand. Why make me the one only one __**not**__ under the influence of Negarian's oh-so-famous spell? It would save you a lot of risk."_

_"True, but one under such a spell can't do complex actions such as fixing robotizied ducks without being given very __**precise**__ directions. Directions none of __**us**__ could give you."_

_...  
_

_"Darkwing's not here."_

_"I noticed. For curiosity's sake, where is he?"_

_"Someplace safe, that you aren't going to be finding anytime soon."_

_...  
_

_Normally, they wouldn't have let Morgana do this for so long, however, seeing it required so much effort, but Morgana was the one who had the most magical skill and training, which was needed to pull this potion off. They couldn't afford to loose it, it was too important._

_As that potion was the thing that would reverse the effects of Negarian's mind-control spell._

_...  
_

"_Maybe. But uh, I think I've found something even better than that."_

"_Really? What did you find?"_

"_I found the Thunderquack."_

_...  
_

"_Launchpad! You really are here!"_

_...  
_

"_So, I take it that you decided to take up your adopted father's mantle and continue his cause for him, hmm? Did you take up his crimefighting name of Darkwarrior, too?"_

"_The name is the Dark Avenger, and I'm here to avenge his murder!"_

"_Then why are you here?"_

"_Because to avenge his death, I will have to kill the one who murdered him! Her!"_

"_Me? In that case, you've got the wrong person, I didn't kill Darkwarrior!"_

_...  
_

_She quickly summarized her and Todd's discovery of the missing Thunderquack, and their meeting with Launchpad, Bushroot, and Quackerjack and what they had been doing since Negaduck's invasion of the city. The story did indeed brighten up everyone present to hear the good news._

_...  
_

_Their hopes for an eventual success against the problem of Negaduck had never been higher, and held a celebration to memorialize this event. But they knew, that though they had a victory today, they were in no way done yet. They still had a long way to go before Negaduck was defeated, and St. Canard was liberated._

_But for better or for worse, they were determined to make it happen somehow...

* * *

_

"Report!" Agent Mia snapped as she strode into the main room of the Elementary Underground, causing several people in the room to quickly snap to attention.

"Ma'am, we have reports all over the compound that someone is trying to forcibly open the entrances to the Elementary Underground around the location of SHUSH Headquarters." a nearby agent quickly reported. "All has since gone silent, though, but we're not sure if that means we're in the clear."

"Probably not." Mia said, taking charge. "Probably just means that they've gone looking for something more heavy duty to force open those hatches." she turned to everyone else. "Everyone, arm yourselves! I think we'll have fighting in here very soon!"

There was a moment of silence as they all worked to carry out the order, distributing what little weapons they had left in the room. Suddenly, an echoing bang rang out down a tunnel, and the room trembled slightly.

"What the...what was that?" an agent in the group exclaimed as dust from the ceiling trickled their way down on their heads.

Suddenly, everyone's radio clicked on, relaying a cacophony of noise they all broadcasted at once, the most clear of which being weapons fire.

"We're under attack!" Mia was able to pick out from one of the transmissions. "They blasted open the doors! They're coming in!"

"Everybody, ready yourselves!" Mia exclaimed. "They're coming our way!"

* * *

The next thing Agent Mia remembered was suddenly snapping out of what felt like a daze as what felt like water was sprayed into her face. Squeezing her sensitive feline eyes shut for a moment, and rubbing the liquid from them, she reopened them, and looked around. She quickly became disoriented and puzzled as she realized with a start that she wasn't in the same place anymore. In fact, she didn't recognize this place at all.

She started to sit up urgently, but she was quickly held back by two pairs of hands.

"Hold on, Agent Mia, don't rush yourself here, I have no idea what condition that left you in. Morgana told me a few common side-effects that I might anticipate, but nothing definite..."

Mia locked her blurry eyes on the speaker, and as her vision clearly some more still, realized it was Crimson.

"Crimson!" she exclaimed, trying to push herself up despite the hands holding her back, "What are you doing here? For that matter, where _is _here?" she looked around the room, noting that it definitely did not seem familiar, and that it was definitely not Elementary Underground. Instead, she seemed to be in some kind of rundown room in what was likely a long abandoned building. Her eyes locked on Crimson again for a moment, then on the other person that was holding her back with his hands, and blinked in surprise.

"Bushroot?" she exclaimed, pulling back from the mutant plant-duck, "what are you doing here?"

"Well, actually, it's kind of a funny story..." Bushroot began to nervously relate the tale, but Mia interrupted again.

"Get your leafy hands off of me!" Mia ordered, brushing off the plant-duck's leaf-like hands, and finally sitting up fully, "And will _somebody_ please tell me what's going on?"

"Whatever we do, we need to do it faster!" another voice exclaimed from within the room. Mia turned to face it's source and saw it came from Launchpad, who was standing beside a window with Agent Todd. "We don't know how much longer those guys are going to stay at bay!"

"At bay?" Mia repeated, only feeling more bewildered, "Who's standing at bay?"

"Agent Mia, tell me, quickly, what's the last thing you remember?" Crimson asked urgently, directing the feline's attention back on the young duck.

Mia stared at her for a moment, sensing the urgency, and quickly racked her brain, "Um, I remember being in Elementary Underground...surrounded by SHUSH agents...Negaduck was invading the city with his doubles, and armies of mind-controlled minions...you and several others were up on the surface, about to confront that army...uh...I had been called down underground due to the fact that somebody was trying to open the entrances into Elementary Underground, and I was there to take charge of the situation. Last thing I remember before this was getting ready to face the intruders we knew to have gained access to Elementary Underground."

There was a moment of silence after Mia finished, like Crimson expected her to say more. When it was clear that she was done, Crimson blinked in surprise.

"That's it?" she asked, "Really? You _sure _you don't remember anything more than that?"

"Am I supposed to?" Mia asked, just feeling all together lost.

"Uh, yeah, because there's easily two weeks of memories you're missing between then and now," Quackerjack suddenly piped up, a little annoyed, from where he sat on the floor, nursing his beak, like he had hurt it on something.

"Two weeks?" Mia repeated, staring at him, then back at Crimson, "Two weeks? Two weeks of what?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," Bushroot admitted.

"I suppose this makes sense, though," Crimson admitted, rubbing her bill in thought, "I guess things don't really seem to sink in when you're going around in that dazed state. What's weird, though, is the fact that you seemed to have lost _other _memories as well, including any memory of when the spell was cast..."

"Dazed state? Spell?" Mia's head was starting to hurt, "Start from the beginning, Crimson. Just what's going on? What's happened to Negaduck and his army? Is he still coming to invade? Why aren't we in battle, or soon to be? Where's everyone else?"

"Mia, Negs _won _that battle you're thinking of nearly two weeks ago. He seized control of the city, and whomever couldn't escape the city in time, or avoid capture, like us, succumbed to the mind control spell as well. Roughly a third of the populace of St. Canard met that fate."

"A _third_?" Mia remarked, shocked, "Why can't I remember that?"

"It's not just that, you're missing easily two whole weeks of memories since the last thing you claim to remember."

"Two whole weeks?"

"Going on three," Bushroot added unhelpfully.

Mia glanced back and forth between them, feeling her yellow fur standing on end in shock at the idea. "What happened down in Elementary Underground that I apparently can't remember? Did we hold our ground?" she paused, "Or..."

"The same night St. Canard fell fully to Negaduck's army was the same night he captured Elementary Underground and everyone inside," Crimson reported grimly.

"Everyone?" Mia repeated, then paled slightly as she suddenly understood, "That included me, didn't it? I was captured and put under that stupid mind-control spell...wasn't I?"

Crimson nodded.

"For two whole weeks?"

Another nod.

Mia cursed under her breath, and looked around for a few moments as she processed all of this. The very idea of her being under any kind of spell seemed very...weird. If it wasn't for the fact that Crimson's story was both logical and trustworthy, she'd be reluctant to believe it. She had a hard time believing it right now as it was. It didn't help that she couldn't seem to remember anything of the experience.

But...it had happened. Now that it was over, it was time to get caught up.

"Well, you've got me to snap out of it, somehow, so I suppose I owe you all a thanks," Mia remarked, standing up, Crimson hovering around her protectively in case she lost her balance, although there was little danger of that, "Speaking of which, how did you do that?"

"With this," Crimson explained, holding up a spray bottle filled with a translucent goldenrod liquid, probably the same liquid Mia remembered getting sprayed in her face just before she presumed she snapped out of the magically induced trace she was in, "While you were under the influence of magic, we've been working on ways to combat that magic. Along the way, we discovered the details of the spell Negarian had been using to control everyone's minds, and that there existed a countercurse potion, so Morgana started work on whipping it together, and..."

"Morgana?" Mia asked, "You mean she escaped capture as well?"

"Oh yeah, and Christine and Charlie as well," Launchpad stated from the window.

"And, of course, all of us," Crimson added.

Mia did a quick tally in her head, "But not all of us? Not people like Hooter, Sandy, Taylor, Bob..."

"Well, Morgana's husband apparently _did _escape capture at first," Bushroot began hesitantly, "but, uh..."

"He's dead," Crimson summarized bluntly, but sadly.

Mia blinked. "Dead?"

"Yeah, killed by Neutraduck."

"Neutraduck?" now Mia was stunned again, "Just what the heck have I missed?"

"Oh, quite a bit, Agent Mia," Agent Todd commented from the other side of the window from where Launchpad stood, discreetly monitoring whatever it was that was going on outside, "We'd love to tell you the whole tale, but it's a rather long one, and unfortunately, we don't have the time to explain it all to you. I don't think that army out there is going to wait much longer."

"Army?"

"Yeah," Crimson said, turning to Mia, "You were commanding it."

"I was?" Mia repeated, this being news to her.

"Well, technically, it's General Mallard down there who's in command," Launchpad corrected, "but you were acting like his second in command."

"Second in command of what?" Mia repeated, stepping over to the window.

Both Crimson and Bushroot hurried to stop her from getting too close, but Mia still got her peak out the window, and saw the danger. A small regiment of people stood in formation outside the building in the street below, with a Darkwing double marching back and forth in front of them that was pretty safe to say was General Mallard (Mia had to guess, because she hadn't actually recalled seeing him before now). He was currently giving out orders, looking like he was getting his forces prepared to begin a raid of the building. The most shocking fact about the army, however, was the fact that it was clearly composed of people captured with the mind control spell, as Mia could pick out several civilians, SCPD officers, and a smattering of SHUSH agents from within the group.

"I was second in command of _that_?" Mia asked, shocked, and having no recollection of it.

"Yeah, there seems to be a kind of weak hierarchy within the mind-controlled determined by experience," Crimson explained, "Those with more experience are apparently magically preprogrammed to have more authority than others, such as civilians. They're all really just foot-soldiers, though, when you boil it down. Even those with that higher authority really do nothing more than command the usual patrols so Negaduck or any of his other allies don't have to."

"So...we've simply just been tools..." Mia realized.

Crimson nodded solemnly. Then Mia had another thought.

"Why haven't they raided the building yet, anyway?" she asked, curious.

"Technically, they don't know for certain that we're in here," Quackerjack explained from where he was still sitting on the floor.

"Actually, I think that's changed now, seeing that they've noticed Mia's gone missing, and she was the only one who entered this building," Todd reasoned flatly.

"Whoa, whoa, back up, _please_," Mia begged, frustrated at the fact that she kept getting lost in these discussions. She clutched at her brow for a moment as she felt a headache come on before continuing, "Okay, to start with, for my benefit, what _is _this building?"

"Technically an old abandoned hotel," Quackerjack replied, "the stairs are ton of fun to slide down, though, especially when you've got about a dozen bouncy balls, an exploding panda, and a trampoline."

Mia resisted the urge to ask what that was like.

"Off the _official _records, however, this is the Fearsome Five's latest hideout," Crimson explained further, "At least until Negaduck took over."

"And tore apart what was left of the Fearsome Five by that point," Bushroot added darkly.

"Yeah, what's the story behind that, anyway?" Mia asked.

"Long story in short, Negaduck plotted to betray them and magically enslave them too," Todd explained, urgently trying to speed up the explaining process, "they caught on though, and tried to evade capture, but only Bushroot and Quackerjack succeeded. Now, we're all trying to work together long enough to overthrow Negaduck's control on the city, but as we're still severely outnumbered, it's required a lot of stealth and subterfuge."

"Like hiding and all of that," Bushroot defined.

"I know what the terms mean," Mia snapped at the mutant-plant duck, then continued, "I think I see where this is all going though. They caught you by surprise here, didn't they?"

"No, actually, we wanted them to find us here," Launchpad corrected.

Mia blanked out again. "Excuse me?"

"We planned this, Mia, hoping someone like you would be in the ranks of the magicked slaves," Crimson explained, "Someone we could lure in here and break the magical bonds on with this potion. So, to do it, we purposely let some information slip to Negaduck that we had people hiding out here working on...stuff, I forget what exactly what it was we made up to grab Negs's attention, but we hoped he would send a party here to try and capture us, and he did not disappoint."

"Besides, we kind of figured we couldn't keep control over this place for much longer anyway," Launchpad added.

"And Macawber Mansion is a much better place to hide anyway," Todd added further still, "Better protection."

"Apparently they didn't know exactly _which _building we were hiding in, or something along that extent, however, because that little regiment out there all split up and started searching for clues," Bushroot continued explaining.

"Lucky for us, you got sent our way," Crimson said happily, "so all we had to do then was lure in here and then trap you."

"Which was not a fun task, I might add!" Quackerjack interrupted indignantly, getting up off the floor finally, "You fought every step of the way until Crimson sprayed that magic stuff in your face. You bit, scratched, punched..." he rubbed at his beak again, cluing in Mia how it had been injured, "Not fun!" he concluded by sticking his tongue out at Mia.

Mia rolled her eyes, "Sorry," she said, then changed the subject, "All right, so you got me here and you've broken the spell. Now what is it you want me to do? There must be a reason, seeing you've gone to such great lengths to get me here. And how do you plan to fight off that army out there? Or are you just planning on escaping?"

"Well, we certainly aren't fighting, because in a moment here, you're just going to go back and join them," Crimson stated.

"What?" Mia repeated, "Why would I...ohhh, I get it!" she brightened as she understood, "This is an undercover mission! You want me to pretend that I'm still magicked, and be a spy!"

"Right, and get information that we might be able to use," Crimson said, "Use it to track down where some of our other allies who have been magicked have ended up, such as Techno, Darkwing, Hooter, what happened to them, and so on. Once you get that information to us, we'll go around and start freeing them of Negarian's curse with what potion we have. We'll eventually run out, but hopefully by then we'll be in a better place to resist Negaduck than we are now."

"Right, any ideas on where to find them?"

"Vague ones. Pretty much everybody but Darkwing, Techno, and Hooter have been seen on patrols, so it's not hard to keep tabs on them. Techno and Hooter is harder to know, as we haven't seen them _per say_, but I have a _strong _hunch that they'd be close to Negaduck, so either at Canard Tower or SHUSH Headquarters."

"What about Darkwing? Where's he?"

"That's what we're hoping you'll find out," Crimson grew a little depressed at the thought, "We haven't the foggiest where he's at."

"Guys...don't have all the time in the world, here..." Todd urged again, keeping an eye on the magicked troops outside. Thankfully, something seemed to have held up General Mallard for the moment, buying them slightly more time to wrap this up.

"Right, he's right, I'd like to explain more of this to you, Agent Mia, but we're pressed for time," Crimson concluded with a nod, "You better head on down there and rejoin them before they start sending people in here to investigate what happened to you. Just...act blank, don't say or do anything unless specifically asked or you are completely alone, and say everything monotonously. If they ask what held you up, if you found anything, reply in simplest terms that it was nothing notable. Use your imagination as to what it might be. If the general insists on searching the building, try and stall him as long as you think is wise, to try and buy us time. The moment you leave, we'll leave in the Thunderquack. It's currently parked, cloaked, on the roof. Oh, and send any and all information you find electronically to this address," Crimson handed her a slip of paper that Mia quickly tucked away into her pocket. That done, Crimson took a step back, "And yeah, I guess that's everything," she gave the feline an encouraging grin, and a nod, "Good luck, Mia."

"Same to you, to all of you," Mia added, turning to leave, "Hopefully we can be in touch again soon."

"Good luck, Agent Mia," Todd also choused, "Do me a favor and try and track down as many of the SHUSH agents as you can, please, so we can _exactly _pinpoint their locations?"

"I will," Mia said, heading for the door, "And all of you, stay safe."

She started to leave, but Crimson held her up suddenly as she remembered something else.

"Oh, wait Mia, one more thing!" she said, grabbing Mia's attention again, "Be on the lookout for the Dark Avenger, and keep an eye out for her. Her loyalties are kind of in limbo at the moment."

"Who's Dark Avenger?" Mia asked, curious.

"My Darkwarrior double," Crimson replied then upon seeing Mia's look added, "Look, I'll explain it _all _to you _in detail _as soon as this is all over, I promise. But right now we just don't have the time."

"Right," Mia said, nodding, and again turned to leave, "And again, to everybody, good luck."

And with that, she left. She had a small moment of trouble exiting the building, as she couldn't remember how she had entered it in the first place, but it being a building and an ex-hotel with it's design being pretty straight forward for the sake of visitors, it wasn't hard to figure out. Finally arriving on the bottom floor, Mia paused at the door, put on what she hoped would be the blankest expression she could manage, and then stepped out of the building.

She did so just in time, because General Mallard was just about to storm the place, backed up by the entire regiment of magicked slaves. He immediately held up on his plans when Mia revealed herself, though and marched firmed and sternly as she could.

"_There _you are!" General Mallard snapped grumpily, "I was wondering what had happened to you! Negaduck'll have my neck if something happened to you! I was starting to think you had run into trouble, was just about to chase after you! What _did _keep you in there for so long?"

"I was searching the premises for any sign of troublemakers, as you had requested, milord," Mia replied, not making eye contact and instead staring straight ahead, thinking that looked more blank.

"Must have been doing a very thorough job of it," General Mallard muttered, "I don't suppose you found anything of interest, though, did you?"

"No."

"Didn't think so. None of you other idiots did either," the general motioned to the other magicked slaves that were patiently waiting for orders. Mia was grateful for the chance to study them, "I'm starting to think Negarian was right. This was nothing but a false trail, put down by those pesky troublemakers to throw us off track," he sighed, "not that any of you particularly care about that at the moment."

He looked around for a moment, considering his options. Mia took the time to inwardly wonder if this had been sufficient time for everyone inside the building to get inside the Thunderquack and take off. She had thought she would have heard it taking off, but now realized that if that were true, then General Mallard would've heard as well. She knew that the Thunderquack incorporated various cloaking mechanisms that made it hard to detect, even one that rendered it invisible to the naked eye, but she didn't know if there was one that masked any noise it might make. So maybe it _had _left successfully, she just hadn't heard it. But then again, it could just as easily still be there, delayed for some reason.

Whatever the case, it ended up that she didn't need to worry about it, because General Mallard bought her act hook, line, and sinker, and did not doubt her word in the slightest. If she said there was nothing of interest in the building, then there was nothing to be found in there. He turned to face his troops and gave the command to head out. They were done here.

Apparently they had walked here, because there were no vehicles to be found that they could use, at least none big enough or numerous enough located nearby or even in passing that would do the job. So they started walking back. Mia did not protest; her training at SHUSH had prepared her for this sort of thing, and figured that she had already been doing this kind of thing for two weeks...she just couldn't remember it. Besides, as she fell into the ranks of the regiment of magicked slaves, mimicking what they did (which was actually a bit easier than she was expecting), it gave Mia the chance to look around.

In the long run, it looked like St. Canard had fared Negaduck's invasion fairly well, as it only seemed to sport fairly minimal damage, nothing more than what Mia had already anticipated would be there as she drew upon what memories she _could _recall of Negaduck's invasion. There were only some exceptions, and they seemed fairly rare. Most of them Mia figured Crimson and the others likely had something to do with.

The only real major thing that seemed out of place with the city was that the fact it seemed frightfully abandoned and void of life. They only passed one other patrol, one easily half the size of what General Mallard presently commanded, during their walk and one magical monster (which Mia was very leery of, remembering very well her past encounters with them) and nothing else. It made the city seem very lonely. It didn't help any that it was clear that the rest of the city's population had left in a hurry.

Mia recalled what she had been told that about a third of the city's population remained here still. That meant the other two-thirds managed to escape before Negaduck took over. Considering the circumstances, that number wasn't what was desired, but was still better than what it could have been. It meant at the very least that those two-thirds were, for the moment, out of Negaduck's reach. Which got Mia wondering why it was that Negaduck _was _still here in St. Canard, and realized that hadn't been explained to her during her brief meeting with allies. She wondered if the military had managed to halt Negaduck's progress after the takeover of the city and bottled him up here, or if Negaduck had, for some reason, decided to stay here by his own choice. Maybe he didn't want to push his luck.

In the end, she decided that she'd find out sooner or later, and that it wasn't that important right now. What _was _important was what she was going to have to do to get that requested information Crimson and the others wanted. If their numbers were indeed as low as they described, then they sorely needed an advantage, and having a spy on the inside would only go so far unless Mia can deliver the goods, so to speak.

Mia wondered how she was going to do that without drawing suspicion. Acting like she was still magicked and obeying every spoken order she was given was one thing, but maintaining all of that cover decently and snoop around at the same time wasn't going to be easy. Because, obviously, magicked people shouldn't be going around poking their noses in things when no one's watching. She wondered if she'd even have that kind of access to things, and if she'd even be allowed to a computer terminal. Crimson seemed to think she would, as her plan banked on all of this, and her intel thus far had proved to be accurate, but Mia knew from experience that looks could be deceiving, and that circumstances could change in a heartbeat. She was going to have to stay on her toes for this.

Eventually, their long walk brought them to SHUSH HQ. As it had been the epicenter of Negaduck's invasion, Mia was quick to note, understandably, that it had faired more damage than the rest of the city, on average, had faired, but she was also quick to note that she could make out other damage to the building that she could not remember being there already before her memories stopped.

General Mallard led them all up to the building's entrance, then stood to one side as they all started filing past. Inside, they all at first moved as a group, robotically, clearly already having a set destination in mind that they were heading for that Mia didn't know. She didn't think much of it at first, expecting to just follow them all wherever they went, but then the group started splitting up and heading off in different directions, leading to the main group to grow smaller and smaller. Mia worried that she might get left behind and end up somewhere she wasn't supposed to be and get discovered, wondering which one of these groups that were breaking off were supposed to include her, if any of them at all.

Ultimately, she chose not to follow any of them, though, and stuck with the main group, which shrank in size until there was only about a dozen, including her, left. Mia had no clue if this was where she needed to be, but if anybody noticed, they said nothing, so Mia presumed that for the moment, she was on the right track, and kept following.

Her group stuck to the main, first floor, and eventually arrived to a large room located towards the back of the building. Mia recognized the room as having once been a store room of some sort, but whatever it had contained at one point had all been cleared out and replaced with a series of standardized SHUSH cots that were typically reserved to use in emergencies. The magicked slaves around Mia all broke apart and went to cots seemingly at random and laid down on them as if to go to sleep. One was left over, so Mia took it. Presuming this meant that they were done for the moment, she also laid down, and tried to relax, mentally reviewing everything that had happened in the relatively short time since she had been freed from the mind-control spell.

It was actually a little overwhelming, to be honest. It felt like she had just been dropped right into the middle of this mess with only a mild explanation of what had happened that she frustratingly couldn't remember to go off of. It didn't help that her last accurate memory of life before snapping out of her magic-induced trace ended so abruptly. It was like she had blinked and her surroundings had suddenly changed. It was a bit of a shock.

Thankfully, she was coping, and anyway, no matter how she looked at the matter, it didn't seem she had much choice. Crimson was right to take advantage of the opportunity to make Mia a spy. It was an opportunity that they simply couldn't afford to pass up, even though Mia had a few disadvantages in the matter. She was simply just going to have to go with the flow with things, at least until she had gotten a better bearing of where everyone stood, or better yet, got sufficient information for Crimson and the others that she could call this mission done.

She was looking forward to hearing that explanation Crimson had promised her once this was all said and done, however.

* * *

Negaduck skimmed through the report he held in his hand, his eyes starting to glaze over at the numerous little words. He had learned a while ago that it was beneficial to have documented every bit of information in case he needed to refer to it sometime in the future, for whatever reasons. Particularly useful when planning attacks, raids, thefts, and so on. But just because he liked to document it, didn't necessarily mean he liked reading the reports that went with them. He'd rather just have someone tell him the basics.

So, he put down the report, and focused his attention on Negawing, who had brought him the report and was standing now before his desk.

"All right, so what can you tell me about this?" he asked him.

Negawing pointed at the report. "It says in the report..." he pointed out.

"Yes, but I want _you _to tell me," Negaduck wasn't going to back down on the matter.

Negawing shrugged, probably not caring either way. "We've been fooling around with some of the equipment here in SHUSH HQ, the stuff we aren't entirely sure what it does, as per your request," he explained, "One device turns out it's capable of monitoring various systems within the city. Like, the St. Canard waterworks system, it's electrical system, it's telephone lines, it's Internet network, and so on."

"We already have access to all of that information at Canard Tower," Negaduck pointed out, "I had all of the feedback from those systems relayed there where we can monitor them."

"I know, exactly why I wasn't going to spend much more time on the device, until I realized it was picking up some funny readings. I double checked with the information we've been getting at Canard Tower, and found the same results. Turns out that we've been detecting some pretty funny power readings over in the northeast corner of the city."

"The northeast corner?"

Negawing took the report Negaduck had set down and flipped through a few pages until he came to a map of the area in question and pointed to it. Negaduck examined it for a moment, thinking.

"There shouldn't be anyone in that portion of the city," he muttered, then realized something else, "I thought we had power turned off in that portion of the city?"

"Exactly my point," Negawing said, nodding.

Negaduck looked up at him, catching on. "You think someone turned the power back on," he reasoned.

Negawing nodded again.

"The question is, who?" Negaduck thought for an answer to that question, "Maybe it's Crimson and her pesky allies, or maybe it's that Dark Avenger, trying to pull a fast one."

"This is why I bring the subject up," Negawing explained, "I wanted your permission to put together a patrol and go and investigate the area, search for clues, and the such."

"Sounds good to me," Negaduck said, "Gather together whomever you like. Report back to me immediately the moment you find out anything."

Negawing nodded, running one hand over his walking stick. "Will do," he promised.

There was a knock at Negaduck's door. Negaduck leaned over to look past Negawing to look at it in annoyance. "If you want to speak to me, don't knock, just come barging in."

The door opened slightly, and General Mallard peeked in. "If I do that, then you might shoot me," he reasoned.

"There is that risk, yes," Negaduck confessed idly.

"That's why you gotta learn to be fast," Negawing added with a smirk, "To dodge the bullet, see."

"I think I'll just knock and deal with him yelling at me instead," the general said as he fully entered the room, "which leads me to the next thing he'll start yelling at me for."

"You go and check out that location like I asked, then?" Negaduck asked, giving him a glare.

"Yes, and we found nothing."

Negaduck's glare narrowed. "Our intel was very specific, you should have found _something_," he pressed, "There was clear evidence that Crimson and her buddies had been doing something there."

"I know, I saw it, but when we looked, me and my party turned up nothing out of the ordinary."

"There _had _to be something. Maybe not in that _exact_ area, but somewhere nearby..."

"We searched the entire block. There's nothing there, Negs, not unless they're _really _pulling the wool over our eyes this time."

"There is that possibility, they do have a very adept magician on their side," Negawing pointed out.

Negaduck nodded, "Seems a bit out of Morgana's style, but it's possible," he admitted, "Maybe I should have Negarian look into the matter."

"I seem to recall that he was of the opinion that we wouldn't find anything, though," Negawing stated.

"And boy, was he right," General Mallard agreed.

"Where _is _Negarian at the moment?" Negaduck asked, ignoring the comments about the magician's opinion about the matter.

"At Canard Tower, pondering over that stupid door of his, last I heard," Negawing stated.

"_Again_?" Negaduck said, sighing, "What is so special about that stupid locked door?"

"The fact that, apparently, he can't unlock it, even with his magic," Negawing muttered, of similar opinions about the matter as Negaduck.

"He stresses that there is some kind of shielding in place that blocks his magic," General Mallard added.

"Then why can't he just blast it open with some explosives?" Negaduck inquired, rising from his seat, and looking out the office window.

"Because, by being a magician, he's above using such methods," Negawing explained with a slightly mocking tone, "His words, not mine. I guess he's convinced that he's going to find some way to use his magic to get around it. Sees it as bit of a challenge, I suppose."

"We can look at it this way, though," the general stated with a shrug, "if there is a way around it, he'll find it."

"Wish he'd do the same for that stupid shield that's protecting Macawber Mansion," Negaduck grumbled.

"Oh, he's working on that too," Negawing assured him, "I asked once. Apparently he just doesn't have to sit and stare at it for hours at a time, though like he does for that door."

"Hmpf," Negaduck harrumphed, then turned around to face his audience with a sigh, "Well, whatever the case, life has to go on," he turned to General Mallard, "You go get Negarian and send him here to meet with me, so we can discuss what _little _you turned up," motioning for the general to leave, he then turned to Negawing, who also rose in preparation to leave, "and Negawing, go ahead and get to work on that investigation into those funny energy readings. Maybe you'll turn up something new."

Negawing nodded, adjusting his red hat. "Will do, I'll keep you updated," he said, and left.

This just left Negaduck in the office, looking out the window and pondering on these matters.

* * *

Mia had successfully lost track of how long she had been lying there when someone finally entered the room, and called for their attention. Mia recognized him straight away, and at first thought she was seeing an impossibility, but upon realizing that this figure wore a uniform similar to that of General Mallard, she saw that he was actually a universal double, which explained everything.

Still, she wasn't expecting to see him again like this.

"Everyone, your attention please!" Colonel Grizzlikof exclaimed loudly, instantly waking the magicked slaves lying in the room, who sat up and listened attentively. Mia mimicked their moves accordingly, "If you wish to get food, you will wake up, and follow me."

The massive bear then turned to leave, clearly expecting the others to simply follow him. And they did, quickly and mechanically getting up and filing into a line. Mia hurried to follow them. Then they walked out the hallway, and almost without needing to _be _guided, were led into the SHUSH cafeteria on the same floor. The other magicked slaves were also here, either have arrived prior or at the same time as Mia's group. Without needing to be instructed, they all lined up to get a tray, then a little further on in the line, some generic SHUSH rations, which were nutritional, but very flavorless. Still, it was food, so when it came to Mia's turn, she wordlessly took the food and turned to seek out a seat.

It didn't seem to matter where the slaves sat at, because they just took the first empty seat that came after the last person to sit down, systematically filling up the cafeteria. Therefore, Mia could've chosen just about any empty seat remaining, but she just took the next empty seat like everyone else, and wordlessly sat down to eat.

As she did, she glanced around at the room, wondering if now might be a good time to sneak out and look around. There were no guards stationed at the cafeteria's two exits, which was promising. Nor where there any active security cameras. Apparently there had been no problems with the slaves inexplicably wandering off or causing problems. Colonel Grizzlikof had also only stuck around long enough to see his part arrive safely at the cafeteria, then he had left as well. This meant that with the exception of Mia, everyone else in this room was magicked. Even the handful of people that were serving the food, not eating it, seemed to be magicked, as they did their work very mechanically and blankly, a clear sign that they were under the influence of the mind-control spell.

Mia thought about it, and decided that she could very easily slip out of this room, then, and be able to wander cautiously about on her own. Of course, there were many potential witnesses in this room that might notice her absence. What should she do about that, if anything at all? She remembered Crimson's instruction to do nothing unless specifically asked to do it, and she had seen enough of the actions of the magicked slaves to see why; they really did do nothing until they were told to.

In that case, she figured that no one would say anything about her unless they were asked about her and her actions by someone else. Therefore, so long as she gave no one unmagicked any reasons to question her actions, she _should _be safe. Besides, she hoped that by the time people were going around asking the magicked slaves what she was doing she would be long gone from here.

Quickly, she hurried to finish eating before the rest of her group did, then she took her tray and joined the line of those that had finished before her to dispose of any remains and set the tray aside for cleaning. As they exited, Mia quickly broke away from the group and ducked into the nearest hallway to head off on her own.

Initially, she passed no one once she had done this. But then she turned a corner and passed two militiamen from General Mallard's personal army, chatting to themselves as they walked by. They completely ignored Mia, but to play it safe, she was sure to play the part of the magicked slave. After that, she'd pass the odd person, but like the first two militiamen, they simply ignored her. Later, however, she passed a wicked looking universal double of Rowe that bore several knifes strapped to his chest, and he seemed to be the first to really notice Mia.

"Hey, where are you going, mate?" he asked, sounding more curious than anything.

"I am completing a request for NegaCrimson," Mia replied automatically, without thinking, and without slowing. She purposely did not elaborate on those requests as she hadn't thought far enough ahead to determine what one of those false requests might be.

Negawing Rowe didn't ask, though. "Fine," he muttered, "She's Negs's favorite, I suppose that means she can do whatever she fancies. Not my fault that she's making use of you when you should be off the clock, so to speak."

And then he walked off, leaving Mia to continue on to her destination and to ponder what the otter had said. It was actually good news; if the party she's assigned was really supposed to be 'off the clock' as it was put, then it was a pretty safe bet that no one was going to miss her anytime soon. For the moment, she had time to do some discreet poking around. So she headed up to where the offices were housed in SHUSH Headquarters. It was quite likely that Negaduck and company had probably put some of these offices to use, but there were plenty of offices, so it stood to reason that there'd be plenty that were empty still.

And as luck would have it, Mia was thrilled to find her old office vacant, and exactly as she had left it, meaning few had been here since the invasion.

Well, almost exactly as she had left it, someone _had _apparently gotten the idea that it would be a good place to stash excess stuff, because there was a fair bit of such stuff, looking to be stuff moved out of other rooms to be reused by Negaduck and company for other things lined against one wall. But that was it. Figuring that she wouldn't face much risk of bumping into anyone here, she sat down at her desk and booted up the computer that sat upon it, hoping that no one had figured there would be a need to change it's passwords.

They hadn't. A few quick keystrokes later, Mia had full access to the device, or so it seemed. She quickly checked out what she could do with the device, and was later glad that she did, as the first thing she found out was that for reasons she didn't know or fully understand, the computer's access to the internet had for some reason been limited to the local SHUSH network; in other words the SHUSH database. Anything outside of that, and the computer was blocked from it. This meant Mia would not be able to relay any information she found to Crimson through here.

But that was easily remedied. Logic dictated that there had to be a computer here somewhere in the building that still had access outside the SHUSH network. That would simply be more convenient. But she could look for that later. Right now she had a computer that _was _fully capable of tracking down some of the information she needed to find. Accessing the SHUSH network and pulling up a search program, she paused to think about what it was she wanted to find first. There was also the fact to keep into consideration that she didn't fully know what it was that Crimson and the others _already _knew, _and _the fact that she didn't know if Negaduck hadn't even been bothered to input any new information electronically into the network since he took control of it.

Still, she had to start somewhere, so might as well start here. Eventually, she decided to start with what she felt was the most prying issues, and that was the locations of everyone that was still unaccounted for since Negaduck took over, as requested by Crimson. She started with J. Gander Hooter, and read through the resulting profile that was brought up. It was mostly the same as always, save for a little blurb at the end that had been added on announcing that Hooter had successfully been placed under the mind-control spell by Negarian, and not a word more, particularly about his present location.

But it at least established that Negaduck was still...kind of...keeping the database up to date. Maybe there would be more new information to be found about others. So Mia searched for Agent Grant next, only to turn up the same results as Hooter. The same thing was found for Agent Sandy. By that point, Mia was starting to loose hope. The only thing she had established thus far was that they had all been placed under the mind-control spell, and that bit of info was already pretty much a gimme.

Still, she decided to give it one last shot, and did a search for Darkwing, the next name that came to mind from her list. Pulling up the resulting profile, Mia scrolled to the end where all the new information was to be found and read through it. Like before, it was a short blurb stating the same thing as the others had; Darkwing had been successfully been placed under the control of Negarian's spell, but it also added on an even smaller bit of information stating that Darkwing, for reasons not explained, had been relocated, and unlike the other profiles, Darkwing's _did _list his present location, albeit broadly. Whatever the case, the surprised, but not-all-to surprised, Mia did have to admit that this explained why Darkwing had remained unaccounted for during all this time.

Because Darkwing was currently trapped in the Negaverse.

Again.

* * *

Mia spent a few more minutes searching the SHUSH network for more information, but the location of Darkwing was the most she learned. She decided that in of itself was pretty significant and probably would please Crimson and the others, but she still wished she could find out more. If only she knew where to find it...

Done there, she exited her old office and went back to wandering through the halls of the SHUSH building. Like before, no one seemed to pay much attention to her, giving her the chance to inwardly consider what to do next. Where could she go to find more information? And more importantly, where would she find some means to send that information to Crimson? And then there's the matter of Darkwing being trapping in the Negaverse. How would Crimson and the others plan to get them? Did they have access to a portal generator? Mia didn't find it likely, given their present circumstances.

Mia wished that she had someone to better guide her through this, someone who knew where everybody stood a bit better than she clearly did. And, almost ironically enough, no sooner had Mia thought this then did she walk past a certain door in SHUSH Headquarters that was guarded, and was open, so one could hear the interesting conversation that was taking place inside.

"...it is not-not that I am showing-ing a lack of confidence in your skills, but I feel it should be pointed out that it has taken y-y-you a very long time to make these re-repairs."

"Sorry you feel that way, it's not my fault that it's been so difficult for me to figure out the details of what makes you tick. But I'm getting close. I can assure you, I'll figure it out. They don't call me Techno for nothing, after all..."

Mia very nearly froze in her tracks, but feeling the watching stare of the guards at the door, who were sadly not under the mind-control spell, she forced herself to maintain her blank facial expression and continue walking, unfortunately forcing her to go past the door without getting a chance to look through it and confirm that Techno truly _was _in there, and truly _was not _under the influence of the mind-control spell. As she took a very long and indirect route that would eventually take her past that door again, she wondered how, if her suspicions were true, how Techno had managed to get himself spared from the mind-control spell, why everyone seemed okay with that, and who the other person was that Techno was talking to. His voice seemed strange...but familiar.

She also pondered how she planned to make use of this new development, how she could get the chance to talk to Techno, in private, without drawing suspicion to herself. And by the time she had returned to the door, she thought she had a good idea what she was going to do to get at least a look in the room. Approach it from a different direction. Because, as luck would have it, the hallway that particular door was on was intersected by another hallway that opened up right in front of the said door. Approaching it from this angle gave one a good view of what was behind it if it was already open, which it was.

So Mia approached the door from this direction, doing her best to try and ignore the attention of the guards, and studied what was inside the room as she strolled down the hall. She indeed saw Techno, his back turned to her as he worked at a bank of computers. Behind that, bound to the wall and connected to a series of wires was what Mia at first mistook for Nanite, but then realized that _this _Nanite lacked the right facial features, even in his natural robotic state, and instead looked like Darkwing, meaning that he was likely another universal double.

If so, then he had obviously not faired the invasion as well as very one else, because he was severely damaged, to the point that Mia wondered just how operational he really was. At the very least, as Mia listened, he was still capable of talking coherently.

"...did-did it ever occ-occ-occ-cur-cur-r-r-r..." the robot made a disgusted face, and tired again, "occur-r to y-y-you that it might be in your best interests to finish those repairs-airs?"

Well, sort of.

"I know what will probably happen if I don't produce results, so I assure you that I _am_ working on repairing your control nanite," Techno insisted as Mia arrived at the door, "I just have to learn more about how it works, and it's not exactly easy technology to understand. I'm nearly there, though, I _promise_. I know you're probably sick of being stuck on that wall, after all..."

Mia was about to turn away at this point, having learned as much as she figured she was going to learn at this point, and didn't think she could come up with an excuse to actually enter the room, but it turned out she didn't need to, because as she approached, the guards stepped to either side to let her pass. Surprised, Mia forced herself not to outwardly react to the unexpected motion and instead continued on into the room without turning, coming to a stop behind Techno, standing at attention.

The robotizied Darkwing stared at her with his one good eye. "You have a visitor," he announced monotonously.

Techno glanced back at Mia for a moment in clear frustration, then focused back on his work. "These constant interruptions are not helping," he muttered then in a louder voice addressed Mia, "I take it you have a message for me."

Mia played along. "Yes."

"Is it top secret?" Techno still did not turn to face the SHUSH agent.

"Yes." Might as well be truthful. Any message Mia would give Techno would preferably be for his ears only.

"Better close the door, then," Techno instructed.

Mia turned and closed the door. The guards did not object, seeing that Techno was not alone in there, and didn't really have any place to go. Any scuffle would probably be loud enough to be heard by them anyway, giving them forewarning. As Mia closed the door, however, the robotic Darkwing watched her closely, which secretly unnerved her as she couldn't tell whether the robot was suspicious of her, or simply curious.

"Who is the message from, then?" Techno inquired once the door was closed.

Mia hesitated a spilt second, but she quickly had her cryptic reply ready. "Gwendolyn Waddlemeyer."

Techno visibly froze at this announcement, and a moment later seemed to make the connections Mia wanted him to, as he seemed to grow more stunned after that.

As Mia had hoped, though, the significance of the name was lost on the robot Darkwing, who furrowed his brow in puzzlement. "Wh-who is Gwendol–"

Without warning, Techno quickly keyed in a command into the computer he was sitting at and sent it. Whatever it was, it apparently forced the robot Darkwing to switch off as he suddenly went limp, cutting short his question, his one working eye going dark. Techno then spun around in his seat to face Mia with a demanding expression on his face.

"Is this some kind of trick?" he asked finally after a moment of hesitation, "Gwendolyn is dead."

"I know," Mia replied, locking her eyes on Techno's behind his visor, dropping her blank look, "But Gwen's Posiverse double isn't. She sends greetings, by the way."

Techno blinked in further surprise. "_Mia_?" he pressed, "is that really you?"

"_Yes,_ it's me, Techno, not some preprogrammed magical spell."

Techno let out a happy laugh, then quickly clamped a hand over his mouth to quiet himself for her of his voice carrying to the guards outside. But even then, his excitement was clearly hard to contain.

"This is great!" he exclaimed softly, "You've managed to break Negarian's spell! How did you manage to break Negarian's spell?"

"Thank Crimson. She, Morgana, and others have put together some kind of potion that counters the mind-control spell. I'm the first they've used it on, then put me undercover here."

"Oh, this is great!" Techno repeated, "This is step one to overthrowing Negaduck, and that's getting rid of the mind-control spell!"

"Well, they only have so much, at the moment they only want to use it on select people, those we can agree upon on being more important," Mia quickly told him, "In fact, you were on the list, they had every reason to believe you were magicked as well."

"But I'm not," Techno stated, like it was obvious.

"I can see that, how did you manage that?"

"Oh, well, you can thank Mr. Tin Pants here for that, which has both it's upsides and it's downsides," Techno said, jabbing a thumb back at the robotic Darkwing.

Mia glanced at him. "Who is he, anyway?" she moved to examine the robot closer.

"A universal double," Techno replied, "I refer to him as Nanite Darkwing, and so does Negs, to which he hasn't objected to," seeing Mia wave her hand in front of the robot's dark eyes, he added, "Don't worry, I switched him off, he's not hearing or seeing a thing at the moment. He'll probably object when I reactivate him, but it's not the first time I've done it. In fact, usually it's at Negs request that I do it in the past."

"Negs?" Mia repeated, surprised.

"Yeah, every now and then he'll force me into some specialized assignment only I can do, which he usually keeps secret, just between me and him," Techno muttered with a sigh, "That's why I haven't been magicked yet, actually. I'm too useful."

"I don't understand, what does that have to do with it?" Mia asked, "You have to understand, I don't remember anything during the time I myself was magicked."

"Uh, that's interesting," Techno remarked, and made a mental note of that detail, "To answer the question, though, I can still do all of these technical things I usually do even when under the influence of Negarian's spell, but only if I'm _specifically _asked to do so _in detail_. And no one here has enough knowledge to give me that kind of instructions, so Negaduck has left me unmagicked for now, but under constant guard," he jabbed a thumb at the door to refer to the guards that were stationed just outside it.

"Huh," Mia said, rubbing the back of her head, deciding that made sense, "Well, either way, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. You can help me pull off a few things on my end."

"I'm more than willing, but I can't leave this room without Negaduck's explicit permission."

"You don't have to. You just need to tell me where I can find a few things. Like, first and foremost, where can I find a computer that accesses the anything outside the SHUSH local network? All I've found thus far is computers that are stuck to talking to the local computers in the building. That won't work for me, because Crimson requested I relay any and all information I find to her digitally."

"Probably a smart move, if it's sent through a computer under Negaduck's control, people are less likely to question it," Techno said, then responded, "I know that the computers controlling the portal generator in sub-level five can connect outside the SHUSH network, as well as a computer kept in the upstairs briefing room, the one used for debriefing Darkwing and the rest of the gang were things under normal circumstances."

"Right, the one on the top floor, got it," Mia said, "Now, can _you _tell me where I can find some of the others? Like Hooter, and other SHUSH agents?"

"Hooter I've seen going around acting as a servant for the higher-ups in Negaduck's army, obviously magicked," Techno stated, "His exact location varies, but he's either here or at Canard Tower. As for the rest, as far as I know, they were simply pressed into the forces of that army, like all of the other magicked slaves."

"Well, everybody but Darkwing," Mia stated.

"Why, what's Darkwing's status?"

"Magicked, and in the Negaverse."

"The Negaverse?" Techno's eyebrows went up, "Somehow I'm not surprised."

"It makes sense, actually, because that's the one place Negaduck knows he can keep Darkwing at and out of his hair, magicked or not."

"Not only that, but it's someplace those working against him can't get to very readily."

"I know. I'm trying to figure out how any of us are going to get there to rescue him. I don't suppose you have any ideas?"

Techno thought about the problem for a moment. "Well, it's not like we have many means of getting outside the Posiverse accessible at the moment, really," he admitted, "The most readily available means would be by the SHUSH portal generator, but obviously, Negaduck isn't going to let any of us get close to it. We're all pretty certain that the Dark Avenger has access to a portal generator, but I don't know where it is, and even then, she most likely probably would be keeping it guarded, too," he shook his head, "Seems to me your best bet to get to the Negaverse is with a portal remote."

"A portal remote?" Mia blinked in surprise, as a portal remote was one object SHUSH had been trying to get a hold of ever since Negaduck resumed active criminal work two years ago and revealed he possessed such a device, "You mean like Negaduck's?"

"Yeah, except it seems all the universal doubles are carrying them now, save Nanite DW here," Techno explained, "I think it's some kind of failsafe in the event of a worse case scenario, to give them a quick escape to relative safety."

"But if we're ever going to get one, now might be the time," Mia reasoned.

"And when you do, you can go get Darkwing," Techno reasoned, "You just have to pick-pocket one."

"Easier said than done."

"It's the best option I can give you, Agent Mia."

"I know," Mia sighed, "I know, and you are being helpful nonetheless. You have anything else you can tell me?"

"Not really, unless you've got something to specifically ask for."

"How about getting _you _out of here?"

"Not likely, not with me being as closely guarded as I currently am. We'd both need more help to pull it off, which we don't have."

"Oh."

"Besides, it's not like I'm in any _immediate_ danger here. There are really more pressing issues out there to deal with at the moment than just me," Techno gave Mia a comforting grin, "So, unless there's something _else _you want to ask me..."

"No, I think you've told me all I need to know," she shrugged, "If I need to know more, I know where to go."

Techno nodded, "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, not unless Negaduck assigns me some new task between now and then that requires me be somewhere else."

"Yeah," Mia said, and wondered for a moment what to say next, "Well, I guess I should be leaving before someone notices I'm not where I should be." In truth, she didn't really want to leave, she'd rather stay here and keep talking to Techno, as he was a normal person she could interact with, but she knew she couldn't stay here forever.

Techno probably knew it to; at the very least, he did not object, "Okay," he said, nodding, "You'd better go then."

Mia nodded, and started for the door.

"Oh, and Agent Mia?" Techno quickly added grabbing her attention again, "Good luck."

"Thanks," Mia said, grinning, "I'll tell Crimson about your situation."

"Thank you," Techno returned the grin.

But then, just as quickly, Mia put back on the blank expression of a magicked slave, and opened the door, exiting the room. The guards hardly acknowledged her leaving. Techno watched her go, then decided to get back to work. Without looking away from the screen he was working on, he thumbed the control that would reactivate Nanite Darkwing. He did so with a jolt, and looked around quickly.

"What was that about-about?" he asked finally.

"It was secret, nothing you need to worry yourself about," Techno assured him, and said nothing more on the subject.

* * *

Mia was about to head off to try and track down a party of magicked slaves and slip into their ranks again when, as she was about to turn a corner in the hallway, was hailed by someone else further down the hall.

"Agent Mia!" the suspiciously familiar voice called from behind her, on down the hall Mia was just about to turn out of, "Thank goodness, I could really use your help here!"

Mia forced herself not to react, and slowly and as unsuspiciously as she could, turned around to face the speaker. As she had suspected, NegaGosalyn was rounding the other corner of the hallway, dragging what appeared to be a very heavy case about the same size as a trunk. As she struggled to tow it along behind her, with no one to assist, it was clear that she did need the help, but Mia hesitated, remembering very well the fact that up until the start of Negaduck's invasion, she had been dead, and was now, somehow, back from that. Mia didn't really know how to react to that anymore now than she had then.

"Hello, are you deaf?" NegaGosalyn called again, shooting her a glare as she twisted around to try dragging the box with both hands, making some better progress, but not much, "Get over here and help me! This needs to get to Canard Tower, preferably before the day is out!"

Mia forced herself to wordlessly move forward and stoop down to pick up the other end of the box. It was indeed very heavy, but it was nothing that both of them working together couldn't manage to carry. NegaGosalyn let out a relieved sigh as her job was alleviated.

"_Thank _you," she said in relief, "Now, we just got to carry it outside the building and load it into a car to drive to Canard Tower, and then it's just a quick trip up to the top floor by elevator," she blew out her breath in a huff as they started on down the hallway, "In all honesty, it should be Negawing who's taking care of this, but he left unexpectedly to go take care of something, and seeing this needs to get to Canard Tower before the day is out, the job got left to me."

Mia silently listened, not really having anything else to say.

"You know, I wasn't really expecting to get stuck with such menial tasks such as this, but as of late, that seems to be what I'm stuck with the most," NegaGosalyn continued, sounding frustrated, "I mean, sure, sometimes I get in a piece of the action, like whenever my double is out causing trouble. And from instances like that, I _know _that I can handle myself. Heck, I have magical blood, and a familiar to draw the needed magical energy from that I can use at any time. Granted, I'm inexperienced at it, and there seems to be problems with me using Rowe as a familiar, might have something to do with the fact he's native to the Posiverse and not the Negaverse like myself, but it's not like I'd let that stop me. If I just had the chance to prove myself, I think I could, but..." she shook her head, "...it almost seems like at times that other people don't think that. That they think, for some reason, I really _can't _handle it. And it's not getting better, but worse. Negaduck has been keeping me from helping in the constant attempts to try and finalize what small parts of the city we don't have under our control, like Macawber Mansion, and hasn't been giving me a good reason why lately."

Mia silently thought to herself that she might have an idea. Negaduck was trying to keep NegaGosalyn from switching sides again, by shielding her from interacting too much with their foes. But the thought was no sooner thunk when she found a flaw to that logic. She knew this wasn't _always _the case, as she remembered enough to know that NegaGosalyn had played a very important role in the initial invasion. And NegaGosalyn herself stated that this had started recently, sometime during the two weeks Mia couldn't remember.

So what had changed?

"I thought things were going to improve once the invasion is complete," NegaGosalyn remarked onward, more thinking aloud than she was actually talking to Mia, "That things were going to work out for the better. Particularly after I..." she paused, "...after I died and then was brought back to life. I thought then that if not even death could stop me, then things were bound to get better. And in some ways they have, but in the more temporal sense. Just control of a city in the Posiverse, and a massive army at our command, among other things. But, nothing seems to have really changed between me and Negs. It's like there's this...wall...separating us that we can't ever knock down..." she fell silent for a moment, saddened, then promptly shook her head and resumed her usual, darker, persona, "But why am I telling _you _all of this? You probably can't even comprehend what I'm telling you, magicked as you are at the moment."

Mia wondered what NegaGosalyn would think if she knew that _wasn't _the case, but knew better than to react in anyway to that statement, and continued pretending to be magicked still.

They eventually carried the trunk downstairs to the ground floor and outside into the street, where a SHUSH-issued car complete with a magicked driver was waiting for them. Together, under NegaGosalyn's instructions, they placed the heavy container into the car's trunk, then climbed into the back of the car to head to Canard Tower where they would unload it again. NegaGosalyn curtly instructed the driver where to go, and then they were off. There was silence the car, as no words were spoken by any of them, which was understandable given the circumstances. Mia did feel uncomfortable doing this, especially as she was sitting so close to someone that could easily discover that wasn't magicked like she had been letting everyone believe.

During the car ride, however, Mia did note that, true to Techno's word, NegaGosalyn was carrying a portal remote, which was strapped neatly to her belt, sitting just above the holster for one of her Uzis. It was then that Mia realized that if she was going to swipe one of these remotes, then the best chance she could ever get to do it might be while she's helping NegaGosalyn. It was just a question of how, and when. And if she _did _steal any remotes from anyone, she would probably have to bail from this mission immediately afterwards and flee, because she could easily see her enemies quickly putting two with two and come after her.

They arrived at Canard Tower fairly quickly, which Mia noted looked the same as always. Climbing back out of the car, she and NegaGosalyn pulled the case out of the car's trunk and began carrying it into the building. Inside, there were plenty of guards stationed everywhere in otherwise would be a fairly usual building full of businesses, proving just how tightly Negaduck controlled it at the moment. They all but ignored the presence of NegaGosalyn and her helper, though, so Mia in turn ignored them, deciding that she'd best not reveal her true colors until after she had safely left this building.

The crate was carried into the elevator, where Mia and NegaGosalyn got a break from carrying it as they rode it up towards their destination. Apparently, though, the elevator didn't go the whole way to the top floor, for reasons Mia did not know, but did not question. They had to exit a floor below that, and resume carrying the trunk the rest of the way on their own. They went up a set of stairs which exited out on the top floor in another, shorter, hallway which terminated abruptly with a heavy metal door with an electronic lock on it. NegaGosalyn and Mia carried their load up to it, then NegaGosalyn pulled out a security card and swiped it in the card reader, unlocking the door. She then pushed it open, and started pulling her side through. Mia followed, but the moment she entered the room, her eyes was drawn to what the room sported, and only followed NegaGosalyn's lead numbly, and understandably so.

Mia got her first look at Negaduck's mysterious machine.

It was positioned in the center of the room, and was massive, both mechanical and electrical, and very robust. A faint, reddish, glow was being emitted from it's center. It towered on up into the roof of the room, which had since been torn down to reveal the rafters and whatever was above that ceiling, which apparently included a large, semi-empty space, at least until new machinery being installed started taking up that space. Currently, what appeared to be some kind of glass canister was being erected in the middle. Magicked slaves of all sorts were going around working on this device relentlessly, while General Mallard supervised, standing to one side of the room. Apparently since the time he was commanding the unit of magicked troops Mia had been in, he had since gone up here to take charge. They probably rotated supervisors every now and then, and now it was General Mallard's turn.

It was to him that NegaGosalyn led Mia to, carrying the trunk between them. The general, seeing them coming, turned to face them.

"Gosalyn," he greeted as they approached.

"General," NegaGosalyn greeted back as she stepped up to him.

Apparently deciding there was no needing to take the heavy box any further, NegaGosalyn suddenly released her end of the box and dropped her end of it. That end crashed straight to the floor, startling Mia, who hadn't been paying attention, and in the sudden jerk, lost her grip on her end, and the other end of the box dropped on Mia's foot. She yelped, quickly yanked it out from under the box, then, despite her toes aching like nothing else, quickly resumed the usual positioning of the magicked slave she was supposed to be pretending to be, and stood at attention.

Both General Mallard and NegaGosalyn stared at her for several long moments as if in surprise, before NegaGosalyn finally shrugged in annoyance. "Sorry," she muttered, then turned back to the general, who did likewise to her.

"I trust these are the parts we requested for?" he asked, bending down to unlock the box, swinging it open to reveal metallic parts, explaining why it was so heavy to carry.

"Yes, but I probably should tell you that Negs wasn't too happy about having to send them your way," NegaGosalyn said, stepping to one side as magicked slaves came to take the parts out of the box.

"Negs is never happy," the general grumbled, "besides, it wasn't our fault. That sub-electron amplifier is highly unstable and with a quick temper. Something we did in construction aggravated it and overloaded a couple minor parts, that was it."

A sub-electron amplifier? Mia glanced back at the machine, specifically at the faint red glow that was being emitted from it's center. Crimson and the others definitely needed to know about _this_.

"Yeah, well, I'm not the one you should be explaining that to," NegaGosalyn stated.

"Trust me, I've already tried, but he won't listen," General Mallard sighed, "I know Negaduck is a lot of things, and that all of this only happened because of his careful planning, but that doesn't mean he can't still grate on my nerves sometimes."

"I'm sure he'd say something similar about you," NegaGosalyn remarked, and turned to leave, motioning for Mia to follow, who did, albeit with a faint limp to favor her still-sore toes, "Good day, general."

She and Mia exited the room again and back into the hallway. NegaGosalyn closed the door roughly behind her, and started thinking aloud again.

"I swear, that general is dense," she muttered, "obviously, he doesn't realize that Negaduck hasn't quite forgiven him for being the one responsible for letting Darkwarrior out of the supervillain prison. Of course, Negaduck himself refuses to realize that it wasn't really the general's fault that happened. Of course, he doesn't really believe in accidents. He just likes having someone to blame. Even if there's nothing to blame on anyone. I wouldn't put it past him to just create some blame himself just to pin it on some innocent person."

Mia couldn't help allow herself a faint grin at that, knowing that there was some probably some truth to that.

However, NegaGosalyn noticed.

And just as they were about to start down the stairs to the next floor on their return trip to the elevator, she hung back a step, and quickly stomped one foot on Mia's tail, immobilizing the feline and without question started to whip out her P90. Mia saw the gun come into view out of the corner of her eye, and allowed her cover drop and spun around slapping her arms into the side of the P90 to throw off it's aim. It worked, and the weapon fired into the wall rather than into it's target.

Caught a little off guard, NegaGosalyn stumbled backwards, and tripped on her own cape, falling over, freeing Mia's tail, which quickly swished back to safety no worse for wear save for being a little sore. Liberated, Mia quickly tackled NegaGosalyn, and wrestled with her for a moment as the universal double tried to fire off her P90 again, but again had her aim thrown off, the spray of bullets merely striking the other wall of the hallway. Managing to roll Mia off of her, NegaGosalyn jumped back up to her feet, but the feline was too fast and pounced on the teenaged duck, slamming her into the wall behind her, knocking the P90 out of her hand.

Mia's hand quickly fished for the portal remote at NegaGosalyn's belt, as well as the Uzi that hung near it. "I'll take these!" she told NegaGosalyn quickly, then shoved the duck in the direction away from her fallen P90 and made a wild dash for the stairs, taking the route that would put a wall between her and her opponent, heading further upstairs, up towards the roof.

NegaGosalyn was only slightly delayed, however, and was up on her feet, rearmed with the other Uzi, and in quick pursuit. She stayed close on Mia's heels, who was quick to see that she had little hope of outrunning or outmaneuvering NegaGosalyn. She was proven right as she burst out onto the roof of Canard Tower, and barely got more than two paces out of the door when NegaGosalyn tackled her from behind, knocking her down. Mia reacted by twisting over onto her back and sending a side-kick with her foot into NegaGosalyn's head, knocking her off Mia. NegaGosalyn took the blow in stride, and hopped up onto her feet, but so did Mia, and Mia was faster, grabbing NegaGosalyn and pressing her against the base of the pyramid-like structure that topped Canard Tower. NegaGosalyn started to raise her Uzi to shoot at Mia, but Mia quickly grabbed that arm and pinned it too.

"Oh no you don't, don't you try to kill me!" Mia exclaimed.

"Why not?" NegaGosalyn challenged, struggling, "You killed me once, you and your goody-goody friends!"

"I wasn't the one who fired the shot!" Mia argued in her defense, caught a little off guard by the accusation, "And none of us are truly responsible for your death! Don't you remember? If anyone is to blame, it's Daisy!"

NegaGosalyn froze for a split second, clearly recognizing the name, and that it was significant, but otherwise the memories alluded her still. But just as quickly as the reaction came, it was gone again, and she resumed struggling to try and break free from Mia's grasp. She finally started to succeed, trying to force Mia backwards and free her gun hand, but Mia reacted by slapping the weapon out of her hand again, sending the Uzi spiraling off the edge of the rooftop, then pushed NegaGosalyn backwards the doorway they had both come through earlier, nearly causing her to fall back down the stairs that had led up here.

While NegaGosalyn was preoccupied, Mia twisted around, and started climbing up a nearby ladder on the building's pyramid topper, and started climbing up it towards the lightning rod that stood at the top. NegaGosalyn followed, quickly clambering up the ladder herself, quickly catching up with Mia initially, but as she had lost one Uzi, had been relieved of the other, and had left behind her dropped P90, the only weapon she had left was her large machine gun strapped to her back, so she had to stop climbing to get it ready to fire, giving Mia more time to continue climbing.

She could've kept on going on up to the lightning rod, but knowing that she wouldn't likely have anywhere to go up there, Mia stopped halfway up the side of the pyramid and stepped out on a small ledge in the structure, where several panes of plastic covering were built on the pyramid. She quickly ran across this ledge expecting to find another ladder that would enable her to head back down the side of the pyramid, but was dismayed to find to see no such thing. She started to double back, but slid to a stop as NegaGosalyn reached the top of the staircase and brought her machine gun to bear on the feline. Quickly, Mia threw herself down as the weapon was fired, thankfully missing it's target and instead tearing into the side of the pyramid structure, blowing apart the paneling of plastic to reveal the hollow interior.

When the firing stopped, Mia rolled over to look at NegaGosalyn, and saw that she was having a hard time aiming and firing the bulky weapon while also hanging onto a ladder. Frustrated, the universal double was clambering up onto the ledge so to have more sure footing to try and fire again. A logical act of course of action, but one that required just enough seconds of inaction from her that allowed Mia to act first, tackling the young female duck around the middle and then grabbing at the machine gun, trying to wrench it away before it could be fired again at her.

NegaGosalyn, of course, wasn't going to just let this happen, however, and struggled to fight back, trying to wrench the weapon back out of Mia's grasp. During the fight, the weapon noisily fired again and blindly, taking out more of the plastic paneling. After that, Mia tried wrenching the weapon away from NegaGosalyn, only to have it wrenched back. Mia wrenched on it again, but this time, before NegaGosalyn could wrench it back yet again, she shoved the weapon into NegaGosalyn's arms, releasing it as she went. Surprised by this course of action, NegaGosalyn fumbled for control of the weapon, stumbling backwards, until she slammed her back against the weakened plastic covering behind her. The plastic covering gave way to her weight, and NegaGosalyn fell through the now open hole and into the empty space beyond.

Mia hurried over to the jagged hole and peered through in time to see NegaGosalyn land on a slanted steel girder, and start to slip down it until her black and red cape snagged on a piece of metal, stopping her suddenly. In the resulting jolt, she lost her grip on her machine gun, and it tumbled on without her, bouncing once off the girder before falling deeper into the empty space, which Mia realized with a start opened up just above where the machine was being built, proving that the open space she had seen opening up above the machine was the same as this open space.

NegaGosalyn quickly got a handhold and planted her feet under her to keep from sliding down the girder any, and to keep her caught cape from choking her. She looked down into the dark expanse of the opening for a moment, working to recatch her breath, then looked back up at Mia with a glare, one that Mia found hard to read.

"You know, if you wanted to escape, there's a better way for you to do it," she pointed out to the feline.

And with that, she reached up to her cape, unfastened it, and then allowed herself to slide down the girder and into the relative darkness beyond, leaving her cape behind. Mia stared after her for a few moments, knowing that NegaGosalyn was probably going to go get help once she reached the bottom, and would soon have herself and many more chasing after Mia's tail, and debated trying to pursue her and stopping the universal double before she got that far. But then her eyes locked on the cape that had been left behind, and realized that it might actually be the key she needed to escape.

Reaching out and retrieving it from where it had snagged, Mia pulled it out and examined it for damage. Save for a small frayed spot where the fabric had snagged on the metal that hadn't quite managed to rip all the way through it, the cape was intact. In that case, Mia's idea could very well work. It was an idea she normally wouldn't consider as a SHUSH agent; it was more along Darkwing's line of thinking. But she had to admit that sometimes thinking like Darkwing presented results.

So she fastened the cape to her own neck, tucked the stolen Uzi and portal remote into her belt as securely as she could, grabbed the corners of the cape, then stepped up to the edge of the ledge she stood upon, looking down at the street far, far, below her. Taking a deep breath, she stepped back so to get a running start, then leapt off the ledge and out into open space. At first it felt like an ordinary jump, until Mia started going down and down, faster and faster, with no sudden, abrupt end like normal coming quick enough. The wind lashed against her, whipping her arms up above her head as she fell plummeted several floors.

Then, partly out of panic and not wanting to risk falling too long, Mia flung her arms out, tugging on the cape still tightly gripped in her hands until the cape snapped taunt behind her and caught the wind. Mia's fall was suddenly jolted almost to a halt as the cape suddenly became a rather effective parachute, nearly wrenching her arms out of position in the process, but after the initial jolt, Mia's fall was severely slowed to a much safer float. Mia relaxed a little as she drifted downward, starting to sail away from Canard Tower and over a shorter, neighboring, skyscraper, on top of which she would eventually land.

Looks like she was going to be making her escape after all.

* * *

"Quackerjack, what have I told you about giving my son your crazy toys?" Christine asked as she whipped the accusing toy away from Charlie before it literally tried to bite his hand off and threw it back at Quackerjack, who caught it nimbly and shut it off.

"Oh, c'mon, lady!" Quackerjack pleaded, as he juggled the deactivated toy from hand to hand, "He's the perfect test subject, the best kid I have access to that I can test the playability of my toys on!"

"There's no _need _to test the playability of your toys because they _have _none!" Christine snapped, "The only person who'd play with your toys is yourself! And with you, it's understandable how you could possibly enjoy them!"

"Y'know, Liki told me the same thing once, years ago," Quackerjack reflected, tucking the toy under one arm and rubbing at his beak in thought, "just after one of my toys, I think the exploding panda, managed to injure him somehow. Never did figure out how he managed to do that to himself...he _is _made out of water, you know. Or, at least, _was_," he was now twirling the toy around with his hands, "But then I purposely gave him the superly-playful toys because I had figured there was no way any of them could hurt him. I've since learned I'm not going to have the same luck with anybody else in this world," he sniffed and shed a tear, "Pity."

Christine rolled her eyes, "Well, you've got a _long_ way to go still until you're ready to test their "playability" on anybody else besides likes of the Liquidator," she stated, "And heaven forbid if you should ever get that far while we're stuck together in this mansion like this, but _I'll _be the judge of when you've reached that point or not for the time being."

"Oh c'mon, quit being such a spoil sport!" Quackerjack begged, "Can't you at least leave the choice up to the kid?" he turned to Charlie, "How about it, kid, you wanna play with my toys?"

Charlie promptly shook his head, who had quickly learned the danger of the toys. He was still wearing the bandages from the incident with the last one. Since then, he had been trying to avoid a repeat of that incident, which was hard, because Quackerjack kept trying to force toys upon him.

Quackerjack stuck his tongue out at him in annoyance. "Well fine, side with your mom, why don't you. It's not like your life is in jeopardy or anything."

And with that, he dropped the argument and walked off, leaving that room of the mansion and into the neighboring sitting room, where Bushroot sat, tending to a plant Morgana happened to be keeping in there, and granted Bushroot permission to care for it, so long as he didn't try to mutate it into a super-plant-monster.

"You know, I just don't understand these good guys," Quackerjack remarked to his friend in crime as he stepped into the room, "They're no fun at all."

"Oh, I don't know, they seem okay to me," Bushroot remarked as he tended to the plant, which had already grown to twice it's size since he had started looking after it, "Beats Negaduck any day of the week, at least."

"Well, yeah, I suppose _that's _true," Quackerjack confessed as he sat down, "It's just, I'm not sure how much better off we are here. Nothing's really changed. They make sure where we are at all times, only let us into certain parts of the mansion, exclude us from all sorts of important conversation, and limit us on our hobbies," he looked mournfully at the toy he still carried.

"Quackerjack, your hobby _always _need limiting," Bushroot pointed out, "and besides, they certainly have the right to feel the need to. They don't trust us fully yet."

"Well, I don't trust them either, so there!"

"My point is that it wasn't so long ago when we were against them still. Do you really expect them to just automatically let us into everything they're doing? This trust is just something we're going to have to earn."

"I don't know if we're going to be still playing this game for that long. I mean, I'm willing to play along with this for now, because we're all in the same boat, so it's in our best interests to play nice. The moment _that _changes, though..."

"What _are _we going to do when we cross that bridge?"

"Well, I'm certainly not sticking around here, that's for certain. It's totally bor–ing."

"So you're just planning on forgetting that we ever worked together like this, helping each other out?"

"Well..." Quackerjack hesitated, "If things stay like this like they are here in this mansion, then yeah. I mean, things were better when it was just me, you, and Launchpad at the hideout. Launchpad wasn't so restrictive when it was just him."

"Launchpad also kept mostly to himself during those two weeks we were working on the Thunderquack with him," Bushroot pointed out flatly.

"Yeah, but he also let us do whatever we wanted!"

"It was _our _hideout. _He _was the guest, then, so he played by our rules. Now _we're _the guests, so we need to play by _their _rules."

"But I _hate _their rules."

"So what? Rules are rules."

Quackerjack sighed, unable to deny that much. "True."

All further discussion was suddenly cut short when Crimson suddenly came tearing down the stairs and was just as quickly out the front door. Catching the attention of everyone in the vicinity, they stared after her, then wondering what was up, followed her outside. Once outside, they quickly saw what had gotten her all excited.

"Agent Mia!" Crimson exclaimed as she reached the shield that divided her from the waiting agent whom she had seen from an upstairs window, who was looking around warily, knowing that she was out in the open and at risk, "What are you doing here? I told you to relay all the information you found electronically, not in person!"

"Trust me, I would've done just that, but circumstances changed," Mia assured her through the shield, "Now, how do I get inside that shield of yours?"

"Oh, right!" Crimson said as Christine, Charlie, Bushroot, and Quackerjack gathered behind her, and turned back to the mansion, "Morgana! We need your help out here!"

Morgana quickly appeared on the scene, followed by Launchpad and Agent Todd, all three of which were surprised to see Mia, but excited at the same time. Quickly seeing the situation, Morgana strolled right up to the shield confidently without comment, and used the ortus spell immediately upon her arrival, causing her to vanish in a flash of light and reappear beside Mia on the other side of the shield, startling her. A moment later, they were both back inside the shield. The first thing that happened once Mia was within the shield was that Launchpad embraced her in a hug, only to back away in embarrassment when he remembered there were people watching. Then everyone pressed towards Mia, asking questions. Crimson quickly took charge of that however, and as she led Mia towards the mansion with the others following, asked the first and foremost question on her mind.

"Why did you abandon the mission so soon, Mia?" Crimson asked, "Did something wrong? Did they catch on to what you were _really_ doing?"

"Does it have something to do with the fact that you're wearing a cape?" Launchpad couldn't help but ask as well.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that," Mia remarked, removing the cape that was still hanging from her neck, balled it up, and handing it over to Christine, who happened to be the closest, before turning back to Crimson, "To answer the question, it's both yes and no. They did catch onto me in the end, but up until that point things were going fairly okay. But as I see it, what happened would've likely happened either way because I needed to get this."

She pulled out the portal remote and held it aloft for all to see. As most present had seen or heard of the device before and knew it's significance, the motion earned her a couple of gasps of surprise.

"One of Negs's portal remotes?" Bushroot remarked aloud, surprised.

"Let me see that," Agent Todd said, grabbing the device from Mia and examining it closely.

"What do we need a portal remote for, Mia?" Crimson asked, clearly confused.

"To get Darkwing," Mia replied.

* * *

Negawing and the party of magicked foot soldiers he was commanding, meanwhile had spent a fair bit of time searching for any clues to explain for the mysterious power fluctuations that had been recorded here. Thus far, they had found nothing. This frustrated Negawing, as he expected to find _something _important here, more than what General Mallard had found in his investigation earlier today, which was also nothing. Negawing had hoped to find something to take back, to make the mission worthwhile in some degree and garnered more success that General Mallard's mission had.

Not that it was a contest, of course.

Well, okay, maybe in his mind it was.

Whatever the case, he grew to be excited when it was noticed that there was some flickering to be seen from the upper level of a building that was within the area they were searching. After running through a few quick numbers, he decided that whatever was flickering could account for some of the peculiar energy readings that had led him here. He decided that it was enough to go check it out.

Opting for stealth until he had a better idea what it was he was looking at, Negawing re-gathered together his command, and had most of the party wait near the building while he took four into the neighboring building, a near twin to the building that contained the flickering. He planned to head up to a floor in this building that lined up with the floor in question in the next building over and do some discreet spying from there, then report back what he found to Negaduck.

Upon finding the needed location to do this from, Negawing personally proceeded to look into what it was that was occurring in the next building over. He was fully expecting someone the likes of Crimson to be working on some kind of project there, maybe some kind of weapon to use to try and take back the city.

He was not expecting to see the shimmering figure of what was clearly a person, except he was surrounded by sparkling electrical energy, if not made out of it, and was working on what seemed to be nothing more than a personal pet project, like the ham radio your neighbor could be fooling with in his garage, except it wasn't a radio of any type, at least none that Negawing had seen.

Eying the figure carefully, he pulled out his radio and switched it on. "Negaduck, this is Negawing," he said into it.

"Negawing, this is Negaduck," came the prompt response, "I presume you've found something then?"

"Very much so, but nothing any of us were expecting. The source for the power fluctuations appears to be some kind of being made out of energy."

"A being made out of...this figure wouldn't happen to look like a rat with goggles and a power plug cap, would he?"

"Yes, actually."

"That's Gigavolt!" Negaduck sounded excited to hear this news, "What's he still doing in St. Canard? I would've thought that he had left by now! He's a villain that hasn't particularly cared for competition. Well, whatever the case, this is too good a chance to pass up. Negawing, has he seen you, yet?"

"No, he does not yet know we are here," Negawing commented, continuing to watch Gigavolt discreetly from his window, "I'm assuming this is a good thing?"

"Well, I don't know actually, it's hard to tell with Gigs. But I want him in the ranks of my army, _now_."

"Should I inquire of him if he wishes to join us?"

"No, don't bother, I tried recruiting him into the Fearsome Five some months ago, and he turned down the offer rather venomously. I have no clue if he still remembers that event now, as his memory has been a bit scatterbrained ever since Dipwing and the others were finished dissuading him from his vendetta against him, but let's not take that risk. Seeing that he doesn't know you're there yet, this means we have an excellent chance to just use subterfuge to get him on our side."

"Yes, I see," Negawing caught on quickly to Negaduck's plan, as he usually did, "I'm going to require Negarian, then."

"Right, I'm connecting you to him, now."

The line clicked. "This is Negarian who is speaking," came the magician's voice.

"Negarian, buddy, got a person here that we need you to secretly place under your mind-control spell," Negawing said, "We need you to drop by to do that, post haste, please. We're currently at 34 Cottonwood Road, it's a big tall skyscraper full of offices, to the left of another building that looks almost identical to it."

"What room and floor?"

Puzzled, Negawing glanced at the labeling on the door that led into the room. "710B, that's floor seven, room ten-B, b as in beehive," he paused, "why do you ask?"

Negarian did not give a reply. "Ortus!" he was heard exclaiming over the radio, then with an accompanying burst of static, suddenly appeared beside Negawing in a flash of light, accompanied by his raven familiar, Percival.

Negawing jumped. "Whoa, since when have you been able to do that?" he asked, surprised.

"Being a magician, since as long he has been alive, Normal," Percival squawked for his master.

Negawing gave the bird a frown, "I didn't ask you," he pointed out, but wasn't surprised that the raven had made the comment. Apparently, the familiar didn't trust anyone but Negarian, and was prone to being rude with everyone. Nobody really liked that, or the bird, so Negarian usually left the bird in his room unless he needed the extra magical power to draw upon to preform the more tricky of spells. Negarian must have been working on just such a spell when Negawing called him here, but he didn't dwell on that subject.

"It is a relatively simple spell when one has enough skill and power," Negarian explained to his universal double, "I haven't needed it much since the invasion, but I have used it before in this universe. I suppose you simply have not been present to witness it."

"I suppose so."

Negarian turned his attention to Gigavolt, still easily seen in the next building over through the window. "Is that him, then?" he asked.

"Yep, that's him," Negawing remarked, joining him, motioning to his magicked escort to ready their weapons just in case.

"Fascinating, he seems to be made completely out of energy."

"Yeah, well, you can study him _after _we've safely gotten him magicked."

Negarian nodded, and prepared to cast the spell, gathering the necessary magical energy, then cast it in the form of a translucent green bolt which passed through the windows that divided him from Gigavolt with ease, striking the figure straight on. The magical energy discharged into Gigavolt, washing over him and knocking him off balance slightly, but he recovered quickly, turned to look at the others in the building across from him...

...with a dark, angry, glare.

Negarian blinked in surprise, and grew alarmed. "It did not work," he stated.

Negawing acted swiftly, whipping up a stun gun. "Open fire!" he ordered to the magicked escort.

All five of them fired their stun weapons on Gigavolt, their shots smashing through both glass windows, leaving little jagged holes in the panes, and hitting their target. But the shots didn't have any effect on him either. Then, Gigavolt, only further enraged, gathered together some of the surrounding energy, then fired off several blast wave followed by several bolts of white-hot electricity in the direction of his attackers, blowing out the walls in both buildings. The blast wave knocked the four magicked soldiers off their feet and onto the floor, while the bolts were aimed more at Negarian and Negawing. Fortunately, Negarian quickly threw up a magical shield that protected him and Negawing from both attacks.

"You leave me alone, whoever you are!" Gigavolt exclaimed, "You leave me to my experiments, and I'll leave the likes of you alone!"

And with that, he returned back to whatever it was that he was working on, not continuing the attack. Negarian and Negawing exchanged puzzled glances, then Negawing cast a glance to see the status of the magicked foursome, and was relieved to see that no lasting damage had been done to them, and were already beginning to shake it off. He looked back at Gigavolt, remembering Negaduck's enthusiasm at getting Gigavolt to join his army, and decided he needed to keep trying to achieve that goal.

"All right, maybe we started out on the wrong foot here," Negawing said, addressing Gigavolt, "But I am willing to remain optimistic that we're not yet beyond a resolution through civil discourse, and..."

"Don't attempt to fool me," Gigavolt said not looking away from his work, "I may have a terrible memory, but I'm no idiot. You were attacking me."

"Not an attack, per say, actually," Negarian corrected.

"I don't care how you define it, an attack is an attack, thereby, we're enemies."

"But we don't have to be," Negawing pointed out, "I'm sure we can work out a mutual agreement between each other that we can all benefit from, maybe even help each other achieve out personal goals."

"I have no interest in your goals in this city, in fact, I care less about what happens to it and it's populace, what little I can remember of it at any given moment," Gigavolt frowned as he measured something, "I just live here. Which I didn't ask for. Therefore, I have no interest in associating myself with these affairs. It doesn't fit _my _goals," he glanced at Negawing out of the corner of his eye, "Just yours."

This left Negawing stumped for a few moments. Negarian took silent amusement from this.

"It would be in your best interests for you to join us, Gigavolt," Negawing persisted finally, deciding to be aggressive after all, "We don't take no for an answer. You _will _join our group."

"Exactly why we're enemies," Gigavolt concluded logically, turning to face the pair, and again fired off a volley of attacks at them.

As Negarian had never lowered his magical shield, the attacks couldn't hurt them, but Gigavolt knew this, and instead aimed his attacks at blasting away the floor around the shield, creating a hole for it and it's occupants to drop through, crashing down into the room below. The four magicked slaves, now recovered from the first attack, peered curiously into the newly formed hole at their masters, awaiting orders.

"We're all right!" Negawing called up, coughing on the dust that was kicked up in the fall, not that the slaves were capable of caring, "Stand down, and rejoin the others. We'll join you in a few moments."

The slaves acknowledged the order by leaving the room. A moment later, Negarian and Negawing floated up through the hole via magic. Dusting himself off, Negawing glanced, annoyed, at Gigavolt, and left one parting comment.

"You can't stay neutral forever, Gigs, not under these conditions," he pointed out, "Eventually, you're going to have to take a side. I hope you'll be smart enough to pick ours."

And with that, the two doubles also departed. Gigavolt watched them out of the corner of his eye, reflecting upon that last statement. There was some truth to what he said, about having to pick a side eventually...

* * *

The next several minutes were spent at Macawber Mansion with Agent Mia explaining to everyone else what had transpired to her since she parted ways with Crimson and the others at the Fearsome Four hideout and what she had learned. The only one not present to listen was Agent Todd, who had moved to another room to work on the portal remote, insuring that it had no unexpected booby traps to trigger upon it's activation, like what happened last time SHUSH managed to get their hands on one.

Crimson was ecstatic to hear what Mia had to tell her. "This is all great news," she commented as she took notes on a piece of paper, "Negs's little project in Canard Tower, the rough locations of the three people we didn't know their locations for before, news that Techno isn't magicked at the moment, and best of all, the means to get to and rescue Darkwing," she paused, looking back over her notes, "he's been gone long enough as it is."

"We all think that, Crimson," Christine assured her.

"Yeah, I never thought I'd say this, but I'd like Darkwing back," Bushroot agreed.

"If anybody can stop Negaduck now, it's Darkwing," Quackerjack added determinedly, then spoiled the moment by adding a disclaimer to that statement, "Not to say that I'm permanently supporting him, or anything. The duck is still darn annoying."

"So we know where he is, and we have a means of going after him," Morgana said, "We should stop and plan out how we're going to go get him, so we can do it as quickly and effectively as possible."

"I don't think we can wait for that," Launchpad said, skeptical, "I don't think Negaduck and the others are going to let us just get away with taking a portal remote. They're going to try and find a way to stop us."

"LP's right," Crimson agreed, "We can't wait, if we're going to do this, we need to do it as soon as possible. Darkwing's well-being is staked on that."

"And it's not just Darkwing," Christine added, "Isn't there other allies in the Negaverse that probably need help?"

"You mean the Friendly Five and the rest of the UIO?" Mia inquired.

"The Friendly Five?" Quackerjack perked up immediately at the mention of them, "We've heard of them, but Negaduck has always insured that we never got the chance to meet them, or even see them."

"If they need rescuing, though, we may be the two to help do it," Bushroot added, "I mean, if we free them, and let them go back to whatever it was that they were doing in the Negaverse to begin with, that would at the very least throw a wrench in the gears for Negaduck."

"A good point, we can look into that too, but our chief priority is Darkwing," Crimson said, "So the moment we're ready to go, we're going to go get him."

"Then wait no longer," Todd announced as he entered the room, holding up the portal remote proudly, "I've checked the whole remote over, and removed or disabled _all _of the booby-traps it might have. It's safe for us to use, now."

"Are you sure?" Mia asked urgently, "The last time we said that about a captured portal remote, it ended up downloading a virus into the computer systems and blowing up."

"And leaving me stuck in Darkwing's head for about an hour longer than planned," Crimson stated flatly.

"Ha, I remember that," Christine remarked with a chuckle, remembering the event.

"I'm sure," Todd assured everyone present, "We learned from that incident, and I kept all of that in mind when examining this remote. It's design appears to be about the same, so it wasn't hard," he examined the device for a moment, "though, I suppose the only _surefire _way to be absolutely sure is to create a portal."

"Well," Crimson said, standing, "We can arrange that."

* * *

A few minutes later, Crimson, Agent Mia, Launchpad, Bushroot, and Quackerjack were all prepared for a little trip into the Negaverse, all of which being armed with stunned guns save for Bushroot and Quackerjack, which were prohibited from having weapons. This they didn't mind too much as, by being supervillains, they had other means of fighting, if it came to such a thing, though Quackerjack was a little annoyed they apparently couldn't be trusted with even stun weapons. Christine, Charlie, Agent Todd, and Morgana were staying behind, Christine and Charlie for obvious reasons, whereas for Todd and Morgana, they were staying in the event the mansion was attacked while they were gone. Todd was quickly giving Crimson a run down on how to use the portal remote.

"I've already set the transdimensional coordinates for the Negaverse into it," he explained, holding the device out to her, "The portal's location will be relative to each other in both universes, so opening it here will result with you guys appearing in the Macawber Mansion of the Negaverse. Hopefully that won't be problematic. But so long as you do nothing to change or erase those preset coordinates, you shouldn't have to do much to open a portal. Really kind of a point and click sort of thing, like a TV remote. It'll open a portal against any surface, and will do so virtually indefinitely as far as I know, but I wouldn't recommend leaving a portal open for longer than is needed, however. To operate, you push this button. Do not activate the remote while pointing it at anything living, don't submerge the remote, even partially, in water. Uh, you should keep in mind that momentum is not only conserved, but enhanced while in transit through portals, so put simply, speedy thing goes in, speedier thing comes out..."

"Yeah, yeah, and the cake's a lie, I get it," Crimson interrupted, snatching the device from Todd, "What I want to know, however, is whether or not a portal can be opened within Morgana's shield."

"As far as I can tell, nothing should stop it from doing so," Todd explained, "Therefore, it's probably would be a good idea if you can keep any foes from witnessing you using the device. We don't want them getting any ideas."

"Got it," Crimson said.

"Be safe, Crimson, please don't take any unnecessary risks," Christine pleaded.

"Dark would never forgive us if we did," Morgana pointed out.

"Bye!" Charlie called, "Please bring back Mr. Darkwing!"

"Don't worry, we will, Chuck," Crimson assured him.

"It's Charlie."

"Right, Charlie," Crimson turned to the others, "You ready?"

"As we'll ever be," Mia remarked, a little antsy, then stated to no one in particular, "This is my first time venturing into the Negaverse."

"Is it really?" Launchpad asked, "I could've sworn you've been in the Negaverse before."

"Nope," Mia pressed.

"Can we get on with this?" Quackerjack urged, practically prancing about in place in excitement, "I wanna see my universal double!"

"Okay then," Crimson said, raising the remote, "Here's hoping this works."

She activated it. A flash of light appeared on the wall ahead of her and quickly blossomed into the multi-colored transdimensional portal, large enough for a person to step through. Seeing that everything had gone as planned, the departing group quickly said their last goodbyes, then started filing through the portal and into the Negaverse. It felt sort of like stepping through a mirror, as they ended up exiting the portal in what appeared to be the same room of Macawber Mansion as the one they had left, save for the fact that it was dark, and was thankfully empty. Crimson, being the first through, looked around then stepped to one side to allow everyone else to filter through, then deactivated the portal as per Todd's instructions.

Mia sniffed at the air. "I smell cigarette smoke," she commented softly, in a whisper.

Crimson looked at her. "From where?" she asked.

Mia pointed ahead of them to the room's exit. All jointly stepping cautiously out into the hallway beyond, they headed up it until the hallway joined with the mansion's front entry hall. Staying pressed against the walls on either side of the doorway, they carefully peered around and into the room. They saw two men in uniforms, a duck and a wolf, standing, armed, before a pair of closed double doors that led into the mansion's library. They appeared to be standing guard, and sure enough, true to Mia's sense of smell, one of them was smoking.

Launchpad wrinkled his beak in disgust. "Smoking's bad for your health," he whispered aloud to no one in particular.

"Yeah, I know, my dad was a smoker," Bushroot remarked, "In fact, because of that, he eventually died of lung cancer."

"Really?" Quackerjack asked, looking at Bushroot, "I didn't know that."

"Yeah, me and Mom kept telling him that he should quit, but..." the mutant plant-duck shrugged while Crimson pulled out her stun gun and started taking aim, "Actually, it was because of that bad habit of his that I became interested in botany as a kid. See, I had learned that plants filter out CO2 from the atmosphere, and knew that cigarette smoke was composed at least partly of that. So I got a bunch of plants and kept them in my room, telling myself that'll keep my bedroom's air fairly clean from the cigarette smoke. I grew more and more interested in the field of botany as I learned how to care for all of those plants."

"Very interesting, Bushroot," Crimson remarked as she finished lining up the shots, then added, "Lights out!"

She fired twice at the two guards, downing them in rapid succession. They never saw who attacked them. Once the coast was clear, the group filed out of their hiding spot and gathered around the fallen guards.

Mia nudged the duck with one foot. "Yep, they're out like lights."

"Hey, I think I recognize this guy," Launchpad commented, hovering over the wolf.

Crimson glanced over at the fallen guard, "Hey, yeah, it's Agent Lupis!"

"Agent Lupis?" Bushroot repeated, curious, as Mia moved to have a look.

"He's dead in our universe," Crimson explained, "Had a bad run-in with one of the members from The Elements."

"Wow," Mia remarked as she examined the unconscious wolf, "This feels weird, seeing him alive again."

"So...are they SHUSH agents?" Quackerjack asked.

"Well, sort of," Crimson said, and pointed to the logo on their uniforms, which were clearly everything but SHUSH, "They're actually FOWL agents, which apparently is the bad equivalent of SHUSH in the Negaverse from what I've heard. Actually haven't met up with them much."

"Yeah, okay, now I remember, Negaduck let it slip about them once during a brief venture into the Negaverse."

"So, why are FOWL agents here?" Launchpad asked.

"I'm actually more curious about what it is that they seem to have been guarding," Bushroot thought aloud, looking at the closed double doors the two guards had been standing at.

The group exchanged glances, then Crimson decided to find out, carefully approaching the double doors and unlatching one of them, pushing it open. Inside, she saw two things; a familiar figure tied to a chair as a prisoner, and another, also familiar figure, standing beside her in a NegaFOWL uniform. Seeing the door open and Crimson and a couple of the others peek inside, the FOWL agent whipped out her weapon and fired at the intruders. The group quickly dodged the shots, then Crimson poked her weapon inside and fired once, stunning the agent and downing her.

Once she was down, Mia was the first one to enter the room, and examined the fallen NegaFOWL agent intently, of course recognizing her.

"This is starting to feel really weird..." he mumbled as she looked down at NegaSandy's limp form.

"Yeah, and you never really do get used to it," Crimson remarked as she and the others moved into the room.

Once making sure that the library was clear of any hidden dangers, both Crimson and Launchpad turned there attention to NegaMorgana, who was still tied to her chair, but hadn't made a peep, and looked to be more afraid of the newcomers, perfectly content to stay in that chair like that if it meant they left her alone. Crimson was not surprised by this; she hadn't actually met NegaMorgana before now, but Darkwing had, and through him she had learned the basics of her personality and knew that NegaMorgana had led a less than desirable life, although it had improved after the UIO took custody of her some time ago. Keeping this in mind, she addressed her as she started to untie the witch as Quackerjack, Bushroot, and Agent Mia worked to tie up NegaSandy and her two compatriots.

"Don't worry, we're friends," Crimson assured NegaMorgana as the witch continued to recoil from the presence of strangers, "From the Posiverse."

NegaMorgana didn't relax any, but she did look at Crimson in a new light. "Darkwing is from the Posiverse," she observed.

"That's right," Launchpad said, also helping to untie the witch, "In fact, we're here to rescue him."

"Darkwing's here in the Negaverse?" This was clearly news for NegaMorgana.

"I take it you don't know where he is, then," Crimson guessed, which would've been her next question.

NegaMorgana shook her head. "But perhaps he's with the UIO," she suggested.

"But Negaduck overthrew and captured the UIO long before his invasion of the Posiverse, didn't he?" Mia inquired, overhearing, and looking up from the knot she was tying.

"Invasion?" NegaMorgana squeaked, not liking the sound of that.

"Never mind that for now," Crimson urged the magician, knowing that she'd be easy to get distraught, "Do you know where the UIO are at?"

"Locked up in the prison at Canard Tower," NegaMorgana stated simply, "That's where Negaduck locks up all of his foes he doesn't want interfering with his plans."

"Darkwing probably isn't too far away from there, then," Quackerjack reasoned as he put the final touches on tying up the three NegaFOWL agents.

"Yes, but he's also been magicked, so why keep him in a prison?" Mia pointed out.

"And there's the fact that was the _exact _same place I found Darkwing when I rescued him the _last _time around," Crimson added, "You'd think that Negaduck would be a bit more...I dunno...creative this time around."

"But he's also wasn't expecting us to try and rescue him anytime soon," Launchpad pointed out, "Until today, we didn't even have the means to try it, much less even know that we needed to come here to look."

"Well, I say that it can't possibly hurt to look," Bushroot said, as they all gathered around NegaMorgana, who was now free from her chair, but hadn't left it yet.

"Maybe that'd be true in the Posiverse, Bushroot, but in the Negaverse, Canard Tower is the most secure building there is," Crimson said, "It wouldn't be worth the risk to break in there only to find Darkwing isn't in there."

"True," Bushroot said, "But it's not just Darkwing we'd be looking for there, but also this UIO, whomever they are."

"They are your allies, right?" Quackerjack asked.

"Yeah, they are, along with the Friendly Five who work for them," Mia admitted, "And I suppose Bushroot has a point. Even if we don't find Darkwing there, we could at least try to free the UIO. It would only help our cause."

"And maybe they have a better idea where to find Darkwing," Bushroot reasoned.

"Actually, I have a few of my own ideas about that," Crimson said, "If what we know about all of this is correct, that Darkwing's been magicked, and that there's a good chance he's at Canard Tower, then I have a good idea where to check. But it's not the prisons. If he's magicked, there's no need to keep him there, just as Mia said."

"You're thinking he's in Negaduck's penthouse, aren't you?" Launchpad inquired.

Crimson nodded. "It wouldn't hurt to check there."

"So then it's agreed," Quackerjack summarized, "We're going to Canard Tower."

"No," NegaMorgana suddenly objected, finally rising from her seat, looking more determined than before, "Things have been bad in the Negaverse lately."

"Well, without the UIO interfering, I would suppose that would give Negaduck back just about full control of everything," Mia reasoned.

"Is that why these guys were here?" Crimson asked the magician, pointing at the disabled NegaFOWL agents, "To keep you from interfering?"

NegaMorgana nodded, looking a little ashamed, "They knew I had been protected by the UIO, so they considered me a threat, just not big enough one to lock up," her eyes suddenly turned deadly, "But they're wrong about that. I'm going to help you."

Crimson blinked, surprised, "Are you sure that's such a good idea?"

* * *

But when NegaMorgana's plan was shared with everyone, and they all understood it, they all couldn't help but agree that it was indeed a very good idea. It just didn't seem like it at first, because it entailed NegaMorgana to walk up, alone, to Canard Tower's entrance, looking terrified. The guards that were stationed there, looking to be FOWL Eggmen (a surprise, as this wasn't who where usually stationed here), at first ignored her, until they finally decided she was getting too close.

"Hey, what are you doing?" one of them finally and angrily hailed her, "You don't belong here!"

This just caused NegaMorgana to yelp and fall to the ground into a ball, cowering. Sighing to his companion, two of the Eggmen moved on down to where she lay, as they couldn't very well leave her there.

"C'mon, clear on out of here!" one of them exclaimed at her, "You shouldn't be here! Go back to your home!"

"C'mon lady, don't make us use force!" the other said, placing his hand on his sidearm warningly.

It was then that NegaMorgana's composure changed as she looked up at the pair with venomous eyes. "Tough," she remarked.

And then she jumped to her feet and unleashed a storm of magical curse upon the pair, blowing them back and off their feet. The other Eggmen that were standing guard, shocked, quickly reacted to try and stop her, but by this point, the mad magician had thrown up a shield to protect herself; they couldn't touch her, nor could their weapons, with it up. In the meantime, NegaMorgana hurled spell after spell, taking out all of the guards stationed at the door, then quickly burst into the tower's lobby and started taking out the guards in there, magically disabling the alarms sometime along the way before they could start sounding and alerting everybody in the building.

In a matter of moments, it was all over, the Eggmen all defeated and unconscious, and NegaMorgana's little episode of fury abruptly ending with her reverting back into her timid and unsure self. The coast clear, Crimson and the others entered the lobby, amazed at how effectively this was done.

"Did I do a good job?" NegaMorgana asked hesitantly.

Crimson, in awe, patted her on the arm. "Yeah, somehow I think this will do."

Launchpad scratched at his brow. "How did the saying go?" he asked, "'No fury like a woman scorned?'"

"I don't know if the exact context of that quote applies here," Bushroot remarked,

"But there's no denying that she was ma-ad!" Quackerjack exclaimed in a sing-song voice.

"All right, let's do this," Crimson said, "NegaMorgana, you stay here and watch for trouble. Quackerjack, Bushroot, Agent Mia, you go into the prison and look for the UIO and maybe Darkwing. Launchpad and me are heading upstairs to look there."

"Got it," Mia said with a salute.

And with that, they all went their separate ways, save for NegaMorgana, who remained where she was, and clearly wasn't going to budge anytime soon...

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the Posiverse, after seeing the others off, Charlie became very excited for them to come back, and started to get rowdy. As Morgana's mansion was never really prepared to house a youth such as Charlie when it did (though it had been through enough now that it almost didn't matter), Christine didn't support this. Unable to keep him calmed down, however, Christine finally resolved the issue by giving him the cape Mia had arrived in then promptly discarded to wear, then sending him outside to play in the mansion's shielded front yard to play.

The cape was a little long on Charlie, but that didn't stop the six-year-old, as he quickly went on to play pretend games where he was the role of both Darkwing and Crimson, while also doubling for their universal double foes as he saw fit. The games usually ended with the heroes being victorious, then started again. Christine sat on the porch watching him. Morgana was inside within hearing range, reviewing some combat spells. Agent Todd was upstairs, keeping watch for any trouble, but for the moment, all was quiet in their neighborhood of St. Canard.

That ended abruptly when Gigavolt suddenly dropped down out of the air and onto the street outside the shield with a blast of energy.

Yelping, Charlie backed away to stand beside his mother, who stood and wrapped a protective arm around him. Morgana quickly arrived at the door to investigate, followed by Agent Todd, who was armed with a stun gun, but wasn't sure how effective it would be against Gigavolt.

For a long moment, nothing happened, and no one spoke while Gigavolt studied the group. Finally, he was the one to break the silence.

"Are you the good guys?" he asked, almost innocently.

The others exchanged puzzled looks.

"I suppose you could say that," Agent Todd admitted.

"We're against Negaduck, if that's what you mean," Christine said, setting down Charlie, and despite Todd telling her to not to, started to approach Gigavolt as closely as the shield would allow her.

"Is he the bad guy?" Gigavolt asked.

"Yes," Christine gave him a puzzled look, "Don't you know this already?"

"Probably did at one point, but sometimes my memory isn't the best. Some things can leave it just as quickly as they enter it, or sometimes they'll stick at random times. I just know that there's a good side and a bad side, and they've been fighting bitterly in this city for the past couple weeks, though I've mostly stayed out of it."

"Then why are you here?" Agent Todd demanded from the porch.

"The bad guys came and talked to me today," Gigavolt answered simply, "and I got curious. They were trying to recruit me into their ranks."

"And did you?" Christine asked.

"No, I prefer to stay on neutral grounds like before, and told them that. But before they left, they told me something along the lines that I can't stay neutral forever."

"He's right," Morgana said, strolling up to join Christine, "This battle isn't going to stay contained to this city forever if we don't do something to stop it."

"Furthermore, we found out today that Negaduck is building some sort of device," Christine added, "we don't know what, or what it can do, but seeing that it's likely why Negaduck has stayed holed up in St. Canard for all this time, it can't be anything good."

"Most likely it's some kind of device that will allow him to conquer the rest of this world in half the time," Morgana said, "as well as everyone on it."

"That would include you, Gigavolt," Christine concluded grimly.

Gigavolt stopped to ponder this for awhile. Christine wondered how much of this, if any of it, he'd even remember later.

"In that case, this Negaduck is, and likely always will be, my enemy," Gigavolt deduced, "That would put you and me on the same side."

"More or less," Morgana agreed, "That choice is really up to you."

"And it'd likely only be temporary," Todd added loudly, wanting to empathize that point.

Gigavolt thought about that for a moment. "Assuming for a moment I were to help you," he commented, "would you leave me alone afterwards?"

Morgana and Christine glanced at each other, then back at Agent Todd, who shrugged.

"We can't make any guarantees," he admitted, "but assuming you keep to yourself afterwards, Gigavolt, we might be able to arrange for it."

"It's food for thought, at the very least," Christine remarked.

Gigavolt agreed to this. "Yes, he said with a nod, "food for thought."

And then, without saying a thing more on the matter, particularly about his allegiances, he reverted into his bolt form, and flew off into the late afternoon sky.

* * *

As the underground prison was the closest, Mia, Quackerjack, and Bushroot were the first to arrive at their destination. It proved to be surprisingly empty and above all, guardless, which in some ways was a good thing, but also a bad thing if the trend continued on for much longer.

"I would've thought that we would've met up with _somebody _by now," Quackerjack remarked as he peeked into an empty cell in frustration, "Unless they're all hiding. Ooh, that could be fun if we have to go and find them."

"Actually, I'd rather avoid the trouble that would cause," Bushroot remarked, actually kind of glad to see the lack of anybody around.

"But if this trends continue, it might prove that there's _nobody _being held down here, including the UIO," Mia remarked, leading the way, as she was the one who was armed.

"But NegaMorgana said they'd be here," Bushroot asked, "Why wouldn't they be here?"

"Maybe she lied, and they were never here to begin with," Quackerjack said.

"Or maybe Negaduck had them moved last minute, knowing that we were going to try to rescue them," Mia reasoned, finding that reason more likely, "but it could be anything, so I'm not ruling anything out at this point. Now, this looks like this might be something just up ahead."

She was right, for around the corner, the rough and crude prison made mostly from cement bricks or just the surrounding natural bedrock gave way to a portion that was markedly newer and more modern. This part was only an entrance to a larger section, however, as part of it was clearly sealed behind a heavy metal door, and this was guarded by a single person. But Mia recognized this person, and knew not to underestimate her.

"This could be a problem," Mia remarked as she cautiously peeked around this corner.

"Hey, that's you!" Quackerjack exclaimed.

Sure enough, it was Mia Gingivere of the Negaverse that was guarding the door attentively, looking exactly identical to her Posiverse counterpart save for weapon choice and uniform.

"_Another _FOWL agent?" Bushroot remarked, surprised, "Are there usually that many around? Crimson made it seem like it wasn't."

"You'll have to ask her later," Mia said, "As for right now, though, I'll bet you that the people we're looking for is behind that door. So we're going to need to come up with some way to get..._my_...universal double out of the way," she paused for a moment, thinking, "and I think I know how,"

She started to head back the way they had come, where another hallway had intersected with theirs. Quackerjack and Bushroot started to follow.

"No, you guys stay here and watch for my signal," Mia urged them, stopping them from following.

"What signal?" Bushroot asked, frustrated at the lack of details she was giving them.

"You'll know it when you see it," Mia assured them, and then vanished around the corner into the other hallway.

Bushroot and Quackerjack looked at each other, then went back to the corner around which NegaMia stood guard to watch. They didn't have to wait long before the other Mia burst out of a hallway further down past the door and it's guard, and called for her double's attention.

"Hey, lazy spots, come and get me!" she hollered, then ducked back into the hallway before her double could shoot her.

"Hey, get back here you...you!" NegaMia retorted lamely, raising her weapon, then chased after her double, and was quickly gone as well.

Leaving the door completely unguarded.

"Well, that certainly worked," Quackerjack remarked, as he and Bushroot jumped on the opportunity this presented.

The door was locked, but it was a mechanical lock, meaning that it would be easy to unlock once one twisted the crank that was on the door enough times. Quickly, both of them set about doing just this. It was hard work, as the lock mechanism was clearly big and bulky and heavy to move, but they were slowly managing.

"You know, this newer section reminds me a little of the St. Canard Supervillain Prison back home," Bushroot remarked, making small talk as he and Quackerjack worked.

Quackerjack shuddered at the thought, "Ooh, that brings back bad memories," he muttered.

"Yeah, but my point is that Negaduck probably got the inspiration to have this built from that," Bushroot remarked.

"How does that concern us?"

"Well...I suppose it doesn't, it's just interesting."

"Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say, Bushy."

The door suddenly jerked as the lock was finally undone fully. Together, they pulled the heavy door open, and peered inside. And sure enough, Mia was right, because here, each contained in an individual cell of their own (all of which similar to the cells used in the supervillain prison as Bushroot had observed) was the UIO and Friendly Five in it's entirety, who all looked at the two newcomers with surprise and interest.

But there was no Darkwing.

* * *

Meanwhile, Launchpad and Crimson had taken the elevator to ride up the many floors of Canard Tower towards Negaduck's penthouse from which he seemed to be staying it a lot lately. For obvious reasons, however, they purposely stopped a floor short, and proceeded on up to the next floor on foot, via the stairs. They were delayed slightly as the door they needed to enter through in order to enter the penthouse was guarded on the outside by two Eggmen. They weren't doing their job very well, however, and were easily defeated from afar, but their presence concerned Crimson.

"Why are there so many FOWL personnel here when there usually aren't any?" she asked aloud to Launchpad as they proceeded to the now unguarded door, keeping her voice low.

"Maybe Negaduck left the Negaverse in their control to look after while he's busy in the Posiverse?" Launchpad suggested.

"But they would have their own building for that, no need to move into Canard Tower. No, the usual people Negs has been known to leave in control of the Negaverse are still here, and in charge. So why FOWL?"

"Maybe they know we're coming, and are here for added precautions."

"Maybe," But Crimson certainly didn't sound like she was certain of that.

Arriving at the door, they carefully opened it, and peeked into the room beyond. There was no one there, so they carefully slipped into the penthouse, and started looking around. It was mostly empty, but that wasn't surprising as it had been like that times past. As they approached the penthouse's dining room, they saw that it wasn't completely empty after all, as they could hear voices speaking. Exchanging glances, they moved towards the room to investigate.

As they neared, they could make out the voices and what they were saying clearer and clearer.

"Y'know, we don't normally get guests over for dinner."

"That's because Lord Negaduck has given this place such a reputation that few would dare try, and anyway, it hasn't been much of a habit to ask very many people over to dinner."

"So you just invited yourself over."

"It's not the first time I've done it, though admittedly, I usually do it so I can speak with Lord Negaduck about a few things. Not always the most talkative person, that Negaduck."

"Usually doesn't need to do that much talking."

"I suppose not, not when violence can say a thousand words."

By this point, Launchpad and Crimson had arrived at the doorway, and carefully peeked around the edge and into the room. They saw two people sitting at a dinner table, eating, but it was unclear if they were enjoying themselves. One of them was NegaLaunchpad, which was not surprising.

The other person was J. Gander Hooter of the Negaverse.

Launchpad and Crimson exchanged surprised glances. They had, of course, both heard of NegaHooter before now; reportedly, Darkwing had several run-ins with the small owl during his seven years of imprisonment here. But they had never actually seen him before. Of course, he looked almost exactly like his Posiverse double, save for the fact that his suit was a darker color, and the lenses on his glasses were for some reason tinted, like sunglasses. It gave him a seemingly dark and cruel persona, which wasn't surprising, considering where they were. In fact, they probably shouldn't have been surprised at all. They had both seen enough universal doubles over the years that you'd think they'd have gotten used to this by now.

But his presence did explain a few things, particularly all of the FOWL Eggmen and agents that were hanging around Canard Tower. They were probably some sort of personal guard, something that would probably be very needed for a person of Hooter's position in the Negaverse.

"So what is it that you want?" NegaLaunchpad asked the director of FOWL, continuing the conversation.

NegaHooter grinned as he sipped his drink. "My dear Launchpad, whatever makes you think that I came here to get something?" he asked innocently.

NegaLaunchpad didn't buy it. "The fact that you invited yourself over here for dinner," he answered bluntly.

NegaHooter chuckled. "I suppose there's no denying that," he admitted, "but it's nothing special, I assure you. I just want to know more about this invasion in the Posiverse that Lord Negaduck has been so obsessed with lately."

"Like it really concerns you."

"Maybe not me directly, but it does concern FOWL. _We _provided the weapons, particularly the stun guns he equipped his forces with. _We _analyzed the plans for the sub-electron amplifier he needed _and _helped build it. And _we _have been helping to make sure that nothing goes horribly wrong in the Negaverse while our dear emperor is away. I daresay we deserve some answers to our questions about what he's doing."

"Negaduck would say otherwise."

"Exactly why I'm not _talking _to Negaduck about the matter."

NegaLaunchpad narrowed his eyes at the clearly unwanted guest. "If you think I'm going to be more willing to tell you that information, you're wrong," he stated flatly, "and even if I did, I couldn't tell you much more than what you already know anyway. It's Negaduck's business, not ours. We don't need to know more than the bare minimum."

NegaHooter sighed, rubbing at his brow in frustration. "A pity you think that, Mr. McQuack," he said, leaning back in his seat, "Because, you know, I was under the impression that you didn't like Negaduck at times. Isn't always the nicest to you."

NegaLaunchpad shrugged, unconcerned. "I don't expect him to. No lord of the land should go about acting nice, gaining the favors of those he already has power over."

"Does he? I don't know if you remember it, Launchpad, but Negaduck's predecessor wasn't like that."

NegaLaunchpad stopped halfway through taking a drink from his cup, and glanced at NegaHooter. "Negaduck's _father_?" he repeated, a comment that caught the two eavesdroppers in the area by surprise, "What does _he _have to do with anything? Particularly seeing that he's dead?"

"The fact that he was a better ruler than his son is."

NegaLaunchpad glared at the director. "This sounds treasonous," he growled warningly, "Do you have a death wish?"

"Not for myself, no," NegaHooter said, returning the glare, "I'm just seeing where you stand on certain things. Now I know."

NegaLaunchpad gripped his glass dangerously tight. "If I ever find out that you are talking treason ever again, I will _personally _do you in."

"If you do, I just request that you let me live just long enough to see you have to explain my untimely demise to Negaduck with next to no proof that I was doing _anything _wrong except your rather flimsy word."

NegaLaunchpad's glass suddenly burst because he was holding it too tightly in anger. NegaHooter grinned at the sight.

"I suppose you'll want a new cup, hmm?" he asked, and turned his head to address someone in the kitchen, "Servant, a new glass for Mr. McQuack here, please."

The servant made no response to the request, but he obeyed, and a moment later entered the dining room carrying a new glass already filled with a drink to Launchpad, and wordlessly handed it to him. But Crimson and Launchpad both gasped when they saw who the servant was.

It was Darkwing.

* * *

Bushroot and Quackerjack strolled into the wing of the prison they had opened, looking around in awe, particularly at all of the familiar faces they saw jump out at them from within each and everyone of the cells, which were forcefielded off. Meanwhile, the occupants of these cells looked back at them, examining them, pondering the implications of their presence, and many started murmuring aloud.

Finally, it was NegaSteelbeak, as leader of the UIO, who finally address them. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Ooh, ooh, I know!" NegaQuackerjack exclaimed from within his cell, waving his arm in the air to be picked upon like an overeager student, "They're from the Posiverse!"

"Ooh, you're right!" Quackerjack squealed when he saw his double, and hurried over to his containing cell, "I'm you! And you're me! Wow, I've always wanted to meet me!"

"Me too!" NegaQuackerjack exclaimed back, both of them now jumping up and down in unison in their excitement.

"Yeah, just so we're clear, _yes_, we're from the Posiverse," Bushroot clarified.

"Well, I could've guessed _that_," NegaSteelbeak snapped, "But I wanna know why they're here, and not in their own universe!"

"Hey, wait a minute, aren't you guys the bad guys in the Posiverse?" NegaMegavolt asked from within his cell.

"Well, normally, yeah," Bushroot admitted a little reluctantly, turning to face him, "but seeing that Negaduck's invading our universe, putting us _all _at risk, we kind of reverted back to the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' clause."

"Ah, I get it, you're helping to fight the common enemy," NegaBushroot remarked.

Bushroot glanced at him, then did a double take. "Uh, yeah, that's right," he said, staring at his double for a long moment, before continuing, "We're here to break you guys all out of here."

"Yeah, so you guys can help cause chaos for Negaduck on his home turf while he's going around parading on ours like a spoilsport!" Quackerjack added.

"Sounds good to me, mates, let's do it!" NegaRowe exclaimed from his cell.

"Start with my cell!" NegaMegavolt urged, "If you free me, then I can use my powers to free all of the others at once!"

"Got it!" Bushroot exclaimed, and headed over to the controls that would open NegaMegs's cell, tapping at some of the controls, only to find it was password protected. He tried guessing the password a few times, but quickly gave up, as that was taking too long. Carefully, he pried open the cover for the controls, and started poking around at the wires that were within, trying to figure out which one would be the one he'd want to yank to free NegaMegs. "Any idea which one it'd be?" he asked aloud to the cell's occupant.

NegaMegs shook his head in regret. "Not without seeing the wires myself," he answered.

Bushroot sighed, and decided to try and guess at random. He fiddled around with the wires for a few moments until something sparked, zapping him, and causing him to yelp. This grabbed the attention of Quackerjack, who up until now had been engaged playing a game of Simon Says with his double. Quickly understanding the situation, he hurried on over to help.

"Let me, let me!" he begged, nudging Bushroot to get out of the way, "I know how!"

Raising one hand to reveal one of his trademark joy buzzers for all to see, the toymaker then slapped the device into the wiring behind the open controls and triggered the device, delivering a powerful electrical shock into the mechanism that fired the wiring in a series of sparks and a brief whiff of ozone. The forefield sealing off NegaMegs cell rapidly flickered, then shut off.

NegaMegs quickly hopped out, gathered some electrical energy into him real quick, then released that energy in one single burst that washed over the whole room. It worked much like Quackerjack's joy buzzer had worked, and burned out all of the systems operating the forcefields on all of the cells, lowering them all almost at once. Everybody cheered, and promptly started celebrating, something both Quackerjacks supported.

"So tell me, dear consumer," NegaLiki remarked as he swirled over to Bushroot, "I am admittedly curious to know the status of our doubles in the Posiverse."

"Oh, well, that's _easy_!" Quackerjack said, first pointing at NegaLiki, "You're dead," then at NegaMegs, "You quit," and finally at NegaRowe, "and you are currently in the hands of Negaduck as a magicked slave, we think."

All further conversation was cut short when NegaSteelbeak, who had been conversing with his assistant NegaEdward, called for their attention. "All right, everybody, we can't stay 'round here for long, so we need t' get ya all out the door post haste! So everybody, get t'gether and let's go!"

The members of the UIO quickly grouped together, and started filing out of the new prison wing as quickly as possible. Bushroot, towing Quackerjack, pushed his way to the front to talk to NegaSteelbeak, stalling the departure.

"We can't go yet, not without Agent Mia!" he told the rooster.

"Oh yeah, the kitty lady!" Quackerjack remarked, remembering the SHUSH agent suddenly, "Yeah, she lured the other kitty lady that was guarding you guys away so we could get you guys out."

"Which way did she go?" NegaSteelbeak asked, "She probably could use some help."

Bushroot and Quackerjack pointed down the hallway they last saw Mia and her Negaverse double depart down. Steelbeak rallied everyone to him, and then they all departed down the hallway. They got a fair way down it, when they finally crossed paths with the missing SHUSH agent.

"Agent Mia!" Bushroot exclaimed, grabbing her attention.

Mia looked at the group, grinned, and waved, "Hi guys, see you did exactly what I hoped you would," she said happily, "Now just give me a moment to finish with this, and we'll be on our way."

She resumed tugging on the bindings she was placing on NegaMia, the feline being conscious, but slightly battered and gagged, and was shooting as many people as she could silent death glares. But it did her little good. Her Posiverse double had clearly gotten the better of her.

* * *

Crimson and Launchpad stared at Darkwing as he attended to the two dining people. There was no denying that it was him, and save for the fact that he was obviously magicked as was expected, he seemed to be perfectly healthy. He _was _totally out of costume, though, not even wearing a mask now, and instead wore a simple black-and-white waiter's outfit. Crimson could only guess that he had spent the past two weeks in the Negaverse doing exactly that for the powers-that-be.

It wasn't long after Darkwing appeared, however, that Crimson made a critical error. Anxious to see her adopted father again, she leaned out and into the doorway further than was wise to get a better look, to insure that Darkwing truly was in good health. Fortunately, she wasn't seen...until Darkwing turned around. Crimson started to duck away to hide herself, but when Darkwing did not immediately react to seeing her, she hesitated. She wondered for a moment if the mind-control spell he was under was prohibiting him from doing anything.

Whatever the case, NegaLaunchpad eventually noticed that Darkwing had stopped, and followed the duck's gaze to see Crimson, who again proceeded to duck back out of sight, but wasn't quite fast enough.

"Intruder!" he exclaimed, suddenly pulling out a weapon, and firing freely in the direction he had seen Crimson, the shots all missing because Crimson had long ducked out of sight by this point.

But it was clear that action was now needed, so both Launchpad and Crimson pulled out their stun guns, and moved out of cover long enough to fire at their targets, Launchpad going first to be more of a distraction as his aim was never very good, while Crimson moved in next to fire the shots that counted. NegaLaunchpad, being the bigger threat, went down first. NegaHooter went next, who was harder to hit as he tried to duck away, and being as small as he was, he could do that. But ultimately, he was stunned and went down as well.

Darkwing had stood in the middle of all of this with his blank expression, looking uncertain as to what to do, but when NegaHooter went down and the shooting stopped, he quickly turned to run off.

"Oh no you don't!" Crimson said quickly, moving to block his path.

Launchpad then moved in and tackled Darkwing to the table the universal doubles had been sitting at, fighting to restrain the squirming hero. "Sorry DW," he remarked as he roughly restrained the duck.

Crimson quickly pulled out the spray bottle that contained the countercurse potion, and sprayed it in Darkwing's face. The effect was instantaneous, as Darkwing started to cough and splutter, and wrenched his hands out of Launchpad's grip to rub at his eyes.

"What the..." he remarked as he wiped at his face, then glanced around at his surroundings, "Launchpad? Gos–I mean Crimson? What's going on?"

"Dad!" Crimson exclaimed, and hugged him.

Darkwing numbly returned the gesture. "What's going on?" he repeated, puzzled, "Where are we? Why am I out of costume? Where's Negaduck and his army? Are they still attacking? Did I pass out?" he noticed NegaHooter lying on the floor, and then the feet of NegaLaunchpad who lay behind his Posiverse double, partly out of Darkwing's sight, "Have I _missed _something?"

Launchpad was grinning like there was no tomorrow. "It's good to have you back, DW," he said happily.

"Uh, yeah, same to you, LP," Darkwing responded, blankly, looking all around, "So...where did I go? And why can't I remember it?" he glanced out the dining room's window at NegaCanard outside and paled, "This is the Negaverse, isn't it?"

"Uh, yeah, it is," Crimson admitted, freeing Darkwing from her hug finally.

"Then what are we all doing here?" Darkwing demanded next.

"Well, rescuing you, for one thing," Launchpad answered.

"Look, it's a really long story, Dad, and we'd love to explain it all to you, but we don't have the time, at the moment," Crimson explained quickly, handing him one of her spare masks to wear, "We need to get out of here. We're pushing our luck enough as it is already."

"Um, okay, lead the way, I suppose," Darkwing remarked, surrendering himself to their guidance, "Obviously, you two have a better idea what's going on than I do."

* * *

They promptly headed back downstairs to the lobby, taking the elevator the whole way this time, Crimson remarking to herself that she hoped none of the others encountered trouble. When the elevator arrived and the doors dinged open, however, it was quickly seen that the others had managed just fine, for the entirety of the UIO, now free, was hurrying around the lobby, gathering weapons and material and filing outside, piling into vans and driving off. Among them was Mia, Bushroot, and Quackerjack, helping NegaSteelbeak direct everyone in the chaos, and NegaMorgana, who still stood defensively in the middle of it all, ready to attack any foes that crossed their way. More bodies of FOWL personnel as well as the usual guards that were stationed at Canard Tower littered the floor, suggesting that trouble had indeed been encountered since Launchpad and Crimson had parted ways, but was quickly sorted out. Quickly, Launchpad and Crimson pulled Darkwing towards the center where their companions from the Posiverse were at.

"Quackerjack?" Darkwing exclaimed when he arrived at that destination, drawing glances from those that heard, most of them surprised and happy, "You got _Quackerjack _to help you?" he paused, "Or is that NegaQuackerjack I'm seeing?"

"_I'm _NegaQuackerjack," Quackerjack of the Negaverse stated as he strolled up beside Darkwing, startling him, "That Quackerjack is _yours_."

Darkwing fumed for a moment in frustration. "Why are there _any _Quackerjacks here?" he finally demanded.

He got no answer, because instead, people started gathering around him to celebrate the fact that he was rescued, and here with them.

"You found Darkwing!" Agent Mia exclaimed, hurrying over to the pair quickly followed by the others. NegaSteelbeak did not follow, caught up with other responsibilities, but he did wave.

"Yes we did, and you guys clearly found the UIO all right," Crimson remarked, grinning as she watched the said members of the group slowly depart bit by bit.

"Yeah, and NegaSteelbeak sends his thanks," Mia said, "They would've stuck around to help see us off, but they figured the sooner they got out of here safely and got back to what they had been doing before they all were caught, the better. They're going to make sure everyone who isn't supposed to be here gets out of here, though, including NegaMorgana, and they've provided a means of transportation should we need it, and now that we've found Darkwing, I think it'd be best that we make use of it."

"Okay, so I've been found, but I'm not sure I'm any better off," Darkwing grumbled, frustrated at the fact that he didn't know what was going on, "There seems to be a few gaps in my memory."

"Oh that, you'll get used to it after awhile," Mia assured him dismissively, then pulled them outside to a van waiting for them, "Here, this our means of transportation. I figure we can use it to get away from here to where it'd be someplace fairly safe to jump back to the Posiverse, then return to Morgana Mansion from there."

"Probably a good idea," Crimson said, as she, Launchpad, Quackerjack, Bushroot, Mia, and Darkwing all climbed into the vehicle, "We don't want to go giving Negaduck any ideas how he can get past our shield."

"Shield?" Darkwing repeated as they all seated themselves, "What shield?"

"Where to, then?" NegaEdward inquired, who had been given the job of driving.

"McAllister Lane, I think," Crimson answered for everyone, the van starting forward now, "That's not too far from Macawber Mansion, but not too close, either. Also, no patrols should be passing by at this time."

"Patrols?" Darkwing rubbed at his head in frustration at being so out of the loop, "My starting to get a headache from all of this."

It didn't take them long to arrive at the destination in question, as there was little to no traffic in the Negaverse. Once there, everyone clambered out of the van and gathered in a group. Crimson pulled out the portal remote and keyed it in to open a portal to return home with. Darkwing's beak hit the ground when he saw the device in her hands, and then again when she proved it worked by successfully opening the portal.

"Where did you get _that_?" Darkwing demanded, awestruck.

"From her universal double," Bushroot answered for Crimson.

Once the portal was open, however, Crimson turned around and hailed NegaEdward still in the van. "Hey Edward!" she called, and once she had his attention, tossed him the remote, catching everyone, but most especially Darkwing, off guard, "I think this will be safer in your guys's hands than ours for now, as I'm sure Negaduck isn't going to let us hold onto it if he can help it. So can you hold onto it for us for now?"

NegaEdward nodded, "The UIO will keep it safe for you until we're both in better positions," he promised.

Crimson nodded, then turned to face everyone else. "Well, everybody, I think it's time we went home," she said.

Nodding in agreement, everybody started filing through the portal, returning to the Posiverse, save for Darkwing, who moved towards Crimson anxiously.

"_Now _will you explain everything to me?" he almost pleaded.

Crimson laughed as she grabbed his arm and led him to the portal, "Yes, _Dad_, now I'll explain everything."

* * *

Much later that same day, as the sun set into St. Canard's horizon in the Posiverse, Darkwing was to be found, back in costume once again as he rightfully should be, and standing on the back balcony at Macawber Mansion safely behind the magical shield that encompassed the area. True to Crimson's word, the first thing she started doing the moment they were both safely back in the Posiverse and only a brisk walk away from the mansion, she launched into the full and detailed explanation for both Darkwing and Agent Mia, describing everything that had transpired during the two or so weeks they could not remember due to being magicked. Once she was done, Darkwing wandered off to find someplace peaceful to think about it all and sort it all out.

After doing just this on the balcony for several hours, Crimson arrived on the balcony. "I thought you'd like to know that dinner's almost ready," she announced.

"Hmm, Morg preparing some _yummy_ magical dish?" Darkwing asked, a little teasingly. It was no secret that he had never been fond of the many magical dishes Morgana frequently liked to create, but today, given the circumstances, he was willing to make an exception.

However, Crimson shook her head. "Morgana ran out of supplies to make any kind of dish a couple days ago," she explained, "And apparently, not even magic can just make more food appear out of thin air, and she doesn't want to go around transforming other things into food out of the things she's got lying around the house, so we've been surviving on a bunch of ration packs that Christine and Agent Todd brought along when they arrived in the city after the invasion."

"Sounds like we need this invasion of Negaduck's to be over soon, then," Darkwing remarked.

"It's not too big a deal. I'll just steal some food from somewhere else. Negaduck has more than enough that he has in his control."

"True," Darkwing sighed, "It's just... there's a lot to keep in mind. A lot that's happened that I frustratingly can't remember happening, and probably wouldn't remember anyway, as it seems I wasn't even around to see it happen."

"Yeah, but at least we have you back now," Crimson said, hugging her adopted father.

"Yeah, I suppose so," Darkwing agreed, returning the hug, "and it's good to be back. I'm sure you missed me. I mean, you've all been through probably the worse two weeks one could ever go through. First there was Negaduck invading the city and taking it over, then there was Darkwarrior, then Neutraduck, then the Dark Avenger, which all led to conflict, battle, destruction..." he paused, "...and death. Like Bob."

"Bob was a good person," Crimson said, "And at least he died fighting."

"Yeah, I suppose so," Darkwing murmured, "It's still a bit of a shock, though."

"It came as a shock to all of us, and we're still trying to adjust. Particularly Morgana. Poor Morgana, I think she took his death the hardest," Crimson now grinned, however, trying to be optimistic, "But at least things finally seem to be turning around. We have a better understanding where we stand. We're getting closer to fighting back everyday. We freed two people from Negarian's spell today, _including _you, which we had to go to the Negaverse and back to get. We even had a portal remote for a little while, something we couldn't get even on a _good _day."

"Yeah, then you turned around and gave it away again," Darkwing remarked with a grin.

"You know why I did that, I didn't think it was a good idea to have something like that lying around, particularly when it might be possible for Negaduck to track it," Crimson said, "If we could've held onto it, we would've."

"I know," Darkwing said, then shifted his gaze out to Canard Tower, visible from here, "What I'm _really _worried about, however, is this machine Negaduck is apparently building."

"You have any ideas what it's supposed to do?" Crimson asked.

"No, not really, but seeing that it's being powered by a sub-electron amplifier, it can't be anything good. It's got to be some kind of weapon, something that gives Negaduck an even better edge than what he's got now. In fact, I think this machine is what he was _really _planning to do from the beginning. The whole invasion and capture of St. Canard was done just to give him a foothold on things, and to be able to work on the machine without being disturbed."

"Maybe. But what can we do about it? Things may have been looking up lately, but we're still in no position to try anything like a raid on Canard Tower. We simply don't have the numbers."

"Exactly. Which is why that needs to be our next goal. The moment we have an army of our own amassed beside us, we can end this issue once and for all," Darkwing turned to Crimson, "And we do it, by focusing on beating Negarian first."

* * *

_Fun Facts: This chapter was originally planned to go a little differently than it goes now. Since some of those "lost" elements tie in with the next chapter, I can't explain most of them until after I've posted that next chapter, but one thing I can tell you was that I hadn't originally planned to begin the chapter from Mia's point of view, but rather with Crimson, getting the idea to use the potion on someone like Mia, and doing just that further into the chapter. I liked starting it directly from Mia's point of view right when the spell that was cast upon her was broken, because she had that gap in her memories, and needed things caught up for her, thus giving a reason to briefly summarized the past events for the past couple chapters. Any other way, and that summary would've felt more repetitious. Additionally, I thought the idea of symbolizing that gap in Mia's memories by describing her last viable memory, then on to the present emphasized that gap._

_In comparison to Macawber Manison, the Fearsome Five hideout just wasn't going to be as effective, so I had no qualms about losing it as a place to hide. I was pretty much done with it, anyway, seeing that the Thunderquack is back in proper hands._

_I had thought about including the Dark Avenger in this chapter for some added subplot, but that proved to be one element too much, so it was quickly removed. Her presence is still felt, however, so that's good._

_Seeing that Colonel Grizzlikof (first appearing in chpt. 76, "A Time of Darkness" for those that don't remember) hadn't appeared since the chapter I first revealed him in, I squeezed him into this chapter, just to kind of establish that he's still around. Also squeezed in Negawing Rowe, and would've included others had I the space._

_And we finally reveal where DW has been for all of this. The Negaverse. Kind of a go-figure, deja-vu kind of answer, huh? Interestingly enough, though, I can only recall one person ever verbally guessing to me that DW was in the Negaverse, so I wonder if it was really as obvious as it seemed to me. Maybe Neutraduck's inquiries about DW's location and Negs's cryptic reply in chpt. 78 threw some of you off. I dunno, you guys tell me. Maybe you all had already figured it out, but knowing I wouldn't confirm or deny if you were right, just held your peace. Ah well._

_When Mia comments to Techno that the "message" she wished to deliver was from Gwendolyn Waddlemeyer, that was a reference to chpt. 74, "The Life Not Lived" and was intended to tell Honker that what she wanted to say was from Crimson, but without actually saying it, as we had Nanite DW right there listening._

_Continued hints that maybe NegaGos isn't happy with where she is, and is suspecting of Negaduck. Also, she got another clue about her death, that Daisy was involved, who was, of course, the real person responsible for her untimely demise, even if Daisy wasn't technically the one who did the deed._

_And now the gang know about Negaduck's machine-in-construction, but like all of you, still don't know what it does yet._

_One of the few times NegaGos has to resort to her more heavier weapons, such as that monster of a machine gun she somehow always carries with her. Usually, she just sticks with the P90, because that's more convenient for me to write. But as it had been awhile, I let her go all out this time._

_As I had promised, expanded roles for both Quackerjack and Bushroot in this chapter, revealing more about how they're getting along with Crimson and the gang, and hinting towards the very temperamental state of their current relationship with the good guys._

_I'm not exactly sure yet where I'm going with Gigavolt, but as I figured that he, given his unique state of being, would be immune to Negarian's mind-control spell, I decided it needed addressing. Probably haven't seen the last of Gigs, either._

_Also, and this is important, but Negarian IS familiar with the ortus spell, the only spell that can bypass Morgana's shield around the mansion. If Negarian ever figures THAT out... ;)_

_I give an explanation as to why Percival doesn't show up too frequently with Negarian. Not many people like the bird, nor does the bird like them. So, to avoid trouble, he's not always present._

_The references to the last time that the gang had a portal remote (and consequently Crimson's jab about being stuck in DW's head for an hour longer) is a reference to chpt. 23, "The Crimson Darkwing"._

_Evidently, Crimson has played the game **Portal** before. Possibly Agent Todd as well, as some of his comments are reminiscent of the same game._

_Mia never has been in the Negaverse before. In fact, the only parallel universe I have record of her entering beside the Posiverse is Gwendolyn's Universe._

_This is the first time Agent Lupis has appeared in any form since chpt. 34, "Friendly Fire," consequently the same chapter he dies in. Threw him in for the heck of it._

_I was not planning to include a NegaSandy in this chapter, but when I decided I didn't want NegaMia to pop up in that spot, NegaSandy filled in the place._

_This is the first time NegaMorgana has appeared since chpt. 16, "The Negasphere Part II", and I think she's much better executed in this chapter than her past appearance. Partly because I had a better idea where I wanted to go with her this time than last time. She's also in better health now, both mentally and physically._

_I had been dying to squeeze NegaMia into a chapter for ages now, so it's kind of ironic that she ended up playing such a small role, with only one spoken line that I can recall. Her persona also ended up different that expected too. I had originally planned on her being slightly insane and trigger happy, while wielding a tommy gun (the tommy gun, BTW, as NegaMia's appearance was delayed for so long, eventually went to Negawing Gosalyn). Here, though, she's just a mirror image of Mia herself._

_I've also been dying for a chance to unveil NegaHooter, and purposely spent a few lines dedicated to fleshing out the character. I wanted to make him seem like a man with a personal agenda, and I believe I succeed. But then, I've had plenty of practice with that when writing for Vice President Norrin, too. :P_

_It was great to have even just two members of the Fearsome Five meet the Friendly Five, as they're eerily alike still, despite being on different sides. The two Quackerjacks, I think, take the cake on this matter, too._

_I learned while writing this chapter, that a joy buzzer actually doesn't give you an electric shock at all, but works by rapidly uncoiling a hidden spring that generations a sensation that's **like **an electric shock. I figure Quackerjack wouldn't know this, though, nor care._

_Of course, seeing that I had all of these doubles in one spot, I had to take the chance to update the Friendly Five about the status of their Posiverse doubles. Though, NegaLiki actually should already know that his double is considered dead (he was told this in chpt. 37, "Mirrorism")._

_I believe this is the first time NegaEdward has appeared. If not, well...I can't keep **everything** straight. :P_

_I kinda rushed through the ending a little and maybe resolved things a bit too quickly, as the chapter was at risk of going too long again and becoming the next record-breaker, which I'm apparently bound and determined to prevent from happening. It's not too bad, though, only lost one scene where Negs and NegaGos chat that actually wasn't too terribly important, so that's actually pretty good. :)_

_Seems that DW's got a plan..._

_Anyway, this is getting exciting, because we're building to the end of this story arc, and some big things are going to start happening, some of which will occur in the next chapter, "A Time To Hope" so you'll want to keep on the lookout for it. Though, it might be **slightly** delayed, because I have another literary work that is overdue for completion that I think I'll hurry and finish before starting the next chapter for NADWD, but I don't expect that to be too much of a big deal. :)  
_


	81. A Time To Hope

Summary: The gang has garnered some leverage over Negaduck and his forces, but not enough to defeat them yet. So more than one of them make plans to change that...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Ha! Exactly a month after last chapter, I get this one posted! :D So here it is, yet another pivotal chapter in our current storyarc, and the suspense continues to build... ;)

81.

A Time To Hope

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_"You see those foot soldiers out there? Once, nearly __**all**__ of those people were once __**good **__people like you. But Negarian has a very powerful spell he can cast that renders everyone caught in it his slave, allowing Negarian to control their very __**minds**__ and get them to do __**exactly**__ what he wants."_

_"You want to do the same thing in the Posiverse."_

_...  
_

_"Crimson is using magic."_

_"You mean to tell me that __**Crimson**__ has magical __**blood**__?"_

_"Uh, yeah! Not a whole lot, though. I think she's using my universal double as a familiar."_

_"And how, pray tell, would __**you**__ know __**that**__?"_

_"Well, uh...Because...um...in the Posiverse, __**I'm**__...her familiar."_

_...  
_

"_Attention citizens of this fine country. For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under __**my**__ control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet! Go ahead and try and stop me, but you should know that I've already dealt with most of my __**real **__enemies. You couldn't stop me even if you could. So, to summarize, if you don't know me, __**get**__ to know me. For I am the terror that hunts in the night. I am the conspirator that destroys your government. I'm Negaduck. And soon I'll be in control. Ha-ha-ha-ha!"_

_...  
_

_"If I were to be fully repaired, someone would have to repair my control nanite."_

_...  
_

"_So, I take it that you decided to take up your adopted father's mantle and continue his cause for him, hmm? Did you take up his crimefighting name of Darkwarrior, too?"_

"_The name is the Dark Avenger, and I'm here to avenge his murder!"_

"_Then why are you here?"_

"_Because to avenge his death, I will have to kill the one who murdered him! Her!"_

"_Me? In that case, you've got the wrong person, I didn't kill Darkwarrior!"_

_...  
_

_Whatever the case, the surprised, but not-all-to surprised, Mia did have to admit that this explained why Darkwing had remained unaccounted for during all this time._

_Because Darkwing was currently trapped in the Negaverse._

_...  
_

"_...did-did it ever occ-occ-occ-cur-cur-r-r-r...occur-r to y-y-you that it might be in your best interests to finish those repairs-airs?"_

_...  
_

"_You've managed to break Negarian's spell! How did you manage to break Negarian's spell?"_

"_Thank Crimson. She, Morgana, and others have put together some kind of potion that counters the mind-control spell."_

_...  
_

_NegaGosalyn and Mia carried their load up to it, then NegaGosalyn pulled out a security card and swiped it in the card reader, unlocking the door. She then pushed it open, and started pulling her side through. Mia followed, but the moment she entered the room, her eyes was drawn to what the room sported, and only followed NegaGosalyn's lead numbly, and understandably so._

_Mia got her first look at Negaduck's mysterious machine._

_...  
_

"_You killed me once, you and your goody-goody friends!"_

"_I wasn't the one who fired the shot! And none of us are truly responsible for your death! Don't you remember? If anyone is to blame, it's Daisy!"_

_...  
_

"_Ortus!"_

"_Whoa, since when have you been able to do that?"_

"_Being a magician, since as long he has been alive, Normal,"_

_...  
_

"_I prefer to stay on neutral grounds like before, and told them that. But before they left, they told me something along the lines that I can't stay neutral forever."_

"_He's right. This battle isn't going to stay contained to this city forever if we don't do something to stop it."_

_...  
_

"_It's good to have you back, DW."_

_...  
_

"_What I'm __**really**__ worried about, however, is this machine Negaduck is apparently building."_

_...  
_

"_Things may have been looking up lately, but we're still in no position to try anything like a raid on Canard Tower. We simply don't have the numbers."_

"_Exactly. Which is why that needs to be our next goal. The moment we have an army of our own amassed beside us, we can end this issue once and for all. And we do it, by focusing on beating Negarian first."

* * *

_

The cargo truck pulled up in front of the warehouse without event, drawing the attention of those that were stationed around it, keeping guard. Parking before the doors, the occupants of the vehicle clambered out, walked around to the back, and started unloading the cargo, which was then moved into the warehouse to be stored with more cargo boxes like it. The cargo contained food, dry food, which kept well and did not require special care to keep fresh. Therefore, Negaduck didn't particularly mind where it was kept for storage, so long as it was out of the way.

And the slaves doing this work having been magicked so that they mindlessly obeyed every command from their tyrants, so they did not protest the work. They couldn't. They were, in fact, barely acknowledging the world around them in this state. Therefore, they weren't aware of some very important things that was taking place around them.

Like the fact that they were being watched. From five different angles, all of them from the roofs of neighboring buildings. The watchers were all watching and waiting for their chance to strike, quick, and fast at the cargo truck and the magicked workers around it. Two were watching via video feeds. They all had their own plan. But not all of them had their own agenda. They were simply waiting for the right time to strike.

The workers didn't stand a chance.

Without warning, an object suddenly shot off the roof of one neighboring warehouse and bounced off the roof of the cargo truck before landing on the ground before the feet of the workers. Those moving cargo kept going, but the guards in the immediate area monotonously moved forward to investigate the cylindrical little object. As they reached it, it suddenly burst into a cloud of purple gas, quickly engulfing the whole area. Magicked as they were, both the guards and the workers erupted into coughing fits.

Before they had the chance to recover, weapons fire rang out, and several shots from stun gun weaponry fired from three different directions blindly into the cloud. Some return fire was given from the guards, but as they couldn't tell from where they were being attacked, it was almost pointless. Soon, they were all subdued after enough stun gun shots were fired into the cloud. A moment of silence fell, then another figure dropped into the fading cloud, landing soundlessly on the ground.

Straightening, Crimson picked herself up and headed over to the cargo truck, switching on a light, and shining it around on the cargo within, then pulling out a radio to speak into it. "The goods are here, we're clear to finish securing the area for pick up," she stated into it.

With that announcement, another figure dropped into the cloud of smoke and ventured towards the entrance to the warehouse, armed with a stun gun. A smattering of workers and guards that survived the initial attack hurried forward to attack the attacker, but were quickly taken out with the stun gun. The figure looked around to see if there were anymore, then spied the security camera looking in his direction. He grinned, and approached the device.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing exclaimed as he approached, "I am the counterstrike that stops your invasion! I am Darkwing Duck...out to stop the likes of Negaduck."

And with that, he shot out the security camera.

"There, I think that's everyone," Darkwing reported as he stepped back out of the warehouse, "Negaduck's probably going to have some patrols coming our way here soon, so we had better hurry."

"Right," Crimson said, switching channels on her walkie-talkie, "LP, the area's secure, you are clear to land."

A low hum was quickly heard there after, and the Thunderquack suddenly appeared out of thin air hovering above the ground. It's thrust blowing the remains of the smoke away, it came in for a landing, the cockpit popping open. Inside, Launchpad was at the wheel as usual, but accompanying him was also Agents Todd and Mia, who quickly hopped out of the craft to the cargo truck.

"Are we going to have company soon?" Mia inquired as she and Todd approached, and they all quickly got to work moving crates of dry food into the Thunderquack.

"Most likely, it's just a matter of when," Darkwing replied, "So we need to be quick."

"Fortunately, we shouldn't need all of the cargo," Todd said, "Just one of these crates will probably be enough for us to last the rest of the month."

"Not that's really spectacular, the month is already mostly over," Crimson noted, "Which, on a greater note, means Negs been in control for a good three weeks now."

"I'm hoping we'll have stopped him before the month is over," Darkwing said, then upon receiving a couple questioning glances at this, added, "I'm being optimistic and setting goals. You guys should too."

"What we need first is a plan," Mia remarked as she heaved a box into the back of the Thunderquack, "Some kind of plan to stop Negaduck. _Then _we can take steps to set goals."

"I'm working on that," Darkwing promised, pulling out another box from the back of the truck, "I've got plenty of ideas, just nothing pieced together yet that's enough to enact upon."

"In the meantime, we'll just have to keep causing chaos for Negaduck in anyway possible, just like before," Crimson stated, "Anything to slow Negaduck down."

They continued loading boxes for a few moments, but then Launchpad, still sitting in the cockpit of the Thunderquack, eyeing a certain screen, spoke up.

"Um, DW, I'm picking up something fishy coming our way!" he announced, "I think it's that company we're expecting!"

Everyone stopped to look in his direction, quickly dropping what they were doing to gather around the jet.

"What kind of company?" Agent Todd inquired, "Can you tell us?"

Launchpad, fiddling with the controls before him, shook his head, "Not really, the sensors haven't quite been the same since the Thunderquack got shot down on the day of the invasion, and we still haven't gotten everything fixed and worked up to optimum specs, so..."

"Right, that means it could be anything," Mia said, understanding, "About when will it get here?"

"Hard to say, maybe not for couple more minutes, though," Launchpad guessed.

"Enough time to get some of these last few boxes loaded up," Darkwing said, hurrying to continue moving the last of the boxes they had on hand into the Thunderquack.

"Betcha anything that it's the Negaquack," Crimson stated as she and the others worked to help.

"Uh, no, it can't be, there's too many of them all having around the same mass, and that mass looks to be a little too small to be the Negaquack's," Launchpad commented.

Mia frowned. "Then...what could it be?" she inquired.

A low hum started to ring out around here, grabbing their attention. They turned to look up into the night sky, and saw a swarm of dark shapes surging towards them. They stopped to watching, slowly gearing up to run if need be. They seemed eerily familiar.

"Look like we're going to find out here very soon," Todd remarked aloud.

But then Crimson figured out what they were. "No, we can't wait that long, everybody on the Thunderquack!"

"But we haven't finished loading..." Launchpad began to protest.

"No, she's right, we need to run!" Darkwing agreed, seeing what Crimson was getting at, and started pushing Mia and Todd to get into the jet, "Now!"

Because a few moments later, the swarm of powerful robots formerly known to belong to the late Darkwarrior descended down upon the group.

"Suspects found, moving in to apprehend," the robots all choused together.

They swooped down on their targets, Darkwing and the others standing at the Thunderquack, but were forced to veer off again as the group fired upon the encroaching robots. The stun guns they had been using up until now didn't seem to damage them much, nor did the shock darts Crimson and Darkwing quickly switched to, but both did seem to disorient the bots, buying them time to climb into the Thunderquack.

"Warning, suspects are armed and dangerous, filing crime ceti-five-seven-alpha to list," the robots all choused together as they circled around the Thunderquack like vultures.

"Get us out of here, LP!" Darkwing ordered once everyone was inside the jet, "Cloak us once we've taken off!"

Launchpad nodded, and upon closing the cockpit, quickly started the jet back up, preparing to take off.

"Where did these robots come from?" Todd asked, "They've never been around before!"

"It won't matter if we don't get out of here!" Mia remarked as the eyed the robots leerily.

"Warning, suspected criminals are on the run from crime ceti-five-seven-alpha, giving pursuit," the robots remarked, trying to move into the way of the jet as it lifted off the ground, only to be shot down as the Thunderquack opened fire upon them as needed.

Crimson eyed them as the jet rose into the air painfully slowly, then spied a new craft that was different from the others, but no better than the robots. "Here comes the Dark Avenger!"

And sure enough, here came her Darkwarrior counterpart zooming towards them in her little, but deadly, hovercraft. As the Thunderquack started to pull away, activating the cloak, the Dark Avenger opened fire upon the craft just as it turned invisible. And just because it was invisible, didn't mean the craft couldn't still be hit. And the Dark Avenger's aim proved to be very good, scoring some good hits on the Thunderquack, overwhelming some of her jury-rigged repairs. This caused the cloak to flicker for a moment, then fail completely, rendering the craft visible again before it had even managed to start accelerating away.

"Oh great," Todd muttered as Launchpad made the craft veer right in an evasive maneuver, the robots still swarming around the craft, though they were starting to struggle to keep up, "So much for the option of just hiding from those robots."

"We can still try outrunning them, and we do have weapons to fight back with," Darkwing pointed out.

Both of which they tried. It successfully kept both the robots and the Dark Avenger more or less at bay, but they couldn't shake them off. And this was going to be problematic.

"We can't land at the mansion with these guys being so close on our tails," Launchpad remarked as he tried every special trick he knew in the book to try and loose the pursuers, "There just wouldn't be enough time."

"I'm open to any suggestions, then," Darkwing remarked.

"I've got one that we can try, but no guarantees that it'll work," Crimson remarked, reaching past Darkwing to switch on the radio, "Dark Avenger, this is Crimson Avenger, come in please."

There was a momentary pause, during which only the sound of static could be heard. For a moment, Crimson though that Dark Avenger wasn't going to reply. Then, finally, her voice clicked onto the radio suddenly.

"Rather unorthodox to be calling your enemy like this, don't you think?" she transmitted, sounding a little disbelieving that this was worth her time.

"We need to talk," Crimson assured her.

"Why? Trying to beg for mercy, so I'll spare you?"

"Hardly. We'll still escape you yet, I promise you that."

"Then why call?"

"To tell you, yet again, that you've got this all wrong, we're not the people you want," Crimson sighed, "I know you want revenge against the death of Darkwarrior, and I know you believe that we did it, and that you've struck a deal with Negaduck to enable you to do it, but we are not the guilty party."

"The only one I'm _really _after is you, Crimson," The Dark Avenger was starting to sound impatient.

So Crimson cut to the chase. "_I didn't kill Darkwarrior_. I wasn't even there when he was shot. If I _had _killed him, then why do you think I sent his body back to _your _universe?"

"Don't try and fool me, Crimson, it isn't going to work. Just delay the inevitable."

"Dark Avenger, she's telling the truth," Darkwing spoke up suddenly, trying to help.

"Ah, that must be Darkwing. You know, Negaduck was _not _happy that you managed to escape the Negaverse. So I'm probably doing the multiverse a favor when I take _both _of you out."

And with that, the transmission ended, and the Dark Avenger continued firing on the fleeing Thunderquack, causing it to shake and tremble, but for the moment, was putting up with the strain.

"Good thing those robots don't seem to be armed with any kind of long-range weaponry," Mia remarked, peering out the cockpit's canopy at the robots trailing behind them.

"We're almost at the mansion, we need a plan B," Darkwing pressed, racking his brain for an answer, "C'mon, think, think, think..."

"Hey, I'm detecting another, larger, craft coming our way!" Launchpad suddenly proclaimed.

They all looked as the craft suddenly swooped into view, instantly recognizable.

"_There's _the Negaquack," Crimson remarked.

"LP, head straight for her, like you're about to collide with it, then immediately break off at the last second!" Darkwing said, "Maybe we'll get lucky, and have the Negaquack and Dark Avengie get tangled up with each other!"

Launchpad obeyed, surging towards the approaching jet as instructed. The Negaquack's pilot did not back down, and mirrored the tactic, charging towards the Thunderquack, creating a dangerous game of chicken. The Dark Avenger, either not realizing the danger, or not carrying, continued to pursue, as the robots, as they didn't know better. Finally, at the last second, Launchpad broke off the collision course and turned to fly towards Macawber Mansion again, leaving the Negaquack and the Dark Avenger to very nearly cross paths, both craft having to quickly veer away from each other to avoid a collision. The robots managed to remain on course, and continued to chase the Thunderquack, but they had fallen back significantly in the mixup.

Using this chance, the Thunderquack shot for the mansion, sending a signal ahead of it was forewarning that they were coming. As a result, the magical shield protecting the mansion was suddenly lowered, in time for the jet to arrive. Once it was inside, the shield was quickly restored, sealing off the mansion from the rest of the world. The robots still pursuing the jet didn't realize this until the first few impacted it and bounced right off it. Realizing then that they were cut off, the robots backed up and resorted instead to circling the shield, probably waiting for a chance to get past it, although it was doubtful for the moment that they would be allowed to get that chance.

Seeing they were safe, the Thunderquack came in for a landing, and it's crew started clambering out.

"Whew, that was close," Mia remarked relieved, looking up at the robots circling the shield's perimeter, "Every time we do that, we shave things a little closer. Eventually, there's going to come a time when we just won't be fast enough to pull off that sort of trick."

"Hopefully, it's not going to come to that," Darkwing said, as he focused more on the reason why they were all outside the shield in the first place, and started unloaded the boxes they had managed to steal out of the jet.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised, Dark Avenger has been trying a little harder than lately to try and catch us," Crimson reasoned, helping Darkwing, "I mean, this is the third time this week she's tried to surprise us like that."

"Yeah, but this is the first time she's used _robots_ at the same time," Launchpad commented, doing a damage analysis of the Thunderquack.

"Where _did _those robots come from, anyway?" Mia asked, "I thought we had a virus thing going that prohibited any of that Darkwarrior technology from working here."

"We did," Todd replied, "But Darkwarrior managed to deactivate it just before he was shot. I know, I was there," he glanced up at the robots beyond the shield and sighed, "I had thought Negaduck would've resumed transmitting the virus afterwards, but apparently he didn't. Maybe he thought that with Darkwarrior gone, it wasn't needed anymore, and left it off."

"Only now we've got the Dark Avenger, who has clearly discovered that the virus is indeed inactive now, and is exploiting the presented opportunity," Crimson stopped to stare up at the robots circling the shield herself, "If those guys don't go away, we're not going to be able to leave the shield anytime soon, at least not by Thunderquack."

"Unless we can use that ortus spell of Morgana's on it," Todd reasoned.

"I could try, but I still say the jet is much too big to do it safely," Morgana remarked suddenly, hurrying over. She noted that they were all unhurt, and they had the cargo they were looking for, and grinned. "I see that despite the unanticipated attack, we achieved the mission as planned, and that you all managed to escape okay."

"We certainly did, Morg," Darkwing said, bringing a box over and opening it, "We didn't get as much cargo as we had hoped, but this should be enough food to refill our supplies for the time being."

Morgana sorted through some of the packaged foods in the crate, and nodded, "Yes, I think I can make use of some of this," she agreed, "Come, bring it inside, and we'll sort it out."

"Okay, but what about our unwanted watchdogs?" Todd asked, pointing up at the robots hovering around the shield.

"They can't get to us in here," Crimson pointed out, "So I suppose we just ignore them for now," she sighed, "But they are going to be a problem if we can't think of something eventually."

* * *

The Dark Avenger peered down at the mansion as she flew her hovercraft over it, and sighed. She of course couldn't visibly see if the shield was up, as the shield was only visible to one's eye when something comes in contact with it, disturbing the energies that makes it up. But seeing her robots circling the perimeter of where she presumed the shield to stand as well as a couple robots lying disabled on the ground and the Thunderquack quite clearly being safely landed beside the mansion told her what was obvious. Her prey had alluded her again. Frustrated, she slapped the controls before her a couple of times before her radio suddenly clicked on without warning.

"You know, I don't seem to recall you asking for permission to use anything like these robots before actually _using _them," it spoke.

The Dark Avenger frowned as she recognized the voice, and despite her better judgement, flipped a control to transmit a reply. "I don't recall it being any of your business caring about how I do what I've been asked," she stated flatly.

"It is when I know that there is no way Negaduck would have supported your...unannounced change in plans," NegaGosalyn replied cooly from the Negaquack as it flew nearby, "I imagine he will be very annoyed to hear that you've brought back Darkwarrior's robots into the Posiverse without consulting him first."

"The agreement between him and me was that I help him take down Crimson and clear the path for him to take care of her compatriots," Dark Avenger stated in her defense, "He never told me what I could or could not do."

"We had stopped Darkwarrior from using those robots before for a reason."

"Oh, I know all about that, but interestingly enough, that virus you had allegedly used to prevent that is no longer in place, as there is nothing preventing me from using the robots now. You can't blame a girl for seeing an opportunity and making use of it. Besides, I do not plan to use these robots the same way as my father did. They're just preprogrammed to grab targets and bring them to me. And the list of targets is fairly short, and does not list Negaduck's name anywhere upon it."

NegaGosalyn didn't buy it. "They still give you an advantage that I quite frankly don't trust you with."

"_That _must be why I don't _like_ you so much," the Dark Avenger laughed at her quip, "If it's any constellation, _I _don't trust any of _you_, and certainly not Negaduck. The only reason we are even in this arrangement right now is because we share similar goals."

"In the fact that you want Crimson dead."

"Very dead, actually. Dead as dead can be. But only reaching that point _very _slowly."

NegaGosalyn felt her stomach twist at the thought, but wasn't entirely sure why. "I still don't think you should have those robots."

"I know," the Dark Avenger obviously could care less about that fact, and was clearly pleased that the thought she had such devices at her disposal bugged the likes of NegaGosalyn, "Puts you in your place, doesn't it? Gives me a bit of leeway. Makes sure that the likes of _you_ don't go using your advantages against me. Negaduck would be wise to not pursue the issue."

"Regardless, I am going to tell him _every word _about all of this," NegaGosalyn vowed, "_Then_ we'll see who will have the last laugh."

"Yes, _let's _see. I'm up for a good laugh," the Dark Avenger teased, "You go ahead and tell Negaduck whatever you want. I'm not stopping you."

"Good, because I will," NegaGosalyn snapped, and with that, ended the radio transmission, and worked at flying the Negaquack back to Canard Tower, "Then we'll see who is put in their place."

* * *

But Negaduck surprised her.

"She can keep the robots," Negaduck announced bluntly once told the details.

"She can?" NegaGosalyn repeated, surprised, "Are you _sure _you want to do that?"

"I don't _care _what she does with those robots just so long as she upholds her end of the deal," Negaduck pressed as he flipped through some papers on his desk, "Seems to me that the robots might actually produce results."

"Maybe, but what then?" NegaGosalyn reasoned, "What will she do once she's used to them to achieve that goal? You really think she's just going to go quietly?"

"That _was _the deal."

"But think about the advantage it gives her over us. You _know _how powerful those robots can be en masse."

"Oh, I know. Last time they nearly overran all of St. Canard in a single day. Made me wish I had something like that on my side. You, however, don't know, as you weren't there on that particular occasion. You were away in the Negaverse at the time."

"But I still know the tale. If it wasn't for SHUSH's quick-thinking with creating the computer virus that deactivated the robots and the actions of Darkwing..."

"I will not support any choice Darkwing has made on the matter," Negaduck remarked, standing up suddenly and giving NegaGosalyn a stern glare, "He is more of an enemy than the Dark Avenger ever will be," at this, he made a sly grin, "Besides, as we both know, Darkwing brought Avengie's wrath down upon himself."

Now NegaGosalyn narrowed her own eyes. "With your prompting," she corrected, "We both _really _know it was _you _who shot Darkwarrior, thereby killing him. Seeing that Crimson and her helpers later rescued him, I think they were actually trying to _save _him. The Dark Avenger is directing her anger at entirely the wrong person."

"Better them than us."

"Possibly. But let's assume that things _do _go as you plan. That doesn't change the fact that eventually, the Dark Avenger will figure out the truth."

"A bridge I will cross if I ever come to it. In the event that it does come up, however, I intend to burn that bridge. The Dark Avenger will regret the day she ever crossed my path."

"But that's my _point_. You're being entirely too cocky about the matter."

"Hey! I _like _cocky."

"But it's not a wise pattern of thinking. _And _you seem to be failing to consider the Dark Avenger's mental instability. She's not like Darkwarrior. Her attitude is far too elastic, so to speak. I've seen it. She'll be happy and cheery one moment, frustrated and serious the next, and then deranged, short-tempered, and trigger-happy after that. She's an emotional roller coaster, with little fear of threatening her own well being. There's no telling what she could do when in the right mindset. Plus, with the exception of wanting revenge, she struggles to stay focused. Her mind constantly wanders, influenced by the world around her. I could even cause her attention to shift just having a normal conversation with her, but no one but her can direct where that attention goes next. In short, that revenge she wants so much is the only thing keeping her on task. So if she ever _does _figure out the truth, she could swap sides in an instant and unleash all of that instability upon _us_. And _now_ she has Darkwarrior's robots at her disposal. A literal army that can challenge our own, not to mention outmaneuver given the advantage of flight." NegaGosalyn leaned on Negaduck's desk and pressed her face towards his, "You can't let her keep control of those robots."

Negaduck frowned, and pushed NegaGosalyn's face back about an inch with one finger. "Be careful, Gos, your own attitude needs a bit of adjusting itself. You wouldn't want to spark an emotional roller coaster with it in anyone such as myself," he made a relenting sigh, "But, I see your point. Those robots might get Avengie to produce results now, but they're too much of an edge to let her keep indefinitely while in the Posiverse. Simple fix, really. I'll just have Techno ready the SHUSH virus for reactivation on my command. Should the Dark Avenger decide she's gotten too big for her shoes, her advantage goes bye-bye," he narrowed his eyes expectantly at NegaGosalyn, "That work for you?"

"It'll do," NegaGosalyn said. She had really been hoping that Negaduck would stop putting so much trust in the Dark Avenger and force her out, but relented that this was a start, and that Negaduck had a few points of his own that supported this choice.

"Good, now stop bugging me about it," Negaduck said, sitting back down at his desk, "Go do something productive."

NegaGosalyn frowned as she silently turned to leave. With each passing day she was finding herself liking Negaduck less and less.

And she wasn't sure yet if that was a good thing.

* * *

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Techno snapped later when Negawing delivered the message of Negaduck's new plan to him and watched the reaction with amusement, "I thought working on our tin DW _was _to be my top priority!"

"It _is_," Negawing pressed calmly as he leaned on his walking stick.

"Then why does he keep _changing _them?"

"Things come up. What can I say?"

"You could at the very leas-eas-east apologize to the likes of me," Nanite Darkwing remarked grumpily where he was still chained to the wall, "These delays are not helping me be repaired. Cl-clearly I am of little importance to Negaduck."

"Now I wouldn't say that," Negawing remarked, pretending to care that Nanite Darkwing as annoyed about the matter, "It's just some problems are more important. Dark Avenger is now one of them. Besides, I don't think it's that big a deal."

"Admittedly, you're right," Techno was forced to agree as he skimmed through the specifications about the assignment that had been jotted down on a piece of paper for Techno to follow, "It's just rigging a system of quickly reenabling the virus that renders Darkwarrior's robots useless in the Posiverse to be done on Negaduck's command. That shouldn't take long to pull off," he frowned, "but why is the virus deactivated in the first place?"

"As I understand it, Darkwarrior had managed to deactivate it himself just before he died," Negawing explained with a shrug, "I guess Negs didn't see a need to switch it back on after that until now."

"And now, it-it-it is only to be a f-failsafe," Nanite Darkwing observed, "One that might not be an adequate enough of a failsafe."

Negawing gave the robot a frown. "I suppose we'll see, won't we? Not like you can do much about it anyway."

"Not yet, at any rate," Techno commented offhandedly as he turned to start work on the bank of computers that were before him as usual.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"_It means_ that I've almost got Nanite DW's control nanite repaired enough for the worker nanites to take over and finish repairs on his body," Techno explained, stepping around the bank of computers, "Here, I'll show you."

He motioned Negawing to come join him, who did. Techno then took a small tool with a narrow, pin-like, tip and pointed it into a hole in Nanite Darkwing's chest plating from where he had taken damage, exposing the robotic organs beneath, and pointed at small block of metal no bigger than a pinhead embedded in the robot's heart. Negawing stared at it skeptically.

"That's _it_?" he remarked, "That's the control nanite?"

"Yes, that's it, the one thing that is keeping Nanite Darkwing from self-repairing himself," Techno explained, "It took some minor damage, prohibiting it from maintaining control over the worker nanites to begin repairs. I've had to manually repair it, which is not an easy process. It would be easier if it wasn't already inside an active and conscious mechanism," he made eye contact with Nanite Darkwing for a moment, who shrugged in apology, despite knowing there was little to be done about that.

"Why don't you just take it out?" Negawing asked, not understanding how such a little piece of technology could be so important.

"No, no, to do so would be fatal for Nanite Darkwing," Techno explained, "He needs the control nanite to survive now that he's completely robotic."

"So repairs by hand would be the only way left, then."

"The-the-the-the only way," Nanite Darkwing confirmed.

"Fortunately, I'm almost done," Techno said, heading back to the bank of computers, "Another hour's work, and I should have the control nanite repaired enough to quickly reset it, and it should take over on it's own from there. A couple more hours after that at most, and Nanite Darkwing should be fully repaired and functional again."

"Very interesting," Negawing lied as he headed for the door, done with the conversation, "But Negaduck has asked you to focus on the Darkwarrior virus thing first, so you best get started on that."

"I already am," Techno promised, working at the computer, "It shouldn't take long."

"Good. Then you can get right back to that control nanite." he grinned, and saluted at Nanite Darkwing at the door, "Sit tight, Nuts and Bolts."

He then left. Nanite Darkwing stared after him with his one good eye.

"'S-s-sit tight, Nuts and Bolts,'" he repeated in a mocking tone.

"Oh hush, at least you know that I'll probably have that nanite finished by today assuming everything goes well," Techno muttered as he worked.

"I know, and not a day too soon, at that," Nanite Darkwing remarked, sounding frustrated. He watched Techno work for a few moments in silence before speaking again. "If the issue of the virus really isn't going to take-take long, then why prioritize it?"

"Because Negaduck said so," Techno remarked simply as he worked, not looking up.

"And that is r-reason enough for you?"

"Not particularly, to be honest, but I don't really have a choice."

"I believe you do," now Techno looked up from his work to give Nanite Darkwing a surprised look, "I sug-g-g-gest that you ignore Negaduck's request for the moment and instead f-f-finish work on my control nanite first."

Techno gaped at him for a long moment, not having really expected these comments. "Why?" he finally asked, failing to come up with an adequate explanation himself.

"Because it would be in-in your best inter-ter-ter-terests to finish repairing my control nanite."

"Yes, you've said that before...but I had always thought you were saying it because Negaduck would punish me if I didn't," Techno blinked, "You've got something to gain from this."

"More or less, but so do you."

Nanite Darkwing glanced at the open door where the guards were stationed, then motioned with his head for Techno to come closer. Techno hesitated a moment, but then agreed, and moved closer to the robot, who lowered his voice to continue speaking, but not risk being overheard. What he had to say caught Techno even more by surprise.

"I-I intend t-t-to stop Negaduck and-and his plans before he gets the chance to carry them ou-out," the robot said, "In other words, I am on your side, Techno."

* * *

At Macawber Mansion, the group were hard at work sorting through the supplies they had plundered, pulling the items out of their original crates and stacking them into stacks organized by category. They conversed idly every now and then as they did it, but otherwise there wasn't much to be said at the moment. That changed when Bushroot, among those helping, paused as he sorted, a thought coming to mind.

"You know, you guys all claim to be the good guys," he remarked, as he resumed sorting, "but, to get these goods, you _stole _them from someone else."

Crimson had a response ready. "We stole them from Negaduck, that justifies it," she stated instantly.

Bushroot had to grin at that. "I suppose I can't argue with that."

"Besides, we were in desperate need for food and supplies," Darkwing remarked, "So we were forced to resort to desperate measures so we can survive."

"And we all know how long we can survive on saltine crackers," Agent Todd remarked wearily as he held up the twelfth package of the crackers that he had pulled out of the crate he had been unpacking.

"They'll help us get by in the meantime," Mia remarked, "Speaking of which, _do _we have any new plans about how we can beat Negaduck? Time's running out."

"I've told you all before, the way to stop Negaduck, or at the very least deal him a severe blow is to take out Negarian," Darkwing persisted, "All of Negaduck's advantages hinge with that magician. We take him from Negs, and we take those advantages away, not to mention undo all of the mind control spells that have been put on this city."

"But you're forgetting one thing, Dark, and that's the fact that Negarian is a very powerful, and very dangerous, magician," Morgana stated calmly, "More powerful than all of the other magicians that have lived in this city as of late _combined_. And the only surefire way to fight him is with another magician. And you only have one at the moment." she motioned to herself, "And that won't be enough."

"Now that's not true," Crimson said, speaking up, "You have another magician at hand. Me."

"But...you don't have the training, Crimson," Launchpad pointed out.

"Not to mention that you're powerless without a familiar," Todd added pointedly.

"Well...why don't you change that?" Bushroot asked, "You can go get her a familiar."

"Like Rowe," Quackerjack added.

There was a moment of silence in the group. Darkwing rubbed the tip of his beak in thought.

"You know, you two could be onto something here," Darkwing said, "What if we _did _capture Rowe, and get him on our side?"

"And then what?" Mia asked, "What would that get us, except give Crimson the ability to use her magical powers?"

"It'd rob NegaGosalyn of her own," Crimson pointed out.

"But it still would not be enough to fight Negarian," Morgana said.

"Except maybe distract him," Launchpad said.

"That might work, distract him in a magical battle, and then attack him from behind by a more conventual means," Christine remarked, "Catch him by surprise."

"That could work," Darkwing said, but he shook his head, "we have too much to loose to just rush into that, though, it'd be something we would have to take time to plan and sort out."

"In the meantime, though, we can still be getting Rowe on our side," Crimson pressed, "Another couple of hands around here wouldn't hurt, and anyway, Morgana could be teaching me some more magic as we plan to attack Negarian."

Morgana was deep in thought for a few moments. "There is another possibility," she remarked, "And that's the fact that we use magic against the Dark Avenger."

"How so?" Bushroot asked.

"I know of a spell that can be used that enables one to see and share the memory of another," Morgana explained, "If we use that spell on the Dark Avenger, we could possibly convince her that she is on the wrong side, and seeking her revenge from the wrong people. Then we can have her on our side."

Mia blinked in surprise. "That would also put all of those robots out there on our side, too!" she remarked, "That means we can use those to our advantage as well, giving us our own little army to use to fight back against Negaduck."

"No, no, no, it can't be that easy to sway Dark Avenger, she's too bent on what she's doing already," Crimson remarked, "She's too unstable. We could just make things worse."

"We need to try something, though," Darkwing said, "Todd's right, time's running out. We can't sit here and speculate, we need to _act_. The sooner we can manage it, the better."

"I don't see what any of this has to do with the proposed idea of capturing Rowe, though," Christine commented, puzzled.

"The only drawback to the spell I am suggesting is the fact that one magician alone cannot do it," Morgana explained, "Two will be required. And we only have one other person available with magical blood."

"That's me," Crimson remarked, "And I need a familiar to preform magic, and Rowe is the best candidate for that."

"So we get Rowe, get Dark Avengie to sit still long enough to do this spell thing, hope we can get her to switch sides, giving us a better advantage, and then we use all of the above to try and strike at Negarian," Darkwing summarized, "It sounds like a bit of a long shot. Nothing I can't handle, though."

"Been through worse long shots myself," Bushroot agreed.

"Sounds like fun to me," Quackerjack remarked.

"We'll need to track down the positions for all three of them, then," Mia said, planning it out in her head, "We'll have to get out and scout around a little, investigate our possibilities."

"Which will be a problem, seeing that until we can enact on our rather shaky plan to get the Dark Avenger to switch sides, we are surrounded by a mess of determined robots that have orders to capture us, if not worse, the moment we show our faces outside the shield," Todd commented.

"If we do our traveling on foot, the ortus spell should get us in and out of the shield without drawing the attention of the robots," Morgana remarked.

"We've done it before," Crimson pointed out, "I can't see any reason why we can't do it again."

"Then it's settled," Darkwing said, "It won't be hard to locate the Dark Avenger. We can just lure her here. So the first thing we should do, is track down, and capture Rowe."

* * *

Techno stared at Nanite Darkwing in bewilderment, not quite sure what to make of this unexpected revelation.

"On _my _side?" he repeated, shocked.

Nanite Darkwing nodded. "I kn-know, you probably don't believe me," he deduced, unsurprised at this reaction.

"I'm having a hard time to, yes!"

"I-I-I do not blame you. I would not take my own word at face value either, not after having let you believe what has-has simply not been true about me. But, I have been prepared for this event, knowing that it would likely come eventually. I can prove to you the truth of what you say."

Techno hesitated a moment, then nodded, "All right, I'm willing to listen."

Nanite Darkwing merely grinned. "It does not require listening, not in the sense you are thinking of," he said, then explained, "You will need to free one of my hands in order for me to do this."

Techno did so hesitantly, unchaining the robot's right limb from where it had been hanging against the wall ever since the invasion. It flopped limply down to Nanite Darkwing's side, hardly having enough power and strength to support itself in it's damaged state. Techno knew this would be so, hence why he deemed it safe to free the limb. He looked at Nanite Darkwing skeptically.

"What do you plan to do now?" he asked.

"Th-th-this," the robot replied, and with a sudden surge of strength, managed to lift up the freed arm enough to grab Techno's shoulder.

Techno remembered jumping in surprise, but the next thing he knew, he was now in an entirely different location, with Nanite Darkwing, nor much of anyone else, to be seen anywhere in sight for the moment. Startled, he looked around, trying to determine his surroundings. He eventually figured out that he was still in SHUSH Headquarters, but in an entirely different location on an entirely different floor; a hallway that ran past a high-security research lab in SHUSH's research and development department.

Techno looked around some more, and slowly started to realize what was going on. What he was seeing felt very real at the moment, but there was something about it that just felt off or false. Techno knew he once had this feeling before, in an encounter with Nanite of the Posiverse that had gone wrong and ended up with Techno being trapped in an illusion of the world created in his mind by the aforementioned robot. Nanite had done it to distract him while he did other, nefarious, things, and so with that in mind, Techno's first thought was to panic.

But he quickly noticed there was several things different about the encounter with Nanite from this encounter he was having now with Nanite's Darkwing counterpart. First and foremost was the fact that Techno was very aware of what was happening. Second was the fact that Nanite Darkwing was doing nothing to try and hide that from him. And from that, Techno somehow sensed that Nanite Darkwing meant no harm from doing this. He had said he wanted to prove what he was claiming, the fact that he was really on Techno's side, as truth.

Maybe this was just how he was going to do it.

But then...what was it that Techno was was supposed to be seeing here? There was nothing here to see except an empty hallway.

But that changed suddenly when Techno heard footsteps coming his way. Turning around, he saw an unexpected figure approaching him, not acting like he could see him standing there.

"Darkwing?" Techno said in surprise.

The figure that would undeniably be Darkwing in the Posiverse didn't seem to hear, or otherwise be aware of Techno's presence as he stepped past him, but the moment Techno said it, he regretted it. This person clearly wasn't the Darkwing he knew, in fact, this Darkwing probably wasn't even serve as a Darkwing at all, as the familiar grey suit and formal attire suggested a career as a SHUSH agent instead of a crime fighting vigilante. Techno suddenly realized this was Nanite Darkwing, living in his universe, before he became the robot Techno knew now.

Quickly, he followed the would-be Nanite Darkwing as the agent stepped out of the hallway and into an adjoining lab. Inside the sterile testing room was a fair deal of computer equipment, some of which already at work doing other things, but there was only one occupant already in the room, standing at a worktable in the center. He was another familiar face to Techno, but it took him a moment to recognize it.

Bushroot. Only he wasn't a mutant plant-duck here, but apparently a SHUSH scientist.

The two quickly engaged in a conversation, while Techno stood at the edges, looking around as he listened somewhat. Both Bushroot and Agent Mallard as Nanite Darkwing was then called seemed to be friends, but they were all business at the moment. It seemed that the SHUSH director, who was not named, thought that Bushroot's project was falling too far behind schedule and wasn't producing enough results to merit continued support, something Bushroot was adamantly against. To prove it, he showed Agent Mallard what Techno immediately recognized as a control nanite, saying that it wasn't finished yet, but would be very soon once he finished programming it properly.

Intrigued, and clearly wanting to support Bushroot, Agent Mallard was just in the process of asking how soon Bushroot expected to be ready to demonstrate what the control nanite could do when things unexpectedly took a turn for the worse, and the whole building went into alert. An intercom message announced that FOWL (exact spelling was not made clear, but Techno for some reason presumed it was the elder FOWL) agents had invaded the building, and the order was given to react accordingly. Which Bushroot and Mallard were about to do when a party of Eggmen blasted their way into the lab, the shockwave of their explosive entry blowing the worktable with the control nanite on it onto Agent Mallard. Techno guessed from there what had happened, and sure enough, only moments later, the SHUSH agent emerged again from the wreckage as Nanite Darkwing, and in the urgency of the moment, put his new robotic form to use by subduing the enemy agents. That done, he and Bushroot looked at each other, clearly wondering what had happened.

The scenery then changed to form a different, but fairly similar lab where Nanite Darkwing was now being examined by Bushroot and a party of other scientists, FOWL apparently having been stopped in the time gap. Techno watched this continue for a few moments, then noticed someone else was present when Nanite Darkwing greeted the director of SHUSH. Somehow, Techno was less than surprised to see it was Jonas Norrin.

Bushroot promptly gave the director a run down on what had happened, and began to list what would needed to be done to possibly reverse the effects of the control nanite had done on Nanite Darkwing, but Norrin was more interested in the possible uses of Nanite Darkwing's new robotic form, and instead ordered a series of enhancements be made to the robot's body and had him transferred to SHUSH special operations to undertake special missions in the field. Norrin treated the whole matter airily, like he thought of Nanite Darkwing as nothing more than a tool to be used, something both Nanite Darkwing and Bushroot did not like, but couldn't do much about at this point. Bushroot did promise, however, that he was going to find a means of restoring Nanite Darkwing back to Agent Mallard somehow. Nanite Darkwing did not doubt him.

The scenery then changed again, this time to a SHUSH video monitoring room taking place what felt like several months, possibly even years, after the previous events, in which Nanite Darkwing was shown footage of what was clearly Negaduck stepping through the SHUSH portal generator and surprisingly surrendering. Norrin told him that he requested that he speak with Nanite Darkwing specifically by name. Agreeing that Negaduck was likely up to something, Nanite Darkwing left to head into Negaduck's holding cell, Techno following. Before entering, Nanite Darkwing took on his original, normal, appearance to hide the fact that he was a robot, but upon meeting with Negaduck, the villain quickly revealed he knew what Nanite Darkwing really was, puzzling both Nanite Darkwing and the watching Techno. Negaduck then tried using that as leverage to try and recruit Nanite Darkwing to side with him. He made a fairly compelling argument, pointing out that Nanite Darkwing was not happy where he was, and used the promise of handing over Techno's own research on reverting Posiverse Nanite back to his original self once Negaduck had control of the Posiverse as bait to lure Nanite Darkwing in.

But Nanite Darkwing didn't buy into it, and told Bushroot as such when the two met later, in private, and discussed the matter. It was also pointed out that the promised research might not even exist. However, Nanite Darkwing worried about Negaduck's plans, and quite accurately presumed him to be a serious threat. He wanted to do something about it, and had a plan to go along with Negaduck's proposal for now long enough to gain Negs's trust and put himself in a position of power, then turn against Negaduck and stop him and his plans before they could progress too far.

Bushroot was immediately against the idea, not entirely convinced that Nanite Darkwing wasn't in this for more than the promise of needed research that could return him back to his normal form, But Nanite Darkwing pointed out this was his chance to make a difference for a change, something he really hadn't been allowed to do since he became his current robotic self, something even Bushroot had to agree. So when the scenery changed again, it portrayed Nanite Darkwing pretending to side with Negaduck and helping him escape, presumably, back into the Negaverse via the portal generator.

The next thing Techno knew after that, he was back in the present with the real Nanite Darkwing, damaged and chained to the wall still, removing his hand from where he had placed it on Techno's shoulder. Breathing heavily, Techno looked around hurriedly, but because the transfer and reliving of the memories took far less time than it had seemed, there was next to no perception of what very little time had passed during the flashbacks. Techno looked back at the robot to see him looking at him expectantly.

"Well," Techno began, searching for the right words, "That was certainly one way to prove to me your real intentions. Assuming of course those memories were real."

"Th-they were."

"Right," Techno hesitated for a moment, finding himself unable to argue the fact that the memories seemed too real and authentic, "I probably shouldn't just take your word for it on that, but...I am."

Nanite Darkwing grinned. "Thank you," he said.

Techno was still processing all of this new information in his head, however. "_That_ explains why you had such crummy reaction times when you attacked me at Darkwing Tower!" he quickly realized, giving the robot an incredulous look, "You were trying to _let _me win!"

Nanite Darkwing nodded. "I had to make it look convincing, but at the same time n-n-not harm you. Which I believe I did. Only I _did _underestimate how very adept you were at com-com-combating me."

"Well, I've had practice, we've got our own version of Nanite in this universe, and let me tell you, he is definitely not friendly," Techno remarked rolling his eyes, "Which reminds me, Negaduck wasn't lying to you when he told you of the existence of that research. It really _does _exist. I know, because I'm one of the major people who worked on it."

"Th-this I already know," Nanite Darkwing responded, "Your work on repairing me proved that you very much know wh-wh-wh-what you are do-doing."

"But I bet you _didn't _know that there is a way to reverse the effects your control nanite has done to you," Techno stated, "See, I've devised a plan to create a means of interfacing directly with the control nanite and reprogramming it so to order it to undo the damage it has caused, restoring the subject back to it's original, biological, form. Once that's done, the control nanite could be deactivated, and safely removed."

Nanite Darkwing's one operational eye brightened with hope at this pronouncement. "You can do that?"

"Well, theoretically at least, I will admit that we haven't succeeded _yet_, but if I were to give you the research, it would at the very least give you a place to start working."

Techno gave the robot a hopeful grin, which was returned back to him.

"W-w-we will worry about the research later, though," Nanite Darkwing commented, changing the subject, "Right now we need to focus on getting out of-of here and stopping Neg-Neg-Negaduck's plan."

"I agree," Techno said nodding, moving back to the bank of computers.

"Then you are going to prioritize the repairs for my control nanite?"

"No, I'm going to do as Negaduck asked and finish the preparations for the virus first."

"Why?"

"To buy us time," Techno looked the robot in his one good eye, "This really won't take that long, and it's better to just do it, rather than shrug it off. If we were to do that, we would probably draw unwanted suspicion to ourselves, which we are most definitely not going to want. Once I get this done, though, I swear to you, I will not stop to do anything else until I have your control nanite fully repaired."

"V-very well," Nanite Darkwing remarked, nodding, "Hope, then, that we will be-be able to escape at th-th-that time."

* * *

Resolving to track down and kidnap Rowe was one thing, but actually doing it was quickly proving to be quite another.

Crimson sighed as she scanned the windows of Canard Tower with her infrared binoculars, squinting to see through the glare of the early morning light. They weren't really meant to be used during the day like this, but they worked to help pinpoint bodies inside the building. Sort of. It was one of those times Crimson wished she had Techno on hand. Not just for the companionship, but also because his visor was better equipped for this sort of thing than a pair of infrared binoculars.

Fortunately, though, Crimson also had Morgana with her, who was crouched down beside her on the rooftop of the neighboring building, looking hard at Canard Tower. She did not have any kind of devices to help her with her viewing, but then she didn't really need to. She was studying Canard Tower with her magical sight, a second sight magicians could use to visualize the otherwise invisible magical energies for things such as a person's aura, even through walls. This meant that she could see every aura in Canard Tower at the moment.

One would think that wouldn't be that helpful either having to pick out one aura in particular in a mess of many more, but it actually was. Because, as it turned out, an aura varied for every person, as well as for every species and breed. For example, an aura for an avian like a duck was significantly different than an aura for a mammal such as, in this instance, an otter. And otters were less common in St. Canard than any other species, and furthermore, most of them were river otters. This worked in their favor because Rowe was a sea otter, one of few in St. Canard, and bore a different aura.

And better still, he was a familiar, and an extraordinarily powerful one at that. Assuming that no one had been draining magical power from him constantly during all of these three long weeks to the point of depletion, that very powerful aura should stand out like a lighthouse beacon.

At least, in theory.

"I don't understand it!" Morgana suddenly snapped, closing her eyes and rubbing at them wearily, "I've looked that building up and down twice now. I can't _find_ any auras that match that of a sea otter. Are you _sure _that's Rowe's species?"

"I'm positive!" Crimson remarked, "Rowe once summarized his life history to me once, back at that time when we first discovered he was a familiar and I had magical blood. It was pretty obvious that he was a sea otter. Before he joined the Fearsome Five, he spent most of his time at sea."

"Well, I'm not finding any sea otters specifically," Morgana persisted with a sigh, looking again.

"Any ideas why?" Darkwing asked, who kneeled beside her, armed, and on the lookout for any trouble while the other two searched. They _were_ at dangerous territory after all.

"Well, some of the auras appear all bunched together to me," Morgana remarked, "So it's possible that I simply just can't pick out the right aura among all of them that way."

"Try locating it by it's magnitude," Crimson suggested as she continued looking through her infrared binoculars, "Remember, Rowe ordinarily has a huge and powerful aura, something you discovered yourself."

"I know," Morgana stated, nodding, "But that won't work either. What if something has drained Rowe's aura of it's magical power? For instance, we know NegaGosalyn has been using him as her familiar."

"Initially, she was, but for reasons we don't know, she just as quickly stopped," Crimson reasoned.

"And even I know that space of time isn't enough to drain a familiar of all of his or her's magical power," Darkwing commented.

"And that's possible," Morgana admitted, "But there's another issue. Negaduck's army is partly composed of universal doubles."

"Yeah, so?" Crimson asked.

"That means that there's a higher chance of universal doubles of Rowe being present in that building."

"Oh yeah, shoot! There would be at least one double of Rowe in there, wouldn't there? And I suppose it would be hard to tell them apart when looking at them only by their auras," Crimson sighed, "But what other choice do we have? I mean, yeah, I can _try _continuing to try to spy Rowe with these binoculars, but it's going to take a whole lot more time," she paused to think for a moment, "Try it anyway, Morgana, we'll just have to try and see if we can eliminate them one by one."

Morgana sighed as well, but relented, "All right," she said, and resumed studying the building.

"Dad, how are we doing?" Crimson asked as she peered through the infrared binoculars, "Any trouble coming our way?"

"None that I can see," Darkwing reported from beside Morgana, "Nobody even seems to know we're here. Not Negaduck, not the Dark Avenger, not nobody but those back at the mansion. Theoretically, we can stay out here for quite awhile longer still."

"I wouldn't recommend staying out here too long, because someone is going to notice eventually," Crimson said, "I don't care so much about Negaduck, he's going to find out anyway, but it's the Dark Avenger that I'm worried about. She'll be very mad when she discovers that we've gotten past that shield without her knowing. Particularly seeing that we've done it before."

"Yes, that is the advantage of the ortus spell," Morgana remarked with a grin. "If done correctly, it works wonders to pull the wool over one's eyes. But admittedly, I did worry if the Dark Avenger really would fall for it twice."

"Obviously, she didn't though."

"True, but as you said, Crimson, Negaduck will find out himself here shortly, and when he does, he'll only spread word on to the Dark Avenger."

"...who will then get mad and will want take it out on us, I know. In short, once we do this, _if _we manage to do this, we aren't going to want to stick around."

"We can use the ortus spell in short jumps to speed up our getaway. Like I've said before, it doesn't work too well at long distances, and the mansion is too far away from here to do a jump in one go. But littler jumps, like from street to street, can be done. Although it might be a bit exhausting for me to..." Morgan trailed off suddenly as she suddenly concentrated on one spot in particular of Canard Tower, "Wait, I think that's him! I'm seeing a massive aura on the twentieth floor, seventh window to the right. Consistent with your typical otter's aura, and best of all, the aura indicates drainage, both physically _and _magically, suggesting that the owner is not only an active familiar but has also been worked hard, like the magicked slaves."

"And only our Rowe would be magicked at the moment," Crimson concluded excitedly, pointing her binoculars in the direction Morgana had indicated, then frowned as she concentrated, "Hmm, I can't quite make out that spot on the building from here. Morgana, what do you see?"

"And can you _confirm_ it's Rowe?" Darkwing pressed, "We're probably only going to get one chance at this, so we're going to want to make sure we don't blow this."

"Hmm," Morgana stated, "Well, no unfortunately, I can't. But the odds are in our favor. There are only a very small handful of auras that are powerful enough to match Rowe's, and I'm _positive _the owner of this aura is an otter. A sea otter/river otter mixed breed it appears, but..."

"_Mixed _breed?" Crimson repeated, surprised, "Are we _sure _this is Rowe?"

"The more I look at him, the more convinced am I this is our otter," Morgana pressed, "Additionally, there is no one else in the _immediate _area around him save one, an avian, who..." she glanced at Crimson, "...is magically connected to Rowe."

"NegaGosalyn," Crimson deduced with a mumble, then nodded, "Yeah, it _has _to be Rowe. It's unlikely it would be anyone else."

"So now that we know where he is, the remaining question is, should we strike now?" Darkwing asked.

"It's your call, Dark, but this might be our best chance we are ever going to get to pull this off," Morgana stated.

"I agree with Morg, dad," Crimson added, "We probably shouldn't take long in case we cause enough of a ruckus to draw the attention of other people, but if it's just NegaGos and Rowe...that's really nothing we can't handle."

Darkwing nodded, "Then it's settled," he said, "Let's do it."

* * *

NegaGosalyn was frustrated, and when she was frustrated, she wanted to vent her anger on something. So she did it by playing magical darts, a game that worked exactly like it's Normal-style cousin except with small bolts of semi-harmless magical energy instead of actual darts, and she played with winning not necessarily the goal in mind. She just vented her anger by throwing as many of the magical "darts" at the board as she wanted, drawing the needed power, of course, from Rowe, who stood, magicked and blank, behind her.

Sighing aloud, she generated a bolt of magical energy in the palm of her hand and hurled it at the target on the wall, a regular dartboard that had been magically enhanced to better withstand the strain the bolts exerted against it. "Life shouldn't be like this," she muttered, "Not such a constant strain of trying to determine who's right and who's wrong, constantly questioning their choices and actions, _including _my own. Life's hard, yes, but it shouldn't have to be _constantly _hard," she hurled another bolt at the target and sighed again, "Not that you care at the moment, Rowe. Sometimes I wish you _weren't _magicked, so at least I'd have somebody to talk to."

She started creating another bolt when there was suddenly a flash of light and a pop behind her, startling her, making her spin around. She yelped when she saw that Darkwing, Crimson, and Morgana had somehow appeared in the room, and reacted by instinctively hurling the half-formed bolt at the intruders. They quickly ducked it, however, moving into action to react. Morgana took care of NegaGosalyn by hurriedly casting a spell in her direction, throwing her back into the far wall, conscious, but too stunned to do much to react for the moment.

Meanwhile, Crimson tackled Rowe and pinned him to the floor in case he reacted to these events and attack due to his magical programming. Although he did not respond at all, even when Crimson tackled him, but no one planned on taking any chances. Darkwing quickly hurried over with the spray bottle of golden fluid that was the countercurse potion and sprayed it in Rowe's face. The otter quickly flinched and started spluttering. Without warning, he suddenly jumped up and out of Crimson and Darkwing's grasp.

"What the..." he muttered, backpedaling blindly away, wiping at his face in the process, "Plagues and pestilence, mates, what the devil's been going on?"

"Rowe?" Crimson inquired, hurrying over to the otter, pulling him to the back of the room where the three intruders were gathering again.

"Aye," Rowe replied distractedly, looking around now, a puzzled look on his face, "Where am I? Why are you lot all here?"

"Hold it!" NegaGosalyn objected, finally pulling herself together again enough to pick herself up and draw a weapon, "Don't you dare escape!"

"Oh, we dare, there isn't much you can do to stop us," Darkwing stated as he, Morgana, and Crimson bunched together with a befuddled but no longer magicked Rowe in tow.

"You'd probably want to cut any and all magical ties to Rowe now, or you'll be passing out the moment we depart," Crimson recommended.

"And what makes you think I'd be willing to let you do that, hmm?" NegaGosalyn retorted, "It's no wonder we're enemies, you've done nothing but hurt me, you know that? So why should I try anything less on you?"

Crimson glanced at her for a moment. "Because you'd be hurting yourself, trying to please someone whose opinion you think actually counts for something," she said, "Remember when I told you that last? Besides, we both know you aren't going to shoot that weapon at us."

NegaGosalyn remained pointing the weapon at them for a long moment, glaring, but ultimately sighed, and to their surprise, dropped her aim.

"Now wait, mates, have I missed something?" Rowe remarked, only becoming more puzzled by all of this.

"We'll explain in a little bit," Morgana stated, then exclaimed, "Ortus!"

And with another pop and an accompanying flash of light, the group vanished from the room. NegaGosalyn stared at the spot they had stood at for a moment, then slowly lowered herself to the floor, lost in thought as she did indeed begin to remember the last time Crimson had given her that advice...

* * *

Techno entered in one last keystroke into the computer and stepped away from it. "Well, that should do it," he remarked aloud, "the virus that will disable Darkwarrior's robots is now ready to be reactivated should it be needed."

"G-g-g-good," Nanite Darkwing commented, "Now you can resume work at repairing my control nanite."

"Right," Techno said, taking some tools over to Nanite Darkwing, and getting to work, "And this shouldn't take long, no more than an hour, I expect. I wasn't joking when I told Negawing that I was close to pulling it off," he worked quietly for a moment, "So what's the plan when I _do _get your control nanite operational? You _do _have one, right?"

"Of course, we stop Negaduck," Nanite Darkwing stated simply.

Techno glanced at him skeptically, "Anything _else_?" he prompted, "The better we plan this, the better our odds are for escaping."

"Well-well that would be part of it, we need to escape," Nanite Darkwing stated, "But doing so would announce to the world that we are rebelling against Negaduck and thereby rob us of any advantages we might have."

"Right, so we save escaping for later," Techno reasoned.

"Until then, we must do something that will delay N-N-Negaduck's p-plans, something that will harm them that we can enact whenever we wish, but will not be readily seen. We will need to use stealth and-and secrecy."

"And to know just what it is that Negaduck is planning. I don't know about you, but I'm still in the dark about his plans."

"All I know is that the next important part in-in-involves the machine he is building in the top floor of Canard Tower."

"Machine? What kind of machine? What does it do?"

"I do not know exactly. I-I just kn-know it's important-ant, vital to Negaduck's-'s plan."

"Then obviously, we need to find out more about this machine. Maybe in a moment I can..." Techno stopped working suddenly and looked over what he was doing, "I think I did it," he suddenly announced, "I think I just got your control nanite fixed."

"I-I feel no different," Nanite Darkwing noted.

"That's because I haven't reset the nanite yet," Techno explained, "The repairs won't begin to take effect fully until I do so. Kind of like having to reboot your computer in order for software updates to take effect," he made one last adjustment to the control nanite and then withdrew his hands, "There, that should do it."

Nanite Darkwing was silent for a moment, no doubt checking for the right sensations to confirm Techno's statement. "I believe-eve you are correct," he said, "But it will take a-a-a-a little while for repairs of this magnitude to be com-completed, so we will have to wait."

"That's fine, in the meantime maybe I can hack into the system and see if I can find out anything more about this mysterious machine of Negaduck's," Techno commented, going back to the workstation.

"Connect me with the system," Nanite Darkwing instructed suddenly, "I'll-ll-ll help."

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Negaduck said, pacing back and forth, "They just appeared, took Rowe, and _left _again?"

"Exactly that," NegaGosalyn replied, watching Negarian and General Mallard examine the room where it had taken place for any possible clues instead of watching Negaduck.

"So, besides the obvious fact that it'd give your double the ability to use magic, why would they go to the trouble of doing that?" Negaduck asked aloud, puzzled.

"Yes, you would think that if they had a plan like that, they would try to stage a more frontal attack to try and interfere with our plans," Negarian reasoned.

"Well, they could try, but I doubt it'd get them anything," General Mallard remarked, "They simple don't have the numbers, even now."

"So why did they do it?" Negaduck asked, turning to face the two doubles, "Have either of you find anything that could suggest why?"

"Nothing of any particular use," the general stated, turning to face Negaduck, "They didn't really leave much of anything for us to find other than the obvious evidence that they had _been _here. At least, _I _didn't."

"I was a touch more successful," Negarian stated, stepping forward, "I discovered traces of the magical spells they used while they were here."

"Including how they managed to get in here?" Negaduck inquired.

Negarian nodded. "With an unusual and fairly uncommon teleportation spell. It's usually a complex spell to use for the lesser trained, but for the likes of me, it's a fairly simple spell. I imagine that Morgana would have power enough to achieve it."

"How can you be sure it was Morgana?" NegaGosalyn asked, looking up at him.

"Because even if your double is more successful at preforming magic than you have been, she simply would not have the skill to do it," Negarian explained, "It had to have been Morgana who preformed the spell. What I cannot understand is why. It is a very impractical spell to use for these purposes, it's range is very limited. When they used it to escape, they couldn't have gone far very quickly."

This drew all eyes to him.

"Couldn't have gone far, eh?" General Mallard inquired, "How far are we talking?"

"Depends on a variety of factors. Most likely, though, not that far. Only about as far as the next building over at least. They probably used it repeatedly in short little jumps to get to their final destination, or at least a safe distance far enough away that they could progress on foot."

"Except our favorite Dark Avenger is out there patrolling the streets with her crime-fighting robots," Negaduck remarked thoughtfully, thinking he was onto something, "If they stopped using that spell and thus falling short of their likely destination, Macawber Mansion, then they run the risk of encountering those robots. Which, if they attack in swarms, would be hard to avoid."

"Yes, but they clearly got past them to get here in the first place," NegaGosalyn pointed out, "So they could do whatever it was they did to get here safely to go back."

"True, but that's not my point," Negaduck stated, "And my point is that they probably did as Negarian suggested and used this teleportation spell to get all the way back to their little shelter," he turned to the magicians, "Negarian, seeing that you found traces of that spell here, could you theoretically use those traces to track their path back to the mansion?"

"Theoretically, yes, but why?" Negarian replied.

"Because if you follow their path, it may lead you straight to whatever means they've been using to get past that shield," Negaduck concluded, grinning victoriously.

Negarian brightened at this. "Yes!" he agreed, "Possibly!"

"Then what are you standing around here for?" Negaduck said, "Get started on doing that, and report back _immediately _the moment you've got something. General, I want you to ready our forces should Negarian be successful. Work with Negawing, he's at SHUSH. You have him rally his forces there, while you rally our forces here at Canard Tower. Got it?"

"Yes sir," the general replied.

"Then _go_!" Negaduck urged, "All of you!"

They needed no second bidding. General Mallard quickly hurried out of the room, and NegaGosalyn, figuring she was going to be wanted somewhere, started collecting what little she had with her. Negarian started to leave, but in doing so, stopped and pulled Negaduck aside.

"Before I forget, I thought you would like to know that I have the item prepared and ready for you," he told him, "I have left it in your office upstairs."

"Ah, thank you, I will see to that, now go," Negaduck replied, urging the magician out the door.

"What item?" NegaGosalyn asked, overhearing as she approached Negaduck next.

"Nothing that concerns you at the moment, I'll tell you about it later," Negaduck explained to her, "Promise."

"I hope you do, you haven't been in the habit of telling me everything," NegaGosalyn stressed, bringing up the subject on purpose so to gauge Negaduck's reaction, "In fact, we haven't always seen eye to eye on things, so you have a history of deliberately withholding information from me. Even before I had died."

Negaduck didn't react much at all to the statement, though, and simply took it in stride. "No, we haven't always, but I usually had good reasons. For security reasons, of course. Right now, though, I just don't want to waste time telling you about something that is arguably trivial in comparison to possibly finally capturing Darkwing and your double, you understand? Speaking of which, I want you to go to SHUSH HQ and help Negawing out. I want the forces ready to move on the chance that Negarian comes up with the advantage we need."

"Why not just send Negarian in himself, seeing he'd be in the area anyway?" NegaGosalyn asked, annoyed and thinking Negaduck was just getting her out of the way, "He's practically a one-man army on his own."

"I'm not going to take any chances, and anyway, the guy may be a great magician, but he still needs somebody to watch his back," Negaduck said, "Now go, we'll talk more later."

The two went their separate ways, with NegaGosalyn obediently heading to SHUSH Headquarters as requested, while Negaduck retreated to his office to retrieve the item Negarian had placed there. Said item was sitting on his desk in a black case. Negaduck quickly went over to it, and opened it a crack to peak inside. Seeing exactly what he wanted to see inside it, he grinned.

Things were finally coming together.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Macawber Mansion, the gang was all preparing for their attempt to grab the Dark Avenger's attention and lure her into the open.

"We really sure about this?" Darkwing asked as they all gathered in the mansion's front yard, "I mean, I don't have any better ideas, but this really is kind of a reckless plan."

"It was my idea, Dark, and I'm confident it will work," Morgana assured him, studying the robots that were still circling the shield, "Yes, this should work out if I time this right..."

"I don't know, I'm with Darkwing on this one," Christine said, who had pulled out a kit of medical supplies she had put together should it be needed, "This is a big risk we're going to be taking, but mostly for you, Morgana. Once you're outside the shield..."

"I know the risks, but I'm willing to take them," Morgana persisted.

"Man, I hate risks like this," Agent Todd remarked as he prepped his sidearm.

"Get used to it, Todd, risks are part of the game of a SHUSH agent," Mia remarked as she did likewise as her fellow agent, "Sometimes, in order to get the job done, you have no option but to take them. Particularly in situations in the field, like this, when you have no backup to fall back upon."

"Yeah, I know, seems I've been getting a lot of experience taking risks ever since this all started," Todd muttered.

"Very true. Maybe you should look into becoming a field agent once this is all over."

"Ha-ha, yeah right, very funny Agent Mia."

"Well, I'll personally be very glad when this is all over," Bushroot remarked as he and Quackerjack stood beside Rowe, who similarly stood beside Crimson, "I just want things to go back to normal, like they were before."

"Yeah, I miss the good ol' days when you guys were the enemies, and we were always fighting," Quackerjack agreed whimsically, "Things were so much easier back then. I want to get back to that to trying and beat _you _guys and not the likes of Negaduck and this Avengie person."

"Thank you for that enlightening comment, Quackerjack," Crimson muttered under her breath.

"Well, nothing is set in stone at this point, mates, we don't have to go back to being enemies when this is all said and done," Rowe pointed out, trying to be optimistic, "For the moment, though, let's just agree to cross that bridge when we come to it. We have no guarantees this harebrained idea will even work."

"It will work," Morgana assured them.

"Are you _sure_ Morgana?" Darkwing said, "I'd like to keep our risk taking down to a minimum. We've been pushing our luck as of late enough as it is."

"Dark, we're also pressed for time enough as it is, we don't have the time to argue this," Morgana snapped, "Let's just get this over with."

Darkwing sighed, and took a step back. "All right, here's hoping, then."

Morgana's eyes peered through the shield and past the flying robots that circled it until they locked onto a nearby rooftop that sat outside the shield she figured would be adequate enough to start with. "Ortus!" she exclaimed, and vanished with the usual burst of magical energy to reappear on that rooftop outside the shield with a pop.

Once there, she turned to face the robots, which hadn't yet figured out what had happened, and quickly fired off a series of flashy spells in their direction. They weren't meant to cause harm, in fact, for the most part, they were merely harmless sparks. But they had the intended the effect. The robots were quickly drawn to Morgana, and recognizing her as one of their targets, started approaching her to try and capture her. Morgana waited until they came close, then used the ortus spell again to jump to another neighboring building.

The robots were forced to change course and follow suit, but again as they drew close, Morgana only used the spell again to move to another building. This continued on and on, Morgana leading the robots on a fruitless chase around and around the general area near the mansion, never going out of sight of the shielded building. The robots kept trying to close in on Morgana, trying several different tactics, some of which proved to be coming close to succeeding, but Morgana would always vanish and reappear somewhere else with the use of the ortus spell, and there was little the robots could do about it.

Down at the mansion, the others watched anxiously.

"Think she's been informed about what's going on by now?" Darkwing whispered to Crimson.

"Probably, but that doesn't mean she'll make her move," Crimson whispered back, before going back to watch the chase continue. "C'mon Avenger, take the bait."

They didn't have to wait long. As the chase between Morgana and the robots continued, the usual little hovercraft the Dark Avenger flew around in turned up on the horizon and hurried towards Morgana's location, out from wherever it had been that she had been hiding. Their plan was working. Quickly, as it was clear that her robots alone weren't doing the job, the Dark Avenger flew her hovercraft over to where Morgana was fleeing the robots. After gauging the situation for a moment, she hurriedly moved her craft to try and block Morgana's path. But Morgana simply used the ortus spell to evade the hovercraft like what she had been doing with the robots, jumping to the next roof over.

This was heartening for the onlookers still within the shield, who were being ignored for the time being by both the robots and their leader. If things continued like this, it wouldn't be long before Morgana would make her move. And things were looking promising, as the Dark Avenger quickly tried the same tactic again, albeit a little differently, trying to act faster and organizing the other robots to try and close in on Morgana to try and trap her. And they came close. But the trap was completely ineffective when it came to the ortus spell, something that obviously frustrated the Dark Avenger to no end.

Then things started to go wrong. After using the ortus spell to end up on another roof, Morgana found herself getting surrounded faster than she anticipated, and in the attempt to keep her distance long enough to use the ortus spell again, the Dark Avenger swooped in with her hovercraft, extended a metallic claw that everyone had forgotten that the craft even carried, and grabbed Morgana with it, pinning the witch's arms to her sides. Morgana struggled for several moments, at which point it suddenly became clear that she couldn't seem to use magic to escape, at least not as easily as she had done before.

"Oh brilliant!" Agent Todd remarked as he started forward, but knew there was little any of them could do from within the shield.

"Morgana!" Darkwing gasped, equally wanting to do something, but helpless to do anything in his present situation.

"What are we going to do?" Bushroot inquired as he watched the hovercraft start to rise up in preparation to leave with the captured magician.

"Anybody got a plan, mates?" Rowe asked urgently, looking around, then at the superhero beside him, "Crimson?"

Crimson, who had been quickly racking her brain, looked up at him. "Yes!" she exclaimed, and hurried forward and grabbed the otter around the middle, "I have a plan, a desperate plan, but it's the best I've got!"

Darkwing turned to look at her, perhaps sensing what she had in mind. "Crimson..."

"Ortus!" Crimson exclaimed, squeezing her eyes shut in the process, hoping for the best.

But nothing happened. She quickly tried again to little avail.

"No, Crimson, don't!" Darkwing urged quickly, hurrying towards the pair, "You don't know how to do that kind of magic! You could hurt yourself doing this!"

"If you can do this at all!" Christine agreed, also hurrying towards her.

"I said it was desperate!" Crimson exclaimed before going back to focusing on the spell, "Ortus! C'mon, _ortus!_"

Without warning, a flash of light suddenly engulfed Rowe and Crimson and with a pop, they slipped through what felt like a hole in space that was just barely wide enough for the pair of them before appearing again in open space. With a yelp, they both crashed downward and into the open but small cockpit of the Dark Avenger's hovercraft and onto Dark Avenger herself, catching her by surprise as she ended up slammed face-first into the dashboard before her. The hovercraft instantly started to veer out of control, bouncing the robots that had gathered around out of the way in the process.

Crimson quickly took in her surroundings, noted that she and Rowe hadn't ended up where she had expected, but that this still worked anyway, and dove for the hovercraft's control. The Dark Avenger, however, still conscious despite the blow to the head, twisted around in her seat and lunged to grab Crimson. Rowe reacted by grabbing the Warriorverse double from behind and trying to pull her off of Crimson. All while inside a much-too-small cockpit that was really only designed to carry one person, not three.

Morgana, meanwhile, still trapped in the claw, took advantage of the distraction to try and continue to free herself from the grasp of the claw that held her, squirming to try and free herself enough to be able to cast a spell that would be of use. But her arms were pinned painfully to her sides, and they wouldn't budge. As a result, she couldn't seem to pull off any magical spells, at least none that came to mind that would be of any use. Most would require her hands free so she could direct the spell in the right directions. Frustrated, but not willing to give up, she continued struggling.

By this point in time, Crimson had pulled out her gas gun, and was trying to fire it, but her Warriorverse double had grabbed the weapon by the barrel and was trying to wrench the weapon away, throwing off Crimson's aim. In the turmoil, the weapon went off, firing multiple shots. At first, Morgana, who was aware of what was happening out of the corner of her eye, couldn't tell what the shots were, other than that they were shooting through the craft's windshield leaving holes in the glass until one of the shots struck a robot that happened to get in the way. A surge of electricity flooded it's systems, and it suddenly went limp, it's engine wining as it less than gracefully sank to the ground. It was then that Morgana realized that the shots were shock darts, and got an idea.

"Crimson, shoot down here at the claw!" she shouted up at the cockpit, hoping Crimson could hear her and obey.

She did, and telling Rowe quickly to hold the Dark Avenger back, moved to try and line up a shot. The Dark Avenger was still trying to grab at the weapon though, so the first shots missed and hit the hovercraft's control panel, burning out the controls and further adding to the chaos, but finally Crimson managed to fire off a few shots at the claw, albeit blindly. One missed it completely, the second struck, but not where it had much effect, while the third finally struck somewhere effective, and the claw's grip loosened somewhat. It wasn't much, but it was enough for Morgana to free her arms.

The first thing she did was fire off a couple spells at the robots that were circling around the out-of-control hovercraft, trying to help somehow and were only succeeding in getting in the way, and moved them out of range of grabbing her themselves. Then Morgana cast another spell that forced the claw open, allowing her to climb out of it's grip and up the arm itself to join everyone else in the crowded cockpit. There was hardly room for her, and she nearly fell out in the fighting that continued, but finally managed to latch a hand onto Crimson, who was likewise had a hold of the Dark Avenger, as did Rowe. Quickly, and seeing that the hovercraft was about to crash into the shield protecting the mansion, Morgana preformed one last spell to get them to safety.

"Ortus!" she exclaimed.

All of them, including the Dark Avenger vanished from within the hovercraft to reappear within the shield, safely back on the ground. The hovercraft, now completely empty, veered onward on it's out-of-control path, bouncing into a robot before both it and the hovercraft slammed hard into the shield, severely damaging both pieces of technology. They rolled down the slope of the shield, lighting it up as it went, before both struck the ground, damaged to the point of disablement. The other robots wandered around, acting like they were lost and confused, unsure what to do next.

The others within the shield hardly cared though, as their end objective had been carried out, although not quite according to plan. Quickly, Darkwing, Christine, Charlie, Launchpad, the two SHUSH agents, and what remained of the Fearsome Five hurried forward to help Crimson, Rowe, and Morgana pin the Dark Avenger to the ground, who was determined to not give in without a fight.

"Don't think you've won anything by doing this!" she yelled loudly at them, "The moment Negaduck finds out about this..."

"The moment Negaduck finds out about this, we hope it'll be too late," Morgana growled back at her, and used a mild stunning spell to gently slip the Dark Avenger's form into unconsciousness, making her suddenly go limp. Breathlessly, she straightened up, and looked at the others. "That should keep her calm for now."

"Hopefully that'll be enough for our purposes," Darkwing muttered as he and Launchpad worked to heave the Dark Avenger's body up off the ground.

"Well, at least things worked out well enough for us to carry out our purposes," Agent Mia reasoned, "I mean, things could've been worse. But thankfully, we achieved our goal, and everyone got out of it okay."

"I beg to differ, mate," Rowe remarked, rubbing at a bruised cheek carefully.

"Speaking of which, Crimson, that was the single most stupid, but most daring, thing I've ever seen you do," Morgana said, turning to Crimson, "You _know _that trying to preform a spell like the ortus spell was a huge risk! It's a miracle you were even to preform it safely, much less at all! Bad things happen when the inexperienced try to preform that spell! I've heard of people accidently getting cut in half while trying to preform that spell!

"Yeah, I know," Crimson said, "But we've got bigger fish to fry at the moment."

"Yeah, like this gal right here," Launchpad commented, motioning to the Dark Avenger that he and Darkwing were carrying into the mansion.

"C'mon, lets help get her inside," Darkwing urged, "The sooner we get this over with, the better."

* * *

Sometime later, the Dark Avenger came to again slowly, and upon looking around, realized that she was now tied to a kitchen chair in the kitchen of Macawber Mansion. Sitting directly across from her on another kitchen chair, facing her, was Agent Todd, who nervously grinned upon noticing she was awake, hoping that a show of friendliness would work to keep her calm.

It didn't. Very quickly, the Dark Avenger let out an angry yell, and started struggling against her bindings, making her chair bounce around in the process. Launchpad, who was sitting at the table and eating a submarine sandwich while waiting for the Dark Avenger to awaken, suddenly gagged as the sudden movements of the prisoner startled him. Quickly clearing his throat, he jumped up from the chair and hurried to the kitchen doorway.

"Guys, she's awake!" he called.

"About time!" Crimson exclaimed as she, Morgana, Rowe, and a couple others filed into the room, "We've been ready to do this for awhile now!"

"Do _what_ you murderers?" the Dark Avenger snapped.

"Something that will hopefully quell your issues with us," Darkwing remarked firmly as he restrained her chair, to keep it from moving around, "Now hold still. We aren't going to hurt you."

"I'll believe _that _when I see it!" the Dark Avenger argued.

"Now are you guys _sure _you've got this figured out?" Todd asked nervously as Crimson placed a hand on his left temple, "Because I'm still not thrilled with you guys messing with my mind like this."

"We aren't going to be altering anything with your mind, Agent Todd," Morgana stated as she placed a hand on the Dark Avenger's right temple, "We're only to act like an...antenna for the one memory. You won't even loose it."

"Besides, Todd, me and Morgana have been practicing on Christine and Darkwing, and we successfully pulled it off on our first try," Crimson replied, taking Morgana's free hand with her own, "We've done it enough times to get this down. Now, just relax, and think of your memory of Darkwarrior's demise."

"Darkwarrior's demise?" the Dark Avenger repeated, surprised.

"Shush," Darkwing instructed.

Then, as the others watched, Morgana and Crimson closed their eyes and raised their heads, and began incanting a long spell in some ancient, magical, language. Todd scrunched up his face in concentration on the alleged memory. The Dark Avenger just watched for a few moments in mild interest, then huffed at the whole matter, thinking how ridiculous this all was. Because for several moments, nothing happened. But then, without warning, thoughts and memories that were not her own suddenly flooded into her mind, with one standing out more than the rest...

_Darkwarrior was still working at the computer, a grin slowly starting to spread across his face the longer he worked. From his hiding spot, Agent Todd watched, debating whether or not he wanted to stop Darkwarrior now, or wait, and see how this played out. It couldn't have been a coincidence that Darkwarrior was here too, at this time. He was up to something, and seeing it's Darkwarrior, it probably wasn't anything that was very good._

_Finally, Todd's moment of indecision went on for too long, and Darkwarrior finally succeeded at what he was doing. He announced it by suddenly cheering aloud, a message of some sort appearing on the screen._

"_Yes!" he exclaimed. "After many months of long hoping and planning, I have finally succeeded in getting rid of the one stumbling block that stood in my way!"_

"_Congratulations Darkwarrior, I'm sure you worked very hard to achieve that."_

_Darkwarrior spun around to face the speaker of the voice, looking surprised. From his hiding spot, still unseen, Todd turned to look as well. There, standing in the doorway, having arrived discreetly with no one noticing, was Negaduck, accompanied by Negawing and his otter aide. Negaduck wore a mischievous grin._

"_Negaduck." Darkwarrior mumbled, his face falling momentarily. It quickly turned into a glare. "Negaduck!"_

_He grabbed for his weapon. Negaduck grabbed for his, and Negawing and Negawing Rowe already had their's out and quickly raised them._

"_Ah-ah-ah!" Negawing said warningly, pointing his tommy gun at Darkwarrior's head. "Don't try it!"_

_Darkwarrior hesitated, glaring at the fact that he was outnumbered, and lowered his weapon._

"_Did you really think you were going to get away with it, Darkwarrior?" Negaduck asked, stepping closer to his foe. "I mean, I don't know the details of what you've been planning, but I have a pretty good idea." he leaned over to glance at the computer screen. Darkwarrior's eyes followed him. Negaduck grinned as he read the message. "Yep. You disabled the computer virus SHUSH has been using to keep you from using your robots in this universe. I suppose your plan once doing that was to use the forces of you and your technology to overthrow me, and then create your imperialistic, crime-free, empire."_

"_It's the only way to have peace in the world." Darkwarrior said with confidence._

_Negaduck shrugged. "Being the bad guy, I'm indifferent about the matter." he waved his hand in the air dismissively. "But we're getting off topic, aren't we?"_

"_Oh really? And what was the topic?"_

"_What I'm going to do about you now. Obviously, I can't just throw you back in jail, you've proven yourself too dangerous for that. Besides..." Negaduck raised his pistol to point at his foe, "...I was never one for leaving loose ends."_

_Darkwarrior didn't waver in the slightest. "You really think your pistol can pierce my armor?" he challenged._

"_One way to find out." Negaduck replied._

_ He fired twice, and both bullets pierced the breastplate of spiked armor Darkwarrior__ over his body. Blood began to pour freely from both wounds. Stunned, Darkwarrior glanced__ down at the wounds, then back up at Negaduck to gape at him before his knees buckled suddenly__ and the villain stumbled to the floor._

Then as quickly as the flashes of Agent Todd's memory had began, it ended just as quickly. Snapping out of the dazed state she had fallen into with a gasp, the Dark Avenger looked around wildly, overcome with emotions she realized were also not her own, and stared wide-eyed at everyone as Crimson and Morgana concluded the spell and withdrew their hands from the subjects. Silence fell as everyone waited for the Dark Avenger's response to this.

Finally, she found her voice. "What kind of trickery was that?" she asked, bewildered, "You really think you can make up visions in an attempt to wrongly convince me that you're innocent?"

"That was no vision you just experienced, mate, those were actual memories," Rowe argued, annoyed that she had the gall to say otherwise, "Actual memories of actual events."

"But who's to say that I believe what you say?" she snapped back.

"If you don't believe them, then believe _me_!" Agent Todd suddenly snapped as well, "Because I was there! I _saw _him get shot! What you saw was what _I _saw! I was _there _when he died!" He glared at the Dark Avenger, who was taken aback enough by the outburst to fall silent, "I _know _you don't want to believe us, that you have been seeking revenge from the wrong people, but you have! The person you should _really _be going after is Negaduck! You _saw_ what he did! Shot him in cold blood, and then left him to _die_. If _we _hadn't come along, Darkwarrior would've died alone and cold down in Elementary Underground, forgotten! His body wouldn't have even made it back to the Warriorverse if it hadn't been for us! We did _all _of that out of the goodness of our hearts, even though it was a great risk to ourselves!" he paused, looking long and hard at the Dark Avenger, "Don't make us regret it."

A long moment of silence fell as everyone again awaited for the Dark Avenger's response. At one point, it looked like she might actually give in and amend her ways, but it was gone just as quickly again as she returned Todd's glare. "I still don't believe you," she murmured threateningly.

Todd was not intimidated, though. "Then there is no hope for you," he said, rising from the chair, and exiting the kitchen without another look back.

The others watched him go, then one by one, followed his example, all shooting the Dark Avenger disappointed looks in the process. If the looks meant anything to the Dark Avenger, she didn't show it. Finally, Crimson was the last person in the room, who stared at the Dark Avenger long and hard in disappointment. She started to turn and leave, but then stopped, and looked back at her Darkwarrior double.

"Todd's right, you know," she murmured, "if you still can't believe what we have obviously proven true to you, then there really is no hope for you. And I had so wished there was something we could've done to help you."

She then moved to leave.

"Wait."

Crimson obeyed, and looked back at her double, expectantly. The Dark Avenger was silent for a moment to get her thoughts together.

"You do realize that even if what you say is true, and that you truly _aren't _responsible for my father's death, this still doesn't change the fact that you would've done it if you had the chance," she said to Crimson.

Crimson was silent for a moment, then stepped back into the kitchen. "That's why we're so different," she remarked, "You just don't understand how we work in this universe. So let me tell you what you clearly don't understand about us."

* * *

Negarian, accompanied by his familiar raven Percival, had little trouble following the magical trail Morgana had inadvertently left when she and the others grabbed Rowe from Canard Tower. As he had already suspected, Morgana had not only used the ortus spell to sneak into the tower, but to also get back out, and used it again and again in short jumps to return back to their mansion hideout as quickly as possible. It didn't take long for Negarian to determine the pattern, and thereby he had followed the trail from rooftop to rooftop to it's end by late morning.

To his surprise, it led straight to Macawber Mansion, which _wasn't _what he had been expecting, and he doubted Negaduck had anticipated it, too. So far as either of them had figured out the shield was impenetrable. The only ways past it was to either lower the shield itself long enough for the needed people or craft to enter or leave, or use some means that bypassed it completely. Negarian had always suspected that they had used some kind of magically created tunnel that usually existed out of phase when not in use, and would bypass the shield completely while leaving it intact. He had presumed that the only thing that would be needed after that would be to locate the tunnel, and then they were in.

But the sheer fact that Morgana's trail led straight to the shielded mansion and not a tunnel entrance, even a nearby one, changed things. This suggested that Negarian's hunch had been wrong, and that they had been getting past the shield through other means. So that left Negarian's next best theory, and that was they had been lowering the shield to get past it whenever they weren't looking, but he knew that couldn't be it either. Ever since the Dark Avenger had entered the picture, that shield had been watched closely by her, and today had even been guarded and surrounded by robots. The shield had stayed up during those times.

And yet somehow they were still getting past.

Negarian stopped to dwell on the issue for a few moments, eyeing the mansion below him from his perch on the nearby roof. "This can't be right," he murmured, "They must be getting around that shield somehow. But how?"

"Obviously, it's something we haven't thought of," Percival croaked unhelpfully, "Perhaps this Morgana has invented some kind of new spell that allows her to get past this shield."

Negarian debated the idea for a moment. The invention of new spells was not unheard of. Like many other things in life, magical spells had not simply existed from the beginning. Someone had to create them first. "I suppose it's possible, but then that would mean the odds of us figuring it are not desirable."

His attention then shifted to the robots, which were circling the shield in a disorganized bunch, and noticed something wasn't right. He noted that some of them had seen damage, and a couple of them had even be deactivated, and now lay on the ground in heaps. Scanning the fallen robots, wondering what caused them to get to this state (although he already had a good hunch) he noticed suddenly that the Dark Avenger's hovercraft was among the fallen wreaks, abandoned and severely damaged itself. Immediately suspecting what had happened, Negarian shot his glance back at the mansion.

"Oh no," he murmured, and quickly switched to magical sight to track down the auras of the occupants inside.

Tuning out the faint, natural, aura the shield itself produced as it exerted magical energy to sustain itself, Negarian quickly started picking out the individual auras, attempting to figure out who was who. There were several, a couple of them he simply couldn't identify. But there were two that were currently located away from the others that were identical in nearly every way. Save for the fact that one was currently connected with a certain otter familiar. And going from that, Negarian deduced the identity of them both, and realized with a start that this was not good.

Quickly, he pulled out a radio and activated it. "Negaduck, this is Negarian, I have followed the trail back to the mansion," he reported urgently, "I haven't discovered yet anything that could help us get past that shield, but I'm still looking. But, that is not the reason why I am calling."

Negaduck, who was on the other end, was silent for a moment as he worked to process this rapidly given report. "What _is _the reason then, Negarian?" he asked finally, "Good news or bad news?"

"Bad. I have reason to believe that our foes have managed to get the Dark Avenger to rally to their side."

"_What?_"

"I see all the evidence of it. Clear signs of a scuffle with her and her robots, her hovercraft lying her abandoned, and detection of what we can safely say is her aura inside the mansion with the others. Now yes, it's possible that she might being held prisoner, but you _know _why they would be doing that. To get her to switch sides."

"And it's only going to be a matter of them before they succeed," Negaduck said, understanding, "I'll take care of it. In the meantime, you keep trying to figure out how we can get around that blasted shield of theirs."

"Understood."

* * *

"Okay, so you think that we're an enemy," Crimson began explaining, "Given the fact that we were never friendly with your father, and you've been told that we killed him, that's somewhat understandable. But we didn't kill him. And we were only enemies with your father because he...he did things differently from us."

"Being different isn't a bad thing, you know," the Dark Avenger pointed out.

"No, you're right, it isn't. And if Darkwarrior had left well enough alone and stayed in his universe, we probably wouldn't be _having _this conversation right now. But being different is one thing, trying to force your differences on others so that you'll be like him or her is entirely another. And that's what Darkwarrior tried to do. He tried to force us to do things his way. And if we didn't, we weren't to be trusted. We were the enemy."

"He was right."

"Was he? We just did things differently from what he did. We had different opinions about how it should be done. And he couldn't come to terms with that. We had to do it _his _way, or not at all. And he was determined to make that happen."

"You proved yourselves to be a threat."

"How? We first encountered the Warriorverse by mistake, through a mishap with a portal remote that landed us there. And we didn't stop to cause problems. First chance we got, we went straight back, hoping to never have to return. We didn't want anything to do with the Warriorverse. We were willing to leave well enough alone. But Darkwarrior thought differently. He wouldn't _let _us leave. We had to _fight _to get back home. And once we did, he chose to pursue us. Unlike what you clearly think, it wasn't us who brought this down upon us."

"But you _are _weak. You let crimes slip right through your fingers and do nothing about it."

"And maybe that's true to a certain extent. But we don't rob people of their rights. Their rights to choose for themselves. Furthermore, we don't work to try and stop crime completely. Deep down, I think we all know it's always going to continue. We just work to...try and discourage it. We give out more forgiving punishments, yes, and sometimes our justice systems get so caught up in red tape that we're prohibited from doing anything. But we do what we do to...try and prove to these criminals that a life of crime doesn't get them anything. Behaving gives them much better benefits."

"We do the same in the Warriorverse."

"No you don't, you _force _them to behave, or they are given severe consequences just for toeing the line. They live in fear for what might happen if they disobey. And as a result, you've robbed them of their freedom."

"Something that was necessary to do in order to insure peace."

"Maybe temporarily. But it won't ever last. As you should very well know, people are eventually going to decide they aren't going to put up with the likes of you or Darkwarrior and plot behind your back to try and overthrow you. And maybe you can try to quell that rebellion, but sooner or later, someone was going to succeed. And when they did, you would be finished. And so would your cause."

This left the Dark Avenger silenced into deep thought for a few moments. "I wouldn't let it come to that," she vowed, "Nor would've Darkwarrior."

"But how?" Crimson inquired, "How could you possibly stop a rebellion against you? How could you always know what they were thinking? Or were you just planning to treat them all like potential rebels? Because that was another one of Darkwarrior's problems. He didn't trust anyone. He didn't trust anyone in my universe, anyone in Negaduck's universe, and he certainly didn't trust anyone in your universe either."

"Except me," the Dark Avenger remarked pointedly.

"Except you," Crimson agreed, "But I doubt it's for the reasons you think it is. He trusted you, because he trusted your judgement. He knew that, no matter what you did, it would be the right thing _to _do."

"So you're saying that I shouldn't be like him and fight for justice?"

"This has nothing to do with justice. It never did. It has only ever been about getting revenge. For you, revenge for the death of your adopted father. For Darkwarrior, revenge for the death of his wife. You said it yourself."

The Dark Avenger was quiet about this and avoided eye contact. She knew that was true, but she didn't want to admit it.

"I think I know why Darkwarrior adopted you, and entrusted you with his so-called mission," Crimson went on, "I think that, deep down, he knew that you could see things as they really were, that you were something he was not."

However, the Dark Avenger shook her head. "That's not it at all," she murmured, "the reason he adopted me was so to replace his child."

Crimson blinked in surprise at this. "Child?"

Her double glanced at her. "More than Darkwarrior's wife died that day so long ago," she murmured, "Because his wife was also three months pregnant."

This silenced Crimson for several long moments, seeking something to say. Finally, the only thing she could find to say that seemed in anyway relevant to the issue was: "Why didn't you mention this before?"

But the Dark Avenger had no real answer, and merely shrugged, looking embarrassed rather than angry now. Crimson studied her for a long moment, sharing in the awkwardness of the situation. She sought some way to address that, but was struggling.

"Look, even I can't deny that's a terrible thing to happen, to anyone, and is not in anyway right," Crimson finally confessed, "And maybe Darkwarrior was within his rights to be so mad about it. But that still doesn't justify what he did."

"He did what he did to insure something like that wouldn't ever happen again to someone else, so they wouldn't have to feel his pain."

"And I admire him for that. His heart was, truly, in the right place for that much. He just...let it go to his head. I think he slowly lost sight of that goal, and eventually used his crime-fighting as a way to get back at the world for his grievances. They say misery loves company, right? What he did, forcing his totalitarian rule upon the people of his universe like that, was only spread his pain to other people, to make them miserable too." Crimson hesitated for a moment. "I think he secretly took enjoyment from that."

The Dark Avenger was silent for another long moment. "Whatever his intentions, there is no denying that Darkwarrior made my universe a safer place from criminals," she pointed out with a determined glare.

"I'm not denying that. He did do that much. But at the end of the day, who was left to protect the citizens from Darkwarrior?" When her double made no immediate response, Crimson added, "Darkwarrior was gone from your universe for awhile before he finally died. You were there during that time, so you tell me, did anything change when he left?"

The Dark Avenger was quiet for a moment, reluctant to admit anything on this subject. "SHUSH came along," she finally confessed, "They dismantled Darkwarrior's control on St. Canard and reintegrated it back into the rest of the world, obviously with the hope that life would continue on as normal."

"And did it?"

The Dark Avenger looked at her feet and weakly tugged at her bindings. "Yes," she confessed, "Nothing really changed, in fact. Only the people seemed...seemed..." she trailed off, searching for the right word.

"Happier?" Crimson offered.

Her double didn't reply, and instead only hung her head again, unwilling to confess the truth.

Crimson took a deep breath. "Look," she said, "Your father did some very bad things. And in the long run, he ended up not helping things much. He only caused problems. For us all. And because I see and recognize all of that, I will be the first to admit that I feel few qualms about Darkwarrior's untimely demise. But I didn't kill him. No one here did. Only Negaduck. Someone who's _our _enemy too." She reached out and lifted Dark Avenger's head by the beak. "If we work together, we can stop him before he causes any more trouble for _both _of our universes."

"This isn't my fight," the Dark Avenger persisted.

"Maybe not yet, but it will be soon. You really think that even if Negaduck _does _get what he wants that he'll let you go with what you wanted? No. He'll stop you. Perhaps even kill you just like he killed Darkwarrior. He is no ally of yours. He's just using you as a tool to get closer to his goals. Once he does, your usefulness to him will be exhausted. And furthermore, neither of us should think for a moment that Negaduck will stop spreading his domain to this universe. Eventually, he'll want to spread it even further. Including to your universe."

"I wouldn't let him. I would stop him. He can't stop my wrath."

"Oh yes he can, we've already discussed this. It's well within the realm of possibility to stop you. You know how I know?" she leaned closer, "Because we already did. Look at yourself! Tied up and immobilized. You can't do anything, no matter how much you struggled. If need be, we'll keep you prisoner for as long as needed. And even if you do escape those bindings, you can't leave; the shield won't let physical objects of any sort pass through, and you don't have the magical skills to bypass the shield any other way. You're stuck here."

The Dark Avenger fumed for a moment over this. "Maybe so," she said, "And you've made a compelling case, but that still doesn't mean I trust, or that I should ever trust you. And without that trust, there will be no alliances between us."

Crimson sighed, and relented to that fact. "I guess there's nothing more for us to say, then," she said, standing, "But I would like to point out that despite everything, at least Darkwarrior had a reason for acting like he did. Do you?"

A long moment of silence fell between them as they stared each other down. If any more comments were going to be made, however, they were cut short suddenly when several loud thuds echoed outside, with more and more joining in as time went by. Puzzled, they both turned to look at the kitchen window. As Crimson was the only one who was free to move about, she moved to the window and peeked out. Outside, beyond the shield, she saw the robots that were circling the shield had started dropping right out of the sky.

* * *

She, of course, wasn't the only one to notice. Both Agent Mia and Agent Todd had moved out onto the mansion's porch after the sharing of memories with the Dark Avenger, for no real reason other than to keep themselves preoccupied. So they had an excellent view of when the robots suddenly seized up and started dropping out of the sky one by one, hitting the ground hard, completely shut down, and not moving.

"What's happening?" Mia asked, shocked, "Why are they doing that?"

Todd thought quickly as he watched the last of the robots be rendered totally lifeless. "Somebody must have reactivated the SHUSH virus, it's the only feasible explanation I have," he said.

"But then...who?" Mia asked, looking around outside the shield for an explanation, "And why now?"

"Maybe Negaduck figured out we caught the Dark Avenger, and acted accordingly," Todd reasoned, "Although I wouldn't know how he managed to do that so quickly..."

"I do," Mia remarked suddenly, and pointed at a rooftop outside the building, where Negarian's head could be just barely be seen. Seeing that he had been spotted, he quickly ducked away, but they both doubted he had actually left yet.

"I'm going to go tell Crimson this," Mia remarked to Todd after a moment, heading inside, "She's going to need to know this."

"Particularly seeing that we lost our advantage before we even officially got it," Todd grumbled sarcastically.

* * *

Negawing Duck double-checked the readouts he was getting on the computer display, ensuring that broadcasting of the SHUSH virus had indeed resumed as it should've, then checked some of the input he was getting from the remote monitoring systems that SHUSH had discreetly put to service throughout the city. Pleased by the results, he grinned as he pulled out his radio to make his report.

"Done," he said into the device, "the virus is reactivated, just as you had requested, Negs. The Dark Avenger's robots should all be shutting down now."

"Good to know," came back Negaduck's pleased reply, "It pains me to have to do this to our former ally the Dark Avenger...well, actually, not really, but given present circumstances, we really can't take any chances. For all we know, those robots could've been on the verge of falling into the wrong hands, and we can't have that."

"Well I say good riddance," Negawing remarked as he wrapped up, "There was something about that girl that I never particularly liked, so I'm not hurt at all to..." He trailed off suddenly when a message suddenly flashed onto the screen with a beep. Surprised, Negawing read through it once, then, caught off-guard, read through it again. "No, that can't be right."

"Negawing? Something come up?"

"More or less. If I'm reading this right, I think someone is trying to hack into some restricted files in the SHUSH database."

"_What_? Who? What files?"

"I'm finding that out now, give me a moment," Negawing fell silent for a few seconds as he worked to trace the hack. It ended up leading him somewhere he did not quite expect. "Negs, you didn't give anyone permission to access your private files, have you?"

"What? _No_," Negaduck was sounding outraged, "Who's trying to hack into my files?"

Negawing took another moment to check, and was again surprised by the answer. "By the very last person I was expecting." he answered.

* * *

Nanite Darkwing suddenly tensed. "My hack has been detected," he announced suddenly, looking straight at Techno.

Techno's head jerked up to look at him in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Very."

"Then stop! Back out of that hack before they figure out who's doing it and why!"

"I already have. But I fear it might be too late."

Techno looked around nervously, expecting trouble to arrive here at any moment. "Do they have anything to convict you of being a traitor?"

"Seeing that I was poking around in Negaduck's own personal files that _no one _but Negaduck himself is allowed to look in, probably," Nanite Darkwing looked himself over for a moment, "Plus, my repairs are already well under way now that you have restored my control nanite, and they will be able to tell that."

"Yes, I've noticed you've even stopped stuttering now," Techno agreed, looking the robot over, then noting the gaping hole that was still in his chest, "Although they still have a long way to go."

"What should we do?" Nanite Darkwing inquired.

Techno thought quickly. "Are you repaired enough to fight?" he asked.

Nanite Darkwing tested some of his limbs to see. "Partially, but probably not enough."

"Then I guess it's up to me," Techno said, turning to face the door.

"No, wait, Techno, there's something you need to know," Nanite Darkwing called, getting back Techno's attention, "I know what Negaduck's planning to do, he's..."

But he got no further than that, as Negawing and two magicked SHUSH commandos barged into the room. Startled, Techno spun around with a yell and started to swing his arm around at Negawing to hit him, but Negawing blocked the blow and instead dealt Techno a punch that sent him reeling to one side. The magicked slaves quickly tackled Techno to the floor and worked at trying to restrain him. Negawing, meanwhile, turned his attention to Nanite Darkwing.

Nanite Darkwing wasn't going to go down without a fight, though, and quickly raised his free arm and with what strength he could spare, transformed the arm into a cannon and fired one shot at Negawing. Neagwing dodged the bolt of energy, watching long enough for the bolt to hit the opposite wall, then turned back, whipped out a pistol and fired repeatedly at Nanite Darkwing's free arm with diamond-tipped bullets. The bullets struck the arm repeatedly, damaging it to the point that Nanite Darkwing couldn't hold it up anymore, and it fell limply to his side.

Nanite Darkwing grimaced as Negawing wandered over to him. "You are not taking any chances here, are you?" he muttered, "Not even the least bit worried that you might be jumping the gun a little bit here?"

"Not jumping anything, I know what you were doing," Negawing remarked, grabbing a pair of pliers from the worktable Techno had been working at, "And here we had always thought you were on _our _side," he smirked, "Liar, liar, pants on fire, I suppose. Very clever," he sighed, holding up the pliers, "Well, I guess I'll just have to put things back in order."

"I will fight to my dying breath," Nanite Darkwing growled.

"All right," Neagwing remarked with a shrug, reaching into Nanite Darkwing's exposed chest with the pliers and latching them onto something. With a yank, he pulled something out. Grinning, he held up the pliers to reveal the robot's control nanite grasped firmly in it. "So let's see how long you can last without this."

He then threw the removed control nanite to the ground and then stomped on it, crushing it.

"No!" Techno exclaimed from where he was still being pinned to the floor, his hands being tied behind his back, seeing what had happened, "NO!"

But it was too late by that point. Nanite Darkwing's systems, unable to maintain themselves without the control nanite, started to fail, very rapidly. The computers and equipment on the worktable that were still hooked up to the robot all began to beep and flash red warnings about the imminent failure. Nanite Darkwing started to shudder, growing more and more weak, his one working eye flickering. Then, finally, almost anticlimactically, the robot went limp, his one eye going dark.

He was dead.

"You...you..." Techno growled as he was hauled up to his feet by the two magicked commandos, "You murderer!"

"Yes, and I have you to thank for it, as it was you who explained to me that Mr. Tin Man over there would die without that little piece of technology, so thank you," Negawing remarked snidely, tossing the pliers aside carelessly, then addressed the commandos, "Take him to Canard Tower, for Negs to deal with. He's used up his usefulness."

And with that, he watched, grinning, as Techno was roughly hauled out of the room, struggling every step of the way.

* * *

Meanwhile, Negarian was still in a predicament that he was not too fond of. He still wasn't any closer to figuring out how to get around the shield than he had ever been, and worse still, he had been spotted by those within the mansion, and now several of them gathered in the shielded yard to watch him, no doubt wondering why he was still here, and what he was up to. To be truthful, he wasn't really doing anything now that he had warned Negaduck about the capture and possible turning of the Dark Avenger except pondering the dilemma that has plagued him since the beginning of the whole ordeal.

How to get past the shield.

His familiar, Percival, wasn't having much more luck. "I give up," he announced with a caw finally, flapping his wings, "Either the answer is so obvious it's right under our beaks, or they know something about magic we do not."

"Impossible, I already know that I know a great deal about magic that they do not," Negarian retorted pridefully.

"Yet they have outsmarted us," Percival remarked in frustration.

"Quiet, bird!" Negarian scolded, "I am trying to think."

He thought back to the ortus spell he was convinced the likes of Morgana had been using to cover distances in short jumps. The magical residue those jumps led him here, and he was convinced that he had Negaduck were right, and that these jumps were the key. Furthermore, there were far more practical ways for Morgana and her compatriots to get around, so why bother with the ortus spell? There had to be an answer. But all he had to show for it was the signs of such uses of the spell all around the shield's boundaries. At first, as there didn't seem to be any pattern to it, he had simply thought it had been done merely to throw him off the trail, but then realized a more likely explanation was that all of the uses of the ortus spell was likely done during their attack on the Dark Avenger. Possibly explaining how they had managed to beat her. And how he could detect the residue from one such spell from mid-air, although he couldn't seem to pinpoint the end destination of that spell's use anywhere outside the shield...

And then it hit him.

Eyes growing wide, Negarian slapped at his brow. "It really _has _been under our beaks all this time!" he exclaimed, "How could I have not thought of this _sooner_?"

"Though of what?" Percival asked excited, hopping on Negarian's shoulder, "Did you figure it out?"

Negarian had gone straight for his radio, though, and didn't bother to reply. "Negaduck, I think I've figured it out," he spoke urgently into the radio, not waiting to see if Negaduck was even listening, "At least I have a theory, and I'm going to try it real quick. If it succeeds, I'll contact you again here in just a few moments. If not...well...never mind. But I am confident I have figured it out, I'll get back to you shortly."

And with that, he pocketed the radio without awaiting any kind of reply, and turned to face the shield, taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes as he began to concentrate.

"Ortus!"

* * *

In the mansion's front yard, Morgana, Darkwing, Crimson, Rowe, Agents Todd and Mia, Bushroot, Quackerjack, and finally Launchpad, had all gathered, peering up at the rooftop Negarian could occasionally be seen peeking from.

"What's he up to?" Crimson asked, puzzled, "You think he's planning something?"

"I'd bet on it," Todd remarked, "Why else would he be here?"

"Besides spying on us and determining the unfortunate whereabouts of the Dark Avenger?" Mia asked, stating the obvious.

But Darkwing had a counter, "If that's all, then why is he still here?" he asked, "Because obviously he knows we have the Dark Avenger, otherwise they wouldn't likely have begun re-broadcasting the virus to disable them, plus, we all _obviously _know he's up there, so the only thing he can really spy on us doing is us watching _him_. So there must be another reason."

"Heaven forbid what it might be," Morgana remarked aloud, "I have a bad feeling about all of this."

She was proven right when, with a pop and a flash of light, Negarian suddenly appeared before them.

Within the shield.

Alarmed, the little gathering instantly froze and stared at the evil magician and accompanying familiar for a long moment as he looked himself over, looking a bit surprised, or at least very enthused to the point that he momentarily forgot why he was here, at the fact he had managed to bypass the shield and gotten inside. Finally, the group started to react to the magician's presence and readied to attack him all at once, but Negarian was faster, and with a single spell, cast a wave of energy that knocked them all back and to the ground. The spell even ignited what remaining magical traps still lay in the yard that were in Negarian's way.

"At last!" he cried, thrilled, "You lot can no longer hide behind the safety of your shield!"

And with that, he quickly cast another spell, and a medium-sized magical monster literally sprang from his fingertips and grew until it was bigger than he was before it hit the ground with a thump. With a roar, the magical creature charged the prey scattered before it. Another was quickly conjured to accompany it.

With yells all around, Darkwing and the others hurriedly jumped back up to their feet and fled for the mansion, despite knowing that not even that could protect them for long anymore. Mia and Todd quickly pulled out their stun guns and fired repeatedly as they were first to reach the porch at the two magical creatures. The shots clearly created discomfort for the beings of magical power, but otherwise didn't even faze them. One bounded for the porch while the other quickly caught up with the others that were heading for the porch as well and cut off their path.

Mia and Todd, seeing their firing didn't seem to be doing anything productive, were forced to seek cover by diving into the mansion through it's front door before the first magical monster reached them. When it did, the monster quickly started swiped away at the porch with it's forepaws, taking out the steps, the awning that covered it, in short the whole porch, with only a couple of swipes, then started clawing at the door to try and get at Todd and Mia.

Meanwhile, when the second monster blocked the path of the others from reaching the porch, they skidded to a halt, Crimson and Darkwing quickly pulling out their gas guns to fire shock darts at the foe, only to all get slapped to one side. Hitting the ground and rolling, the group worked to try get back on their feet, before the magical monster rounded on them again. In doing so, Morgana spied Negarian idly strolling through the chaos, watching his creations work with bemusement. Enraged, she ran towards the magician, ready to do battle with him.

It was over quickly. With one careless wave of his hand, Morgana was thrown backwards across the yard and into the side the impenetrable shield before hitting the ground unconscious and limp.

"Morgana!" Darkwing gasped, seeing this, turning in her direction.

Forgetting everything, he started towards the fallen witch, only to be grabbed from behind by the pursuing magical monster, and hurled away with a mighty throw. Yelling, Darkwing impacted a window on the mansion's second floor and plowed through it and onto the bed in a bedroom Christine and Charlie happened to be in, sorting through supplies, only just now beginning to become aware of what was going on outside. That done, the monster turned to Crimson, Rowe, and Launchpad, the latter of which was wisely starting to back away while Bushroot and Quackerjack outright fled, running for the backyard, hoping to find someway to escape. The creature snorted at them, then swiped it's claws at them again.

Crimson reacted instinctively and hurriedly threw up a magical shield of her own that protected her and Rowe from the monster's claws. Angry and confused, the monster continued to pound on the shield, which was rapidly weakening. Launchpad, seeing that both monsters were distracted for the moment, hurried to Morgana's aide, but before reaching her, Negarian cast a spell at him that encased him in a sphere of energy, then hurled the sphere to one side. It and Launchpad struck the mansion and plowed into the kitchen, where the Dark Avenger was still tied to a chair. The sphere vanished upon impact, freeing Launchpad, who bounced off some wreckage then under the kitchen table, where he stirred, but did not readily get back up.

The Dark Avenger, tipped over in her chair, saw what was happening, and quickly started to struggle against her weakened bindings, slowly starting to slip free. Back outside, Crimson's shield withstood about two more strikes to it before it finally collapsed. Rowe and Crimson both had to quickly dive to opposite sides to avoid getting crushed. In doing so, Crimson found herself at Negarian's feet. Hurriedly, she raised her gas gun and fired whatever it happened to be loaded it at him, which were shock darts. Even at near point-blank range, however, the shock dart was stopped mid-flight by Negarian's magic and hovered there for a moment while it sparked, discharging it's pent up energy harmlessly into the air around it before it was merely tossed aside. Focusing on Crimson, Negarian used his magic to relieve Crimson of her gas gun, then chucked her to one side with a spell that threw her, somersaulting, up into the air before hitting the ground again, something that amused the raven Percival to no end, and quickly urged Negarian to do it again.

Rowe wasn't having much better luck as he tried to dodge the attacks of the magical monster pursuing him before it finally was able to swat him to one side. Rowe flew backwards and onto the tail of the first monster still clawing at the mansion's front door. With a startled yelp, the monster flung up it's tail, catapulting Rowe into the air to land on the slanted roof of the building, skidding down it again until he was able to stop his fall by jamming his feet into the gutters.

Inside the mansion, the Dark Avenger finally managed to pull herself free from her bindings, and also sought a way to escape, ducking out of the kitchen and into the next room, the living room. She was forced to stop when she saw one arm from the magical monster poking in through the hole in the wall it had made, feeling around inside for any prey, creating further damage and messes as it went. Backed up as far as they could go against the doors to the library, which wasn't quite far enough, Mia and Todd watched the flailing claws, occasionally firing their stun guns at it, which only made the claws flinch and cause more damage. The Dark Avenger watched this for a few moments, then noticed that Darkwing, Christine, and Charlie, were huddled up at the top of the stairs, not daring to venture down them due to the danger the claw presented as it moved around at the bottom of the steps. The Dark Avenger turned her attention back to Mia and Todd in time for Todd to get wacked by the monster and shoved hard into the closed doors of the library and crumple in a heap.

It was then that the Dark Avenger made a vital choice. Whipping out her own modified gas gun, she aimed it at the monster's claw, and fired her variation of a shock dart into it. This dart had more kick that it's Posiverse counterparts, and the shock of energy it delivered was enormous. Roaring loudly in agony, the monster quickly withdrew it's claw from the mansion, inadvertently enlarging the hole it had made in the process, then continued to roll around in the ground, clearly in pain. Approaching the hole that was once the front door, the Dark Avenger fired another dart to put it out of it's misery, causing the monster to evaporate.

Negarian, unfazed, only replaced the monster by creating another, and, forgetting Crimson who he had been torturing for the past several minutes, directed the other monster to attack the Dark Avenger. But she wouldn't even get them close, firing her magically lethal shock darts at them, causing them both to evaporate as she marched purposefully towards Negarian. Every monster she erased was easily replaced by Negarian, who did so repeatedly, but none of them lasted long before finally the Dark Avenger was a mere two paces away from the magician, staring him down. At that point, Negarian stopped trying to create more magical monsters save one that he sent to circle him and the Dark Avenger and returned the stare.

"You know, when I first got here and discovered what had happened to you, I thought that there might still be some hope for you," Negarian remarked, "But I see now that you decided to be a little turncoat inside of simply resisting like I had expected you to."

"Oh I resisted all right," the Dark Avenger replied, as everyone watched from wherever they were scattered, "Every step of the way at first. But they presented some compelling evidence that proves that I've been lied to. I hate to say it, but these people are innocent," she narrowed her eyes, "And you know it, too."

"This is not a battle of ethics," Negarian remarked, "I already know where I stand there. But this is a battle for power. And even now, no matter what happens, I doubt that there is much you can do to stop Negaduck's plans."

"Negaduck is a dead duck," the Dark Avenger growled, "Because _he_ killed my father, and I'm not about to let him get away with that," she raised her gas gun, switching attachments, "Now, I'd send you to give Negaduck a message telling him as such but...you aren't going to live that long yourself."

She fired, and a small missile was launched from it at Negarian. Negarian was far from finished, however, and used his powers to magically grab the missile and whip it around him to throw it back in the Dark Avenger's direction. Fortunately, his aim was off, and she was able the dodge it. Having no homing mechanism, the missile simply flew onward, slowly gaining altitude, until it slammed into the three story tower on the mansion and exploded, not far from where Rowe was still perched on the roof. Then, while the Dark Avenger was distracted, Negarian planted a kick to her middle, knocking her down, and slapping her gas gun out of her hand, leaving her defenseless.

"Correction, Ms. Dark Avenger," he told her, grinning triumphantly as the Dark Avenger, unafraid but aware of the danger, started crawling backwards away from Negarian, "I believe it is you who will not get to live long enough."

And with that, he suddenly thrust forward both hands at her and cast a sickly green spell at her. The green bolt got as far as three-fourths of the way there before Crimson suddenly leapt between it and the Dark Avenger, dodging the guarding magical monster as it strolled past, a polished, pure silver, tray thrust out before her. The bolt struck it and reflected right off it, bouncing back towards Negarian at the same rushing speed. There was just time enough for Negarian's eyes to go wide and for Percival to quickly take flight and into the air before the spell struck him.

He was knocked backwards, off the ground, for about a foot, before he hit it again and lay there on the ground in a spreadeagle position, eyes closed. He did not get up again. The magical monster that was circling him and the Dark Avenger suddenly suddenly stopped dead in it's tracks and roared like it was in agony for a split second before it suddenly and inexplicably faded away into nothing.

And it wasn't alone. All of the magical monsters that were scattered across St. Canard all froze in the middle of whatever they were doing and vanished without a trace, the spells forming them breaking down. And those weren't the only spells to break down...

* * *

"So you killed the robot Darkwing," NegaGosalyn summarized flatly, standing idly in the SHUSH briefing room and looking out the window, partially lost in thought.

Negawing, sitting further down the briefing table idly, shrugged. "Didn't really have any other choice," he pointed out, "Personally, I thought that guy didn't respect his boundaries, constantly griping and toeing the line all the time while he was damaged. Never thanked us for repairing him, either."

"As if he got the chance to be repaired," NegaGosalyn remarked hotly, "Either way, even if Negaduck agrees with your end choice, I'm not entirely sure he will like the fact that you took it upon yourself to do it without consulting him first. There were things he may have wanted to do with him first."

"Look, you can question my choice all you want," Negawing griped, waving the magicked servant in the room, J. Gander Hooter, carrying a platter of snacks over and selecting one from the offered tray to eat, "But it was a call that needed to be made, and I called it. Not my fault you don't have the stomach to deal with it."

NegaGosalyn rolled her eyes, and turned to look at him. "Must you always be like that?"she asked, "So condescending and critical and...insulting. You state exactly what's on your mind with...no doubt that you might be wrong. You just automatically presume you know what's wrong with someone and judge them by that, but once you've made it, you aren't very flexible about...changing..."

She trailed off, watching Hooter, who started glancing around. Negawing, still chewing on his snack, noticed as well and paused to watch as well. Hooter continued glancing around, his brow starting to furrow for a moment. He then made eye contact with Negawing and looked at him blankly for a long moment. Just as NegaGosalyn was starting to think that everything was all right, Hooter suddenly lashed out with his tray of snacks and smacked Negawing across the head with the tray, scattering the snacks everywhere.

Realizing that something was very wrong, NegaGosalyn raised her P90 and took aim, ready to shoot, but Hooter, knowing she was there, acted quickly, and spun around and threw the tray at her like a frisbee. Caught off guard, she overbalanced and fell over, her P90 firing blindly in the process, it's aim thrown off. It was then that Negawing struck Hooter from behind with his walking stick, knocking the director of SHUSH out cold. He fell over like a sack of potatoes.

Panting, NegaGosalyn picked herself up and stared in surprise at Negawing, who stared back, just as surprised. Both were thinking just what had happened, but they didn't get the chance to ask each other for theories when their radios suddenly started crackling.

"Attention everyone, we've got a problem down here, the magicked slaves are all rebelling!" an urgent voice yelled out, followed by several more that all ran along the same lines.

"Rebelling?" Negawing and NegaGosalyn chorused together, surprised.

"How is that possible?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"It's not, not unless the spell was somehow broken," Negawing remarked, quickly gathering some of the vital papers that were lying on the briefing table.

"All at the same time?" NegaGosalyn asked, amazed.

"Whatever the case, we are not going to want to stay here, this building is going to be _filled _with rebelling people," Negawing remarked, hurrying for the door, NegaGosalyn following him. As they burst out into the hallway, he pulled out his radio. "This is Negawing, calling everyone still loyal to Negaduck! The magic spell enslaving the citizens of this universe has somehow ceased working within SHUSH Headquarters if not further and they are now rebelling! If they are rebelling at your area, you are to fall back, repeat, fall back to Canard Tower! There were fewer magicked slaves there, we can defend our position there! Repeat, to all still loyal to Negaduck, you are to fall back to Canard Tower as quickly as you can manage!"

He continued repeating the message as they hurried down the corridors. As they went, the signs of the sudden reversal of the mind control spell on their former "slaves" were discovered to be widespread, and in many places they were in open rebellion. Negawing led the way away from these fights at first, until NegaGosalyn, catching onto his plan, took the lead, heading up towards the roof, whereas the former slaves were heading down to the lower levels. She also avoided the rebellious fights with the slaves, as they were fights they could not win.

At least until NegaGosalyn and Negawing rounded a corner, and NegaGosalyn suddenly found herself facing a disoriented, but resisting, Detective Matthew Christofferson. Having managed to obtain a stun gun somewhere along the way, he saw NegaGosalyn and Negawing round the corner and quickly raised the weapon to point at them. NegaGosalyn froze at just how familiar the sight seemed to her...

_Matthew had his sidearm out in a flash. Bushroot let out a made yell and dove for Daisy to push her out of the way. NegaGosalyn quickly hurried over and slammed into Crimson, standing behind Daisy, to push her out of the line of fire as well. Matthew wasn't thinking straight enough to consider these actions, and ignored them._

_He fired the gun._

Stunned by the sudden and unexpected return of this memory, NegaGosalyn found herself unable to think or move to respond to the very real threat before her, and would've let herself get shot by the stun gun if Negawing hadn't quickly acted and shoved her as well as himself out of the way as Detective Matthew fired, and pulled her into the next hallway over. If Matthew followed them, he lost them in the confusion that followed.

Eventually the two burst out onto the roof where a SHUSH helicopter happened to be parked on the landing pad. Quickly, Negawing pushed NegaGosalyn, still in bit of a trance, into the cockpit before seating himself at the controls. He scanned them over, admittedly not too familiar with how to fly the aircraft, particularly a helicopter of this design, but quickly managed, getting the craft powered up and shortly thereafter, shakily into the air and flying for Canard Tower.

Once they were well on their way did Negawing relax, and glance at NegaGosalyn, who still seemed to be in a bit of a trance. "So what happened back there?" he asked, "Why'd you tense up?"

"Because," NegaGosalyn replied numbly, blankly staring outside at the skyscrapers the chopper passed, "I just remembered how I died."

* * *

Techno was just being led down a hallway in Canard Tower when his two SHUSH commando escorts suddenly paused, and started looking around blankly. Techno paused and watched them, but wasn't thinking too much about it, still bitter about what had happened back at SHUSH HQ.

"What, did you forget the way?" he grumbled in annoyance.

The two commandos glanced at him, then at each other.

"Do you know where we are?" one of them finally asked.

"Canard Tower," Techno replied automatically and without thinking, then blinked in surprise when he realized how irregular it was for _any_ magicked slave to say much of anything, much less so innocent and obvious a question. He looked at them for a long moment. "Wait...you two aren't magicked...are you?"

He didn't get an answer when a party of soldiers from General Mallard's personal militia appeared at the end of the hallway behind them and seeing the two would-be magicked escorts, reacted instantly and drawing their weapons.

"Freeze!" one of them cried, "Don't move! Lower your weapons, and put your hands in the air!"

The two escorts drew their own weapons upon the arrival of the opposing soldiers, but quickly seeing that they couldn't fight back, they hesitated to fire. But they also hesitated to obey the order to surrender. Techno, not immediately seen being about a pace behind the two escorts, eyed the situation, then quickly turned and ran further down the hallway. He heard the pops of stun guns firing suddenly as the two escorts were shot down, quickly followed by a shout for him to stop, but Techno did everything but that. He got several paces further down the hallway before Colonel Grizzlikof suddenly lunged out of an adjoining hallway and tackled him to the floor, pinning Techno under the bear's large mass. Getting a firm grasp on him to insure he wouldn't try running again, Techno was then hauled back to his feet.

"Let me go!" he yelled loudly at his restrainer, "I said let me go!"

"You are not going anywhere, Techno, so _live with it_." a voice suddenly spoke.

Techno looked straight ahead of him to see Negaduck marching towards him. He did _not_ look happy.

"What did you do?" he demanded, pressing his face into Techno's.

"Did _what_?" Techno demanded, "I've done a lot of things in the past few moments that you wouldn't be happy with, so you're going to have to be more specific!"

"I'm talking about the fact that everybody who had the mind-control spell put on them has suddenly been released from said spell all over the city!" Negaduck snapped, "So tell me, _what did you do_?"

"_I _didn't do anything, not about that! What _could_ I do? You _know_ I don't have any skills in magic! So pinning the blame on me isn't going to get you _anything_! _Besides_ you _know _who's probably responsible."

"Darkwing," Negaduck deduced instantly, then looked up at the ceiling to repeat it as a yell, "DARKWIIIING!"

"Seeing that the magical spell has all seemed to stop working at once, something must have happened to the magician who cast it," Techno continued, a wicked grin coming to his face as he realized what this meant for everyone, "And going from that, I'd say it's safe to say that a certain Negarian is no longer in the land of the living."

Negaduck suddenly slapped him, then turned and marched off, roaring loudly in incoherent anger. He stopped suddenly to slam a fist hard into a wall as he marched past it, then continued roaring in anger again.

"GRRRAUUUGH!"

* * *

The shields Negarian had put in place over St. Canard in it's entirety suddenly flickered, lighting up with a faint aura of blue light, then promptly faded as the spell shut down and gave way. The military forces that had perpetually encircled the city since the day of Negaduck's takeover were quite surprised by the suddenness of the event, but were quick to take advantage of it.

Within moments of that shield going down, the order was quickly given for the forces to start marching into city limits. And march they did, encroaching and securing territory that had spent the last month being securely under Negaduck's control...

* * *

But even with all of this action taking place everywhere else in the city, at Macawber Mansion, silence still reigned as everyone slowly started to realize what had just happened. Slowly, the Dark Avenger approached Negarian's fallen form, then tapped at his foot. She not no reaction whatsoever from the fallen magician. Crimson came to join her, staring at him.

"I think we did it," she murmured aloud to her double, then turned to look back at the mansion, seeing her friends all gathered around wherever they had been scattered, before focusing in on Christine, Charlie, Darkwing, Agent Mia, and Agent Todd gathered at what remained of the mansion's front door. "Hey Darkwing! I think we just achieved your goal!"

Darkwing hesitated a moment, then hurried over to join the two doubles beside Negarian. Christine followed, examining Negarian's fallen body, checking it over for vitals. She found none.

"You're right," she announced, looking back at the others, "He's dead."

"Must have been some sort of killing spell we reflected back at him," Crimson thought aloud.

The Dark Avenger heaved a heavy sigh at this, but did not comment.

"If he's dead, then that means every spell he has cast that is still active has now been undone," Morgana remarked, picking herself up from where she had fallen during Negarian's attack, rubbing at her head but looking to be alright, "That would include the mind control spell."

They all looked at her.

"You mean to say that everyone Negaduck enslaved is now free?" Christine gasped, scarcely believing it.

"Assuming none of Negaduck's non-magicked forces didn't simply recapture them as prisoners, of course," Morgana stated, being realistic, "But yes, they are free from the spell."

"But there were so many of those magicked forces," Launchpad commented as he strolled over, having picked himself out of the wreckage of the kitchen and joined the group, "Many more than those forces Negaduck controlled that were not magicked."

"Launchpad's right," Mia agreed instantly as she and Todd joined the group, "Negaduck simply wouldn't have the forces to keep _everyone _he had enslaved under his control. Many probably overwhelmed their captors and are probably running free."

"Not only that, but other magical spells Negarian has used have also been undone," Todd reasoned, "Including that of the magical monsters _and _whatever magical defenses Negarian had placed to keep the military from raiding the city. There's nothing stopping them from entering."

"Then it seems to me, mates," Rowe called from where he was still on the roof, but within hearing range, "That we just scored a great victory. Negs's is gonna be hard-pressed to keep what control he has left now."

"And it's thanks to you, Dark Avenger," Crimson stated, turning to her double, "If you hadn't acted and confronted Negarian..."

However, the Dark Avenger shook her head. "The thanks belongs to you, Crimson," she insisted, "because you were the one that blocked the spell...in an attempt to save my life," to Crimson's surprise, the Dark Avenger seemed touched by this action, "For that, I suppose I am in your debt." a pause. "Thank you."

Crimson managed a friendly grin. "You're welcome."

"So anybody want to help me get down from here, mates?" Rowe called again from the roof of the mansion, waving at them to try and bring their attention to this issue.

The group laughed, then Darkwing and Launchpad hurried over to help the otter. "We're coming Rowe, you just hang tight!" Launchpad called as they ran.

Around then, Todd noticed something. "Hey, where's that bird Negarian had with him?" he asked aloud.

"It's up there," the Dark Avenger said, pointing, having watched the crow closely. It was currently circling just above the mansion, trapped within the boundaries of the shield and unable to escape. It's flight seemed a little disoriented, like the bird was both dizzy and suddenly exhausted.

Crimson eyed the bird. "We probably shouldn't let it escape, just to play it safe," she reasoned, "Although, I'm not sure how we're going to do that."

"Where's Bushroot and Quackerjack?" Rowe suddenly asked as Darkwing and Launchpad threw a rope and grappling hook up to him so he could climb down safely, "They didn't run and hide, did they? Plagues and pestilence, I always thought those mates of mine had more guts than that. But it certainly seems like they missed the whole fight."

It was then that an object was thrown up at Percival's flapping form from behind the mansion, which exploded upon hitting the side of the shield. With a startled squawk, the crow quickly changed course, only to be grabbed out of the air as one of Morgana's shrub's enlarged one of it's limbs to grab it and pull it back down to the ground. As everyone gathered around the plant, Bushroot and Quackerjack appeared from behind the mansion.

"We may have ran and hid, for which we admittedly aren't entirely proud of, or at least I'm not," Bushroot began to explain, having heard the comments about them, "But at least that meant that had things not gone as planned, we were still in a position to jump in a fight when we felt the chance was right."

"'Those who run and hide live to fight another day,'" Quackerjack quoted aloud, looking proud of himself.

"Whatever," Crimson said with a grin, turning to the captured bird, which wasn't happy, but had apparently given up struggling, "So what are we going to do with you, hmm?"

"It doesn't matter," Percival cawed, breathing heavily, "There is no escaping my fate now."

"What do you mean?" Christine asked, puzzled.

"You have slain my master," Percival stated, "and I was his familiar. You mean to say that you were not aware of the consequences that would happen to both of us for what you did?"

It was then that Crimson realized that the bird hadn't stopped resisting out of choice, it had done so because it was too weak to do otherwise. And as they watched, the bird was rapidly growing weaker still, to the point that it was now barely conscious.

"What's happening to him?" Mia inquired.

"It's dying," Morgana realized, "Because Negarian had been drawing magical power from him at the time of his death. As a result, the effects of the backfired spell are bleeding through to Percival."

The bird managed a weak nod. "As they say in the study of physics...every action...has an opposite and equal...reaction."

It was the Percival's last words, because not long thereafter, the bird passed out, and shortly after that was undoubtably dead, and a bittersweet silence fell. During this silence, Bushroot used his powers to order the shrub to gently lower the bird to the ground where it lay. Once there, they all looked at it, unsure how to react, even Quackerjack, though he it seemed he acted more reverent only because it seemed like that's what he ought to do, not because he wanted to.

Rowe leaned towards Crimson to whisper something in her ear. "Crimson, mate, if you're ever about to die, will you please make sure we are magically connected or anything like that when you do?"

Crimson resisted the urge to snort at the irregular request, but managed a grin. "Sure," she said.

Around then, they could hear vehicles and people slowly coming their way. Turning, the group looked at the road that ran past the mansion, outside the shield. Curious, they all started to migrate towards it.

"Sounds like somebody's coming," Darkwing remarked, "But who?"

"Hopefully friends," Christine remarked, "Which will be nice for a change. Maybe we can invite them in, and..." she glanced back at the mansion and remembered it's present state and gasped, "Oh, Morgana!" she cried suddenly, "Look at your mansion!" she sighed, turning to the witch, "I'm sorry, this is sort of our fault isn't it, for hiding here from Negaduck's forces?"

"Oh, don't worry about it, Christine," Morgana assured her, "It's just a house. A family heirloom, really. I never really liked how it looked anyway, so this actually finally gives me the excuse I've needed to remodel."

Christine chuckled. "I suppose there really is a silver lining to every cloud," she remarked.

"But...wouldn't that make them too heavy?" Charlie remarked suddenly from beside his adopted mother.

Christine only laughed and pulled him lovingly closer.

Crimson and the Dark Avenger reached the boundaries of the shield, peering through it and down the street. "It's the army, it looks like," Crimson announced, brightening, "So it looks like we really are going to have company."

"In that case, we'd better be ready to welcome them," Darkwing remarked, and turned to face Morgana, "In that case, I don't think we're going to need this shield anymore. So if you could, Morg?"

"With pleasure," Morgana said with a happy grin, and with a wave of her hand, lowered the shield for the first time in a month, with no intent to restore it again for the foreseeable future.

* * *

As the day drew to a close, however, Negaduck was everything but happy. Standing in the top floor of Canard Tower with the machine, the room currently silent and empty due to all of the workers working on it having revolted, he stared hard out the room's surrounding windows at the city of St. Canard, watching as the forces of good retook what was rightfully theirs to begin with. Save Canard Tower, which Negaduck had managed to secure control of for the time being with what forces he had left, mostly that of General Mallard's personal army. He had also managed to recapture many of the former slaves that were located in and around the tower as prisoners.

Including one very important one.

The door opened, and Negawing entered, dragging said prisoner along with him. Negaduck, without turning or speaking, motioned for Negawing to deposit him on the floor and leave, which Negawing did. After that, Negaduck allowed a moment of silence to fall before he finally addressed the prisoner.

"Techno," he greeted flatly and with obvious scorn, "So _un_pleasant to see you."

"Likewise," Techno replied, who knelt on the floor, content to stay there for the moment, "I see you're not in the best of spirits at the moment."

Negaduck snorted, staring out the window at the city that was once his. "Obviously," he muttered, "And no thanks to you and your goody-goody gang, I've lost ground, lost things that I've worked so hard to _gain_ in the first place!"

"All because of Negarian," Techno smirked, "You know, you shouldn't have relied on him and his abilities, to let so much of your plans hinge on him so much. If you had, you wouldn't _be _in this position just yet."

"It's too late to change that now," Negaduck snapped, "You know that, you only bring it up to rub it in, though."

"Bingo. Face it, Negs, you've lost. Your reign on this city has ended."

At this, Negaduck turned to face him. "Has it?" he asked with a faint grin.

Techno did not reply, but gave him a steady look, expecting Negaduck to elaborate.

Negaduck only smirked more. "I've got a project for you, Techno," he remarked, and turned to face the machine, stepping up to a control panel.

Techno turned to look at the large and complicated device. "So this is the machine I've heard so much about," he remarked, looking it over, "What's it do?"

"At the moment, nothing, because it's not finished," Negaduck remarked as he picked up a black case and placed it on the control panel, unlatching it, "And seeing that I've been robbed of my original workforce, you are going to help me finish it."

"No, I don't think I will," Techno said, refusing with the shake of his head.

"I don't believe I gave you an option," Negaduck replied, shooting him a glare as he opened the case.

Techno returned the glare for a moment, then repeated his earlier question. "What's the machine supposed to do?"

Negaduck paused for a moment. "It's supposed to greatly enhance the power output of this," he remarked, and turned the case around so Techno could see inside.

In the case was a large crystal, emerald-cut, and likewise happened to be producing a dull and faint green glow of light from within, under it's own power. Techno studied it for a moment, but couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be.

"What is it?" he asked.

"This," Negaduck motioned to the crystal, "is a charm. According to Negarian, magicians use them all the time to store spells for use. Any kind of spell. Typically, they are given to someone who can't preform said spell for whatever reason, who can then activate the spell sealed within whenever they wish, however they wish. Negarian put this charm together just before he died, thankfully."

Techno felt his stomach sink. "What kind of spell are we talking about here?"

Negaduck's cruel grin returned. "Negarian's mind-control spell."

He chuckled as he watched Techno shoot him a glance, then back at the machine, shock growing on his face as he put two with two. "That's right, Techno," he said wickedly, "I am far from finished just yet."

* * *

_Fun Facts: Okay, before I forget to say this for the THIRD time, YES, I am aware that Darkwing has returned in comic book format thanks to BOOM comics, for which I am very happy for the terror that flaps in the night, and thus far have heard nothing but good things about these comics. But no, I have not yet read these comics for myself, for a couple of reasons. One, there are no comic shops in my immediate area, leaving the only other place to get these comics is online, and I've been holding out to get the first four in one volume that is scheduled to come out this December. So in the meantime, no going cluing me in what happens in these comics, but above all, you can all stop asking me if I know about these comics's existence, 'cuz the answer is a resounding YES. (Obviously, I've been asked this question a few times too many) :P_

_Now, onto the chapter itself. I'll be blunt. It ran long. So long that it could've been the new longest. But I swore to myself that there would be no more new longest chapters, so of course, I tried to keep it from breaking my self-imposed limit (49 pages). End chapter ended up being more than fifty pages long. So I did some editing, which leads to a special brand of deleted scenes. See, I'm mentioning these deleted scenes from chapters all the time these days in these fun facts sections, but something I don't always mention is the fact that a great many of these scenes never even get written down before they're cut. Usually I can determine on the fly when or when not I'm going to have room to include such scenes and save time by not bothering to write them. This chapter is unique, however, as I had several scenes actually fully and completely written down that I went back and edited out. But they're not lost, as I made a second copy of the chapter that has these scenes preserved. Anyway, as I'm running back through the chapter at the beginning to pick out the points of interest, I'll bring them up._

_First off is the chapt. review at the beginning. It had originally included material referring back to last chapter about Gigavolt, with the idea of addressing the matter of Gigs further this chapter. Even though I had done that, though, the subject never actually came up in the actual chapter, so I cut it as it was now irrelevant data._

_Another minor deleted scene was just a little later in the chapter, just when DW appears as he and the others are about the raid that warehouse and DW shoots out the camera. There were little brief blurbs that I had added briefly described the point of view of the viewers of the camera's last transmission and their reactions to what they saw, including to hints of the Dark Avenger getting involved. As these were only a couple paragraphs long and didn't really added anything, I felt they were expendable._

_Just so we're clear, because there has been some confusion on the subject, not as much time has passed since Negaduck took over as it has seemed like. As of this chapter, only less than a month has passed by (it is stated more than three weeks) and not a day more. It's still the same month as it was when the invasion began._

_I continue the rivalry between NegaGos and Dark Avengie. Nothing productive ever really comes from there little arguments other than the fact that it brings out Avengie's determination, and NegaGos's issues with Negaduck's leadership and hints towards the fact that she's not happy. The latter is continued as NegaGos and Negs discuss the issue further themselves._

_I bet Nanite DW's sudden revelation about what side he was really on caught all of you by surprise. :) Actually, that was a rather unexpected little twist, coming about not long after I decided to keep the character around for longer than "Negaduck's Army" (something I've already noted before) which led me to try and come up with ideas to make that choice worth my time. This was the end result._

_Another minor deleted scene: more talk with the gang at the mansion about saltine crackers (apparently Todd isn't fond of them). Was mere comic relief._

_I knew I had wanted to get Rowe back into the gang, but an issue I had faced was figuring out a way to do it. My solution is a touch weak, but it got the job done._

_Another deleted scene: a much longer, more detailed version of the memories Nanite DW shared with Techno which included dialogue. I loved some of the material that was included there, but unfortunately, it proved to be just too long to keep. In all reality, the whole story of Nanite DW is really a whole other chapter in of itself. Maybe if I had planned things better, I wouldn't have faced this issue. XP_

_The issue of Rowe's heritage comes up in the chapter, and through Morgana, it is revealed that he's a mixed breed (half sea otter, half river otter). The issue was originally further explained later in the chapter but was part of a deleted scene and got cut, so the issue got left kind of open-ended._

_Another deleted scene: an explanation how NegaGos came to learn how to play magical darts, where her magical abilities stood at present, and her conflicting thoughts about Negaduck just before the gang pops up to rescue Rowe. Above all, it was meant to establish that NegaGos was frustrated with life at the moment, a fact that is still stressed at this point, so it's not a total loss._

_I had missed Rowe. He's a fun character to write, one of my favorites. :)_

_Another deleted scene: Where Rowe is at the mansion getting a bite to eat while Crimson fills in on a few details about what he had missed while he was magicked. Mostly to be Rowe back up to speed with things, but also addressed other issues, such as why Rowe had done what he had done that had gotten himself magicked in the first place, Crimson's thanks for his actions, and addressing yet again the one subject between the two that can't seem to die, the fact that Rowe fancies Crimson, which they make no further progress on, as Crimson as always stresses that things wouldn't work out between them, but Rowe does managed to more or less get her to confess that she cares. It was also in this scene that covered the issue of Rowe's heritage mentioned earlier._

_And another deleted scene: Longer scolding from Morgana about Crimson's use of the ortus spell, telling her how much of a risk it was for her to attempt such a challenging spell._

_Yet another deleted scene: More flashbacks from Agent Todd's memory about Darkwarrior's demise, including Darkwarrior getting Crimson to promise to return him to the Warriorverse and his actual death. This was excluded to save space, but ideally I would've liked to include it just to cover all the aspects. Scenes were from chpt. 77, "The Warrior's Wish."_

_And one last one: More description with Negarian analyzing the individual auras he saw in the mansion, including some traits of several meant to reveal to the reader who the owners of said auras were._

_The discussion between Crimson and the Dark Avenger about the Darkwarrior was hard sometimes, because when you really get down to it, Darkwarrior really did have the best of intentions. His methods were just...wrong. Providing a solid argument to prove that in terms Dark Avengie could understand was difficult. Which was why I did a few tricks where Crimson points out a few flaws in Avengie's own methods that weren't even comparable to Darkwarrior. That, and the new revelation about WarriorChristine at the time of her death. Sad, yes, but I felt it only gave Darkwarrior even more cause to be who he was._

_And so Nanite DW bites it. My only big regret about having to do that was the fact that I didn't get the chance to give Nanite DW many lines without his previously trademark stutter. :P_

_You know, the fact that Negarian had failed to think of using the ortus spell to get around the shield sooner says something about him. Not entirely sure what, but there's gotta be something. :P_

_When we got to this fight with Negarian, I knew that I was running out of page space, and knew I couldn't get too hog wild with it, but I also couldn't make it too short, otherwise it'd lack impact and...epicness. Because epicness makes everything work great. :) So I had to create a fight that was quick, but dramatic at the same time, and I succeeded. Did base it ever so slightly around a similar fight in chapter 78 "Neutral Opinions" hence the predominance of magical monsters._

_Which, now that I think about it, means this will be the last we'll see of the magical monsters for awhile. Pity, I always thought that despite being monsters, they were kind of cool. B)_

_Important detail here: NegaGos has remembered her death (complete with flashback to the relevant chapter) but NOT the events leading up to it. Whatever the case, this WILL leave her alligences in limbo._

_How many of you remembered that the military was still surrounding St. Canard? I ask because it hadn't been mentioned since chpt. 76 "A Time of Darkness," and sometimes little details like that get forgotten with readers._

_So Dark Avengie seems to be an ally now. Yay! :D_

_When I made plans to kill off Negarian, I realized this meant I had to come up with some kind of fate for his raven familiar, Percival. Killing him off as well seemed like the best option despite how morbid that is, which just left some means of doing it. An earlier idea I had, but did not enact upon, was the Dark Avenger killing him with the argument that it'd keep him from raising the alarm, leading Crimson, who was unhappy about this, that if Dark Avenger was to ally with them, she was going to have to play by their rules, which she agreed to. Feeling that was too pointless a demise, though, I came up with the one we now have, which lessened that somewhat, and furthermore put the blame for the bird's death in more limbo (meaning that it'd be hard to pin it on any one person)._

_And on this happy note, Negaduck has to ruin it by revealing that he's not finished yet._

_And in doing so, all but reveal the purpose of his mysterious machine...;)_

_And so you probably aren't going to miss the epic next chapter that brings all of this to a head in the chapter I've long alluded to, chapter 82...which seeing that it's title is admittedly and debatably a little revealing, I am choosing to not reveal at this time. So I guess you're just going to know it as chpt. 82 only for a little while longer. ;)  
_


	82. Negaduck's Fall

Summary: Darkwing and the gang have scored some major victories as of late, and Negaduck is on the verge of defeat. But they know that until he actually is beaten, and his plans stopped, they are still in grave danger...

Rating: T

Author's Note: Huzzah! Finally got chpt. 82 finished at long last, drawing this storyarc to a close. Hopefully it'll satisfy you all. :)

82.

Negaduck's Fall

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_"Is it just me, or does that thing look a lot like..."_

_"Yeah, it does."_

_"In fact, I think that's exactly what it is."_

_"No, that's impossible. Because I was going to say it looked a lot like a Jumpgate."_

_"And I say again. I think that's exactly what it is."_

_...  
_

"_Attention citizens of this fine country. For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under __**my**__ control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet!"_

_...  
_

_"What are __**you**__ doing __**here**__, Mr. Vice President?"_

_"With St. Canard falling to Negaduck, someone with authority needed to be nearby to help survey the situation. I volunteered."_

_...  
_

_"Why don't you just magically unlock the door with some spell, just like you did to unlock the door that led us down here?"_

_"I cannot."_

_"And why not?"_

_"Because there seems to be some kind of device in that room beyond that is actively shielding this door from the influences of magic. There is no magic spell I can use that will open this door."_

_...  
_

"_Because to avenge his death, I will have to kill the one who murdered him! Her!"_

"_Me? In that case, you've got the wrong person, I didn't kill Darkwarrior!"_

_...  
_

_Mia followed, but the moment she entered the room, her eyes was drawn to what the room sported, and only followed NegaGosalyn's lead numbly, and understandably so._

_Mia got her first look at Negaduck's mysterious machine._

_...  
_

"_You can't stay neutral forever, Gigs, not under these conditions. Eventually, you're going to have to take a side. I hope you'll be smart enough to pick ours."_

_...  
_

_NegaGosalyn frowned as she silently turned to leave. With each passing day she was finding herself liking Negaduck less and less._

_And she wasn't sure yet if that was a good thing._

_...  
_

"_Negarian, seeing that you found traces of that spell here, could you theoretically use those traces to track their path back to the mansion?"_

"_Theoretically, yes, but why?"_

"_Because if you follow their path, it may lead you straight to whatever means they've been using to get past that shield."_

_...  
_

"_You do realize that even if what you say is true, and that you truly __**aren't**__ responsible for my father's death, this still doesn't change the fact that you would've done it if you had the chance."_

"_That's why we're so different. You just don't understand how we work in this universe. So let me tell you what you clearly don't understand about us."_

_...  
_

_Nanite Darkwing started to shudder, growing more and more weak, his one working eye flickering. Then, finally, almost anticlimactically, the robot went limp, his one eye going dark._

_He was dead._

_...  
_

_The bolt struck it and reflected right off it, bouncing back towards Negarian at the same rushing speed. There was just time enough for Negarian's eyes to go wide and for Percival to quickly take flight and into the air before the spell struck him._

_...  
_

"_This is Negawing, calling everyone still loyal to Negaduck! The magic spell enslaving the citizens of this universe has somehow ceased working within SHUSH Headquarters if not further and they are now rebelling! If they are rebelling at your area, you are to fall back, repeat, fall back to Canard Tower!"_

_...  
_

"_So what happened back there? Why'd you tense up?"_

"_Because, I just remembered how I died."_

_...  
_

"_Seeing that the magical spell has all seemed to stop working at once, something must have happened to the magician who cast it. And going from that, I'd say it's safe to say that a certain Negarian is no longer in the land of the living."_

_...  
_

"_And it's thanks to you, Dark Avenger. If you hadn't acted and confronted Negarian..."_

"_The thanks belongs to you, Crimson, because you were the one that blocked the spell...in an attempt to save my life. For that, I suppose I am in your debt. Thank you."_

"_You're welcome."_

_...  
_

"_Face it, Negs, you've lost. Your reign on this city has ended."_

"_Has it?"_

_...  
_

"_What's the machine supposed to do?"_

"_It's supposed to greatly enhance the power output of this."_

"_What is it?"_

"_This, is a charm. According to Negarian, magicians use them all the time to store spells for use. Any kind of spell."_

_...  
_

"_What kind of spell are we talking about here?"_

"_Negarian's mind-control spell. That's right, Techno. I am far from finished just yet."

* * *

_

"This is Fox-1, I have visual of the target destination, over."

"Fox-2 to Fox-1, we confirm visual of target. Estimated time to arrival at Saint Canard, fifteen minutes."

"This is Fox-4 checking in, we all ready gentlemen? We're likely to only get the one chance at this."

"This is Fox-3, I think I can speak for us all when I say we've been ready for this since we took off."

"That's a 10-4, Fox-3. Now remember our objectives, everyone. We move in, strike, pass over the city, then fly off. We are to escort Fox-5 in for landing within the city, and ensure safe passage. Repeat, Fox-5 is the priority. If she's shot down, then this will have all been in vain. We're approaching St. Canard's boundaries now, Maintain radio silence from here on out. Good luck gentlemen. Fox-1 out."

So as the sun rose over the eastern horizon that oddly silent day, five Loening M-8 fighter monoplanes sailed in from the sea towards their target destination. Four of the planes only carried one person, the pilot for said plane, but the fifth plane the other four surrounded in a protective formation carried a second person as passenger. It was this plane, along with it's passenger, that was to get safely into St. Canard. A feat they all knew would not be easy. Yet they knew they had to try it anyway, and flew on.

On into the ruins of the once proud city of St. Canard.

On their approach, they sighted their potential targets and aimed their weapons in their direction, waiting to both come into range and for the first shots to be fired until they acted. Hopefully, if things had gone according to plan, their arrival here would be unexpected, thereby giving them the advantage of surprise. And it seemed they had succeeded, because they were nearly over Audubon Bay before they started taking enemy fire. They came from manned turrets, two of which were located in one of the support towers for the Audubon Bay Bridge each and a third on the roof of a relatively intact ten story skyscraper.

The moment the shooting began, however, the aircraft started firing back with their own armaments, duel machine guns mounted on the plane's prow. Quickly, the turrets were being peppered with machine gun rounds, and one on the bridge was completely taken out. At this point, the four escorting aircraft broke ahead of the fifth they were protecting and started scrambling to keep the remaining turrets occupied while the fifth plane quickly worked to land on the bridge itself.

This was no easy task for the plane as the bridge, while technically intact, was still in poor shape, and was barely wide enough for fighter plane to land upon anyway. Furthermore, the Loening M-8 was under attack by the enemy that were trying to insure it did not land successfully. But land it did, albeit not smoothly. The plane had hardly come to a stop before it's passenger, the second person riding in the plane, jumped out armed with a variety of personal weapons herself, and hurried the rest of the across the bridge and onto the street it adjoined to, nearly buried in several years accumulation of debris.

Now everything was up to her.

At first, the going went well enough, with the only issues to be faced was wandering through the cluttered streets of rubble, and managed to get a fair way from the bridge, where the planes were still fighting. But it wasn't long before attackers arrived on foot to shoot at the intruding passenger. She quickly sought cover and returned fire with the Thompson submachine gun she had slung over one shoulder until she could make her way over to an abandoned vehicle sitting along side of the road. Hoping it would run, she quickly crank-started it, then threw herself into it and quickly drove off before the foot soldiers attacking her could get in their shots at her.

Soon she was speeding though the ruins of the city, dodging the worse of the rubble and debris that littered the ground, the vehicle bouncing crazily as she drove it, but managing well. Her attackers had been left behind for the moment, but she knew that wasn't going to stop them, and they probably knew _exactly_ where she was heading, and would radio ahead. They would be waiting for her to arrive.

But then, that's where the challenge lay, and she would've been rather disappointed if there wasn't one.

Soon she arrived at city hall, which had seen better days itself. Looking ahead, she saw that she had been right to predict that her enemies would be awaiting her, as they had gathered at the building's entrance, weapons drawn, with another group standing by at their own vehicle to pursue her own vehicle should it come to that. But of course, it didn't. She knew what she was doing. Quickly ducking down so to put the vehicle's dashboard before her as a shield and keeping the vehicle going in as straight a direction as she could, she pressed the gas pedal as far down as it would go.

The car roared towards the building. The guards stationed at it opened fire at the vehicle, aiming for the driver's seat, but the vehicle's driver had stayed safe ducked down as she was. Soon it became clear what she was planning on doing, however, and they quickly started to move out of the way. The vehicle that was waiting to give chase and those within it, however, didn't get enough time to move, and the car was rather roughly bumped out of the way as her car brushed against it, the metal sides of the vehicles grinding together loudly for a brief moment.

Not long thereafter, the charging car slammed into the side of the building plowing through it's weakened walls and into the room beyond. By that point in time, the car had taken enough abuse, and died, slowing almost immediately to a halt. It's driver was now forced to vacate the vehicle and navigate the rest of the way through the building herself on foot. She moved quickly, shooting anyone who stood in her way, which were several, but her crashing her vehicle into the side of the building and caught them all off guard enough that they were being slow to get their act together properly. All of the opposing forces inside the building were being cut down, and due to the damage the building, those who had been waiting for her arrival outside were struggling to get back inside through the wreckage.

Quickly, she arrived in a large central room in the city hall building. It was heavily guarded, but due to all of the chaos of the past few minutes, it wasn't as heavily guarded as it normally would be, and were all unprepared for attack. A few moments of intense battling, and they were all shot down, with their mysterious attacker and one-person threat being victorious. Immediately upon securing the room, she got down to business and headed straight for the room's one major feature: a Darkwarrior-style portal generator.

Shouldering her tommy gun, she stepped up to the control panel and rapidly started entering in commands. Within moments, she had the device powered up, and a portal opened, casting a swirl of colored light into the otherwise dimly lit room. That done, she took a step back from the control panel and used her weapon to shoot it out, destroying it, then turned and started running for the portal's event horizon. She was three feet away from stepping into the portal when a voice stopped her.

"Gosalyn!"

Gosalyn stopped dead in her tracks, and sighed. Looking more annoyed than anything, she turned around to look at the person who had entered the room, weapon drawn and pointed it at her head. Like her, he did not seem happy at all, but for entirely different reasons.

"I swear to you, mate," Rowe growled, "You take one more step, I will kill you where you stand."

Gosalyn frowned, and let her hands fall to her sides, one hand probing at her pants pocket. "Took you long enough to get here," she commented, "Starting to loose your touch, hmm? Should it really take you so long to get your tail in gear and finally get your act together to stop _one _measly attacker?"

Rowe grumbled at this fact. "You got lucky," he stated, "But it was to no avail. Did you _really _think any of us was going to let you get away with this, to let you step through that portal?"

"Yes," Gosalyn replied mockingly, pulling something from her pocket and fiddling with it behind her back.

Rowe knew she was up to something, and decided to stop beating about the bush. "Well, guess again," he said, "I can't let you step through that portal, and seeing you thought ahead enough to destroy the controls for the generator and I can't just turn it off and cut off your escape route, I have to make sure you are incapable of making use of that portal." his finger squeezed the trigger of his weapon a little tighter, aim not wavering. "So, mate, you have any last words?"

"Yeah," Gosalyn replied, yanking the pin out of the object she was holding before chucking it towards Rowe, "Catch!"

And then, without waiting to see if the otter would indeed catch the object or not, she used the distraction to turn and fling herself through the portal. As it turned out though, Rowe did indeed catch the object she had thrown at him, and had just enough time to realize it was a hand grenade before it went off and exploded.

On the other side of the portal, Gosalyn was the first to emerge, but the blast from the grenade was quick to follow, bursting out of the portal in a loud bang of dust and debris, before the portal shut down as the sending generator gave out. Gosalyn hit the ramp that sat at the base of the portal and rolled down it, laughing hysterically until she reached the bottom. She did not react as the SHUSH commandos quickly surrounded her, pointing their weapon at her.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo, that was the most fun I've had in _years_," Gosalyn remarked as she unlatched the flight cap still strapped to her head and pulled it off to reveal her bob-cut red hair, before standing up to look around the spacious interior of sub-level five, "So, who's in charge here?"

"That would be me," an elderly and short owl commented coldly as he pushed his way past the commandos to face Gosalyn.

"Ah, Director Hooter, I presume," Gosalyn remarked, and quickly stood at attention, "Gosalyn Mallard of the Negawing Universe with a request to ask of you, sir."

* * *

"...report that military forces have successfully retaken control of the majority of the city of St. Canard in Calisota, have successfully secured those locations, rescued the one-third of the city's population that had been taken hostage, and are for the moment are holding their ground. However, the supervillain known as Negaduck, a well-known dopplegander to the vigilante Darkwing Duck and the person behind the unprovoked attack and invasion of the city in the first place has not been captured, and is still on the loose. Currently, military forces have bottled him up and what remains of his own forces in Canard Tower, a major skyscraper in St. Canard, and is managing to prevent any and all attempts to raid the building. Because Negaduck may soon resort to drastic measures to get what he wants, the populace of St. Canard is to remain evacuated out of the city until such time Negaduck is officially captured and/or defeated. Until such time, the city is presently under the control of the army as well as espionage organization, SHUSH, whose headquarters are located in St. Canard. Rumors indicate that those that have successfully fought Negaduck before are also assisting.

"When asked if there is still cause for alarm, Vice President Jonas Norrin, who is in the area and directly in charge of the operations taking place, assured the press that he feels the worse of the situation is now over, stating that Negaduck was only prolonging the evitable, and relayed confidence that Negaduck would be captured soon. He also asks the public to be patient, and assures them that they are working as hard as they can to sort things out. However, the director of SHUSH, J. Gander Hooter, who was among those who had been held hostage, had a different opinion, indicating that things would not be as easy as the vice president has suggested, stating that Negaduck is well known for turning the tables, and believes that Negaduck still has a few nasty tricks up his sleeve to try. He says that things are really still up in the air, and could go either way, and believes, quote, "Negaduck has treated this whole event as a war, thereby we should treat it as nothing less than that in return." However, he hopes that for the benefit of everyone that Negaduck is indeed defeated soon, with little more damage done than there already has been done.

"Negaduck himself is not very well known to the public except as a criminal and a terrorist, guilty of many crimes, even murder, and has attempted on more than one occasion to secure control of the city. Every attempt has resulted in a great deal of property damage and personal harm to those who are unfortunate enough to get in his way. He is described as being cunning and manipulative, but also very unstable, being very quick to anger and quite possibly insane, as he seems to take pleasure in the harm he creates. Psychologists who have analyzed Negaduck's behavior suggest that he is very mentally ill, and should be treated as..."

"GRRAUGH!"

The news report on the TV was cut short very suddenly when Negaduck let out an enraged yell and whipped out his pistol and fired repeatedly at the television until the weapon ran out of ammo. The now very broken device teetered for a moment on it's stand before toppling over backwards and onto the floor with a clash. Breathing heavily and red in the face with anger, Negaduck stood there and glared at it.

The door to the office suddenly opened and Negawing poked his head inside and looked around, alarmed. Seeing what had truly happened, though, he just stared at the TV for a long moment before he finally made eye contact with Negaduck and managed a weak grin. "Yeah, I didn't particularly like that television either," he remarked jokingly, "Not very good quality."

The comment did nothing to cheer Negaduck up however, who only threw the empty weapon across the room before spinning back around on his heel to stare out the office window. Negawing watched his leader for a moment, then strolled over to join him, peering out the window himself. Outside, the many combined military forces that had infiltrated the city midway through the previous day surrounded Canard Tower, pretty much insuring that their enemies within would not be going anywhere.

"You know, they could try sniping at you from out there, and kill you," Negawing reasoned, pointing out the danger of doing this, "If you keep standing in windows like this, you'll be an easy target."

"It won't get them anything," Negaduck assured confidently, "Because there would still be you, General Mallard, his personal army, and my own Gosalyn to insure my work continues. And I would imagine such an attempt, successful or not, would only entice some kind of retaliation."

Negawing chuckled cruelly at the idea. "True," he agreed, "but still, I am worried. We're at a serious disadvantage here, Negs, they could try and level this whole building at any moment..."

"They wouldn't dare. We still have a fair number of their people prisoner and they know it. Any kind of direct attack like that would risk their well-being."

"They might decide that those lives would be mere collateral damage and choose to enact the greater good."

"No they won't. They don't think like we do, Negawing. They cherish the lives of their pathetic citizens more than a kid and their stuffed bear. They won't attempt a frontal attack like that for those very reasons."

"They still will try to attempt _something_."

"Let them try. All we have to do is hold them off long enough to get the machine upstairs finished. That is our key objective now, that is all we have _left _to work on." Negaduck let out a frustrated sigh, "At least I have that much to work with still."

"Wish I could help you more," Negawing remarked, "I even used that portal remote you gave me to radio home and request they rally together some troops to send over here, add to our numbers, but unfortunately, I don't have much I can spare at the moment. I have assets over there that need defending too."

"We all do," Negaduck agreed, "I gambled a bit myself attempting this plan, and it was going good until that _stupid_ Darkwing and his gang of do-gooders interfered!" he slapped one fist against the window before him angrily with a loud thudding sound, then fumed for a moment before managing to get himself to calm down again. "But at least not all is lost just yet. They'll see. This little game of stratagems is only just beginning. Soon I'll play my final hand." he grinned, "They'll never know what hit them."

They were both silent for a moment. Then Negaduck heaved a sigh, and straightened his yellow jacket before speaking again. "What is everyone else doing at the moment?" he inquired.

"Well, the general and most of his forces are guarding either all the potential entrances, or our prisoners," Negawing replied, "A couple of them are upstairs, making sure Techno keeps working on the machine, holding him at gunpoint if they have to, but even that doesn't get him working on it very quickly."

"But he _is _working on it? Properly?"

"Apparently. I even checked. He hasn't tried sabotaging it. At least, not yet."

"What about Gosalyn?"

Negawing sighed at this. "I'm not really sure," he admitted, "she said she wanted to look something up, and has spent most of her time sorting through what few records we managed to keep a hold of after the events of yesterday, but she hasn't said what or why."

Negaduck rubbed at the tip of his beak as he considered this. "What is she up to, I wonder?"

* * *

The answer was that NegaGosalyn was looking for a very specific file.

But it was not easy. Negawing was right when he said that they only had a few files left. Most of them had been lost and captured when Negarian's death allowed the army to raid the city. But they still had many hard copies that had thankfully been moved into Canard Tower for easy access by Negaduck and others, and there was enough of those that it took NegaGosalyn a long time to sort through all of it.

She currently sat in a secluded, unused, office with piles of manilla folders and documents surrounding her. She had spent almost all of her free time since she had arrived here yesterday as the mind-control spell on the populace was broken and they all rebelled sorting through them, searching and hoping for one in particular. And with a cry of triumph, she finally found the file she was hoping to find. It was one of the SCPD's personnel files. For Detective Matthew Christofferson.

Opening up the file, she quickly skimmed through the file, starting from the beginning of Matthew's career and working her way down. There were several parts that were a refresher to her, reminding her briefly of various bits and pieces of lost memories that she had yet to remember, but she didn't dwell on these for long. She was looking for a very specific piece of information. And, close to the bottom, one of the last official entries into the file before the invasion, she found it. It read:

"_On February 3__rd__, 2004, Detective Matthew was participating in an investigation to try and bring in supervillain Reginald Bushroot after observing him working seemingly nonstop in his greenhouse laboratory for three days when two more known villains, NegaCrimson and Rowe P.W. Lutra, arrived at the greenhouse. Seeing this as an excellent chance to bring them all in, Detective Matthew, working in conjunction with the Crimson Avenger and sidekick Techno to attempt a raid on the greenhouse. The raid went successfully, however one of Bushroot's experiments, a sentient mutant plant-duck of his own created dubbed "Daisy" reacted to the situation by producing a kind of drug and releasing it into the air that initially acted like a sedative, but then upon those effects wearing off induced fits of rage and made it hard for one to control their tempers, and would have ultimately to the demise of all infected. However, the matter was resolved, although Bushroot and Rowe alluded capture, and NegaCrimson was mistakenly shot and KIA by Detective Matthew during these events and as a result, underwent counseling due to suffering guilt from the matter, although it was nothing serious. All further details of this event was classified by SHUSH on February 7__th__, 2004."_

NegaGosalyn's eyes narrowed as she read through the entry, knowing that every part of it was true, even though she still couldn't remember all of the events that took place on the day up until her temporary "death." But it did make one thing frightfully clear.

Negaduck had been lying to her.

* * *

At SHUSH Headquarters, there was a lot of clean up to be done. Not to say that Negaduck and his forces had been that messy during their occupation of the building, but they had rearranged things, moving them to undesirable locations, and occasionally things had been rearranged in ways that suited them, but not SHUSH. Furthermore, the building was also the site of more than one battle, and thereby required some repairs to be done. That, and managing to resume standard SHUSH operations within the presented timetable and also assist in trying to stop Negaduck once and for all left the organization very busy.

J. Gander Hooter didn't really mind, as it was better than the alternative. Better to be abnormally busy with irregular work than to be still captured and magicked by Negaduck's forces. A time which he thankfully could not remember. He couldn't even remember the start of the invasion due to the spell's residual effects. The last thing he could remember accurately was sitting in his office brewing over the aftermath of the disastrous mission into Gwendolyn's universe and the order to dismantle the SHUSH portal generator as an attempt to stop the invasion in the first place. After that, the next thing he remember was standing in a SHUSH briefing room, serving Negawing snacks on a tray.

At least at that point he got the chance to whack Negawing soundly across the head with said tray. The thought still made him smile.

At the moment he was wandering around the building, asking for updates on the various tasks that were taking place all throughout the building. It was slow going, but it was made even slower by the fact that many of the agents were still a little disoriented from the time they had spent being magicked. Normally Hooter wouldn't have asked so much of them so soon, but the work still needed to be done, and it seemed getting back into the routine of things seemed to help.

Having covered the rest of SHUSH Headquarters, Hooter now made his way down to sub-level five, where Dr. Bellum and her team were working on the SHUSH portal generator, making sure it was still in working order. Not that he had much cause for worry, Negaduck, having cause to put the device to use while it was under his control, kept it in decent shape. Still, it didn't hurt to double-check, particularly if anything had been done to sabotage the device.

Entering the room, he found it very busy with scientists wandering everywhere, doing their work as usual. It was like the invasion had never happened. Pleased with this sight, Hooter sought out Dr. Bellum, and found her standing near the base of the control tower, comparing notes with a fellow scientist. He waited until she was done before approaching her.

"Dr. Bellum," he greeted cheerfully, "I came to get an update on your progress."

"Ah yes, Director Hooter, if you'll follow me, I'll give you my report straight away," Bellum replied, leading the way on up into the control tower, "I think you'll be pleased with the report, director, we have found very little damage and/or tampering to the generators at all. Seems our first impressions were correct, and that Negaduck kept it in good shape."

"Well, that's certainly good to hear," Hooter remarked as they climbed the steps up and into the control room, "Now if only Negaduck had treated the rest of St. Canard with the same respect."

"Yes, if only," Bellum agreed as they entered the control room and she stepped over to where she had left her report lying on a keyboard, then handed it to Hooter, "Here you go, director, here's your..."

"Doctor, the generators are charging up, I think we've got an incoming portal!" one of the technicians working in the control room suddenly announced.

Bellum and Hooter exchanged alarmed looks before hurrying over to see for themselves. Bellum double-checked the readings, but it was almost unnecessary, as the hum of the generators warming up could be heard from here already.

"He's right!" she deduced quickly, "Someone is trying to dial in to our universe!"

"Who, and where from?" Hooter demanded.

Bellum only shook her head. "We won't know until the portal opens, sir."

Hooter grabbed at the microphone that was on the control panel and switched on the room's intercom. "Commandos, at the ready! Shoot anyone who steps through that portal without prior authorization! Otherwise, stand by and await further orders!"

The large squadron of SHUSH commandos that had been stationed at the portal generator since the recapture for this very reason quickly surged towards the ramp that would led up to the soon-to-be-opened portal and stationed themselves around it, weapons raised and ready to fire. Everyone else in the room quickly hurried to either head for their stations, seek shelter, or more preferably, altogether evacuate the room. The generators charged up slightly more, then without warning, the transdimensional portal flashed into existence as the usual ball of colored light.

Up in the control tower, Hooter and Bellum waited anxiously for any kind of signs of the origin of the incoming portal. A few moments passed like this, during which no one attempted to step through the portal. Instead, it just flashed and flickered normally, waiting to be put to use.

Finally, the technician in the control room spoke up. "We're receiving the sister universe's IDC," he reported, sounding notably relieved to see that it was allies who were dialing in, "They're requesting permission to send someone over."

Hooter sighed in relief as well. "Granted," he remarked, then turned to Bellum, "What superheroes do we currently have in the building?"

"The Crimson Avenger," Bellum replied without hesitation, "She's upstairs helping with repairs last I heard."

Hooter switched the intercom to cover the whole building then spoke into the adjoining microphone again. "Crimson Avenger to sub-level five, please, we have guests from the sister universe, repeat, Crimson Avenger to sub-level five, please."

"Director, sir," the technican spoke up again suddenly, "We're also receiving a text message as well, it's downloading now. It must contain more details."

Hooter nodded in understanding. "Very well, let me know when it's done down–"

"Whoa," Bellum suddenly remarked, her eyes on the portal.

Hooter turned to look, and saw Gosalyn Mallard step through the portal, wearing an old-fashioned flight suit, carrying an accompanying flight cap and a tommy gun. Noting her roguish appearance, the commandos guarding the ramp all tensed and readied to fire, sensing that she could be a potential threat. This universal double of Gosalyn didn't seem at all alarmed by this, and in fact seemed very bemused by it all.

"Should we have the commandos stand down, sir?" Bellum asked Hooter.

But Hooter, unfamiliar with this multiverse version of Gosalyn Mallard, wasn't sure how to respond, and, indecisive, gave no immediate response. Thankfully, it was then that Crimson chose to arrive in the room, stepping into the chamber, eyes at first focused on something else before turning to look at the portal, and coming to a sudden stop in her tracks. Like her double, she didn't really seem alarmed, or even that surprised, but she it was fairly clear that she wasn't expecting to see this double.

"It's you?" Crimson remarked aloud after a momentary pause, "Coming from the sister universe?"

"Didn't have the transdimensional coordinates to just come straight to your universe," her double replied with a simple shrug.

Around then the portal closed, with no one else other than this Gosalyn stepping through. The technician's console beeped suddenly to announce it had finished downloading the message that was transmitted as well, but did not bring it up. Bellum noticed it had finished, however, and quietly bent over to open it up on another screen. By this point in time, Crimson and started towards her double again.

"J. Gander, tell the commandos that they can stand down," she called as she walked, keeping her eyes on her double.

The commandos looked up at the tower for confirmation of the order.

"Stand down," Hooter stated into the intercom, trusting Crimson's word, but then added, "Who is our visitor, Ms. Avenger?"

"The me from the Negawing Universe," Crimson responded, stepping up the ramp to stand before her double.

"What, didn't you tell them about me?" Negawing Gosalyn asked flatly.

"Oh, I did, they just don't know you by sight so they couldn't recognize you," Crimson assured her double.

"Hmm, pity," Negawing Gosalyn remarked stepping around her double and on down the ramp, "It probably would've been wiser to have kept a threat like me a secret." At the bottom of the ramp, she stopped and looked around. The commandos stood gathered around her, their weapons lowered, but still not quite trusting her fully. "Anyway, I heard that Negawing is here in your universe," she continued suddenly as she continued to glance around.

"That's right," Crimson remarked, stepping down the ramp to join her, "Actually been part of a source of trouble we've been having as of late, but what does that have to do with you?"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Negawing Gosalyn asked, running her hand along one of the generators, "Seeing that I went of all the trouble of coming here by first wandering deep into enemy territory in my universe, then jumping to what you called the sister universe so I could be rerouted here, why else would I be here except to deal with Negawing?"

"And by dealing with him, you mean..."

"Killing him." Negawing Gosalyn made it seem like it was nothing more than a run to the store to get milk.

By this point in time, Bellum had read the message they had received and shared it with Hooter. It basically had confirmed Negawing Gosalyn's tale about heading to the sister universe so she could be rerouted to the Posiverse by them, who had willingly done so. Now drawing from memory certain details Crimson had provided about her Negawing Universe double, Hooter spoke into the microphone to present a question.

"Forgive me for asking, but what's in it for you to kill Negawing?" he asked, "Why would you want to kill him?"

"Because," Negawing Gosalyn remarked a little indignantly, turning to look up at the control tower, "somebody needs to take care of him, so it might as well be me!" she rolled her eyes, "Sheesh, I thought it would've been obvious. So where is Negawing anyway?"

Crimson took her arm and led her towards the door. "Here, I'll show you," she told her double, "I'll also introduce you to someone along the way I think you can relate to."

* * *

On the rooftop landing pad on SHUSH Headquarters lay the Dark Avenger's hovercraft, still damaged from the events of the previous day. However, the Dark Avenger herself was currently working at trying to repair it. It was slow work, especially seeing that she was working on it all on her own, but she recognized the reasons why. First and foremost, she was the one that knew the technology, which was greatly advanced in comparison to that of the Posiverse's and there weren't many available who could understand it enough to any degree to be useful in helping make the repairs. Those that could, were already busy with other projects that had been deemed more important and couldn't be spared. Then, of course, there was the fact that nearly everyone still wasn't quite sure if the Dark Avenger could be trusted.

Hence why she worked while a SHUSH commando, Lieutenant Taylor, stood guard and watched her every move.

The Dark Avenger watched him back out of the corner of her eye, resenting his presence just as much as Taylor clearly resented hers. "You know, if I was going to try and hurt you, I would've done it by now," she grumbled while she worked.

"So you say," the pine marten responded, "Personally, I think it's a little too convenient that you just _happen_ to decide to change sides exactly when Negaduck loses control of the city."

"I was _never _on Negaduck's side."

"You worked with him."

"To exploit the advantage that he would leave me more or less alone if I did. Besides, at the time, there was one goal we both shared, so it seemed logical," she grunted as she pulled a part loose from within the hovercraft, and started adjusting it's position within the craft before continuing, "It's not like you'd remember any of this, though. You were under the effects of the mind-control spell during all of this."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I have never seen you before in my life before today. If you hadn't been under the influence of the mind-control spell I would have encountered you no doubt helping to try and defeat Negaduck before now."

Taylor frowned, unable to combat that logic. "All right, but I have learned the details about everything that happened during that time. So I am stating facts here. Thus, you cannot change the fact that you were our enemy. You were trying to kill, at the very least, Crimson."

"I do not deny it," the Dark Avenger agreed, "But circumstances have changed. Not that it matters anymore, as Negaduck now undoubtably considers me just as much an enemy as he does for you. We have a common foe."

"Still doesn't mean I trust you."

"Fine then, don't, I'm not going to make you," Crimson remarked hotly as she suddenly stepped out onto the roof, Negawing Gosalyn in tow, the latter of which getting a double-take from Taylor, "But I think it's a pity that you can't put your trust where it's clearly needed."

That said, she escorted Negawing Gosalyn across the roof to stand at the far edge. The Dark Avenger, curious, left what she was doing, and wandered over to join them. Taylor adjusted his position to keep all three in his line of sight.

Crimson pointed a finger out at Canard Tower, visible some blocks away. "That's where Negawing's at," she told Negawing Gosalyn.

Negawing Gosalyn studied the building for a moment. "I take it he's barricaded himself in there in such a way you can't just storm the building?" she inquired.

"Himself along with Negaduck, General Mallard, and their supporters," Crimson replied coldly.

"Huh, it figures. Not the first time that idiot tyrant has used that tactic. So what's the plan for getting at him?"

"At the moment, we don't have one. So unless you have an idea..."

"Why don't you just blow up the building, kill 'em all in one blow?"

"Ah, because they have hostages in there with them, including a good friend of mine."

"What difference does _that _make?"

This earned Negawing Gosalyn a glare from Crimson. "Here in the Posiverse, it's not every man for themselves. We want to rescue the prisoners. We just...haven't figured out how."

Negawing Gosalyn fell silent for a moment, brooding upon this while starting to pace. "I still say my idea would be quicker," she finally stated.

Crimson merely sighed. The Dark Avenger took this moment to chime in.

"So who are you, anyway?" she asked, looking Negawing Gosalyn up and down.

"Oh yeah, Darkwarrior me, meet Negawing me, and vice versa," Crimson quickly introduced, motioning at her doubles in turn.

The two looked each other up and down critically for a few moments.

"So am I the only one in the multiverse that has a decent scene of fashion?" Negawing Gosalyn finally commented, noting the Dark Avenger's militaristic but still fairly flamboyant costume.

"Debatable, particularly seeing that your fashion sense seems very out of date," the Dark Avenger countered without losing a beat, noting the double's own attire, "Early 1900's I believe, correct?"

"I personally fail to see how these styles ever went out of fashion. Still all the rage back home, at least when we're not busy using that rage to kill each other."

"Pleasant," the Dark Avenger paused for a moment, "So what's with the hair?"

Negawing Gosalyn ran a hand over her bob cut indignantly. "It's fashionable _and _functional," she argued, "I can't say the same for your ponytail, though. Doesn't that constantly get in your way?"

"Not where _I _come from. Why are you here anyway?"

"I'm here to kill Negawing."

"Funny. I'm here for similar reasons; to kill Negaduck."

"Really."

"Well, at first I was here to kill Crimson, but later realized that wouldn't get me anything."

Negawing Gosalyn glanced at Crimson skeptically for a moment, then shrugged, "Well, whatever toots your horn, I suppose," she remarked.

Crimson stared at her incredulously for a moment, unsure what to make of that comment. A brief moment of silence fell between the trio of doubles as they all looked at one another. Then Taylor, who had still be watching them, broke the silence suddenly by suddenly letting out a frustrated moan and grabbing at his forehead painfully.

"This is starting to give me a headache," he groaned.

Crimson used the moment to change the subject. "Well, I'll leave you two to work it out on your own," she announced to her doubles, slipping past them and heading for the exit off the roof, "I have other things I need to be attending to." As she passed Taylor, she added, "Watch her very carefully."

"You mean watch both of them?" Taylor inquired.

"If you want," Crimson said, starting down the stairs leading back into the building,

"But you're going to want to watch Negawing Gos like a hawk. _Never_ trust her for a second."

Taylor watched her head down the stairs for a moment, then turned back around only to jump in fright to see Negawing Gosalyn standing less than a foot in front of him, grinning maliciously.

"She's right, you know," Negawing Gosalyn remarked slyly, "because you never know when I might get tired of waiting for you guys to decide to do the obvious and do it anyway myself."

And with that, she walked off to peer intently at Canard Tower in the distance while the Dark Avenger went back to working on her hovercraft. Taylor eyed them both warily, then decided that the sooner this was all over and things went back to normal, the better.

* * *

537 Avian Way was a mess.

More than one window had been shattered, the furniture had been knocked out of place or tipped over, bullet holes riddled everything, the front door hung lopsidedly on it's hinges, and the door to the study as well as Launchpad's bedroom had both been knocked completely off their own hinges. And speaking of Launchpad's room, the entire back wall of the room had been blown away, leaving a gaping and unsightly hole. Worse still was that the house had been left in this state, exposed to the elements, for nearly a month now, and suffered even more damage from that, especially water damage from rain and the such. It was a very depressing sight.

Darkwing had seen it be a mess like this before, and had even seen it in an even worse state than this before...but there was something particularly more morbid about seeing it in such a state this time around. He suspected it was due to a mixture of things, such as the fact that this was the first time in days any member of the dysfunctional Mallard family had managed to come and visit the house in a month to even survey the damage...and that the damage it had received marked a very dark day that led to a series of events that still had yet to resolve.

Standing in the middle of the destruction, Darkwing sighed, rubbing at his beak, wondering not for the first time why he had come here anyway. He had been thinking to himself that he was going to gauge the damage and possibly try and start cleaning up, so to pass the time during this lull spot in the conflict with Negaduck...but it was now clear that just wasn't practical to do alone.

Of course he could've brought help. But it seemed everybody else was busy doing other things. Crimson and Launchpad were working at SHUSH, and all of the agents from there were busy monitoring Negaduck's movements in Canard Tower and trying to come up with a plan to stop him. Christine and Charlie had been available to help, as well as willing, but Darkwing had managed to convince her that they had both done their part in this matter, and asked the SCPD to see to it that they were taken back to Duckburg where the rest of the St. Canard refugees were staying until this all blew over. Assuming that it _did _blow over.

Then there was Morgana. She also offered to help, but Darkwing also knew she had her own home to look after, which wasn't in a much better state at the moment. Furthermore, Darkwing had purposely been limiting his interaction with Morgana, unsure still as to how he should cross whatever bridges they now both faced about each other. They had been in a relationship once, and even though that relationship officially ended more than two and a half years ago, they had still remained friendly. But Morgana had been through a lot lately, more than Darkwing, and had also lost her husband. Part of him felt he needed to back off and let Morgana work her way through those tragic events...

...but at the same time, Darkwing wondered if, despite it all, this might be his second chance for Morgana.

And if it was...he shouldn't pass it up. Should he?

Then there was the issue of Negaduck himself. Darkwing knew him; Negaduck had suffered a major blow, but that wasn't going to stop him. Negaduck would keep fighting until the bitter end, and Darkwing could only guess what new lows the villain would resort to trying to get his way. Then there was also the machine Darkwing knew Negaduck was building. He could only guess what it was supposed to do, but given what little they all knew about it, it had to be something big. And that worried Darkwing to no end. It made checking up on his house seem like a trivial matter in comparison.

Which was why, Darkwing realized with a start, he was here. It was so trivial, it was closer to what he considered to be normal life for him. He was here to try and escape reality. But he couldn't. There were simply too many unwanted reminders all around him.

"Ah, there you are, Wingy."

Speaking of unwanted reminders...

"Gizmoduck," Darkwing murmured, then turned around to look at the duck in the metallic supersuit standing outside the broken living room window and looking inside, "I heard you were still in the city. Hi."

"Hi," Gizmoduck greeted back in response a little weakly. Darkwing saw with a slight note of relief that he wasn't the only one feeling a little overwhelmed. "I, uh, heard you'd be here, so I just came over to...to talk."

"What about?" Darkwing asked.

Gizmoduck fidgeted nervously for a second. "Gee, where to start?" he muttered, "Um, I suppose I should start by, uh, thanking you for your help in freeing all of us magicked people from that mind control spell."

"You're welcome. It was really kind of accidental, to be honest."

"Yeah, so I heard. I mean, I don't remember much while I was magicked myself. Aw heck, who am I kidding, I don't remember anything at all. I don't even remember getting magicked in the first place."

"You went down fighting, I can tell you that much."

"So I've heard, but sadly that...just doesn't mean much to me. That is, er..." Gizmoduck trailed off for a second, trying to figure out what to say, "Look, what I really came here to say, Wingy, is actually about this house anyway. Because that's one thing I _can _remember about that day when this all began."

"Yeah, I kind of figured," Darkwing murmured, looking around at the house, "Though I will admit that I was kind of hoping you wouldn't remember."

"I can understand that," Gizmoduck said honestly, "Because, uh, now that I know where you live, I now know who you are, uh, behind the mask."

Darkwing sighed. "Yeah, no point in denying it, is there?" he stated, "Probably wasn't hard to figure out the identity of who lives here."

"Well...yes...but, uh, it was also because I've happened to have visited this house before," seeing Darkwing's surprised expression, Gizmoduck looked down at his thumbs, "In fact, we've both met before with the masks off...although neither of us realized this at the time. And...well...oh, here, see for yourself."

With that, Gizmoduck did something Darkwing couldn't recall him ever doing before, and that was lifting the visor that covered his eyes, exposing his whole face for Darkwing to see.

Darkwing squinted at the face for a long moment before he finally recognized it with a start. "Crackshell!" he exclaimed, "Fenton Crackshell! You're that accountant friend of Launchpad's!"

Gizmoduck chuckled a little. "Yeah, that's, uh, that's me, Drake-a-rooni," he replied.

Darkwing rolled his eyes. "I thought I told you to never call me that," he bemoaned.

They both chuckled a little, the whole situation feeling a little awkward to them both, unsure where to go from here.

"Tell you what," Gizmoduck finally said, replacing his visor over his eyes, "I'll keep this secret if you will, and then we can just pretend this didn't happen and life can go on as usual."

Darkwing grinned. "I will if you will, Giz," he said.

"Then it's a deal."

And with that, they shook on it, glad that they got that much out of the way.

* * *

"Something on your mind, Rowe?"

Rowe looked up from the floor he had been staring at for the past several minutes and at Bushroot, who had walked up beside him. The two of them, along with Quackerjack, were currently in a guest room at SHUSH Headquarters, waiting for when their assistance might be needed. Although they all wondered if they were even going to be given that chance because, save for Darkwing and company, everyone else was still treating them more like criminals they reluctantly were forced to work with, and were trying to get out that every chance they could. The guards that were stationed outside their room did not help improve this image.

That was not what was on Rowe's mind, however.

"Aye, but nothing important," the otter responded, "At least nothing that will be coming to be right now."

Bushroot got him to scoot over on the couch they sat upon and sat down beside him. "Dare I ask what?"

Rowe winced. "Probably not, mate, because I know what you'll say if I told you."

Bushroot sighed, and was silent for a moment. "It's Crimson, isn't it?"

Rowe nodded weakly. "Aye."

"Haven't we gone through this before? Nothing is ever going to happen between you two beyond the odd, professional encounter. This isn't getting you anything either, this...puppy love of yours."

Rowe gave the mutant plant-duck a skeptical look. "Puppy love?"

"What else can you call it?" Bushroot inquired, "I don't really think you _truly _have any kind of feelings for Crimson. Whatever the case, I can say for certain that she doesn't show the same for you."

Rowe was silent, not so sure of that.

"Look, why are we even bringing this subject back up?" Bushroot asked, "This isn't the time or the place for it. We all have bigger things to deal with than this little mess that _you _can't seem to leave alone. You need to drop it and move on, Rowe."

"I know, but...I can't figure out how."

Bushroot shrugged. "Well, I can't pretend to know any better than you," he admitted, remembering his own several failed attempts at love, "but if you really can't leave the subject alone until after this is all over, then I think you need to talk to Crimson about it, and get this all sorted out. Once and for all."

"Of course you're right mate," Rowe agreed, knowing that he couldn't let things go on like this, regardless of how he felt about it.

"Now there's something _I've _been thinking about that I want to talk about," Bushroot said, changing the subject, "and that's what we're going to do once this is all over."

Rowe frowned. "What do you mean, what are we going to do?" he asked, "Things just go back to normal."

"So you're just planning on sticking with the Fearsome Four, or whatever number it's at now?" Bushroot inquired.

"Three," Rowe determined, "But I see your point. Where _do _we stand on that matter?"

"Well, Quacky's all for the Fearsome Fou-er-Three idea, and I must admit that I'm leaning in that direction too. It's just...I don't know if we'll still be able to pursue that. I'm not entirely convinced SHUSH will let us go when this is all said and done."

"I'd doubt SHUSH would do that given the circumstances...but you're right, no matter how this all ends, things are going to be radically different from here on out," Rowe agreed. He stopped and thought about the matter for a few moments. "Maybe it's time we started thinking about doing something else, because I just can't see the Fearsome..._anything_... staying together anymore. The team's been slowly crumbling more and more as time goes by. First there was Liki, then Megs, then NegaGos. And whether or not Negaduck wins or loses, it's a safe bet that we aren't going to let him lead us anymore, not after what he's tried to do to us. That just leaves the three of us...and I don't think we can keep things running."

This surprised Bushroot. "Why not?"

"Well, we're going to need some kind of leader at the very least to keep things together."

"Well, Quacky certainly can't do that. And I'm more of a follower than a leader," Bushroot thought for a moment, rubbing at his beak, "Huh, I think I see your point." he glanced at Rowe. "Unless you think you can do it."

"Me? Be the _leader_?" Rowe sputtered, taken aback, then rapidly started shaking his head, "No, no, no, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We haven't even decided if becoming the Fearsome Three is even on the table...or even if we want that. I mean...who's to say we have to go back to a life of crime? Times are changing all around us...so maybe the time is coming for us to change as well."

Bushroot was silent for a few moments as he digested this thought. "Maybe," he murmured, "But then I have to point out the fact that...well...I'm not sure we _can_ change. Even if we wanted to. If so...what then?"

Rowe was silent for a moment, then sighed, staring at his feet. "Then I guess we just accept our fate."

* * *

Not for the first time, Detective Matthew spied Christine twisting around in her seat to look back at St. Canard, slowly shrinking away the further the police car drove away from it. This was nothing in comparison to the small duck that sat beside her, Charlie, who had yet to _stop _looking back at the currently empty city.

"It'll still be there when you two get to come back, I promise," Matthew stated suddenly, trying to reassure them.

"I don't doubt your word, detective," Christine remarked promptly, turning back around to face forward in the back of the car again, "No matter what happens, I don't think much more harm will come to St. Canard itself. It's the people that are still in it that I'm worried about." she sighed, and shot one more glance through the cruiser's back window at the receding city. "I can't help but feel like I'm abandoning my friends back there."

"To be honest, Miss Merriweather, I don't know what more you could do to help back there anyway," Officer Frank remarked, sitting in the passenger seat beside Matthew, "I mean, don't get me wrong, from what I've heard, you've done lots to help already, but there can't be that much more you could do to help."

"I keep telling myself that, yes," Christine agreed.

"Furthermore, Darkwing wanted you out of the city where it is, for the moment, safer," Matthew added, "He seems quite convinced that things aren't going to get better just yet."

"I know," Christine replied.

"What's Darkwing got to do with you two, anyway?" Frank asked, twisting in his seat to look back at their passengers, "I take it you two know each other a bit?"

Christine made a sheepish grin. "Um, a little bit more than just know, actually."

"Ah," Frank said, nodding as he understood, and thus did not press that subject further, "Well, whatever the case, you know Darkwing has the best intentions at heart by sending you away."

"I know," Christine murmured, "I'm just worried he might not still be there when I come back."

* * *

"We need to talk."

Negaduck looked up from the papers he had been half-heartedly sorting through to pass the time and at NegaGosalyn standing in the doorway of the office. He immediately decided he didn't like her expression, and knew that the wanted father/daughter talk was only going to bring more trouble for him at the moment, trouble he wasn't particularly in the mood to deal with at the moment.

"I'm not in the mood at the moment, Gosalyn, can this wait?" he grumbled, focusing his attention back on the papers before him.

"No," NegaGosalyn stated flatly, shutting the door behind her harshly, the strolling purposely over Negaduck's desk, "I've been doing some digging and found out something."

"Oh really?" Negaduck inquired, not looking up from what he was doing.

"You've been lying to me."

Negaduck paused, glancing up at her, then set down the paperwork and gave NegaGosalyn his full and undivided attention. "Have I now?"

"Don't be coy with me, you know what I'm talking about."

"Seeing that I have a bit of a reputation as being a liar, let's presume for a moment that I don't."

"_My death_. You lied about how I died."

"And how do you know that?"

"_Because_ I did some digging through some paperwork about the event in question. And," NegaGosalyn sat down in a chair and folded her arms as she stared coldly at Negaduck, "I remembered dying."

Negaduck rested his elbows on the desktop and steepled his fingers together. "I thought we agreed it was better that you _didn't _try and remember that event?"

"Because you've been _lying _to me, trying to hide what _really _happened, isn't it? And I want to know _why_."

Negaduck was silent for a moment as he worked to think up an adequate answer. "First off, I probably should say it's not for the reasons you think."

"To heck with that. I only _died _because I was trying to _keep_ others from dying. _Crimson_ of all people, in fact."

"So how much do you remember, anyway?" Negaduck asked coolly.

"Just enough to know that you _lied_."

"Now enough of that! Maybe I did lie. But I did it to protect you. Because that day was a bad day for everyone. I didn't figure you needed that day haunting your memories all the time. I needed you focused on the tasks at hand."

"So...you lied about what happened."

"In an attempt to try and dissuade you from remembering the truth, yes. I figured if you already thought you knew what happened the day you died, you wouldn't have a need to try and remember what really happened."

"But you still _lied_. What _really _happened wasn't what you told me had happened."

"So I'm an opportunist. I also needed to make sure you were truly on my side. So I did, regrettably, take advantage of your little lapse of memory to insure that, and for which I apologize if it made you feel betrayed."

NegaGosalyn snorted at this. "So Crimson and the others weren't really responsible for my death, just as they had told me."

"Detective Matthew really did shoot you, but yes, it wasn't done intentionally. He, like the rest of you, were under the influence of a very nasty drug that clouded his judgement. Reportedly he felt immediate regret for what he did, being the weak-hearted goody-goody he is. Not that I care. But if anybody was to blame for what happened that day..."

"...it would be Daisy," NegaGosalyn finished, remembering the bloodthirsty creation of Bushroot's.

Negaduck nodded, being surprisingly solemn and open for a change. "And for that, I blame Bushroot, but for entirely different reasons. In fact, it was because of him that you were even over there to begin with. I had sent you over there to check up on him because he hadn't shown up at the hideout in three days. By coincidence, the detective, Crimson, and the rest turned up there by chance, trying to arrest the lot of you, so they were really just at the wrong place at the wrong time. In the end, we were kind of forced to team up just so to figure out a way to stop Daisy. Not that it made things much better, because at the end of the day, I had lost you, and both Bushroot and Rowe were off-and-on loopy for _days _while they tried to gradually wing themselves off that stupid drug. All in all, a really bad day. Nothing productive could be gained from reminding you of that day's events."

NegaGosalyn paused to review these details, seeing that they matched what she knew of the event to be fact. Furthermore, the review of these details sparked a few lost memories of the day to resurface that further confirmed this story. Negaduck was telling the truth.

"But you still lied," NegaGosalyn pressed despite all of this, "And because of that, you've damaged my trust in you."

Negaduck sighed, and looked away for a moment. "I know," he admitted, "So no more hiding the truth from you. Obviously more trouble than it's worth, and I've got _enough _trouble on my plate already."

"That you do," NegaGosalyn agreed, "So from here on out, you tell me the truth about _everything_." she looked at Negaduck hard. "That said, is there any other lies you need to rectify to me?"

Negaduck was silent for a moment. "No," he said, looking earnest about it.

NegaGosalyn nodded, and rose. "All right then," she said, heading for the door. Once there, she paused and looked back at Negaduck. "Thank you."

Negaduck glanced at her briefly before returning to his paperwork. "You're welcome."

NegaGosalyn then exited the room, paused to get her bearings, then wandered off. She was glad that she got the matter of her temporary death sorted out finally. But inwardly she felt very ill at ease, feeling that Negaduck was still hiding something from her.

And she knew that if she was right, then the memories that she still could not remember held the answers she wanted...

* * *

As Agent Mia wandered into the SHUSH workroom, she was slightly surprised to see it was only mildly busy, with only a smattering of workers being present in the room, all focusing on one project, and that was repairing the Thunderquack. A lot of the worse damage it had suffered during the course of Negaduck's invasion and siege of St. Canard had already been more or less repaired before now, but those repairs had been very makeshift and imperfect. Now that Negaduck's forces had retreated from SHUSH Headquarters, though, they had access to the resources to repair the jet properly.

Mia was just surprised there weren't more helping. Figuring there was a good explanation, though, Mia sought out someone she knew would know the answer.

"So, couldn't get more helping hands?" she commented as she moved to stand behind him as he leaned into the interior of the Thunderquack to work on it's insides.

Launchpad jumped in surprise, and in the process whacked his head on the open hood. Yelping, then pulling his head out from within the jet, rubbing at it, he turned to look back at Agent Mia.

"Oh, hi Mia," he greeted with a grin, "Um, I think I could've gotten more helping hands if I really felt like it, but most of the people are busy fixing up the rest of the SHUSH building," he leaned back over the mechanisms within the jet and continued working again, "I don't really think I need more people helping than this, anyway. How does that saying go? Too many social workers spoil the kid?"

Mia laughed. "Close enough," she said, "Anyway, I'm just here to check on the progress on the jet anyway. And by the looks of it, it seems like she'll fly again."

"She already _was _flying, just not under ideal circumstances. Because of everything that has happened as of late, we've all been asking a lot of her as of late even when she wasn't in the most ideal of conditions."

"That's been happening a lot lately," Mia agreed, "hopefully it'll all be over soon."

"Sounds like that's a good time to take a break from it all," Launchpad remarked, giving something inside the jet one last final tweak before withdrawing his oily hands, wiping them on a cloth, "Maybe we can go have some fun, just you and me. Go see a movie or something..."

"Oh, of _course_ you'd use something like that to ask me out on a date."

"Well, why not? Seemed no better a time to bring the subject up, and I was just waiting for a chance to do so, so..."

Mia shook her head, still grinning. "Every cloud in your world really _does_ have a silver lining, doesn't it?"

Launchpad looked blank at this. "DW's told me that before," he muttered more to himself than to Mia, unsure how he should react to the comment.

"You do have a point, though. A break is going to be nice, assuming we get this all sorted out in a timely manner. Although...I don't know about a date..."

"Oh c'mon, Mia, we've already been on a couple dates before, we both know we're interested in each other, so why are you so resistant?"

"I don't know Launchpad. I guess...I'm just hesitant about the idea, about how much of an impact it could make to my life and career."

Launchpad closed the hood to the Thunderquack and turned to face her. "I fail to see how any of those impacts could be a bad thing," he said, then motioned to himself, "I mean, it's _me _we're talking about here."

Mia grinned at this. "I suppose I can't argue that point," she admitted, then after a momentary paused, added, "and a movie does sound like fun. It would seem like something extraordinary to deal with for a change instead of all of _this _craziness."

Launchpad grinned back. "I fully agree," he said, then sighed, "I guess all that leaves now is figuring out how we _are _going to get all of this craziness to end."

* * *

"Well, it looks like Elementary Underground faired all of this not too badly," Agent Sandy remarked as she shined her flashlight around the dimly lit corridors while strolling down them, "Hardly any damage anywhere save for a few bulletholes and a few entrances that got blasted open. Really, the worse of the damage is a collapsed corridor and the power generator giving out, the latter of which is believed to not even be related to Negaduck's invasion. Could've been a lot worse, couldn't it?"

She glanced at Agent Todd who accompanied her with his own flashlight, but the canine didn't give her an audible response. Instead, he warily wandered down the hallways, ever alert for some hidden danger that probably wasn't even there. He was so on edge, though, that it was clear he was trying his hardest not to tremble, and his patch-colored fur stood on end.

"Todd, relax," she told him, "There's nothing down here that'll hurt you."

"I-I know, but the last time I was down here...heh...it was still in-in enemy hands, and there was danger ar-around every corner," Todd explained nervously, keeping a constant lookout for trouble.

"Todd, the commandos have already been down here and confirmed that the place is secure," Sandy pointed out, "We're not down here looking for trouble anyway."

"N-n-not necessarily, we're down here looking for possible and discreet ways to sneak people into C-C-Canard Tower in a possible attempt to raid N-Negaduck's forces within. I'd say that would be l-l-looking for tr-trouble. F-f-furthermore, it _is _incredibly creepy and quiet down here at the moment, and experience has told me during this past mon-month that such things usually signify trouble lurking somewhere." Todd managed a weak chuckle. "Besides, better safe than sorry, right?"

Sandy sighed, and gave Todd an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, you're right," she admitted, "I just...keep forgetting what terrible things you have been through that the rest of us conveniently don't remember. The last thing I remember before my memory goes blank was heading towards the edge of town to work at evacuating people on the night of the takeover. I don't remember anything after that until suddenly waking up on a cot at headquarters yesterday afternoon, after the worse was over. I have no frame of reference to use to even begin to understand what you've gone through, and just end up coming across as...ignorant." she sighed. "It makes me wish I hadn't gotten magicked at all, so I can better understand what happened."

At this Todd promptly stopped and, suddenly still and withdrawn, reached out with one hand and stopped Sandy. "No," he said sternly, "you don't. Trust me. It's a blessing you don't know just how bad this past month has been." Removing his hand, he now grinned reassuringly. "Just be glad it's over now. I am. It's good to have you back where you belong."

Sandy blushed a little at this. "Thank you, Todd," she replied, "It's good to be back."

"Right," Todd said, as they both started onward, then acting on a sudden afterthought added, "along with everyone else, of course."

Sandy grinned. "Of course." She shined her light around a little, then changed the subject. "Are we getting close to Canard Tower's location? Feels like we've been walking forever."

"I hope so," Todd replied, going back to looking uneasily around, "These tunnels all look alike. I feel like we've been walking around in circles."

Sandy suddenly stopped, eyes locking on the intersection in tunnels they were coming up on. "I think we are," she remarked, and turned to Todd, "Didn't we already step through this intersection?"

Todd hesitated. "I-I-I don't know," he confessed, "Like I said, these hallways all look the same to me."

Sandy took a few more steps forward, examining the intersection, then once within it, turned around and looked back the way she came. "Yeah, we've been through here before," she deduced, her brow furrowed, "We stepped through here earlier to get to the tunnels that would lead to Canard Tower."

Todd joined her, and realized it was true. "You're right," he said, paused, then amended, "Well, sort of," he pointed to the tunnel behind them, "_that's _the tunnel that's supposed to lead to Canard Tower."

Sandy glanced back at it, "Yeah, we went through that tunnel to get here the _first _time," she remarked, remembering, "It approached Canard Tower from an angle."

"Right, and here that tunnel branches out into two more," Todd said, motioning to the two tunnels that branched off the first at equal angles before dropping his hands again in frustration, "But neither one of those tunnels are going to lead us to Canard Tower. If anything, _that _tunnel," he pointed again to the tunnel behind them, "would get us there if it kept going straight instead of branching out into new tunnels, because Canard Tower _should _be straight ahead. But it doesn't _do _that, and none of these tunnels connects to one that will led to Canard Tower."

"Right, because we went down that tunnel," Sandy remarked, pointing to the tunnel that branched off to the left, "and ended up back here through _that _tunnel," she pointed to the tunnel than branched off to the right, the tunnel they had just exited to get back to this one intersection, "And I didn't see any tunnels that would lead in the right direction during all of that, nor any tunnels that would even lead to the surface. Did you?"

"No, I didn't," Todd admitted, and getting a thought, looked up and down the tunnels that branched off again, "In fact, it looks like these tunnels go completely _around _Canard Tower, completely _avoiding _making any connections with the building."

Sandy turned to look at him, shining her light on him. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"But...why would that be?"

"I don't know," Todd now turned to look at Sandy, "But I know where to find out."

* * *

Back at SHUSH Headquarters, Todd and Sandy a wireframe diagram of Elementary Underground with St. Canard sitting above it on the surface. Typing in commands, the diagram zoomed in on the wireframe model of Canard Tower in the center of the city, then panned the angle until the tunnels underneath could clearly be seen. Todd stopped moving the diagram and pointed.

"There, you see?" he asked his audience.

Darkwing and Hooter looked at the diagram, then jointly tilted their heads in opposite directions from each other, looking in puzzlement at what the diagram showed.

"None of the tunnels go under Canard Tower," Darkwing noted, "they all go around it," he shook his head, "I don't understand though, what's the big deal about this?"

"I must concur with Darkwing on this matter, Agent Todd," Hooter agreed, "It is curious that these tunnels do this, particularly seeing that the same restraint isn't always shown with other buildings, but I fail to see what this tells us other than the fact that we will not be able to go into Canard Tower that way."

"Yes, but, sir, while there _are _other tunnels that don't go under certain buildings, that only happens by pure chance," Sandy stated, "Here, it seems more like the tunnels were built to _deliberately _avoid going under Canard Tower. And this didn't make the least bit of sense. Canard Tower is positioned in the center of St. Canard, and seems like it'd be a great place for at least _one _set of tunnels to intersect under it."

"Okay, I'll give you guys that much," Darkwing admitted, nodding in agreement to Sandy's reasoning, "But we didn't build Elementary Underground, The Elements did. We just took it and made use of it after they left. So I still don't see what the big deal is."

"Well, I figured there had to be an explanation for why the tunnels of Elementary Underground deliberately avoided going under or connecting to Canard Tower, so I conducted a few scans," Todd said, tapping controls again, "And this is what I found."

The diagram on the screen flickered, and then a purple wireframe, rectangular, cube appeared in the empty space the tunnels avoided interacting with. Darkwing and Hooter regarded the shape for a moment, their expressions turning puzzled again.

"What are we looking at here?" Hooter asked.

"That's a good question, director," Todd said, "because I can't tell you what's in that space. But I can tell you what surrounds it. Some sort of electrical shielding that blocks all scans, and probably any and all attempts at forced entry to get past it. And it's like no shielding I've ever seen before. I don't think anything we have here at SHUSH can penetrate it. The tunnels don't intersect this space because they _can't_ penetrate the shielding. And I have no way of knowing what's behind it."

Darkwing and Hooter glanced at Todd for a moment, then back at the diagram, now thoroughly intrigued.

"Now watch when Todd adds in the floor plan for Canard Tower," Sandy said, pleased she had the attention of her superiors, then nodded at Todd.

Todd typed in a few more commands into the computer, then more wireframe rectangular boxes appeared on the diagram in a neat stack, representing each individual floor in Canard Tower. The floors went on down two levels into the ground, and stopped just above the level the tunnels of Elementary Underground existed in. Consequently, right above the purple box that represented the dimensions of the shield Todd had discovered. So much so the two practically touched. More than that, the dimensions of the shield were identical in size and shape as the individual floors that sat above it.

It seemed like an interesting coincidence, until Darkwing realized what Todd and Sandy were implying. "Wait, are you suggesting that shielding you discovered is protecting another floor to Canard Tower?" he asked.

"A _third _sub-level in Canard Tower?" Hooter proclaimed, shocked by this announcement, "But there should only be two!"

"Look, director, we don't really know anything about what's within the shielding, but that's what the evidence seems to suggest," Sandy explained.

They all looked at the diagram in silence for a few moments.

"So I guess the question we should be asking now is why would there be a hidden level to Canard Tower that not even SHUSH knew about, and what's in it?" Darkwing reasoned finally.

"It has to be something important, otherwise why the extreme measures with the shielding?" Todd logically deduced.

"All right, so everybody try and come up with ideas as to what could be in there," Hooter requested.

"Hmm," Darkwing said, rubbing his beak as he started to pace, "Maybe Negs has something to do with this."

"That's what I was thinking," Sandy agreed, "I have to wonder if Negaduck for some reason discreetly built this level and is using it to build some kind of project."

"But Negs already has a project that he's working on, that machine he's building on the _top _floor of Canard Tower," Darkwing pointed out, "I wouldn't think he would have the time, or the resources, to work another at the same time, especially now."

"Darkwing is correct," Hooter agreed, "But it might still be possible that Negaduck is hiding something down there, perhaps something he brought with him from say...the Negaverse."

"Well then, the only thing I can think of would be a portal generator," Todd said, "But even that wouldn't make sense, because Negaduck had access to the SHUSH portal generator since the start of the invasion on up until yesterday afternoon."

"Maybe it's a back-up, in case his plans failed," Sandy reasoned.

"That still wouldn't make sense, because Negaduck would probably have loads of portal remotes, which would be more efficient and more practical for such an emergency anyway," Darkwing stated, "Maybe it's some kind of...ace in the hole for Negs to fall back to in case all else fails...something guaranteed to work in his advantage."

"Well, whatever the case, this is all cause enough to investigate this supposed secret floor," Hooter said, locking his eyes on the diagram again, "We need to get in there."

"But how?" Sandy asked, "You heard Todd. We can't penetrate the shielding."

"You sure, Todd?" Darkwing asked, turning to the canine, "There must be _some _way to get past those shields."

Todd thought about it for a moment. "I suppose one could theoretically use a burst of energy tuned to just the right frequency to do it, as I'd bet that energy could get past the shield, but that wouldn't do any good, because that would only allow the energy through, nothing like say a person or scanning waves. And a burst of energy on those kind of frequencies couldn't do any damage, nor weaken or disrupt the shielding any. It would just kind of...phase through it." he shrugged. "That's no good to us at all."

Then Darkwing suddenly got a wild idea. "Maybe not."

* * *

It took awhile to try and track him down, but once they had, Darkwing rallied together Crimson and Launchpad, as well as Agents Mia and Sandy, to go fetch him. He was currently in a presently abandoned, but not inaccessible, building on main street a few blocks down from the town square. He was caught up on working with various projects of his own creation, and was not immediately aware he had visitors. This gave them time to take positions around. Once they were, Darkwing announced their presence.

"Hello Gigavolt," he said calmly.

The electrical apparition given Megavolt's form reacted instantly, spinning away from his little project and unleashing a bolt of energy at Darkwing's head. Anticipating the action, however, Darkwing quickly ducked the bolt, and responded by firing the Teryx teleporter attachment on his gas gun at Gigavolt. The bolt struck him, doing nothing more than stunning Gigavolt for a spilt second, getting him to hold off on any more attacks for a moment. It was clear he wasn't happy to see his guests, though.

"Ah-ah!" Crimson remarked when Gigavolt started to recover and went to retaliate, threatening him with her gas gun, Darkwing doing likewise, Mia and Sandy drawing their own weapons despite the fact that they were pretty much useless against the likes of Gigavolt, "You know we can stop you when we bombard you with the energy shots from this weapon. We've done it before. Give us an excuse, and we'll do it again."

At this, Gigavolt grinned. "I'm sure you won't like the end results of what will happen if you do that," he stated, knowing what would happen.

"Oh, we already know what will happen, you'll be so overloaded with excess energy, you have to expel it all at once in an explosion, or at least that was SHUSH's theory," Darkwing commented coolly, "Whatever the case, there is one very important difference between this occasion from last time. Because last time, I'm not sure you remember, took place on _my _home turf, and yes, the resulting blast had devastating and lasting effects. But _this _time, should such a blast repeat itself, it would take place in _here_." Darkwing glanced around briefly. "And I _do _believe this would be _your _home turf, yes? Wonder what that blast would do to that little project I see you're working on there..."

Gigavolt glanced back at the project he was working on, and sighed. "All right, you've made your point," he stated, folding his arms, the aura of energy that perpetually surrounded him flickering as he relaxed a little, "What do you want?"

"We are in need of your services, so we want to strike an agreement," Mia explained curtly.

"Hmm," Gigavolt remarked, considering this, "I hope you realize that while my memory isn't the best, I do know that are not allies, and likely will never be allies."

"We acknowledge that we're likely to forever be foes," Darkwing stated, "But this doesn't have to do with that, this has to do with Negaduck. I mean, we've recaptured most of the city from his control, but he's not finished yet."

"I am aware," Gigavolt assured them.

"But are you aware of what effects whatever it is that Negaduck's planning could have on you?" Sandy asked, "He's building a machine that we are convinced is going to help him succeed at his goals, and if he does succeed, it _will _affect you, Gigavolt."

"Negaduck will always be my enemy," Gigavolt deduced.

"Exactly," Crimson said, "Christine told me they talked to you about this. Because Negaduck is an enemy to both of us, we share a common goal in beating him."

"I am not interested in beating Negaduck," Gigavolt said, "I merely wish to be left alone."

"Negaduck isn't going to leave you alone, you know," Launchpad pointed out.

"_You _won't leave me alone either."

"And no one _is _going to leave you alone Gigs unless you help us."

Gigavolt fell silent for a few moments.

"Look, we need your help, and if you _do_, we all might benefit from it," Darkwing reasoned to the energy being, "But we aren't going to find out unless you help us."

Gigavolt debated for a moment, then nodded. "Fine, I'll help," he said, "Just this once."

* * *

Gigavolt was escorted right to the location in Elementary Underground by the group, tagged along this time by a smattering of SHUSH commandos and Agent Todd. Gigavolt came willingly, and did nothing to resist or cause harm, but all eyes watched him carefully, unsure how he could respond to his situation at any given moment.

Todd motioned to the wall that presumably divided them from whatever was behind the shield. "The shielding should be right behind here," he said.

"Yes, I can sense it from here," Gigavolt responded, uninterested in what Todd had to say.

"You...you can?" Todd said, surprised, visibly fascinated by the idea.

"Think you can get through it, Gigs?" Darkwing asked quickly, keeping them on subject.

Gigavolt glanced back at him for a moment. "We'll see," he said.

And with that, he launched himself at the wall, reverting into his bolt form, and vanished into it, allowing the energies that made him spread across the metallic surface. Arches of electrical energy washed over the wall for several moments as Gigavolt sought a decent way to get past both the shield and into whatever was behind it. Finally, with a sudden flash of light at one end of the wall, all of the energy rapidly coalesced on that one point and vanished. Silence fell as all eyes watched the wall, waiting for Gigavolt to return.

"How long do you think it's going to take him to come back?" Darkwing asked Todd.

"Assuming he chooses to come back at all," Mia pointed out, "He could just choose to use this chance to flee."

"Well, I suppose that's possible, given Gigavolt's possibilities," Todd admitted, considering the possibility, "But to answer the question, it's hard to say. It really depends on what he finds in there. So it could be anywhere from an hour to maybe a few minutes to..."

There was another flash of light and Gigavolt suddenly emerged from the wall and landed before the group.

Todd blinked. "...right now."

"What did you see?" Crimson asked, stepping towards Gigavolt.

Gigavolt glanced at her. "You were correct, there is another level of rooms behind the shield," he announced, "It seems to be empty and uninhabited at the moment, but there are signs of recent activity in there. However, the most interesting feature was a large central room in the middle of the floor, sealed off with a locked door and another shield, this one of a different design than the first."

"_Another _shield?" Sandy repeated, surprised, "Just what was in there? Did you see?"

"I was able to circumvent the second shield and see, yes," Gigavolt replied, "As for what I saw..." he hesitated, "I am not entirely sure _what _it is. I don't think I've ever seen something quite like it before."

"Well, maybe we can figure it out," Todd suggested, "can you describe it, or draw a picture, or something?"

"I can do better than that," Gigavolt said, and he waved his hands in the air before him, creating a well of energy that started to form a holographic, three-dimensional, picture.

The group watched as the shape took form, unrecognizable at first, but once it was finished, it started to look more than a little familiar to some of them, albeit unexpectedly.

"No way," Agent Sandy commented, shocked.

Darkwing's beak opened slightly in surprise. "Is it just me, or does that thing look a lot like..."

"Yeah, it does," Launchpad agreed, nodding in agreement.

"In fact, I think that's _exactly_ what it is," Crimson added.

"No, no, that's impossible," Darkwing persisted, "Because if it _is _what I think it is, then it shouldn't be _here_."

"And yet," Todd remarked, watching the object revolve as he motioned to it with one hand, "there it is."

Silently, they all looked at the object Gigavolt had seen locked in the hidden floor for several moments, not quite sure what to make of this incident.

"Keen gear," Crimson muttered to herself.

* * *

Hooter wasn't quite sure what to make of this development either. "Are you _certain_?" he asked Darkwing, glancing up from the report to look at vigilante standing in his office.

"As certain as I am of Gigavolt's word," Darkwing admitted, "I mean, he's the only one who's actually seen it as of yet."

"So he _could _be lying?" Agent Grant asked, also in the room, listening.

"Maybe," Darkwing said, "But I don't think so. He shouldn't know it exists, supervillain or not, and he himself said he didn't recognize it. Besides, why would he lie? What could he possibly stand to gain from that?"

"You raise a good point," Grant agreed, taking the report from Hooter and reviewing it again, "Because if this really _is _down there, then this could actually be of use to us."

"And of course, you know who can confirm whether or not this is for real," Darkwing added, looking at Hooter.

Hooter nodded, seeing what he was getting at. "Agent Grant, could please arrange a meeting with Vice President Norrin for me, as quickly as possible? The sooner the better. And don't let him try and weasel his way out of it, either."

Grant grinned at the prospect, setting down the report. "Right away, director," he said, and turned to leave.

"Now Darkwing, in the meantime, I'd like you to be brainstorming ideas that we could possibly use to take advantage of this little development," Hooter said.

"Already working on a few ideas," Darkwing said with a grin, "Grant's right. This could be a really _big _help to us."

* * *

The more NegaGosalyn thought about it, the more uneasy she became. After she had spoken to Negaduck earlier, she had gone back to her room and started pacing, wondering what to do now. Part of her wanted to take Negaduck at his word and trust what he was doing. But she knew that he had already lied to her before, more than once. So an ever growing part of her didn't want to trust him at all. That same part was telling her that she needed to get away from all of this before it was too late.

But she wasn't entirely sure why. Negaduck had attempted to hide the truth from her, yes, but had reasons why. His intents behind some of those reasons were less than honorable, but that was Negaduck. The rest all checked out as logically sound. Negaduck had lied to her in an attempt to protect her. And seeing that he was her adopted father, this made sense.

...Until you reminded yourself that this was Negaduck.

NegaGosalyn wasn't sure what bothered her more. Whether or not she could trust Negaduck, or the fact that Negaduck had actually admitted to caring for her, something he had never really been too open about before. It was a very...unusual move for him. Which was what disconcerted her. She had at first been flattered by the admission up until she realized it was so out of character for Negaduck and now was wondering if Negaduck had only told her that to reassure her, and didn't really mean it. Which meant he was still lying to her, now lying about things that would cut deep if truly false.

Then there was the subject of her memories. She was convinced all the answers she wanted was locked away in them, she just had to remember. But there was so much she had forgotten, and no matter how much she though about it, they wouldn't resurface just on demand. Something had to spark their resurfacing, like some kind of reminder. At least, that was how it had worked so far. But she had no idea what would do the trick, if anything at all.

And then there was what she _could _remember, and the more she recalled, the more she saw that something didn't add up about all of this. Something that felt off. Something about herself. She would look back at herself, and see things that didn't fit with her character as she understood it. Like the memory of her death. She died saving Crimson's life, or so it seemed. Someone she had thought was the enemy. And no one, not even herself, could quite explain why she had done that.

And there were other incidents as well that left equally, if not more, puzzled. NegaGosalyn wasn't quite sure who she was anymore, much less what side she was on. What she needed was answers, but she wasn't sure who she could turn to get them. If they were outside this building, then she wasn't sure she could ever get at them without getting into more trouble. And everyone in this building she either couldn't trust what they told her at face value, or just simply wouldn't know.

No, wait. That wasn't true. There _was _someone in this building who would know.

But the question was, would he help her? Would anyone even _let _him?

NegaGosalyn paused, and turned to look at the P90 she had set to one side, a wild and crazy idea coming to mind that she didn't really like, but she was becoming desperate, her mind so torn over things that she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep herself together, and she knew it could very well be her best, and only, option. And after a moment's hesitation, she surrendered to the promptings of the idea, scooped up the P90, and hurried out the door. She strode purposely through the hallways of Canard Tower, thankful that they were mostly empty, and when they were not, few gave her a second glance. Nor did she encounter Negaduck, but she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid him for long.

She stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the topmost floor it would go to. Nervously, she paced the small space of the elevator as it made it's seemingly slow trip to it's destination, the soft jazzy sound of the elevator music making the whole situation seem ridiculous and less serious than it really was. Finally, it arrived with a bing, and NegaGosalyn was forcing herself through the doors before they had even finished opening. She hurried down the hallway she found herself in, up a brief staircase to the next floor up from that, down a smaller hallway and straight to the door that separated her from Negaduck's machine. She quickly swiped her security card through the reader before carelessly throwing the card aside and throwing the door open, P90 raised.

There weren't many people in the room beyond, just two guards stationed at the door, who turned to look at NegaGosalyn in surprise when she entered so noisily, with two more standing near the machine itself, which was very close to being finished now. NegaGosalyn ignored all of the four guards, however, and headed straight to the one, and presently, only person working on the machine.

Techno sighed and looked up from his work and wearily at the ceiling when he heard NegaGosalyn's noisy entrance. "Look, Negs," he said, starting to turn, not realizing who was really approaching him, "Like I told you before, I am going as fast as I can. It would be faster if you'd..."

He trailed off when he finished his turn and saw that it was really NegaGosalyn approaching him, pointing a gun at his chest. Freezing, he slowly raised his hands into his air, clearly not sure what this was about. The guards, seeing that NegaGosalyn was threatening their valuable prisoner without cause or reason, also went for their own weapons, gearing up to act if need be, stepping closer, but like Techno, weren't sure what this was about and were unsure how to act, if they should act at all.

NegaGosalyn only focused on Techno however. "Tell me everything you know about me," she demanded, brandishing the P90 angrily at him, "Now!"

* * *

By the time one of the guards had radioed Negaduck and he had arrived on the top floor along with Negawing and General Mallard to investigate the situation, however, Techno still hadn't said anything, unsure if he should, and why he needed to. NegaGosalyn hadn't backed down though, still pointing the P90 at Techno, and seemed to have no intention at that time to do so.

"Gosalyn!" Negaduck exclaimed when he arrived, Negawing and the general putting their hands on their own weapons as a precaution, "What do think you're _doing_?"

"Stay back!" NegaGosalyn ordered as Negaduck started towards her, her eyes never leaving Techno, "This doesn't concern you!"

"It does when you're waving a gun around at people for no reason!" Negaduck snapped back, but kept his distance as requested, "Unless you can tell me what your reasons for this course of actions are!"

"I'm getting answers!"

"_What _answers?"

"I think she wants me to tell her everything I know about her, apparently," Techno remarked, trying to figure it out himself, "I'm guessing this is about the memories I'm told she can't remember from before she died," he looked at NegaGosalyn optimistically

"Really?" Negaduck sighed, "Is that _all_? In that case, we can sort this out easily. Put the gun down, and come back with me, and I can explain everything you want to know."

"I don't _want _to hear it from you, I can't _trust _you!" NegaGosalyn countered, "_That's_ what this is about!"

"So you went to _Techno_?"

"Hey!" Techno remarked, offended, "And what's wrong with me telling her?"

"Be quiet, Techno!" Negaduck remarked, and shirked answering the question, "You _want_ to get shot?"

"Because you can't trust me to tell your version!" Techno realized, and allowed himself a snidely smile, "You're right, NegaGosalyn, you can't trust him, he's been lying to you."

"I know, I've already figured out one of his lies, confronted him about it," NegaGosalyn responded in a griping manner that reminded Techno of his own Gosalyn. Behind her, Techno could see Negaduck inwardly fuming, "So he sold out, and he told the truth about that matter, but I don't know what else he might be lying about, if anything at all."

"He might just be withholding information,"

"Techno!" Negaduck shouted warningly, "I don't need your help!"

"He's done that too," NegaGosalyn acknowledged, ignoring Negaduck, "He claims he did it for my protection."

"And I _did_!" Negaduck exclaimed, now sounding offended as he started again to approach NegaGosalyn, "Look Gos..."

"Ah-ah!" NegaGosalyn snapped warningly, shooting him a quick glance over her shoulder, "You keep back! I don't want you interfering! This is just between me and Techno!"

"Like Techno's really the better source to turn to!"

"Between me and whomever will tell me the truth, then!"

"And she knows she can get the truth from me!" Techno argued, glancing at Negaduck.

Negaduck sighed. "Look, Gos, I can see you don't trust me, and maybe that's for a good reason. But _really_, this is taking it too far!"

"You're only worried because Techno's a valuable resource to you, and nothing more!" NegaGosalyn snapped. "You think everything is only a valuable resource to you!" she paused. "Including me." her eyes narrowed. "So you tell me, Negs. _Is _this taking things too far?"

Negaduck hesitated. "I need him alive, Gos," he pressed, "And you know it, too. We have _all _come too far to have this plan fail simply because you decide you needed to use force to get some answers!" he watched her for a moment, hoping he was getting through to her, but it was pretty clear that he wasn't. "Darn it, Gos! We don't have time for this!"

"Oh, I dunno, I wasn't doing anything particularly important, take all the time you want, guys." Techno remarked snidely.

"Not! Helping! Techno!" Negaduck exclaimed with extra emphasis on each word, "Look, I know I lied to you Gos, and that I've hurt you, but I did it for a darn good reason! I've already told you as such! You _have _to believe me!"

"But that's just _it_!" NegaGosalyn exclaimed back. "I _don't_! And I _can't _believe you because you've already lied to me _once_! How many other times could you have lied to me that I don't know about? Can't _you _see? I can't take anything you say at face value! And I'm just sick of all of it! About the fact that everyone else is controlling my life, but not me! Shouldn't _I _be able to choose what I want to do for once?"

Negaduck was silent and gave no reply. NegaGosalyn couldn't tell because she still had her back turned to him, but Techno saw him look away from her. It was then he realized something.

"He's afraid that you just might," he remarked aloud, drawing NegaGosalyn's attention.

Negaduck also glanced his way. "Techno..." he growled warningly, already knowing where Techno was going to go with this.

Techno was unfazed by the threat. "In fact, you already _did _choose once," he continued commenting aloud, "And it wasn't a choice he wanted."

"I mean it, Techno!" Negaduck exclaimed again, "Don't do it!"

NegaGosalyn ignored him. "What did I choose?" she asked Techno softly.

Techno looked at her reassuringly. "Our side."

Negaduck suddenly had his pistol out and pointed at Techno in a flash, causing everyone else to tighten their grips on their own weapons. "Shut up Techno!" he barked. "You say one more word, and I swear, I _will _insure that you keep silent!"

A moment of silence fell as Techno hesitated due to the threat. NegaGosalyn, meanwhile, digested this information, the flickerings of lost memories starting to return to her. "I chose your side?" she repeated, seeming to be confused by this revelation.

Again, Techno hesitated to reply. "He's been lying to you, Gos," he said, "He's hidden the truth from you so to keep you from switching sides on him again."

"TECHNO!" Negaduck roared, starting to squeeze the trigger on his pistol, "I am _so _about to fill you up with so much lead..."

NegaGosalyn suddenly spun around and pointed her P90 at Negaduck. "You shoot him, then I'll shoot you!" she announced plainly, "You two-timing, lying, son of a...and to _think_ I considered you a father figure!"

"Now that's below the belt!" Negaduck remarked.

"But it's true, isn't it?" Techno snapped. "You don't deserve that honor, and deep down, she knew it, too! _That's_ why she can't trust you, and why _she _could trust me! You've done more than betray her–"

He was cut short when Negawing, not Negaduck, suddenly fired his weapon at Techno. He purposely missed, the fired bullet only gazing the side of Techno's helmet, but it served it's purpose in silencing Techno for the moment, the force of the graze enough to knock him over and stunning him into being quiet. NegaGosalyn glanced back at him briefly, then back at Negaduck, starting to look mad.

Negaduck leveled a stern gaze back at her. "Now let me just make one thing clear," he said. "If it hadn't taken you in, Gos, you would've ended up on the streets. The streets of _my _Negaverse. At the age you were at then, with the personality you sported then, you wouldn't have lasted the night. You would've been dead somewhere at the bottom of some ditch if not _worse_. So whether you believe it or not, I did you a _favor_ when I accepted to care for you!"

"You only did it because you made a deal with my grandfather that you didn't want to back out of without making yourself look bad!" NegaGosalyn argued.

"Something I couldn't afford at the time, yes!" Negaduck admitted. "But I can _assure _you there was a heck of a lot better reason why I did it! I did it, because not even I could stand to see you just get pushed out of the way! I did it because..." at this, he trailed off for a moment, looking away for a split second again. When he glanced back, he spoke in a voice that suddenly sounded a lot more Darkwing than it did Negaduck. "...because I cared for you Gos."

* * *

The room was suddenly silent after this revelation. Techno, lying on the floor still and double checking to insure that he truly was unhurt, went wide-eyed at the fact that he had actually heard Negaduck confess something he thought he would never hear from the villain. This reaction was similar with everyone else in the room, including Negawing and General Mallard, who stared at Negaduck in complete surprise. Even NegaGosalyn was taken aback by this, and her aim started to waver slightly.

Negaduck took annoyance at their looks of surprise. "All right, I admit it!" he exclaimed, starting to sound like Negaduck again as he looked at all of them in turn, "The great and terrible Negaduck, public enemy number one, hater of all, actually _cares _for someone! I know what it looks like! You all probably think I've gone _soft_. I assure you it wasn't intentional! But..." he paused and glanced back at NegaGosalyn, "Gos, even I had to acknowledge that you were the closest thing I had to having my own, flesh and blood, offspring. It took me awhile to acknowledge it, but I realized you were my one and only heir. And I couldn't squander that chance. Gos, I have..._big_ plans for you. Nothing would please me more to see you follow in my footsteps, and for awhile there, it looked like you _were_. But then, you made that one choice and rebelled against me. I should've done something then and there about it, but...I couldn't. Not even then. Then that blasted plant-wife of Bushroot's saw to it that you got killed, an ever bigger blow, because I had thought that you were lost forever now. Then I met Negarian, and we learned of your magical blood and used it to bring you back to life! It was like getting a second chance, Gos! And your inexplicable memory loss only added to that! Now admit, I exploited your lost memories to no end, manipulated you to keep you from making the same choices you did, but..." he looked at NegaGosalyn almost pleadingly. "I don't want to loose you again, to see you go down this path once more."

NegaGosalyn hesitated a moment and considered all of this, looking a little shaken by all of this. Her P90 started to lower, and for a moment, it seemed like she was going to give in, but then just as suddenly, it started to rise again.

"But that's not your choice to make," NegaGosalyn realized, and looked Negaduck in the eye coldly, "It's mine. And if you _really _cared about me, you would've let me."

She suddenly turned and fired her P90 at one of the room's ceiling-to-floor windows, shooting it out in a spray of shattered glass. With one hand, she promptly lifted techno back onto his feet to stand beside her. Then she jabbed her P90 at Negaduck again.

"The next time we meet Negaduck," she vowed, "it will not be on good terms."

And with that, she turned and ran for the broken window, pulling Techno along beside her, who quickly caught on. The gunman surrounding them were slow to react at first, startled as they were by all of this, but finally started shooting a few seconds too late as the pair reached the window and Techno activated his rocket boots and jetted out of it and into the empty sky outside. Everyone moved to the window to keep shooting at the escapees, hoping to get a better aim...except Negaduck, who didn't fire off a shot, and only stood there numbly. Finally, it became clear while no one could tell if any of their shots were hitting the rapidly escaping duo, it didn't seem to be slowing their escape any, and gave up, lowering their weapons. Slowly, they all turned to look back at Negaduck, unsure what to do now.

"What now, Negs?" Negawing inquired.

For a moment, Negaduck didn't reply. Then he suddenly hurled his unfired pistol across the room and turned his back on the group. "Finish the machine!" he barked, "All of you! Now! It's all I have left, and I am NOT about to let it get taken from me too!"

* * *

Agent Grant had finished radioing Vice President Norrin and requesting he pay SHUSH Headquarters for a visit and got him to agree none to willingly, when he heard another transmission beginning to come through.

"This is Techno, on route to SHUSH Headquarters, requesting permission to land on the rooftop pad," the transmission ran, "Be advised, I am starting to run low on fuel, so I hope you respond quickly, or I might just be forced to land anyway."

Agent Grant hesitated a split second, then patched himself into the transmission to send a response. "This is Agent Grant," he began, then paused for a moment. "Is this really you, Techno?"

A laugh. "Yes, it's really me, Agent Grant. I've got a guest here with me too that I think will be a big help to boot. Permission to land?"

Grant again hesitated a moment, too surprised to find the right words quickly enough. "Granted!" he exclaimed finally, then went to relay the news to everyone.

* * *

Currently Crimson was helping agents collect and dispose of debris in a SHUSH issued incinerator. Just down the hall from where she worked, just out of sight, Rowe paced nervously, muttering to himself as he sought the right words for what he wanted to say to her well in advance before he actually said them.

"Okay Crimson," he said to himself, "I know now probably isn't a good time, but we need to talk. What about? About where you and I stand on...things. I know what you're going to say about that, but no matter what you tell me, it doesn't seem to change my mind about...about how I feel about...things. So I need to know, and tell me truthfully, do you have _any _feelings back about...these things?"

The otter shook his head, not liking how that sounded, but wasn't coming up with anything better, so he was just about to gather up as much nerve as he could to go confront Crimson when Crimson suddenly came running down the corridor towards him.

"Crimson!" he exclaimed, "Hey, uh, hi, uh, um..."

"Sorry, I can't talk now, Rowe, I'm needed on the roof!" she explained to him quickly as she hurried past him, continuing on running down the hallway.

Rowe hesitated a moment, then hurried after her, curious about what was going on. As they ran, they were joined by others, such as Darkwing, Launchpad, even Director Hooter himself, and a multitude of SHUSH agents. Whatever was happening, it had everyone in some kind of excited buzz. Finally they arrived on the roof as one large disjointed mass, Rowe purposely lagging behind in the back. Already on the roof was Lieutenant Taylor and the two Crimson universal doubles, Negawing Crimson and the Dark Avenger. Once there, everyone turned to look skyward as if to look for something. Keeping to standing in the doorway leading onto the roof, Rowe followed everyone's gaze, wondering what they were supposed to be looking for.

"There they are!" someone in the group suddenly exclaimed, and pointed their finger up into the sky.

Everyone turned to look. Rowe peered up at the sky, and at first still saw nothing, but then finally spied it and saw why it was so hard to see. It was incredibly small, no bigger than a person, but it was rapidly approaching the building. Once it got closer, Rowe saw that it _was_ person, flying with what appeared to be rocket boots. Now coming closer still, Rowe was surprised to see that it was Techno, and then was even more surprised to notice that he carried NegaCrimson in his arms. This was apparently good news, because everyone started to cheer and applaud as Techno came in for a smooth landing on the roof.

Once he was safely on the ground and had released NegaCrimson who stepped to one side, Rowe started forward to give his support for this event, but froze again when he saw Crimson suddenly lunge forward and grab Techno, pulling him in for a kiss. There was some playful oohs from the group at this sight, and Rowe heard Darkwing make an inaudible shout of protest, but his attention was focused on Crimson and Techno. He watched as the kiss continued for a moment, then switched to a hug as Crimson pulled Techno in a relieved and overjoyed embrace, an embrace Techno only needed a second to begin returning in full.

Rowe watched this continue for a few moments, then silently turned and walked back off the roof and into the building, mixed feelings starting to bubble up within him, but at least he knew one thing now.

His question for Crimson had been answered.

* * *

"What are you _doing _here?" Crimson exclaimed at Techno gratefully, "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's great to see you here again, but..."

"I know, I'm kind of surprised myself, but I am _not _about to complain!" Techno replied.

"How did you manage to escape?" Darkwing asked puzzled.

"Well, we have NegaGos here to thank for that," Techno said, his cheerfulness fading a little as he motioned to the universal double.

Crimson pulled away from Techno and faced her double. "So..."she began, "I take it you remember a few things now that you had forgotten."

NegaGosalyn nodded solemnly. "I do," she admitted, "And it left me in a place to make a very undesirable choice. I didn't like having to make it, but..." she managed a weak grin. "I think I made the right one."

"And Negaduck?"

"No longer on his side, so I say let's bring him down, the sooner the better."

"Join the club," the Dark Avenger remarked as she strolled up. "Seems everybody wants their chance at Negaduck."

"Not me," Negawing Gosalyn remarked, also joining them, "I'm just here for Negawing."

NegaGosalyn looked at the pair critically for a moment, then pointed at Negawing Gosalyn. "I like your hair," she remarked slowly, the first thing that came to mind she could comment on.

"_Thank you_ Gosalyn of the Negaverse," Negawing Gosalyn remarked proudly, then turned to the Dark Avenger and slapped her shoulder. "_See_? My hairstyle is a heck of a lot better than _yours_."

"Oh, would you two _stop _fighting over that?" Crimson pleaded in dismay.

"Yes, please!" Taylor spoke up, having been watching the four despite his better judgement, "It's giving me a headache!"

A ripple of laughter went through the crowd at this.

"NegaCrimson," Hooter said, entering the conversation suddenly, "I know you just got here and all, but if you really have switched sides, then you will need to be debriefed."

"Yes. _Yes_, absolutely, right away," NegaGosalyn remarked, instantly agreeing and remembering why she was here, exchanging a knowing glance with Techno, the only other one present who knew what she was thinking about, "Because you need to know what Negaduck is planning."

* * *

"Negaduck is building a machine," NegaGosalyn began explaining later, once she, Techno, Crimson, Darkwing, Launchpad, and Hooter had relocated to a briefing room. She pointed at the top floor of a diagram of Canard Tower. "Here, on this floor. All of his resources now are going to be dedicated on finishing this project."

"We already know all of this," Darkwing said, working to speed up the briefing, "Agent Mia discovered that project nearly a week ago."

"We figured as much," Techno said, standing on the other side of the diagram, "But we're willing to bet that you haven't figured out what it's supposed to do."

"So what is it?" Launchpad asked.

"It is, put simply, Negaduck's guarantee of success," NegaGosalyn explained, "The very centerpiece of his plans."

"The device is, in short, an energy amplifier," Techno said, "and as it's powered by a sub-electron amplifier that Negaduck had obtained from the Negaverse, it has enough power to cover the whole globe with a sphere of energy in a matter of minutes."

"What kind of energy are we talking about here?" Hooter asked, sounding worried.

"At the moment, this device is calibrated to relay magical energy," NegaGosalyn replied.

"Magical energy?" Crimson repeated, "But with Negarian dead and you here, NegaGos, then Negaduck doesn't have access to any kind of magical energy anymore."

"Ah, but Negs was prepared for that," Techno explained. "Before Negarian died, he managed to create a charm for Negaduck, a simple object that contains a magical spell sealed inside it that can be used once, by anyone. In this case, it's a large emerald, and has already been placed inside the machine."

"Dare I ask what the spell it is?" Darkwing asked.

"Negarian's mind control spell," NegaGosalyn replied instantly, "And coupled with this machine, Negaduck can use it on the entire world all at once in mere moments upon activated this device."

"If Negaduck gets to activate this device before we can stop him, then it's all over for us," Techno promised. "Because the only person the device is set up to ignore is Negaduck himself."

NegaGosalyn blinked in surprise at this. "Are you sure?" she asked Techno.

"Very, I saw the codes," Techno replied, puzzled by NegaGosalyn's puzzlement, "Why?"

"Because that wasn't what Negaduck told the others. He told them that Canard Tower would be shielded, protecting all within from the effects of the spell. He assured his own doubles that they would be safe."

"Then he lied!" Crimson exclaimed, shocked at this new low of Negaduck's. "He had no intention of sparing them from the spell! He wants them _all _under his control!"

"Because _then _he gets at least partial control of their universes too!" Darkwing exclaimed, understanding Negaduck's plan.

"The more under his control, then, the better," Techno concluded darkly.

A morbid moment of silence fell in the room.

"So...now what?" Launchpad inquired.

Techno and NegaGosalyn exchanged glances. "Now we stop Negaduck, probably by raiding the building and taking control of the machine before he has the chance to activate it." Techno responded.

"We were kind of hoping you guys would have a idea how to do that by now," NegaGosalyn added.

Darkwing and Hooter exchanged looks, grinning slightly. "Oh yeah, we've got a plan all right," Darkwing assured them.

* * *

"Vice President Norrin to see you, sir," Agent Grant announced as he opened the door to let forever neutral feline in.

Norrin stepped into Hooter's office and glanced at both Hooter and Darkwing. "I presume there is an important reason why you two have pulled me here?" he asked curtly, getting right to the point as he sat down before Hooter's desk.

"You bet there is," Darkwing said, "In fact, we think we might have a good plan about attacking and stopping Negaduck."

"Very well," Norrin remarked, looking as pleased as he ever does by anything by this news, "But why did I have to come here to hear this?"

"Because we needed to ask you a few questions first, and needed you here where you couldn't shirk them," Hooter replied, leveling his eyes with Norrin's.

Norrin mirrored the look, but did not object to the statement. "What are your questions, then?"

"Well, first, we need to tell you a few things about what we've been doing around here as of late," Darkwing explained. "See, recently, we were poking around in Elementary Underground to see if it could provide any means of accessing Canard Tower from within so to stage an attack on Negaduck. While doing so, we discovered that none of the tunnels in Elementary Underground, curiously enough, do not go under Canard Tower at all, but instead avoid it."

"We of course investigated possible reasons why this was so," Hooter said, picking up on the story. "And it was then that we discovered that there is, curiously enough, a secret, _hidden_, sub-level to Canard Tower no one knew about. Except, we think, for you, Mr. Vice President."

Norrin glanced at them both, his face impossible to read as always. "I know nothing of an extra, hidden, sub-level to Canard Tower," he stated plainly.

"Which is possible," Darkwing admitted, pulling out a manilla folder and opening it, "But we don't think so, because inside this hidden floor, we found _this_."

He dropped the open folder before Norrin so the feline could see the picture inside. Norrin picked it up and glanced at it for a long moment. Hooter and Darkwing waited patiently for a response.

"You must be mistaken," Norrin finally stated, "Nothing like this is located below Canard Tower. It's impossible."

"Our eyewitness of that device says otherwise," Hooter pressed.

"And we have no reason to doubt his word at the moment," Darkwing added.

"Well, I doubt _your _word," Norrin stated plainly. "You could not have gotten an eyewitness down there if the whole floor is shielded."

Hooter and Darkwing's only response to that was to exchange looks of victory.

Norrin looked puzzled. "What?" he inquired.

"We never said that the level in question was shielded by anything," Darkwing remarked.

"Thus, if you were unaware of this floor's existence, how could you have known about something we did not tell you about?" Hooter inquired with a smirk.

Norrin only gave them both a sour look in response.

"Gotcha," Hooter remarked.

"I take it then that it's really down there, then, hmm?" Darkwing prompted.

Norrin dropped the folder on Hooter's desk in annoyance. "It is," he confessed, "We found it there. We presume it had crashed there sometime in the distance past and had gotten buried. It was only uncovered when the foundations were being set for Canard Tower. Instead of relocating it, The Agency opted to leave it there, to use in the event of an emergency."

"Well, I think this qualifies as an emergency," Darkwing said, then explained, "Negaduck's got a machine almost ready that upon his use _will_ enable him to conquer our world. Using this will help us stop him by being able to get in Canard Tower. And you can help. Heck, The Agency _itself_ can help. How often do we let you do _that_?"

"Not often enough," Norrin was forced to admit. "I suppose I can make the necessary arrangements. But if this idea fails, Darkwing, I will be holding you personally responsible."

"So what else is new?" Darkwing asked, unsurprised, "But it doesn't matter. If this doesn't work, we'll have all lost anyway."

* * *

It was long after midnight before the final preparations were made, but it was clear that the combined forces of the army, SHUSH, the SCPD, and Darkwing and company, as well as a few universal doubles of the latter, were coming to Canard Tower, surrounding it entirely and even more tightly than before.

And Negaduck was painfully aware of it.

And so was everyone else in the tower.

"They're coming for us," General Mallard remarked, staring out the window at the masses of people gathering around the tower.

"And they are going to get us if we don't finish this machine," Negaduck snapped, who was hard at work at trying to finishing the machine, and was coming very close.

"What if we don't finish it in time?" the general asked, not moving. "Even with my personal army still in our command, we won't be able to fight them off for long."

"Hopefully it won't come to that, especially if you get over here and help get this machine ready!"

"Not to argue with you, but wouldn't a better idea be to rally our forces and get them ready for a fight, just in case?"

"Are you _trying _to get out of this work?" Negaduck barked at General Mallard, twisting around to glare at him. They looked at each other for a moment, then Negaduck suddenly shook his head and looked away. "No wait, wait, never mind, you're right! So go, go, go! Get those forces ready to fight! They might just have to buy me the time I need to finish this."

The general nodded and moved to exit the floor, but as he did, Negawing appeared in the room and crossed paths with him.

"Hold it!" he said, stopping the general and leading him back to Negaduck, "You might want to stick around for this. Negaduck, I have bad news."

"So what else is new?" Negaduck replied grumpily. "What's the bad news?"

"There some curious power fluctuations occurring on the lower floors, and I'm pretty sure it's originating from that third sub-level we found to this building," Negawing replied.

Negaduck looked up from his work suddenly to look at him, surprised.

Negawing nodded in agreement. "I think there's someone down there."

"Who?" General Mallard asked.

"And why would _anyone _be down there?" Negaduck asked.

"To get in _here_," Negawing stated plainly. "It could be the start of an invading force."

"They can't be allowed to get up here, then," Negaduck turned back to his work. "Stop them from doing that. Whatever the cost."

"What if we can't keep them back?"

"Buy me enough time to finish this, then it won't matter."

Negawing and General Mallard exchanged glances, then nodded, and both departed to take care of the orders, leaving Negaduck alone in the room, working on the machine, very close to completing it enough for it to operate.

"No matter what happens now," he told himself as he worked, "it all ends tonight."

* * *

As General Mallard and Negawing headed down to the sub-level in question, rallying half of their forces to come with them and sending the rest to defend as much of the rest of the building as possible, the general kept glancing out windows to watch the gathering forces surrounding the building.

"There's certainly a lot of them," he muttered to himself, "I'm not sure we can win this."

"If we can't, I'm not sticking around to see it happen," Negawing promised.

This caught the general by surprise. "You aren't?" he repeated, "But what about your agreement to stand by Negaduck's side as he carries out his plans, to commit yourself and your resources to his cause, regardless of the circumstance?"

"No point it doing all of that if Negaduck's just going to loose without succeeding at anything," Negawing remarked. "You have to keep in mind who I am, general. I am an opportunist, only seeking to better my circumstances, and _only _commit my efforts to such a cause. I, like I'm sure you were, was quite enthused by Negaduck's plans and his promise of success in the beginning, but it's pretty clear now that victory isn't going to come as easily as we had first thought, if at all. If no fruit is going to come from it, then I will not waste precious resources fighting for something that will never become a reality. I have too many operations back home to work on instead that hold more promise than that."

"Well, okay, but what if you underestimate us, and end up selling yourself short? We haven't lost yet, you know."

"Then I will forever tear myself apart over missing out on the goods. But then I'll just vent my frustrations on a few naughty citizens back home for awhile. It's just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, after all. Not like I haven't missed others before. I'd get over it. But I can assure you general, I won't leave until I'm certain."

"Good, because I will probably going to use your help to fight to the bitter end...or at least as close to that as you're willing to get."

"Looking forward to it, general."

They took who they had gathered and headed down into the third and hidden basement level in skyscraper via the stairs, as the elevator did not go down that far. Once inside, they fanned out and searched the fairly empty and quiet floor. A quick search of the floor they had already opened and explored revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

"You...sure there's somebody down here?" the general asked.

"It might be possible I was mistaken," Negawing admitted, "It _was _just a hunch. But it was one I felt was carrying a lot of weight, so I'd rather not be mistaken."

"But we've searched the whole floor," General Mallard objected, walking past a door, then suddenly stopping and turning back to do a double-take. "Except through here."

Negawing shined his flashlight on the closed and locked door. "You mean that door Negarian couldn't open?" he asked.

"Right, because he said it blocked his magic somehow. He couldn't magically open it."

"Not with magic, no," Negawing admitted, approaching the door, "But I did suggest one tactic once that I know he _never _tried."

General Mallard nodded, and opened a pocket on the tactical vest he wore at the moment. "Way ahead of you," he said, pulling out a small amount of plastic explosive and plastering it to the door.

That done, the group all quickly ducked back down the hallway, out of range of the blast, before the general triggered the explosive. In a quick plume of fire and smoke, the door was heard being knocked off it's hinges, clearing the path. Moving rapidly, the group all hurried back to the door and pounded into the fairly sizable room beyond the door they had blasted open and, guns raised, searched the room for intruders.

The room proved to be surprisingly sparse. In fact, it was entirely empty, save for a row of three, old-fashioned, computers sitting against one of the far walls, exposed electrical wiring for both the computers as well as the lights, and a large and intricate device none of them were familiar that sat in the center of the room.

Standing next to it, finishing the rewiring he was doing on the centerpiece device of the room, was Gigavolt.

The moment the intruders in the room saw him, they pointed their weapons at him and fired. As always with Gigavolt, the fired shots did absolutely nothing to him. But unlike the usual course of action Gigavolt typically took in such a situation, which was to fight back, living energy being saw that he wasn't welcome and quickly turned and left the room the same way he came in, by channeling himself through the walls and shields in place around the room, leaving his attackers behind, puzzled.

* * *

Gigavolt meanwhile promptly reappeared in the tunnels surrounding the hidden floor in Elementary Underground. Once fully reformed back into his usual state, he turned to Agents Todd and Sandy, who were waiting for him.

"They have gained entrance to the room," he reported simply.

"Right," Agent Todd replied as they all turned and hurried to exit the tunnels while pulling out a radio and switching it on. "Darkwing, this is Todd, they've gained access to the room, if we're going to do this, it needs to be now."

Darkwing, standing up on the surface with the others surrounding Canard Tower, nodded and switched frequencies on the radio. "Vice President Norrin," he said into it, "The time is now."

Norrin, also in the group, but standing apart from it, more towards the back where he was to help command the forces, nodded, then also switched frequencies on his radio. "Radio Avalon," he stated into the receiver, "They are to begin the attack immediately."

So now the radio transmission was directed out into deep space, where three small craft hovered near another intricate device, waiting for the word to be given. Inside the lead ship, the transmission was received and listened to by the person operating those systems.

"They've given the word," Dr. Robert McDonald announced to the person that sat beside him at the ship's controls, "the attack starts now."

"Good," Lieutenant Colonel Jack Pepper said as he handled the controls. "Let's get this show on the road. Dial the second Jumpgate."

* * *

And that second Jumpgate currently sat in the bottommost floor of Canard Tower.

However, for the moment, Negawing, General Mallard, and the rest of their forces that stood in the room with the device did not know this just yet.

"Negawing to Negaduck, come in please," Negawing said, speaking into his radio, pacing back and forth beside the Jumpgate, "Negawing to Negaduck, come in please." But all he got in response was static, so he eventually gave up. "Darn it, the shielding around this room must be blocking the transmissions."

"So what do you think this thing is, anyway?" General Mallard asked, having stepped up close to the device and was examining it.

"I'm wondering more about why Gigavolt was down here messing with it," Negawing replied as he debated his options.

"Okay, and why do you think he was doing that?"

"I don't know, but nothing but trouble can possibly come from this. I'm willing to bet our goody-goody foes got him to come down here."

"But...how did they find out this was even down here?"

"We'll worry about that later. Right now, we need to decide what we're going to do about this device, and whether or not we need to worry about any potential threats it might create."

"Well, good thing that it seems to be deactivated for the moment then, hmm?"

But no sooner had the general said that did the Jumpgate suddenly start to hum. Surprised, everyone backed away from it, training their weapons on it.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" Negawing grumbled.

"It was a mistake the moment I said it," General Mallard agreed as they all watched the device, wondering what it would do next.

Whatever they were expecting, it wasn't what they got, because with a suddenly flash of light, a jumper shot through the Jumpgate suddenly and quickly slowed to a halt before it ran into a wall. It was quickly followed by two more that did the same as the first, reorienting themselves to position themselves around the room. One by one they all landed and opened their rear hatches to allow their armed troops within to spill out, immediately engaging the enemy forces. Quickly matched in numbers and being overwhelmed due to being caught so off guard, Negawing ordered a hasty retreat. The reinforcements that the jumpers had provided quickly followed them.

"Okay, the way's been cleared," Pepper remarked to McDonald as he fired up their jumper again, "Time for us to go upstairs."

"Yeah, I've got the jumper's cloaking device converted into a shield about...now," McDonald reported. "The other jumpers are reporting the same."

"Here we go then," Pepper remarked as he gunned the little ship for the far wall, the other two following their lead.

Under normal circumstances, the ships should've crashed, but shielded as they were with highly advanced alien technology, the walls promptly gave way as the ships collided with them, enabling the ships to literally drill their way through the earth until they burst out suddenly into the midst of buildings that was St. Canard. Several people within the group surrounding Canard Tower of course saw the jumpers take to the sky.

"There they are!" Darkwing exclaimed, pointing at the craft as the reoriented themselves to face the skyscraper, "Everyone, charge!"

The group all surged towards Canard Tower and engaged the enemy, with the intent to keep fighting until they either won or lost.

* * *

Up on the top floor all by himself, Negaduck felt the impacts as the jumpers burst free from the earth, quickly followed by the sudden charging of the enemy forces surrounding the building and the ratatats of their weaponry discharging. He pulled a face, realizing that he was running out of time, and moved to work faster. But it was almost unnecessary, because he quickly realized with a start that the machine was ready.

Grinning to himself, Negaduck quickly hurried over to one corner of the room and grabbed the black case he had left sitting there and brought it over to the machine. Opening it, he very delicately pulled out Negarian's emerald charm, glowing faintly in his hands. Carefully, he lifted it up above the machine, and positioned it over a circular device built in it's top. The device immediately began to glow as the charm was moved into place. Once Negaduck was insured it was, he released the charm. The crystal hovered there in midair, starting to spin slightly, ready to feed the machine the magical energy it contained on demand.

Negaduck stood there and watched it for a moment, starting to feel the excitement of inevitable success begin to well up inside of him, before the sound of gunfire several floors below him reminded him that he didn't have time to reminisce. Quickly, he turned around and hurried over to the machine's primary control panel and started pressing buttons, transferring power to the machine, activating it and charging it up. Even with the sub-electron amplifier powering it in it's center, it was going to take it a few moments for it to be fully charged. Negaduck waited impatiently for it to do so.

"C'mon..." he muttered aloud to himself, knowing that he didn't have all the time in the world.

It was then he heard the low drone of a craft approaching the floor from outside it's windows. Glancing at the reflection showing on the control panel's screen out of the corner of his eye, Negaduck watched in frustration without turning around as the Thunderquack suddenly decloaked right outside the room and hovered near the window that had been broken earlier that day long enough for someone to jump from the jet and into the room itself before the jet, really unable to do anything more, flew off again. With it still being very dark outside and it dark in the room, it was hard to tell with certainty who it was, but Negaduck didn't need to even turn around to see. He already knew.

"Gos," he greeted, pushing his hands off the control panel slowly, "I didn't think we'd meet up again so soon."

NegaGosalyn pointed her P90 at him. "You have some crimes to answer for in case you forgot," she reminded him. "So who better to take you down, than me?"

"Oh no, I'm not complaining," Negaduck said quickly, slowly reaching with one hand for his pistol, "In fact, I'm all for a little family reunion..."

And with that, he suddenly whipped out his pistol, spun around, and fired.

* * *

Downstairs several floors in Canard Tower, the battle was in full swing now. Caught off guard by the sudden attack, Negaduck's forces were slow to react immediately to the offensive assault on their ranks, and that blow hurt them. Furthermore, the sudden revelation that it was a two-front battle, made clear when General Mallard and Negawing returned from the third sub-level with a large group of enemy fighters on their tails, further lowered their odds of success. General Mallard had been correct in his assessment of the situation. The forces of him, his personal army, Negawing, and even Negaduck if he were down here fighting as well, were simply not enough to turn back the tide of opposing attackers they now faced.

However, General Mallard didn't let this stop him. True to his promise, he planned to fight to the bitter end, knowing that regardless of how badly the battle was going, he only needed to delay a complete and total loss long enough for Negaduck to finish the machine and activate it. Then, assuming everything about the machine worked out as planned, odds would no longer matter, because there would longer be need to fight. They would've won. So he kept fighting, and planned to fight to the bitter end.

Negawing, however, had already made it clear where he stood on the matter. He liked Negaduck's plan, and Negaduck himself, and had up until now enjoyed getting the chance to work with someone like Negaduck, someone who so resoundingly shared the same values as he had, but even he had to see when things were a lost cause. Given the odds, he seriously was finding it harder and harder to believe that this was a battle that could be won by the likes of them, the villains. And where he came from, the idea of running and hiding so to live to fight another day was a undesirable but accepted axiom and tactic in situations like this.

So, once he saw that they were losing men much faster than they were taking down men from the opposing force, he did a quick estimate of how long it would take before they lost and compared it to how long he estimated it would take for Negaduck to finish and activate the machine, and determined that they would all be defeated before Negaduck could finish, thus it was pointless to keep fighting. Doing so would only insure his capture and defeat as well, and he didn't plan that.

Negawing quickly turned tail and ran, then, slipping out of the fight taking place all over the lower floors of the tower, and went for the quickest means of escape. He had a portal remote, but figured trying to open it in the middle of a battle in full sight of everyone else wasn't advisable. He instead planned to get away from Canard Tower and St. Canard altogether to someplace safe and secluded enough to then create the portal and escape properly back to his universe.

And he knew just how to do that.

Heading up a few floors, he headed straight for where the Negaquack was parked.

* * *

When Negaduck spun around and fired, NegaGosalyn was already in motion, quickly diving to one side of the room. Helped by the fact that Negaduck had purposely aimed to disable but not kill, she was able to just barely dodge the bullet. Hitting the floor on her side and sliding about a foot on the smooth tile floor, she raised her P90 and returned fire. Negaduck quickly ducked behind the control panel he had been standing at, listening as the shots pinged off the metal frame.

The moment they stopped, Negaduck poked his head out and fired off another shot in NegaGosalyn's direction. But she had already moved again, ducking behind another control panel herself. Negaduck still tried to get a shot in on her, but upon missing, had to duck away himself in order to dodge the return fire NegaGosalyn gave in response. Negaduck realized that of the two, NegaGosalyn was the one who was better armed, as the P90 packed more power, and was capable of firing more shots per second. In comparison to Negaduck's simple 9mm pistol, she stood the better odds.

No wonder she loved that gun so much.

However, after the exchange of fire went back and forth a few times, Negaduck noticed that whenever NegaGosalyn wasn't shooting, she was examining the control panel she was hiding behind. It was then that he realized that the return fire she was providing was being done more to keep him preoccupied while she sought a way to stop the machine. She was trying to buy herself, and probably the rest of the goody-goody gang downstairs, more time to succeed in defeating him.

Negaduck wasn't going to let that happen.

Quickly adjusting his aim, he fired repeatedly at NegaGosalyn's control panel, destroying it in a spray of sparks. The move cost Negaduck a clip of ammo that he now had to stop and replace while still hiding behind his own control panel, but he felt it was a good move nonetheless, and it also got NegaGosaly to pause in her attacks to warily survey the damage, seeing it there was anything salvable. There was it. Negaduck heard her curse.

"Ha!" he laughed, "Serves you _right _for turning your back on me for a second time!"

"You brought that down on yourself!" NegaGosalyn countered, ducking back behind her ruined control panel, considering her options. "You're the one who's going down the path that I can't follow down!"

"Yes, you can follow me down it!" Negaduck argued, "Anyone can follow me! You just _choose _to not too!"

"Exactly what makes me different from you!" NegaGosalyn replied. "I _chose _to be who I am! And I _chose _to not be like you!"

"And so that means you have to stop me, hmm?" Negaduck inquired.

"More or less. I don't want to _have _to stop you, but I will with I must."

"Stop me, eh? You think you really think a goody-traitor like you can do that now?"

"Certainly," NegaGosalyn pulled out something from her pocket, "Just not in your typical style."

She then took the item she had pulled out and rolled it across the floor towards Negaduck. Negaduck watched it, unable to identify the object, until it had rolled to him. Upon doing so, he realized it was a grenade, and quickly jumped up and spun around to run away from it. He got no further than a couple paces before it finally did.

* * *

As it turned out, Negawing wasn't the only one who got the idea to run, because when he arrived on the floor that had been cleared for parking aircraft like the Negaquack and a couple of helicopters, there were several other people, mostly lowly members from General Mallard's personal army, that were trying to fire up two of the helicopters. They left the Negaquack alone because they all knew only authorized people were allowed at it (namely Negaduck and NegaGosalyn) and because it was locked anyway, and they didn't have the time to try and unlock it to use it.

When Negawing entered, many of them stopped and turned to look at him, worried he was going to tell them off and tell them to get back to defending the building instead of trying to flee. But Negawing did no such thing, and more or less ignored the group as he made his way straight for the Negaquack. When it became clear that he had no intention of stopping him, they all hurriedly went back to what they were doing, knowing that if they weren't quick, they _would _be stopped by their attackers.

Negawing jumped carelessly into the Negaquack and started prepping it for takeoff. Looking ahead of him, he saw the window paneling that sealed the room off from the outside room, the only space large enough for aircraft to come and go. Negaduck had ordered that the glass paneling be rigged so that they could be removed long enough for aircraft to depart, then returned to their original position, and the order had been carried out, meaning this could be done. In fact, there were a couple of people already in the process of attempting to move the paneling to clear the way for the would-be fleeing aircraft.

But then Negawing heard a commotion behind him, and saw a party of SHUSH commandos storm into the room, and saw he couldn't wait. Quickly, he gunned the Negaquack's throttle, and the jet lurched forward, thrusting itself off the ground in a quick burst of downward thrust, then shot forward and out the window paneling that blocked his way with a shatter. He was now outside the building, but in doing so, drew the attention of the other aircraft that circled the building. He watched as the three jumpers swooped down on a helicopter that followed the Negaquack out of Canard Tower and was quickly shot down, and saw the Thunderquack zooming his way.

Quickly, Negawing turned the Negaquack around and sped off for the city border, but he didn't get far before the Thunderquack was pounding away at it's sister plane's rear with it's machine guns. Cursing under his breath, and seeing that he was going to have to fight his way out, Negawing spun the jet around once again to confront the enemy, returning fire. It did little good, the Thunderquack having been fully repaired, withstood the onslaught as well as she had originally had. The maneuvering of her pilot, Launchpad, aided to minimize the damage.

As a result the attack quickly turned into a game of chase, occasionally turning into one of cat and mouse at odd intervals, as they zoomed through St. Canard, firing potshots at each other, both hoping to strike a deciding blow here soon. It was around then that the three jumpers, having been preoccupied back at Canard Tower dealing with the other craft attempting to escape, returned and helped the Thunderquack gang up on the Negaquack. The Negaquack attempted to dodged the attacks at first, then, seeing she was outgunned, made another attempt to flee.

It was then that Pepper and McDonald's jumper fired their lucky shot, striking a hard blow to the Negaquack's side that jostled Negawing within, shorting out some of the controls, and cracking the windshield. As the jet limped along, it gave Launchpad in the Thunderquack the clear shot he needed, and fired off a missile that struck the sister jet right in the tailfin, crippling the craft, and making it drop out of the air like a stone, all of it's systems failing.

Negawing fought hard to keep the jet airborne, but it was to no avail. It skimmed off the roof of one building, sending it spiraling out of control before it crashed, hard, to the street below and flipped and rolled, rendering the jet severe damage that insured she would likely never fly again, before it finally skidded to a halt in front of a building, not far from where the battle was taking place still at Canard Tower.

Miraculously, Negawing survived the attack, and was conscious, but only just barely. Injured himself, he fought to maintain consciousness and struggled to free himself from his seat. The seatbelt was jammed, however, and wouldn't unlatch. Knowing he couldn't stay here or risk capture, he tried to grab his walking stick from where he had left it in the empty passenger seat beside him, with the idea of using the sword contained within, but it had been knocked out of his reach. He sought some other way to cut the straps that held him and escape when he saw her coming.

Strolling up to the crashed jet idly, calmly loading her Thompson submachine gun as she went, Negawing Gosalyn glanced at the villain trapped within the jet and gave him a cruel grin.

"I don't know if you remember me, Negawing," she remarked coldly. "But I remember you. You recruited me to your forces once, not that long ago. Thought I was an excellent gunman. Observed that I never missed. Thought I would be a _big _help to you indeed. But as you later found out, I had, and have, no interest in your plans, your goals, or you. As I see it, you're a hindrance. Kept the people of our universe stuck in an endless circle of violence where we're all trying to obtain dominance. And I'm _bored _of that. So, I thought to myself, why not correct that, and to do that, all I needed to do was get close to you."

She placed one foot on the jet's nose and raised the machine gun to point at Negawing. "You got lucky, and I missed my chance once before. That's when our ways parted, and they did not cross again...until now. And now, I _will_ be taking the chance to meet my goals."

Negawing started clawing for his walking stick again, seeing where this was going, and became even more desperate to escape, but the seatbelt held him tightly there, and the walking stick remained out of his reach.

Negawing Gosalyn wrapped a finger around the trigger of her weapon. "And as you know," she concluded finally, "I never miss."

And she fired, once. Because one shot was all she needed.

* * *

The grenade proved to merely be a simply stun grenade, and produced a loud bang and a brief flash of light, but that was all that was needed. Due to his close proximity to the blast, Negaduck promptly lost his hearing for the moment, and his vision, overloaded, vanished in a sea of afterimages left on his retinas as a result of the flash and was momentarily blinded. He fumbled around blindly, trying to determine where he was, and where NegaGosalyn was in relation to himself, fully expecting to be attacked suddenly at any moment by her while he was so vulnerable and no doubt an easy target.

But the attack never came. And Negaduck couldn't figure out why, until his vision returned enough that he realized NegaGosalyn had instead went for the machine while he was blinded, and was tampering with it, trying to figure out how to disable it. She was in the process of removing the cover that was placed over the sub-electron amplifier when Negaduck tackled her from behind, knocking her down to the ground.

"You don't touch that machine!" he yelled angrily as he wrestled with her.

NegaGosalyn responded with some kind of verbal retort that probably would've stung, but Negaduck's hearing still hadn't returned yet, so he didn't get to hear it and instead focused on trying to win this now hand-to-hand fight, their weapons dropped and forgotten now. They rolled and rolled back and forth across the floor, dealing punches and kicks back and forth to each other in the process.

After a few moments of this, Negaduck's hearing slowly started to return finally, starting out softly, but rapidly growing louder again as it returned to somewhere near normal levels. And with the return of his hearing, Negaduck was pleased to hear a shrill beeping noise from the machine's third control panel, the only one still left intact. The rapid beeping was annoying as all heck, but for Negaduck it was good news because it meant that the machine was now fully changed and ready to fire.

It was just waiting for the final command.

"Time's up!" Negaduck exclaimed, and planted both feet into NegaGosalyn's front and pushed her off of him and into one corner of the room.

He then jumped up onto his feet and raced for the control panel. He heard NegaGosalyn quickly get back up on her feet and chase after him, but he knew there was no way she could catch up to him in time. He reached the control panel first, and promptly slapped his hand down on the red button that fired the machine.

"Ah-HA!" he crowed victoriously.

* * *

Downstairs several floors in Canard Tower, the fight was pretty much over. Overwhelmed, General Mallard and what remained of his forces all quickly fell until there was only a smattering left free to fight, not enough against the odds they were facing. Having no place to run, the general was given one last chance to surrender before the forces he opposed overran him. He took that chance.

"But I'll have you know that this changes nothing," General Mallard assured Darkwing as he personally placed his dopplegander in handcuffs, "Your victory will be short lived."

"Oh, well, we'll see about that," Darkwing replied as he started escorting the general out of the building along with the rest of his captured forces.

Right about then, the lights in the building started to flicker ominously. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look up at them.

"That doesn't seem good," Agent Grant remarked from nearby Darkwing where he was helping arrest the surrendered members of the army.

Darkwing's radio suddenly clicked on, and although the transmissions were all filled with static and rapidly degrading further into nothingness, the messages that were relayed were clear.

"We're getting power fluctuations all over the city!"

"The jumpers! They're losing power! They're making emergency landings all over the city!"

"Something weird's going on up on that top floor of Canard Tower, guys!"

"DW! This is Launchpad! The Thunderquack is also losing power, but I think they're right! And NegaGos is up there, I helped her get up there at the start of the fight!"

Darkwing pulled out his radio. "Crimson!" he said into the device, "Are you near that floor yet?"

"Me, Lieutenant Taylor, and a party of commandos are already on our way up there, Darkwing!" Crimson managed to report back before the radio burst into static and transmitted no more, "We'll stop Negaduck's machine!"

General Mallard snorted at this. "You're already too late."

Darkwing stared at him, wondering if he was right.

* * *

Outside, an eerie green glow started to be generated from within that top floor, visible even from the ground. Then, metallic arms that were part of the machine burst out of the sides of the pyramid structure that sat on Canard Tower's roof and extended themselves to their full length. Sparkling green energy gathered at their tips, then shot towards the building's lightning rod spire in bright beams to collect in a large ball of energy, getting ready to discharge in one burst that could cover the planet. The machine drawing power wherever it could, all of St. Canard quickly went dark as the energy was robbed to feed the power-hungry device that was just moments away from firing.

And all the onlookers gathered around could do was watch and wait, hoping against hope that something would save them.

* * *

That person, was NegaGosalyn.

Catching up with Negaduck just moments after he pressed the button to fire the weapon, she grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed his head into the control panel before him with a thud. Yowling in pain, Negaduck retorted by reaching around to grab her, trying to throw her off, but NegaGosalyn only used his attempts to fight back as leverage to grab hold of him and to toss him overtop the control panel and down to the floor.

Behind them, the machine started sending a steady current of energy through the magical charm that hovered over it, casting a green glow in the dark room.

Negaduck grabbed his pistol from where he had left it on the floor and fired it at NegaGosalyn, but she was already moving, hurrying to recover her own fallen weapon. Scooping up the P90 in her arms, she started to raise it, but Negaduck promptly threw himself on her, trying to stop her. She quickly threw him off her again, and without hesitation, she raised the P90 and took aim.

And fired at the machine's sub-electron amplifier.

"No!" Negaduck exclaimed, quickly grabbing at NegaGosalyn's weapon as it discharged, throwing off her aim.

But he wasn't quick enough, and a barrage of bullets slammed into the hourglass-shaped crystal, cracking it. The cracks grew more and more, until it shattered, and literally exploded, creating a massive blast wave of pent-up energy that bowled both NegaGosalyn and Negaduck over and onto the floor.

* * *

The blast burst out every window on the top floor of Canard Tower, shattering every one of them in a spray of glass that rained back down on the crowded streets below. The machine hummed for a few moments longer, the ball of energy it had created still shimmering for a moment on the tower's lightning rod, but then the ball suddenly blinked out of existence and an explosion ripped through one of the metal arms that had extended, rendering the device useless.

* * *

Inside the floor, the machine sparked as it's hum died away. Negaduck picked himself off the floor in time to see it fail completely and to watch in dismay as the mechanism that kept the vital magical charm afloat give out, letting the emerald crystal fall to the ground. It shattered on impact, the unused magical spell caught inside being allowed to dissipate harmlessly into the air.

Negaduck stared ludicrously at the spot the crystal had hovered at. "No..." he murmured, "No..." He started to turn around to face NegaGosalyn, looking to a be a mixture of shocked, offended, and angry, probably with the intent of retaliating upon her.

She didn't give him the chance, promptly kicking the feet out from under him, knocking him back down to the ground and then pinning him to the ground with one foot, pointing her P90 at him.

"You are defeated," NegaGosalyn announced needlessly.

Negaduck stared at her for a long moment, the statement sounding strange to him, someone who had managed to avoid such an outcome for so long now, but finally closed his eyes and dropped his head on the ground in defeat. "I suppose I am," he admitted, then chuckled, glancing back up at his once adopted daughter. "So here it ends. Funny, I never imagined I'd go out this way, by the hand of the very person that had once been my daughter."

NegaGosalyn stared back at him for a moment. "Then you're right."

And with that, she promptly flipped the P90 around in a blink of an eye and clubbed Negaduck with it's butt end, knocking him out cold. Breathing heavily, she then sighed, and relaxed, dropping the weapon as she looked around at the destruction that surrounded her, glad it was now all over.

A moment after that, Crimson, Taylor, and the accompanying party of SHUSH commandos burst into the room and surveyed the situation.

"NegaGos!" Crimson exclaimed, and hurried over to her. She spied Negaduck lying unconscious at her double's feet and stared at him in amazement. "Does this mean...?"

NegaGosalyn nodded as Taylor and the commandos promptly hauled Negaduck's limp body to it's feet to arrest him. "Negaduck's reign of terror has indeed ended."

* * *

Outside Canard Tower, everyone else gathered at the building's entrance, staring up at the top floor warily. A long silence fell, as everyone was unsure what exactly had happened and what it meant. Slowly, power flickered back on all across the city.

"Well," Agent Todd remarked aloud finally, "We're all still here, so..."

Darkwing pulled out his radio again. "Crimson, this is Darkwing," he said slowly into the device, "Can you give me a status report?"

A long paused followed as the radio relayed back nothing but static for a long moment. Then a response finally came.

"Darkwing, this is Crimson, I'm happy to report the machine has been safely disabled, and Negaduck is in custody."

The tension immediately broke. A few laughs of relief murmured through the group. Darkwing, feeling overwhelmed with relief, could only grin happily, unable to find words for a long moment.

"Negaduck's defeated," he finally repeated to himself.

Hooter, stepping up to him, nodded in agreement. "And some thanks is to be given to everyone," he agreed, "But mostly to you."

Darkwing looked at him in surprised. "Me?"

"Well, Crimson, Launchpad, and Techno included as well, but it was really the combined efforts of all of you who made this possible," Hooter explained brightly. "So...thank you."

Darkwing was silent for a moment. "You're welcome," he replied.

A moment of silence fell within the group. Then, suddenly, the Dark Avenger started applauding. She was quickly joined by Negawing Gosalyn, who stood nearby. Hooter caught on, and he joined in as well. All of SHUSH promptly followed their director's lead. The SCPD quickly followed suit. In fact, everyone did, even a reluctant but willing Vice President Norrin, until the air around the gather reverberated with the applause.

All for Darkwing and company.

* * *

However, there was a few who did not applaud, but instead watched with interest at the entrance of street alley towards one side of the crowd. Solemnly, Rowe watched the proceedings, thinking inwardly about what he was going to do next, and deciding then and there, it truly was what he wanted to do.

Standing near him was Bushroot. "A penny for your thoughts, Rowe." the mutant plant-duck remarked.

Rowe sighed. "Do me a favor and find Quackerjack," he instructed. "We're leaving."

"Leaving? What for?"

"Because we won't be the Fearsome Three for long if we don't get out of here while we have the chance."

* * *

Hearing the applause from where she was, Crimson wandered over to the broken windows on the top floor and looked outside. Scooping up her hat from where it had fallen in the fight, NegaGosalyn joined her. They watched the applause continue, while meanwhile, directly ahead on the horizon, dawn broke, chasing away the darkness of night as a new day began.

"I suppose this changes things, now," Crimson remarked aloud finally. "Forever."

NegaGosalyn nodded. "Things are going to change. But for the better."

And with that final thought, they stood there and, while listening to the applause continue, watched the sun rise over the newly liberated city of Saint Canard...

* * *

_Fun Facts: Before we begin, I wish to announce that I got The Duck Knight Returns from BOOM! Comics for Christmas, so I've now read it, and finally know what's going on at that side of the DW franchise. :) And I have to admit, it was a great comic. Also succeeded in something NADWD has not always done, and that's stay true to the silly, cartoony, side of DW, so I admire BOOM! Comics for pulling that off so seamlessly._

_As usual, like in past chapters, the introduction to this chapter was partly meant for dramatic effect, and partly to throw the readers off the trail of what was happening. Hopefully you didn't figure out this was taking place in the Negawing Universe straight away. Although, I did drop some pretty obvious clues straight away. For example, Loening M-8 fighter planes were real monoplanes developed by the US military in around the 1920s. They were very experimental, and never really saw active service (due to the end of WWI occurring reduced the need for such planes), though. The navy, if memory serves, ordered a bunch and hand them on hand for several years, though, so they did get use, just not in the field. Other examples of hints include the fact that St. Canard is in ruins in of itself (it's one that kind of bounces both ways), the Thompson machine gun (tommy-gun), the fact that the car required crank-starting, the fact that Canard Tower is NEVER mentioned (remember, it doesn't exist in the Negawing Universe), then finally the Darkwarrior-style portal generator standing in city hall. If you hadn't figured it out that this was the Negawing Universe by that point, then, well, obviously I succeeded at my intentions better than I had hoped, but I'd doubt I was THAT successful. :P_

_It occurred to me that I had wanted to reveal what the media of the NADWD world knew of Negaduck's invasion and the events that sparked from it as far back as chpt. 76, "A Time Of Darkness," but it never really did come up until now. It also helped to briefly summarize past events and set the scene for the rest of the chapter. That, and establish that Negs is at his wits end about how bad things were starting to go for him by this point._

_Negawing Gos actually ended up playing a much smaller role in this chapter than I had anticipated, but it was great to find an excuse to bring her back again even if briefly, and this time let her bounce off various Posiverse characters. I also love the fact how she is quite frank with all of them about her intentions, especially the fact that even though she's there to, technically, help, she wasn't to be trusted, an idea she fully supports._

_Lieut. Taylor reappears for the first time since his debut chapter, in "Negaduck's Army," and will likely reappear more frequently from here on out, as NADWD has needed a major, reoccurring character from the ranks of the SHUSH commandos for awhile now._

_Like Negawing Gos, the Dark Avenger also ended up playing a far smaller role than anticipated, but this didn't surprise me as much. Don't really have anywhere else to go with the character for now._

_When I started NADWD, one of the natural things it seemed to do was to get DW and Gizmoduck together, and have each other figure out each other identities, as even from a canonical standpoint, the two had already come pretty close to figuring it out already (it was just Giz's naivety and DW's ego that was really stopping them), but admittedly, this wasn't really the way I wanted to do it. But as I needed the memory loss aftereffects from the mind control spell needed to be very specific, there was no way I could justify Giz not remembering where DW lived in my mind (remember, he found that out in chpt. 75, but didn't comment much on it at the time as they had bigger things to worry about) so I relented. The awkward conversation between the two wasn't really intended, but in a way, it's kind of fitting considering the interactions between those two, and it was kind of awkward for me to write, making it even further fitting in a weird way._

_It seemed like a really bad time to bring the subject of Crimson/Rowe again, but I needed to bring the subject up again at some point anyway, not so much for this chapter, but for later chapters, so I did. That issue also interconnects with the idea of a Fearsome Three, hence why both subjects are brought up in a row._

_I felt Christine and Charlie had served their purpose for this story arc, so rather than continue to include them and have them be underused, I had them relocated for the rest of the chapter. In doing so, it also gave me the chance to do something with Detective Matt and Officer Frank, who I likewise feared would end up being underused in this chapter (and proved to be correct) when they deserved acknowledgment in SOME fashion._

_Since it seemed to be a bit of a theme to update the status quos of all the major characters, I added in a blurb about Mia/Launchpad, partly because that subject had actually gone a bit cold for awhile. Also helped to fit in the fact that the Thunderquack is getting decently repaired now, too. However, had the need come up to cut out material for space (which it surprisingly did not), this scene probably would've been one of the first to go._

_And Agent Sandy and Agent Todd's conversation in Elementary Underground...I could comment on this, but I think I'll hold back for now, partly out of curiosity to see if any of you readers catch on to my very discreet intents behind that._

_See, I told you that you needed to remember that door Negarian couldn't open from chpt. 78, "Neutral Opinions." ;)_

_Finally managed to fit Gigs back into the mix of things, and pulled it off fairly well, all things considered. :)_

_Given DW and company's initial comments about it upon discovering it, it probably was fairly obvious what was hidden down in that third sub-level of Canard Tower, particularly seeing that conversation referred back to a similar one in chpt. 49. :P_

_And yes! Negaduck confessed that he has a soft spot for NegaGos! I actually had mixed feelings about having him admit that in this chapter at first, but it ultimately gave the whole situation a much needed bittersweet edge to it, particularly later in the chapter, so no regrets. :)_

_Again touched the subject of Crimson/Rowe with Techno and NegaGos's arrival at SHUSH, while also touching the subject of Crimson/Techno while Rowe looks on. That scene is actually a very pivotal scene, and will be referred to again, probably repeatedly, in future chapters._

_I think this is the first time I've put so many Crimson universal doubles in one spot before, so Taylor's reported headache over that is probably understandable. :P_

_And I finally come clean and reveal the full purpose of Negaduck's machine. Actually didn't take as long as I had expected._

_I figured if anyone on Negaduck's side was going to bail on him due to unfavorable odds, it would be Negawing. Not because there was any bad blood between him and Negs (quite the opposite in fact, I see Negawing as being the closest thing Negs has to a best friend), but because he wanted to insure he didn't get captured and risk losing things he had worked hard to gain as a result._

_As I usually do when I revisit the Jumpgate and it's associated members that work with it, I always hope the chance comes up to introduce new characters. But like before, it just didn't prove to be practical. Furthermore, the jumpers ended up playing a smaller role than first anticipated, partly because how I had planned to end this storyarc had changed along the way, and thus didn't necessitate them as much (in an earlier version of this chapter, Negaduck still possessed full (or at least major part of it) control of St. Canard had thus had a small air force he could use. Had that idea stayed true, the jumpers would've been there to support the Thunderquack in stopping them)._

_This final battle with Negs and company actually proved to be a lot less than I had anticipating, and I think it's partly because the only major characters that it focuses upon throughout it was Negaduck, NegaGos, and, oddly enough, Negawing. The others are hardly mentioned, because there wasn't really anything left TO mention that hadn't already been made clear, and thus just would've been repetitious. But while the focus on Negawing wasn't really intended, for Negaduck and NegaGos, it was, because the fight had really boiled down to just between them, and to be quite honest, the two were overdue for a rough and tough fight like this for them for awhile. They had really been trying to avoid it before now, really, but I figured it finally came to a point that it couldn't be avoided any longer._

_Looking back, I think I could've put more dialogue in between Negaduck and NegaGos during that end fight, but that would've meant making the chapter longer, which would've been undesirable, because even now, it's literally only a sentence away from exceeding the limit of 49 pages, and had that been broken, it would've meant other material needed to be cut. And anyway, I suppose the major jist of what needed to be said did get said anyway, so I guess that extra dialogue could be done without._

_Yeah, I'm done with Negawing, so I killed him off. No regrets about that whatsoever, and I think it'll actually be of benefit later in NADWD, so...yeah._

_Regardless of whatever flaws this chapter might bear, however, it's tale ending worked out exactly how I had hoped it would. Epically, and almost poetically, with Negs beat, DW and company getting a well-deserved applause (started by the Dark Avengie surprisingly, and was infectious enough that even Norrin joined in :o), a pretty sunrise to watch, and the acute observation that things in the NADWD universe are indeed going to be changing quite a bit in the future. But of course, I also put in that blurb with Rowe and Bushroot to point out that it all didn't end happily ever after...;)_

_Whew. Anyway, glad to have that storyarc and all of that out of the way now. Now to answer the questions of "what now?" that I've been getting asked. While this chapter does seem like it'd be a great place to end it all (and I will admit it was considered), this is not the end for NADWD, and it officially isn't going to be ending anytime soon. However, despite me feeling anxious to move on to the next chapter and get back into the normal flow of NADWD and unveal some of these "changes" I have in store, I think I will follow through on what I had said just three chapters ago in chpt. 79's fun facts after my last hiatus that chpt. 82 (this chapter) would mark another hiatus. And that's for a whole number of reasons, some of them similar to the reasons behind the last hiatus (which sadly enough wasn't nearly long enough ago), but there are also some new ones, like school and the such, but also the fact that writing NADWD has become very time consuming and there are other projects that I want to work on. Other fanfics, and other writings that have got squat to do with fanfiction, and so on. And upon considering everything else, I just can't do all of that AND continue NADWD too, so once again, it's going on hiatus again. For how long, I won't bother to say. It'll just end when it ends, I guess. So keep an eye on my profile for when that end might come, and maybe watch for other fanfics I could soon write and post._

_But in the meantime, farewell to all, and to all a good night. Or day, depending on where in the world you're at. Not that it matters that much._

_Ciao! Until next time, everybody! :)  
_


	83. New Order

Summary: As St. Canard recovers from Negaduck's rule, J. Gander Hooter has unexpectedly decided to resign from his position of director of SHUSH, while the Negaverse faces change-of-leadership issues.

Author's Note: Guess who's ba-ack? (It's me.) ;) Because it's been so long since the last chapter, and that due to the details of this chapter's plot not enabling me to take full account of the long gap in time between postings, it would probably be wise for y'all to go back and quickly review the past few chapters. But otherwise, enjoy the new chapter of NADWD. I daresay you've waited long enough for it. :)

83.

New Order

Previously, on The New Adventures of Darkwing Duck...

_"Just two more months of this, Honk. That's it. In two more months, we graduate, and I'm finally free from school." _

_...  
_

_"Speaking of which, Crimson...in the event that things go wrong, and we __**do**__ lose this fight...I want you to know...that...uh...I...uh..."_

_Crimson finished his sentence by kissing him on the lips. "I know. I wanted to say the same thing as well. And, well, actions speak louder than words, so..."_

_...  
_

_"Attention citizens of this fine country. For those of you who don't know me, you'll be getting to know me a whole lot better in future weeks. For I have finally succeeded in doing what I have sought to do for untold years. The city of St. Canard, in the state of Calisota, is now under __**my**__ control. And that is just the beginning. Soon, I intend to conquer this entire planet!"_

_...  
_

_ "No, Bob...It...it...can't be, there must...must be someway...somehow...to...to..."_

"_Don't bother, he's deader than a doornail now. You can't help him now."_

_...  
_

"_That means Morgana would be open again for Dad to try and…and…But…he's already got you, Chris!"_

"_At times I've wondered if that's not enough."_

_...  
_

_ "No lord of the land should go about acting nice, gaining the favors of those he already has power over."_

"_Does he? I don't know if you remember it, Launchpad, but Negaduck's predecessor wasn't like that."_

"_Negaduck's __**father**__? What does __**he**__ have to do with anything? Particularly seeing that he's dead?"_

"_The fact that he was a better ruler than his son is."_

_...  
_

"_So what happened back there? Why'd you tense up?"_

"_Because, I just remembered how I died."_

_...  
_

"_Face it, Negs, you've lost. Your reign on this city has ended."_

"_Has it?"_

_...  
_

"_You lied about how I died."_

_...  
_

"_Put the gun down, and come back with me, and I can explain everything you want to know."_

"_I don't __**want **__to hear it from you, I can't __**trust **__you! __**That's**__ what this is about!"_

_...  
_

"_The device is, in short, an energy amplifier, and as it's powered by a sub-electron amplifier that Negaduck had obtained from the Negaverse, it has enough power to cover the whole globe with a sphere of energy in a matter of minutes."_

"_What kind of energy are we talking about here?"_

"_At the moment, this device is calibrated to relay magical energy."_

_...  
_

"_Gos. I didn't think we'd meet up again so soon."_

"_You have some crimes to answer for in case you forgot. So who better to take you down, than me?"_

"_Oh no, I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm all for a little family reunion..."_

_...  
_

_The blast burst out every window on the top floor of Canard Tower, shattering every one of them in a spray of glass that rained back down on the crowded streets below. The machine hummed for a few moments longer, the ball of energy it had created still shimmering for a moment on the tower's lightning rod, but then the ball suddenly blinked out of existence and an explosion ripped through one of the metal arms that had extended, rendering the device useless._

_...  
_

"_You are defeated."_

"_I suppose I am. So here it ends. Funny, I never imagined I'd go out this way, by the hand of the very person that had once been my daughter."_

"_Then you're right."_

_...  
_

"_Darkwing, this is Crimson, I'm happy to report the machine has been safely disabled, and Negaduck is in custody."_

_...  
_

_In fact, everyone did, even a reluctant but willing Vice President Norrin, until the air around the gathering reverberated with the applause._

_All for Darkwing and company._

_...  
_

"_I suppose this changes things now. Forever."_

"_Things are going to change. But for the better."_

* * *

The city of St. Canard wasn't at its best at the moment. Considering everything that had happened to it as of late, it probably shouldn't be too surprising. Its entire populace had been displaced from their homes and relocated elsewhere as refugees for nearly an entire month. The city's normal activities had all come to a halt. The city itself had been placed under siege by the forces of Negaduck and had been the site of numerous battles big and small. Damage had been done all throughout the city, and lives had been lost in the fight.

But now the populace had returned to the city and occupied it once again, resuming those normal activities that had been suspended for that long month.

The damage that had been done was already well on its way to being repaired, the city restored to its former glory.

Negaduck and his forces have all been defeated and either killed, sent back where they had come from, or taken into custody and thrown into jail.

For the first time in nearly three years, St. Canard's future looked bright and peaceful.

And a large part of it was thanks to Darkwing Duck and company.

So that bright morning roughly a week or so since Negaduck's invasion had officially ended found a small parade down main street to celebrate the victory taking place. Crowds of cheering people lined both sides of the street, throwing confetti and streamers into the air as they watched the small progression moving down the street. Leading it was a small SHUSH-issued car. It was escorting and leading the way for a convertible car that trailed behind it, which housed the celebration's guests of honor, Darkwing and the rest of the gang.

And of course Darkwing was eating up all of the attention as his overinflated ego usually did.

But for once, nobody really seemed to mind. Because deep down everybody knew this was finally Darkwing's more-than-well-deserved chance to shine. People had finally come to acknowledge everything Darkwing had done and been doing for St. Canard, and for once in his entire career, the public of St. Canard were proudly showing their support and appreciation for what he did. So if they could all overlook their previous prejudices about him, one could also overlook his ego for once, to let him have his fun.

As for the others, Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad, they rode along more timidly, waving politely to the crowd. They were just as much the center of attention as Darkwing, but they were more modest about it. Besides, they knew how long Darkwing had been waiting for this day to arrive, and there wasn't enough room in the car for _all_ of them to be jumping up and down constantly, waving at everybody and everything and flapping one's cape constantly while striking various dramatic poses for show. Which was actually a kind of comical sight too, when one thought about it. But that was beside the point.

Eventually the small parade pulled into the city's town square, which sat before Canard Tower, still receiving repairs from Negaduck's occupation, but the building still served admirably as the city's most iconic structure next to the Audubon Bay Bridge. Positioned before the front of the building, a small stage had been set up for use. The two cars pulled up to this stage and came to a stop to unload its occupants, those occupants proceeding on up to the stage and taking their seats that had been set up for them. Already on the stage waiting for them, however, was Mayor Kim. He personally greeted them as they took his seats, before stepping up to a small podium overlooking the crowd, and motioned for silence. It took a moment to get it, as the crowd was so busy cheering and yelling for their heroes that Kim was being more overlooked. But finally, sufficient enough silence fell that Kim could speak into the microphone and be heard.

"Ladies and gentlemen of St. Canard!" he proclaimed loudly. "What a joyous occasion this has turned out to be! But of course, I daresay we have a lot to be joyful about, don't we? We faced truly dark times and a deadly enemy, and yet we have pulled through triumphant. Not without costs, of course. It will no doubt be quite a while longer still before the city of St. Canard is restored back to its former glory, and even then, there will be damage that simply cannot be repaired." Kim paused for a moment, to let that sink in for a moment. "When I think of the mastermind behind this plot, Negaduck, I confess I was only somewhat familiar with him. But I knew he was an extremely dangerous villain, bent on changing at the very least our great city so it would bow down to his every whim. We successfully have prevented him from carrying out that plan, but even then I have realized that St. Canard has still changed. But if anything, we're stronger still. St. Canard has beaten its foe, and has come out of it even better than before!"

Cheers broke loose again at Kim's heartening words. The mayor wisely allowed it to continue for a few moments before again motioning for silence.

"There are several parties responsible for this that are deserving of our thanks," he continued. "The various organizations of our federal government, the military, the espionage organization SHUSH, and even our own SCPD." He motioned to representatives from each of these groups, also present on the stage, in turn as he said this. "And certainly they all deserve their own thanks as much as anyone else. But while we do convey our thanks to these organizations and more, we are gathered here today to give a very special thanks to a small party of under recognized people who have actually always been helping our great city for years now, a party that during even the worst times of Negaduck's recent reign over our city continued to work to fight against him, giving everything they had to give us this day, at great personal risk. You all already know who they are. They are Darkwing Duck and his associates, the Crimson Avenger, Techno, and Launchpad McQuack!"

The crowd started cheering jubilantly again at this. From his seat on the stage, one could clearly see Darkwing beaming like there was no tomorrow.

"And to recognize their efforts, I hereby declare today as a city-wide day to recognize Darkwing and his defeat over Negaduck, and we would like to award Darkwing and company this "Outstanding Citizen" award!" Kim concluded.

As the crowd continued to cheer and applaud, Mayor Kim pulled out a golden trophy from under the podium, and turned to present it to Darkwing, who quickly sprang up to accept it. Then Darkwing took a turn at the podium, and listened happily as the applauding and cheering continued for several moments while admiring the award he was just given. Then he began to speak.

"First, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are greatly honored to be given…well…_all_ of this!" Darkwing began, motioning to the crowd. "You know, in the many years that I've been doing this, I have long dreamed about this day coming. Sometimes I admit it was a major factor in what kept me doing this. I love this city, but the lack of support I got at times for doing what I do was…well…not very encouraging. Fortunately, I have good friends to remind me that there's much more to this job than getting adequate moral support. It no doubt makes it quite a bit easier, but it can continue on still without it. And continue on it did. And now this day finally arrives." Darkwing grinned. "And now all of those years of doing this unnoticed have become entirely worth it. And to think it took Negaduck to finally do it."

He sighed, taking on a heavier tone. "Today really shouldn't be all about me, though. This past month has been rough for us all, and we have all lost things dear to us, even some good people. Some of us will no doubt never be the same because of what has happened. But rest assured that the odds of it happening again are not likely. We have learned from our past mistakes, and better still, the mastermind behind all of this, Negaduck, has been defeated and captured, and taken where he can be kept from trying this stunt again, and let me assure you, while I'm not at liberty to say where he is now at this time, know that I can't imagine a more…_fitting_ place for him to be taken to. He'll be hard pressed to get out of there, let me tell you. And with Negaduck gone, that alone brightens St. Canard's future significantly."

Another round of cheering and applause broke loose at this.

"You know, Mayor Kim was right when he said that St. Canard has come out of this for the better," Darkwing continued. "Because it really has. This past month may have been tough, but I think it's made us see that St. Canard works best when we _all_ work together! And together, I hope to see St. Canard _continue_ to become a greater city than it already is!"

Now they cheering reached new levels of extreme as the crowd, spurred on by Darkwing's words, began applauding so enthusiastically that it just wouldn't be possible to get the crowd to calm down again anytime soon. So no one tried to. Darkwing took it as the chance to end his speech, having said pretty much what he wanted to, and with a salute to the crowd, moved to return to his seat. But that only got the crowd applauding even harder and now had gotten others on the stage to join in, including Mayor Kim himself. So, finally, Darkwing stood again, this time joined by Crimson, Techno, and Launchpad, and together they bowed to the crowd's continued applause.

Standing on the stage and also applauding was Director J. Gander Hooter and his second in command, Agent Henry Grant, here so to represent SHUSH. They continued to applaud as they watched Darkwing and the gang acknowledge the crowd's praise for them.

"He's really eating this up," Grant noted discreetly to his superior, nodding his head at Darkwing, who was the most excited person there.

"Can you blame him?" Hooter asked who was overall pleased by what he saw. "He's quite overdue for all of this."

"Yeah," Grant agreed. "Pity it'll all be ruined when you tell him of your plans."

Hooter did not respond, but his expression visibly weakened at the thought, knowing Grant was right.

"When _are_ you going to tell him, sir?" Grant asked next, curious.

Hooter watched Darkwing for a few moments before sighing. "Later," he promised. "For now, let's let Darkwing have his fun. He's earned it."

* * *

Like the rest of St. Canard, 537 Avian Way had seen better days. Fortunately, the Mallard family that lived there was already well on their way to restoring the house back to its former glory. Most of the bullet holes had already been filled in and repaired, doors fixed and remounted, even the walls and carpeting restored from the water damage it suffered in the past month, save for the living room, which had suffered the most water damage and needed to be recarpeted. Which everyone found odd, because Launchpad's room had been exposed more to the elements than the living room had. Apparently, though, it happened to sit in a fairly sheltered area, and water damage wrought was minimal.

Which given everything else that bedroom had suffered, was a small blessing, as it meant one could put all the focus on the back wall of the room that had been destroyed, and was now in the process of being rebuilt. A task that was progressing along quite nicely, speeded by the fact that Drake had plenty of help tackling not only that task, but the other repairs needed to be done to the house. Besides himself, he had Gosalyn, Honker, and Christine, who had all graciously pitched in to help. And Drake greatly appreciated it.

It was the _other_ helpers he could do without.

"Drake, dear, come look at these wallpaper samples please," Binkie Muddlefoot urged from where she stood at the coffee table, placed to one side of the living room at the moment so there would be room to work.

"I already told you, Binkie, I'm not interested in changing the wallpaper in this room," Drake grumbled as he worked at nailing a new window for the room in place in the frame of the old one. "Besides, what's _wrong_ with the preexisting wallpaper anyway?"

"It doesn't match the furniture, of course," Binkie replied simply as she held up various samples of possible replacement furniture. "Every homeowner with a lick of fashion sense knows that."

Drake narrowed his eyes at the potentially unintended insult. "Right," he growled as he worked.

"Besides, you have to replace _some_ of it, seeing there are so many of those nasty bullet holes in these walls," Binkie continued with a sweeping motion at the walls before shuddering. "Brr, it unnerves me that such things happened _here_ of all places! It's a good thing you and Gosalyn weren't in here when it happened."

"Yeah, good thing," Drake murmured distractedly.

Of course, both of them actually _had_ been in the house at the time, just under different identities, and of course the Muddlefoots didn't know the full story behind that. As far as Binkie and her husband were concerned, the Mallard home had just gotten the misfortune of getting caught in the crossfire during Negaduck's invasion. And the story seemed to carry enough weight to pass off as truth, despite the fact that of all the houses on Avian Way, the Mallard home was the one that suffered the worse damage, if suffering any noticeable damage at all, as was the case for most of the houses on Avian Way, including the Muddlefoot home, making the damage wrought on the Mallard home seem oddly targeted. Mostly because it was. But thus far none of the neighbors seemed to have thought much of it, including the Muddlefoots.

But then again, it had never been hard to pull the wool over the eyes of the Muddlefoots, save for Honker, who was at times too observant for his own good. Part of the reason why he got mixed up with the likes of Darkwing in the first place, but that was another story.

As for the wallpaper, Binkie did have a point. To cover the holes properly, at least a small bit of the wallpaper would have to be replaced. Fortunately, Drake had several rolls of spare wallpaper in the basement. They were there when he and Gosalyn moved in, presumably left over from when the house got new wallpaper last, and there was plenty. Drake had been routinely using that to do repair work around the house in the years that followed so he wouldn't _have_ to replace all the wallpaper. Furthermore, he didn't see anything wrong with it. So he had every intention of doing that again.

But Binkie had other ideas, as was usually the case when she got involved with these housework affairs such as this. Exactly why he usually resisted her getting involved in the first place, which was frequent, because even in instances where there was nothing wrong with the house, Binkie would take it upon herself to get involved regardless of whether or not Drake actually asked for it, much less want it. As such, Drake had become quite practiced at finding new and original ways to refuse her offers to help. A skill he would have put to practice on this occasion too…if Christine hadn't answered the door first and let them in.

"Look Binkie," Drake continued as he worked. "I don't want to change the wallpaper. I'm quite happy with the wallpaper I've already got, and am more than confident I can arrange everything so I can _keep_ said wallpaper as is, thus removing the need to pay a lot of money to buy _new_ wallpaper I don't really need."

"Oh but Drake," Binkie persisted. "You really ought to consider it. Personally, I think this room would look very nice in a lovely shade of blue…"

Drake didn't hear anymore as he began pounding on the nail before him as loudly as he could, so to drown out Binkie's voice. But that was not enough to drown out the loud cry of pain from upstairs, quickly followed by a thump and a crash. Drake froze for a moment, before letting out a heavy sigh, setting down the hammer.

"Herb," he murmured before rising and heading upstairs to Launchpad's bedroom, Binkie trailing after him.

The destroyed wall in that room was only partially rebuilt at present, and was for the moment only a network of wooden beams with plastic draped over the outside to keep out the weather. Herb and Christine had been working together at putting together the finishing touches so it would be ready for when the electrician came in on Friday to rewire the room. But not to Drake's surprise, they weren't actually working at the moment. Instead, Herb was kneeling on the floor, wearing a pained expression, while Christine examined one of his hands and one-handedly sticking a hammer in the pocket of the work overalls she wore at the same time.

"He hit his finger with the hammer again," Christine announced unceremoniously and without looking up as Drake and Binkie entered the room.

"_Again?_" Drake exclaimed, frustrated, before turning despairingly to Herb. "Herb…c'mon…that's the fifth time today."

"Sorry Drakester," Herb replied, flinching slightly as Christine prodded the injured digit. "But I guess I just don't have very good…" he chuckled weakly, "…hand-eye coordination."

"This I believe," Drake responded.

Christine finally finished with Herb's hand and turned to Drake. "He'll be okay," she assured them. "Though at this rate, he's not going to be able to hold a hammer before too much longer."

"Well, maybe he can help you hold the nails in place instead," Drake suggested, before turning to exit.

Only to find Binkie standing in his way, holding up her wallpaper samples. "Look, Drake, see how pretty this particular shade of blue is?" she said, holding up the sample in question. "It would look _gorgeous _in your living room."

"_I'm not changing the wallpaper, Binkie!_" Drake snapped, before sighing and forcing himself to calm down. "Look, Binkie, Herb, I appreciate the fact that you're both trying to help, but…how to put this lightly…you're not. Helping. At all."

"Oh but Drake, we can't just stand to one side and let our favorite neighbor try and get through these trying times by himself, oh no, no, no, no!" Binkie objected.

"Besides, Drakester, think about all the times you helped us out!" Herb pointed out, and a point he had indeed, regardless of whether or not Drake actually liked it. "Remember when you got us that replacement cake for Tank's birthday about ten or so years ago?"

Drake remembered. He also remembered that he only volunteered to get the replacement cake as an excuse to go investigate a case. And he remembered it was actually closer to nine years ago than ten. And that if Herb was going to use the incident like this, he regretted doing it.

Christine however, despite now knowing what the Muddlefoots were like, took sympathy on them. "Oh Drake, they just want to help, like any good neighbor should," she pointed out, taking their side.

Drake looked at her for a moment, but finally caved. "All right fine, _but_ you both need to be actually helpful with what _I_ plan to do to fix repairs, _and_ Binkie needs to stop nagging me to change the wallpaper. Or change _anything_ for that matter! I _like_ the house as it already was, and am perfectly content to _keep_ it that way."

Binkie frowned, and opened her mouth to speak. Judging from her expression, she was about to protest. But Herb, for once, did Drake a favor and cut her off.

"It's a deal Drakester!" he proclaimed enthusiastically. "I'd offer to shake on it but…" he chuckled weakly again as he glanced at his injured hands. "It's not exactly a good idea for me to do that right now."

Drake only rolled his eyes and turned an exited the room so to get back to work. The sooner he got it done, the sooner he could go back to his _usual_ routine of ignoring the Muddlefoots.

But elsewhere in the house there was a Mallard who was doing anything but ignoring a Muddlefoot.

"So you actually applied for MIT?" Gosalyn asked Honker a little incredulously as they both jointly worked to fit a new window in the dining room. "Decided to not settle for anything less, hmm?"

"Har-har," Honker replied to Gosalyn's sarcasm. "It's not like it's the school where all the really smart people go, Gos. That's Harvard. But yes, I did mail an application to MIT. The morning Negaduck's invasion began, actually. Because of said invasion, it getting sent was of course delayed, but I'm expecting a response back from them today."

"Think you'll get accepted?"

"I feel confident of my chances, if that's what you're asking." Honker glanced at his companion. "What about you, Gos? What are your plans for school?"

"Depends on how the school board rules to deal with the missed school time during the invasion," Gosalyn replied as the window slid into place, and she went for a hammer.

"Since you clearly haven't heard, they ruled that the school year would be prolonged for a few weeks to make up for the lost time, save for all the seniors, who will still graduate at the usual day," Honker explained, grabbing some nails. "So for you and me, things continue like nothing had changed."

"So there's that," Gosalyn answered simply, selecting a nail, and moving it into position.

"Yes, but what school will you go to after that?"

"I didn't think I had to. Isn't that kind of the point of graduation?"

Gosalyn raised her hammer to start pounding, but Honker stopped her. "You know what I mean, Gos," he said.

Gosalyn made a frown and gently shrugged him off. "Look, I'm just not worrying about it at the moment," she admitted, pounding the nail into the frame of the new window. "After Negaduck's invasion, I just want to sit back and…and get back into the usual flow of things and relieve some stress. Besides, that invasion robbed a lot of _my_ time too, and there are things _I_ need to get caught up on. Like _Jumpgate: Universitas_. Heaven knows how many awesome things might have happened on that show that I missed during Negaduck's invasion."

At this, Honker shifted uneasily. "Oh, well, um," he began hesitantly, "that reminds me of something I've been meaning to tell you. See, I looked up the show's status the other day, and…um…it got cancelled."

Gosalyn jumped in surprise. "What?" she exclaimed, spinning around to face him. "Why?"

"Apparently the ratings had gotten really, really, low."

Gosalyn went into a daze for a moment. "It must have been because I wasn't watching," she gaped.

Honker frowned. "I doubt that."

Gosalyn made a disappointed grimace as she slammed the hammer down hard on the nail in frustration. "Well…darn it," she remarked. "_Now_ what am I going to watch? All of the other shows aren't worth watching at _all_."

"There is more to the world than TV, you know," Honker pointed out.

"Oh, I know, it's just…with _my _exciting, wild, life, it's hard to find something that'll be more interesting than that."

This seemed to get Honker thinking a little. "Huh," he began, seeming to get an idea. "Well, in that case, I, uh, don't suppose you'd want to…er…I suppose you wouldn't…"

But he never got to finish the statement, as there was a sudden tapping noise at the window. The two turned to look through it and saw a Flashquack hovering outside, wanting in. Normally the sight of a Flashquack was exciting, but on this occasion it wasn't, because they had been seeing a _lot_ of Flashquacks lately. Gosalyn rolled her eyes in exasperation, because to her, it had been for all the wrong reasons the Flashquacks had been turning up lately.

Nonetheless, she walked over to the back door and opened it so to let the Flashquack in. It quickly did so, and started to fly on deeper into the house in search of Drake, but Gosalyn grabbed it before it could get too far and opened it to pull out the message inside herself. As the Flashquack, deciding its mission was complete, flew off again to go home, Gosalyn unrolled the message to read. She sighed at what it read, exchanged a glance with Honker, who had read over her shoulder, then went to the kitchen doorway to call into the next room.

"Daaa-aaad!" she called. "Got something for you!"

Drake strolled in a moment later, looking a little annoyed still. "Now what?" he griped. "At this rate we're _never_ going to get this house fixed back up, not with all of these delays!"

"Oh, but you're going to forget you even said that the moment I tell you a Flashquack just dropped by," Gosalyn replied flatly, and handed him the message.

As predicted, Drake's eyes brightened as he grabbed the message and quickly read through it. "Yes!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Launchpad just met up with the guys for that magazine, _Pop. Mechanisms_! They want to feature the Thunderquack in their next issue, and want me and LP to participate in a photo-shoot for the cover!"

"I know, I read the message too," Gosalyn replied, feeling that her adopted father's summarization of the note was unnecessary.

But Drake was already moving on, anxious to take advantage of this opportunity as he raced to the stairs. "Christine!" he called upstairs. "I have to head out again and take care of some business! Another event has come up for me to participate in!"

Since the Muddlefoots were in the house, he couldn't get more detailed than that, in case they overheard. But having had heard this cover story a few times already the past couple of days, Christine didn't need to hear more.

"Again?" she said, coming to the top of the stairs. "Well…okay then." She grinned supportively. "Want me to supervise repairs while you're gone, then?"

"Already a step ahead of me," Drake replied, pleased, turning to go.

"Oh, and Drake?" Christine continued, remembering something suddenly. "On your way back, remember to pick up Charlie from Morgana's, could you please?"

"Sure," Drake replied, nodding, and hurried off.

He returned to the kitchen and opened the back door so to use the secondary entrance to Darkwing Tower. "Just keep working on repairs while I'm gone," he told Gosalyn and Honker as he went. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"We know the drill, Dad," Gosalyn assured him.

"Oh, and Honker?" Drake continued, stopping as he started to close the back door behind him on his way out. "Keep your mother from changing my wallpaper while I'm gone."

Honker grinned a little. "I will."

Drake returned the grin, gave one final farewell, then left. Honker and Gosalyn resumed work on the window in the meantime. Gosalyn did so a little grumpily.

"He's been doing that a lot lately," she remarked to herself as they resumed work. "Gets an invitation from the media to make an appearance, automatically deems it more important than everything else, and drops everything to go do that."

"Well, in your dad's defense, this is the first time they have ever really cared," Honker pointed out. "I mean, before they hardly batted an eye at Darkwing, but now, in the aftermath of Negaduck's invasion, he's St. Canard's top hero."

"I know, and don't get me wrong, it's great that it's happening, and furthermore, it means Crimson and Techno get some of the spotlight too," Gosalyn agreed. "I'm just worried that Dad, as usual, is letting it all go to his head."

* * *

And of course, she had a good point. At the _Pop. Mechanisms_ photo-shoot, the photographer's plan had at first been simple; all he was expected to get was a good shot of the Thunderquack with Darkwing and Launchpad posing somewhere in the shot. When Darkwing arrived, he already had things planned out and set up, with the Thunderquack itself in position and was already working at posing Launchpad into the right posture. All he needed was to get Darkwing properly posed and then take the shot. It wasn't expected to take more than fifteen minutes at most.

And at first Darkwing was more than willing to let the photographer do exactly that. But no sooner had that first shot been taken, Darkwing suddenly got an idea for an even better shot, quickly followed by several more. Upon suggesting them to the photographer, who liked many of Darkwing's ideas and was impressed by Darkwing's sense of style, the simple fifteen minute photo-shoot suddenly turned into a much more complicated half-hour long photo-shoot as both crime-fighter and photographer got caught up in the heat of the moment.

Darkwing, of course, was eating it all up with perhaps more enthusiasm than was wise, but nobody stopped him. Launchpad, on the other hand, who was never really one who wanted to be in the spotlight _that_ much, eventually started to grow tired of all the posing, and it was thanks to him that the photo-shoot ended at about a half-hour, instead of far longer, as it nearly could have ended up. Even then, though, Darkwing was delayed as he continued to talk with the photographer, as he had ended up taking quite a liking to Darkwing.

Which meant Launchpad was left waiting outside by the Thunderquack, removed from the scene of the photo-shoot now and prepped and ready to go…just as soon as Darkwing arrived. The pilot had been waiting for a while, and was just about to doze off when the Thunderquack's built-in phone system rang.

Startled, Launchpad hurried to answer it. "Hello, you've reached the Thunderquack, Launchpad speaking, how may we be of service?" he answered. He listened to the response he received from the other end for a moment. "Director Hooter! What's up? Trouble afoot? Criminals causing trouble you need us to resolve? Or maybe FOUL is up to something again?…Yeah, I can stop talking and just listen…DW? No, he's not right here at the moment, but if you give him a few moments…no, I certainly can pass a message on to him. What's the message?" A long pause followed in which Launchpad first heard the said message then had to take a few more moments to process what he had just been told. "Say again? Did I really hear that right?"

He was assured that he was.

A few moments later finally saw Darkwing leaving the photo-shoot and arriving in the jet, in an extremely good mood.

"What a great guy, that photographer," he remarked aloud to Launchpad as he strapped himself in. "I hope we get to work with him again sometime soon. Anyway, sorry to keep you waiting, LP."

Launchpad merely nodded, who sat in the pilot's seat, oddly quiet and still.

"So, back to the tower to change, and then we need to stop at Morgana's to pick up Charlie," Darkwing summarized. "After that, hopefully the rest of the day will be free to keep working on…"

"Actually, DW, you're probably going to want to stop at SHUSH HQ first, before all of that," Launchpad remarked, snapping out of his daze suddenly as he went to start up the Thunderquack.

Darkwing frowned. "Any particular reason _why_?" he asked.

"The director called while I was waiting for you to arrive," the sidekick explained as they took off.

"J. Gander? Why? Does he have a case for us?"

"Unfortunately, no," Launchpad confessed, then sighed. "I'm afraid he had bad news, DW."

* * *

Hooter sat calmly at his desk and stared blankly across his office at the door that led out to the adjacent secretary's office. He actually had plenty of work he should be doing, projects that needed his attention. He didn't really have the time to be staring at nothing unproductively like this. But for the moment, he didn't have the drive to do much else, and anyway, he strongly suspected that even if he did settle himself down and dive into that work he needed to do, it was only going to get interrupted, because he fully expected to have a visitor before sooner or later.

And the eventual buzzing of the intercom sitting on his desk told him that he wasn't going to be disappointed.

"Darkwing Duck here to see you, sir," his secretary announced calmly.

Hooter nodded to himself. "Go ahead and send him in, Julie," he replied into the intercom.

A moment later the door opened, and Darkwing calmly stepped into the room. No theatrics. No smoke-and-entrance. No witty catchphrases. He just flatly walked into the room then quietly shut the door behind him before turning to look at Hooter, not taking another step further into the room.

"Darkwing," Hooter greeted calmly.

"J. Gander," Darkwing replied in return.

A long and uneasy silence fell.

"So," Darkwing finally began, folding his arms as he got right to the point, "you're retiring."

Hooter nodded slowly. "Yes."

"And you're set to leave SHUSH before the week is out now."

"Yes."

"And I'm only just _now_ finding out about this?"

"You've been…busy."

"That's never stopped you before."

"True." Hooter sighed. "Look, Darkwing, I had a pretty good idea how you were going to react to it, and so…I put it off. Besides, with everything going so well for you as of late…"

"That's entirely beside the point, J. Gander," Darkwing interrupted. "What _is_ the point is that you even felt there was a _need_ to hold off telling me this. In fact, you never _did_ tell me directly, you told Launchpad, and left it to _him_ to tell _me_ the news!"

"You weren't there _to _tell when I called," Hooter argued in his defense.

"You could have waited! I _was_ there to tell within five minutes of your phone call to Launchpad, not at all an unreasonable amount of time to wait!"

"All right fine, I'll admit it, I didn't want to have to be the one to tell you to news," Hooter finally confessed. "So when I got Mr. McQuack instead of you, I jumped at the chance. Like I said, I _knew_ how you were going to respond, and the fact that you're here _now,_ having this conversation with me, only proves that I was right."

"Which leads me to my _next _question," Darkwing continued. He looked at Hooter questioningly for a long moment, slowly shaking his head. "_Why_?"

Hooter sighed. "Because I'm getting old," he confessed. "And I can't ignore it any longer. I've probably already ignored it long enough as is. As much as I hate to admit it, my body can't handle the strain anymore. Negaduck's invasion was especially hard on me, and what was probably what woke me up to what I needed to do." He fidgeted with a paper on his desk for a moment. "Besides that, I feel like I have done my bit for the world. Helping to put an end to Negaduck's attempts to invade feels like a good note to go out on."

Darkwing looked at him for a long moment. "Well…yeah, I guess that makes sense," he confessed. "But…J. Gander…you seem _fine_. Like you're ready, capable, and above all, _willing_ to keep doing this for years longer."

"Only because I've gotten very good at hiding it," Hooter responded, and to drive his point home, he creakily popped his back in such a way that it made Darkwing realize with a start that he wasn't kidding. "I have so many different aches and pains all over this old body of mine, I can't keep track of them all. And they just aren't going away. Darkwing…it's time for me to throw in the towel. I have enjoyed my work at SHUSH, and am very proud of my accomplishments, and would greatly enjoy it if I could keep doing them, but…reality says otherwise. Anyway, I probably should have retired a decade ago. Did you know that I'll be turning seventy next year?"

"Of course I did," Darkwing replied, still looking a little stunned. "In fact, rumor was that there were plans in the works among your staff of possibly doing something special to celebrate it." He frowned. "I guess that's not happening now." He then blinked as he realized something. "Your staff…did they know of your plans?"

"Just the closest ones at first," Hooter replied. "Agent Grant, for example. The rest are finding out about it about the same time as you, Darkwing. You weren't the only one I neglected to tell straightaway."

Darkwing was silent for another long moment, still trying to process all of this. "But…when you go…" he began, "…who's going to take your place?"

"President Ravenspell has already assured me that a list of possible replacements has already been put together," Hooter replied. "The final decision has not yet been made, though, as not all of the powers that be have agreed on a person as of yet."

"Powers that be…" Darkwing began, then his eyes widened. "J. Gander…what about Vice President Norrin? You know as well as I do that he hasn't been happy with how SHUSH has been getting ran lately, and you retiring would be the best chance he's probably _ever_ going to get to put in one of his minions, or…"

"I've already pulled a few favors with President Ravenspell to insure that Norrin doesn't just replace me with a puppet or worse," Hooter quickly assured him. "That should keep Norrin at bay."

"At bay," Darkwing repeated skeptically.

"I know it doesn't necessarily guarantee that he keeps out of it entirely, but it's the best I can do."

"The best you can do is to not do this at all!" Darkwing argued, then stopped to think, beginning to pace. "Maybe…maybe we can strike some kind of compromise…maybe less hours for you? Less activity in the field?"

"Darkwing, I've technically been kept out of the field for years now," Hooter pointed out. "But as Negaduck's invasion and several other incidents like it proved, that can't guarantee much of anything. Danger still likes to find me. And getting less hours will not change the fact that I'm getting old, Darkwing. The time will come, probably sooner than either of us will care to admit, that I will simply be too old to carry on in the job any further. And it could be disastrous if I put it off until that moment, especially to my own health. It would be better to stop now, well before it reaches that point."

"But…" Darkwing began, still not entirely convinced. "But…"

Hooter sighed again, and looked at his hands. "There is one other reason why I'm doing this too," he said, and picked up a picture that had perpetually stood on his desk for many years. "I believe I haven't ever told you too much about my family, correct?"

"I know you had a wife, and some kids that have all grown up and gone on with their lives," Darkwing stated, more to prove that he wasn't entirely ignorant of this matter than anything.

"Yes, and it's been years since I've had the chance to do much of anything with them," Hooter responded, as he gazed wistfully at the picture he handled, portraying said family. "Been too busy with my work at SHUSH." He sighed heavily. "You know, my youngest daughter has just blessed me with another grandson eight months ago, and I _still_ haven't taken the time to meet him. And he is on a long list of other grandchildren I've hardly had the time to get to know." His grip on the picture tightened some. "Retiring will change all of that. No longer will I have an excuse to ignore my family anymore. Now I'll have all the time that's left to me in my life to do whatever I can to cherish and appreciate their company."

Darkwing was silent for a long moment, seeing what Hooter was getting at, and understood it well. He opted not to say anything, though, because he knew confessing this would only leave him unable to do anything but stand to one side and let Hooter leave. "J. Gander…" he began.

"Darkwing, I know you have family too," Hooter began again suddenly, unknowingly calling Darkwing out on his attempts to ignore this matter. "So you know what I'm talking about. Times where we get too caught up in our work only to realize, too late, that we missed something important. Only now picture it from my point of view. I feel like I've missed almost all of it and that _nothing_ can ever get me caught up again. But I want to try anyway. So please Darkwing…let me have that chance."

Darkwing hesitated to respond for a long moment. He knew there was only one response he could give at this point, but it was the response he didn't want to give, at least not without more of a fight.

Seeing Darkwing's hesitation, Hooter had one more point to add. "Darkwing, how would you feel if you woke up one day and realized you had not only missed out on not only the life of your Gosalyn, but were missing out on her children's lives as well?"

Darkwing looked sharply up at Hooter at this comment. It was the first time either of them had either really verbally discussed anything about Darkwing's life as Drake Mallard. That alone was shocking enough, but for Hooter to also use it to try and convey so deep a point…Darkwing's resolve crumbled under it.

"Okay J. Gander," Darkwing finally conceded. He heaved a heavy sigh. "Retirement it is. But…please know that…your presence here at SHUSH will be greatly missed."

Hooter nodded. "I understand, Darkwing," he said. "And thank you."

* * *

Drake knew his own home had suffered a fair deal during Negaduck's invasion, but even that couldn't quite compare to the damage Macawber Mansion received during the same invasion. Even with magic on its side during repairs, it was clear fairly early on that the mansion was never going to be the same again. Whole portions of the house had been all but obliterated, including its porch, front door, and half of its kitchen. The rest of the mansion had fared somewhat better, but not unscathed, bearing many holes or other scars from all of the battling done during Negaduck's invasion. But for her credit, Morgana had taken it all in stride, repeatedly saying that this was her chance to remodel.

But then, it was probably Morgana that Drake was worried the most about, for she had lost more than parts of her mansion. She had lost her husband.

Drake still had mixed feelings about Bob's untimely death. It was no secret that he and Bob had never been terribly close. When he first met him, in fact, Drake had strongly resented him, knowing that he had succeeded with Morgana where he had not. But over time, he _had_ warmed up to the warlock psychiatrist, and had come to accept that he and Morgana had been very close. Which was what bothered Drake the most, because he knew Morgana was still hurting over this death, even though she hid it well.

What was worse about all of this, though, was the fact that suddenly, after years of believing otherwise, Drake's relationship with Morgana was yet again up in the air. And Drake admittedly didn't know how he should respond to it.

So typically he tried not to, at least for the time being. Thus when he arrived at Macawber Mansion, which was in the process of being off-and-on magically remodeled whenever Morgana could spare the time to cast the necessary spells, to pick up Charlie, Drake was all business. He did not want to linger too long, as he didn't want to have to focus on the matter of him and Morgana too long. The fact that he had Hooter's oncoming retirement hanging over his head now, only reaffirmed his intentions to make this quick.

Exiting the car, and having changed back into his casual attire, he looked at the mansion for a moment, breathed a sigh to collect his nerves, and then proceeded to the mansion's front door. Or at least he would have, if there was a door. Instead, there was just an open, door-shaped, hole. Morgana obviously hadn't taken the time to replace it yet. This wasn't hard to understand, seeing that she had clearly been redesigning the porch to be very different from how it had been before. The old door design probably wouldn't work for this. And at least there were steps that would lead to said door.

"How does she keep the rain, wind, and cold out, though?" Drake thought aloud to himself, before slapping his forehead as he answered his own question. "With magic, of course! Duh!"

He turned his attention to the door, and by association, to the new problem that presented. How does one knock when there is no door to knock on? A quick look around revealed that there was no doorbell installed as of yet, either. Drake frowned, undecided. He didn't want to just walk in, that would be rude. But then again, Morgana might not mind. It was hard to tell with her these days.

Of course, this wouldn't be such a problem if Drake had visited the mansion before, since Negaduck's invasion ended. And he had once before…with Christine present as well, and they had both been lucky enough to catch Morgana outside in her yard, magically filling in blast craters. This was really the first time since the invasion that Drake got to visit on his own to be put into this situation. And he didn't really know how to resolve it. If only he was still in costume, then he could just do a smoke and entrance, and then…

His problem was suddenly solved when Charlie happened to walk past the front door, stop, and then do a double take to look back at Drake.

Drake, realizing how stupid he probably looked just standing there, sheepishly waved. "Hi," he said.

Charlie grinned and waved back. "Hi."

"Um, I'm here to pick you up," Drake pointed behind him at the waiting car. "So…if you've got everything…"

"I do," Charlie responded, holding up his trademark stuffed otter toy, Jude.

"Well then, let's go."

Charlie nodded, started forward, but then stopped and turned back to face the mansion's library doors to shout, "Bye Morgana!"

Drake felt his heart leap up with a jolt of anxiety, and looked up at the library doors as Morgana opened them and peered out. She at first seemed puzzled, up until she saw Drake, and then she immediately brightened.

"Dark!" she said happily, and started towards him as if she intended to embrace him, only to catch herself last minute and hold off. "Um…hi."

Drake shuffled his webbed feet a little. "Uh, hi Morgana."

They were silent for a moment.

"So…how are you doing?" Drake asked finally.

"Ohhhh," Morgana began, holding out her hands as if undecided. "Well enough, I suppose."

"Well…good," Drake responded. "I'd hate to hear that you…you know…weren't doing all right."

"Well," Morgana admitted, "I suppose I am…feeling lonely in this big mansion now." She sighed. "But I suppose there isn't much you can do about that."

"Well, I can still try," Drake offered.

"Well…" Morgana began.

"Would you two stop saying 'well' all the time?" Charlie asked suddenly, getting annoyed by the two's overuse of the word.

Drake and Morgana exchanged looks, and then chuckled weakly.

"Look, Morg," Drake began finally. "I'd like to help you out more, but…I have my own responsibilities, and…"

"Are you avoiding me, Dark?" Morgana asked suddenly.

Drake was brought short by this for a moment then he sighed. "Yeah, kind of," he admitted. "But…I just don't know where you and I stand anymore, now that Bob is…um…" he trailed off, unable to say it.

Morgana hung her head some. "I understand," she admitted. "I…don't know either. But…I suppose we need to take the time to find out."

Drake sighed. "Yeah, I suppose we do, just…not now." He started to usher Charlie out the door. "I've got bigger things on my plate at the moment."

"Like what?" Morgana asked.

"Like finding out that J. Gander has decided to retire from SHUSH."

"_Really?_ When?"

"Before the week is out." Drake turned his attention back to Morgana. "Look, Morg, I'm sorry I haven't been doing more to be there for you. But whether we like it or not…I have other responsibilities that demand for just as much of my time."

Morgana nodded in understanding, and grinned some. "I know," she said. "And I understand." She placed one hand on his shoulder. "I would expect you to do nothing else. So you do what you need to do, Drake."

"Okay," Drake said. "But…if you need anything…"

"You will be the first I turn to, Dark," Morgana assured him.

Drake nodded, satisfied. "C'mon Charlie," he said, motioning the youth towards the door. "It's time to go."

* * *

"Hooter's _retiring_?" Gosalyn exclaimed loudly later that evening at dinner.

As Mallard family dinners typically went, it was fairly routine, save for the fact that tonight they were joined by Christine and Charlie for the meal (thus invited because it was getting late), and Launchpad was absent. But as for their discussions at dinner, they were typically less routine, given the career paths of most of the participants. Tonight, with Hooter's retirement looming, was no exception.

"Yep, he's leaves in just a matter of days now," Drake announced glumly, poking at his own dinner with his fork.

"Does he have a reason _why_?"

"A couple, as a matter of fact. Increasing age, feeling he's done his bit for the world, desire to do more with his family…"

"Those all sound like reasonable reasons to me," Christine remarked understandingly.

"Admittedly, I agree," Drake concurred. "Which is why I'm not putting up more of a fuss over it."

"But…but…" Gosalyn began, still trying to process the full implications of this. "Who'll replace him? Agent Grant?"

"Don't know yet," Drake explained. "According to Hooter, the powers that be are still figuring that part out. I'm hoping it'll be someone like Agent Grant, though. That would at least ease the transition."

"With our luck, though, we'll probably get someone…infuriating," Gosalyn grumbled. She frowned at her meal for several long moments. "Why does he have to go and retire _now_? I mean, with Negaduck defeated and St. Canard vowing to enter into a new golden age as a result, you'd think it'd be the perfect time to _stay put_."

"I don't know about that," Christine disagreed. "Negaduck's invasion changed a lot of things. Seems to me it only paved the way for more changes to take place. Besides, change isn't always a bad thing. I'm sure it'll all work out in the end."

"I suppose," Gosalyn said, not convinced. "It'll be interesting to see how Honker will react when I tell him in the morning. That is assuming plans haven't changed, of course."

"What do you mean?" Christine asked, who was unaware of their plans for the morning.

"Honk and I are going in at SHUSH HQ for some meeting or something that Honker's going as Techno, and he talked me into joining him for reasons I wasn't really paying attention to," Gosalyn explained. "But we're likely to meet with Hooter at some point during that, so…"

"So that'll be your chance to discuss this with him in full," Drake concluded. "But don't bother trying to talk him out of it. I tried. He's already made up his mind."

Gosalyn sighed. "I know."

"Does Launchpad know?" Charlie suddenly asked.

"He was the first to find out," Drake replied.

"Where _is_ Launchpad anyway?" Christine asked.

Drake had a knowing look as he answered. "He had other plans tonight."

* * *

"…so he's sitting there in his throne, right? Thinking he's won and everything, and that he pretty much rules over the whole land. But just when he's about to treat himself to a victory drink, there's the gang, confronting him! And at first he's not worried, right? Because he had already beaten them and robbed all six of them of their ability to stop him, and thinks that they still are, that they couldn't work together to sort things out between them, but they did. So he lets them try to attack, only to realize too late that they really have gotten their act back together and are just about to defeat them. And he struggles, going "noooo" and all of that, but too late, and BAM! He's reduced to a stone lawn ornament again, defeated!"

Agent Mia looked at Launchpad for several long moments with a blank expression on her face, still attempting to process what Launchpad had just told her. Her fork hovered over her plate of dinner, forgotten for the moment. "Okay," she began slowly. "So…what happened then?"

"Oh well, then the six just go back to the capital where the princess gives them recognition for their efforts, shows off a new stained glass window showing off their victory, they receive applause from everybody, and then they cut to credits," Launchpad concluded quickly in nearly all one breath, before leaning back in his booth seat.

Mia slowly nodded her head, pretending to understand. "Ah," she said curtly. She glanced around the restaurant for a moment, trying to decide what else she could say. "So you say this was on TV?"

"Mm-hmm!" Launchpad replied quickly, leaning forward again to return his attention to his own dinner. "It wasn't something I'd normally watch, no, but hey! It kept me entertained nonetheless."

Mia couldn't help but grin at this. "Well, that much is clear," she agreed. The feline returned her own attention to her own dinner. "And I suppose we have to talk about _something_ during these dates you keep talking me into."

Launchpad merely grinned broadly at this and didn't comment one way or the other as he continued to eat.

Mia, however, allowed herself to think about other matters. "I suppose it's just as well that we have something cheerful to think about tonight anyway, though, isn't it?"

Launchpad's smile faded as he looked at his dinner plate for a long moment, knowing what she was talking about. "Yeah, I suppose so," he admitted. He was quiet for a moment then glanced up at his date. "When did you find out Hooter was retiring?"

"Today, like you did," Mia replied with a heavy sigh, and shook her head. "It's hard to believe that he's really going to leave."

"Yeah, well, he's made it clear that he doesn't intend to stay any longer," Launchpad said. "Darkwing already tried to talk him out of it. Instead, Hooter managed to talk Darkwing out of trying."

"I'm sure he has good reasons," Mia assured Launchpad.

"And he does," Launchpad agreed. "It's just…not going to be the same without him. I mean, SHUSH and Hooter have almost become synonymous with each other. SHUSH, Hooter…Hooter, SHUSH…it feels weird to think about having one without the other."

"Yeah, but it's going to happen," Mia said.

"What makes it worse is that we don't know who's going to replace Hooter yet," Launchpad continued. "At this point, it could be anyone. I'm hoping for Agent Grant, if only because we already know him, but…if I'm honest…for that to happen, it would sound almost too good to be true."

"I think you're right," Mia agreed. "After I found out, I had a meeting with Agent Grant to discuss things, and I discreetly hinted towards him possibly becoming director, and…he didn't respond too warmly. If you ask me, I think he's already out of the running."

Launchpad shook his head then sighed himself. "Well, there's not much point in speculating about what we simply don't know at this point, and it's pretty clear that it's out of our hands now," he said. He forced a grin. "And anyway, I suppose we should be happy. If this is what Hooter wants, and he's getting it, then…all the more power to him, right?"

"Yeah," Mia agreed.

They were quiet for a few moments.

"I wonder what Hooter's going to do with himself once he retires," Mia wondered aloud suddenly.

"DW told me Hooter has family," Launchpad offered. "I imagine he'll catch up with them."

"Yes, but Hooter's wife passed away years ago, and all of his kids have moved on and out of the house," Mia pointed out. "So…what is he going to do when he isn't visiting family?"

"Well…" Launchpad began, thinking. "Maybe he'll stay with one of them, then."

Mia gave Launchpad a skeptical look.

"Well, why not?" Launchpad asked in his defense. "They are stranger things you could stay with. I should know because I have a talking crow named Poe for a roommate."

Mia looked at him blankly for another moment. "Poe," she repeated.

"Yeah," Launchpad replied with a nod. "Long story. But he's a good bird once you get to know him. Although…sometimes I wish there was something I could get him to do so to pull his own weight around the house."

"What, you mean he's not a part of your little Darkwing Duck gang?"

Launchpad laughed. "No, not really. In fact, when Negaduck invaded, he flew off and hid for his own safety. It wasn't until we had taken back all but Canard Tower before he turned up again. He kept out of the way, see, but he wasn't unaware of what was going on."

"Heh, but it sounds like with a little training, he'd make for a good messenger bird," Mia remarked aloud.

Launchpad furrowed his brow, considering the idea for a moment. "Maybe," he said. "_I_ like the idea, but I don't know if Poe would. He has a bit of an ego for a bird."

* * *

The next morning found Honker Muddlefoot waking up as he normally would that morning. He got up, got dressed, and preceded downstairs into the kitchen for breakfast. In the kitchen, his mother was already at work fixing breakfast as she usually was, working at making an omelet. His father was already sitting at the table, flipping through a TV Guide.

"Did you know that they're showing a program called 'Ten Most Memorable TV Shows,' on channel twenty-one tonight?" Herb Muddlefoot asked aloud as his son entered. "They're going to show a whole bunch of select episodes from classic shows on it, like _Pelican's Island_, _Star Trek_, _Doctor Hooves_…"

"Sounds like fun," Honker noted with a grin as he sat down at the table. "I'll see if I can manage to catch it tonight."

"Speaking of which, what _are_ your plans for today, dear?" Binkie Muddlefoot asked as she flipped the omelet she was making.

"I have a, uh, club meeting to attend to today with Gosalyn," Honker explained. "I don't know how long I'll be, but I hope not too terribly long."

Inwardly, though, he was wincing, because he knew that it was partly a lie. His parents knew nothing of his double life as Techno and his association with Darkwing, and while he had been doing it long enough to be used to it, it still rubbed him the wrong way every now and then. Furthermore, he continually wondered if he really could keep this secret from his parents forever. But until such a time, hiding the truth was the better option no matter how one looked at it. Besides, his parents seemed happy enough being none the wiser.

"Well, you probably won't be missing much around here, anyway," Binkie explained as she brought Honker his breakfast to eat. "Your father and I are planning to go and help Mr. Mallard continue working at repairing his house. If we're lucky, we might get his living room all finished today."

"Mm," Honker said with a mild grin, knowing that Drake Mallard was actually wishing that the Muddlefoots would leave him to fix his house himself.

"Oh, and one more thing," Binkie continued as she returned to the table suddenly, dropping a bundle of letters on the table. "Here's the morning mail. If you all could sort through it and pull out anything pertaining to you all so I can take care of the rest later when I get a chance, it would be appreciated."

"Right dear," Herb grunted, but he otherwise made no movement to sift through the pile of letters.

Honker, however, did. And it wasn't long before he uncovered a letter addressed to him, bearing the familiar logo of MIT on it. Feeling a jolt of excitement that he had received a response for his application to the school, Honker grabbed the letter and opened it up, pulling out the letter within to begin reading, a happy smile on his face.

But it wasn't long before that smile slowly started to fade away again as what was written on it made itself clear.

* * *

"They _rejected_ you?" Gosalyn exclaimed in surprise as she worked to dress herself in her Crimson Avenger costume.

"Yep," Honker replied numbly as he half-heartedly worked to put on his own.

Gosalyn gaped at him for a few moments. "_You_?" she repeated. "The smartest guy I know?"

"Well, I don't know about that, Gos."

"Still…how could MIT pass up _you_? Do they not _realize_ what they're missing out on?"

Honker glanced at her with a frown. "The other day you were acting surprised I had even applied at MIT," he pointed out. "Why the change of heart?"

"Because I knew how much it meant to you," Gosalyn replied as she paused buttoning up her costume's black double-breasted jacket.

A moment of silence fell, the silence multiplied by the fact that Darkwing Tower was both quiet and empty already as they were the only two present in it at the moment. Launchpad and Drake were at Avian Way, continuing work on repairs, as planned. In a way, Gosalyn was glad for this, as it gave her and Honker a chance to talk in private, and since the subject today was obviously a touchy one, she was extra glad for it now. She allowed the silence to continue to hang in the room before strolling across the tower to sit down beside Honker.

"Look, Honk," Gosalyn began, "I don't really care _what_ you do with your future, so long as you are happy. You are, after all, my bestest of friends, to the point you're almost family. And I could tell you were really hoping to attend MIT. Furthermore, I know you like the back of my hand. I know how intelligent you are. So, that said," she shook her head, grinning a little, "I really _cannot_ see how MIT could've possibly made as dumb a choice as to let you slip through their fingers."

Honker grinned a little, heartened by Gosalyn's comments. "Yeah," he conceded, putting on his visor. "I suppose there are other schools I could attend anyway."

"And they'll be extremely lucky to have you, Honk," Gosalyn replied as she put on her own mask before patting Techno on the back and moving to grab her hat.

"Likewise," Techno murmured aloud to himself, before gathering his nerve to say something else. "Um, on a slightly different subject, there _is_ something else I wanted to ask. Uh, I was…see…I just thought maybe…"

"Can it wait?" Crimson suddenly interrupted as she hopped onto the Avenger and revved its engine. "We're running late to get to that meeting of yours."

Techno glanced at the time displayed on the HUD of his visor quickly and saw she was right. "Yeah, it can wait," he said as he joined Crimson by climbing into the motorbike's sidecar before Crimson drove the bike on and out of the tower to head for SHUSH HQ.

"Besides," Crimson continued, thinking about Hooter's oncoming retirement. "There's something you need to know."

* * *

The meeting was relatively uneventful. Crimson ended up dozing through most of it, so she never did figure out what it was all about. But it apparently ended on a good note, because Techno walked away from it looking cheerful and happy.

"I take it the meeting went well, then?" Crimson asked when Techno shook her out of her light nap.

"Yep," Techno confirmed gladly. "Pity you slept through most of it."

"Eh, I have no regrets," Crimson stated as she stretched her arms and popping her back. "But while I'd hate to spoil a good mood, I think it's time we went and saw Director Hooter."

Techno did not argue this point, so they did indeed leave to go to Hooter's office. Upon arrival, they did not have to wait long before they were ushered in into the office, where Hooter was waiting for them at his trademark place behind his desk.

"Crimson, Techno," he greeted as they entered. "I figured you two were going to come and visit me before too much longer."

"Yeah, we heard about your plans to retire from Darkwing," Techno remarked aloud. "And I think I speak for all of us when I say that we're sorry to hear that you're planning to leave."

Hooter sighed himself. "Yes, well, everyone has their day," he commented. "And I think I've had mine, is all. It's time to move on."

Crimson shuffled her feet awkwardly for a few moments. "I think I already know the answer to this," she began, "but I don't suppose there still isn't anything we can do to get you to stay, is there?"

Hooter shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Crimson," he said. "My plans for retirement are already finalized, and the government is already well on their way to determining who my replacement will be. It's too late to pull out, even if I wanted to."

A moment of silence fell.

"Well, speaking of replacements," Crimson continued, opting to move on. "Any idea who it might be?"

"I'm afraid not," Hooter confessed. "By the looks of things, I could very well end up leaving SHUSH before they have one selected."

"What happens then?" Crimson asked.

"Then Agent Grant will be in charge of SHUSH until such time that a replacement is finalized," Hooter explained. "Beyond that, though, I know no more about the matter than you two."

Another moment of silence fell, during which the two teens sought something else to say.

"Well, at any rate, it's been a pleasure to work with you, sir," Techno finally said, stepping forward towards Hooter's desk, his hand outstretched.

Hooter gladly took it and shook it, before moving to shake Crimson's hand as well. "Thank you, Techno, Crimson," he said truthfully. "It has been a pleasure to work with both of you as well, as well as the great many other good people I have crossed paths with during my time as director. And I hope you two will continue to go on and do good for the world, as you've already done thus far."

"Well, I certainly plan to," Crimson stated immediately and with complete confidence. "Personally, I _love_ what I do." She then jabbed a thumb playfully at Techno. "Dunno about Tech there, though, seeing he's looking into colleges, universities, and all of that further education stuff."

"Really?" Hooter remarked, taking an interest as he turned to Techno, who blushed a little by being put in the spotlight so. "What schools have you applied for, Techno?"

"Well…just MIT so far, sir," Techno confessed a little reluctantly, not comfortable to be discussing his private life like this. "But I received notification that they had rejected my application today."

"Really?" Hooter remarked again, surprised. "They _rejected_ you, of all people?"

"That's what I said!" Crimson immediately exclaimed, drawing a chuckle from the others.

"Well, my apologies for MIT not working out, Techno," Hooter said. "But I wish you luck in your attempts to find the school for you." He suddenly blanked out, a thought coming to him as he started to sort through the papers on his desk. "Unless," he began, finding the said paper and handing it over to Techno. "You'd be interested in going here."

Techno examined the paper's contents briefly. His eyebrows went up in mild surprise. "The SHUSH Training Academy?" he asked.

"The facility at which all aspiring SHUSH agents-to-be, or other like candidates, attend to study the fields of espionage, technology, science, and many more," Hooter said. "You won't find a better school on the planet, in fact. It's just not suited for everyone. However, given your talents Techno, and your past work with Darkwing…"

"No, no, I see where you're going with this," Techno said, starting to brighten the more the idea sank in. "You think I should apply here?"

"I'd even be willing to put in a good word for you before I leave, Techno," Hooter added.

Techno regarded the paper for a few moments, shaking his head and grinning widely, touched. "Thank you, director," he finally said.

"You're more than welcome," Hooter assured him. "It's the least I can do. In fact, I'd offer the same chance to Crimson here, but…" he glanced knowingly in her direction. "Something tells me she's not interested."

"Nope!" Crimson confirmed brightly and with no hesitation at all. "I already know what I'm going to do with myself in the future." She motioned to her costume tellingly.

Hooter laughed. "I'm sure you'll follow Darkwing's footsteps admirably, Crimson," he assured her.

"Thank you Hooter," Crimson said, beaming under the praise.

But any further commenting and flattery was brought to a sudden halt when an alarm started to go off in the building. The three started to look around for the source when the intercom suddenly clicked on.

"Director Hooter to sub-level five!" it reported urgently. "Repeat, Director Hooter to sub-level five immediately!"

The three looked at each other in alarm for a moment.

"And just when things were going so well," Crimson grumbled aloud.

* * *

"Report!" Hooter barked the moment he, Crimson, and Techno marched into sub-level five, which was currently in a flurry of activity.

Despite Hooter being about to retire, he still bore authority over the SHUSH staff to receive an immediate response. "The transdimensional portal generator is charging up, someone is dialing in," a technician reported quickly.

Crimson heaved a sigh at this as all attention turned directly to the portal generator itself as it warmed up to open a portal. "You know, there was a time when this could happen without so much alarm," she stated.

"That was before Negaduck's invasion," Hooter replied pointedly. "We've since learned that it's better to be on our guard."

Techno nodded in agreement. "Better safe than sorry," he approved.

They didn't have long to wait before the transdimensional portal burst into existence with its usual chromatic display of color. SHUSH commandos quickly raised their weapons to point at the portal in the event of an attempted transdimensional invasion, but for the moment, nothing stepped through the portal.

After a moment, Dr. Bellum appeared and handed Hooter a paper report. "We can stand down," she said, looking visibly relieved. "We just received the UIO's IDC."

Hooter breathed a sigh relief. "Right, stand down!" he called to the commandos. "If we haven't already, send the all-clear to any incoming travelers!"

As the next few moments were spent in relative silence as Hooter's orders were carried out and everyone awaited the arrival of their visitor, all eyes turned expectantly to the portal again.

"The UIO," Techno repeated aloud to himself. "I hope it's just a friendly visit, and that there's nothing wrong."

"If only we could be so lucky," Hooter murmured aloud.

When their familiarly yellow-suited visitor finally stepped through the portal, it was clear from her face that Hooter was right to be worried.

"NegaCrimson," Crimson greeted with a hint of worry in her voice as she went to go meet her double as she reached the bottom of the ramp. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, nothing good unfortunately, as you've probably already guessed," NegaGosalyn responded before turning to address Hooter. "Director Hooter, I have what is perhaps a peculiar question for you."

"Okay," Hooter said with a nod of understanding. "Fire away."

"If you faced a change in the world's leadership that you intend to oppose, what would you do?"

Hooter turned blank for a few moments at the unexpected question, but he attempted to give an answer. "I would imagine something similar to what was done during the darkest times of Negaduck's invasion," he answered. "Rally together as many allies as I could, hide away someplace safe, or someplace that can be defended well, and seek a way to rectify the situation."

NegaGosalyn nodded. "That's what I thought you'd say," she said, looking like she was stopping to consider her options now.

"Why do you ask?" Techno asked.

"Because that's exactly what the Hooter of the Negaverse has done," NegaGosalyn replied. "And I've come here looking for help, as your Hooter put it, to rectify the situation."

"Well, as it just so happens, we're available," Crimson said to her double, motioning to herself and Techno. "Just let me send a Flashquack to Darkwing explaining the matter, and we'll be right with you."

She walked off to carry out the task, leaving Techno and Hooter with NegaGosalyn. The three milled around impatiently for a few moments in silence. NegaGosalyn looked around the large room for a few moments, noting the increased activity and routine work taking place since the last time she was here.

"Well, by the looks of it, you guys are doing better than I am in the Negaverse at the moment," she noted, sounding pleased.

"Well, we're still recovering, but yes, things are going well," Hooter responded. "For the most part."

"Right," NegaGosalyn said. She shifted around for a few moments, as if feeling awkward. "Look, just for the record, I want to apologize for my past actions from before, when I was on Negaduck's side. I…I really regret what I did before, and I want to make it all up in any way I can."

"In my mind, NegaCrimson, you already have," Hooter assured her. "Your presence will be welcomed at SHUSH, at least for the rest of my command here."

"Which won't be lasting much longer," Techno couldn't help but add for NegaGosalyn's benefit.

NegaGosalyn frowned. "Why's that?" she asked.

"I'm retiring," Hooter replied.

"Oh." NegaGosalyn was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Hooter heaved a weary sigh at this. "Yes, well, I was going to have to do it eventually," he pointed out.

"When you really think about it," Crimson said as she suddenly reappeared, a Flashquack in one hand and her written note in the other, "we should be thankful that we got to have him around for as long as we have. Anyway, we have bigger matters to worry about, so just let me get this Flashquack properly calibrated…"

"What did you write anyway?" Techno asked, curious, taking Crimson's message to read while she prepped the Flashquack. "'Darkwing, trouble in Negaverse, going with NegaMe to go fix it. Signed, CA.'"

"It's quick and to the point," Crimson assured him before he could criticize the vague note any, taking back the note and stuffing it into the Flashquack and letting it fly off to its destination. She turned back to the others. "So, to the Negaverse then?"

* * *

As what had become usual when traveling to the Negaverse at the request of the Underground Independence Organization, the leading force that had stood against Negaduck's rule there, Crimson, Techno, and NegaGosalyn arrived inside the building that had become their base of operations and housed a portal generator of their own. However, this time, the whole building was abuzz with activity, and had easily double the normal amount of people at work here than it had in the past.

"Whoa," Techno remarked, impressed. "Had a boost in numbers, huh?"

"Ya could say that," NegaSteelbeak, the leader of the UIO, said as he waited for the group's arrival. "No Darkwing Duck t'day?"

"No, he's engaged in other activities involving a house, the repair thereof, and pesky neighbors," Crimson explained. "But you got me and Tech."

NegaSteelbeak grinned a little. "Well, Crimson, Techno, if ya'll follow me an' Miss Mallard t' th' briefin' room, we'll fill ya in on what's happened," he said motioning with one hand.

They walked off towards the room in question, passing numerous other UIO workers along the way. Some they didn't know, but others they did. At one point they passed NegaRowe and NegaMegavolt, also UIO agents, standing in a hall, discussing the contents of some document they were holding. Upon seeing Crimson and Techno, they waved. Crimson and Techno waved back, and proceeded onward, until Crimson remembered something.

"Oh!" she said, turning around and walking backwards so she could talk with the two as she went. "NegaRowe, I have what is probably going to seem like a weird question for you! If you, Bushroot, and Quackerjack were villains, and were trying to hide, where would you go?"

NegaRowe thought for a moment. "Someplace with fish!" he decided. "Or crayfish. I _love _crayfish mate!"

They had to move on before they could discuss the matter any further, but Crimson got her answer.

"Darn it," she muttered aloud. "I already thought of that, and checked it out."

"And it led nowhere, just like I said it would," Techno replied. "Rowe's smarter than that."

"So I take it there was a point t' all of that?" Steelbeak inquired.

"Our Rowe, Quackerjack, and Bushroot went missing after the invasion ended," Crimson explained briefly. "They haven't done anything to cause trouble since, but just the fact they're lying low and are still convicted criminals hasn't been sitting well with some parties, especially seeing how our St. Canard is anxious to move on to better times. Unfortunately, we don't know where to find them."

"They'll turn up," NegaGosalyn said with confidence.

They eventually arrived at the briefing room and gathered around the table that sat in the white-washed room, but only NegaGosalyn and Techno took seats.

"So, NegaHooter," Crimson remarked, getting right to the point as she leaned on the back of one of the chairs. "Can't say you guys have ever really had problems with him before."

"That's because we had Negaduck to keep him in line," NegaGosalyn explained.

"Now that he's defeated, Hooter's taken it upon himself t'…take things into his own hands," NegaSteelbeak elaborated, pacing the length of the room behind where NegaGosalyn sat. "Or so he's tryin'. The scary part is that he has a chance of succeeding."

"Why, does he have much support?" Techno asked.

"More than enough, in fact," NegaGosalyn elaborated. "At first, after Negaduck's defeat was publically announced in the Negaverse, he didn't do much, or so it seemed."

"Naturally, sort of like your Hooter, ours is in control of FOWL," NegaSteelbeak continued. "And most of everyone there is fiercely loyal t' him. What we didn't know is that they were making plans t' stage an uprisin' th' moment they heard Negaduck had been defeated. They made their move once they found out the intent t' reform FOWL accordin' t' Miss Mallard's plans…"

"Please don't call me that, Steelbeak," NegaGosalyn interrupted flatly, sounding like it wasn't the first time they had this conversation.

NegaSteelbeak shrugged dismissively, acting like his hands were tied on the matter. "It's either that, or I start callin' ya by yer proper title of empress or Lady Gosalyn."

Crimson blinked and looked at NegaGosalyn. "_Empress_?" she repeated.

"Yeeeeaaaaah, I kinda got…promoted," NegaGosalyn explained, sounding like she didn't want to talk about it.

"Standard succession law stuff here in the Negaverse," NegaSteelbeak elaborated. "As the Negaverse sees it, Miss Mallard here was the one who overthrew Negaduck. In so doin', that entitled her t' takin' his position as ruler of the Negaverse."

Crimson and Techno had to take a moment to process all of this.

"So…_you're_ the leader of the Negaverse now?" Techno asked NegaGosalyn.

NegaGosalyn sighed. "Reluctantly," she confessed. "Actually, I didn't want to do it at all, but the UIO pretty much insisted that I accept the position."

"The way _we_ see it, is that by havin' someone on our side in a position of that much power like Miss Mallard here, we could do things t' change the Negaverse we could have never done before," NegaSteelbeak explained.

"Makes sense," Crimson admitted, seeing the point he was trying to make. "As absolute ruler, you can do just about anything you want whether people like it or not."

"But that's exactly _why_ I didn't want any part in being the absolute ruler!" NegaGosalyn argued. "First chance I get, I _am_ giving up the position, and guaranteeing that no one else tries to take it up. It's not right to force things upon other people. It only leads to pain and destruction, and the gains are _very_ short-lived. I know that now." She sighed again. "Unfortunately, I can't just quit. It'd leave a power vacuum, and the Negaverse is already unstable enough as it is. Besides, I clearly _can't_ do whatever I want, because if I do something unfavorable enough, people will still try to rise up against me and overthrow me. That's exactly what has happened with Hooter."

"What _did_ happen with Hooter?" Techno asked, seeing that the explanation wasn't completed before they branched off onto this topic.

"He discovered Miss Mallard's plans t' merge FOWL with the UIO," NegaSteelbeak explained. "Made Hooter force his hand, I suppose."

"Yeah, I didn't trust FOWL as it was, figured it'd only ever be loyal to either to Negaduck or itself, and I wanted the UIO to be put into a position where it could act better than it already is, and since FOWL was going to receive reforms anyway, I figured I would combine the two, fire Hooter, and put Steelbeak in his place," NegaGosalyn explained.

"It was supposed t' all be done in secret, though," NegaSteelbeak said. "'Cause obviously if they knew 'bout what we planned t' do…well, ya already know what they did in such an incident, 'cause they _did_ find out, an' acted accordingly."

"I still don't know how Hooter found out," NegaGosalyn added off-handedly. "I worry I might have a leak somewhere."

"Is that what you need us for?" Crimson asked, believing she was catching on. "To find this leak?"

"No, if there even _is_ a leak, the UIO can handle it," NegaSteelbeak said. "We brought ya two here t' help with the more immediate problem of Hooter, an' what he plans t' do."

"What _does_ he plan to do?" Techno asked.

"That's just it, we don't know," NegaGosalyn said. "I mean, we can guess, but at the moment, it's not enough. All we know is that he, FOWL, and anyone else who was loyal to Negaduck gathered together and holed up in the FOWL command building."

"Doing what?" Crimson asked.

"That's the part we don't know." NegaGosalyn shrugged for added emphasis on this. "For all we know, they could be building a nuclear bomb in there. We really don't know. And that's what's worrying. I don't know a whole lot about my Hooter, but I never really did like the man. He always seemed so…manipulative. Like he always has a bigger plan in mind than what is immediately obvious. So the fact that he's got himself holed up in a building where he can't do anything with former followers of Negaduck like Launchpad and the Muddlefoots, and has been in there for a couple of days now with no clear change puts me on end greatly."

"We was hopin' that maybe you guys could look at it in a new light, an' maybe see somethin' we haven't," NegaSteelbeak concluded.

Techno and Crimson exchanged glances. They then stopped to consider the dilemma for several long moments. They were clearly trying to come up with an answer of any sort. But after working at it for several moments, it was quickly started to come clear that they didn't really know how they were going to provide that answer.

Finally it was Techno, of all people, who responded. "I got nothing," he confessed. "I mean, I could _speculate_ just as much as you guys are, but without any evidence to back it up, it's not going to do much good. Furthermore, NegaHooter's actions are actually kind of surprising. He has more than sufficient resources that you'd think he'd make more of a stand than just hide himself away. But he is. And I can't think why he would even bother unless he has some reason to, which could be anything."

"In that case, count me out as well," Crimson added. "If Techno can't deduce anything, then _I_ certainly can't."

"Don't short change yourself, Crimson," Techno said, then got back to the subject at hand. "What was FOWL's list of projects at the time NegaHooter holed up? Was there something he could possibly use to his advantage?"

"Nothin' on th' records," NegaSteelbeak answered. "FOWL's last _major_ project was actually t' come up with various materials Negaduck needed for his attempted invasion in your universe. When that fell through th' floor an' Negaduck no longer in charge t' give 'em new orders, they hadn't picked up any new projects t' replace it by th' time this all went down. Anythin' else is relatively minor in comparison. Y'know, like agent trainin', paperwork, necessary preparations for th' reorganization they _knew_ was comin', an' so on. Nothin' Hooter could really use in a fight or against us, really."

"But FOWL HQ is the place where most of that stuff is developed and stashed, so if there's anything of use to Hooter, it'd be there," NegaGosalyn added. "None of this takes into account anything that might have been done before hand off the record, too. So there could still be something that was overlooked."

"So the question is…what?" Techno stated aloud.

Crimson rubbed her beak in thought for a few moments. "What we need is more information," she said. "At the very least, more information about NegaHooter, and what he could possibly be planning."

A moment of silence fell in the briefing room then NegaGosalyn suddenly stood up, having an idea.

"In that case, I'm going to take you two and go to Canard Tower," she explained as she headed for the door, motioning for Crimson and Techno to follow. "I think it's time we spoke with an old acquaintance of ours."

* * *

NegaGosalyn took them outside the UIO building, which sat out on the outskirts of NegaCanard, and to a waiting black vehicle of unclear make and model. A driver was already waiting for them within the vehicle. Opening the backdoor so to let Crimson and Techno in before joining them herself, NegaGosalyn told the driver to head for Canard Tower, and with that, they were off. The ride went along quietly at first, the group not having anything they were interested in saying, and both Crimson and Techno already had a good idea where they were going and felt there was no need to protest or comment on it. However, as they drove into the city itself, Crimson started to notice that something seemed different about it.

It took her a few moments to realize what it was, before seeing that it was the obvious; there were people out and about on the streets. In her previous journeys to the Negaverse, NegaCanard had always been virtually empty of any and all life, especially civilian life, who knew the streets were dangerous and that it was mildly safer to stay in their homes. But now, there were people wandering about, going about their business, doing so in a sort of experimental, exploratory way. There weren't many, probably no more than a dozen to a street, regardless of what street it was, but it was a significant change from before.

From there, Crimson started to notice a whole slew of other changes all throughout this twisted variant of the St. Canard she knew, and all of them, whether they were big or small, were good changes. Things like far less pollution being pumped into the air, the streets being maintained and cleaned, and above all, power; NegaCanard was actually lit with electrical power. It didn't show much at this hour, it still being daylight, but it was there, and was a big breakthrough in Crimson's eye, as most of the city had traditionally been kept dark and powerless under Negaduck's rule.

"Looks like you've been turning things around, NegaGos," she remarked aloud to her double.

NegaGosalyn glanced briefly out a window, but didn't seem as impressed. "I've been trying," she confessed. "I've made _some_ progress with St. Canard, but there's still a massive amount of things that need changing before it can become anything like _your _St. Canard, to say nothing about the rest of the world." She sighed. "But…one step at a time, I guess. Hopefully, one day, I can make the Negaverse a better place. I owe it that much."

"That is an extremely admirable goal, NegaGosalyn, and it says much about how much you've personally changed for the better," Techno said appraisingly.

"It's a start," NegaGosalyn repeated, clearly looking like she felt the praise was still a bit premature. "I have to admit that I've got my work cut out for me, after all. It all depends on whether or not I can really make a lasting change on the Negaverse, a universe where it hasn't had some of these things in many, many, years, and isn't accepted by all. And most of what I've done is just in St. Canard, and not elsewhere."

"Well, you gotta start somewhere," Crimson pointed out.

"Yes, but changing St. Canard for the better is one thing," NegaGosalyn stressed. "Changing the rest of the world is entirely another. And it all depends on whether or not I can bring results."

Eventually their ride came to a halt when they arrived before Canard Tower in all of its glory, infamous or otherwise. The building itself seemed like it had hardly changed, but this did not surprise Crimson or Techno much. They weren't here to look around anyway, and upon entering the lobby, they quickly turned and proceeded down into the basement levels of the building, where it housed a private and extremely secure prison. It was here that Negaduck had kept his most important prisoners, like Darkwing Duck himself, people that he did not want escaping at any time, and went to whatever lengths he could to insure it.

So it was only fitting that the duck they were heading to see would be here too.

The cell was newly constructed and located at the furthest, deepest, most inaccessible location in the prison. NegaGosalyn and her Posiverse accompaniment had to pass through three heavily guarded security checkpoints before they could even get close, and they were given thorough screening at two of them, including rather impersonal pat-downs that even NegaGosalyn herself received with no apology. One checkpoint even used magic in their search for anything amiss, a search which, thankfully, turned up nothing amiss at all.

Past the checkpoints was a heavy metal door easily more than foot thick stood in the stone wall, locked. NegaGosalyn had to enter in a password on a keypad, have her hand and eyes scanned to confirm her identity, and give a verbal password before the door could be unlocked and opened…only to face another door just like it with the same security installed. After that door was yet another door with the same specifications and security measures. Then after that came an energy forcefield of unknown design and strength, but NegaGosalyn, while moving to deactivate it with the same kind of security measures as the doors before, warned Crimson and Techno not to touch it. Past the forcefield was a more traditional wall of prison bars with a door embedded in it that opened with a key and password on another keypad. Then after that came yet _another_ door, this one of the more traditional design that had a simple tumbler lock on it.

"Think you've got enough security?" Crimson asked sarcastically as her double worked to insert a key into the door's lock, this one different from the key she used before.

"Given who it's keeping locked up and as it's someone I do not ever want to see escape," NegaGosalyn began as she unlocked the door and gave the knob a strong twist, "I fear it might not be _enough_."

They went through the door to enter small room that was relatively empty save for a table bolted to the floor, various monitoring equipment, and a bulletproof window, which looked into another room of similar dimensions, completely sealed off from this room. In that room, chained to the wall by hand and foot, his suit worn and dirtied and clearly looking to be not in his best of spirits, but currently not having the energy to try and doing anything about his situation for the moment, was Negaduck himself.

Crimson and Techno gathered at the window and peered through it at their archenemy, having mixed feelings about what they were seeing. Part of them were glad to see Negaduck under such tight security for once, but another part of them had their concerns that NegaGosalyn was clearly showing him no mercy whatsoever where she had at other times.

"He can't see or hear us at the moment, and probably doesn't even know we're here yet," NegaGosalyn explained as she closed the door to the room and moved to join them. "The window is only one-way, and the only way to talk to him is with a sound system that is currently deactivated." She motioned to said system briefly. "So if you guys have anything you want to say before we begin…now is the time to do it."

Crimson and Techno exchanged glances briefly.

"How has Negaduck handled all of this?" Techno asked.

"In his typical Negaduck fashion; bitterly," NegaGosalyn answered. "Let's just leave it at that."

Crimson and Techno exchanged glanced again, but otherwise had nothing else to say.

Crimson finally sighed. "Well, let's get on with it, then," she said.

NegaGosalyn nodded, and pressed a button on the control panel before her. "Hello Negaduck," she said simply into a microphone on the control panel.

Negaduck stirred then glanced up at the window, consequently right at NegaGosalyn even though he couldn't know that was where she was. His eyes were dark and narrowed, but nonetheless, he grinned.

"Gos," he greeted back in a cold, but oddly polite, manner. "Come to gloat some more, or to try and pry more of my secrets from me?"

"The latter," NegaGosalyn answered without hesitation, sounding like she had gone through this routine before and knew what to do to get right to the point.

"All right, of what sort of secrets are you dying to know this time that I may or may not tell you? Where my hidden stash of candy is?" Negaduck's grin grew somewhat bigger at his jab.

"I need to know everything you know about J. Gander Hooter," NegaGosalyn prompted, unfazed.

"Ooh, J. Gander," Negaduck responded. "Now _there_ is a tricky fellow." He chuckled. "I take it he's giving you some trouble, then? Heh, I'm kind of surprised he waited until I was overthrown to do so."

"Now what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Crimson asked aloud to herself.

Her voice must have carried over the sound system, because Negaduck grinned again. "Is that your Posiverse double I hear, Gos?" he asked with spot-on accuracy.

NegaGosalyn opted not to deny it. "It is," she confirmed without hesitation. "Not that it concerns you."

"Oh, of course not. She just helped overthrow me and take away everything I had ever worked to gain for myself. It's not like I have any _hard feelings_ or any silly but justifiable nonsense like that." He laughed to himself briefly, a cold and insincere laugh that confirmed that he most certainly did have hard feelings. "So, Crimson, how's Darkwing doing? Tell me he's got trouble of _some _sort to deal with."

"Just a house to repair," Crimson replied matter-of-factly. "Beyond that, things are actually going quite _good_ for him." She opted not to mention the fact that Hooter was planning to retire in her universe.

"Hmm, pity," Negaduck hummed to himself. "But I suppose we aren't here for small chat such as that. Well, you guys aren't. I suppose I don't really have a say in the matter either way, now _do_ I?"

"What can you tell me about Hooter, Negaduck?" NegaGosalyn asked, bringing the conversation back to the original topic.

"Depends on what it is you want to know," Negaduck replied. "Why, what has he done?"

"He's barricaded himself into FOWL HQ with his staff of agents and a few other followers still loyal to you."

Negaduck laughed. "Oh, that _figures_," he remarked. "And let me guess Gos, you, in your _infinite _wisdom and _experience_ in ruling, can't figure out what to do with him now."

"Not without knowing more about his plans, no," NegaGosalyn confirmed. "I need your insight on what he might be planning."

But Negaduck, to their surprise, just shrugged. "How should I know?" he asked. "The guy never liked to tell me _anything_."

NegaGosalyn frowned, but pressed on undeterred. "You still worked with him, you know him better than I do," she pointed out.

"Not as much as you'd apparently like to think," Negaduck said. "Hooter always liked to do his own thing, see. Frequently he was enacting his plans entirely on his own, not whether or not I actually told him to. In fact, I frequently only found about them myself well _after_ the fact."

"But…Hooter answered to you," NegaGosalyn pressed, now starting to furrow her brow in puzzlement.

"On paper, yes, but if you _really_ want my honest opinion, Gos, I never trusted the guy, he never trusted me, and you shouldn't trust him either. He's just something I inherited into my control when I became ruler that I couldn't ever seem to get rid of, no matter how hard I tried."

"I thought you kept him around because you thought he was useful."

"He produced results, yes, but only when he stayed in line, and let me tell you now, it took a _lot_ of effort to keep him in check even as little as I was able to. Quite honestly, I'm not at all surprised you weren't able to keep him from going rogue. There are times when I have to stop and wonder how I had managed to keep him from doing exactly the same thing." Negaduck snorted to himself. "Luck, I guess."

"But then…what could he be planning?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"Knowing him, he's probably plotting to take it all for himself," Negaduck responded casually. "I've suspected for _years_ that he had plans for overthrowing me and taking control of the Negaverse, and probably would've eventually tried it had you not beaten him to the punch."

"Then, if he was posing such a threat, then why didn't you do something to take him out of the picture?" Techno suddenly asked aloud.

"Why hello, Techno, nice to hear your analytical voice again," Negaduck spoke pleasantly. "Now, to answer the question, Hooter is not a force you want to reckon with. He is extremely manipulative, calculating, and he is _always_ one step ahead of you. He is _not_ someone you can just pop off and forget, nuh-uh. He is dangerous, and will stop at _nothing_ to get his way." Negaduck suddenly turned very serious. "It is for these reasons Gos that I let Hooter be. Because I knew that if I messed with him too much, I would only be bringing more trouble down upon myself. It was better to let sleeping dogs lie, at least until they stopped sleeping." He leaned forward as far as his chains would allow him, locking his eyes on where he presumed NegaGosalyn to be, which was of course, frightfully accurate. "Unfortunately for you, _Gosalyn_, you don't have that luxury. The dogs have awoken, and now _you_ get to deal with them. And if you'll allow me to be quite frank, _I_ don't think you're up for the challenge."

And with that, he leaned back against the wall of his cell, tilting his head up, and spoke no further on the matter.

* * *

"Well…that was unproductive," Crimson remarked aloud as the trio reentered the lobby of Canard Tower.

NegaGosalyn seemed slightly stunned. "I knew that Negaduck wasn't going to be cooperative," she confessed. "But I didn't really expect him to not actually know anything like that."

"Well, at least it wasn't _entirely_ pointless," Techno pointed out. "We _have_ learned that there is likely more to NegaHooter than any of us expected."

"That doesn't tell me what to do about him," NegaGosalyn griped.

The trio was silent for a few moments.

"Look," Crimson began suddenly, "I'm thinking that maybe we just need to take the risk and go in guns blazing, and take him down by force."

The other two turned and looked at her skeptically.

"Crimson," Techno began, "you know that we don't know what NegaHooter might be planning. He could _easily_ have something in place to protect himself from exactly that, and then we'd be in serious trouble."

"I know," Crimson assured him. "But _you_ know that we don't have any other ideas. And by that same line of reasoning, you _both_ know we can't just leave him there and wait for him to make the next move. Because NegaHooter's playing for keeps. We shouldn't be giving him the chance he needs to win."

NegaGosalyn sighed, rubbing at her forehead as she started to pace, considering her options.

"Of course, the final choice is yours to make, NegaGos," Techno added.

"I know," NegaGosalyn replied. "That's what I hate about all of this." She was silent for a long moment. "But…Crimson is right about _one_ thing. The longer we hold off, the more time we give Hooter to act, and letting him act is indeed the last thing I want to happen at this point, especially after what Negaduck has told us about him."

"So…we're in agreement then?" Crimson prompted.

NegaGosalyn hesitated, and then nodded. "Yeah," she said. "We've waited long enough as it is. I think we're just going to have to bite the bullet on this and just hope for the best."

"Well then, if we do this, then I feel that I should point out that we be prepared for anything, so to increase our chances as much as possible," Techno stated.

"Agreed," Crimson said with an immediate nod. "If we don't completely know what NegaHooter could throw at us, going in there without the right forces or equipment would spell failure. We'll also probably want to throw everybody we can against him too. Having numbers on your side is always a plus, no matter what the situation."

"In that case, I'll probably need backup," NegaGosalyn said. "With most of FOWL allied with Hooter, that just leaves me a handful of UIO agents and a personal militia with the sort of combat training necessary, which totals to a fair bit, but not enough to take on Hooter and his own forces alone."

"I'm sure we can get a few recruitments from SHUSH back home, but we'll need to go and send word," Crimson assured her, before turning to Techno. "In fact, while we're at it, I think it's time we officially pulled Darkwing into this."

"Agreed," Techno said with a nod. "He'll probably be a little irked that we left him out of it for this long."

"Oh c'mon, Tech, Darkwing will understand," Crimson said with confidence.

* * *

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me!" Drake exclaimed as he read the lengthy report the Flashquack had delivered to him at home while he was working in the kitchen.

Launchpad poked his head in through the door, having heard the shout. "Something wrong, DW?" he asked.

"Yes, this!" Drake replied, holding up the report. "I got word back from SHUSH about what Gos and Honker are up to in the Negaverse."

"Oh!" Launchpad said, understanding as he joined Drake in the room. "So…what's the problem? I mean, seeing how the last message was so vague and all, but…"

"Well, apparently we're not the only universe that is having issues with our respective Hooter," Drake explained curtly. "Only in the Negaverse, he's gone rogue, bottled himself up in FOWL Headquarters, and is likely plotting a way to take the Negaverse for himself unless something is done to stop him."

"Okay," Launchpad said, understanding the situation. "So…you're miffed that Crimson and Techno went to tackle that situation on their own?"

"Oh, no, they seem to have things under control, and have even worked with the UIO to come up with a game plan to try and take NegaHooter down," Drake said quickly. "They are handling things well, which I'm glad to hear."

"So then…you're miffed that you're missing out on all the action," Launchpad guessed again.

"No, actually, because I have _obviously_ never been too fond of the Negaverse, and either way, SHUSH is going to be providing some forces to try and stage an attack to take NegaHooter down, and Darkwing has been asked to go and join them."

"So…" Launchpad rubbed the back of his head in thought for a few moments. "What _are _you miffed about?"

"The fact that I'm probably going to have to leave my house in the unattended care of the _Muddlefoots,_ while this all goes down," Drake grumbled.

He and Launchpad peeked into the other room, where Herb was working to set up a new door for Drake's study while Binkie supervised. They exchanged worried glances, Launchpad especially. Unlike Drake, he had always been fond of the Muddlefoots, but even he had to concede that there were some things you were just better off not leaving the suburbanite pair doing on their own unless you were there to watch them. Ultimately, though, Drake knew that there was little point in trying to tip-toe around the matter, so he stepped forward, prepared to get it over with here and now.

"Um, Herb, Binkie?" Drake began hesitantly.

"Yes, Drake, what is it?" Binkie asked sweetly, turning to her neighbor.

"Uh, something's come up, and I'm going to have to take LP and go and take care of it," Drake explained, pointing vaguely behind him to indicate he needed to leave. "We could be gone awhile."

"Well, don't you sweat, Drake, we'll finish getting the downstairs of your house all nice and fixed up while you're away," Binkie assured him.

"Yeah, about that," Drake said. "I was kind of thinking that it might be better to just call it quits for today, and…"

"Oh no, no, no," Herb interrupted as he tested the hinges of the new door. "No point in putting this off any longer Drakester. Might as well finish what we've started."

"Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that," Drake mumbled, then tried a different tactic. "Could we at least postpone things until Christine gets here, so she can help too?"

"But Christine's going to be working well until tonight, DW," Launchpad couldn't help but point out. "I'm sorry to say it, but…that's kind of late."

"Yeah, we'll have pretty much wasted all of this wonderful daylight when we could have been working at getting your house that much closer to being finished, Drakester," Herb reasoned. "And we're so close, too!"

"But…" Drake began to protest.

"Now don't you worry, Drake, we've got everything under control," Binkie promised him. "You'll see. You'll come home and find a wonderfully complete living room waiting for you to relax in."

"But…"

"No buts, Drake, we insist! Consider it our chance to pay you back for being such a nice neighbor for all these years!"

Drake hesitated, but he could already see that Binkie had already made up her mind, and it would be difficult to talk her out of it now. Furthermore, they all had good points, and even he had to admit that it was kind of flattering that they were doing this mostly because they thought Drake had been such a good neighbor, even though Drake had really only just been tolerating them for all these years. Plus, he knew time was short, and that SHUSH was expecting him to come straightaway.

So he heaved a heavy sigh in defeat. "All right," he said, starting to walk back to where Launchpad stood in the kitchen entry. "But you guys stick to the plans, okay? No making _any _changes without my okay, and don't try to tackle anything we didn't already plan to do today, and above all, _no_ doing anything stupid! Oh, and Binkie!"

"Yes?"

"The wallpaper _stays_."

"Yes Drake!"

Drake gave his neighbors one last look over before finally slipped into the kitchen again and heaving another sigh. "Oh, I'm going to regret this, I just know it." But he took a moment to put his worries to one side and to focus more on the task ahead before leading the way out of the house. "All right, LP. Let's get dangerous."

* * *

When Darkwing and Launchpad arrived at sub-level five, they found a large party of SHUSH commandos waiting for them, gearing up for departure, and armed in anticipation of the coming fight they were planning. Hooter was there as well, just in the process of wrapping up giving his final orders to the commander of the forces, who was none other than Lieutenant Taylor.

"You will adhere to the commands those in the Negaverse have to give," Hooter was instructing the pine marten firmly. "Remember, the Negaverse does not work like our universe at all, and there are rules and procedures in place there that we would not have here. Those in the Negaverse those what they are, though, and how the rules of the game goes. Keep that in mind at all times. And if you have your concerns about the orders those in the Negaverse give you, turn to Darkwing for confirmation. Whether he likes it or not, he _is_ one of our leading authorities on the Negaverse. Speaking of which…" having noticed Darkwing enter the room, the aging owl turned to the hero. "Darkwing! Glad to see you made it."

"Likewise, J. Gander, although as usual, I wish it was under better circumstances," Darkwing replied as the two shook hands. "Although, given what we were just through last month, it could easily be far worse."

"Precisely," Hooter said, then motioned to the commando beside him. "You remember Lieutenant Taylor, correct?"

"Oh yes, I remember," Darkwing responded, turning to him. "And I'm sure he remembers me."

"Seeing that trouble follows you wherever you go that I usually have to deal with, it's hard not to," Taylor grumbled somewhat back to the duck. "Still…I have to concede that he knows what he's doing, so…"

"Thanks…I think," Darkwing responded with an expression that was somewhere between a smile and a frown.

"Think you got enough commandos in here, J. Gander?" Launchpad asked, looking the group of armed SHUSH commandos over.

"I hope so," Hooter said, following the pilot's gaze. "I don't have any more to spare. Still, I think any help NegaGosalyn can get for this will be welcomed at this point."

"I'm sure it will all be appreciated," Darkwing assured.

"Well, be sure to tell NegaGosalyn that I am not certain SHUSH will be able to repeat this action in the future once I have left," Hooter continued. "Don't get me wrong, we all want to see the Negaverse become a better place, but…to the powers that be, it's not really the Posiverse's war anymore."

"All the more reason why we're going to miss you when you leave, J. Gander," stated Darkwing calmly. "You aren't shortsighted enough to see things the same way as the powers that be." He then changed the subject. "We ready to go?"

Hooter nodded, and motioned to a technician to start up the portal generator. "I'll be in the control tower then," he said, giving the group a nod. "I wish you all good luck, and try your hardest to insure that the hope for peace we've managed to bring to the Negaverse continues."

Taylor nodded. "We will, director."

* * *

NegaHooter liked to consider himself as a patient man. He had waited a long time to get where he was now, to have his plans reach a point where they could progress forward in the directions he desired. But even he had to admit that he was starting to feel anxious. Part of it was the fact that his plans were going well until Negaduck got the bright idea to try an invasion of the Posiverse, an invasion that, despite its deceivingly good initial successes, NegaHooter had never been for. He foresaw that it could only end in failure, and predicted it would only harm the Negaverse than benefit it in the end.

But even he hadn't anticipated NegaGosalyn turning on Negaduck, leading to the former usurping the throne as it were and tossing Negaduck into jail, which further jeopardized his plans. He knew that NegaGosalyn had a lower tolerance for unwanted violence or in-fighting within the system and probably would be quick to sack him, especially once she caught wind of the things he had been doing that Negaduck had never bothered to investigate when he was in control. He tried to delay it as long as he could, but once he found out NegaGosalyn's plans to reorganize FOWL with the inferior, democracy-loving, UIO, he was forced to make his move sooner than he hoped. At least he had managed to recruit a few ex-followers of Negaduck who opposed NegaGosalyn's rule, even though they hadn't been on the best of terms before.

But the other part was that he was anxious because his plans were finally starting to come towards fruition, meaning his attempts to adapt to this unexpected series of events had worked. He knew that barricading himself into FOWL Headquarters had been a gamble from the start, especially if anyone called his bluff that he had a means to hold the building. But he had counted on NegaGosalyn, being as inexperienced as she was, would delay immediate action until she could confirm NegaHooter's intentions, giving him time to prepare his plans further. And thus far, the gamble had been paying off. If his luck continued to press, he would be able to continue his plans onward again as originally planned.

Naturally, he had no such luck.

"Hooter!" NegaLaunchpad exclaimed as he burst into the room with his usual lack of grace and subtlety. "You're going to want to see this!"

"Ohhhh, let me guess!" NegaHooter griped as he followed the former, punkish, henchman of Negaduck's to a window outside in the hallway. "It's trouble."

"Well, uh," NegaLaunchpad began as he motioned to the window, looking like he attempted to come up with something witty to say before failing, "yeah."

And sure enough, a large party of opposing forces were approaching the building. Looking over the rim of the tinted glasses he wore, NegaHooter could pick out the uniforms of the UIO, NegaGosalyn's personal militia, and SHUSH commandos. And even from here, he could see NegaGosalyn leading, along with a couple of others that he didn't need to try very hard to figure out who they were.

"She's even brought the Posiverse into this," NegaHooter remarked aloud wistfully. "But of course. We are, after all, supposed to be helping allies now that _she's_ in charge."

"Your orders?" NegaLaunchpad inquired seriously.

"We stand our ground," NegaHooter responded immediately, straightening and smoothing out his dark suit jacket. "Keep them at bay for as long as possible and at any cost. And I _mean_ any cost, Mr. McQuack."

He then turned to go, NegaLaunchpad watching him go, not looking entirely pleased. "These plans of yours had better work, Hooter," he stated firmly. "We've got a lot riding on your plans, and not a lot we can risk losing."

"They'll work, Mr. McQuack," NegaHooter assured him, pausing at the door leading back into the room. "So long as you do your part."

"The only reason I'm even _giving_ you my part is because I don't see much other choice if we're going to beat Gos," NegaLaunchpad pressed. "If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be putting so much trust in you right now."

"You're going to have to trust me now if you wish to have any chance of enacting your plans," NegaHooter said. "Which aren't going to happen if you keep standing there, arguing with me about trivial matters."

NegaLaunchpad frowned, but then shook his head, pulling out a radio. "Honker, Herb, go on defensive," he spoke into the device as he stalked off. "We're to stand our ground and resist any and all enemy attempts to gain access to the building. Use whatever force necessary."

NegaHooter watched him depart with a satisfied grin before reentering room, watching as the various scientists and technicians were hard at work completing one of the final pieces for his plans. He stood to one side, letting them work, pleased at the progress they were making. He was soon joined by an agent who had previously been standing to one side, supervising.

"I take it, then, that they are serving as fall guys to buy you time?" she asked.

NegaHooter glanced back at her with a cruel grin. "But of course, Agent Mia," he remarked. "All for the greater cause."

* * *

NegaGosalyn's plan was actually to get the first shot in, but it was those at FOWL Headquarters that got the first shot, as forces all over the building quickly attacked at the intruding forces. Quickly taking cover, the group proceeded to return fire. The battle quickly turned constant fest of pop shooting at enemies, a tactic that would've drawn it out far longer than initially hoped.

Fortunately, NegaGosalyn had planned ahead for this, and motioned to the Friendly Five that had been discreetly hiding amongst the ranks. Immediately the four surged forward to attack, Megavolt unleashing the most effective attacks by lashing out with bolts of electricity, while Bushroot used his powers to cause vines to scale up the building, shooting into windows to restrain the resisting forces inside, and Quackerjack launched various versions of his trademark toys of destruction at the building and the occupants, adding further confusion.

Meanwhile, NegaGosalyn led Crimson, Techno, Darkwing, NegaRowe, and NegaLiki towards the building's entrance. This area was among the most heavily protected areas on the building, but in the chaos the other forces were laying out, those defenses were already either partly weakened, or distracted, leaving them just vulnerable enough for direct assault. NegaLiki led the charge by changing into a massive wave of water that plowed through the building's front doors and washing away what defenses were placed there. The others then went in and took out any stragglers with their weapons or, more likely, in hand-to-hand combat. Soon they had the entrance forces subdued and the entrance cleared.

"Right," NegaGosalyn said, turning officially to the others. "Spread out and secure as much of the building as possible, but our top priority is to find and capture Hooter. Most of the forces in this building aren't always willing to work together like this, and Hooter's likely the only thing keeping them together. We bring him down, we can send these forces into disarray."

"Easier said than done, mate," NegaRowe remarked.

"Rowe's right," Darkwing agreed. "That's probably exactly what NegaHooter's going to expect us to do, and be prepared for it."

"Exactly why we don't have much other choice but to do it my way," NegaGosalyn pressed. "If we _don't_ go for Hooter straightaway, he's going to keep us distracted with the rest of his forces while he makes his break."

"And then this could just start all over again at a later date," Crimson concluded.

NegaGosalyn nodded. "So let's not sit here arguing about it," she concluded. "Let's get going and _find_ _Hooter_."

* * *

"We're getting overrun here, Hooter!" NegaLaunchpad called warning through the radio. "We're doing our best to keep Gos and her forces at bay, but they're starting to overwhelm us! I've already got reports that they've infiltrated the building and working their way on up to your position!"

"Delay them for as long as you can, Mr. McQuack," NegaHooter calmly instructed into the radio as he watched the scientists put the finishing touches on their project.

"It's not as simple as that!" NegaLaunchpad snapped back. "They've brought the Friendly Five into this!"

NegaHooter only snorted, having no sympathy to give. "They are nothing you cannot handle, Mr. McQuack," he pointed out. "You have spent the past decade fighting them and keeping them at bay, this should be no different. So stand your ground."

"This isn't the same, Hooter! _They've_ got numbers on their side now!"

"Stand. Your. Ground." Hooter hissed into the radio. "If I may remind you, Mr. McQuack, _you _were the one who was insisting that these plans needed to pay, and urging me to take _whatever_ action is necessary to insure it! But this is a _team_ effort! You _must_ do your part and _stand your ground!_ I will _not_ tell you this again! It's sink or swim from here on out, Mr. McQuack, and I intend to _swim_."

He then turned off the radio and dismissively pocketed it. "Gentlemen," he said aloud to the room, "I certainly hope you are ready soon, because we are _running out of time_."

The lead scientist was just finishing packing the project up into an easy-to-carry box. "We're finished now, director," he said, handing over the box. "Done exactly as you requested, sir."

NegaHooter grinned as he accepted the box. "Excellent," he said, peeking inside the box to insure that everything was indeed in order. "Now then, on two step two. Agent Mia?"

NegaMia then suddenly raised her weapon and pointed it threateningly at the team of scientists and technicians. "Everyone at the back of the room!" she ordered. "Now!"

Surprised, they raised their hands and reluctantly backed up to the far side of the room while NegaMia and NegaHooter made for the lab's only door. They proceeded to step out it without further comment, but the lead scientist finally decided he needed to protest.

"This wasn't what we agreed upon, director!" he exclaimed angrily. "We were _all_ to escape this, safe and sound!"

"The plan has changed," NegaHooter responded coldly, glancing behind him at the lead scientist. "And your services are no longer required."

And with that, he closed the door and locked the group inside before turning and walking off.

"Come, Agent Mia," he urged, tucking the box and its contents under one arm. "We need to get to the upper launching pad before the intruders beat us there."

* * *

Once they were inside the building, NegaGosalyn and her party's progress continued on at a heartening rate, especially as more of their forces filed into the building after them. NegaHooter's mishmash collection of forces stood and attempted to oppose them every step of the way, slowing their progress, but it was rapidly becoming clear that NegaGosalyn had the upper hand now. Some continued to fight to the end anyway, knowing they had nothing left to loose, but others were more realistic and knew it was rapidly becoming a lost cause and started to surrender, one by one.

Yet NegaGosalyn was not interested in any of this, as NegaHooter still eluded her. Starting to grow increasingly concerned the longer the rebellious owl remained unfound, she ordered everyone to spilt up and search for NegaHooter at any location in the building, and then later made it everyone's first standing order. Taking NegaRowe and Crimson with her, NegaGosalyn then personally went to check all the likely and possible avenues of escape available to NegaHooter, to see if he was there and if not, to make sure they remained cut off from him.

Her first place to check was a rooftop launching pad placed on the top floor of the building, and as it turned out, it was a good thing she chose to check there first, because on their way to check it out, they heard the sound of an aircraft engine starting up.

"C'mon!" NegaGosalyn said urgently to her companions as she broke out into a run for the launching pad. "We have to stop whoever it is that's trying to escape!"

They quickly arrived at the double doors leading into the room containing the launching pad, but of course, they were locked. NegaRowe quickly intervened by forcing the doors open with a few well-placed kicks. Pushing them open, the trio then pushed into the room only to be greeted with the sight of NegaHooter and NegaMia making an attempt to escape in an aircraft standing on long metal legs, with NegaHooter still in the process of climbing into the copilot's seat, and NegaMia already safely situated in the pilot's seat.

Crimson recognized the aircraft almost immediately. "The EGRT?" she asked questioningly, in surprise.

"Agent Mia!" NegaHooter cried out in warning as he saw the party enter.

NegaMia glanced up from the controls she had been working at and quickly flipped a switch on the control panel.

"Stop them!" NegaGosalyn ordered, and proceeded to open fire on the aircraft.

Only to find her shots stopped by a shield of energy surrounding the aircraft, protecting it from harm.

The three lowered their weapons in surprise.

"It's got a _shield_?" NegaRowe exclaimed in surprise.

Any further conversation was cut short as NegaMia returned fire by turning the aircraft's guns on the intruders, firing liberally and forcing them to take cover. It also bought enough time for NegaHooter to finish clambering into the aircraft and strapping himself in. While continuing the firefight, he and NegaMia continued their preparations to escape, warming up the aircraft, and opening a pair of doors in the roof of the room that opened it up to the sky outside. NegaGosalyn and company continued to fire at the craft, attempting to stop them, or at least slow them down, but were unable to get their shots past the aircraft's protective shield.

The aircraft then launched upwards into the air, retracting its legs as it did so as it took flight, rising on up and out of the building. From within the cockpit, NegaHooter could be seen cheekily giving NegaGosalyn a mocking salute. And still the shield protecting the craft could not be penetrated.

NegaGosalyn was growing increasingly angry. "Attention all troops!" she shouted into a radio while keeping one eye on the fleeing craft. "A craft is now exiting the building with our target within! I want everyone to turn all weapons on that craft and…"

She trailed off as she saw the craft slowly turn invisible as a cloaking device was engaged. Soon all that could be detected of the fleeing aircraft was the roar of its engine as it flew off, undetected and unopposed.

* * *

The battle ended not long after that. As predicted, without NegaHooter to keep them united, and their resolve being strained under the success of NegaGosalyn's attacking forces, the enemy troops soon started to fall apart, some even turning on each other to vent their frustrations upon. Others kept fighting until they were subdued by force, but by then, they had already lost the fight. However, the victory was somewhat hollow due to NegaHooter's unexpected escape, and NegaGosalyn wanted answers on where and when NegaHooter obtained such an aircraft, having never seen the likes of it in the Negaverse before.

But as it turned out, no one really knew where it had come from. Even the captured rebelling FOWL agents knew little about it, some saying that they had heard of some kind of project taking place on that launching pad, but didn't know the details of what it was, or even that it was operational. There were also widely varying accounts on what NegaHooter's plans were, with most of them not lining up with what actually transpired, or conflicting with each other.

"I can only assume that Hooter's plans were far more elaborate than we anticipated," NegaGosalyn concluded in finality as the mess the battle had left was being cleaned up. "And whatever they were, he kept them to himself. Not even Launchpad knew what NegaHooter's plans were, apparently having been told they were something else from what NegaHooter _actually_ did, and in fact, that was the only reason he and others were even cooperating in the first place. So they were understandably a little miffed when they were left behind."

"So they're willing to tell all about what was going on because NegaHooter cheated them, then?" Crimson asked as they walked through the war-torn hallways.

"Well no, there's still a good number that are keeping quiet still," NegaGosalyn explained. "Maybe further interrogation will get them to crack, but that's not the point. The point is that Hooter _escaped_." She sighed. "Negaduck was right. I wasn't prepared to handle him."

"Well, at least you've got FOWL back under your control now, right?" Darkwing inquired.

NegaGosalyn nodded. "Yes, I have that much," she agreed, "which means I can keep it out of Hooter's hands now. I'll begin reforming it immediately, merging it with the UIO and get it answering to _me_ only. So when Hooter shows up again, he's going to be hard pressed to find forces that will rally behind him."

"I'm more interested in this aircraft that NegaHooter escaped in," Techno remarked aloud. "Crimson, you said it looked like the EGRT, right?"

Crimson nodded.

"What's the EGRT?" NegaGosalyn asked.

"Isn't that a small fat bird with a long thin beak?" Launchpad asked aloud.

"No, EGRT is the Experiment General Retaliatory Transport," Darkwing said. "It was an aircraft the military built in the Posiverse some years ago. They ended up not putting it into full service, but it was still a pretty impressive craft that could travel on land, sea, and air."

"NegaHooter's little craft looked just like it," Crimson explained. "Only it had a few new tricks up its sleeve to boot."

"Like the shield and the cloak," NegaGosalyn guessed.

"Yeah, which puzzles me more, because the cloak sounds a lot like the stealth technology we use on the Thunderquack II," Techno stated.

"And the shield looked like that shield you were able to create with the same stealth technology not so long ago, Tech," Crimson added.

"But that little craft couldn't have enough power to create a shield like that, much less power a cloaking device at the same time," Techno protested.

"All I know is that I have no clue where Hooter, let alone FOWL, obtained such technology," NegaGosalyn pressed. "It's very advanced for Negaverse tech. Hooter's clearly been keeping this secret and under wraps for a long while."

"You think Negaduck might know something about it?" Crimson asked.

"Honestly?" NegaGosalyn asked. "I'd doubt it. Hooter's clearly been planning this for a long time, and you heard Negaduck, Hooter's playing to take it all for himself. That would be a plan he wouldn't go telling to Negaduck." She then stopped and moved in front of the others. "Look, either way, the raid was successful. Hooter may have escaped and will no doubt try again at a later date, but that's my problem now. You guys have done your part in this matter, for which I am very grateful, and I thank you all for your help."

"Don't mention it, NegaGos," Darkwing said. "We _all_ want to see the Negaverse become a better place. We're more than happy to help make it exactly that."

"Then thank your Hooter back at SHUSH as well, then," NegaGosalyn added. "It was the forces he sent through that helped give us just enough of an edge to pull this off."

"We'll be sure to tell him, NegaGos," Launchpad assured her.

"So I guess that's that, then?" Crimson asked. "Time for us to part ways again?"

"Yeah, I have a whole mess of work to do here," NegaGosalyn admitted. "Quirks of being large and in charge and all. Otherwise I'd come see you all off. But the UIO will see to it that you all get back to your universe safely, and, again…thank you. For everything."

"You're more than welcome," Crimson assured her double.

So after bidding a few more farewells, the group then parted ways and started off.

"Huh," Techno remarked aloud once he and the others had gotten a few feet off. "I just realized something. This whole raid has forcibly removed NegaHooter from power, and from his position as director."

"Yeah, so?" Crimson asked.

"Well, is it just me, or does that seem a bit coincidental that our Hooter is working to retire from his own post as director at about the same time?"

The four were quiet for a moment as this realization sank in.

"Maybe there's a connection," Launchpad reasoned.

"This is the Negaverse, after all," Darkwing pointed out. "It's taken several steps to become its own entity these past few years, but it's still a parallel universe of our own Posiverse. Similarities probably are to be expected." He sighed. "But I'm not worrying about that at the moment."

"Then what _are_ you worrying about at the moment?" Crimson asked. "That NegaHooter escaped?"

"No. NegaHooter isn't going to be a problem until he stops fleeing and takes action again, and I think that could be a little while."

"Are you worried about the fact that he has technology in his possession that the Negaverse normally doesn't have?"

"No again, for the same reasons, and that NegaGos said she'd worry about that."

Crimson thought for a moment. "Is it the fact that Hooter's about to retire, then?"

"That _does_ worry me, but it's not what's worrying the most."

"Then I give up. What _are_ you worried about?"

"What the Muddlefoots might have done to my house while we were gone."

* * *

But as it turned out, the Muddlefoots surprised them all.

When they finally returned to the Mallard home that evening, back in their usual attire and ready to face whatever Herb and Binkie might have to throw at them, the first thing Drake was pleased to note was the fact that the outside of the house seemed the same as it had always been. But then again, it was the inside he was more concerned about.

"We're back!" Drake announced with some hesitation as he and the others stepped through the front door.

Binkie poked her head in through the living room entrance. "Oh, perfect timing, Drake!" she said sweetly. "We just finished working on your living room! Come see! I think you'll find we exceeded your expectations with it!"

"Oh great," Drake said, already dreading what he'd see as he obediently walked towards the living room so to see the damage. "Let me guess, you changed the wallpaper with something else, something fashion-y, like, I don't know, bunnies or…"

He trailed off when he looked into the living room and saw that nothing was amiss about it at all. Everything had been restored back to the way it had always been, and the furniture all returned to their usual places and everything. Herb was even in the middle of placing a fresh vase of daffodils on the coffee table. Drake's beak nearly unhinged in surprise. He wasn't the only one. Even Honker seemed surprised at what he saw.

It was Launchpad, as usual, who summed it up best. "Wow."

Drake began searching for the right words to say. "This is…but I thought…Binkie, I thought you…the wallpaper's the same still!"

"Well, of course, Drake, you made it _very _clear how you wanted it," Binkie explained proudly, pleased by Drake's response.

Drake numbly started into the living room, a grin starting to appear on his face as he looked the room over with growing enthusiasm. "It's…it's all perfect!" he exclaimed. "There's my chair! There's my couch!" he suddenly tripped and fell. "There's that rug I'm always tripping over! _I love that rug!_"

Gosalyn helped him up. "So," she began, "you think you have something to say to the Muddlefoots then?" she asked, pleased.

Drake blinked then looked at Herb and Binkie, watching him expectantly.

"Herb, Binkie," he began. "I never thought I'd say this, but…thank you."

"Why, you're welcome Drake!" Binkie declared. "It was our pleasure!"

"Anything to help out our favorite neighbor!" Herb added, also pleased.

Drake could only grin. For once, the Muddlefoots had actually pulled through for him.

"But anyway, while we'd love to help out more," Binkie continued, "I'm afraid it's getting late, and we have our own house to tend to. We'll come back to help some more tomorrow!"

"Bye guys, see you later," Honker added, joining his parents as they left.

Launchpad, Gosalyn, and Drake were thus left to themselves.

"Well!" Gosalyn concluded, clapping her hands together. "I think that went swimmingly."

Drake settled in on the couch, still grinning broadly. "At least today has ended on a good note," he remarked, pleased.

* * *

But of course, that good note ended fairly quickly, especially as the day of Hooter's retirement arrived. On that day, things were a fairly solemn throughout SHUSH as Hooter prepared to leave the building as its director for the last time. Darkwing and the gang had arrived so to see Hooter off, and from there, the idea snowballed, and soon a wide variety of other SHUSH employees were gathering so to see the director off.

Agent Mia was among them, and was heading downstairs to join the others when she passed Agent Grant's office. Chancing a glance, she saw the agent was still at his desk.

"Agent Grant, sir!" she said, surprised, letting herself into the office to see what he was doing. "Aren't you coming down to see the director off?"

"Of course I am," Agent Grant responded with an irritated grunt as he worked. "I'll be there in a moment."

It was then that Mia saw what he was doing. He was meticulously taking his things about the office and placing them neatly in a box. In other words…

"You're packing?" Mia asked, surprised.

Grant sighed. "Yes, I'm afraid so," he replied.

Mia's heart sank as she realized what this meant. "Then…I take it you aren't going to be replacing Hooter as director."

Grant shook his head. "I received word today," he stated. "They're reassigning me, sending me across the pond to command my own team of agents in England as soon as the new director arrives. It's actually not a bad assignment. They could do worse."

"I suppose," Mia agreed with a heavy sigh. "But that means we've have no hope of getting someone as director that we already know, and know we can work with well."

Grant looked at her understandingly. "It'll work out, Agent Mia," he assured her. "I have the assurances of the president that they are considering the best of the best for the job, _and_ that he's keeping Vice President Norrin at bay at the same time."

"While I appreciate President Ravenspell's efforts, you and I both know Norrin well enough to know that won't stop him forever," Mia pointed out. "Do you at least know who they're considering as the replacement director?"

Grant shook his head. "They seem more interested in keeping us in suspense for now," he admitted. "But I'm taking that to mean they just want to make sure they get the best person they can for the job."

They were both silent for a moment. Mia was just about to half-heartedly make the attempt to thank Agent Grant for his words when he sighed and hung his head.

"Oh who am I kidding?" he asked aloud in defeat. "Let's face it. With Director Hooter leaving…things just aren't going to be the same anymore."

Mia sighed, nodding in agreement. "Let's just hope it's not going to be a bad change."

* * *

"Where did all of these reporters come from?" Crimson asked with a frown as she looked out the lobby window at all of the reporters and press that had amassed anxiously outside, awaiting Hooter's departure. "I thought you had wanted this to be kept small and simple, Hooter."

"I did," Hooter responded darkly. "Clearly though, someone slipped to the news stations what is going on, though."

"I'd bet anything that it was a certain vice president we all know and hate," Darkwing growled bitterly.

"I don't know what he hoped to gain from it, then," Techno remarked. "Not less he wishes to rub in the fact that Hooter's leaving, like it was done under duress or something."

"I _refuse_ to give him the satisfaction," Hooter stated determinedly. "I will go out there with my head high, completely confident of what I am doing. I will not acknowledge the press or anything. I have made my choice, and it was _my choice_ alone to make it."

"In that case…" Darkwing said, drawing the owl's attention back to him, "…you best say your goodbyes now."

Hooter sighed, and turned to face Darkwing and gang, and the many SHUSH employees of all sorts that had filed into the lobby behind them. Sighing again, he nodded, and moved to stand where he could be seen by all.

"Agents of SHUSH," he began slowly. "Coworkers, friends…I know my retirement plans have been met with mixed feelings from all of you. But…I know that despite your misgivings, despite your wishes to see me stay…you have all rallied behind me in my choice in the end, and have given your support. And…I thank you all for that. And for the loyal and, dare I say it, undying work you _all_ have done for me. For this organization. For this city. For this country. _For this world_. Heck, for this _universe_ of all things even! And I can state here and now to anyone, _anywhere_, that I fully expect _all_ of you to continue giving your absolute best to do your jobs, and continue to make all of that a better place, and to keep it safe always."

"Now I know you all don't want to see me go. I don't blame you. Deep down, I would prefer it if I could stay as well if I could. But I can't. I just _can't_ anymore. I'm not the same, young, spry owl I used to be. Time has taken its toll, and I cannot ignore it any longer. We've all really been putting off the inevitable when you get right down to it. I simply could not have been around forever, and we all know it. We just didn't like to think about it. Now we have no other choice, but if it helps, think of the fact that we're all lucky I was able to keep going for this long. And know that we have been through thick and thin together and certainly have done more than our part for the world and the multiverse it exists in. Yet you _all_ keep doing it anyway. And that's all I really want from all of you. So please, no matter _who_ you get to replace me, just be sure you keep doing what you do and _absolutely_ nothing less than that."

"So…that said, I wish you all goodbye, and I wish you well. Agent Grant, Agent Mia, Agent Sandy, Dr. Bellum, Lieutenant Taylor, and all of you. I wish you well."

He then turned to Darkwing and the gang, and sighed one more time.

"Crimson, Techno," he began, shaking their hands in turn. "I wish you both well in your endeavors, and may you both succeed in the lives you wish to seek."

"Thank you director," Techno said.

"We'll miss you sir," Crimson added.

"Launchpad," Hooter continued, turning to the pilot, who had gotten very teary-eyed. "You…" he grinned. "You keep on being you. Oh, and one more thing," he had Launchpad lean over so he could whisper in his ear. "You treat Mia well, you hear?"

Launchpad only blanked out for a moment, a little surprised by Hooter's comment. Grinning, Hooter patted him on the arm, and then turned to the final person he had to address. His smile faded slightly.

"Darkwing," he stated.

"J. Gander," Darkwing answered.

A moment passed, and then the masked mallard held out a hand. Hooter accepted it and quite firmly and warmly shook it. Then he pulled Darkwing into a friendly, one-armed hug.

"You take care of yourself, J. Gander," Darkwing instructed.

"You too, Darkwing," Hooter replied. "You too."

That done, he then picked up his briefcase and turned to face the door. Taking a deep breath in, he then pressed out into the throng of reporters outside. There, SHUSH agents were already moving into position to keep the reporters far back, but of course, they weren't going to let that stop them from getting their story, and immediately a flurry of comments, questions, and calls for Hooter's attention arose.

"Director Hooter, how do you think this will impact SHUSH?"

"Is it true that you are retiring out of duress?"

"Director, who do you think will replace you?"

"What are your plans now, Director Hooter?"

Hooter ignored all of the questions, just as he said he would, and walked determinedly down the steps and across the walk towards the car that waited for him, eyes kept firmly ahead. He only looked back as he proceeded to climb into the back of the car, and then he focused only on Darkwing and the many others friends and coworkers that gathered on the building's step. He gave them one final salute, which was quickly returned by all, before he climbed into the car. With a roar of the engine, its driver then drove it on down the road, around a corner, and then it was gone.

A momentary lull fell as everyone turned to watch the car go. But then the reporters were back at it again, this time turning their attention on Darkwing, his companions, and the SHUSH agents. But like Hooter, they did not acknowledge the reporters, or do much to answer any questions.

Save one.

"Darkwing Duck, how do you feel about all of this?" one reporter asked.

Darkwing turned his attention in the direction of the reporter, his face neutral. "That a good man has left SHUSH."

* * *

_Fun Facts: Man...it's been awhile since I did one of these. Um..._

_I suppose I should start off with explaining what to expect from me on the matter of NADWD. Well, short answer is: more chapters. Long answer: they're likely going to come at a very sporadic rate, and while I'm going to work at producing them as fast as I can, there will probably be long delays between them. Also, I have altered my plans for NADWD AGAIN, and have cut my plans short some. We still have a good number of chapters still until we reach the end, but...the end is a lot closer now than it was last chapter. Worry about that later, though, when we get closer to it. With my luck, it'll probably be not until another year til we reach that point. But, in the end, just know that NADWD is still continuing, and that I have NOT forgotten, and as I have said repeatedly in the past, I fully intend to see it through to the end.  
_

_Now...to the chapter itself.  
_

_First off, you probably didn't notice this, but I deliberately left out the chapter rating for this chapter. That's because it struck me that rating individual chapters like that was kind of silly, and it was becoming even more silly as each chapter was being consistently T rating anyway, so I've henceforth done away with that.  
_

_I always knew that Negaduck's invasion would be the game changer for NADWD, and that things would be very different afterwards, and among those things I decided that would be different, would be that DW would enjoy a massive spike in popularity, one I daresay he's been long overdue for. So right off the bat, I explore those possibilities with that parade, which was fun to write, especially as it provided a chance to have fun with DW's ego. Also, it gave me a chance to recap recent chapters briefly, as a refresher for the readers, since it's been awhile since I posted a chapter.  
_

_This is the first time Mayor Kim's appeared in NADWD since chpt. 70, "Laws of History."  
_

_Binkie's comment on Drake's living room looking nice in blue is a reference to chpt. 71, "Daughterless," in which we see an alternate version of the same in which it was indeed, blue.  
_

_Another point to show that NADWD has changed in flow, is that both Honker and Gos are looking at their futures after they graduate, both addressing it in their respective ways.  
_

_And yeah, in the space of time since I last posted a chapter, the show **"Jumpgate: Universitas"** was based upon got cancelled (darn it), so I scrubbed it's fictional counterpart accordingly. Of course, this does leave me with a small dilemma...what is the gang going to watch now? Hmm...I'll think of something, but I'll probably be...experimenting...with possible shows in the meantime.  
_

_I really don't use the Flashquacks often enough anymore, so they got a more than generous amount of love this chapter.  
_

_**"Pop. Mechanisms"** is based off of **"Popular Mechanics"**.  
_

_And yeah, Hooter's retiring. If you really think about it, the poor guy has to be getting up there in years. I mean, he was looking old back in the original TV show, and NADWD takes place seven years after that and beyond. He's definitely at the age here retirement would be a reality. So I decided best make that happen, and, give's me the chance to shake things up further in NADWD. How will the gang react to a new director of SHUSH? Find out next chapter. Which hopefully won't be too delayed in coming.  
_

_And Agent Grant's getting written out as well, but it was in the plans to write out the 2IC with Hooter too since way back with Grizzlikof was still around (that was why I didn't mind writing out Grizzlikof when I did, because I knew I was going to do it later anyway).  
_

_I actually don't like that Morgana/Drake scene I threw in this, and was sorely tempted to cut it. If the chapter had run long (which it didn't), it would have been the first to go, in fact. But...I kept it in because I suppose it still did fit my purpose, even if it did come out cheesy, and the Morgana/Drake relationship needed SOME kind of addressing anyway, even if brief.  
_

_Launchpad is actually quoting a real show at his date with Mia, BTW. In fact, I could be in trouble for doing that, but...no regrets. ;)  
_

_And who here remembers Poe? Yeah, I kind of forgot him too, so I tried to fix that at least partially in this chapter, and hopefully have laid the foundations to keep him from slipping through the cracks so quickly again in future chapters.  
_

_I couldn't resist the "Doctor Hooves" gag. :P  
_

_No clue why MIT rejected Honker BTW, so don't ask. Wasn't in the plan to have him go to MIT anyway.  
_

_Oh yeah, and I had intended in this chapter for Honker, after several failed attempts, to ask Gos out on a date before the end, but I totally spaced it in the later half of the chapter, and forgot to include it, and can't figure out where to slip it in real quick, so that may have to wait until a later chapter.  
_

_It's gonna be fun writing NegaGos as leader of the Negaverse now. :D  
_

_I spent most of this chapter while writing it with no clear idea on what NegaHooter's plans were. Fortunately, I finally got an idea towards the end of writing, one in which I went "Oh yes! DUH! Why didn't I think of that before?" But they're deliberately vague in this chapter. We'll come back to that in a future chapter. :)  
_

_The EGRT is in reference to the episode from the show, "Tiff of the Titans," and yes, that is the proper acronym.  
_

_Drake's excited comments of "There's my couch," "There's my chair," and "there's my rug that I'm always tripping over" is a reference to the episode "Dead Duck," because I loved Jim Cummings's delivery of that line. :P  
_

_That ending scene with Hooter's farewell was actually a bit moving for me to write, and I was surprised by how much emotion I ended up putting into it. I have mixed feelings about that hug Hooter and DW share in the same farewell, since you can't just write about someone hugging these days without risking someone interpreting it with an ulterior meaning that just isn't there, but I quickly saw that a mere handshake just wasn't going to cut it. DW and Hooter just have been far too much for that.  
_

_Next chapter will be titled "A Different Kind of SHUSH," and will introduce the new director and 2IC of SHUSH, so until then everyone. :)  
_


End file.
